CCLaP Weekender: August 1, 2014

CCLaP Weekender

From the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography

August 1, 2014

New fiction by Marian Hayes Photography by Francis Flower Chicago literary events calendar August 1, 2014 | 1

THIS WEEK’S CHICAG

For all events, visit [cclapce FRIDAY, AUGUST 1

7pm Tom Lukas

The Book Cellar / 4736 N. Lincoln / Free bookcellarinc.com

The author reads from his newest book, Special Operations.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 2 6:30pm Aaron Galvin

City Lit Books / 2523 N. Kedzie / Free citylitbooks.com The author reads from his newest YA novel, Salem's Vengeance.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 3 7pm Uptown Poetry Slam

The Green Mill / 4802 N. Broadway / $7, 21+ slampapi.com International birthplace of the poetry slam. Hosted by Marc Smith.

7pm Asylum

Le Fleur de Lis / 301 E. 43rd / $10

lefleurdelischicago.com A weekly poetry showcase with live accompaniment by the band Verzatile.

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GO LITERARY EVENTS

enter.com/chicagocalendar] MONDAY, AUGUST 4

6pm Fictlicious

The Hideout / 1354 W. Wabansia / $10, 21+ hideoutchicago.com This month's show features Scott Onak, Chelsea Voulgares, John Gallagher, Anna Scott, Micki LeSueur, Typhanie Monique with Rick Gehrenbeck, Liam Davis, and Jennifer Solheim.

8:30pm Open Mic

Kafein Espresso Bar / 1621 Chicago Ave., Evanston kafeincoffee.com Open mic with hosts Chris and Kirill.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 5 7pm Wit Rabbit Reading Series

Quenchers Saloon / 2401 N. Western / Free, 21+ witrabbitreads.com This month's show features Amelia Beamer, Wesley Chu, Colleen O'Connor and Alix Anne Shaw.

7:30pm Homolatte

Tweet Let's Eat / 5020 N. Sheridan / Free homolatte.com This month's show features Edvette Wilson Thomas and Juba Kalamka. Hosted by Scott Free. Enter through Big Chicks at the same address.

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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 6 6pm Prajwal Parajuly

Seminary Co-op Bookstore / 5751 S. Woodlawn / Free semcoop.com The author reads from his novel The Gurkha's Daughter, a numberone bestseller in India which was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize.

7pm

Reading Under the Influence Sheffield's / 3258 N. Sheffield / $3, 21+ readingundertheinfluence.com This month's show, "Attitude Adjustment," features Liz Grear, Jacob Hall, Darwyn Jones and Jael Montellano. Reading starts at 7:30; doors open at 7:00, and those wishing seats are highly encouraged to arrive early.

9pm In One Ear

Heartland Cafe / 7000 N. Glenwood / $3, 18+ facebook.com/pages/In-One-Ear Chicago's 3rd longest-running open-mic show, hosted by Pete Wolf and Billy Tuggle.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 7 7:30pm Story Club Northside

Holiday Club / 4000 N. Sheridan / $10, 21+ storyclubchicago.com This month's show features Debbie Capone, Julie Marchiano, and Erin Lane.

To submit your own literary event, or to correct the information on anything you see here, please drop us a li To submit your own literary event, or to correct the information on anything you see here, please drop us a line at cclapcenter@gmail.com.

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Featuring

Amber Hargroder plus six open-mic features

The CCLaP Showcase A new reading series and open mic

Tuesday, August 26th, 6:30 pm City Lit Books | 2523 N. Kedzie cclapcenter.com/events

To sign up in advance for an open mic slot, write cclapcenter@gmail.com August 1, 2014 | 5

ORIGINAL FICTION

Photo: “Southside Chicago Mini,” by Christine Zenino [flickr.com/chrissy575].

Used under the terms of her Creative Commons license.

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The #3 King Drive smelled like a pot of mixed greens, a powerful blend of onions, garlic, hot peppers and even smoked turkey. As I dropped my $2.25 in the box, I mentally added the warm aroma of ‘real’ cornbread, the kind they serve at the House of Blues, the kind with rosemary in the mix and maple butter on the side. Yes the #3 smelled like my Mama house on a Sunday after she had gone to her church, Antioch, in Englewood.

SEE SONIA

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Since the ride from 89th and King Drive to Harold Washington Library was going to be a minute, I put my mind on auto and added the scent of smothered chicken, candied sweet potatoes, boiled okra, cucumber and tomato salad and homemade lemonade to the mental meal.

Closing my eyes, envisioning my plate on Mama’s table, I created a canvas of mixed mediums; a mosaic of veggies, collaged together in a sweeping sculpture of greens, vivid reds, creamy oranges and rich yellow. A gooey mass of smothered chicken, was just that, smothered and nestled next to the stoic hunk of gritty cornbread that soon would be rendered a crumbling mass of flakes, showering the mountain of mixed greens and tomatoes.

