Winter 2019 UChicago Arts Magazine

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UCHICAGO ARTS MAGAZINE WINTER 2019 EVENTS & EXHIBITIONS GUIDE

IN THIS ISSUE Mariana Castillo Deball’s First Solo Exhibition in Chicago A Collection of Student Works from UChicago Creative Writing & Poetics Sweet Honey in the Rock: 45 Years Oscar Brown, Jr.’s Daughters Give Life to Archive

arts.uchicago.edu


2O18/19 2O14/2O15 CONCERT CONCERT SERIES SEASON

UChicago Presents brings leading artists from around the world for inspiring and engaging performances in beautiful venues on the University of Chicago campus.

CELEBRATING 75 YEARS Parker Quartet with Edward Arron and Richard O’Neill February 1

Extraordinary Performances Marquis Hill Blacktet February 15

Hear your favorites and discover something new with five series spanning classical to contemporary, early music to jazz, and a new world music series. Tickets $38 reserved seating $20 under 35 $10 students (with ID) chicagopresents.uchicago.edu 773.702.ARTS (2787)

JAZZ AT THE LOGAN


UCHICAGO ARTS MAGAZINE WINTER 2019 EVENTS & EXHIBITIONS GUIDE

The University of Chicago is a destination where artists, scholars, students, and audiences converge and create. Explore our theaters, performance spaces, museums and galleries, academic programs, cultural initiatives, and more. For a full list of arts events at UChicago, visit arts.uchicago.edu.

PHOTO CREDITS

ICON KEY UChicago student event

ON THE COVER Merrie England. Illustration courtesy of the UChicago Department of Music and The Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company. Learn more on page 23.

Page 5, clockwise from top left: The Codex Fejervary-Mayer, 15th century. Author unknown; public domain; Statue of Drunken Satyr from La Villa Dei Papiri in Herculaneum, National Archaeological Museum, Naples, Campania, Italy, Europe; University of Chicago Symphony Orchestra in performance. Photo: Nancy Wong.; Oscar Brown Jr. Photo: Courtesy of Maggie and Africa Brown.; Thrival Geographies (In My Mind I See a Line) by Amanda Williams + Andres L. Hernandez, in collaboration with Shani Crowe at the 2018 U.S. Pavilion. Photo © Tom Harris. Courtesy of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Chicago.; Cover art for Bizarro Worlds: Jonathan Lethem’s The Fortress of Solitude by Stacie Williams, courtesy Fiction Advocate.; Noir. Illustration: George Peters.; Page 10: Statue of Drunken Satyr from La Villa Dei Papiri in Herculaneum, National Archaeological Museum, Naples, Campania, Italy, Europe; Nikko Washington, courtesy of artist.; Saul Fletcher, Untitled # 23 (self/behind desk), 1997 (detail). Courtesy of the artist and Anton Kern Gallery.; Mirror Study for Joe (_2010980) (detail), 2017 © Paul Mpagi Sepuya.; Leonardo Drew, Number 52S, 2015, Wood and paint, 96 × 96 × 14 inches. © Leonardo Drew, courtesy of The Joyner/Giuffrida Collection, and Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York.; Karthik Pandian and Andros Zins-Browne, Atlas Unlimited: Research Image, 2018.; Page 14: Noir. Illustration: George Peters.; Film still: Idris Brewster in American Promise (Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson, 2013, 45 min).; Page 19: Cover art for Bizarro Worlds: Jonathan Lethem’s The Fortress of Solitude by Stacie Williams, courtesy Fiction Advocate.; Ling Ma. Photo: Anjali Pinto.; Lynn Xu, photo courtesy of artist.; Eileen Myles. Courtesy of Grove Press.; Cody-Rose Clevidence, courtesy of artist.; Nate Marshall. Photo: Xavier Ramey; Page 22: University of Chicago Symphony Orchestra in performance. Photo: Nancy Wong.; The Fat Babies, a 1920s Chicago jazz band, performing at a previous Fest, courtesy of The Folklore Society.; Trio Céleste, courtesy of artists.; Flugelhornist Andrew Ennis and Wanamaker Grand Court Organist Peter Richard Conte, courtesy of artists.; Page 23: Merrie England. Illustration courtesy of the UChicago Department of Music and The Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company.; Black String, courtesy of Sori; Kara-Lis Coverdale. Photo: Scott Pilgrim; University of Chicago Symphony Orchestra in performance. Photo: Nancy Wong.; Page 24: Billy Branch. Photo: Johnny Wheeler.; Victor Goines, courtesy of artist.; Marquis Hill Blacktet, courtesy of the artist.; Page 25: Wadada Leo Smith. Photo: Michael Jackson.; Page 29: Header and below: Thrival Geographies (In My Mind I See a Line) by Amanda Williams + Andres L. Hernandez, in collaboration with Shani Crowe at the 2018 U.S. Pavilion. Photo © Tom Harris. Courtesy of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Chicago.; Fountain and sculpture in the Peristyle Garden of the Getty Villa Roman gardens in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles.. Photo: Bobak Ha’Eri.; Page 30: Praize Productions dancer, courtesy of organization.; Pedro Reyes’s puppet play Manufacturing Mischief. Photo: Sham Sthankiya.; UChicago Maya, courtesy of organization.; Page 31: Photo of Chaon Cross as Rosalind Franklin, Alex Goodrich, and Nathan Hosner in Photograph 51 by Joe Mazza of Brave Lux.; UChicago Ballet. Photo: Charissa Johnson Photography.; Page 32: Oscar Brown Jr. Photo: Courtesy of Maggie and Africa Brown.; The cast of Court Theatre’s upcoming production of For Colored Girls who have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow is Enuf. Photo: Joe Mazza of Brave Lux.; Praize Productions in performance, courtesy of organization.; Page 36: Family Day at Smart Museum of Art. Photo: Erik L. Peterson.; Logan Center Family Saturday. Illustration: Kelsey Akers.


CONTENT

WINTER 2019

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AN INTRODUCTION TO MARIANA CASTILLO DEBALL: PETLACOATL

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EXHIBITS AND VISUAL ARTS

14

FILM

16

FERRARI OR FERRARI: TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

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CREATIVE WRITING & POETICS: A COLLECTION OF WORKS

20

LITERATURE AND LECTURES

22

MUSIC

26

SWEET HONEY IN THE ROCK

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ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN

30

THEATER, DANCE, AND PERFORMANCE

34

THE OSCAR BROWN, JR. ARCHIVE

36

YOUTH & FAMILY

37

INFO

38

MAP

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Mariana Castillo Deball

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PETLACOATL

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Mariana Castillo Deball: Petlacoatl, 2018. Installation view in the Logan Center Gallery. Photo: Robert Chase Heishman

Mariana Castillo Deball, Fall 2018 Tinker Visiting Professor in the Department of Visual Arts, explores representations of cultures through material artifacts. The artist’s researchbased practice draws on a range of fields that include anthropology, archeology, and ethnography. In considering how cultural objects are staged, mediated, and valorized in the present, the artist creates a thoughtful dialogue between our contemporary moment and ancient history. Deball has titled her first solo exhibition in Chicago Petlacoatl, taken from the Nahua word meaning “mat woven of snakes pointing in all directions.” by Clare Austen-Smith arts.uchicago.edu | 7


each colorful arm stands in for one of the cardinal directions: red for the east, yellow for the north, blue for the west, and green for the south. In addition to measuring time, the tōnalpōhualli was a divinatory system in which spatial coordinates, agriculture, and ritual sacrifices intersected. It carried augural messages, defining the way people conducted their affairs. The work in Deball’s exhibition at the Logan Center Gallery responds to these various uses of the calendar and engages the viewer’s space . A new suite of delicate watercolor drawings adorns the walls while modular concrete tiles and plaster sculptures are placed throughout the exhibition. In addition to responding to the iconography, visual schema, and color of the calendar in her drawings and floor sculptures, the days of the week are represented by 13 perforations along 20 extruded aluminum strips that criss-cross the gallery. As you walk through the gallery, you experience a full calendar year, and the intangible aspect of time becomes a physical reality.

If you’re hoping to arrive at work on The calendar can be visualized by time or remember an appointment, the imagining two wheels connected to one Mesoamerican tōnalpōhualli won’t be of another. One wheel includes the numbers much use. But, if you’d like to know the one to 13, and the second wheel exhibits 20 fate of your child based on the date they symbols, like a crocodile, a house, a reed, were born or a particularly auspicious day wind, and more (see opposite page). The to plant your crops, the pre-colonial, 260first number combines with the first symbol day divinatory tool might come in handy. to signify the first day of the tōnalpōhualli, This ancient calendar is the central artifact the second number is paired with the explored in Mariana second symbol, C astillo Deball’s and so on. On day It’s important to think about first solo show in 14, the number similarities, so we can recognize the Chicago, Petlacoatl, wheel returns to at the Logan Center o n e , whil e th e humanity of the past, but also about Gallery. symbol wheel differences, so that we don’t erase cycles through the Petlacoatl is rest of the icons cultural and historical specificity. the Nahua before returning word meaning to the first symbol. “mat woven of snakes pointing in all This continues on until 260 days have directions.” This symbol was of ten passed, and the wheels return to their initial included in ancient divinatory calendars positions to begin a new year. like the tōnalpōhualli, which marked time through 20 distinct periods that each last For Petlacoatl, Deball drew inspiration 13 days. from the visual organization of the Codex Fejérváry-Mayer (above), a pre-colonial “Each day is a combination of a day sign manuscript in which the 260 days of the and a number and they run concurrently, tōnalpōhualli are represented by circular until all the combinations are exhausted,” spacers along a ribbon that flows around Deball says. “20 day signs multiplied by 13 the border of a central panel. The ribbon numbers gives us 260 days.” forms a cross shape on the page and

The research behind Deball’s exhibitions— drawing on a range of fields that includes anthropology, archeology, and ethnography—aligns closely with topics that Claudia Brittenham, Associate Professor of Art History and the College, Pre-columbian Art, explores in her own work. In her class Image and Text in Mesoamerican Codices, Brittenham explains that she “works with many of the documents that were the inspiration for [Deball’s] body of work.” To Brittenham, comparing calendars used today with those employed by ancient Mesoamericans sheds light on both the present and past, but that’s only an entry point. “We have calendars and Mesoamericans had calendars, but they worked differently and people used them in different ways,” she says. “They had different histories behind them. It’s important to think about similarities so we can recognize the humanity of the past, but also about differences, so that we don’t erase cultural and historical specificity.”

