FEBRUARY
8 SATURDAY
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
In 1946, Michael Reese Hospital hired its first African-American physician, gastroenterologist Leonidas Berry. One of the nation’s foremost experts on digestive disorders, he invented the Eder-Berry biopsy gastroscope, which was used to obtain tissue samples from the stomach (and is now on display at the Smithsonian), but wasn’t granted full attending physician status until 1964. Some of Berry’s papers can be seen in the exhibit “More Than a Century of Struggle: African-American Achievement in Chicago’s Medical History,” which runs through June 30 at the Carter G. Woodson Regional Library. The exhibit provides the background for today’s free town hall meeting, Chicago’s Hospitals and Health Professional Schools: From Racial Exclusion to Affirmative Action, where 24 black health organizations will discuss the status of African-Americans in the health professions. It’ll be moderated by former Cook County Hospital medical director Dr. Agnes D. Lattimer (the first black woman to head a major American hospital) and Dr. William McDade, associate dean for minority affairs and professor of anesthesiology at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine. It’s from 1 to 4:30 at the library, 9525 S. Halsted, Chicago (312-745-2080).
“For the majority of the people in Central Asia, independence from the Soviet Communist system did not immediately translate into an urge for democracy, the market economy, or Western culture and consumerism,” writes journalist and author Ahmed Rashid in his new book Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia. “As the Soviet Empire fell apart, the people of Central Asia, who had been forced to renounce or hide their religion for seventy-four years, at last saw an opportunity to reconnect spiritually and culturally with their Islamic past.” The Pakistan-born Rashid, who also penned the bestseller Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia, will discuss his latest work tonight at 6 at the Harold Washington Library Center, 400 S. State, Chicago. It’s free; call 312-747-4080.
12 WEDNESDAY
