Event hosted at Skokie Public Library with the Aspen Institute Citizenship and American Identity Program.
Contact:
Caroline Hopper
The Aspen Institute
(202)721-2337 / caroline.hopper@aspeninstitute.org
Skokie, IL November 21, 2016
– The Aspen Institute Citizenship and American Identity Program and Skokie Public Library will host a public dialogue featuring local thought-leaders and community members to explore perspectives of American values and identity. Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky is one of several featured speakers.
The event will take place at Skokie Public Library in Skokie, IL on November 22, 2016.
“Now more than ever, a diversifying U.S. needs a shared base of knowledge,” Says executive director of the Citizenship and American Identity Program, Eric Liu. “But a 21st century sense of civic and cultural literacy must be as intentionally inclusive as possible”.
The event is part of the “What Every American Should Know Library Series”, a public dialogue series by the Aspen Institute’s Citizenship and American Identity Program in partnership with libraries around the country. The series aims to bring critical local perspectives on American values and identity into the national dialogue.
“What Every American Should Know” was created to explore how this country can cultivate a sense of shared destiny and common civic purpose in this age of increasing diversity and widening inequality. The Aspen Institute’s Citizenship and American Identity Program is inviting the American public and cultural leaders to build a crowd-sourced national list of facts and references every American should know in order to be civically and culturally literate. Individuals can submit top 10 lists of what they think every American should know at www.WhatEveryAmericanShouldKnow.org. All submissions are then combined in to an aggregated national list.
“Given the climate following the last electoral cycle, we think this is an excellent opportunity for community members to weigh in on the syllabus for what it means to be civically engaged,” says Mimosa Shah, library spokesperson.
The Aspen Institute is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, DC. Its mission is to foster leadership based on enduring values and to provide a nonpartisan venue for dealing with critical issues. The Institute is based in Washington, DC; Aspen, Colorado; and on the Wye River on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. It also has offices in New York City and an international network of partners. For more information, visit www.aspeninstitute.org.
Skokie Public Library is the heart of a vibrant village. Serving the community since the 1920s, it has been a trusted institution helping individuals discover and learn new things, enrich their lives, and exchange ideas with its materials, technologies, and experiences. In 2008, Skokie Public Library became the first public library in Illinois to be awarded the National Medal for Museum and Library Service, and has been awarded 5 stars (the top ranking) in Library Journal’s national ranking of public libraries consistently for the past three years. For more information, visit www.skokielibrary.info
