Our Next Workshop: Oscar Brown Jr., Abbey Lincoln & Maggie Brown

Monday, September 22nd
(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 arts workshop at Mozart Park, which focuses on the work and legacies of Oscar Brown Jr., Abbey Lincoln and Maggie Brown. We will: 

• Learn more about those artists' work, and listen to several songs that they recorded and/or composed. 
• Talk about how songs composed, recorded and performed by those three artists relate to Civil Rights dynamics of the 1950s till today. 
• Write poetry and create music inspired by the work of Oscar Brown Jr., Abbey Lincoln and Maggie Brown.  

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: 

• "A Depression-Era Anthem For Our Times" (NPR, 11/2008)
• "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" by Yip Harburg Jay Gorney, performed by Abbey Lincoln
• Freedom Sounds: Civil Rights Call Out to Jazz and Africa by Ingrid Monson (excerpt at amherst.edu)
• Freedom Sounds: Civil Rights Call Out to Jazz and Africa by Ingrid Monson (review by Brian Gilmore, JazzTimes, 2009)
• Liner Notes — We Insist! Max Roach’s "Freedom Now Suite," by Nat Hentoff (Jerry Jazz Musician)
• Maggie Brown: Tribute to Oscar Brown Jr. at Ravinia (8/22/2014)
• Oscar Brown, Jr. (National Living Visionary Project)
• "Oscar Brown Jr.: Legendary jazz vocalist, poet and social activist" by Todd S. Jenkins (jazzhouse.org)
• "Oscar Brown, Jr.’s Work Song" by Ayana Contreras (darkjive.com, 7/18/2011)
• "Revisited! The Freedom Now Suite" by Ingrid Monson (Jazz Times, 9/2001)
• Something About Oscar Brown, Jr. by Morris Gearring
• "A Tribute To Abbey Lincoln On JazzSet" by Becca Pulliam (NPR, 1/14/2014)