Seeing Things As They Really Are in Renaissance Florence
We at Classical Pursuits are excited to welcome back Stuart Patterson to Toronto in July 2018. In 2016, Stuart led a seminar on Ovid’s Metamorphoses in painting, music and poetry. He recently spoke with us about his upcoming seminar, The Birth of New Powers in Florence. Participants in Stuart’s seminar […]
What Price Power? Why Trollope Matters Today
[Editor’s note: We give a warm welcome back to longtime Toronto Pursuits leader Nancy Carr. Nancy’s seminar Through the lens of the under-appreciated Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope, participants in Nancy’s seminar will ask a timeless question: How far are we willing to go to obtain power?] As I ride the […]
Old Truths Made New: Interview with Toronto Pursuits Leader Mandy Burton
We are thrilled to welcome new leader Mandy Burton to Toronto Pursuits. Mandy comes to us through Toronto Pursuits’ education manager Mark Cwik. Participants in her seminar Power, Rights and Personhood will benefit from her true spirit of inquiry that crosses disciplines, and will read classics old and new. Classical […]
Writing for Their Lives: Interview with Toronto Pursuits leader John Riley
We at Classical Pursuits are excited to welcome back John Riley to Toronto in July 2018. In 2017, John led a seminar on the nature of knowledge. He recently spoke with us about his upcoming seminar, Listening to the Voices of Resistance. The seminar has its roots in John’s experience of […]
Discovering Truth Through Myth
[Editor’s note: We’re very happy to welcome longtime Classical Pursuits leader and classical painter Sean Forester back to Toronto. Sean’s 2018 seminar offers opportunities for both rigorous discussion about classic works and personal reflection on what roles myths play in our lives.] In a bit of the witty repartee Oscar […]
Beyond “In Flanders Fields”: Seeing WWI Poetry Anew
What happens when large numbers of literate soldiers are “plunged into inhumane conditions?” (1) World War I was the first global conflict in which (with some exceptions) most soldiers could read and write. The result was an outpouring of novels, memoirs, plays, songs, and above all, poetry. More than 2,000 […]
Destiny, Realpolitik, and the Will to Power
[Editor’s note: Betty Ann Jordan is the founder of Art InSite cultural tours and a Toronto-based arts commentator. She operates whenever possible at the intersection between art, architecture and literature. We are thrilled to have her the leader of Memoirs of Hadrian: Power Embodied in July 2018.] In our politically […]
That Golden Sun Still Shines: A San Francisco Love Story
What happens when you love a city but it doesn’t love you back? Local writers had gathered in San Francisco’s Make-Out Room, with its Saturday-Night-Fever-meets-natural-history-museum vibe, to read their stories about a city that, by many accounts, was losing its unique spirit. San Francisco has attracted adventurers, eccentrics, and strivers […]
Learning to See: Invisible Man and the Power of Imagination
Each time I plunge back into this book, I feel the battering that Invisible Man endures when he is thrust into the “battle royal.” Our unnamed narrator, thinking he has arrived at a meeting of his town’s white business and civic leaders to receive a prestigious scholarship, is thrown into […]
In Memoriam
It has been a sad summer and autumn for Classical Pursuits, as several long-time participants have passed away. Of course, in a small organization like ours, our participants and travellers are also our friends. Some have known Ann for years or decades and travelled with her and other leaders all […]