Illinois Humanities to Launch Series Exploring the Pursuit of A More Perfect Union
community event series, Kaskaskia and the Pursuit of a More Perfect
Union, exploring the demographic, cultural, and political shifts
that shaped Kaskaskia, Illinois, and that carry significant relevance
to shaping the democratic vision of the country.
The video program, “Kaskaskia and the Pursuit of a More
Perfect Union, Part 1,” will premiere online at 7 p.m. Thursday,
Oct. 6. A screening and in-person discussion about “A More Perfect
Union” will follow at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 11, at Chester
Public Library, In Chester, Ill.
“The remarkably multilayered story of Kaskaskia is essential
to the stories of our state and our country,” said Matt Meacham,
program manager of statewide engagement at Illinois Humanities
and Randolph County native. “This history involves many groups
of people – Indigenous and Black people, both enslaved and free,
French and British people, Anglo-Americans from the South and
the North, and subsequent immigrants – and many dramatic social,
governmental, and economic changes that reflect the landscape of
the state and country throughout time.”
From its founding by Native Americans and French Jesuit, to
its designation as Illinois’ capital, and through periods of massive
population change, Kaskaskia’s rich stories will provide participants
in online screenings and in person conversations a unique
opportunity to engage with the history of their state and its people.
The series is the latest installment of the Illinois Humanities
program, The Country and the City: Common Ground in
the Prairie State. Additional programs will be held in 2022
and 2023 in Randolph County and Chicago about contemporary
African American life in Kaskaskia and the preservation
of French American heritage in Randolph County.
Illinois Humanities Executive Director Gabrielle Lyon
said, “Kaskaskia helped to shape our state’s identity and, in
turn, the direction of the entire country. This program gives
us a chance to understand how that happened and who
shaped it. Most of all it makes time for us to ask ourselves,
directly, what do we believe? What do we want? What will
it take to form a more perfect Union today?”
Linda Mitchell, executive director of the Metro East Literacy Project, will facilitate the discussion at the Chester Public Library along with Meacham and Fairouz AbuGhazaleh, Illinois Humanities’ director of statewide programs.
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