Today, May 13, the Nineteenth Century Association Enrichment Series will present the making of the musical "Chicago." Chicago native Bob Fosse shaped the 1975 musical “Chicago! A Musical Vaudeville,” so the show’s musical numbers included a pastiche of vaudeville performers or acts. Broadway musical historian Charles Troy will share the originals, the songs they inspired, stories about Chicago in the 1920s. and about Maurine Watkins, the enigmatic author of the play on which the musical is based. These programs are free and open to the public; voluntary donations are appreciated. To stream this program live on Zoom, view the recording one week later.

The "one person, one vote” principle lies at the core of our democratic values. However, the current Electoral College system does not always reflect this principle. In two of our last six elections, the candidate who received the most votes nationwide did not win the presidency.

The National Popular Vote (NPV) solves this issue without eliminating the Electoral College. Instead, it proposes a shift from the current "winner-takes-all" approach, in which all of a state's Electoral College votes go to the candidate who wins the popular vote in that state. This Thursday, May 16, starting at 6:30pm at Friendly's Tap, 6731 Roosevelt Road, Berwyn, we will delve into the thought-provoking topic of the National Popular Vote for Presidential Elections.

All are welcome to this free event. Your questions, your perspectives, and most importantly, your presence, are crucial to our collective exploration of ways to strengthen our democracy and ensure that every vote truly counts. Please bring a friend!

Community partners across Oak Park are eagerly counting down the days until Blast Off to Kindergarten, a community-wide event that celebrates and supports families preparing to start kindergarten in Oak Park. The event will take place on Sunday, May 19, in Oak Park’s Rehm Park, located at 1000 S. Scoville starting at 10:00am.

This fun event will feature early learning programs, after-school programs, parent-teacher organizations, District 97 staff, school administrators, and staff from local parochial and private Oak Park kindergarten programs. There will be games, community resources, and a "kindergarten portal" for our future kindergarteners to pass through (with or without the accompaniment of their families) and "officially" enter the "kindergarten universe." Register for this event here.

This year’s 100th LWV OPRF annual meeting will be on Wednesday, June 12, at Brookdale Senior Living, with registration beginning at 5:30pm. A light dinner will be served. The Call to Order will be at 6:00pm. LWV IL President Becky Simon will be our featured speaker. A big thank you to Brookdale for hosting the League a second year!

The debt plaguing Chicago's pension systems is a problem that has been compounding for the past 25 years. Some 59 percent of the growth of Chicago's pension debt from 2007-2020 was driven by the City underpaying its pension contributions. The Center for Tax and Budget Accountability's budget blog breaks down how Chicago's four pension systems became the worst funded public pension systems in the country. Read the full blog HERE.

On Tuesday, May 21, the AAUW will present the webinar "In Conversation with Dr. Pempho Chinkondenji" at 3:00pm CST. Dr. Chinkondenji will discuss her work on addressing structural inequalities within educational policies and practices, with a specific emphasis on the intersection of education, gender, race, and motherhood. You can read more about the presenter and register for this free event here.

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