-Learn more about events related to Mariana Castillo Deball: Petlacoatl on pg. 10.

Top left: The Codex Fejervary-Mayer, 15th century. Author unknown; public domain.


The Aztec had two calendars: the 365-day Xiuhpōhualli (“year count”) and the 260-day Tōnalpōhualli (“day count”); together, the calendars marked a 52-year “century.” The Tōnalpōhualli uses a combination of 20 day signs and 13 numbers to tell the date. In this calendar, a week is 13 days, at which point the coefficient starts over; thus, the first week of the year is 1 Caiman to 13 Reed; the next week is 1 Jaguar to 13 Death. What are the fourth, eighth, and sixteenth weeks of the year (answers below)?

1 - CAIMAIN

2 - WIND

3 - HOUSE

4 - LIZARD

5 - SNAKE

6 - DEATH

7 - DEER

8 - RABBIT

9 - WATER

10 - DOG

11 - MONEY

12 - GRASS

13 - REED

14 - JAGUAR

15 - EAGLE

16 - VULTURE

17 - MOVEMENT

18 - FLINT

19 - RAIN

20 - FLOWER

Week 4: 1 Flower—13 Grass; Week 8: 1 Grass—13 Lizard; Week 16: 1 Vulture—13 Rabbit;


EXHIBITIONS & VISUAL ARTS

Hans G. Guterbock and Harry Hoffner, the creation and progress of The Chicago Hittite Dictionary, and the Oriental Institute’s expeditions to Turkey. Free; suggested donation: adults $10, children under 12 $5. Presented by the Oriental Institute.

M A R I A N A C A S T I L LO D E B A L L : P E T L AC OAT L

N I K KO WA S H I N G T O N : 53 ‘TIL INFINIT Y

Jan 11–Mar 31, 2019 Opening reception: Fri, Jan 11, 6pm Logan Center, Café Logan Raised in and shaped by the landscape and culture of Hyde Park, Nikko Washington has been creating art since he can remember. Beginning with drawing, and then painting, and finally graphic design and screenprinting, Washington’s introspective work often focuses on gentrification and displacement. Washington’s particular aesthetic has allowed him to excel with his individual work, as well as in his role as the Artistic Director for Chicago hip-hop collective, Savemoney. In this exhibition, he will highlight his most recent works, some of which has been created specifically for this show and will be seen for the first time. Free. Presented by the Logan Center.

THE FIRST 1000 YEARS: A N AT O L I A N S T U D I E S AT C H I C AG O

Ongoing Oriental Museum, lower level The Oriental Institute is one of the world’s main centers of Hittitology (the study of the ancient languages and cultures of Turkey). This exhibit looks at Chicago’s contribution to the field, including the early years of Hittitology, the careers of faculty members

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Through Jan 13 Logan Center Gallery Mexican-born and Berlin-based, Mariana Castillo Deball explores representations of cultures through material artifacts. For her first solo exhibition in Chicago, Deball presents a series of watercolor drawings and sculptures that take inspiration from the tōnalpōhualli, a calendar system used by pre-colonial Mesoamerican cultures. Free. Presented by Logan Center Exhibitions.

LET ME CONSIDER IT FROM HERE

Through Jan 27 The Renaissance Society Featuring work by Constance DeJong, Saul Fletcher, Brook Hsu, and Tetsumi Kudo, this group exhibition presents artists who operate in the liminal realms between the public and the intimate, the concrete and fantastical. Across a range of mediums, their works open

up spaces that register deeply personal experiences as well as more ambient cultural and political pressures. Free. Presented by the Renaissance Society.

THE FETUS IN UTERO: FROM M Y S T E RY T O S O C I A L M E D I A

Jan 2–Apr 12, 2019 Special Collections Research Center, Regenstein Library Explore the visual history of the fetus within the uterus from Renaissance woodcuts to modern medical images. Visitors will examine the social and scientific uses of these images and how they’ve contributed to the visual culture of the fetus in utero. Free. Presented by the University of Chicago Library.

LESLIE HEWITT

Mon, Jan 7, 6pm Logan Center, Performance Penthouse Working with photography, sculpture, and site-specific installations, Hewitt addresses fluid notions of time. Her photographed still life compositions comprise political, social, and personal materials, which result in multiple histories seen embedded in sculptural, architectural, and “abstract forms.” Exploring this as an artist and “not” as a historiographer, Hewitt draws parallels between the formal appearance of things and their significance to a collective “sense” of history, political consciousness in contemporary art and everyday life. Free. Presented by the Department of Visual Arts’ Open Practice Committee.

G A L L E RY TA L K : C L AU D I A B R I T T E N H A M

Thu, Jan 10, 6pm Logan Center Gallery Claudia Brittenham, Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Chicago, leads a gallery talk that focuses on the use of ancient Mesoamerican codices in the Logan


Renaissance Society, introduces Let me consider it from here in an informal tour of this group show. He discusses the individual artists—Constance DeJong, Saul Fletcher, Brook Hsu, and Tetsumi Kudo— as well as the themes that connect their works. Free. Presented by the Renaissance Society.

FACULTY SIDEBAR C L AU D I A B R I T T E N H A M Associate Professor of Art History, leads a gallery talk that focuses on the use of ancient Mesoamerican codices in the exhibition Mariana Castillo Deball: Petlacoatl, Thu, Jan 10, 6pm at the Logan Center Gallery. Brittenham’s research focuses on the art of ancient Mesoamerica, with particular attention to the ways that the materiality of art and the politics of style contribute to our understanding of the ontology of images.

SMART TO THE CORE: E M B O DY I N G T H E S E L F

Jan 29–May 19, 2019 Smart Museum of Art Presented as primary source material for the UChicago Social Sciences course sequence “Self, Culture, and Society,” this exhibition considers how selfhood has been variously constructed and performed by visual artists in the modern era, with particular attention to gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity, and intersectional identities. Free. Presented by the Smart Museum of Art. Center exhibition Mariana Castillo Deball: Petlacoatl. Free. Presented by Logan Center Exhibitions.

GEOFFREY G. O’BRIEN, S I M O N E W H I T E , LY N N X U

Thu, Jan 10, 6pm Swift Hall, third floor As a complement to the Renaissance Society’s exhibition Let me consider it from here, three poets will read from new work, written for the occasion and for the forthcoming publication. Embodying the concerns of the exhibition in their own ways, their poems offer rich viewpoints on how a private or personal space can open on to larger social and political realities. Free; please RSVP (renaissancesociety.org). Presented by the Renaissance Society, the Poem Present Series, and the Program for Poetry and Poetics.

S O L I DA RY & S O L I TA RY: T H E J OY N E R /G I U F F R I DA CO L L E C T I O N

Jan 29–May 19, 2019 Smart Museum of Art Solidary & Solitary tells a history of art by African-American artists, with a particular emphasis on abstraction, from the 1940s to the present moment. The exhibition is drawn from the Pamela J. Joyner and Alfred J. Giuffrida Collection, and features major works by Mark Bradford, Kevin Beasley, Leonardo Drew, Charles Gaines, Sam Gilliam, Norman Lewis, Serge Alain Nitegeka, Shinique Smith, and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, among others, as well as new commissions from Chicago-area artists Bethany Collins, Samuel Levi Jones, and Amanda Williams. Free. Presented by the Smart Museum of Art.

E X H I B I T I O N WA L K-T H R O U G H : LET ME CONSIDER IT FROM HERE Sun, Jan 20, 1pm The Renaissance Society Karsten Lund, Associate Curator at the

Harrie A. Vanderstappen Distinguished Service Professor of Art History and the College and Adjunct Curator at the Smart Museum of Art, will be delivering the Andrew W. Mellon Lectures at the National Art Gallery in 2019. Professor Wu will give six talks—collectively titled End as Beginning: Chinese Art and Dynastic Time—surveying more than 2,000 years of Chinese history. Wu has published widely on both traditional and contemporary Chinese art. The lectures begin March 2019.

ISSA L AMPE Deputy Director for Academic and Curatorial Affairs and Director of the Feitler Center at the Smart Museum of Art, presents Smart to the Core: Embodying the Self (Jan 29– May 19, 2019). The exhibition, co-curated with “Self, Culture, and Society” faculty co-chairs J O H N K E L LY , Christian W. Mackauer Professor of Anthropology and of Social Sciences in the College, and

E . A N N E B E A L , Lecturer in the Social

K L E I N E W E LT

Jan 17–Apr 5, 2019 Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society Named after a Paul Klee print from 1918, this exhibition is devoted to the curious art of the book cover, more specifically the “little world” of philosophy and theory publishing in which Klee’s imagery has proven itself so enduringly popular. A special section of the exhibition will be dedicated to a similarly iconic image familiar to us from many a book cover, namely Caspar David Friedrich’s Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog. Featuring new work by Zachary Cahill, R. H. Quaytman, and David Schutter. Free. Presented by the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society.

WU HUNG

K A R T H I K PA N D I A N & A N D R O S Z I N S - B R OW N E : AT L A S U N L I M I T E D ( AC T S V –V I )

Feb 1–Mar 17, 2019 Opening Reception: Fri, Feb 1, 6pm Logan Center Gallery Atlas Unlimited is an ongoing collaborative project by artist Karthik Pandian and choreographer Andros Zins-Browne. The US premier presents temporary architectures and sculpture fragments that depict monuments, tents, and border walls from Tahrir Square and Palmyra to Myanmar and the US-Mexico border, alongside objects that draw directly from the collaborator’s research on Chicago, referencing the “Street in Cairo” exhibition erected during the Worlds Columbian Exposition of 1893. The exhibition features weekly activations by a rotating cast of builders. Free. Presented by Logan Center Exhibitions.

