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Watch Party: Bringing History to Life with Jonathan Eig

2026-01-13 19:00:00 2026-01-13 20:00:00 America/Chicago Watch Party: Bringing History to Life with Jonathan Eig Excited about the upcoming Jonathan Eig program? Join us in person for a livestream of the virtual event on our big screen & enjoy exploring related materials, snacks, & more. Santori Library - Meeting Room 125/126 Combined

Tuesday, January 13
7:00pm - 8:00pm

Add to Calendar 2026-01-13 19:00:00 2026-01-13 20:00:00 America/Chicago Watch Party: Bringing History to Life with Jonathan Eig Excited about the upcoming Jonathan Eig program? Join us in person for a livestream of the virtual event on our big screen & enjoy exploring related materials, snacks, & more. Santori Library - Meeting Room 125/126 Combined

Santori Library

Meeting Room 125/126 Combined

Excited about the upcoming Jonathan Eig program? Join us in person for a livestream of the virtual event on our big screen & enjoy exploring related materials, snacks, & more.

No registration is needed to drop-in this in-person watch party. Seating and additional resources will be available while supplies last. 

To watch the "Bringing History to Life with Jonathan Eig" program virtually via Zoom, please register here.

Pulitzer-prize winning author Jonathan Eig will discuss his biography of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., which contains recently declassified FBI files. Mark Bazer will join in conversation. 

Jonathan Eig is the bestselling author of six books, including his most recent, Pulitzer Prize-winning King: A Life. Vividly written and exhaustively researched, it is the first major biography in decades of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. and the first to include recently declassified FBI files. In this revelatory new portrait of the preacher and activist who shook the world, Eig gives us an intimate view of King, who masterfully employed peaceful protest in the streets but was rarely at peace with himself. From the classroom to the pulpit to the streets of Birmingham, Selma, and Memphis, Eig dramatically re-creates the journey of a man who recast American race relations and became our only modern-day founding father as well as the nation’s most mourned martyr.

Eig began his writing career at age 16, working for his hometown newspaper, The Rockland County Journal News (N.Y.). He studied journalism at Northwestern University, and went on to work as a reporter for The New Orleans Times-Picayune, The Dallas Morning News, Chicago Magazine, and The Wall Street Journal.

According to his parents, his greatest claim to fame is that his name once appeared in a Jeopardy! question. Eig lives in Chicago with his wife and children and shares office space with the laundry machines.

Mark Bazer will join Jonathan in conversation. The host of The Interview Show, Bazer also frequently moderates events for Chicago Humanities and is a contributing writer for Chicago Magazine.

This event is intended for adults.

This event is made possible by Illinois Libraries Present (ILP), a statewide collaboration among public libraries offering premier events. ILP is funded in part by a grant awarded by the Illinois State Library, a department of the Office of Secretary of State, using funds provided by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA). 

ILP is committed to inclusion and accessibility. American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation and Closed Captioning are provided for all events by default—no special request needed. If a patron needs accommodations not listed, the member library should email illinoislibrariespresent@ila.org. 

Photo credit: Doug McGoldrick

AGE GROUP: | Adults - ages 19+ |

EVENT TYPE: | Reading and Literacy | Popular Culture | General Interest |

TAGS: | |

Santori Library

Phone: 630-264-4117
Branch manager
Tom Spicer

Hours
About the branch

A state-of-the-art center for technology, information, literacy creativity and community. Equipped with a Makerspace, local history and genealogy room, teen space, and study rooms.

 

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