Category: 1930s

Our Next Arts Workshop: The Dill Pickle Club

7/31/2014

Friday, August 1st (4:30-5:30, 5:45-7:00 p.m.)

Mozart Park Fieldhouse
2036 N. Avers Ave.
Chicago, IL 60647

all ages, free & open to the public

You're invited to come to our next "Chicago Heroes & Arts Journeys" workshop, when we focus on the Dill Pickle Club. The Dill Pickle Club (which was also known as the Dil Pickle Club other similar iterations) was a legendary establishment founded by Jack Jones one hundred years ago. During this workshop we will:

Explore documents about The Dill Pickle Club -- including poster images and writings by people who were associated with the club (including Sherwood Anderson, Djuna Barnes, William Carlos Williams, Emma Goldman, Kenneth Rexroth and Upton Sinclair).
Create artwork and write poetry inspired by the Dill Pickle Club.

These arts workshops are free and open to the public, and all ages welcomed. Participants are invited to bring writing utensils and paper, although supplies will be provided if needed. Sometimes we play music and explore other art forms, so if you have a musical instrument that you'd like to bring, or if you have art supplies (e.g. colored pencils, pastels, etc.) you can bring those. We often use an upright piano during workshops as well.

Location: Mozart Park is in Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood. It's on the north side of Armitage Ave. -- several blocks east of Pulaski Rd., just south of Dickens and Shakespeare Streets. Our workshop series happens in the room to the left of fieldhouse lobby; some workshop sessions may happen outside in the park, weather permitting.

Transportation & parking: Mozart Park can be reached by public transportation (such as the #73 Armitage Ave. bus, and not far from the Logan Square and Western Ave. stations on the CTA's blue line. Mozart Park has a parking lot on Armitage, east of Avers.

Registering for Chicago Heroes & Arts Journeys: You can register for this workshop series at the Chicago Park District website.

Additional info: You can contact us by clicking here (if you have questions about this workshop or to RSVP). Click here to find out more about the Chicago Heroes & Arts Journeys workshop series.

Links:

Harriet Monroe-Inspired Workshop on July 25th

7/23/2014

Friday, July 25th (4:30-5:30, 5:45-7:00 p.m.)

Mozart Park Fieldhouse
2036 N. Avers Ave.
Chicago, IL 60647

all ages, free & open to the public

You're invited to come to our next "Chicago Heroes & Arts Journeys" workshop, when we focus on the life and legacy of Harriet Monroe. During this workshop we will:

Talk about aspects of Monroe's biography;
Read selections of writings by Monroe;
Read poems by great poets with whom she worked;
Write poetry inspired by Harriet Monroe and her legacy.
More info TBA.

These arts workshops are free and open to the public, and all ages welcomed. Participants are invited to bring writing utensils and paper, although supplies will be provided if needed. Sometimes we play music and explore other art forms, so if you have a musical instrument that you'd like to bring, or if you have art supplies (e.g. colored pencils, pastels, etc.) you can bring those. We often use an upright piano during workshops as well.

Location: Mozart Park is in Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood. It's on the north side of Armitage Ave. -- several blocks east of Pulaski Rd., just south of Dickens and Shakespeare Streets. Our workshop series happens in the room to the left of fieldhouse lobby; some workshop sessions may happen outside in the park, weather permitting.

Transportation & parking: Mozart Park can be reached by public transportation (such as the #73 Armitage Ave. bus, and not far from the Logan Square and Western Ave. stations on the CTA's blue line. Mozart Park has a parking lot on Armitage, east of Avers.

Registering for Chicago Heroes & Arts Journeys: You can register for this workshop series at the Chicago Park District website.

Additional info: You can contact us by clicking here (if you have questions about this workshop or to RSVP). Click here to find out more about the Chicago Heroes & Arts Journeys workshop series.

Links:

Carl Sandburg-Inspired Arts Workshop at Mozart Park

5/19/2014

You're invited to come to our next Chicago Heroes & Arts Adventures workshop --

Monday, May 19 (6:00-7:15, 7:30-8:30 p.m.)