Sciences Collegiate Division, is the first in Lampe’s new series of exhibitions for the College Core. The exhibitions are curated for teaching in UChicago’s famed undergraduate Core curriculum, which introduces students to foundational texts that raise fundamental questions about human experience. Smart to the Core is curated in collaboration

with B E R I T N E S S , Assistant Curator of Academic Initiatives at the Smart.

GEOF OPPENHEIMER Associate Professor of Practice in the Arts, presents a new exhibition project at The CRP/ Centre régional de la photographie in Valenciennes, France. The political economy of bodies AKA The Night Staff, on display Mar 9–May 26, 2019, will be a body of work that takes up issues of community, labor, and work in the modern economy. Oppenheimer’s practice takes up questions of civic value, the ways in which political and social structures are encoded in images and objects and how meaning is formed in the modern world. Trained as a sculptor, Oppenheimer works across multiple mediums including stage set video productions and photography.

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FACULTY SIDEBAR

methods of incorporating and refiguring past works into new installations, the artist brings this approach to a new project at the Renaissance Society, his first solo museum exhibition in the United States. Free. Presented by the Renaissance Society.

FROM SYRIA TO THE SOUTH SIDE JA S O N S A L AVO N Associate Professor of Art and faculty in the Computation Institute, was one of the four inaugural artists of Chicago’s public art project, Art on theMART (Sep 29–Dec 31, 2018). Salavon’s Homage in Between (Chicago Art, 20th Century) spoke to Chicago’s grand art and design histories as fluid streams of smaller events. The media work was projected onto the 2.5-acre river façade of theMART in downtown Chicago. Employed for numerous years as an artist and programmer in the video game industry, Salavon has used custom software to create artworks that ruminate on the nature of individual uniqueness when embedded in massive populations.

M E G A N S U L L I VA N Assistant Professor of Art History, is coorganizing a Latin American art symposium titled “New Narratives for Contemporary Art” with former DoVA Tinker Visiting Professor Ricardo Basbaum. This oneday conference, taking place on Fri, Mar 1, 2019, will address the need to produce new narratives for contemporary art history that engage in current post-colonial/decolonial debates. Sullivan’s scholarship focuses on twentieth-century Latin American art, with a particular emphasis on Brazil and Argentina.

NONALIGNMENT

Thu, Feb 7 & Fri, Feb 8 Logan Center Nonalignment is the second convening of the multi-year research program, The Ties That Bind: Waves of Pan Africanism in Contemporary Art and Society. This convening considers resistance towards the reductive tendencies of PanAfricanism and the shifting focus towards interconnectivity and cultural hybridity. Focusing on a broader international context, Nonalignment explores the ways that Pan-African movements have been entangled with liberatory and de-colonial movements around the globe in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Free. Presented by Logan Center Exhibitions.

DAV I D M A L J KOV I Ć : ALSO ON VIEW

Feb 9–Apr 7, 2019 The Renaissance Society David Maljković works with a range of formats—including photomontages, film projections, and tools of display such as pedestals and Plexiglas—to explore artistic practice, perception, and legacies of the avant-garde. Known for his distinctive

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Wed, Feb 27, 4:30pm Logan Center Gallery and the Oriental Institute Join visual artist Karthik Pandian and choreographer Andros Zins-Browne in an exploration of the creation process around the Logan Center exhibition, Atlas Unlimited (Acts V–VI). Participants will visit the exhibition and then take part in an interactive workshop at the Oriental Institute Museum. Together with the curators, attendees will draw connections between the exhibition’s focus on the instability and itinerant realities of immigration and the museum’s collection of ancient Near Eastern artifacts. (Transportation provided between sites.) Free. Co-presented by Logan Center Exhibitions, The Oriental Institute, and Amplify at the University of Chicago.

K E N N E T H L A PAT I N : R E D I S C OV E R I N G T H E V I L L A D E I PA P I R I AT H E R C U L A N E U M

Thu, Mar 7, 5pm Cochrane-Woods Arts Center, Room 157 In advance of an international loan exhibition at the Getty Villa (Los Angeles) opening in June 2019, Kenneth Lapatin, Curator of Antiquities with the J. Paul Getty Museum, will address the history of the Villa dei Papiri

at Herculaneum, which ranks among the most significant archaeological discoveries of the past 300 years. The seaside retreat, reputed to be a home of some of Julius Caesar’s relatives, was buried by the same eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in AD 79 that buried Pompeii. Discovered by well-diggers in 1750, the excavation uncovered antiquity’s largest single sculpture collection and the only preserved library from the Greek and Roman world. Kenneth Lapatin has curated numerous groundbreaking exhibitions of ancient art, most notably Power and Pathos, the recent exhibition of Hellenistic bronze sculpture. Q&A and reception to follow. Free. Presented by the Department of Art History as part of the 2018/19 Smart Lecture series supported by the Smart Family Foundation.

TA L K : A R U N A D ’ S O U Z A

Thu, Mar 7, 6pm Logan Center, Terrace Seminar Room Writer Aruna D’Souza gives a talk about Karthik Pandian and Andros Zins-Browne’s project Atlas Unlimited (Acts V–VI) at the Logan Center Gallery, contextualizing their work within artistic practices that engage questions of forced migration. Free. Presented by Logan Center Exhibitions.

CLOSING RECEPTION & P E R F O R M A N C E BY S A M I I S M AT Thu, Mar 14, 6pm Logan Center Gallery Join us for the closing reception of Atlas Unlimited (Acts V-VI), featuring a performance by Sami Ismat. Free. Presented by Logan Center Exhibitions.

A Brief History oF Ducks The window was open when six ducks flew up to the tenth floor of our building. The six ducks lunged above the bed, a pattern of speck and gaggle. They sat, hidden under all of our furniture and settled silent. We got up and tried to find the ducks but everything was the same and you didn’t want to scare them. Some time passed and I found a green one with long strokes of gray down his mantle, lodged between the bedframe and the wall. I cradled him into my arms where he sat. More time passed before we found the rest and put them inside small, clear bins to carry them down to a lake nearby. When we released them, they swam in a perfect v-formation like larks. They paid no mind, mobile. But when I counted them in the water, there were only five ducks. The sixth duck was still upstairs in our bedroom. I was devastated. I woke up. You told me that maybe I needed to get my ducks in a row, laughing. I had a dream about suitcases once that you said was about baggage. I am afraid of being so literal. I am afraid of not being afraid. I am sure of it. I am still not past the house I grew up in. Past the clutch of brown and occasional white ducks that swam in the lake of the backyard. They demanded to be looked at, still shining from their waning coat of water. My mother hated them because they always shit on the patio and she hated cleaning the patio. My grandmother always fed the ducks bread or bananas, which my mother hated because the ducks always came back for more. The television stand at my old house held seven wooden duck figurines, hand-painted with new feathers. I could fit three of them in my small hand. My favorite was the blue duck, because I had never seen a blue duck and I thought that I would very much like to. I soothe myself by telling myself that it is not the same. That my mothering will be a different kind of mothering, that my call is a different kind of call. That my call is not a call. That my call is an apology. —Andrea Giugni, ‘19, Comparative Literature & Creative Writing


Admission is always free. All are welcome.

January 29–May 19, 2019

SOLIDARY & SOLITARY THE JOYNER/GIUFFRIDA COLLECTION Presented by The Helis Foundation

January 29–May 19, 2019

SMART TO THE CORE EMBODYING THE SELF

Images (left to right, top to bottom): Glenn Ligon. One Black Day, 2012. © Glenn Ligon; Courtesy of the artist, Luhring Augustine, New York, Regen Projects, Los Angeles, and Thomas Dane Gallery, London. • Kevin Beasley, Bronx Fitted, 2015. © Courtesy of the artist and Casey Kaplan, New York; photo by Jean Vong • Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Mirror Study for Joe ( _2010980), 2017, archival Pigment Print. Courtesy of DOCUMENT.

Smart Museum of Art | The University of Chicago | 5550 S. Greenwood Avenue | Chicago, IL 60637 | smartmuseum.uchicago.edu


FILM

P R E C I O U S K N OW L E D G E

C I N E M A 5 3 : R AC E A N D AMERICAN SCHOOLS H O S T E D BY E V E L . E W I N G

Harper Theater (5238 S Harper Ave) What constitutes a “good” school, and for whom? Who is included in the vision of education as the great equalizer, and who is left out? In this trio of documentaries, we explore the central role that race has played in the experience of schooling in America. Curated by Eve L. Ewing, assistant professor at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration and author of Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago’s South Side, the winter series brings together a researcher, a teacher, and a filmmaker to unpack the sordid story of race and education, and imagine the future of American schooling. All events are free. Presented by Cinema 53 in partnership with the Harper Theater and the Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry.

AMERICAN PROMISE

Thu, Jan 24, 7pm A rare look into the lives of two middle class Black families as they navigate the ups and downs of educating their sons. From Pre-K to high school, we see the families struggle with stereotypes and identity, navigate learning differences that later become diagnoses, and ultimately take increasingly divergent paths on their road to graduation. Followed by conversation with Ewing and Amanda Lewis, director of the Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy, UIC. (Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson, 2013, 45 min)

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Thu, Feb 21, 7pm As the nation focuses on a wave of antiimmigration legislation, the issue of ethnic chauvinism becomes a double-edged weapon. When Arizona lawmakers pass a bill giving unilateral power to the State Superintendent to abolish ethnic studies classes, teachers and student leaders fight to save the program using texts, Facebook, optimism, and a megaphone. Followed by conversation with Ewing and Ray Salazar, Board Certified CPS teacher and awardwinning education writer. (Ari Luis Palos and Eren Isabel McGinnis, 2012, 75 min)

TESTED

Thu, Mar 7, 7pm Follow a dozen racially and socioeconomically diverse 8th graders as they fight for a seat at one of New York’s top public schools. Their only way in: to ace a single standardized test. Tested includes the voices of education experts Pedro Noguera and Diane Ravitch as it explores such issues as access to a high-quality public education, affirmative action, and the model-minority myth. Followed by conversation with Ewing and director Curtis Chin. (Curtis Chin, 2015, 90 min)

F I L M S P OT T I N G ’ S 2 0 1 8 W R A P PA R T Y

Fri, Jan 11, 8pm Logan Center, Performance Hall WBEZ’s Podcast Passport is proud to present Filmspotting’s 2018 Wrap Party! This long-running, weekly podcast, hosted by Adam Kempenaar and Josh Larsen, features in-depth discussions on all things film, interviews with leading actors and directors, movie marathons and weekly Top 5 lists. This year’s Wrap Party will recap the year in movies with highlights of what stood out in cinema, plus special guests to be announced! As awards season comes to a close, join your fellow Chicagoland film buffs for an evening celebrating

the best movie moments of the year. General Admission $15, Members and Students $10 (wbez.org/events). Presented by WBEZ Podcast Passport.

