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We the People: Local Voices Ask What’s Next


3/1/20177 years ago

caution sign The information on this page may be outdated as it was published 7 years ago.

we the people cambridge public library

The Cambridge Public Library and TheEditorial to host panel We the People: Local Voices Ask What’s Next on March 23rd

The Cambridge Public Library and TheEditorial present, We the People: Local Voices Ask What’s Next on Thursday, March 23, 2017 from 7:00-9:00 PM at the Main Library at 449 Broadway.

This event is the first in an Our Path Forward series presented by the Library to affirm its commitment to public discourse and democracy during a period of change and uncertainty. Structured as a panel of leading voices and experts from the community, conversation will touch on topics such as immigration, civil rights, journalism and mass incarceration.

“We are thrilled to work with TheEditorial to put together this timely event with an impressive line-up of speakers,” said Maria McCauley, Director of Libraries. “Bringing the community together to hear different perspectives to learn, and inspire action, growth and understanding is at the heart of what we do.”

The program will consist of a panel discussion, as well as opportunities for comments and questions from the audience. Confirmed speakers include:

Claire Messud, American novelist and literature and creative writing professor, currently a Senior Lecturer at Harvard. Best known as the author of the novels The Emperor’s Children and The Woman Upstairs.

Ron Sullivan, Jr., a leading theorist in the areas of criminal law, criminal procedure, trial practice and techniques, legal ethics, and race theory. He is the faculty director of the Harvard Criminal Justice Institute and the Harvard Trial Advocacy Workshop.

Miguel de Icaza, Distinguished Engineer at Microsoft focusing on mobile developer tools. He co-founded Xamarin in 2011 and Ximian in 1999, both with Nat Friedman. Miguel co-founded the GNOME project in 1997, and has directed the Mono project since its creation in 2001, including multiple Mono releases at Novell. Miguel has received the Free Software Foundation 1999 Free Software Award, the MIT Technology Review Innovator of the Year Award in 1999, and was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 innovators for the new century in September 2000. In 1997, he was interviewed by Microsoft for a position but lacked the university degree to obtain a work H1-B Visa. Today he is one of the most respected voices in Open Source. Born in Mexico, de Icaza became a US Citizen in 2015.

Susan Church, chair of the American Immigration Lawyers of New England and a partner at the law firm of Demissie & Church. She is a trial and appellate attorney focusing on the intersection of criminal defense and immigration. With the assistance of the ACLU and Mintz Levin law firm, she recently successfully sued President Donald Trump over his travel ban directed against Muslims. Church was one of the early lawyers at Logan Airport the day of the EO by POTUS Trump.

Peter Kadzis, @Kadzis WGBH News, Senior Editor, contributes political analysis, and is part of the trio that produces the Scrum Podcast. He has spent years inside daily newspapers and national magazines before joining the now-defunct Boston Phoenix, where he worked for 25 years—primarily as editor or executive editor. A thoughtful voice on journalism and this political moment in time. We the People is jointly presented by the Cambridge Public Library and TheEditorial, an independent online interview series with visionaries in the Cambridge/Boston area.


The discussion will be moderated by the founder and editor of TheEditorial, Heidi Legg.

“The Cambridge Public Library is a community fixture that represents ideas and curiosity,” said Legg. “As we publish our 100th interview this month, this event felt like a natural collaboration with TheEditorial.com’s mission to take us out of our silos and into conversation around emerging ideas that change the way we look at the world, given where we live.”
Find out more about the Cambridge Public Library’s Our Path Forward series at cambridgepubliclibrary.org/ourpathforward.

About the Cambridge Public Library:
For all the residents of Cambridge, the Cambridge Public Library opens its doors to the world’s ideas, perspectives, arts and occupations, fostering a lifelong love of reading. The CPL actively promotes free and confidential access to its resources and programs.

Last year, over 957,400 people visited our libraries. A total of 1,326,584 books and AV materials were checked out; another 64,426 electronic and audio books were downloaded. Patrons streamed music 21,619 times and conducted 340,459 searches of the online database.

About TheEditorial.com:
Named by Webby as one of the top 10 Cultural Blog/Websites 2016, TheEditorial interviews emerging leaders and thinkers across the cultural landscape we call Cambridge. With Harvard and MIT and a bevy of institutes and leading tech companies along this corridor, TheEditorial curates voices in long-format digital interviews. We think there is power in putting the Poet next to the Scientist and the Industrialist next to the Artist and the Social Philanthropist next to the Techie to capture this moment in time.

Some of the 100 interviews are available in podcast: Once Upon A Time in Russia author Ben Mezrich, former Boston Globe Spotlight Editor Ben Bradlee Jr., MIT Kinetic Sculptor Arthur Ganson, and PBS Executive Producer of MASTERPIECE Rebecca Eaton on iTunes
Visit TheEditorial.com to learn more.