The continual beep, beep, beep of the Ventra box, coupled with the bus’s street announcer, convinced me to open my eyes. South Chicago and Marquette, the stop that once led to the Gardners old Soft Sheen shop. It was a warehouse of boxes and jars of solutions for sisters with or without hair. In 2012 Mr. Gardner and his wife had a street named after them; Bettiann and Edward Gardner at 87th and Dobson. My cousin use to work for them and she employed my sisters and me too. We did product demos in stores like the old Jupiter on 79th and Halsted, and at Walgreens throughout the city.

65th and King. To left, the apartment complex where my son’s father’s father lived way back in the day. Parkway Gardens, wonder if they knew one of their own would become a doctor. 63rd and King. To the right, one block up and across the still glass-riddled vacant lot, my son’s father’s mother’s house.

In the early ‘80s when we would visit, my son once called all the broken glass diamonds. Now when my son drives his family to visit, they drive a block up on King and never see those decades of neglect.

60th to the right, one of the many entries to Washington Park yet it is the 55th street stop that enriched my life for years. The Washington Park Fieldhouse is where I traversed the city from 87th and Racine to 55th and across to King Drive nearly every Sunday in the early ‘70s. Why? To dance to the African drums of the Alyo dancers, a troupe that would become the future Muntu Dance Theater. To the left of the 55th street stop is the Green Line and the signs that have been posted all over Chicago; NEW CHICAGO. Last summer I experienced a portion of the newness; the Arts Incubator where everything old is indeed new again. The old building made new by the University of Chicago’s Theaster Gates and his crew of talented teamworkers.

51st, the stop that use to be a joyful destination. To the right, a few blocks from Hyde Park’s Harper’s Court, where Windows to Africa was like daily bread for my thirsty soul. And to the left, the Bible Institute where a soon to be known relative worked religiously to teach the scriptures to willing students.

47th Street! The name of the award winning CD that is home to one of my poems, thanks to its maker, the late trumpeter Malachi Thompson.

The Scenes at the Sutherland was a regular ‘must’ venue on Thursdays where every discipline of the arts, even belly dancing, was showcased. Poets like Amiri Baraka and Quraysh Ali Lansana performed at the annual JAAZ festival created by the SCAI organization of the Sutherland Hotel.

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45th Street. To the right, a building where the ‘quilt’ lady, Ann Harper, lived, at least when she was in the city. Goodness it was 1:19 and the #3 had only made it to 43rd street, yet the ride was rolling through years of my life, at almost every stop. But every stop and every memory was in synch with going to see Sonia. We were both poets and both either lovers of quilts or quilt makers. Both of us had attended annual Writers workshops at Chicago State University and we both had performed with Jazz musicians/bands. She, with Max Roach and me, with Malachi Thompson’s various bands.

Sleepy at 37th street, yes sleepy, as if I had really eaten everything on my imaginary plate, we pull up on 35th street. To the right, Lake Meadows, where in 1977 my life took, not a turn, but a jolt! I had an encounter of the ‘unique’ kind with an artist on his way to France. In later years the artist encouraged me to not only get a passport and go to France, but to return to college and earn my degrees. I did both! But first I had a baby, worked in corporate America; IBM, raised my son, lost my job, my Mom and my wellbeing among a myriad of things. In 2004 I earned by first bachelor’s degree and in 2008, after returning again to school, I did a study abroad program to Nice, France for a whole month. After that experience I came back and created the longest running radio show at my alma mater; Chicago State University; Café Yeye: Where Monday is the New Friday.

1:30, 29th street and Prairie Shores, yes I do have memory there too. It was where I went to see the lady who needed help with making hats for some church people who were going to Africa. She, along with her, then husband, later established a health food shop on the ‘9 at Cottage Grove. Now she is one of Chicago’s many Urban Gardeners. Seems like Gardeners keep popping up.

Coming up on McCormick Place, C2E2ers in the house. One of the Cosplayers boards the bus; he has on all black with a makeshift gun on his back. Since he is white, at first I think we all should be very afraid. But he has a girl with him, so it seems all is well. I thought about how last year at this same time, I was struggling to put together the first comic book exhibit at CSU. We made it happen with the help of a former art student and comic book collector and a new art major who’s a Manga and Anime collector. The Rise of the Black Nerd creator and producer Tony Williams really saved us by videotaping the exhibit.

Just passed the Willie Dixon Blues Garden, see, another garden. And up springs another memory. I met Mr. Dixon via Billy Branch, the renowned Chicago award winning blues harp player. I lived a few blocks down from Mr. Dixon’s Blues Factory, on 76th and Racine, way back in the day. I use to go visit them when they were rehearsing. He made a bit of good fun at me when I was pregnant; asking why was I carrying a watermelon under my dress.