S M A L L D E AT H S : A M E D I TAT I O N ON GRIEF IN CINEMA

Mondays, Jan 7–Mar 11, 7pm Max Palevsky Cinema, Ida Noyes Hall Sorrow constitutes an indelible part of life. The way it manifests in film is similarly fascinating, for it crystallizes in the frames that most insistently withhold sense and emotion. This series is dedicated to cinematic grief and showcases the medium’s capacity for restraint—windows of pause in which to experience the poetry of detail, and sites of absence their minutiae signal. These films are variations of the ‘small deaths’ triggered after loss; and share a spare, haunting beauty that contours some of cinema’s most stunning distillations of experience. General $7/film, $40 all-access pass for all winter quarter films. Presented by Doc Films.

I N C R E D I B LY T R U E A DV E N T U R E S F R O M THE NEW LESBIAN CINEMA

Tuesdays, Jan 8–Mar 12, 7pm Max Palevsky Cinema, Ida Noyes Hall This series showcases a trend in the 1990s in which queer women embraced low-budget, indie filmmaking to tell their own stories onscreen for the first time. They broke major ground by not forcing Lesbian characters into suicide or the arms of men. The series starts with this wave’s precursor, Desert Hearts—the first Lesbian movie with a happy ending. Other highlights include Bound, The Watermelon Woman, and But I’m a Cheerleader. While there’s plenty of serious drama here, the overall vibe is a winterwarming mix of comedy, romance, and camp. General $7/film, $40 all-access pass for all winter quarter films. Presented by Doc Films.


AN ISABELLE HUPPERT RETROSPECTIVE

Wednesdays, Jan 9–Mar 13, 7pm Max Palevsky Cinema, Ida Noyes Hall Isabelle Huppert is one of the greatest actors of her generation, full stop. She has emblazoned her stamp onto the landscape of world cinema with the two characteristics that define her career: first, an unshakeable commitment to the visions of her directors (and an uncanny ability to sniff out the ones worth committing to); and second, an unflagging fearlessness, an irrepressible commitment to baring her soul on screen in the most vulnerable and incendiary of fashions. This series pays tribute to her chameleonic performances and unforgettable screen presence with a selection of 10 of her greatest performances. General $7/film, $40 all-access pass for all winter quarter films. Presented by Doc Films.

DA N C I N G T H R O U G H T H E AG E S : A 2 0 T H C E N T U RY S H OWC A S E Thursdays, Jan 10–Mar 14, 7pm Max Palevsky Cinema, Ida Noyes Hall Dance and film are both concerned at their cores with movement and rhythm. In many ways, this makes film the perfect medium to both showcase dancing and use it as a plot device. This series will celebrate the many ways that dancing has been used as a tool in movies in the 20th century, from

Star Baby

S

he wanted the mug more than she’d ever wanted anything.

It was the first thing she’d felt today, and the sensation of it, of experiencing emotion, was overwhelming. Yesterday she’d been numb from the moment she woke up to the walk to the clinic to the procedure itself—closing her eyes, spreading her legs, letting the smell of disinfectant surround her—to the Uber home after, woozy and shaking. (She’d gone by herself. She hadn’t asked Connor to go with her, and—more importantly, it seemed to her—he hadn’t offered.) It was funny, really, because in the days leading up to yesterday she’d been sick to the stomach with an almost constant low-grade nausea humming greasily in her ear. It never failed to surprise her, in an ugly way, how uncomfortable nausea was, the roiling sensation that something was wrong, something that could not be righted without a violent bodily expulsion. Not something you could just close your eyes and ignore.

ballet to breakdancing to disco! Highlights for this series include Singing in the Rain, Saturday Night Fever, and Dirty Dancing. General $7/film, $40 all-access pass for all winter quarter films. Presented by Doc Films.

T H E WO M E N ’ S P I C T U R E N O I R

Fridays at 7pm & 9:30pm; Sundays at 1:30pm Max Palevsky Cinema, Ida Noyes Hall Some of Hollywood’s most compelling film noirs incorporated major elements of that most feminist-friendly of genres, the women’s picture. The results are domestic noirs that sympathetically explore classic women’s picture themes like marriage, motherhood, and the sexual double standard. Instead of the femme fatale we have the homme fatal: the seductive man who is not what he seems, and who may be trying to kill you—or at least have you committed to an insane asylum! Featured films range from iconic titles like Gaslight to B movie gems like Repeated Performance. General $7/film, $40 all-access pass for all winter quarter films. Presented by Doc Films.

NEW RELEASES

Saturdays at 7pm & 9:30pm; Sundays at 4pm Max Palevsky Cinema, Ida Noyes Hall Catch up on awards season and join us for

the season’s hottest new releases on the big screen! Highlights include Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria (from the director of Call Me By Your Name) and Barry Jenkins’s If Beale Street Could Talk (an adaptation of a James Baldwin novel from the director of Moonlight). General $7/film, $40 all-access pass for all winter quarter films. Presented by Doc Films.

T H E C I N E M A O F R E S I S TA N C E

Sundays at 7pm Max Palevsky Cinema, Ida Noyes Hall These films showcase a variety of answers to the question: What cinematic strategies do filmmakers who work under dictatorial and oppressive regimes adopt to criticize those very regimes? According to the great Polish director Andzrej Wajda: “it’s easy to censor words; but it’s much harder to censor images.” This series explores the manifold ways in which directors from around the globe have hit upon and illustrated the truth of Wajda’s pronouncement. From the mystical symbolism of The Color of Pomegranates in Armenia, to the appropriation of genre conventions of A Touch of Sin in China, this series is a celebration of these directors’ boundless creativity. General $7/film, $40 all-access pass for all winter quarter films. Presented by Doc Films.

But then, on the day itself, she had felt nothing. Nothingness had embraced her, spooned her, coaxed her to sleep the moment she’d walked back into her apartment. She’d gotten into bed and drifted off on waves of nothingness, even though it was barely dinnertime.

eyes, shaded inverted triangle for a mouth, both signaling mischievous enjoyment—and a green smear behind him like a wall, green paint on his two out-turned palms, which were held, laughingly, in bold confession, up by his shoulders.

This morning she’d woken up and assumed vaguely that she should have something to eat. The cereal boxes on top of the fridge were all empty—a few last cornflakes rattling sadly when she shook the box—so she’d walked to the Starbucks a block over from her apartment, the closest of the three Starbucks on her college campus. She’d meant to go to the grocery store, but it was raining, which she should have processed before she’d left her apartment but hadn’t because when she looked out the window at the grey and dismal world it felt right to her; of course it was raining. But that meant she’d left without a rain jacket so now she was standing in the Starbucks, hair and shoulders damp and steaming, ignoring the coffee and the pastries. Staring at this goddamn mug.

It was twenty-five dollars. She didn’t have twenty-five dollars to spend on a fucking Starbucks mug, of all things; she’d probably drop it in the next few weeks and then her twenty five hard-earned dollars would be in the trash along with its shards.

She wanted it so badly she had to clench her fists against the waves of yearning. It was a tall white travel mug, ceramic, with a small design emblazoned on the front. A little boy, drawn in simple lines—dashes for his closed

But she couldn’t stop looking at it. It was the star on the little boy’s shirt that transfixed her How many boys grew up wanting to be astronauts? It seemed like it was the American dream, the legacy of the Space Race and Buzz Lightyear. How was it that this laughing, carefree little boy could so completely embody what seemed to her to be the sweetness, the innocence, the color of childhood? He was utterly different from the child she thought of in her head, when she had let herself think about it at all. The child that would remain forever unborn. Her un-baby.

There were no colors in her head when she imagined her child. She pictured a little boy—for some reason, though now she would never know for sure, she had thought it was a boy— floating through the total blackness of space, the lines of his face and body traced in silver. A fetal outline limned in luminous white light. The ghost of the child that could have been, with all that he might have become, each and every one of his potential futures, twinkling around him. Her lost little astronaut, drifting amongst the stars. Her face was wet too. Belatedly she realized that it wasn’t because of the rain.

—Jacqueline Wu, ‘19, English and Creative Writing


FERRARI -or- FERRARI ?

1

was born in 1937. THIS

FERRARI

2

work 3,500 pounds. THIS

FERRARI

weighs nearly

3

has Chicago, THIS

FERRARI

over 30 works in six of which are on the

THIS

at any given time.

“One must keep working continuously; otherwise, one thinks of death .”

UChicago campus

by Tyler Logan

THIS

Test your knowledge of cool sculptures and fast cars. This past fall, UChicago Arts, the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, the Smart Museum of Art, and the Department of Art History partnered to present a program on Italian sculptor Virginio Ferrari. Presented as part of the Art Design Chicago Initiative, Dialogo: Virginio Ferrari and Chicago included tours and talks, K-12 and family programming, and other public events. Guests at multiple events throughout the city had the opportunity to learn eye-opening facts about the internationallyacclaimed sculptor, whose surname always calls to mind works of art—be they sculptures or sports cars. See answers on pg. 29.

7

was born in THIS

FERRARI

Modena, Italy. THIS

8

THIS

9

4

FERRARI

5

FERRARI

once wrote

was officially

established in 1947. 6

has dedicated space THIS

FERRARI

for their work.

was initially uninterested in the work that defined his career. FERRARI

FERRARI

design

was inspired by a WWI flying ace.

