“The resignation of Eileen Mackevich as president and executive producer of the Chicago Humanities Festival, where she had worked as a founding force for 16 years, came as quite a surprise,” and not just to outsiders. Many inside the Festival’s organization were unprepared for the announcement, and Mackevich herself has admitted that she didn’t expect to be leaving at this exact moment. But conflict with the Festival’s board chair and disputes over the direction of the organization apparently sealed Mackevich’s fate, even as the Festival continues to thrive in Chicago.