Courses - 2023 Summer - SENIOR UNIVERSITY OF GREATER ATLANTA

Please take note whether instruction will be conducted via Zoom or In-Person.

ZOOM CLASSES - LINKS will be sent 5:00 pm ET evening before class. Please check your spam folder if not received.

IN-PERSON - Physical Address:
Rehoboth Baptist Church, 2997 Lawrenceville Hwy., Tucker, GA 30087

Each Class Meets Once Per Week for one hour unless otherwise indicated.

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Calendar Version

ZOOM Options

Thursdays - ZOOM

9:30 AM - ZOOM

THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER: A STUDY OF THE NOVEL
Bonnie Hoyt, Member, SUGA

Join Bonnie Hoyt in an exploration of Carson McCullers’ novel The Heart is A Lonely Hunter, set in the bigoted, segregated, Jim Crow South in the late 1930’s and published in 1940. This debut book, by a then unknown 23-year-old Southern female writer, became a popular sensation and landed on lists of both top-selling and critically-acclaimed books before it went on to become a classic. At the time, the book was praised as one of the first novels by a white writer to inhabit and detail the lives of black characters rather than portraying them as stereotypes. Yet it is equally sympathetic to white characters as they struggle with life in a mill town still suffering the effects of the Depression. Although more than 80 years have passed since the book’s publication, the themes it includes are still relevant today. Racism, inequality, and injustice still exist; we are still unable to communicate clearly and with civility; and each of us experiences our own loneliness, isolation and longing for connection.

11:00 AM - ZOOM

UNDERSTANDING THE WEATHER AND CLIMATE OF GEORGIA
Zachary Handlos, Ph.D., School of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology

Ever wondered how the weather that affects us in Georgia "works?" What leads to all of the rain we get during the winter and spring months? How do severe weather events, including tornadoes, develop, and how do hurricanes form and what impacts do they have on our state? How is global climate change affecting the frequency and intensity of extreme weather in Georgia? In this six-week course, we will explore the various types of weather events that impact Georgia across all four seasons, including understanding how such weather events develop and what their impacts are. Course sessions will include several examples of Georgia weather "case studies," or the discussion of past extreme weather events that left their impact. The first week will be dedicated to helping participants of the course learn how to interpret various types of weather maps and radar and satellite products, including those products that you see on TV, the Internet and our smart phone apps. Weeks 2-6 will each have a different weather and climate "theme" focused around various weather and climate events impacting our state.

In-Person Options

Wednesdays - In-Person

9:30 am - In-Person

CURRENT EVENTS
Norman Slawsky, Current President and Member, SUGA

This class will be a combination of scheduled speakers and class discussion. We have confirmed speakers on climate change modeling, the executive director of the GA Teachers Retirement System (TRS), a well-known TV news reporter who will discuss news media, and a report on the Atlanta refugee community from the International Rescue Committee (IRC). The remaining classes will be topical class discussions.

DRAW FROM LIFE
Betsy Alexander, designer and graphic artist, Member, SUGA

Drawing is a learnable skill. It offers an opportunity to see life differently by interpreting what you see into how you would draw it. Discover a new awareness of structure, proportion and detail. See the world with an artist’s eyes. And learn how to translate that on to paper. This is a class for beginners as well as those who already enjoy drawing. Please bring a sketchbook and pencils.

11:00 AM - In-Person

THE ORIGINS OF ROCK AND ROLL, PART 1
Tom Dell, Musician

“The Origins of Rock and Roll” traces the genre’s roots in Gospel, Country, Jazz, Blues, and Rhythm and Blues. From the early 20th Century -- with Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Charley Patton, Son House, Muddy Waters and Howling Wolf -- to 1959, Rock and Roll slowly developed -- and came on full blast in the 1950s in songs by Roy Brown, Big Joe Turner, Ike Turner, Elvis, Jerry Lee, Buddy Holly, Carl Perkins and many others. The course makes use of MP4 audio-video files to hear and see how tunes from the early 1900s morphed into songs from Janis Joplin and Chuck Willis. We will hear how the Mississippi Delta Blues and the Chicago Blues created the platform from which Rock and Roll came. The course will surely bring back a lot of memories and give you a good understanding of why Rock and Roll music is still around and so very near and dear to our hearts.

SIX DAYS THAT UNEXPECTEDLY CHANGED AMERICA
David McCowen, Member, SUGA

Offering a fresh perspective on the American experience, 6 acclaimed documentary filmmakers present 6 pivotal moments in United States history and the often-unexpected changes they triggered. Together these films represent compelling stories about less well-known events that serve as a lens with which to view the range of the American experience. The 6 DVD’s will be shown in 6 weeks, each with time for discussion after.

Book Club

The SUGA Book Club will meeting twice per quarter. Below are our 2023 selected titles.

For more information, or if you would like to lead a discussion, please contact Kay Collins:
[email protected]

SUMMER TERM