The Dallas Festival of Ideas: The Equitable City

The Festival’s goal is to create a lasting, equitable impact for the city of Dallas and its citizens. This action serves as the Festival’s foundation -- and the lens through which Dallas’ citizens frame the city’s future.

For more information about parking, event locations, food, and more, check out

thedallasfestival.com 

All ages are welcome.

Interested in helping out at the Festival? There are a variety of volunteer opportunities! Whether you want to be a behind the scenes worker, a friendly greeter, or a friendly usher, there is a space for you.  You may now review and register for volunteer opportunities online at: IDEAS Volunteer Opportunities.

Event Update: Due to predicted inclement weather, the 2017 Dallas Festival of Ideas has moved inside the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, Section A.

Keynote Speakers

Morning Session

The Physical City : Janette Sadik-Khan, Principal, Bloomberg Associates
The Healthy City : Andrew Solomon, Author, The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression
The Cultural City : Jeff Chang, Executive Director of the Institute for Diversity in the Arts at Stanford University
The Educated City : Nadia Lopez, Principal, Mott Hall Bridges Academy
The Entrepreneurial City: Douglas Rushkoff, Professor of Media Theory and Digital Economics at CUNY/Queens

Evening Session

Shared Keynote: Yaa Gyasi, Author, Homegoing

2015 MLK Symposium

“And now King is sitting in jail and with every ounce of fight he has, he is penning that letter…A letter that will change the world.”

Jonathan Norton, The 67th Book of the Bible

 

To mark the 10th anniversary of the MLK Symposium, the Dallas Institute has commissioned the creation of an original stage play based on Dr. King’s powerful “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” which he wrote surreptitiously while behind bars in Birmingham in the summer of 1963, the most explosive period and the turning point of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.

 

January 19, 2015

City Performance Hall

7:00 to 9:00 pm

 

 General Admission $20

Teachers $10

Students (with valid student ID) free

 

The play will dramatize both the crisis of that moment in the Civil Rights struggle and the remarkable power of Dr. King’s letter—by any measure a key document in America’s political history.

Panelists:

Special Guest, Willie Pearl Mackey King

Special Guest, Professor Jonathan Rieder

Playwright Jonathan Norton

Director Derrick Sanders

Producer Will Power

Click here for more information and tickets: http://dallasinstitute.org/events/mlk-jr-symposium-2/

What Does Dallas Want To Be? Conference

Internationally known experts on cities, urban planning and architecture will join city officials and business and civic leaders for “What Makes a City: Character and Calling, What Does Dallas Want to Be?,” a day-long conference co-presented by The Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture,  The Trinity Trust Foundation and Dallas CityDesign Studio. The conference will take place Thursday, October 23, 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m., at The Latino Cultural Center, 2600 Live Oak St., Dallas, TX 75204. Admission is $60 for members of the Dallas Institute and its co-presenters, $75 for nonmembers, and $25 for member teachers. To register, visit www.dallasinstitute.org, or call (214) 871-2440.

 

Dr. Larry Allums, executive director of the Dallas Institute, said, “Since the first ‘What Makes a City?’ conference that Dr. Gail Thomas started in 1982, the Dallas Institute has focused much of its work on studying cities by drawing on the experiences of planning and urban experts. During this conference, we will attempt to imagine Dallas from a fresh perspective, setting aside our sworn allegiances for a brief moment in order to consider new ideas, whatever they might be.”

 

Dr. Gail Thomas, president and CEO of The Trinity Trust and director of the Dallas Institute’s Center for the City, and Dr. Allums will introduce the day’s program. Keynote speakers include Weiming Lu, internationally recognized urban planner and designer known for work in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Dallas, South Central Los Angeles, Chattanooga, and overseas; Vishaan Chakrabarti, principal of SHoP Architects and Holliday Professor and Director of CURE at Columbia University; and Ignacio Bunster-Ossa, principal of Wallace Roberts & Todd, LLC. City of Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings will give the opening remarks.

 

Panelists will include Lucy Crow Billingsley (Billingsley Company), Rev. Zan Holmes, Jr. (retired, St. Luke Community United Methodist Church), Monte Anderson (Options Real Estate), Don Gatzke (The University of Texas at Arlington), Jack Matthews (Matthews Southwest), King Scovall (Woodbine Development Corporation), Sara Mokuria (The University of Texas at Dallas), Byron Sanders (Dallas Education Foundation), Catherine Cuellar (The Dallas Arts District), Miguel Solis (Dallas ISD), and Tierney Kaufman (The Trinity Trust). Brent Brown, director of Dallas CityDesign Studio, and Dr. Allums will moderate the panel discussions.

 

Dr. Thomas added, “All of us want to build a great city. We want to help create a city that is unlike any other place on earth. We want to serve; we want to make a city that is alive with opportunity, a city that is nurturing to its people. We want places and intimate spaces that feed our souls, ignite imagination, evoke memory. The speakers and interactions generated at the conference will help us continue that conversation long after it is over.”

