Speakers for November

  Our Sunday services at 11:00 a.m. feature a different guest speaker each week, either a member of our congregation or someone from the surrounding community. We address a variety of topics, from literature and history to politics, religious thought and social issues. We welcome suggestions for speakers, please contact Donna Orchard donnaforchard@gmail.com

November 4

Speakers: MIRIAM NORRIS OMAURA and TARA STALLWORTH LEE
Title: Unity and Human Connectedness
Summary: .Tara Stallworth Lee’s recent projects contemplate moral goodness and the parallels that exist among individual human experiences within her work. This Resident Artist at Ground Floor Contemporary in Birmingham will describe how she has visualized these ideas within her work. For more than fifteen years, Tara has enjoyed teaching specialty art classes to youth for The Smithsonian Associates Summer Camp Program in Washington D.C. Miriam Norris Omura will recount
her recent experience of connecting across cultures and languages when she traveled to Japan to study kasuri weaving. Miriam holds a BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art in Fiber and Material Studies and was a 2017 Visual Arts Fellowship recipient from the Alabama State Council of the Arts.
Introduction: Pinky Bass

November 18

Speakers: HARVEY JOANNING, ANNE ARMSTRONG, DANA ROBERTS
Title: The Gateway to Heaven: Issues of Aging
Summary: Facilitated by Harvey Joaning, this FUF-member panel will address several important issues that must faced as we age: legal documents, timely proper care, interpersonal issues with our loved ones, conversations with would-be survivors about post-death tasks. Professor Emeritus at Iowa State University and member of the psychology faculty at the University of South Alabama, Harvey has been involved in aging and anti-aging research since his mid-twenties. Anne
Armstrong was born in the United Kingdom as a RAF “brat”. She grew up in the Middle East and East Africa and, after living in fourteen countries, came to United States in 1969. She and her husband, Del, live in Daphne. Dana Roberts’ career has been in the theater as an actress, stage director, and artistic director for a performing arts center. Dana and Harvey met and married at FUF. (The panel will also lighten the mood of the program with some appropriately inappropriate humor.)
Introduction: Rodney Hoffman

November 11

Speaker: RUTH GERACI
Title:  Why UU and Why Star Island?
Summary: Having chosen to become a Unitarian Universalist about thirty years ago, Ruth Geraci will talk about the differences between UU and her upbringing as a Congregationalist/UCC. What does it mean to be a Unitarian Universalist? She will also share highlights of her experiences from many annual trips to Star Island, where she gathers with other UUs for a
week of peace, quiet and a coming together of like minds. Ruth moved to the Gulf Coast from New Hampshire in 2004 and has since been a committed member of FUF, where among other offices, she has served as President and Editor of this newsletter. She currently directs and tutors with the non-profit Augustine Literacy Project in Baldwin County.
Introduction: Joan Marker



November 25

Speaker: ITAY TALGAM
Title: Lead Like the Great Conductors (Ted Talk)
Summary: Itay Talgam uses the orchestra in seminars and workshops as a metaphor for organizational behavior, a model for inspired leadership and transformative power. Having studied at the Rubin Academy and received a degree in philosophy
from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem,Talgam started out as a pianist, but switched to conducting after his military service. He has worked with most of the major orchestras in Israel.
Introduction: Donna Orchard