Our Next Workshop: Simone de Beauvoir in Chicago

Monday, May 18th
(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

In 1947 Simone de Beauvoir -- the author of The Second Sex, one of the early and still seminal texts on the dynamics of asymmetrical gender relations and the cultural construction of woman as inferior to men -- came to Chicago and had a famous affair with Nelson Algren. Despite de Beauvoir’s reputation and relationship with fellow philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre in France, she took a Walk on the Wild Side and fell for the macho Algren. Chicago photographer Art Shay documented their life and times in Algren’s Polish Triangle neighborhood.

This workshop will discuss the relationship between the Realist writers, de Beauvoir and Algren, and importantly, some of de Beauvoir’s pivotal philosophical ideas about subjectivity. We will discuss these ideas where we find them and go on to write, draw or improvise around the ideas of subjectivity, Realism and love in times of inequality and what that means.  We will share our written, visual or musical responses.

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:

• America Day by Day by Simone de Beauvoir (University of California Press)
• "A Breakup Letter from Simone de Beauvoir" by Maria Popova (Brain Pickings) 
• "More than ever, and for ever" by Michael Rogin (London Review of Books, 9/1998)
• Nelson Algren-inspired workshop at Mozart Park (2014)
• "Simone de Beauvoir’s thoughts on race echo today" by Neil Steinberg (Chicago Sun-Times, 10/30/2014