Mozart Park Fieldhouse
2036 N. Avers Ave.
Chicago, IL 60647

all ages, free & open to the public

Come discover, discuss & debate some of the origins of Objectivst poetics during this session, when Matthias Regan reads from his edited volume of Sandburg’s poetry and prose in the International Socialist Review. Here’s all the details:

“That’s when Sandburg was a Niceberg,” writes Edward Dorn in Book IV of Gunslinger. He’s thinking of the radical Carl Sandburg – the poetic brawler who changed the shape of poetry and politics simultaneously in the early years of modernism.

During the Chicago Renaissance, Sandburg was one of the most important innovators in English language poetry. His Chicago Poems (1916) drew on contemporary slang and Native American chants to create free verse poems that spoke to working-class people. He wrote poetry against the robber barons, the war profiteers and the false prophets of Christian morality. Given the popularity of his verse, it’s not surprising that academics and the popular press have “red-washed” Sandburg, portraying him as a bland sentimentalist by excising his early years as a Socialist organizer and muck-raking journalist.

Matthias Regan will read from his edited volume of Sandburg’s writings in the International Socialist Review – the radical journal published by Charles H. Kerr Press in which he published is first and best poems. Using a variety of pseudonyms, Sandburg wrote powerful news stories on union strikes, railroad regulation, the Eastland disaster and “Preparadness Parades.”

Location: Mozart Park is in Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood. It's on the north side of Armitage Ave. -- several blocks east of Pulaski Rd., just south of Dickens and Shakespeare Streets. Our workshop series happens in the room to the left of fieldhouse lobby; some workshop sessions may happen outside in the park, weather permitting.

Transportation & parking: Mozart Park can be reached by public transportation (such as the #73 Armitage Ave. bus, and not far from the Logan Square and Western Ave. stations on the CTA's blue line. Mozart Park has a parking lot on Armitage, east of Avers.

Registering for Chicago Heroes & Arts Journeys: You can register for this workshop series at the Chicago Park District website.

Our Next Workshop: László Moholy-Nagy & Mies van der Rohe

5/4/2014

You're invited to come to our next Chicago Heroes & Arts Adventures workshop --

Monday, May 5 (6:00-7:15, 7:30-8:30 p.m.)

Mozart Park Fieldhouse
2036 N. Avers Ave.
Chicago, IL 60624

all ages, free & open to the public

During our next workshop we will focus on the lives and legacies of László Moholy-Nagy and Mies van der Rohe. Participants will create artworks and write poetry inspired by those two geniuses who have indelibly influenced architecture and design in Chicago and around the world.

Untitled (Chicago, 1943)
by László Moholy-Nagy

Mies van der Rohe with a model
of the Farnsworth House

Location: Mozart Park is in Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood. It's on the north side of Armitage Ave. -- several blocks east of Pulaski Rd., just south of Dickens and Shakespeare Streets. Our workshop series happens in the room to the left of fieldhouse lobby; some workshop sessions may happen outside in the park, weather permitting.

Transportation & parking: Mozart Park can be reached by public transportation (such as the #73 Armitage Ave. bus, and not far from the Logan Square and Western Ave. stations on the CTA's blue line. Mozart Park has a parking lot on Armitage, east of Avers.

Registering for Chicago Heroes & Arts Journeys: You can register for this workshop series at the Chicago Park District website.

Additional info: You can contact us by clicking here (if you have questions about this workshop or to RSVP). Click here to find out more about the Chicago Heroes & Arts Journeys workshop series.

above: László Moholy-Nagy's
Diagram of Finnegans Wake

Links:

Carl Sandburg-Inspired Arts Workshop at Mozart Park

4/28/2014

You're invited to come to our next Chicago Heroes & Arts Adventures workshop --

Monday, April 28 (6:00-7:15, 7:30-8:30 p.m.)

Mozart Park Fieldhouse
2036 N. Avers Ave.
Chicago, IL 60624

all ages, free & open to the public

During this workshop we will leverage the work of Carl Sandburg to highlight Chicago as a heroic historical presence, celebrated as a sufficiently significant subject for poetry and other arts created by Sandburg and others.

We’ll spend the first part of the workshop reading and discussing Sandburg's poem "Chicago," as well as poems by workshop participants. Then we’ll talk about common and unique characteristics of Chicago and the works interpreting it, and end with a creative exercise to process our own views that feelings about the city. Participants will be invited to use poetic forms such as haiku, limericks, short ballads, sonnets . . . whatever may catch people’s fancies. Artists may use of media of their choosing (which they must needs also provide) to express their views and impressions of Chicago. This workshop is facilitated by Wayne Allen Jones.

Location: Mozart Park is in Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood. It's on the north side of Armitage Ave. -- several blocks east of Pulaski Rd., just south of Dickens and Shakespeare Streets. Our workshop series happens in the room to the left of fieldhouse lobby; some workshop sessions may happen outside in the park, weather permitting.

Transportation & parking: Mozart Park can be reached by public transportation (such as the #73 Armitage Ave. bus, and not far from the Logan Square and Western Ave. stations on the CTA's blue line. Mozart Park has a parking lot on Armitage, east of Avers.

Registering for Chicago Heroes & Arts Journeys: You can register for this workshop series at the Chicago Park District website.

Additional info: You can contact us by clicking here (if you have questions about this workshop or to RSVP). Click here to find out more about the Chicago Heroes & Arts Journeys workshop series.

Links:

Our Next Arts Workshop: Katherine Dunham & Jean Baptiste Point du Sable

4/20/2014

You're invited to come to our next Chicago Heroes & Arts Adventures workshop --

Monday, April 21 (6:00-7:15, 7:30-8:30 p.m.)

Mozart Park Fieldhouse
2036 N. Avers Ave.
Chicago, IL 60624

all ages, free & open to the public

During our next workshop we will focus on the lives and legacies of Katherine Dunham and Jean Baptiste Point Du Sable. Participants will create graphic scores and write poetry inspired by those important individuals.

Location: Mozart Park is in Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood. It's on the north side of Armitage Ave. -- several blocks east of Pulaski Rd., just south of Dickens and Shakespeare Streets. Our workshop series happens in the room to the left of fieldhouse lobby; some workshop sessions may happen outside in the park, weather permitting.

Transportation & parking: Mozart Park can be reached by public transportation (such as the #73 Armitage Ave. bus, and not far from the Logan Square and Western Ave. stations on the CTA's blue line. Mozart Park has a parking lot on Armitage, east of Avers.

Registering for Chicago Heroes & Arts Journeys: You can register for this workshop series at the Chicago Park District website.

Additional info: You can contact us by clicking here (if you have questions about this workshop or to RSVP). Click here to find out more about the Chicago Heroes & Arts Journeys workshop series.

Links:

"The Black Arts Movement: Let Me Count the Ways" chapter from Visionary Women Writers of Chicago's Black Arts Movement by Carmen L. Phelps

Katherine Dunham: My Love of Dance (Visionary Project interview

Nelson Algren-Inspired Arts Workshop at Mozart Park

3/28/2014

You are invited to come to our next Chicago Heroes & Arts Adventures workshop --

Monday, March 31 (6:00-7:15, 7:30-8:30 p.m.)

Mozart Park Fieldhouse
2036 N. Avers Ave.
Chicago, IL 60624

all ages, free & open to the public

During this workshop, inspired by the great Chicago writer Nelson Algren, participants will:

Learn more about Algren's work and legacy;
Read passages from Algren's poetry and prose, and several letters from Simone de Beauvoir to Algren;
Watch and discuss several video clips: part of Studs Terkel's 1975 interview with Algren; a clip from The Road Is Nothing, the End Is All; and Willem DeFoe reading "The Lightless Room," a short story by Algren; and
Creatively explore Algren's work through creative writing and visual art.

Location: Mozart Park is on Armitage Avenue in Logan Square -- several blocks east of Pulaski Road, just south of Dickens and Shakespeare Streets. There is street parking by Mozart Park, and a parking lot is on the east side of Avers.

Please contact us by clicking here -- if you have questions about this workshop and/or if you would like to RSVP. Thanks!

Links:

Our Next Arts Workshop: Jimmy Yancey & Albert Ammons

3/10/2014

You are invited to join us at our next Chicago Heroes & Arts Adventures workshop --

Monday, March 10 (6:00-7:15, 7:30-8:30 p.m.)

Mozart Park Fieldhouse
2036 N. Avers Ave.
Chicago, IL 60624

all ages, free & open to the public

Join us as we explore the music and lives of Jimmy Yancey and Albert Ammons -- two great Chicago boogie woogie pianists. We will learn about Yancey and Ammons' work and listen to several recordings of their music. Then we will create music and poetry inspired by those great boogie woogie pianists' work.

Location: Mozart Park is in Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood. It's on the north side of Armitage Ave. -- several blocks east of Pulaski Rd., just south of Dickens and Shakespeare Streets. Our workshop series happens in the room to the left of fieldhouse lobby; some workshop sessions may happen outside in the park, weather permitting.

Transportation & parking: Mozart Park can be reached by public transportation (such as the #73 Armitage Ave. bus, and not far from the Logan Square and Western Ave. stations on the CTA's blue line. Mozart Park has a parking lot on Armitage, east of Avers.

Registering for Chicago Heroes & Arts Journeys: You can register for this workshop series at the Chicago Park District website.

Additional info: You can contact us by clicking here (if you have questions about this workshop or to RSVP). Click here to find out more about the Chicago Heroes & Arts Journeys workshop series.

Links:

Jane Addams-Inspired Arts Workshop

3/3/2014

You are invited to come to our next Chicago Heroes & Arts Adventures workshop --

Monday, March 3 (6:00-7:15, 7:30-8:30 p.m.)

Mozart Park Fieldhouse
2036 N. Avers Ave.
Chicago, IL 60624

all ages, free & open to the public

You are invited to join us during our next arts workshop inspired by Jane Addams -- facilitated by Chicago poet and educator Elizabeth Marino. During this workshop participants will:

Learn more about Jane Addams' work and legacy
Creatively explore Jane Addams' life through creative writing and drama

Links:

Our Inaugural Arts Workshop Session: Gwendolyn Brooks & Ekphrastic Poetry

1/24/2014

Monday, January 27, 2014
(6:00-7:15, 7:30-8:30 p.m.)

Mozart Park Fieldhouse
2036 N. Avers Ave.
Chicago, IL 60647

free and open to the public, all ages

You're invited to come to an ekphrastic poetry writing workshop inspired by Gwendolyn Brooks -- the inaugural session in the Chicago Heroes & Arts Journeys series at Mozart Park.

This workshop will include the following:

We will read and discuss "The Chicago Picasso," an ekphrastic poem by Gwendolyn Brooks. We will also read and discuss a few other poems by Gwendolyn Brooks.
Each participant will select a reproduction of an artwork in collections at the Art Institute of Chicago and Museum of Contemporary Art. Then each participant will write an ekphrastic poem that is inspired by that artwork. (Reproductions of artworks will be provided.)
Participants will share their poems with others in the workshop.

These arts workshops are free and open to the public, and all ages welcomed. Participants are invited to bring writing utensils and paper, although supplies will be provided if needed. Sometimes we play music and explore other art forms, so if you have a musical instrument that you'd like to bring, or if you have art supplies (e.g. colored pencils, pastels, etc.) you can bring those. We often use an upright piano during workshops as well.

Location: Mozart Park is in Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood. It's on the north side of Armitage Ave. -- several blocks east of Pulaski Rd., just south of Dickens and Shakespeare Streets. Our workshop series happens in the room to the left of fieldhouse lobby; some workshop sessions may happen outside in the park, weather permitting.

Transportation & parking: Mozart Park can be reached by public transportation (such as the #73 Armitage Ave. bus, and not far from the Logan Square and Western Ave. stations on the CTA's blue line. Mozart Park has a parking lot on Armitage, east of Avers.

Registering for Chicago Heroes & Arts Journeys: You can register for this workshop series at the Chicago Park District website.

Additional info: You can contact us by clicking here. Click here to find out more about the Chicago Heroes & Arts Journeys workshop series.

Links: