Frieze Lectures tackle four lenses of death beginning Oct. 23

The Frieze Lectures series continues for its 28th year, from Oct. 23 to Nov. 13. The free public lecture series was created to celebrate the oldest library in Illinois, the Rock Island Public Library, founded under the Local Library Act of 1872.

This year’s Frieze Lectures, themed "This is the End: Four Takes on Death," will consider subjects related to death, dying and mortality through four distinct lenses: anthropology, art, poetry and psychology.

All presentations begin at 2 p.m. at the downtown location of the Rock Island Public Library, 401 19th Street. All are open to the public, free of charge.

2025 schedule

Oct. 23, 2025: "Death and the Psychologist"
Presented by Dr. Jayne Rose, professor emerita of psychology

Oct. 30, 2025: "Death and the Artist"
Presented by Dr. Margaret Morse, professor of art and art history

Nov. 6, 2025: "Death and the Poet"
Presented by Rebecca Wee, professor of English and Quad Cities poet laureate emerita

Nov. 13, 2025: "Death and the Anthropologist"
Presented by Dr. Adam Kaul, professor of anthropology

About the series

The Frieze Lecture Series was created by the late Ruth Evelyn Katz, a library board member and 1938 graduate of Augustana College, to celebrate the library's 125th anniversary in 1998. The name comes from the architectural feature around the top of the historic downtown library building. The authors carved into the sandstone are Homer, Longfellow, Emerson, Virgil, Hugo, Shakespeare, Goethe, Burns, Hawthorne, Tegner, and Bancroft. Though not well known today, the names of Tegner, a Swedish poet, and Bancroft, a naval historian, would have been familiar to 1903 residents.

For additional information, please visit the Rock Island Public Library website at www.rockislandlibrary.org, or call 309-732-READ.