Get ready for an evening of geeky fun at Nerd Nite Summer Shorts! We’re packing the night with quick, informative talks on all sorts of fascinating topics. From science and history to pop culture and hobbies, there’s something for every Nerd.
Grab a drink, socialize and get your Nerd on! Thrilling raffle prizes! Engaging Presentations! All this and more for just $1 (which includes your raffle ticket)! Doors open at 7:30 and talks start at 8pm! It will be an eclectic evening of engaging presentations and we can’t wait to see you! Be there, and be square!
And this is your chance to check out Maceli’s hot, new remodel! They are located at 1031 New Hampshire St, Lawrence, KS 66044
Here’s what you can expect: Fast-paced presentations: Our speakers will have just a few minutes to share their passion and knowledge. Variety of topics: We’ll cover a wide range of subjects, so you’re sure to learn something new. Fun and engaging atmosphere: It’s a night for nerds to Nerd out together!
Join us for an evening of: -Learning new things! -Meeting fellow nerds! -Making connections! -Having a good laugh! Doors open at 7:30 pm, talks start at 8 pm. Don’t miss out on this exciting event! Mark your calendar and get ready for a summer Nite of Nerdy fun! Be There and Be Square!
Nerd Nite #107 is nearly upon us and we could not be more excited! June 12, we are back at Maceli’s in downtown Lawrence and the theme is “Summer Solstice and Other Cosmic Happenstance.” Laura Lorson of Kansas Public Radio will regale us with Solstice talk, Kelly Kluthe will be highlighting tattooing through history and a yet to be revealed local astronomer will blow your cosmic mind!
Free State Film Fest has generously donated tickets for our infamous raffle!
Grab a drink, socialize and get your Nerd on! Thrilling raffle prizes! Engaging Presentations! All this and more for just $1 (which includes your raffle ticket)!
Doors open at 7:30 and talks start at 8pm! It will be an eclectic evening of engaging presentations and we can’t wait to see you! Be there, and be square! Macelli’s is located at 1031 New Hampshire St, Lawrence, KS 66044
And don’t forget to sign up for our annual Summer Shorts coming up in July!
Our presentations:
“The Still, Silent Point” by Laura Lorson
“Eclipses–how hiding light reveals information about the universe” by Dr. Kirkpatrick
“Tatted Through Time: The Science and History of Tattooing” by Kelly Kluthe
Our presenters:
Laura Lorson is a radio announcer, producer, director, and editor at Kansas Public Radio. A native of Louisville, Kentucky, her family moved to Kansas in her junior year of high school. She attended the University of Kansas and graduated with majors in anthropology, philosophy, Classics, and art history. She went on to pursue a Master’s degree in anthropology, focusing on world folklore and the history of alchemy, and another in philosophy, focusing on German Idealism and Kantian moral philosophy, and a doctorate with the Committee for Studies on Discourse and Society at the University of Minnesota, with a focus on the ways in which cultures embed their respective philosophical ethos into folk tales, particularly morality and communalism. She has worked in public radio since 1991, when on a whim she applied for a job as a newsreader and…much to her surprise…she was hired. She worked for National Public Radio from 1992 to 2001, then returned to Lawrence to work for Kansas Public Radio as an on-air host, editor, and producer. She continues to be a contributing editor for NPR, the BBC, Deutsche Welle, and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. She is married to local business owner Kelly Corcoran and is an avid reader, baker, knitter, and calligrapher. Her interests change from week to week but are currently emergency preparedness, herbalism, the Marseilles Tarot, and Victorian spiritualism movements.
Dr. Allison Kirkpatrick is an observational astrophysicist who studies how supermassive black holes form and evolve. She has won observing time on the best telescopes in the world, including NASA’s new flagship—the James Webb Space Telescope. Her work has been featured in Nature, the Washington Post, Kansas Public Radio, VICE, and numerous other outlets. Her body of work has broken conventional ideas about how supermassive black holes evolve.
Kelly Kluthe is a pediatric research coordinator at KU Med with a background in biology and education. When she’s not in the lab, she is gardening, reading fantasy novels, crafting, and hiking. Kelly is a tattoo collector with a strong interest in the science and history of ink.
