Event Description

BMO Bank at Work program is designed to provide you with the resources to help you achieve your financial goals and make real financial progress.

Come learn about: 

• BMO SmartProgress – free desktop and mobile-friendly digital financial education platform
• Resources to provide guidance from understanding credit and budgets, saving for your health care, homeownership, college planning, retirement and wealth planning
• And much more…

No registration Required.

Registration Open

Join us for a special event with Dr. Grandin, one of the world’s most accomplished and well-known adults with autism. Dr. Grandin has been at the forefront of research and activism for autism and neurodiversity for decades.

Her memoir, Emergence: Labeled Autistic, was published in 1986 and she has continued to write about autism and neurodivergence over the decades. Her most recent book is Visual Thinking: The Hidden Gifts of People Who Think in Pictures, Patterns, and Abstractions.

Dr. Grandin’s research and understanding of animal behavior spearheaded a reform in the quality of life for agricultural animals worldwide.

To request accommodations, please email illinoislibrariespresent@gmail.com

Registration Open

Kal Penn is an actor, writer, producer, and former Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement. He is known for his starring roles in Designated Survivor, House, Mira Nair’s The Namesake, the Harold & Kumar franchise, and the Christmas comedy The Santa Clauses for Disney+. His first book You Can’t Be Serious was released on November 2, 2021 from Simon and Schuster/Gallery Books. He also narrates the audiobook.

He was a national co-chair for the Obama/Biden re-election campaign in 2012 and served on the President’s Committee for the Arts and Humanities, focusing on arts education and cultural diplomacy, including the first-ever US Government arts delegation to Cuba. Penn taught courses at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California, Los Angeles. Originally from New Jersey, he received his undergraduate degree in sociology, theater, film, and television at the University of California, Los Angeles, and received a graduate certificate in international security from Stanford University. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Earlier in the year, Penn wrapped production on the Bloomberg Green climate change docuseries, Getting Warmer, and the Viacom/Paramount + comedy, Surina & Mel. Following the departure of Trevor Noah from The Daily Show, Kal was named as an upcoming guest host.

Kal Penn will be joined in conversation with Bridget Petrites, Evanston Public Library.

To request accommodations, please email illinoislibrariespresent@gmail.com

This event is rescheduled to Tuesday, June 4th

Registration Open

Join us for a special event with Ruth E. Carter, two-time Academy Award-winning costume designer. Carter made history as the first Black person to win an Academy Award in Best Costume Design for the film, Black Panther. She received a second Academy Award in the same category for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

Ruth E. Carter’s ability to develop an authentic story through costume and character made her one of the most sought after and renowned costume designers today. Best known for turning the Black Panther superhero into an African king, Carter is the first Black woman to win multiple Academy Awards in any category and the first costume designer to win for the first film and its sequel. Carter is known for her research and diligence to the craft of costume design, specifically for her work on films such as Spike Lee’s Malcolm X, Steven Spielberg’s Amistad and Ava DuVernay’s Selma. 

In addition to Academy Award nominations and wins, Carter won accolades and recognition from the Costume Designers Guild, Black Reel Awards, Critics’ Choice Movie Awards, American Black Film Festival, San Diego Film Critics Society, among many others. She also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Ruth E. Carter will be joined in conversation with Aisha Harris, co-host of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour and author of Wannabe.

To request accommodations, please email illinoislibrariespresent@gmail.com

Learn about the Senior Citizens Real Estate Tax Deferral Program from the McHenry County Treasures Office.  This loan program is funded by the State of Illinois and provides qualified senior citizens up to $7,500.00 for property taxes on an annual basis at a simple interest rate of 3%. Get your questions answered about the application process.

Registration open. Please register no later than 48 hours before event starts.

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The 3% interest rate applies to the 2023 tax year and any tax year thereafter. A lien is placed on the property and the loan does not become due until death or the property is sold. 

To qualify for the tax deferral you must:

• Be 65 years of age or older.
• Have a total household income of $65,000.00 or less.
• Have equity in the property.
• Have no unpaid property taxes or foreclosures on the property.
• Have homeowner’s insurance with coverage against fire and casualty. 
• The program is available for owner occupied, primary residences only.

Applications are available by clicking the link below. Applications must be received in the McHenry County Treasurer’s Office by March 1, 2024. THERE ARE NO EXTENSIONS. 

For more information on the program open this BROCHURE  link.

To apply to be on the program open this APPLICATION link. 

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Discover strategies to build a simple budget and pay off debt.

Registration open. Please register no later than 48 hours before event starts.

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Event Waitlist

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Learn about methods used by identity thieves to steal personal information, and how to protect yourself.

Registration open. Please register no later than 48 hours before event starts.

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Event Waitlist

This event is filling up fast. Please fill out the form below if you would like to be added to the event waitlist. We will call you if we have any cancellation.

First Name *

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Julia Quinn is the author of thirty-five historical romance novels, including her latest, Queen Charlotte, a prequel to the wildly popular Bridgerton books, the inspiration for the Netflix original series.

Julia is a graduate of Harvard & Radcliffe Colleges and briefly attended Yale School of Medicine before deciding to pursue a full-time writing career. She is the author of nineteen consecutive New York Times bestsellers. In March 2021, all eight Bridgerton novels were on the NYT list at the same time, a record for an adult fiction author. Her novels have been translated into 41 languages, and in the United States alone, there are over 20 million copies of her books in print.

To request accommodations, please email illinoislibrariespresent@gmail.com

Speculating about Our AI Future with Cory Doctorow, Ken Liu, and Martha Wells

Join us for a panel discussion featuring three best selling science fiction writers, Cory Doctorow, Ken Liu, and Martha Wells. They will discuss the promise, perils, and possible impacts that AI will have on our future, as well as AI in contemporary and future science fiction writing.

Cory Doctorow is a science fiction author, activist and journalist. He is the author of many books, most recently The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation, a Big Tech disassembly manual; Red Team Blues, a science fiction crime thriller; Chokepoint Capitalism, nonfiction about monopoly and creative labor markets; the Little Brother series for young adults; In Real Life, a graphic novel; and the picture book Poesy the Monster Slayer. In 2020, he was inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.

Ken Liu is an American author of speculative fiction. A winner of the Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy awards, he wrote the Dandelion Dynasty, a silkpunk epic fantasy series (starting with The Grace of Kings), as well as short story collections The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories and The Hidden Girl and Other Stories. He also penned the Star Wars novel The Legends of Luke Skywalker. Prior to becoming a full-time writer, Liu worked as a software engineer, corporate lawyer, and litigation consultant. Liu frequently speaks at conferences and universities on a variety of topics, including futurism, machine-augmented creativity, history of technology, bookmaking, and the mathematics of origami.

Martha Wells has been an SF/F writer since her first fantasy novel was published in 1993, and her work includes The Books of the Raksura series, the Ile-Rien series, The Murderbot Diaries series, and other fantasy novels, most recently Witch King (Tordotcom, 2023). She has also written media tie-in fiction for Star Wars, Stargate: Atlantis, and Magic: the Gathering, as well as short fiction, YA novels, and non-fiction. She has won Nebula Awards, Hugo Awards, and Locus Awards, and her work has appeared on the Philip K. Dick Award ballot, the BSFA Award ballot, the USA Today Bestseller List, the Sunday Times Bestseller List, and the New York Times Bestseller List. She is a member of the Texas Literary Hall of Fame, and her books have been published in twenty-five languages.

To request accommodations, please email illinoislibrariespresent@gmail.com

Please Note: If you are no longer able to participate in this event call 815-568-8236. Thank you!