Thursday   

Coffee will be a lens on climate change, social life, health, North–South dynamics, social and economic justice, tourism, and slavery. We will trace coffee from planting and processing through shipping and, ultimately, the drink in our cups. We will explore coffee’s history, its shift from elite beverage to everyday staple, and research on health, farmer income, and climate resilience. The instructor will share experiences from coffee farms around the world, discuss different brewing methods, and demonstrate how coffee is brewed.

Instructor: Robert Thurston

Robert Thurston, PhD, is Emeritus Professor of History at Miami University (Oxford, Ohio). He earned a BA in History from Northwestern University and a PhD in modern Russian history from the University of Michigan. His writing spans twentieth-century Russian/Soviet history, witch hunts (Europe and Salem), the body in the Anglosphere (1880–1920), and coffee as an economic and social force. A devoted coffee educator, he has opened a roastery and coffee shop and has visited coffee farms from Asia to South America.

Osher Online classes are held via Zoom and are not recorded.

This is the OLLI needleworking group.  Members and guests are welcome to gather with their needlework projects to work side-by-side.  There is no formal presentation during this gathering.  Members and guests without needlework projects are welcome to join the gathering.

ZOOM COURSE

Why was Picasso’s "Guernica" key to art history? How did Parker’s “Ornithology” upend jazz? This course studies eight early 20th century icons across disciplines: painting, music, poetry, &c. Rather than a rushed survey of “isms,” this deep dive approach to pioneers like Stravinsky, Faulkner and more shows modernism as a whole, while focusing on favorite “classic moderns."

OLLI members are guests are invited to gather with their needlework projects.  There is no formal presentation schedule to take place.  Members and guests are welcome to gather without a needlework project.

COURSE MEETS IN PERSON AT THE CONCORD CENTER

 

We will discuss Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun, that powerfully addresses housing discrimination in the mid 20^th century. We will uncover the many darkly funny and insightful moments in this play and see the beauty of her writing. I will use Imani Perry’s biography of Hansberry (Looking for Lorriane) to show how the complexities of the playwright’s life are reflected in her writing.

 

Reading of the play and biography are optional (not required).