This week's Thought Exchange programs present an eclectic mix of themes and subjects.

What's the Use of History?

Tonight at Palmerston (6:30-8 pm), What's the Use of History? Citizenship and History in Canada's Past and Present offers
a panel discussion about how the view of citizenship has changed over
the last 100 years, and in particular, how it has been shaped by the
political forces and governments of the day. One of the panelists, Pam Sugiman
(Ryerson), has focused her research on the internment of Japanese
Canadians during World War II. Stripped of their property and torn from
their homes, after the war many were deported to war-ravaged Japan.
Another panelist, Heidi Bohaker (U of T), has explored how in the wake of World War II, the federal government treated Aboriginal peoples as non-citizens.

Frida & Diego: Passion, Politics and Painting

Tomorrow night at Deer Park (doors at 6:15)the Art Gallery of Ontario's Interpretive Planner David Wistow gives a talk on Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, Frida & Diego: Passion, Politics and Painting. The AGO exhibit of the same name opens on October 20. From the AGO's website: "The exhibition Frida & Diego: Passion, Politics and Painting features
more than 80 works on paper and paintings by Frida Kahlo and Diego
Rivera and more than 60 photographs of the couple, whose shared passion
for each other and Mexico's revolutionary culture during the 1920s and
1930s have made them Mexico's most famous artists."

Toronto Symphony Orchestra–Musical Chats

At North York Central Library on Thursday, October 18 (7-8 pm), join classical music authority Rick Phillips as he leads a discussion about Haydn's Symphony No. 101 "The Clock" & Beethoven's Symphony No. 1. The TSO will be performing these works in a Hayden and Beethoven special conducted by Bernard Labdie at the George Weston Recital Hall in the Toronto Centre for the Arts on Sunday November 25, 2012 at 3 pm.

To listen to recordings of both of these compositions, you can always go to Youtube, of course. But the best way to hear wonderful classical music by almost any composer is by using the Naxos Music Library–all you need is your library card. 

For those who can't get enough of Rick Phillips, he's celebrating the life and work of Glenn Gould at Runnymede in two lectures on October 24 and October 31 (6:30-8 pm).