10

has an exhaust system named after him. THIS

FERRARI


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Heraclitus Goes to a Rave —Ricky Novaes de Oliveira, BA’19, Political Science and Creative Writing

We are pleased to share a collection of original works from students in UChicago’s Creative Writing & Poetics program. Students at UChicago pursue creative writing within the larger context of their academic study, and they are given a rigorous background in the fundamentals of creative work by studying with established poets and prose writers. The program differs from the professional, free-standing creative writing programs at other universities in seeing itself as an integral part of UChicago’s intellectual life, and most particularly in providing opportunities for interdisciplinary work. Read the works on pages 12, 15, 18, 23, and 32.


LITERATURE & LECTURES

M AG G I E TA F T O N A R T I N C H I C AG O : A H I S T O RY F R O M T H E F I R E T O N OW

F I C T I O N R E A D I N G BY L I N G M A

Thu, Jan 17, 6pm Seminary Co-op Bookstore (5751 S Woodlawn Ave) Faculty member Ling Ma reads from her debut novel, Severance. Ma is the 2018 Kirkus Prize Winner for fiction. Free. Presented by the Seminary Co-op Bookstore and the Program in Creative Writing.

CHARLES BERNSTEIN ON NEAR/MISS

Sun, Jan 6, 3pm 57th Street Books (1301 E 57th S) Praised in recent years as a “calculating, improvisatory, essential poet” by Daisy Fried in The New York Times, and as “the foremost poet-critic of our time” by Craig Dworkin, Charles Bernstein is a leading voice in American poetry. Near/ Miss, Bernstein’s first poetry collection in five years, is the apotheosis of his late style, thick with off-center rhythms, hilarious riffs, and verbal extravagance. Free. Presented by Seminary Co-op Bookstores.

GEOFFREY G. O’BRIEN, S I M O N E W H I T E , LY N N X U

Thu, Jan 10, 6pm Swift Hall, third floor As a complement to the Renaissance Society’s exhibition Let me consider it from here, three poets will read from new work, written for the occasion and for the forthcoming publication. Embodying the concerns of the exhibition in their own ways, their poems offer rich viewpoints on how a private or personal space can open on to larger social and political realities. Free; please RSVP (renaissancesociety.org). Presented by the Renaissance Society, the Poem Present Series, and the Program for Poetry and Poetics.

GREENLIGHT SERIES: S O U T H S I D E S TO RY T I M E

Sat, Jan 19, 10am Green Line Performing Arts Center (329 E Garfield Blvd) The GreenLight Series illuminates the varied performing arts disciplines producing work in the Green Line Arts Center. Arts + Public Life (APL) invites audiences to experience a rotating sample of storytelling, music performances, comedy, theater, and dance works presented by ensembles, collectives and individuals. South Side Story Time is hosted by South Side moms Keewa Nurullah and Megan Jeyifo. Free. Presented by Arts + Public Life.

Sat, Jan 26, 3pm Seminary Co-op Bookstore (5751 S Woodlawn Ave) Art in Chicago is a magisterial account of the long history of Chicago art, from the rupture of the Great Fire in 1871 to the present, Manierre Dawson, László MoholyNagy, and Ivan Albright to Chris Ware, Anne Wilson, and Theaster Gates. The first single-volume history of art and artists in Chicago, the book—in recognition of the complexity of the story it tells—doesn’t follow a single continuous trajectory. Rather, it presents an overlapping sequence of interrelated narratives that together tell a full and nuanced, yet wholly accessible history of visual art in the city. Free. Presented by Seminary Co-op Bookstores.

L I T E R A RY E D I T I N G A S A R T & P R AC T I C E

Mon, Jan 28, 6pm Logan Center, Terrace Seminar Room Brigid Hughes, founding editor of A Public Space, an independent magazine of literature and culture that seeks out overlooked and unclassifiable work, joins 2018 National Book Award finalist Jamel Brinkley in a conversation about publishing writing from beyond established confines. This project is backed by the Vice Provost for Academic Leadership, Advancement and Diversity. Free. Presented by the Vice Provost for Academic Leadership, Advancement and Diversity, the Fictions & Forms Series and the Program in Creative Writing.

arts.uchicago.edu | 19


S TAC I E W I L L I A M S O N B I Z A R R O WO R L D S : J O N AT H A N L E T H E M ’ S THE FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE W I T H TA R A B E T T S

Wed, Jan 30 6pm Seminary Co-op Bookstore (5751 S Woodlawn Ave) As a black woman and a comics geek, Stacie Williams identified strongly with one aspect of The Fortress of Solitude—its portrayal of gentrification. For Jonathan Lethem’s characters, and for Williams in her own life, gentrification is a stand-in for racism—the “Big Bad” that affects education, policing, and housing policy. Tracing her experience of living in Chicago, Boston, Milwaukee, Cleveland, and Lexington, Kentucky, Williams tests the limits of how far Lethem’s superhero narrative frames the most American of experiences. Free. Presented by Seminary Co-op Bookstores.

This talk will explore the cinematic image of one man’s body, examining how it functions as a multi-faceted repository for human history and an anthropological network of visual and cultural relations. These give voice to muted histories of the French Empire including its colonial penal practices that, in the case of this body, reveal themselves under the sign of his flesh. Free. Presented by the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality.

F I C T I O N R E A D I N G BY R O K WO N Mon, Feb 4, 6pm Logan Center, Terrace Seminar Room R.O. Kwon reads from her own work. Kwon is the author of The Incendiaries, an American Booksellers Association Indie Next #1 Pick. She is a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellow. A UChicago student will open the reading. Free. Presented by the New Voices Series and the Program in Creative Writing.

P O E T RY R E A D I N G BY N AT E M A R S H A L L P O E T RY R E A D I N G BY CO DY- R O S E C L E V I D E N C E

Wed, Feb 20, 6pm Logan Center, Terrace Seminar Room Cody-Rose Clevidence reads from their work. Their first book, Beast Feast, was a finalist for the 2016 CLMP Firecracker award in poetry. Their chapbook, Perverse, All Monstrous, is available through Nion Editions. A UChicago Student will open the reading. Free. Presented by the New Voices Series and the Program in Poetry and Poetics.

ADINA HOFFMAN ON BEN H E C H T: F I G H T I N G WO R D S , M OV I N G P I C T U R E S W I T H J O N AT H A N R O S E N B AU M

E I L E E N M Y L E S O N E VO LU T I O N

Wed, Feb 13, 6pm Seminary Co-op Bookstore (5751 S Woodlawn Ave) Eileen Myles reads from their first all-new collection of poems since 2011’s Snowflake/ different streets—and following the critically acclaimed Afterglow (a dog memoir). In Evolution, we find the eminent, exuberant writer at the forefront of American literature, upending genre in a new vernacular that enacts—like nobody else—the way we speak (inside and out) today. Free. Presented by Seminary Co-op Bookstores.

J E N N I F E R W I L D : H OW T O S E E O N E M A N ’ S B O DY: AN EXPERIMENT IN HISTORICAL PERCEPTION

Mon, Feb 18, 4:30-6pm Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality (5733 S University Ave) 2019 Iris Marion Young Distinguished Faculty Lecture. We think we know certain images well, but with continued scrutiny they provide new historical perceptions and knowledge.

20 | arts.uchicago.edu

Emily Hooper Lansana. This performance will highlight a range of stories that demonstrate women’s creative and political genius from folk heroines to Nobel Peace Prize winners who continue to find ways to triumph even amidst chaos and challenge. The evening will include an open mic for guests to share women-centered stories as well. Free. Presented by Arts + Public Life.

Wed, Feb 20, 6pm Seminary Co-op Bookstore (5751 S Woodlawn Ave) Ben Hecht was, according to Pauline Kael, “the greatest American screenwriter.” Jean-Luc Godard called him “a genius” who “invented 80 percent of what is used in Hollywood movies today.” Besides writing dozens of now-classic scripts, Hecht was known in his day as ace reporter, celebrated playwright, taboo-busting novelist, and the most quick-witted of provocateurs. Awardwinning writer Adina Hoffman brings this charismatic and contradictory figure back to life on the page, taking readers through the backstreets and backlots of Chicago, Hollywood, Broadway, and beyond for a tour across twentieth-century culture. Free. Presented by Seminary Co-op Bookstores.

GREENLIGHT SERIES: IN THE SPIRIT

Wed, Feb 20, 7pm Green Line Performing Arts Center (329 E Garfield Blvd) The GreenLight Series illuminates the varied performing arts disciplines producing work in the Green Line Arts Center. Join us for an evening of storytelling featuring the dynamic duo, In the Spirit: Zahra Baker and

Wed, Feb 20, 7pm Thu, Feb 28, 6 pm Logan Center, Terrace Seminar Room Nate Marshall reads from his work. Marshall is from the South Side of Chicago. His first book, Wild Hundreds, won the Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize. He is a coeditor of The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop. A UChicago student will open the reading. Free. Presented by the Ron Offen Poetry Prize Series and the Program in Poetry and Poetics.

FICTION READING BY J E N N Y O F F I L L

Thu, Mar 14, 6pm Logan Center, Terrace Seminar Room Jenny Offill reads from her work. Offill’s most recent novel Dept. of Speculation was named one of the 10 Best Books of 2014 by the New York Times Book Review. Free. Presented by the Fictions & Forms Series and the Program in Creative Writing.

R OY C H R I S TO P H E R O N D E A D P R E C E D E N T S : H OW H I P - H O P DEFINES THE FUTURE

Wed, Mar 20, 6pm Seminary Co-op Bookstore (5751 S Woodlawn Ave) In Dead Precedents: How Hip-Hop Defines the Future, Roy Christopher traces the story of how hip-hop invented the twenty-first century. Emerging alongside cyberpunk in the 1980s, the hallmarks of hip-hop— allusion, self-reference, the use of new technologies, sampling, the cutting and splicing of language and sound—would come to define the culture of the new millennium. Dead Precedents is a countercultural history of the twenty-first century, showcasing hip-hop’s role in the creation of the world in which we now live. Free. Presented by Seminary Co-op Bookstores.


