VILLAGE SQUARE PRESENTS CONVERSATION ON AMERICA’S FOUNDING IDEALS
Humanities Scholar Clay Jenkinson to headline live audience taping of The Thomas Jefferson Hour
(TALLAHASSEE, FL) – October 6, 2015 – On October 15, The Village Square will present humanities scholar and host of the nationally syndicated radio program The Thomas Jefferson Hour Clay Jenkinson for a special evening to celebrate American ideals, measure our progress toward a more perfect union and consider the work still to do.
“Founding Ideals: A Conversation with President Thomas Jefferson” will be a live audience taping at a fundraiser to support the work of The Village Square in Tallahassee, launching a season lineup around the Founding Ideals theme. Public support of The Village Square keeps the vast majority of programs free and open to the community.
The event, taking place on October 15, 6:30-8:30 pm at Goodwood Museum & Gardens, will be facilitated by Steven Vancore of VancoreJones Communications and taped for later radio broadcast on WFSU 88.9FM. Tickets are available online at tallahassee.tothevillagesquare.org.
Clay Jenkinson has lectured about and portrayed Jefferson in 49 states over a period of 15 years, having performed before Supreme Court justices, presidents, 18 state legislatures, and countless public, corporate and student audiences, as well as appearing on The Today Show, Politically Incorrect, The Colbert Report and CNN. Jenkinson is a humanities scholar, Rhodes Scholar, author and social commentator who is considered one of the most entertaining and articulate public speakers in the country.
“At this time of deep, heart-wrenching division across race, religion and political perspective, The Village Square sees this as the right time to examine how well we are hewing to the ideals of America, and perhaps make a renewed commitment to get there,” said Village Square Board Co-chair Steve Seibert.
Jenkinson shares his prescription for the challenges ahead: “Here’s what we desperately need. More civil public discourse. A willingness to compromise. The ability to see the virtue of the opposition, and to realize that they feel passionately about what is good for America.”
The Village Square, first launched in Tallahassee in 2006 and dedicated to building community across the partisan divide in order to improve the quality of the civic conversation in America, is seen as a national model to bridge the partisan divide by many thought leaders and has expanded to four communities across America.
As the Village Square has wrestled with how to best achieve its challenging mission, the organization has found inspiration from the beginning in the dinners that Thomas Jefferson hosted between feuding factions in America’s early years. Jefferson helped his dinner guests resolve challenges by first remembering their common humanity – the same mission of The Village Square.
This event would not be possible without the generous sponsorships of Stearns Miller Weaver, Millennium Settlement Consulting, VancoreJones Communications, Johnson & Blanton, the Bryan & Beth Desloge family, Hinkle & Foran, Mad Dog Construction, and The James Madison Institute. A Jefferson-style farm-to-table menu has been prepared by Chef Jenny Eason and generously donated by Classic Fare Catering by Aramark.
For more information, a menu or to purchase tickets, go online to tallahassee.tothevillagesquare.org, call 590-6646 or email christine@tothevillagesquare.org.
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