“The Handmaid’s Tale” author Margaret Atwood, former Saturday Night Live star Kate McKinnon, Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi and author Salman Rushdie will appear this fall as part of the Chicago Humanities Fall Festival. Tickets go on sale to the public Thursday.
The festival, running Sept. 18 through Nov. 13 with events throughout the city, will also feature program days within different city neighborhoods. Pilsen Day on Sept. 21 comes in partnership with the National Museum of Mexican Art and will bring a talk from David de Baca on the Chicano magazine Teen Angels, plus appearances by chefs Jesse Valenciana and Rick Bayless. Highlights for University of Chicago Arts & Humanities Day programming on Oct. 18 include a talk from Roxane Gay and an exploration of the poetry of Taylor Swift from literary critic Stephanie Burt.
“Our priority is to reach around the entire community and when we say that we mean from Evanston all the way down to South Shore,” said festival Executive Director Phillip Bahar. “With each place that we move in, each partnership we’re working with, it allows us to peel into different aspects of Chicago as a city, and the people that make Chicago.”
This year’s festival comes as federal humanities funding cuts by the Trump administration have left the statewide group Illinois Humanities short of an estimated $1 million. That group funds libraries, museums and history and literary projects. Though Chicago Humanities has received federal funding in the past, the organization did not take any funding for 2025 and was not impacted directly by cuts. Still, Bahar said his group’s events unfold at a critical time for humanities on a national level.
“We as a nation should be committed to capturing the telling and sharing the stories of America through the arts and humanities. When you look back at other civilizations in the past, the remnants are the humanities,” he said. “When our nation can’t support that kind of creativity, it has ripple effects.”
Here is a full calendar of the events.
Sept. 18 Annual Benefit with Evan Osnos at Four Seasons Hotel
Pilsen/Little Village Day, Sunday Sept. 21 featuring chefs Jesse Valenciana & Rick Bayless, actor Zosia Mamet and Cheech Marin: Chicano Art
Oct. 2 Kurt Elling with Christian Sands Performance at Old Town School of Folk Music
Illinois Tech Day, Saturday, Oct. 4 featuring Nate Silver and Richard Thaler: On the Edge, a talk on late Chicago fashion designer Virgil Abloh, and Kate McKinnon: Secrets of the Purple Pearl at Hermann Hall
Oct. 12 Catherine Russell: American Songbook at Old Town School of Folk Music
Oct. 12 Chicago Sukkah Design Festival at James Stone Freedom Square
Oct. 13 Robin Wall Kimmerer at Morton Arboretum
Oct. 15 Cory Doctorow & Kara Swisher: On “Enshitification” at Old Town School of Folk Music
University of Chicago Arts & Humanities Day, Saturday, Oct. 18 featuring talks by Roxane Gay, Sally Mann, Amitav Ghosh: Wild Fictions, Stephen Dubner, Steven Pinker and Nick Offerman: Woodworking and Tomfoolery
Nov. 5 Jill Lepore: We the People at Francis Parker
Nov. 6, 7 Kurt Vile & Terry Allen Performance at Old Town School of Folk Music
Nov. 8 Margaret Atwood: Book of Lives at Francis Parker
Nov. 11 Padma Lakshmi’s All American at Athenaeum Center
Nov. 12 Samin Nosrat: Good Things at Athenaeum Center
Nov. 13 Salman Rushdie: The Eleventh Hour at Athenaeum Center
Camila Trimberger-Ruiz is an intern on the WBEZ Arts & Culture Desk.