Rainbow Lifelong Learning Institute Boston
Adult Education and Lifelong Learning for Boston's LGBT Seniors and Friends!
All Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender seniors and friends are welcome to register for Rainbow Lifelong Learning Institute Boston courses!
Fall 2021 Courses Update
Rainbow LLI Boston will have 2 Fall Sessions this year. Each session will offer Tuesday courses and Wednesday courses.
Each course will hold its classes either ALL on Tuesday or ALL on Wednesday.
For the first 5 week session, BOTH the Tuesday and the Wednesday courses will be held on Zoom.
For the second 5 week session, we hope to hold the Tuesday courses in person, while Wednesday courses will continue on Zoom.
- For all Fall 2021 courses, students will register and pay for their course(s) at our separate registration site by clicking on any course name under Course Descriptions.
- The site accepts credit and debit cards, and complies with all payment processing security standards for your safety.
- We were able to maintain our prior tuition rates but are no longer able to accept checks or cash as payment.
- The registration website will send you a confirmation email upon successfully registering for a course. It will follow up with a reminder email containing the course’s Zoom link two days prior to the first class. This link will be valid for the duration of the course.
- If you need to cancel your registration please contact us at RainbowLLIBoston@gmail.com. We’ll issue a refund directly to your credit/debit card minus the processing fees we already paid the vendors.
**All Our First Session Fall Courses will be held on Zoom**
Fall 2021 Rainbow Courses
Session 1 on Tuesdays: 5 Week Morning Course
On Zoom
Sept 14 - Oct 12
Tuesdays 10:30am - 12pm
Alienated White Americans: Where the American Dream is Dying
Course Leader: Janet Van Zandt
This course reviews distressing trends in the lives of working-class whites and the overlap with support for Trump.
We will review work status, trends in personal lives, and the rise in deaths of despair. We will then look at societal influences and the rise of angry racial, anti-elite and anti-government responses. We will also explore the role of the more educated professionals.
Finally, we will discuss possible healing directions. The course is meant to provide information that will be the basis for discussions.
Sessions 1 and 2 on Tuesdays: 10 Week
Early Afternoon Course
Meets: On Zoom for Session 1 (Sep 14 - Oct 12)
Meets: In Person for Session 2 (Oct 26 - Nov 23)
Students should plan to take both sessions of this 10 week course.
No class held on Tues. Oct 19
Tuesdays 1pm - 2:30pm
From Dreams to Nightmares:
Six Great African American Playwrights
Course Leader: Jyl Lynn Felman
From Lorraine Hansberry to Pulitzer Prize winner Suzan-Lori Parks, these six African American women playwrights will stun, shock, and amaze you with their often brilliant, ground breaking scripts, scene stoppers and outrageous characters.
With exploding plots that confront race, sex, class, and gender, these literary boundary-crossing playwrights will challenge and expand your notions of what makes a play great. From Martin Luther King’s last night on earth to the color hierarchy in Black communities, these plays are full of politics.
Playwrights also include MacArthur Genius Grant recipient Lynn Nottage; Pulitzer Prize finalist Dael Orlandersmith; and Olivier and Susan Smith Blackburn winner Katori Hall. Read across cultures and be invigorated by these powerful women’s voices.
Session 1 on Tuesdays: 5 Week Late Afternoon Course
Meets: On Zoom
Sept 14 - Oct 12
Tuesdays 3pm - 4:30pm
10 Lessons for the Post-Pandemic World
Course Leader: Jessica Bethoney
How will the Covid-19 epidemic transform our lives and impact our future?
How did different countries respond to the crisis and which responses were most effective? How does this pandemic compare with those of the past?
What can we learn from our current experience to prevent future epidemics?
In this course, we will discuss the changes wrought by the pandemic to human life and the implications for the economy, medicine, the environment, government and technology.
We will also learn about surprising advances in medicine and public health that had their origin in past battles against pandemics and brainstorm about any silver linings that may emerge from our current dark cloud.
Students will read Fareed Zakaria’s book “10 Lessons for the Post-Pandemic World”.
Session 1 on Wednesdays: 5 Week Early Afternoon Course
Meets: On Zoom
Sept 15 - Oct 13
Wednesdays 1pm - 2:30pm
What Makes Sondheim Great?
Course Leader: Gail Leondar-Wright
Stephen Sondheim is commonly thought to be the most important musical theater composer and lyricist of the past fifty years, and the single most influential force in bringing the Broadway musical into the modern era. What makes him great?
We will unpack some of Sondheim’s major works including Company, Follies, Sweeney Todd and Sunday in the Park with George, looking for evidence that he is a “playwright in song."
We’ll see how Sondheim has elevated the genre ushering in the musical’s modern era. We’ll have opportunities to appreciate and analyze “Send in the Clowns” and “The Ladies Who Lunch,” among others.
Session 2
Session 2 on Tuesdays: 5 Week Morning Course
Meets: In Person
Oct 26 - Nov 23
Tuesdays 10:30am - 12pm
Journeys in Deep Time - The Call to Pilgrimage
Course Leader: Michael Connolly
A pilgrimage is a (hopefully) transformative journey to a place of spiritual, moral, or esthetic significance. It may last weeks (the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, Spain) or a single day (climbing Mt. Fuji, Japan). The journey is as important as the destination and the pace is deliberate: one settles into slow travel; clock time is left behind; conversations become...fuller.
As we view and discuss 3 films about spiritual and secular pilgrimages (The Way, MindWalk, and The Trip to Bountiful) and read the Prologue to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, we will reflect on past travels and explore sites of interest around the world.
Session 2 on Tuesdays: 10 Week Early Afternoon Course
Meets: In Person
Oct 26 - Nov 23
Tuesdays 1pm - 2:30pm
**Continuation of course from Session 1**
From Dreams to Nightmares:
Six Great African American Playwrights
Session 2 on Wednesdays: 5 Week Morning Course
Meets: On Zoom
Oct 27 - Nov 24
Wednesdays 10:30am - Noon
A BACH Bacchanal: If It's Baroque, Don't Nix It
Course Leader: Liz Diamond
This course will provide a virtual bacchanal/overview of the music of arguably the greatest composer of all time: J. S. Bach (the instructor’s personal favorite), as well as a framework for what to listen for. The goal of this class is for students to discover the joy and genius of Bach! Students with no musical background or lots of musical experience are welcome. Each student will be asked to give a brief presentation on a Bac piece of their choice—a list of resources will be provided.
Class discussion encouraged. There will be a short Bach Gem of the Week for home listening and discussion.
Scholarships are available
Rainbow makes scholarships available to those who would otherwise be unable to afford our courses. To request a scholarship please email us at RainbowLLIBoston@gmail.com