Voter Slam Set for July 28th

First Outdoor Slam Tackles Immigration at the Bughouse Square Debates!

The Newberry Library has invited the Bread and Butter Forum to stage a voter slam during its annual Bughouse Square event at Washington Park (Clark and Walton) on Saturday, July 28. The voter slam starts at 3 p.m. and will run for approximately one hour.

Our question is this:

Immigration reform: build a wall, offer amnesty or do nothing? How can immigration reform promote economic security for working Americans?

Surveys show that a majority of Americans favor a legal path to citizenship for American’s 12 million illegal immigrants. Most economists say that immigrant labor is needed for certain industries, like agriculture and food service, but they acknowledge that immigrant labor forces down wages for working Americans.

Voter Slam Format
If you’re new to the voter slam format, here's how it works. It's not unlike a poetry slam but the topic is politics and your answers don't have to rhyme. We pick a topic and recruit one expert to spend 5 minutes at the beginning framing the issue. We recruit 10 to 15 “slammers” of varying viewpoints to speak for 90 seconds or less. Off-topic responses may be cut short.

If you want to participate, please send an e-mail to pubprog@newberry.org with your name, contact info and position on immigration.