“Chicago’s gift to

the early music world”

— Boston Classical Review

JANUARY 11, 12, 13 What’s Old is New Music from the newly rediscovered 15th-century Leuven Chansonnier

APRIL 5, 6, 7 La Jardin de Melodies

16th-century French ballads & dance music for lutes, violins & voices

NewberryConsort.org


MUSIC

F I R S T M O N DAY JA Z Z

THE FOLKLORE SOCIET Y P R E S E N T S : T H E 5 9 T H A N N UA L U C H I C AG O F O L K F E S T I VA L Concerts - Fri, Feb 15, 8pm & Sat, Feb 16, 7:30pm Mandel Hall Workshops - Sat, Feb 16 Ida Noyes Hall A celebration of folk music and dance, the Folk Fest brings together folk musicians from all over the world for two diverse nights of old-time, bluegrass, Irish, Blues, and Cajun music—plus much more! The fest also offers FREE Saturday workshops, including jam sessions, dances, folk music how-to’s, and discussions with the performers. Concert highlights include crowd-favorites the Fat Babies and Grammy-nominated T’Monde, so mark your calendars now for the most anticipated event in Chicago’s folk music community. Friday: $25 regular, $20 senior, $10 student; Saturday: $30 regular, $25 senior, $10 student; Saturday workshops are free (uofcfolk.org). Presented by the University of Chicago Folklore Society.

22 | arts.uchicago.edu

Mon, Jan 7, 7pm Green Line Performing Arts Center (329 E Garfield Blvd) The First Mondays Jazz series features Chicago artists on the first Monday of every month, and includes light refreshments plus the opportunity to mingle with community members while enjoying live jazz along the Arts Block on historic Garfield Blvd. in Washington Park. January’s featured artist is the Second Nature Jazz Quintet. Free. Presented by Arts + Public Life.

TRIO CÉLESTE

Fri, Jan 11, 7:30pm Mandel Hall The acclaimed, rising young piano trio offers a program of old and new memorials. In the Trio Elégiaque, Rachmaninoff memorialized Tchaikovsky, who wrote his own work in tribute to his close friend and pianist Nikolai Rubinstein. More than one hundred years later, Pierre Jalbert dedicated his piano trio to the life and work of Mother Theresa. 6:30pm preconcert lecture with George Adams. General $38, Faculty & Staff $30, Under 35 $20, Students $10. Presented by UChicago Presents.

T H E 1 0 T H G E R R I S H R E C I TA L : P E T E R R I C H A R D CO N T E AND ANDREW ENNIS

Fri, Jan 11, 8pm Rockefeller Chapel Peter Richard Conte and Andrew Ennis play a brilliant program of their own transcriptions for organ duo and organ/ flugelhorn, including selections from Respighi’s Pines of Rome and the première of their own arrangements of music from Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite and RimskyKorsakov’s Scheherezade. Conte adds music of Richard Strauss arranged for solo organ. Tickets at the door $10, free to students with ID. A recital in Rockefeller’s Brian Gerrish Organ Performance Series. Presented by Rockefeller Chapel.

C H I C AG O E N S E M B L E CO N C E R T: P R O G R A M I I

Sun, Jan 13, 2:30-5pm International House Assembly Hall (1414 E 59th St) Offering an innovative mix of familiar masterworks and lesser-known repertoire performed in varied combinations of instruments and voice, the Chicago Ensemble has occupied a unique place in Chicago’s cultural life for over 40 years. Works by Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann will be featured. General $25, Students $10, UChicago Students free. Presented by the International House Global Voices Performing Arts Series and the Chicago Ensemble.


A AC M : T H E W I S D O M O F THE ELDERS

Sat, Jan 19, 7pm Logan Center, Performance Penthouse The Wisdom of the Elders is a concert performance featuring four of the elder statesman of the Chicago Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) nexus. The rare combination of saxes, flutes, vocals, and percussion offer a unique vehicle of expression by esteemed musicians Ernest Dawkins, saxes and percussion; Taalib Din Ziyad, flutes and vocals; Ed House, saxes; and Art Turk Burton, percussion. Free. Presented by AACM and the Logan Center.

Sat, Feb 2, 8pm Mandel Hall Take the chill off the winter weather with the University Symphony Orchestra presenting a collection of colorful and exuberant orchestral showpieces including Hector Berlioz’s Roman Carnival Overture and Ottorino Respighi’s Feste Romane, a resplendent tone poem depicting scenes of celebration from ancient and modern Rome. Free, donations requested at the door: General $10, Students/Children $5. Presented by the Department of Music.

MERRIE ENGLAND

Fri, Mar 15, 7:30pm; Sat, Mar 16, 7:30pm; Sun, March 17, 2pm Mandel Hall Spurring over five hundred amateur productions during Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation year (1953), Sir Edward German’s Merrie England was the first new project launched at the Savoy Theatre after the death of Arthur Sullivan. A classic of British musical theater, Merrie England unfolds to the backdrop of an idyllic, romanticized Tudor period…that is quickly unraveled by scurrilous love, jealous rivalries, harebrained murder plots, and witchcraft, of course. Featuring masterful wordplay and a lively score in the style made famous by its predecessors, German’s patriotic operetta is a raucously fun tribute to the pioneers of English comic opera. Patron $60, General $25, Students $5 (tickets.uchicago.edu, 773.702.ARTS). Presented by the Department of Music and The Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company.

B L AC K S T R I N G

Sun, Jan 13, 3pm Logan Center, Performance Hall Comprised of four musicians from Seoul, Black String focuses on improvisation as an important aspect of traditional Korean music and creates a unique language through Asian intuition and musical idiom with traditional Korean instruments. Amplified bursts of sound of the geomungo (6-stringed zither) and Korean bamboo flutes, the fierce quake of Korean traditional percussion, plus the unpredictable melody of jazz guitar captivate audiences. 2pm pre-concert lecture with Travis Jackson. General $38, Faculty & Staff $30, Under 35 $20, Students $10. Presented by UChicago Presents.

UNIVERSIT Y SYMPHONY O R C H E S T R A : R O M A N H O L I DAY

K A R A - L I S COV E R DA L E

F I R S T M O N DAY JA Z Z

PA R K E R Q UA R T E T W I T H RICHARD O’NEILL AND E DWA R D A R R O N

MEET SWEET HONEY IN THE ROCK

Fri, Jan 25, 8pm Bond Chapel Montreal-based composer Kara-Lis Coverdale draws on her experiences as a classicallytrained pianist, church organist, and omnivorous explorer of electronic music. In her albums on labels such as Boomkat, Sacred Phrases, and Umor Rex, and in intense, explorative live performances, Coverdale manipulates sounds from synthetic and traditional instruments to create layered textures and spacious arrangements. Free. Presented by the Renaissance Society.

Fri, Feb 1, 7:30pm Mandel Hall The Grammy Award-winning Parker Quartet is joined by violist Richard O’Neill and cellist Edward Arron for two joyous chamber works: Strauss’s String Sextet from Capriccio, and Brahms’s Sextet No. 2 in G Major. The Quartet also performs Janáček’s “Kreutzer” Sonata. 6:30pm pre-concert lecture with Steven Rings. General $38, Faculty & Staff $30, Under 35 $20, Students $10. Presented by UChicago Presents.

CO DA : PA R K E R Q UA R T E T

Fri, Feb 1, 9:30pm Mandel Hall Join other under-40 arts lovers for postconcert drinks and dessert in UChicago’s Quadrangle Club, and meet the Grammywinning Parker Quartet, violist Richard O’Neill, and Violinist Edward Arron for a coda to their performance of Romantic string sextets by Strauss, Janáček, and Brahms. Under 40 $35 (concert ticket & reception). Presented by UChicago Presents.

Mon, Feb 4, 7pm Green Line Performing Arts Center (329 E Garfield Blvd) The First Mondays Jazz series features Chicago artists on the first Monday of every month, and includes light refreshments plus the opportunity to mingle with community members while enjoying live jazz along the Arts Block on historic Garfield Blvd in Washington Park. February’s featured artist is Crosswind—whether the band is caught up in hot, pulsating Latin tunes or a slow, heart-tugging ballad, the music is always fabulous! Free. Presented by Arts + Public Life.

Tue, Feb 5, 7:30pm International House Assembly Hall Female a cappella group Sweet Honey In The Rock comes to the International House as part of the 2018-19 Don Michael Randel Ensemble residency. Rooted in African American history and culture, the legendary group has centered its music in the struggle for social justice. The ensemble presents stories and other selections in this celebration of their 45th anniversary. Free. Presented by the Department of Music.

A R T I S T I C P R AC T I C E A S/ A N D AC T I V I S M

Thu, Feb 7, 6pm Fulton Recital Hall Artists, thinkers, and social activists participate in a panel discussion about their artistic practice and its role in social activism. Poets and writers Eve L. Ewing and Kristiana Colon share selections of their work along with music from singer


Jonathan Lykes and legendary a capella ensemble Sweet Honey In The Rock. Free. Presented by UChicago Presents.

A N I N T I M AT E E V E N I N G W I T H SWEET HONEY IN THE ROCK

L O G A N C E N T E R S E CO N D M O N DAY B L U E S : H O S T E D BY B I L LY B R A N C H

Mondays, 7pm: Jan 14 - Mary Lane, Feb 11 - Lurie Bell, & Mar 11 - Jamiah Rogers Logan Center, Café Logan The Logan Center’s newest music series features Chicago’s world-class musicians and emerging blues stars. A live interview precedes each concert, moderated by the series’ three-time, Grammy-nominated curator and host, Billy Branch. Relax with a glass of wine or cup of tea in Café Logan’s intimate setting while getting up close and personal with local musicians and delving deeper into Chicago blues. Free; seating is first come, first served. Presented by the Logan Center and Billy Branch Music.

Fri, Feb 8, 7:30pm Mandel Hall The internationally-acclaimed, awardwinning a cappella group, noted for its vibrant, versatile, and relevant performances expressed through song, dance, and sign language, continues their year-long UChicago residency with an intimate performance at Mandel Hall. General $38, Faculty & Staff $30, Under 35 $20, Students $10. Presented by UChicago Presents.

LOGAN CENTER CABARET

Fri, Feb 8, 8pm Logan Center, Performance Penthouse Cabaret is a unique performance series that welcomes student artists to take the stage. From solo guitarists to string quartets, slam poets to performance artists, swing dancers to pop-lockers, filmmakers to poets—and everything in between—students are invited to partake in an intimate night of diverse performance and a sharing of new work. In this showcase, a wide range of acts will wow you in their variety and unpredictability. Refreshments provided. Free. Presented by the Logan Center.