The Dallas Institute Festival of Ideas

On March 26, 2011, The Dallas Institute will conduct its second Festival of Ideas in the Dallas Museum of Art.

The Institute will bring five highly regarded figures into Dallas for the day and match them each with Dallas experts to hear the wisdom of the speakers and then to generate an abundance of conversation and dialogue, both with Dallas' best and also with audiences.

The program will run from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. The day will include the plenary discussion in the morning, lunch, a topic-specific focus forum, and a topic-specific roundtable discussion. For the plenary symposium in the morning, the five featured guests will be moderated by Ringmaster Lee Cullum.

Following is the list of topics, along with keynote speakers and university partners with whom they will collaborate. To secure your place at the 2011 Festival of Ideas, click here.

"The Future of American Power": Team Leader Stephen Krasner

University Partner: SMU Tower Center for Political Studies

"The Future of Journalism and the Media": Team Leader Ken Auletta

University Partner: UNT Mayborn School of Journalism

"The Future of Medicine and Healthcare": Team Leaders Ruth Faden and Tom Beauchamp

University Partner: UT Southwestern Medical Center

"The Future of Religion": Team Leader Mark Oppenheimer

University Partner: University of Dallas School of Ministry

The Dallas Institute's Martin Luther King, Jr., Symposium

Martin Luther King, Jr. Symposium
The Dallas Institute
Monday, January 17, 2011
7:00PM
Winspear Opera House

The Dallas Institute's 6th annual Martin Luther King, Jr., Symposium will consider one of the most crucial but often neglected aspects of the American Civil Rights Movement: the law. Rev. King insisted from the beginning that the fundamental challenge of the movement was to make a necessary distinction--between just and unjust laws. In his words, "a just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. This year's Symposium will feature Jeffrey Toobin, senior analyst for CNN, and Fred Gray, the veteran civil rights attorney that got his start during the Civil Rights Movement.

General Admission: $10-$20
Click here to purchase tickets.

Lecture Series: What is a Virtuous Citizen

THE EVENT: The City of Imagination lecture series is set for Tuesday, November 2^nd. The series is presented by the Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility and The Dallas Institute. This month, guests are encouraged to attend “WHAT IS A VIRUOUS CITIZEN?” with Dr. Louise Cowan, Dr. Scott Crider, and Dr. Larry Allums. The title and theme of this month’s lecture questions the concept of virtue. The speakers will present a lecture on what it means to be a virtuous citizen, physician, lawyer, businessperson, statesman, or journalist. After each speaker discusses a topic, panelists will respond and the audience can join in discussion.

THE DETAILS: Per lecture it is $10 for members, $15 for nonmembers, and $5 for member teachers/students.

TIME AND PLACE: The event begins at 7:30 pm and is held at the Dallas Institute at 2719 Routh Street.

Dallas Institute Open House

Who: The Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture

What: You and a guest are invited to an Open House. Enjoy wine, hors d'oeuvres, and presentations by engaging speakers.

When: Tuesday, September 28 5:30 p.m. (Presentations begin at 6:30 p.m.)

Where: 2719 Routh Street Dallas, TX 75201

R.S.V.P: chinton@dallasinstitute.org or 214-981-8822

The Dallas Institute Celebrates its Hatch Date

Honoring June 10th, 1980, the day the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture was created thirty years ago, the original founders Dr. Gail Thomas, Dr. Louise Cowan, and Dr. Joanne Stroud were joined by James Hillman, Dr. Nancy Cain Marcus, John Tatum, Robert Sardello, and Drs. Claudia and Larry Allums at the Swan Warehouse for lunch yesterday in celebration. The Dallas Institute will be kicking off its official 30 Year Anniversary Celebration this fall. The summer programming is geared towards principals and teachers, but be sure to visit the website in August for information on the exciting and intellectually invigorating fall course line-up.

from bottom left: Dr. Gail Thomas, Dr. Louise Cowan, Dr. Joanne Stroud
from top left: Dr. Larry Allums, Dr. Claudia Allums, Dr. Nancy Cain Marcus, John Tatum
photo credit: Kathy King

Visit: www.dallasinstitute.org/

The Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture

I have the slightest hunch, that you wouldn't want to miss the breakfast bunch, or at least The Breakfast Book Group at The Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture that will have its first novel review of the season next Tuesday, September 8th. Established in 1980, The Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture is a nonprofit educational organization whose purpose is to enrich and deepen the practical life of the city with the wisdom and imagination of the humanities through educational programs, seminars, conferences, volunteer activities, and critical discussions.

Each spring and fall, two of the many courses The Institute offers are the Breakfast Book Group and the Lunch Book Group. These courses meet once-a-month, reviewing four different literary titles in a classroom like discussion. So, be sure not to miss the first novel, sign-up today, and check out the schedule of other great classes and seminars lined up for fall. Oh, and while you are at it, become a member of this fantastic organization so you don't miss out on a single word!
The Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture
2719 Routh Street
Dallas, Texas 75201-1968
p. 214 871-2440