At the University of Houston, Pacific Room in the University Center. Carmencita "Chie" Abad will discuss the horrible working conditions she endured in the US territory of Saipan while making clothing for the Gap. Sponsored by Campus Progress, Global Exchange and University of Houston Students Against Sweatshops. Refreshments will be served. RSVP. E-mail for more information.

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In his book The Conservative Ascendancy, a provocative history of the right in modern America, Donald Critchlow finds a dilemma inherent in how conservative Republicans expressed their anti-statist ideology in an age of mass democracy and cold war hostilities. As the right moved forward with its political program, partisanship intensified and ideological division widened, both between the parties and across the electorate. This reflects the vibrancy of a mature democracy, Critchlow argues, and a new level of political engagement. Joining Critchlow in a discussion: Tom Edsall, professor of journalism and twenty-five-year veteran of the Washington Post; John Judis, a journalist and senior editor at The New Republic; and and Wendy Kaminer, lawyer and author most recently of Free for All: Defending Liberty in America Today. Sponsored by the Wolfson Center for National Affairs. Admission: $8. Free to Students with ID. Lang Center, 55 West 13th Street, 2nd Floor.

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Join The Public Square at the Illinois Humanities Council for a special showing of Rania Matar's photography exhibit, "Women of Islam in the Aftermath of War," an intergenerational study of women and the volatile issue of the head scarf in Muslim culture. After a tour of the exhibit, Norma Moruzzi will give a presentation, followed by facilitated discussions. Free. Open to the public. Reservations are required. Chicago Cultural Center, 1st Floor Garland Room, 77 E Randolph St. Get more info via e-mail events@prairie.org, from the website or by calling 312-422-5580.

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The feature-length documentary Letter to the President delves deeply into President Ronald Reagan's policies that negatively affected minority communities and inspired pioneer rap artists such as Grandmaster Melle Mel and Run DMC to tell the whole world about it in song. Then in the "glamorous" '80s, as some people prospered and many minority communities suffered, artists such as Russell Simmons struggled to get laws overturned that targeted those minorities. Following the screening we will have a discussion on police brutality with members of the hip-hop generation. Co-sponsors: National Hip-Hop Poliktical Convention & Hip-Hop Sustains. Sliding scale: $6/$10/$15; free for Brecht Forum subscribers. 451 West Street (between Bank & Bethune streets). 212-242-4201; e-mail: brechtforum at brechtforum.org.

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Retired US Army Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, will critique the Bush Administration and the Iraq War. A government insider turned outspoken opponent, Wilkerson is featured prominently in the Academy Award-nominated documentary feature No End in Sight, about the run-up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 and its immediate aftermath. Long Island University's Brooklyn Campus at Flatbush and DeKalb avenues in downtown Brooklyn. (Subway: B/Q/R train to DeKalb; 2/3/4/5 to Nevins Street.) 718-488-1015

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