Columbia College’s fifth annual Conversations in the Arts series begins on today, Monday, October 20, at 7:30 PM with a lecture by Jonathan Kozol. Kozol has been a novelist, tutor, public school teacher, and essayist, but he is best known as an education activist. His career in nonfiction began with Death at an Early Age, an account of the year he spent in the Boston Public Schools before being fired for teaching a Langston Hughes poem. Kozol is an advocate against inequalities in education funding, school segregation, and vouchers. Tickets first-come, first-served: call 312-369-6600.