The Brief – February 2023

February 2023 CONTENT Great Minds Think Differently Charlotte Ideas Festival Communion A Word Great minds think differently We're excited to share with you our upcoming Charlotte Ideas Festival where great minds think differently. Experience extraordinary forums, gatherings, panels, and performances exploring the most timely topics of our day. Check out our schedule of events, featured speakers and questions we’ll explore! “No army can withstand the strength of an idea whose time has come.” ― VICTOR HUGO French Romantic writer and politician You're invited! March 30th - April 4th, 2023 How are we bound together? Be a part of a special kick off to Charlotte SHOUT! by reimagining "How to Citizen" with the engaging and provocative activist & comedian (and Harvard philosophy major) Baratunde Thurston.  REGISTER How can you have more joy in your work and life? Explore "The Aesthetics of Joy" and how our spaces and places are affecting our vitality at The Charlotte Center Forum with designer, author, and mainstage TED speaker Ingrid Fetell Lee. REGISTER Artificial Intelligence is coming at us fast. What does AI mean for us and our future? Look into "The AI Mirror" and explore the ethics and implications of the latest AI science and technology with Shannon Vallor, philosopher of technology, from the Edinburgh Futures Institute. REGISTER More events to come! Stay tuned for details about an incredible performance of artists, poets, actors, and musicians at Historic Grace AME Church! And panel discussions on topical issues through the lens of history, architecture, religion, and literature at the Bechtler Museum! Communion BY MARK PERES This week marks the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. I follow the headlines every day. The cruelty. The suffering. The heroism. I read about the geopolitics. The battle plans. The mounting losses and gains. From The New York Times to The Guardian to Stars and Stripes. I imagine what it would be like to live there. I contribute to relief efforts. I wonder how brave I would be. Like so many people around the world, I marvel at the Ukrainians. They endure. They fight. They live. I am drawn to stories of mothers and their children, of fathers home from the front, of first-responders and caregivers and teachers who carry on. All of it tragic. All of it stirring. When I was young, I attended Catholic mass. My favorite part was the sign of peace. Prior to the sharing of the Eucharist, we shook hands. We greeted each other. The theology was simple: we look not on our sins but upon our mutual faith in the Body of Christ. We forgive each other, wishing each other the peace that Christ wishes for us, before receiving the Sacrament.  We have this phrase at The Charlotte Center: connection before content. At our events, we invite people to turn to the left and right. People meet. The noise level goes up. All before the big intellectual ideas we love to talk about. There is something personal and humane and awkward in introducing ourselves to a stranger. The moment has an underlying alchemy. The stranger can become our friend. It is the best thing we do. I think about hosting guests at our home: when food is served, when wine is shared, when conversation flows. Our home seems to yearn for its next small gathering: eager to fulfill its purpose of hospitality. Of course, knowledge, wit, and expression entertain. But love and connection matter more. There is a primacy to connection: to the enrichment of relationship. To the memories that linger. We want the glow of truth and beauty. Our only hope is in being brave and kind. We have this chance as the world become more technical and managerial to remind ourselves of poetry and philosophy and the arts. As screens isolate us and mediate every exchange, we can encounter people in-person. As politics becomes more divisive, we can celebrate what unites us. The human experience is in the headlines. The news of the day announces what has always been and what will always be. Yet our moment and this moment will never come again. Welcome to Being Human! ABOUT THE CHARLOTTE CENTER We are interested in what is good for Charlotte and what Charlotte can offer the world. At the core of The Charlotte Center is a deep regard for the humanities: those disciplines that offer a boundless treasure trove and method of understanding the human experience. The humanities invite us to our better selves. They offer a critical and constructive spirit that questions and calls us to what is good and true. JOIN THE MOVEMENT If you've been to our events, if you believe in civil discourse, in the power of ideas, in learning and conversing freely, in ideals of inclusion, creativity, and connection, in bringing the world to Charlotte and Charlotte to the world as the Forum and out Charlotte Ideas Festival gain momentum, then please consider supporting us. DONATE NOW thecharlottecenter.org gratitude to our Charlotte Ideas Festival partners and to our sponsors and donors! Thank you to all of our generous donors and partners that make our work possible.  A WORD No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world. Robin Williams American actor and comedian Spread the Word Please share this email with your friends, family, and colleagues who may want to join our journey of wondering, learning, and striving. Friends, sign up for our newsletter here. The Charlotte Center is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization. Word to the Wise is compiled and edited monthly by Valaida Fullwood Design by Goldenrod Design Co.

Word to the Wise is compiled and edited monthly by Valaida Fullwood

Design by Goldenrod Design Co.