Levy Lecture Series | Levy Senior Center Foundation

The Levy Senior Center Foundation is proud to sponsor the Levy Lecture Series, an educational program for residents 55+ years who are passionate about learning.

Reservations are required. You can register below, call (847) 448-8250 or stop by the front desk. All lectures are free and are held in the Linden Room.

Join us for our spring 2020 Levy Lecture Series: Our Senses and Creativity.

Tuesday, April 14 at 1pm

The Leopold and Loeb Files

Nina Barrett, writer, bookseller, and author of The Leopold
and Loeb Files

The Foundation will host the April 14th lecture on Zoom, a web conferencing app that’s easy to use. Register via our website for the event with your email, and we will send you a URL link to view the lecture as well as instructions prior to the event. We will also have detailed information on how to participate on our website, lscfevanston.org. Please check back regularly for event updates and news regarding upcoming lectures.

Nina Barrett is the owner of Bookends & Beginnings, an independent bookstore in Evanston, and the author of three books and numerous articles, essays, and reviews. In 2009, she curated an exhibition for Northwestern University called The Murder That Wouldn’t Die, which inspired The Leopold and Loeb Files. For this book, she researched primary source material, including court transcripts, confessions, psychological reports, and photographs, culminating in a new perspective on the notorious, mysterious 1924 murder case. It forces us to confront some difficult questions about being human and living in society: Could your child, despite every advantage, turn out to be evil? How can you protect your child from evil? How do we respond to unambiguous guilt? Do we believe in mercy and redemption or vengeance and retribution?

Tuesday, May 12 at 1pm

Insights into Memory Formation

Daniel Dombeck, Associate Professor, Dept. of Neurobiology
at Northwestern

Have you ever wondered how your dog knows when it’s meal time? In this lecture, Dan Dombeck will introduce non-scientists to the hidden world of memories: how they are formed, stored, and recalled. Under his leadership, the Dombeck Lab at Northwestern is using virtual reality systems and high-resolution, laser-based imaging techniques with mice as they learn to solve virtual mazes. Prof. Dombeck will share a high-level view of how brain circuits learn to encode information during behavior, and how this could eventually benefit humans with early detection of Alzheimer’s disease. Prof. Dombeck received his BS in Physics at the University of Illinois, earned his PhD in Physics at Cornell University in the lab of Watt Webb, and trained as a postdoc in the lab of David Tank at Princeton University.

Tuesday, June 9 at 1pm

Chicago by Air

Lawrence Okrent, author and architect

A Chicago-based planning and zoning consultant, Lawrence Okrent has been an active participant in the local real estate and development community since 1970. Okrent Kisiel Associates, the firm he established in 1979 and where he is President Emeritus, specializes in land planning and zoning, aerial photography, mapping, and entitlement work. Mr. Okrent is the author of Chicago From the Sky: A Region Transformed. He is a 47-year resident of Evanston, where he has served on the city’s Plan Commission and board of the Evanston Art Center. His presentation will focus on the development of Grant Park and Chicago’s lakefront.

Tuesday, July 14 at 1pm

LIFE As It Was

Michael Mauney, Photographer

Michael Mauney got his start in photography at The Charlotte Observer in North Carolina. After moving to Chicago, he worked for LIFE magazine as staff photographer. His work has also been featured in People and Fortune magazines, and for corporate clients such as Walgreens, McDonalds, Baxter, First Chicago Bank, and Borg-Warner. His presentation will focus on his experiences while on assignment for LIFE and People magazines, including photos from the 1968 political campaigns of Bobby Kennedy, Richard Nixon, and George Wallace, as well as some celebrities.