Peer Learning Courses
Summer 2021
FRIENDS AROUND THE KITCHEN TABLE Facilitator: Kris Yensen
Zoom Moderator: Scott Parent
2nd & 4th Mondays of May – August from 11:00 AM - 12:00 Noon
We may not visit each other’s kitchens right now, but we can still share our stories - and now we can do it in our slippers! Each week, we’ll have a theme and members will have a chance to tell a five-minute related story. (No pressure, though - you’re welcome to sit and listen, too.) We share stories about childhood friends, pet peeves, heroes, wins and losses.
THE SHORT STORY Facilitator: Bennie Hollers
Zoom Moderator: Jim Neeley
2nd & 4th Mondays of May – August from 1:30 PM - 2:30 PM
Peer volunteers will select a short story available from the internet or provide a PDF copy and present a short talk on the author, story or related material. Stories may be from the internet, on PDF or other emailable readable material or in the anthology 100 Years of the Best American Short Stories, edited by Lorrie Moore & Heidi Pitlor.
THE IDEA OF CITIES Instructor: Beth Timson
Zoom Moderator: Kris Yensen or Sally Binkowski
1st & 3rd & Mondays of May from 11:00 AM - 12:00 Noon
Over two-thirds of all the people on earth will live in cities by 2050. This figure is the result of the greatest migration in human history, moving to the endgame of a 6000-year process of us turning ourselves into an urban species. Our survival into the future will depend upon the ingenuity and resilience of the billions of city dwellers as they respond to inevitable changes in the wider environment.
THE WILD WEATHER OF 2020 & A METEOROLOGIST'S CRYSTAL BALL Instructor: Frank Binkowski
Zoom Moderator: Kris Yensen or Sally Binkowski
Monday mornings of June 7th & 21st from 11:00 AM - 12:00 Noon
The Wild Weather of 2020 – storms, floods, drought, and fires – what a year! A meteorologist’s crystal ball - What’s up with climate?
TODAY'S RAINBOW OF LIFE ON THE PLANET & PRESERVING NATURAL LIFE IN EARTH'S FUTURE
Instructor: Kathleen Snipes
Zoom Moderator: Kris Yensen
Monday mornings of July 19th & August 2nd from 11:00 AM - 12:00 Noon
The joyful nature we live in is composed of elements which originate, propagate and decompose over time, generating eras of life. Today is probably the most bio-diverse of all ages on the planet. Rejoicing in beavers building dams, waves of floating plankton, insects blowing in the wind, our own eco-travel, even what the melting of glaciers means, humankind could really make a difference in the future of our world. Viewing some natural scenes will illustrate how people, plants and animals historically have celebrated sharing the environment. Indigenous people are a good resource for living with respect for ecology.
We all want to start farming as a "world family," migrating to share lakes and rivers? While also learning to celebrate the mysterious wilds? The rain forest is a treasure-By 2025 it is predicted half the people in the world will have limited fresh water. Might wchest of 150 million years of evolution, a biosphere that already needs protection. Several populous cities are creating the homeostasis needed to protect their natural life. Dr. E. O. Wilson, emeritus of Harvard has founded the Half Earth Society, with an office in Durham, to begin the process of protecting at least "half of the earth." Dr. Leaky in Africa has Wildlife Direct funding and grants on-line, and No. Carolina has a natural "protect the coastal lands" at home project.
HISTORY OF MAGIC Instructor: Beth Timson
Zoom Moderator: Kris Yensen
Monday mornings of August 16th & 30th from 11:00 AM - 12:00 Noon
Magic through the centuries has taken many forms, but while the forms have varied—spells, rituals, the occult—all those who turn to magic have wanted the same powers. Humans have tried to control those things which seem to be beyond control, those things which are ambiguous and dangerous. The lines between magic, religion, and science have shifted over time, and it seems those lines depend in part upon the eye of the beholders.
THE CURRENT COVID-19 STORY Instructor: Gary West
Zoom Moderator: Sally Binkowski
Wednesday mornings of May – August from 11:00 AM -12:00 Noon
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to surge with thousands of cases and hundreds of deaths each day. Vaccinations are now readily available to all adults, and more than half have already received at least one dose.
Each week there is a huge outpouring of news on the pandemic, the vaccines and science issues. Each week, the course leader will present a summary of the most important issues. A more detailed presentation on a key topic will also be given each week. The class is informal, questions and sharing of personal experiences is strongly encouraged.
Those who attended last semester and new participants are encouraged to join. No requirement to have attended last semester’s course.
THE ANTI-SLAVERY STRUGGLE Instructor: Michael Joseph
Zoom Moderator: Jim Neeley
15 Wednesday afternoons of May – August from 1:30 PM - 2:30 PM
A Great Courses series The Long Struggle Against Slavery in America by Richard Bell, PhD, University of Maryland
with commentary and discussion led by Michael Joseph.
For three centuries, men and women committed to resisting the spread of slavery in British North America and the new United States searched for ways to save themselves and others from the dehumanizing consequences of commodification. This course will describe the different tools and tactics that Americans have used to escape slavery or try to exterminate it.
The Anti-Slavery Struggle - Michael Joseph
- Understanding the Fight against Slavery
- Origins of Slavery in the British Empire
- Opposing the African Slave Trade
- Shipboard Rebellion and Resistance
- A Free Black Family in Colonial Virginia
- Quakers and Puritans Join the Fight
- Thomas Thistlewood’s Plantation Revolution
- Phibbah Thistlewood: Sleeping with the Enemy
- Slave Insurrections in the 18th Century
- Maroons: Those Who Escaped
- Three Quaker Activists
- Slavery in the War for Independence
- Taking Slavery to Court
- Charles Pinckney’s Counterrevolution
- The Haitian Revolution
- Founding the Free Black Churches
- The Second Middle Passage
- “Our Native Country”: Opposing Colonization
- David Walker, Nat Turner, and Black Immediatism
- William Lloyd Garrison’s “Thousand Witnesses”
- Surviving King Cotton
- Roger Taney: Nationalizing Slavery
- Frederick Douglass and Aggressive Abolition
- Harriet Beecher Stowe and Harriet Tubman
- The Black Heart of John Brown
- The Slaves’ Experience of the Civil War
- US Colored Troops: Those Who Served
- Fighting Slavery after Emancipation
- Slavery by Another Name
- Fighting Modern Slavery
BOOK CLUB Facilitator: Kris Yensen
Zoom Moderator: Jim Neeley
Monthly on the 3rd or 4th Friday mornings from 11:00-12:00
Distributing the books will be difficult this year, so we will continue to get all our books electronically. We’ll send you the names of the chosen books and some directions on how to get them. But it will be the same great book club, so join us for our lively discussions.
ALL LUNCHEONS AND OTHER IN-PERSON GATHERINGS ARE CANCELLED AT THIS TIME DUE TO COVID-19