After the performance on Sunday, November 2, join us for this one-hour panel discussion with experts on the theme of the play moderated by Hundreds and Hundreds of Stars dramaturg Yasmin Zacaria Mikhaiel and featuring the following esteemed guest panelists:

DAYSI DIAZ-STRONG is an assistant professor at the Jane Addams College of Social Work at the University of Illinois Chicago. Her immigrant background shaped her research interests in the educational and developmental trajectories of undocumented immigrants from Latin America. Her most recent study is a community-based participatory research project that examines the life course implications of legal exclusion on the lives of undocumented Latinas in the suburbs of Chicago. She received her PhD and MSW from the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice at the University of Chicago.

MARY MEG MCCARTHY is the Executive Director of the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC). Under Mary Meg’s leadership, NIJC has become a leading immigrant and human rights advocacy organization, contributing to national and international analysis, debate and reform of immigration law, policy, and practices. She has built a network of 1,500 pro bono attorneys who are essential to providing legal services to thousands of individuals each year. An expert in immigration law, Mary Meg has testified before Congress and is quoted often in major news outlets such as MSNBC, The New York Times, and the Chicago Tribune. Prior to joining NIJC, she practiced civil litigation and was an NIJC pro bono attorney. Earlier in her career she worked in local communities in Chile to help safeguard the rights of individuals under a dictatorship. Mary Meg has been honored with several awards including: American Constitution Society Chicago Lawyer Chapter Ruth Goldman Award (July 2015), Chicago Inn of Court 2015 Don Hubert Public Service Award, Pax Christi 2013 Teacher of Peace Award, and the Damen Award from Loyola University (June 2015).

STUTI SHARMA is a stand up comic and writer who immigrated from Nairobi, Kenya and was raised in Chicago and the south suburbs. She has performed all over Chicago and her work has been featured in productions for Snap Judgement, WBEZ, OpenTV, Chicago Reader, and Warner Brothers and she was a Tin House 23-24 reading fellow. They are currently part of the queer printmaking collective based on the Southwest side, Marimacha Monarca Press. Stuti is a line cook at Mariscos San Pedro and runs the show Blue Collar Comedy in Wicker Park every first Tuesday of the month, which is a stand up comedy show that only books working class comedians. The next show is November 4, and you can find tickets on Instagram at @bluecollarcomedy.

This Sunday Scholars discussion will last approximately one hour and is FREE and open to the public. If you would like to attend but are not attending the show that day, please arrive by 3:15pm and you can enter the theatre once the performance concludes. Questions? Call the Box Office at 773.281.8463 x6.