C H I C AG O S TAG E : JOHN MOORE GROUP

Fri, Feb 15, 6pm Logan Center, Café Logan Jazz at the Logan presents CHICAGO STAGE at the Logan showcasing local jazz artists in free pre-concert performances. This performance features trumpeter John Moore, Jr., whose influences include Louis Armstrong, Roy Eldridge, Dizzy Gillespie, Fats Navarro, Miles Davis, Donald Byrd, Charlie Parker, and John Coltrane, among others. Free. Presented by the Logan Center in partnership with the Jazz Institute of Chicago.

LOGAN CENTER T H I R D T U E S DAY JA Z Z

Tuesdays, 7:30pm & 9pm: Jan 15 - Victor Goines, Clarinet/Saxes; Feb 19 - Quentin Coaxum, Trumpet; Mar 19 - Eric Schneider, Sax & Clarinet & Jeremy Kahn, Piano; Logan Center, Café Logan This year, celebrate the 5th Anniversary season of Third Tuesday Jazz. The Hyde Park Jazz Society selects highly regarded jazz musicians with a Chicago area affiliation to perform on eight 3rd Tuesdays of the month at Café Logan. Enjoy beer, wine, a full coffee bar, and food along with some of the best jazz the city has to offer. Free; seating is first come, first served. Presented by the Logan Center and the Hyde Park Jazz Society with additional support by WDCB.

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.R AC H M A N I N O F F V E S P E R S Thu, Feb 21, 7:30pm Rockefeller Chapel James Kallembach conducts the Rockefeller Chapel Choir in a performance of Rachmaninoff’s ethereal Vespers as part of the Chapel’s new EvenSounds series (Thursday evening performances, usually featuring the carillon at 5pm and organ at 5:30pm, with occasional choral performances at 7:30pm, as on this evening). Free. Presented by Rockefeller Chapel.

STEVEN ISSERLIS AND R O B E R T L E V I N : B E E T H OV E N ’ S CO M P L E T E WO R K S F O R C E L L O A N D F O R T E P I A N O , PA R T I Thu, Feb 21, 7:30pm Logan Center, Performance Hall The acclaimed British cellist returns to UChicago Presents for a back-to-back performance of Beethoven’s complete cello sonatas. Isserlis, on his gut-strung Stradivarius, is joined by the renowned performer and scholar Robert Levin on the fortepiano, and in the first of two nights, they trace Beethoven’s life story through his works for piano and cello. (See Fri, Feb. 22 for Part II). General $38, Faculty & Staff $30, Under 35 $20, Students $10. Presented by UChicago Presents.

P E T E R M U R P H Y: 4 0 Y E A R S O F B AU H AU S

Fri, Feb 22, 7:30pm (sold out) & Sat, Feb 23, 7:30pm Rockefeller Chapel The Bauhaus Ruby Celebration features David J. performing In the Flat Field in its entirety plus extended encore of Bauhaus classics. In The Flat Field was their debut studio album, released by 4AD and considered one of the very first “goth” albums. But the dark, dramatic music of Bauhaus possesses far more force, variety, and playfulness than the “founding fathers of goth” tag implies. VIP $200, Gold $75, General $55 (emptybottle.com). Presented by Rockefeller Chapel.

STEVEN ISSERLIS AND R O B E R T L E V I N : B E E T H OV E N ’ S CO M P L E T E WO R K S F O R C E L L O A N D F O R T E P I A N O , PA R T I I

Fri, Feb 22, 7:30pm Logan Center, Performance Hall In the second of two performances, cellist Isserlis and fortepianist Levin complete their comprehensive cycle of Beethoven’s cello sonatas. (See Thu, Feb. 21 for Part I). General $38, Faculty & Staff $30, Under 35 $20, Students $10. Presented by UChicago Presents.

M A R Q U I S H I L L B L AC K T E T

Fri, Feb 15, 7:30pm Logan Center, Performance Hall Winner of the 2014 Thelonious Monk Institute Competition, Chicago native and trumpeter Marquis Hill brings his Blacktet to the Logan Center to present selections from his latest record, Modern Flows Vol. II. General $38, Faculty & Staff $30, Under 35 $20, Students $10. Presented by UChicago Presents

MIDDLE EAST MUSIC ENSEMBLE: T H E P E R S I A N CO N C E R T

Sat, Mar 2, 7pm & Sun, Mar 3, 4pm Logan Center, Performance Hall The 45-piece Middle East Music Ensemble takes the audience on a musical tour of Persia! Special guest vocalists and instrumentalists join the ensemble for a program of traditional and contemporary Persian favorites.


Wasted Instructions

A AC M B E N E F I T CO N C E R T F E AT U R I N G WA DA DA L E O S M I T H A N D T H E A AC M G R E AT B L AC K M U S I C E N S E M B L E

Sun, Feb 10, 7pm Logan Center, Performance Hall The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) is honored to present one of its most esteemed members, Wadada Leo Smith, as part of their 2019 Benefit Concert. Smith, an AACM member for over five decades, will open the first set with his Monk interpretations; the second set will feature the Great Black Music Ensemble performing one of Smith’s compositions. VIP $75, General $20, Students $10 (tickets.uchicago.edu, 773.702.ARTS). Presented by AACM and the Logan Center.

Free, donations requested at the door: General $10, Students/Children $5. Presented by the Department of Music.

SOUTH ASIAN MUSIC E N S E M B L E W I N T E R S H OWC A S E Sun, Mar 3, 2pm International House Assembly Hall (1414 E 59th St) The South Asian Music Ensemble is a special repertory ensemble in the Department of Music which explores a variety of classical, vernacular, and popular song styles from the Indian Subcontinent. The ensemble focuses on both vocal technique and instrumentalism, exploring various stylistic features, compositional forms, improvisational practices, and performance conventions. Free. Presented by the International House Global Voices Performing Arts Series and the Department of Music, and supported in part by the Birendra K. and Anila Sinha Fund for Indian Performing Arts at International House.

UNIVERSIT Y SYMPHONY O R C H E S T R A : FAT E AND DESTINY

Sat, Mar 9, 8pm Mandel Hall Ponder Fate and Destiny through two orchestral masterpieces of the Romantic era—Richard Strauss’s compelling tone poem Death and Transfiguration and Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 in F minor, famously characterized as “one of the most towering symphonic structures in our whole literature.” Free, donations requested at the door: General $10, Students/Children $5. Presented by the Department of Music.

How to Waste a Picture Nonchalantly, but with throbbing heart and ineloquent hand, pull out fake ID Hand to cashier Flash some teeth With focus on legality and demeanor, fail to notice the 2”x2” glossy headshot—the one in the back wallet flap, the one Dad said to keep so you’ll always remember him, which was confusing because he was standing right there, living and breathing right there and why need to remember what’s right there right then right now back then—fall to the floor Sigh relief and wish a good night Shove receipt and fake into pocket without sorting or storing Grab the beers and get out of there Fail to notice the 2”x2” headshot, glossy, on the linoleum liquor store floor Fail to notice until it’s too late, because store floors get cleaned regularly, and 2”x2” headshots of unsmiling men usually fail to be salvaged, so that, despite their gloss, they end up in trash cans and dumpsters and Waste Management trucks and facilities and assembly lines and landfills, where they limbo with who-the-hell-knows-what and decompose and lose color and no longer look like that unsmiling man you were told to remember Slowly forget what his face looked like How to Waste a Title How to Waste Sunlight Eat breakfast (you’re running late, so just an apple) Go to work: work: repeat until Pay Day Exchange paper for used paper, use paper in exchange Buy cheese to eat with apple But you’re late again, no time for cheese You need to work again, and repeat Apple, no cheese, work, repeat Apple, no cheese, work, repeat Apple, The cheese went bad last week How to Waste a Whim Decline the invitation to stay the night despite potential, despite desire, despite her eyes —Ricky Novaes de Oliveira, BA’19, Political Science and Creative Writing

C H I C AG O E N S E M B L E CO N C E R T: P R O G R A M I I I

Sun, Mar 10, 2:30–5pm International House Assembly Hall (1414 E 59th St) Offering an innovative mix of familiar masterworks and lesser-known repertoire performed in varied combinations of instruments and voice, the Chicago Ensemble has occupied a unique place in Chicago’s cultural life for over 40 years. The third program of the 2018-2019 season will featuring music performed on the flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and piano. General $25, Students $10, UChicago Students Free. Presented by the International House Global Voices Performing Arts Series and the Chicago Ensemble.

C M AC W I N T E R Q UA R T E R CO N C E R T

Fri, Mar 15, 7pm Rockefeller Memorial Chapel CMAC: The University of Chicago Glee Club performs a collection of moving choral music, lively traditional pieces, and school spirit songs to lighten the

cold winter months. The group is excited to present Duruflé’s Messe “cum Jubilo” featuring organ accompaniment. Students $5, General $10, Family $20. Presented by CMAC: The University of Chicago Glee Club and TBA.

GROSSMAN ENSEMBLE WITH JA M E S B A K E R , CO N D U C TO R

Fri, Mar 15, 7:30pm Logan Center, Performance Hall The CCCC’s resident Grossman Ensemble presents works by Chen Yi, Carlos SanchezGutierrez, and UChicago composers Rodrigo Bussad and Jack Hughes. James Baker, Music Director and Conductor of the Composers Conference at Wellesley College and Director of the Percussion Ensemble at Mannes College of Music, conducts the performance. General $15, Free for students with ID. Presented by the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition and UChicago Presents.

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45 YEARS of Song and Social Justice WITH SWEET HON


During the first week of Grammy Award-winning a cappaella ensemble Sweet Honey In The Rock’s residency at the University of Chicago, both the singers and audience members were moved to tears sharing stories of struggle and resiliency, and how they’ve used music to keep them going. The feeling of love was palpable, and the positive, peaceful, and socially conscious spirit that Sweet Honey In The Rock embodies resonated across the community. Sweet Honey In The Rock is known as one of the most vibrant and versatile musical collectives in America, composed of talented artists and powerful activists. Formed in Washington, D.C. in the early 1970s, the group has always been deeply committed to social justice issues. Founded by Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon, a civil rights activist and former Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Freedom Singer, as part of the D.C. Black Repertory Theater Company, the group strives to preserve the heritage of Black America through its gospel hymns and freedom songs. The women of Sweet Honey are prolific entertainers: they have performed on almost every continent and in many of the world’s most prestigious venues; have taken the stage at Carnegie Hall more than 30 times; and were invited to sing at the White House by longtime fans President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. According to Mrs. Obama, Sweet Honey are one of her “favorite groups in the whole wide world, Sweet Honey In The Rock. Doesn’t that name sound good?”