Free State Film Fest has generously donated tickets for our infamous raffle!
Grab a drink, socialize and get your Nerd on! Thrilling raffle prizes! Engaging Presentations! All this and more for just $1 (which includes your raffle ticket)!
Doors open at 7:30 and talks start at 8pm! It will be an eclectic evening of engaging presentations and we can’t wait to see you! Be there, and be square! Macelli’s is located at 1031 New Hampshire St, Lawrence, KS 66044
And don’t forget to sign up for our annual Summer Shorts coming up in July!
Join us Wednesday, May 8 for Nerd Nite #106: Getting the Message! It will be an eclectic evening of engaging presentations focused on the different ways we send messages. Grab a drink, socialize and get your Nerd on! Thrilling raffle prizes! Challenging trivia! Engaging Presentations! Adoptable cats?! All this for just $1 (which includes your raffle ticket)! Doors open at 7:30 and talks start at 8pm! Join us at the ARTERRA EVENT SPACE: 2161 Quail Creek Drive (behind HyVee on Clinton Parkway) for a delightfully square time!
Our presentations:
“A Brief Look at the Post Services and Postmarks of Lawrence and a few other places in Douglas County” by Jeff Lough
Rebecca Ozier Schulte, author of “The Jayhawk” will be talking about the evolution of KU’s beloved mascot.
Nerd Nite alum RPG Elise will be bringing the tabletop gaming message of “Dungeon Design: Building Tension and Maximizing each room in your Dungeon Design”
Join us this Wednesday, April 10 for Nerd Nite 105! It will be an eclectic evening of engaging presentations, drinks and friends! Our topics will focus on the trials and tribulations of life and death!
NOTE OUR CURRENT LOCATION AT ARTERRA EVENT SPACE: 2161 Quail Creek Drive (behind HyVee on Clinton Parkway) Doors open at 7:30 and talks start at 8pm! Grab a drink, socialize and get your Nerd on! Thrilling raffle prizes! Challenging trivia! Engaging Presentations! Join us at the ARTERRA EVENT GALLERY (Maceli’s location in West Lawrence) for a delightfully square time! Our presentations include: Fly Me To the Moon – Let’s put the Fun in Funeral! New and creative forms of disposition. By Courtney Shipley
Understanding Death: A Year of Service in Hospice Care by Janette Salisbury
Join us this Wednesday, March 13 for Nerd Nite 104! It will be an eclectic evening of eclectic engaging presentations, drinks and stop by and chat with our guests from the Lawrence Public Library! NOTE OUR NEW LOCATION AT ARTERRA EVENT SPACE* 2161 Quail Creek Drive (behind HyVee on Clinton Parkway) Doors open at 7:30 and talks start at 8pm! Grab a drink, socialize and get your Nerd on! Thrilling raffle prizes! Challenging trivia! Engaging Presentations! Join us at the ARTERRA EVENT GALLERY (Maceli’s location in West Lawrence) for a delightfully square time!
Our presentations: “Biotic Homogenization : A brief look into the world of invasive plant materials and the alarming results of their interaction with native ecosystems.” by Levi Parkins
“The American Colony of Jerusalem’s Bedouin Photo Archive” By Emilie LeFevre
Our presenters: Levi Parkin is a Board Certified Master Arborist and Tree Risk Assessment Qualified Arborist with 16 years of arboriculture experience. He has a bachelor’s degree in ornamental horticulture from Kansas State University and serves the City of Lawrence as the Forestry Supervisor. Levi is a proud husband and father with a passion for the natural world.
Emilie Le Febvre has a DPhil and MSc from the University of Oxford. Her research focuses on the anthropology of photography, history, and digital storytelling in the Middle East. Le Febvre’s newest book, Photography and Making Bedouin History in the Naqab (1906-2013): An Anthropological Approach, was published by Routledge earlier this year. She is head of research at PLEDJ | Canada and recently co-founded the Interactive Ethnography and Arts Institute.
Join us this Valentine’s Day for three presentations that show that love is grand, but not always in the way you expect.
