great books, great ideas, great conversations
 
 

Free Community Seminars and Film Showings

Dear Agora Foundation participant,


We hope your summer is going wonderfully! We are excited to offer a variety of onsite events for our Ojai Community, generously sponsored by our donors and the City of Ojai Arts Commission. And for our larger community across the country, our next online installment of the Federalist Papers takes place at the end of August.


We also invite you to enroll in our weekly online intensives (partial scholarships are available), or to become a subscriber and attend as many regular online events as you like for just $25 per month. Click here to view our upcoming seminar schedule.

Upcoming Free Community

Online and Onsite

Reading and Film Events


No prior experience is necessary and participants are welcome to join at any time.

agora foundation female autobiography series

Onsite Free Community Seminar Series

Modern Heroine Autobiographies

Tuesday, July 30, 2024

12:00-1:30PM PDT

Reading: The Story of My Life by Helen Keller

Tutor: Andy Gilman

Location: The Ojai Library

111 East Ojai Avenue in Ojai, California


agora foundation film series women in cinema

Onsite Free Community Film Series

Compelling Creators: Women in Film

Friday, August 2, 2024

8:00-10:00PM PDT

Film: Juno - Directed by Jason Reitman and Written by Diablo Cody

Location: Ojai Valley Brewery and Side Street Wine

307 Bryant Street in Ojai, California


agora foundation tao te ching free community seminar

Onsite Free Community Seminar Series

Eastern Classics

Tuesday, August 6, 2024

12:00-1:00PM PDT

Reading: Tao Te Ching - Chapters Eleven and Twelve

Tutor: Andy Gilman

Location: The Ojai Library

111 East Ojai Avenue in Ojai, California


agora foundation glory of art free community seminar

Onsite Free Community Seminar Series

The Glory of Art

Tuesday, August 13, 2024

12:00-1:00PM PDT

Reading:The Creative Process by James Baldwin

Tutor: Andy Gilman

Location: The Ojai Library

111 East Ojai Avenue in Ojai, California


agora foundation foundations of our republic

Online Free Community Seminar Series

The Foundations of Our Republic - The Federalist Papers Complete

Saturday, August 31, 2024

12:00-2:00PM PDT

Reading: Federalists Papers 29-33

Tutor: Andy Gilman

Register to receive the login link.

Click here to register and receive the login.

 

Weekly Online Great Books Intensives

Now Enrolling

agora foundation tale of genji

The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu


Wednesday Evenings

September 4 to December 28, 2024

5:30-7:00PM Pacific


Written in the early 11th century by the noblewoman, poet, and lady-in-waiting Murasaki Shikoku, The Tale of Genji is considered the first classic novel and a masterpiece in Japanese literature. Much of the tale follows the life of the handsome and sensitive Genji - the son of the Emperor and a low-ranking concubine - with each of his loves described in great detail. Against the backdrop of the central story, the reader is delighted with images of refined court life, the beauty of nature and a wide array of human emotions. The Buddhist understanding of impermanence is also skillfully woven throughout the story in beautiful images. During this time in Japan, Chinese was the court’s scholarly language while Japanese was initially used by women and in personal accounts of life at court. Works written in Japanese and in prose were not taken seriously. All that changed with the creation The Tale of Genji. Online seminars in this series will take place on Wednesday evenings, 5:30-7:00PM Pacific Time. Attendees will be mailed the text. Groups will be limited to 16 participants and no prior knowledge is required. Teachers will be offered 3 CEU credits for participating.


Click here for full information and to register

agora foundation online great books seminars

Daniel Deronda by George Eliot


Thursday Evenings

September 19, 2024 to January 23, 2025

5:30-7:00PM Pacific


Why did the author of the matchless Middlemarch at last turn her pen to one of the most vexing questions of the late nineteenth century and of all European history? England had not only abolished slavery, but had emancipated, to one degree or another, its religious minorities over the preceding decades, and at the time of the novel’s publication, had a Jewish prime minister, albeit one who had converted to Anglicanism in boyhood. Enter Deronda, wherein that most ancient European grudge, writ not only large but general, rooted in the rootless fantasy of religious fallacy, underlies the unease of a growingly comfortable society made secure by the exploits of a maritime empire – as it comes into the ken of one of the most acute observers of human character and psyche ever to write English prose. Online seminars in this series will take place on Thursday evenings, 5:30-7:00PM Pacific Time. Groups will be limited to 16 participants and no prior knowledge is required. Teachers will be offered 3 CEU credits for participating.


Click here for full information and to register

Click here for full seminar details and to register
Become a subscriber for only $25 per month
Join the foundations and donors supporting Agora
Access videos and audio files on our Media Page
 

The Agora Foundation is a nonsectarian 501(c)3 non-profit endeavor, providing great books seminars, panels, and other educational opportunities. The goal of these offerings is to provide an understanding of the ideas that shape civilizations and to promote civil discourse on complicated subjects. Learn more on our website.