Rick Kogan and Charles Osgood
Tuesday, January 26, 5:30-8:30pm
19 South Wabash, 2d floor

On the eve of the state-wide smoking ban -- December 30, 2007 -- Kogan and Osgood featured the Cigar Society in their column in the Chicago Tribune Sunday Magazine.  We'll hear behind-the-scenes stories about that essay and hundreds of others of their columns over the past several years.  Copies of their new book, Sidewalks Volume II -- a terrific piece of Chicagoana -- will be available for signing and sale.

Rick Kogan was born, raised, and is still living in Chicago.  He was named Chicago’s Best Reporter in 1999 and inducted into the Chicago Journalism Hall of Fame in 2003. He is a senior writer and columnist for the Chicago Tribune and creator/host of The Sunday Papers with Rick Kogan on WGN-AM.

He has written 12 books, including, in collaboration with his father, Yesterday's Chicago, and in collaboration with Tribune colleague Maurice Possley Everybody Pays: Two Men, One Murder and the Price of Truth; as well as America’s Mom: The Life, Lessons and Legacy of Ann Landers; A Chicago Tavern, the history of the Billy Goat; and Sidewalks and Sidewalks II, collections of columns he has written for the Chicago Tribune, embellished by the work of photographer Charles Osgood.

Charles Osgood was born in Milwaukee and raised in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. He graduated from Ripon College and later studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, receiving a master of fine arts degree in photography. He began his journalism career as a reporter for City News Bureau, the legendary Chicago training ground for journalists, before going to the Chicago Tribune as a reporter in 1969. After covering town meetings and features in the south suburbs, and taking photographs to run with those stories, he transferred to the photo department, where he remained for nearly 39 years.

Osgood left the Tribune in 2008 and continues to pursue his lifelong passion for collecting fleeting moments. He has two adult children, Via in L.A. and Zac in Chicago. He has been an adjunct professor of photojournalism at Columbia College since 1991.

Coming up

Tuesday, February 9
Emanuel Mayer, Ass't Professor of Classics at the University of Chicago, will talk about kitsch in ancient Roman art, the rise of the middle class, and the history of the garden gnome.

Tuesday, February 23
Sam Sisodia, Thomas Reynolds Sr. Family Professor of Neurosciences and Director of the Center for Molecular Neurobiology at the University of Chicago, will talk about his research on the causes of Alzheimer's Disease.

Tuesday, March 16
Asad Hayaud Din, Consul of Pakistan, will take questions about Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, and the world.

Tuesday, March 30
If another speaker cannot be found, Curtis Tuckey will talk about the map-coloring problem.