Upcoming Events

CANCELLED - Science and Politics of Climate Change Community Event April 9, 2020 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM ET Friends Theater, Upper Arlington Public Library, 2800 Tremont Rd, Columbus, OH 43221 April 9, 2020 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm Friends Auditorium UA Public Library, 2800 Tremont Rd. Upper Arlington Progressive Action presents an informative review of the politics and science of climate change. Sarah Spence, Director of Climate Programs of the Ohio Environmental Council, will discuss what current science is indicating about climate change. Sarah will discuss with us the expected local and global consequences of climate change and how to avoid undesirable outcomes. She will then review the positions of elected officials toward implementing governmental policies to solve climate change.

April Book Club - Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson Book Club April 29, 2020 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM ET Prater home, 2000 Malvern Rd, Upper Arlington, OH 43221 Bryan Stevenson was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need: the poor, the wrongly condemned, and women and children trapped in the farthest reaches of our criminal justice system. One of his first cases was that of Walter McMillian, a young man who was sentenced to die for a notorious murder he insisted he didn’t commit. The case drew Bryan into a tangle of conspiracy, political machination, and legal brinksmanship—and transformed his understanding of mercy and justice forever. Just Mercy is at once an unforgettable account of an idealistic, gifted young lawyer’s coming of age, a moving window into the lives of those he has defended, and an inspiring argument for compassion in the pursuit of true justice.

May Book Club - Why You Should Be A Socialist by Nathan Robinson Book Club May 27, 2020 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM ET Prater home, 2000 Malvern Rd, Upper Arlington, OH 43221 In Why You Should Be a Socialist, Nathan J. Robinson will give readers a primer on twenty-first-century socialism: what it is, what it isn’t, and why everyone should want to be a part of this exciting new chapter of American politics. From the heyday of Occupy Wall Street through Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign and beyond, young progressives have been increasingly drawn to socialist ideas. However, the movement’s goals need to be defined more sharply before it can effect real change on a national scale. Likewise, liberals and conservatives will benefit from a deeper understanding of the true nature of this ideology, whether they agree with it or not. Robinson’s charming, accessible, and well-argued book will convince even the most skeptical readers of the merits of socialist thought.

June Book Club - Tightrope by Nicolas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn Book Club June 24, 2020 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM ET Prater home, 2000 Malvern Rd, Upper Arlington, OH 43221 The Pulitzer Prize-winning authors of the acclaimed, best-selling Half the Sky now issue a plea--deeply personal and told through the lives of real Americans--to address the crisis in working-class America, while focusing on solutions to mend a half century of governmental failure. With stark poignancy and political dispassion, Tightrope draws us deep into an "other America." The authors tell this story, in part, through the lives of some of the children with whom Kristof grew up, in rural Yamhill, Oregon, an area that prospered for much of the twentieth century but has been devastated in the last few decades as blue-collar jobs disappeared.

July Book Club - Desk 88: Eight Progressive Senators Who Changed America by Sherrod Brown Book Club July 29, 2020 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM ET Prater home, 2000 Malvern Rd, Upper Arlington, OH 43221 Wednesday, July 29, 2020 7:00 pm 2000 Malvern Rd. Since his election to the U.S. Senate in 2006, Ohio’s Sherrod Brown has sat on the Senate floor at a mahogany desk with a proud history. In Desk 88, he tells the story of eight of the Senators who were there before him. Together, these eight portraits in political courage tell a story about the triumphs and failures of the Progressive idea over the past century: in the 1930s and 1960s, and more intermittently since, politicians and the public have successfully fought against entrenched special interests and advanced the cause of economic or racial fairness. Today, these advances are in peril as employers shed their responsibilities to employees and communities, and a U.S. president gives cover to bigotry. But the Progressive idea is not dead.