Evenings with FAIR
Music and conversation in person. Eugenics panel online.
The Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR) will hold these two splendid events in October, and you’re invited to both. You can sign up by using the QR codes on the posters or by clicking the links below. I’ll participate at the first event as a pianist and composer and at the second as a health economist and journalist. (For other FAIR events in October and afterward, explore fairforall.org.)
“An Evening with FAIR,” Evanston, IL, 10/18, 6:30-9:30 CT
This will be an evening of music and conversation about FAIR’s “pro-human approach to addressing social issues and uniting our communities.” Speakers will include FAIR’s Founder and President, Bion Bartning, plus FAIR Advisors Daryl Davis, Monica Harris, and Jason Hill. All three advisors have striking life stories to share, but I’ll describe one in some detail. Daryl Davis is a boogie-woogie / blues / rock’n’roll pianist who has worked with Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley’s Jordanaires, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Platters, The Drifters, The Coasters, Bo Diddley, Percy Sledge, Sam Moore (of Sam & Dave), and others. He is also famous for being the rarest of the rare—an African American who regularly attends Ku Klux Klan rallies; by doing so, has helped turn hundreds away from the organization, including some top leaders. (See his TEDx talk below.) Daryl will perform his music at this event before speaking as a panelist. Also performing will be Madeleine Kelson, a Chicago-raised, Nashville-based singer / guitarist / songwriter. My piano performance will include several of my own compositions—including one written last month and one written in 1962.
“Eugenics: The Curse That Keeps on Cursing,” online, 10/27, 7:00-8:30 ET
My fellow panelists and I will review the vile history of eugenics; its decades-long conquest of science, education, and culture; and its lethal urge to mandate “improvements” in the human race—an urge that remains with us today. FAIR in Medicine Fellow Mark Buchanan, MD, a Connecticut internist and educator, will moderate the webinar. William B. Hurlbut, MD is Adjunct Professor and Senior Research Scholar in Neurobiology at the Stanford Medical School and writes and consults widely on bioethics. I’ll participate as a FAIR in Medicine Fellow and as a health economist who has written on eugenics and taught segments on eugenics to nearly 50 graduate classes of medical professionals. (We may ultimately have one additional panelist.)
Here’s Daryl Davis’s TED Talk on his interaction with the Ku Klux Klan:
