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Our Workshop on June 15th -- Win Stracke and Lois Weisberg

6/1/2015

Monday, June 15th
(6:00-7:00, 7:15-8:30 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 workshop, which is inspired by Lois Weisberg and Win Stracke:

We will talk about Weisberg and Stracke's work, including their connections to Chicago;
We'll also discuss examples of people and organizations that are linked to and/or inspired by Weisberg and Stracke's work and legacy; and
Workshop participants will have opportunities to create music and writings inspired by Weisberg and Stracke. your musical

Bring your musical instruments, art supplies and notebooks. These workshops are interactive and multidisciplinary. We have supplies and equipment on hand that workshop participants can use -- including pencils, pens, paint, a piano, other musical instruments.

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 Portraits & Arts Journeys: Click here or here to register for the summer term 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 Portraits & Arts Journeys workshop series.

Links:

Registration Is Open for the Summer Term

5/30/2015

You're invited to register for the summer term of the arts workshop series that Borderbend has been offering at Mozart Park since January 2014. The summer term begins on June 8th.

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 Portraits & Arts Journeys: Click here or here to register for the summer term 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 Portraits & Arts Journeys workshop series.

The summer term for Borderbend's arts workshop series begins on June 15th, and you're invited to join us as we learn about great people who have influenced Chicago, and we create artworks inspired by those innovative individuals. Click here and here to register via the Chicago Park District website.

above: images of individuals and artworks they have created, which have been covered during our workshop series at Mozart Park

Chicago Kaleidoscopes

4/7/2015

Borderbend is excited to be offering two sections of "Chicago Kaleidoscopes," a creative writing After School Matters class this summer. If you're a teenager, or if you have a teenager in your life, we'd like to invite you or a teenager you know to take this class!

Class Description: “Chicago Kaleidoscopes” looks at key aspects of Chicago’s identity via creative writing. Apprentices in the “Chicago Kaleidoscopes” program look through Chicago-centric lenses of writing, music, visual art, sports, history and the sciences as they critically think about the world they live in; then they combine their critical observations of those source materials with their creativity through poetry, short fiction, and other literary genres (prose poetry, etc.). Apprentices learn key marketable skills such as listening to their peers, writing clearly, communicating persuasively, and sharing and receiving feedback on their work, while learning more about how their personal identities resonate with aspects of Chicago’s identity.

Dates: July 6-August 13

Location: Mozart Park (2039 N. Avers Ave., in Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood)

Class Registration: Click here to register for the class on the After School Matters website. You can search for the class by typing "kaleidoscopes" in the keyword search window.

Additional Info: Please email Borderbend or call us at (312)380-9223 to find out more about "Chicago Kaleidoscopes."

Links:

After School Matters

Our Next Arts Workshop: Margaret Walker, Haki Madhubuti, Carol D. Lee, and Sterling Plumpp

3/31/2015

Monday, April 13th
(6:00-7:00, 7:15-8:30 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 workshop, which is inspired by Dr. Margaret Walker, Dr. Haki R. Madhubuti, Dr. Carol D. Lee, and Sterling Plumpp. We will:

Talk about their work, including their connections to Chicago;
Make music and create text-and-image collages inspired by work by Walker, Madhubuti, Lee, and Plumpp.

Bring your musical instruments, your poetry, your art supplies! These workshops are interactive and multidisciplinary. We have supplies and equipment on hand that workshop participants can use -- including pencils, pens, paint, a piano, other musical instruments.

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 Portraits & Arts Journeys: Click here or here to register for the spring term 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 Portraits & Arts Journeys workshop series.

Links:

Our Next Arts Workshop -- Phil Cohran

1/24/2015

Monday, January 26th
(6:00-7:00, 7:15-8:30 p.m.)

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

all ages, free & open to the public

You are invited to come to our next arts workshop, when we focus on the life and legacy of Kelan Phil Cohran:

We will talk about Cohran's biography and listen to selections of his music;
We will improvise in a musical ensemble; and
Participants will create art works -- writing, visual art & music inspired by Cohran.

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: The Art Ensemble of Chicago

5/12/2014

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

Monday, May 12 (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

During our next workshop we focus on the Art Ensemble of Chicago. We will:

Listen to and talk about music by that legendary musical group;
Talk about how the AEC connects with other people and things (e.g. examples of its influences and who it has influenced; how it pertains other musical ensembles such as the Sun Ra Arkestra and the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians);
Talk about examples of AEC members' other artistic projects (such as Roscoe Mitchell's Nonaah and Lester Bowie's Brass Fantasy);
Make music with voice, percussion and other instruments.

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 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:

Talking with Extinct & Endangered Species

4/26/2014

You're invited to come to the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore for this Earth Week arts workshop --

Talking with Extinct & Endangered Species:
An Arts Workshop During Green Gary Celebration

Saturday, April 26 (11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.)

Douglas Center for Environmental Education
Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore
100 N. Lake St.
Gary, IN

free and open to the public

Perhaps you've heard the song "Talk to the Animals" from Dr. Doolittle. The theme of communicating with other creatures is a fascinating one that ranges from the realy to the mythical and fantastical; a short list of examples from the ancient world to contemporary life includes E.T., The Horse Whisperer, Dog Whisperer,St. Francis preaching to the birds...

During "Talking with Extinct and Endangered Species," we imagine what it would be like to talk with extinct and endangered species:

We talk briefly about the Passenger Pigeon Project. How does the Passenger Pigeon Project figure into larger contexts -- e.g. climate change, human-caused damage to our environment, etc.?
We read and discuss several poems about endangered and extinct animals.
Each participant picks an endangered or extinct species. (A list will be provided, and if participants have a "favorite" extinct or endangered species they could choose one of those species.)
Participants will create illustrations and poetry inspired by those endangered and extinct species.

Click on the button below to listen to the poetry and fiction that workshop participants wrote.

Links: