Spring Quarter 2020 has been cancelled.
"With a passionate regard for the health, safety, and peace-of-mind of SUGA members and the members of the Board of Directors, recommendations and admonitions on social distancing and personal protection by the CDC and Georgia Public Health Department were considered in the Executive Committee’s decision-making process."
"With a passionate regard for the health, safety, and peace-of-mind of SUGA members and the members of the Board of Directors, recommendations and admonitions on social distancing and personal protection by the CDC and Georgia Public Health Department were considered in the Executive Committee’s decision-making process."
Dear SUGA Members,
As promised, the SUGA directors, Officers, and the Executive Director want to stay in contact with our members to furnish updates about class postponement and efforts for resuming. Even more importantly, we want to express our hope this letter finds all of you, loved ones, and friends healthy and safe as we all adjust to a situation vastly different from what any of us had planned. It is so hard to put into words the concerns, risks, frustration, and true heroism of so many. Everyone in our country is touched by this virus in some way and our hearts, support, sympathies, and concern go out to everyone.
We could not have foreseen the world’s forthcoming change and uncertainty makes it impossible to forecast how long recommended social distancing will last. As always, the health and well-being of our members, volunteers, and instructors receive first priority in all of our planning efforts in dealing with the present and planning for the future.
As we gather information and evaluate options for a pragmatic path for SUGA operations and classes, the Board of Directors, Officers, Curriculum Committee, IT Team, and Executive Director are in constant electronic communication exchanging ideas on approaches to resuming classes. For example, and on a hopeful note, the Executive Director and members of the IT team are working on adapting a way to hold classes via live streaming. We are working toward either telescoping class content for a short Spring Quarter or rescheduling classes into a future quarter if we cannot resume soon.
Another part of this decision process includes your welcomed questions and suggestions which can be submitted via email: sugaatlanta@gmail.com or by Postal Service: SUGA, PO BOX 941338, Atlanta, Ga 31141. As safe options are identified, plans made, and schedules prepared, additional announcements will be distributed to members.
A SUGA Board of Directors’ meeting is scheduled for April 1st and will be held electronically. Following that Board Meeting an announcement will be made about Spring and Summer quarter updates.
Needless-to-say, this is not the SUGA 40th Anniversary celebratory ending we planned! However, we look forward to entering SUGA’s 41st year on August 1st stronger and more resilient than ever.
I leave you with this quote from Desmond Tutu, “Hope is being able to see there is light in spite of all of the darkness.” Everyone, please stay in touch, take care, stay safe, and remember we will get through this together.
Sincerely,
Larry Pinson, President, SUGA Board of Directors
Wednesdays
9:30 a.m. ClassesHISPANIDAD: A Virtual Field Trip Through the Spanish Cultural World
John Allensworth, PhD, Geography, Kent State & Georgia State Univ. (retired), Member, SUGA By the end of the 16th century, Spain had established itself as the first global empire. With the Spanish King, Phillip II (Felipe II), also becoming the Regent of the Portuguese Empire, Spain managed economic and political control over a world that included Habsburg Europe, the Iberian Peninsula, the islands of the Caribbean, North, Central and South America, Guam and the Marianas in the Pacific and the Philippines in southeast Asia, as well as the Portuguese colonies in India and Africa. The Spanish cultural legacies of language, art, architecture, religion, music, dance, literature, family lifestyle, cuisine, agriculture and commerce manifest themselves on much of the world today. Spain and its empire had an absolutely fascinating and often misunderstood history that was filled with adventure within a set of brilliantly beautiful cultural and physical landscapes. In this course we will vicariously travel via PowerPoint throughout this Hispanic world from Madrid to Miami, Mexico to Manila and Santa Fe to Santiago de Chile and a lot of places in between. MOVIE MUSICAL CONTRASTS Anne MacDougal, Member, SUGA This course will present a review of selected musicals, contrasting versions of original sources, revivals and movies of the musicals as well as the actors who were part of them: starting with Oklahoma and an analysis and selection of clips from the original play, the original stage production, subsequent revivals and the movie; a similar review of Carousel; a look at some of the Broadway musicals produced by Hal Prince that sourced movie musicals, e.g., Pajama Game, West Side Story, Fiddler on The Roof; a session contrasting (and enjoying) Fred Astaire’s various partners; a look at some of the secondary players in musicals and the actors who played them; and finally, a collection of favorite musical production numbers. YOU’RE ONLY AS OLD AS YOU FEEL: Introduction to Somatic Education and the Feldenkrais Method Sandi Goldring, MS, PT, Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner®, Member, SUGA What does it mean to “feel old”? Are you slow, tired, stiff, off balance, or painful? Are there activities you can’t do anymore? The clichés about aging assume an inevitable decline, which we can partially escape through certain physical and mental exercises and behavior changes. But what if you are unable to do the “right” exercises? Suppose your lifelong habits are just too tenacious? Fortunately, the Feldenkrais Method (pronounced felˊ-den-krice) of somatic education provides a unique alternative that helps you regain control, transcend unnecessary limitation, and perform your activities with renewed ease. In this course, you will learn about the physiology of aging, and the behavioral dynamics of injury, illness, pain and healing. You will also experience numerous short effortless movement experiences, both seated and standing, that show you how to move better, feel better, and keep improving. 11:00 a.m. Classes
WEDNESDAYS, 11:00
IT AIN’T OVER ‘TIL IT’S OVER: How Issues of the Civil War have Remained with us to this Day Bill Fisher, Business Consultant & retired BellSouth senior manager, Member, SUGA The classes will cover the war’s causes and its end. We will discuss the period called Reconstruction where civil rights were given by law to freed slaves, only to be suppressed by the rebirth of white supremacy and the rise of the Jim Crow era. We will continue through the Civil Rights era to the issues that remain today, seemingly as unsolvable as ever. FROM DEPRESSION, TO WAR, TO PEACE: 1932-1945 John Evans, MA Curriculum Development, retired public school administrator During this span of time the world-wide depression subsided; war broke out in Asia and Europe; World War II was fought throughout the world; the Axis powers surrendered unconditionally; and peace was to come. We will examine and discuss this era from the viewpoint of the United States - particularly from the administrations of Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman. Since most of us lived through this era, most surely there will be many questions and comments. AMERICAN ART MASTERPIECES AND THE GLOBAL VILLAGE IN 2020 Susanne Katz, Museum Curator, Director of Exhibitions, The Breman Museum Artworks are a reflection of the artist in his time. Many of the best-known artists of the modern era are American. Art masterpieces created in times of flux often break the rules of classicism and ask us to face new realities. In current times, turbulence has opened new pathways because of immigration, assimilation, acculturation and marginalization. Family stories, digital communications, new forms of currency, changing environments and theology provide insight into how our vision of the world is changing. Susanne Katz shares a curator’s insight as we examine modern American masterpieces and what impacts our attitudes today. |
Fridays9:30 a.m. ClassesMORAL MATTERS IV: Analyzing Modern Society’s Most Pressing Ethical Challenges
Coordinator: Paul Root Wolpe, Raymond F. Schinazi Distinguished Research Chair in Jewish Bioethics and Director, Center for Ethics, Emory University In this course, the Faculty of the Center for Ethics at Emory University will present their work examining some of the most pressing ethical challenges of our time. Potential topics may include ethical and social complexities in health and medicine (end of life, rationing, access, obesity, transplants, etc.); science and biotechnology (artificial intelligence, neuroethics, cloning, genetic engineering); the natural world (animal morality, environmental ethics, sustainability); social relationships (philanthropy, poverty, conflict), and social institutions (business, law, social welfare, education). Issues will be examined through many ethical lenses, including philosophy, social science, religion, literature, and the arts. ASTRONOMY Dave Conley, BA, Physics, Senior Manager designing exhibits in multiple science centers, including a planetarium (retired), Member, SUGA Astronomy is the study of everything outside of the Earth’s atmosphere (a lot to cover in 8 sessions!) Session 1 will discuss Astronomy Through Time and Culture; Session 2: Telescopes; Session 3: The Solar System; Session 4: Nebula, the Milky Way, and Galaxies; Session 5: The Sun and the Planets; Session 6: The Science of How We Know What We Know; Session 7: Lifecycles; Session 8: Extraterrestrial Life. Perhaps this overview will encourage your interest of sky watching! YERKES RESEARCH: Improving Human and Animal Health Yerkes National Primate Research Center Researchers. Lisa Newbern, Coordinator. The Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, is helping people and animals live longer, healthier lives via our research to discover causes, preventions, treatments and cures. Hear from the researchers who are committed to making breakthrough discoveries and improving health. 11:00 a.m. Classes
GREAT DECISIONS
George Brown. Ph.D. (International Relations), retired President/CEO of Friendship Force, Travel Coordinator, Member, SUGA Great Decisions is an annual program developed by the Foreign Policy Association (FPA), a non-partisan organization whose mission is to promote interest and understanding of policy issues that impact our world. Fascinating topics this year include: Climate Change and the Global Order; India and Pakistan; Red Sea Security; Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking; U.S. Relations with the Northern Triangle; China’s Road into Latin America; The Philippines and the U.S.; and Artificial Intelligence and Data. Booklets will be available at the Coordinator’s table during February (approximately $25). POTPOURRI: Speaker Series 2020 Ed Aqua and Sid Stein, Co-Chairs of the Edgewise Program, Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta (MJCCA), Members, SUGA For this fourth year, the Potpourri Speaker Series continues with our theme: “Think Global and Act Local.” All of our vetted speakers approach their topics with impassioned zeal, true knowledge, and significant experience. These eight topics include: Advances in Medical Technology and Practice; Prisoner Perspectives; Gerrymandering and Redistricting in Georgia; Mid-East Update and Future; Immigration Conflicts; Business and Philanthropy; Nature in our Midst; and TV Reporting. FROM REVOLUTION TO RENAISSANCE TO ROCKETMAN: Evolution of English Music Judy Sobel, Member, SUGA Since the beginning of time, there has been music. Instruments like drums and rattles were found worldwide. Songs have been passed down through oral tradition. It was many years before a written method of preserving music was invented. A manuscript in Italy circa 550 A.D. so far is the oldest record of written musical notation. Music of England has been intertwined with the history of the nation. Other parts of the Empire developed separately, and music found in Wales, Scotland and Ireland are unique. Starting with the pipes of Pan, through the Renaissance and Revolution, through folk music and classical music to the present day, all music has been affected by current events, with great changes in history affecting the music. Starting with an overview, we will cover the first written recorded music found in England. Next will come the ballads, the early English church and other medieval music, followed by REVOLUTION ONE. Music written during the Renaissance gives way to war songs, Music Hall, West End, popular songs and bands. Music by serious composers becomes known worldwide. REVOLUTION TWO leads the way to today’s favorite bands, singers, performers and playwrights. What will REVOLUTION THREE bring? (Have you seen “Yesterday?”) |
Prorated Registration for two quarters (2020 Spring, Summer): $80
Check is payable to SUGA. You can bring registration to the Coordinator's Table or mail to:
Bill Beeson, SUGA
PO Box 941338
Atlanta, GA 31141
Check is payable to SUGA. You can bring registration to the Coordinator's Table or mail to:
Bill Beeson, SUGA
PO Box 941338
Atlanta, GA 31141
