Westcott Community Center
Corner of Euclid Ave. and Westcott St., Syracuse

Linda Tunura Barbour has been catering for 18 years. She converted to Islam in 1970 and her cooking reflects that. She also makes vegan food, including vegan baked goods. Her sweet potato pie sells well at her booth at the State Fair. She works as a Health Consultation for HOME, Inc. (Humanitarian Organization For Multicultural Experiences), teaching healthy lifestyles to people with physical and mental impairments. Linda, a mother of seven, taught children how to cook in the after-school program at the Westcott Community Center in 2004-2005. She graduated from the Syracuse Entrepreneurs Boot Camp at SU in 2004. Her talk will be about eating healthy and enjoying it, foods that help you heal, and will include a mini-dessert demonstration.

Westcott Community Center
Corner of Euclid Ave. and Westcott St., Syracuse

George Saunders, is the author of six books (including the short story collections CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, Pastoralia, and In Persuasion Nation) and, most recently, the essay collection The Braindead Megaphone. He is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker, Harper's, and GQ. In 2006, he was awarded both a Guggenheim Fellowship and a MacArthur Fellowship. He teaches at Syracuse University.

Westcott Community Center
Corner of Euclid Ave. and Westcott St., Syracuse

Goodwin Cooke was born in Paris, France, in 1931, of American parents. Mr. Cooke graduated from Friends Seminary in New York City and received a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Harvard in 1953. He joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1956, and held a variety of appointments in embassies in Pakistan, Yugoslavia, Italy, Belgium, Canada, Ivory Coast, and the Central African Republic, where he was U.S. Ambassador. Upon retiring from the Department of State in 1981, he was named Vice President for International Affairs at Syracuse University. He retired in 2008, but continues to teach as Professor Emeritus in the Maxwell School, and is in demand as a lecturer in the Syracuse community and elsewhere. Ambassador Cooke is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Westcott Community Center
Corner of Euclid Ave. and Westcott St., Syracuse

Roger Hallas is Assistant Professor of English at SU, where he teaches film and visual culture, with an emphasis on documentary media. He is author of Reframing Bodies: AIDS, Bearing Witness, and the Queer Moving Image (2009) and co-editor of The Image and the Witness: Trauma, Memory, and Visual Culture (2007). In 2007-08, he programmed a year long series of lectures and screenings on "Queer Visual Culture" for SU's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Program. He was also a recipient of the Meredith Teaching Recognition Award in 2008 for excellence in teaching at SU.

Westcott Community Center
Corner of Euclid Ave. and Westcott St., Syracuse

Andrew Besemer, a long-time resident of the University neighborhood, has restored 21 homes in the Syracuse area and offers a wealth of knowledge on the subject of hands-on restoration of vintage homes. A busy local Realtor, active gardener, and old house lover, he explains the ups and downs of old house living. His lecture will provide a wonderful opportunity to dialogue with an expert "who has been there." Andrew's original background is in horticulture and he maintains a designation with the National Trust for Historic Places.

Westcott Community Center
Corner of Euclid Ave. and Westcott St., Syracuse

Sarah Saulson, a weaver since childhood, teaches weaving in the School of Art at SU. She also works with Syracuse-area elementary-age children teaching them to weave through artist's residencies and sells her work at Eureka Crafts in Armory Square. She has maintained an active dyeing and weaving studio near the Westcott Nation for many years. Her interactive lecture will include spinning and weaving demonstrations and a world tour of weaving through space and time.