About CulturePlaces: Exploring Human Expression

OVERVIEW



Rafting the Cultural Currents of the New Millennium


"To enter the current of this poem is to hurtle downstream through history on a flood of eloquent and passionate language that is in turn philosophic, satiric, tender, angry, ironic, sensuous, and, above all, elegiac."

-Helen Vendler on "A Treatise on Poetry" by Czeslaw Milosz

"Our culture revolves around acquisition of material goods, and that turns out to be a pretty dissatisfying pursuit. It is very important for people to have meaning and purpose in their lives and connection to other humans."

-Dr Dan Shapiro who defeated cancer and counsels other patients, in conversation with Jane Brody, New York Times

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CulturePlaces, which combines various areas of interest, relies on events throughout the Bay Area to provide more opportunities to experience and compare opinions on the ramifications of the changing social landscape.

We follow three basic organizing principles:

- Some events can be enjoyed just for their shear senuous or aesthetic pleasure. No need to chatter, just feel the music or experience the beauty of a painting or the architecture of a building.

- Regardless of one's class, gender, age, race, sexual orientation and the numerous other distinctions that seem so wrapped up in identity politics these days, educated adults want to grapple with the ideas that are shaped by these associations but are not bound by them.

- And finally, we believe that the meaning and implications of our experiences, artistic and otherwise, emerge through discourse. All that is required is a probing mind and the capacity to engage in dialogue (attributes that are too often missing in conversations around the water cooler or at the dinner table). And while we may wrestle with weighty matters that can ignite strong emotions, we want to be able to treat them playfully and with a disinterested passion for clarity that avoids partisanship.

Before becoming a Meetup Group, our programs were held mostly at the Commonwealth Club and explored places that reflect the cultural norms and values that affect both individual and group behavior in this the new millennium. We wish to probe what was once called, rather grandiously, the Human Condition with an emphasis on societal and artistic trends.

Read more about our focus and past activities here

From time to time we will add background material contained in a file on this site, or we will link to another site. Checking out these resources will enhance your enjoyment.

For some of our discussion programs, we invite an individual, often an advocate or researcher involved in some aspect of the issue, to join us as a resource person. This person does not give a speech, but instead offers some preliminary remarks to launch our exploration and then serve as a kind of "river guide" to keep the discussion on course.

Frequently, we'll attend a talk by one of the numerous authors coming through town hawking their thesis as well as their latest publications.

And of course concerts, plays, movies, and museum exhibits will make up the bulk of our outings. But in almost every instance we try to schedule time to share impressions and personal insights with one another.

Unlike the New York Culture Circle, we won't make culture we'll critique it. But like our New York counterpart, members are expected to contribute toward arranging programs. The Organizer can be likened to a river rafting ~outfitter~, supplying the means to run the river. The members serve as the guides, determining the route they wish to take to explore various cultural currents.