NOTE OUR NEW LOCATION AT ARTERRA EVENT SPACE* 2161 Quail Creek Drive (behind HyVee on Clinton Parkway)
Grab a drink, socialize and get your Nerd on! Thrilling raffle prizes! Challenging trivia! Engaging Presentations! Join us at the ARTERRA EVENT GALLERY (Maceli’s location in West Lawrence) for a delightfully square time!
“That Ain’t Love: A Murderous History of Romance Gone Wrong” by Maggie Bornholdt Every day, reports of heinous murders make the news, many of which are so-called crimes of passion. What did these crimes look like a hundred years ago? History is rife with instances of courtship and matrimony with tragic, violent endings. From the Brides in the Bath Killer to Flypaper Lyda, learn about some of the most prolific murderers who killed under the pretense of romance during the 19th and early 20th centuries.
“Damn Your Love, Damn Your Lies: Romantic Relationships in Music” by Nick Spacek Exploring the intersection of musical collaboration and romantic entanglement of Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash, Fleetwood Mac, and Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires to answer the question of how can you sing a song about breaking someone’s heart with the person who broke it?
“Love Kills: Leo Tolstoy’s Kreutzer Sonata…” by Ani Kokobobo In this presentation I discuss Leo Tolstoy’s 1889 novella, The Kreutzer Sonata, which narrates the story of a jealous husband murdering his wife. As the lynchpin of the author’s ideas about sexuality and human relationships, The Kreutzer Sonata is a manifesto for the end of romantic relationships. In Tolstoy’s, heterosexuality kills women and degrades men; instead of getting married and reproducing, he believes that human beings should live in sexless communes like bees and focus on caring for the already living human beings and children in the world.
*Maceli’s is making some exciting renovations to their downtown location and we are thrilled to enjoy and share their location in west Lawrence!
Happy Nerd Year, everyone! Sadly we must cancel January’s Nerd Nite event (which would have been this Wednesday). Stay tuned for updates and we hope everyone stays safe and warm in the coming weather!
This is a reminder that we are taking December off and will be back to our regular Nerd Nite schedule on January 10, 2024. We had such a good time this year hosting the most engaging and entertaining presenters that Lawrence (and beyond) has to offer. We were able to host over 450 minutes of knowledge: 19 unique presentations and over a dozen Summer Shorts! We raffled 24 different prizes! We frustrated everyone with 40 diabolical trivia questions! Thank you to Maceli’s Banquet Hall and Catering and their remarkable staff for hosting us and thank you to everyone that was able to join us. We look forward to a Nerdtacular 2024!
Grab a drink, socialize and get your Nerd on! Thrilling raffle prizes! Challenging trivia! Engaging Presentations! Join us at Maceli’s for a delightfully square time!
Doors at 7:30 pm, talks begin at 8pm, $1.00 cover at Maceli’s 1031 New Hampshire
Our Presentations: “The Appalachian Trail” by Jamie Bone The Appalachian Trail extends 2,150 miles from Amicalola Falls, GA to Katahdin, Maine. This journey is romanticized by images of green hills, victory poses, trail families, and inner-self work. This romanticization is broken by the monotonous chores, troubleshooting the insufferable weather, the terrible prepackaged diet you’ll endure, and the daily thoughts of quitting. Seriously, how many days could you walk down a path, feet soaked and throbbing, with almost no change in scenery? But the real treasures are the people you meet, the unique memories you make, and the entire culture centered around the AT.
“Okinawa: Japan’s Hawaii?” By Martha Boatright. Like the American state, Okinawa was once an independent nation with its own rich history, language, and culture. Like Hawaii, Okinawa would be colonized and suffer tremendously during World War 2, dealing with the outcomes of its history to this day. This talk will give an overview of Okinawa then and now, to let you appreciate the cultural distinctiveness of this part of Japan.
