Gloria Steinem, Trevor Noah Will Speak At Fall Chicago Humanities Fest

By Mae Rice in Arts & Entertainment on Jun 14, 2016 5:09PM

The venerable Chicago Humanities Festival—which has not only been around since 1990, but also played a small but essential role in the gossip hurricane that followed Beyonce's Lemonade—has announced the theme for its 27th annual fall festival: Speed.

"This fall, we will examine the headlong speed of daily life as well as the space of meditation and reflection, the politicians that urge us to hurry up and the artists that force us to slow down, all that ties us to timeless cycles as well as what changes the world in the blink of an eye," artist director Jonathan Elmer explained in an email statement.

(Previous themes have included Love and Marriage, Crime and Punishment, Work and Play, Peace and War, and Thinking Big.)

The festival, which will run from Oct. 29 through Nov. 12 of this year, will feature speakers including:

New York Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize-winner Thomas Friedman (who will speak on Monday, Oct. 17 at CHF's benefit gala)

Activist, feminist and memoir-writer Gloria Steinem (who will speak on Thursday, Oct. 13 at the fall festival kickoff in Northwestern University Law School's Thorne Auditorium)

Daily Show host Trevor Noah

Architect and urban designer Marshall Brown, who is representing the U.S. at the 2016 Venice Biennale

Homegoing author Yaa Gyasi

The full lineup will be announced on Sept. 8. Hopefully Keanu Reeves will make an appearance to talk about Speed.