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The ESU Supports Immigrants, Asylum-seekers, and Refugees

National News

Welcome back to all of our students, teachers and volunteers. Read the inspiring stories of some of our students here. 

For nearly a century, the English-Speaking Union has employed English as a catalyst to foster global understanding and good will through educational opportunities and cultural exchange.  The ESU is an inclusive organization, in the words of our founder Sir Evelyn Wrench,  "founded in no narrow attitude of race pride, in no spirit of hostility to any people."

In today's shrinking world dominated by dollars and digits, unprecedented migration and bloody national borders, the ESU remains committed to improving the lives of new immigrants to the United States.

Since 2013, nearly 1,000 recent immigrants, refugees, and asylum-seekers from 66 different countries have been welcomed as members of the English-Speaking Union Andrew Romay New Immigrant Center. The Center provides a welcoming environment, resources and information to help immigrants improve their English to explore work and study opportunities, network, pursue citizenship, and acquire cultural fluency in order to participate fully in American society.

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Remembering Ann Cook Calhoun

National News – August 13, 2017

Photo courtesy of Daniel Dubois/Vanderbilt

Ann Cook Calhoun, former ESU National and Branch Board member and distinguished Shakespeare scholar, died on August 13 in Nashville after a brief illness. She was 82.  She was a professor of English, emerita, at Vanderbilt University and held leadership roles in Shakespeare organizations around the world. Ann's charming and devoted husband, Gerry Calhoun, passed away by her side earlier the same day.

Please click here to contribute to the Ann Cook Calhoun Memorial Fund that will provide financial support for the English-Speaking Union National Shakespeare Competition. If sufficient funds are raised, we will be able to reinstate the first-place winner prize to be attendance at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art Summer Program in London. 

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Learning the Story and Future of English

National News – Oxford University

Twenty teachers, life-long learners, and ESU members have returned from an immersion into the story and future of English -- the ESU's new one-week TLab-UK course at historic Worcester College of the University of Oxford.

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Shakespeare as “Political Theater” Et tu, ESU?

National News

The English-Speaking Union National Shakespeare Competition and "Political Theater"
by Christopher Hodgkins

Now everybody wants into the act! Few people who follow the arts or just follow the news can have missed the controversy over the New York Public Theater's production of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, which had its final performance in Central Park's Delacorte Theater on June 18. The performance is acted in contemporary costumes, and Caesar—wearing a flamboyant suit and an orange-blond coif much like President Donald Trump's—seems to be slain in the American and not the Roman Capitol, meeting an especially bloody end in Act 3 at the hands of very modern senatorial conspirators. In response, some of the President's supporters—and some who simply think that this interpretation disrespects the Presidency and incited a recent attempted massacre of Republican Congressmen—have spoken out against the show, interrupted the performance, or even stormed the stage. Perhaps the producers provoked more audience reaction than they bargained for! And some people think that Shakespeare is irrelevant or boring . . .

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ARNIC Graduation and ESU Founder's Award Ceremony

National News

On June 1, the English-Speaking Union Andrew Romay New Immigrant Center celebrated the accomplishments of its members with a graduation ceremony hosted by the Open Society Foundations, financial supporters of the program, at their offices in New York City.

The Andrew Romay New Immigrant Center (ARNIC), named for the program's key visionary and supporter, Andrew Romay, helps recently arrived immigrants improve their English through free ESL classes and conversation sessions and acquire cultural fluency through field trips, workshops and networking opportunities. Launched in January 2013, the ARNIC Program has served more than 800 new Americans.

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