1:43, finally, I get off the “Mama’s Sunday’s dinner” bus at Michigan and Jackson. It is cold and Windy; it’s Chicago. Walking across the street going west to State, then turning and walking south, I know I should have trusted my feelings by getting off the bus before Jackson. It is cold, so much so that even European shoulders are contracted and almost touching their ears. I am August 1, 2014 | 9

so tempted to go into McDonald’s or Dunkin’s to get a hot cup of something, but going to see Sonia, on time, is more important.

Finally inside the Harold, I see centered, as if a statue of light, the Rich man. John Rich of the Guild Complex, the cool new director, whom I had just seen and did a selfie with a few Saturdays back at the Woodson library’s American Writers Museum exhibit. He was on his smart phone, the same one on which our selfie was stored. And yes, I told John that Sonia and I were in the same book “A Communion of the Spirits” by photographer Roland Freeman, letting him know once again, why I was making the T-shirt quilt for the upcoming annual Guild Complex Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Award venue.

Escalating down, entering the area where Sonia Sanchez will speak, I see her, dressed in all black, the only bit of color a plaid wool scarf of beige, turquoise and possibly brown. Her gray locks hang, neatly trimmed, inches below her ears, inches above her shoulders. She sits and apologizes because she is having a bout with vertigo. I notice nothing but her words all touching the tender spots that I thought had healed; love, family, forgiveness. I did not stand in line for the book signing, I had just enough cash to go to my favorite play for a quick bite and take my new memories home on #3. C

Chicago born, raised, Southsider for life and a culture geek with an affinity for all things/people/places with artistic inclinations. Poet/artist/ arts advocate/producer and host of Chicago State University’s longest running internet streamed radio show; “Café Yeye: Where Monday is the New Friday.” Will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of her Gwendolyn Brooks-Guild Complex Poetry award winning poem “The Blues.” Soon to release The Last Time I Saw Black and Beautiful, a bilingual book of poetry.

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Francis Flower

PHOTOGRAPHY FEATURE Reprinted from March 2014

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I m a twenty-one year old boy who lives among the mountains.

My art is based on the idea of “the explosions of the heart:” The love, the pain, the surprise, the pride, the “I believe in something.”

My photos talk about me, they talk about you and they talk about the lovers of the past, the present and the future.

The lovers of the life.

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Why are so many of your models always facing away from the camera? Is that deliberate?

This is made on purpose. I think that anyone watching my photos should say to themselves: “What a magical moment! I could live that too.” On the other hand if you look at my photos and you see a face of the person depicted would think: “What a magical moment he, she or they are living.” I do all this because I want to push people appreciate what life gives us. For example a simple sunset with friends.

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Many of your photos look like they came out of Hollywood movies. Were you trying to capture something dramatic, or are these images simply a part of your daily life there?

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Io voglio creare un arte che possa essere compresa da tutti.

Non voglio perdere tempo nel creare qualcosa che non è reale. lo amo la realtà e ciò che stai vedendo è la mia scelta di vita.

I want to create a kind of art that can be totally understood by everybody. I don’t wanna lose time in creating something which is not real. I love reality and what you are looking at is my choice of what my life to be.

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flickr.com/francescofrizzera 30 | CCLaP Weekender

CCLaP Publishing

An official painter for the Lithuanian Communist Party, Martynas Kudirka enjoys a pleasant, unremarkable life with a beautiful wife and all the privileges that come with being a party member. Yet in the summer of 1989, his ordinary world suddenly turns upside down. Political revolt is breaking out across Eastern Europe, and Martynas comes home to find his wife dead on the kitchen floor with a knife in her back. Realizing the police will not investigate, he sets out to find his wife’s killer. Instead, he stumbles upon her secret life. Martynas finds himself drawn into the middle of an independence movement, on a quest to find confidential documents that could free a nation. Cold War betrayals echo down through the years as author Bronwyn Mauldin takes the reader along a modern-day path of discovery to find out Martynas’ true identity. Fans of historical fiction will travel back in time to 1989, the Baltic Way protest and Lithuania’s “singing revolution,” experiencing a nation’s determination for freedom and how far they would fight to regain it.

Download for free at cclapcenter.com/lovesongs

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The CCLaP Weekender is published in electronic form only, every Friday for free download at the CCLaP website [cclapcenter.com]. Copyright 2014, Chicago Center for Literature and Photography. All rights revert back to artists upon publication. Editorin-chief: Jason Pettus. Story Editor: Allegra Pusateri. Layout Editor: Wyatt Roediger-Robinette. Calendar Editors: Anna Thiakos and Taylor Carlile. To submit your work for possible feature, or to add a calendar item, contact us at cclapcenter@gmail.com.

Did you like this? Pay us 99 cents and help us keep them coming! bit.ly/cclapweekender

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