“Comedy in a Crust: The History of Pie in Comedy” by Richard Renner In the history of comedy a few things have become iconic in representing humor. These include Rubber chickens, Groucho glasses and…pie fights. How does something as simple as flinging a pastry become such a legendary moment? Richard Renner from the Vodvill Entertainment Company and Lawrence Busker Festival will explore and explain the way the humble pie rose to universal icon and guaranteed laugh maker. Learning the history of the pie fights in theater and movies can only end in one way. Be prepared for some audience participation and pie practice in the end.
Our Presenters: Jamie Bone is a musician by profession, but an adventurer by passion. Whether it’s living out of her car all summer or chasing the next outdoor adrenaline rush, she has truly embraced the idea that we get one ride on this planet and heck, it might as well be fun! She loves Lawrence but she grew up at the foothills of the Ozark mountains. A piece of her heart will always remain there.
Richard Renner has been a theater nerd ever since his first production in 1972 and getting his first laugh in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. He was so hooked that he pursued that feeling of fulfillment into college at KU and afterwards as a professional entertainer. His has performed his own one man show, the Slapstick Circus since 1986 across North America. His influences are Dick Van Dyke, Jerry Lewis, Red Skelton and Groucho Marx. In 2008 he produced the Lawrence Busker Festival as a celebration of the same kind of surprise and zaniness he loves. It is now in its 15th year and is still keeping people happy, laughing and distracted.
Martha Boatright was formerly on a PhD track studying East Asian religion before bailing with a Masters and going into a string of education and social service jobs. She worked for two years in Kitami, Hokkaido ten years ago, and her Japanese is rusty but usable.
Get ready for a tasty melange of spiced nerd goodness! Nerd Nite Lawrence is excited to offer a cozy mixture of wonderful presentations that will tantalize your interest and whet your appetite for exotic knowledge about teddy bears, alternative comedy and carrier pigeons, oh my!.
Grab a drink, socialize, and get your Nerd on! Thrilling raffle prizes! Challenging trivia! Engaging Presentations! Join us at Maceli’s downtown for a delightfully square time!
Doors at 7:30 pm, talks begin at 8pm, $1.00 cover at Maceli’s 1031 New Hampshire
Our presentations:
“The Passenger Pigeon or I Do Not Believe Children Are the Future” by Elizabeth Sawaya
The passenger pigeon once had populations so large, they were known to darken the sky when taking flight. Now extinct, the passenger pigeon is just one example of how human intervention has continued to have a direct effect on the ecosystems across the U.S. This presentation will look at mentions of the bird in historical documents, how increased human populations had an impact on the pigeon population, and how one dark and stormy night (or perhaps a sunny afternoon), one child ended the wild population for good.
“Alternative Comedy: What is it?” by Janette Salisbury
In this drastically abridged history of Alt Comedy, we will explore what it is, who’s responsible, and what has it wrought (alternative comedy, that is). It is a completely subjective look at people I think are funny, and why everyone should think the way I do.
“Take Your Teddy Bear to Work Day…and beyond!” by Brian Moss
Take Your Teddy Bear to Work Day is celebrated on the second Wednesday of every October as an excuse to bring our stuffed animals to work and school. But what happens when teddy bears begin encroaching on grown-up spaces on a regular basis? And what happens when they begin to build community? This presentation follows one teddy bear’s path to internet fame, introducing us to some of the friends he made along the way, and examines how our stuffed companions can tell us more about the world around us than we’d ever expected.
Our presenters:
Elizabeth Sawaya is from Hutchinson, Kansas and currently resides in Topeka where she works as a Forensic DNA Analyst. Her interests include reading, cooking, napping, and showing people pictures of her cats, regardless of level of interest. This is Elizabeth’s first Nerd Nite presentation but this topic has been bothering her since 2002.
Janette Salisbury is a nerd of many trades: reformed music snob, lapsed theater kid, and ultimate fan-girl of most things on the fringe of pop culture. She has no particular qualifications to be presenting at Nerd Nite other than gleefully leaping down many rabbit holes, and knowing at least one of the co-bosses.
Brian Moss is a librarian by day and a lover of all things Lawrence by night. A long-time Nerd Nite attendee and first-time presenter, Brian was originally born among the wild bears of Alaska, but currently spends much of his free time managing a teddy bear’s Instagram account.