NEY IN THE ROCK This year, as a part of their 45th anniversary, Sweet Honey brings its mission of empowerment, education, and entertainment to UChicago as the 2018-19 Don Michael Randel Ensemble-in-Residence. Throughout the residency, they are presenting a variety of workshops, panel discussions, master classes, and public performances. In addition to community programs, Sweet Honey will work with students in the Department of Music’s choral ensembles—the Motet Choir, Women’s Ensemble, University Chorus, and Rockefeller Chapel Choir. As the first choral ensemble to hold the position, Sweet Honey provides UChicago’s singers the opportunity to engage, workshop, and perform with a world-class ensemble. Through their music, Sweet Honey seeks to preserve and extend the traditions of African American vocal music, and to inspire an intergenerational audience to use their voices to address the critical issues of our time, celebrating our common humanity. The ensemble’s name is derived from a line in a song by Mamie Forehand, based on Psalm 81:16: “But you would be fed with the finest of wheat; with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.” The verse tells of a land so rich that when rocks are cracked open, honey flows from them; as such, when the women first harmonized their voices, the feeling was so powerful that there was no doubt about their name.

Sweet Honey’s music radiates energy and innovation, combining finely-honed a cappella, world, gospel, and folk roots with elements of hip hop, jazz, and R&B. Their extensive repertoire includes an impressive collection of original material and timeless covers, which they have recorded on 24 albums, several specifically for children. Themes from the group’s most recent album, #LoveInEvolution, come from today’s headlines of today’s world news, addressing systemic injustice as it pertains to people of color— police brutality, gun control, and the Black Lives Matter movement. Beyond the music, the ensemble has built a reputation as powerful storytellers, vocally and visually, prioritizing inclusion. Their dynamic performances incorporate American Sign Language interpretation by Barbara Hunt for those who are deaf and hearingimpaired. Though the Civil Rights Movement may have ended in 1968, Sweet Honey In The Rock has continued fighting for justice since its founding in 1973. Even when its founder Bernice Johnson Reagon retired in 2004, Sweet Honey committed to keeping the group alive. The current ensemble features four core members: Louise Robinson, Aisha Kahlil, Nitanju Bolade Casel, and Carol Maillard, along with vocalist Rochelle Rice and bassist Romeir Mendez.

By Margo Streibeg In November, ensemble members shared stories from their four-decade history as activists during an Artists Live discussion, moderated by historian, writer, professor, and longtime political activist Barbara Ransby. They held an Arts & Activism community presentation at Rockefeller Chapel to continue educating future activists. The group coled a Community Song Circle with the Chicago Black Catholic Choir involving artists, vocal groups, choral students, and others to share music from the folk and gospel traditions that energize people around social justice and community transformation. Finally, members of two UChicago choirs—University Chorus and Women’s Ensemble—shared the stage at Rockefeller Chapel with Sweet Honey In The Rock and the Chicago Children’s Choir Hyde Park Presto ensemble in a colorful concert with over 1,300 people in attendance. Sweet Honey In The Rock returns to campus February 4–10 for a masterclass, panel, and a concert with UChicago Presents. Thew final week of their threeweek residency will take place May 6–11, culminating in a public performance.

WINTER RESIDENCY EVENTS Tue, Feb 5: Meet Sweet Honey; Thu, Feb 7: Panel Discussion with Sweet Honey; Fri, Feb 8, 7:30pm: Meet Sweet Honey. See pgs. 23 and 24 for more information about these events. Learn more about Sweet Honey at sweethoneyintherock.org. Clockwise from top left: Aisha Kahill, Carol Maillard, Nitanju Bolade Casel, and Louise Robinson. Photos: Howard T. Cash.


Arts + spirit at Rockefeller and Bond

Photography by Erielle Bakkum, Dennis Kelly, Scott Pilgrim, and Eden Sabala.

THE 10TH GERRISH RECITAL: PETER RICHARD CONTE & ANDREW ENNIS

KARA-LIS COVERDALE

F R I DAY JAN UARY 11 | 8 PM | ROCK E F E LLE R

Peter Richard Conte and Andrew Ennis play a brilliant program of their own transcriptions for organ duo and organ/flugelhorn, including selections from Respighi’s Pines of Rome, Richard Strauss, and the première of their own arrangements of music from Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherezade. Tickets at the door $10.

Pianist, organist, and omnivorous explorer of electronic music Kara-Lis Coverdale manipulates sounds from synthetic and traditional instruments to create layered textures and spacious arrangements. Her vignettes explore how sonic material can evoke complex feelings such as sanctity, disembodiment, aggression, and ethereal beauty. FREE; RSVP at renaissancesociety.org.

A recital in Rockefeller’s Brian Gerrish Organ Performance Series.

Presented by the Renaissance Society.

EVENSOUNDS: RACHMANINOFF VESPERS

PETER MURPHY: 40 YEARS OF BAUHAUS

TH U R S DAY F E B R UARY 21 | 7:30 PM ROCK E F E LLE R

FRI DAY FEB RUARY 2 2 | 7:30 PM | SO LD - O UT SATU R DAY F E B R UARY 2 3 | 7:30 PM ROCK E F E LLE R

James Kallembach conducts the Rockefeller Chapel Choir in a performance of Rachmaninoff’s ethereal Vespers as part of the Chapel’s new EvenSounds series (Thursday evening performances, usually featuring the carillon at 5 pm and organ at 5:30 pm, with occasional choral performances at 7:30 pm, as on this evening). FREE.

F R I DAY JAN UARY 2 5 | 8 PM | BON D

The Bauhaus Ruby Celebration features David J. performing their debut In the Flat Field—considered one of the first “goth” albums—in its entirety plus extended encore of Bauhaus classics. The dark, dramatic music of Bauhaus possesses far more force, variety, and playfulness than the “founding fathers of goth” tag implies. Tickets at emptybottle.com, $55 general. Presented by Empty Bottle, in artistic partnership with Rockefeller Chapel.

Full details at rockefeller.uchicago.edu

28 | arts.uchicago.edu Rockefeller Memorial Chapel

| 5850 S. Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago IL 60637 | 773.702.2667


DESIGN & ARCHITECTURE

FERRARI -or- FERRARI? See the quiz on pg. 16. 1. Sculptor Virginio Ferrari was born to a family of stonecutters and had his first solo exhibition in Venice at age 24. Racecar driver and entrepreneur Enzo Ferrari was born in 1898 and made his racing debut in Parma at age 21.; 2. Unveiled at the 2015 Geneva Motor Show, the Ferrari 488 weighs nearly 3,500 pounds despite being able to reach 100 km/hr in three seconds and having a max speed of 330 km/hr. The 1971 sculpture Dialogo by Virginio Ferrari, on display outside of UChicago’s Pick Hall, weighs over 10,000 pounds.; 3. UChicago has six works by Virginio Ferrari, including 1971’s Dialogo in front of Pick Hall, 1993’s Interlocking in the Lab School Courtyard, and 2015’s Caring in the Center for Care and Discovery at the University of Chicago Medical Center. No word on how many Ferrari cars are in Chicago, UChicago or otherwise.; 4. Race car driver and Ferrari founder Enzo Ferrari reportedly never took a vacation in his long career. He personally approved the Ferrari F40 shortly before his death in 1988 at age 90.; 5. Ferrari’s conception as an auto manufacturer is usually recognized as occurring in 1947, when the first Ferrari-badged car was completed.; 6. Both! Virginia Ferrari, who was a UChicago faculty member from 1966-1976, maintains a studio in Bridgeport. The Ferrari car company has a dedicated race track, Pista di Fiorano, to test their cars; they are the only automotive manufacturer to maintain a race track for this purpose.; 7. Enzo Ferrari was born in Modena, Italy. Virginio Ferrari was born in Verona, Italy.; 8. When he was a young man, Enzo Ferrari had no intention to produce cars. After a career in racing, he primarily prepared race cars for gentlemen drivers for car manufacturer Alfa Romeo and did not design his first car until he was 42 years old. From a young age, sculptor Virginio Ferrari continued his family’s tradition of stonecutting.; 9. The Ferrari company’s Prancing Horse symbol was originally used by World War I pilot Francesco Baracca on his airplane.; 10. Neither! The Virginio Ferrari Exhaust is named for the founder of motorcycle racing company, Virginio Ferrari Racing.

DIMENSIONS OF CITIZENSHIP: ARCHITECTURE AND B E LO N G I N G F R O M T H E B O DY T O T H E C O S M O S

Feb 15–Apr 27, 2019 Wrightwood 659 (659 W Wrightwood Avenue) Devoted to exploring the notion of citizenship today and the potential role of architecture and design in creating spaces for it, Dimensions of Citizenship comprises seven unique installations, each created by a transdisciplinary team of architects and designers. The exhibition will be accompanied by a range of public programs exploring citizenship and belonging, including talks, performances, workshops, and engagement with local partners. Free (dimensionsofcitizenship.org). Commissioned by SAIC and UChicago on behalf of the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs for the 16th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice, Italy. The US presentation of Dimensions of Citizenship is made possible by Alphawood Foundation Chicago.

K E N N E T H L A PAT I N : R E D I S COV E R I N G T H E V I L L A D E I PA P I R I AT H E R C U L A N E U M

Thu, Mar 7, 5pm Cochrane-Woods Arts Center, Room 157 In advance of an international loan exhibition at the Getty Villa (Los Angeles) opening in June 2019, Kenneth Lapatin, Curator of Antiquities with the J. Paul Getty Museum, will address the history of the Villa dei Papiri at Herculaneum, which ranks among the most significant archaeological discoveries of the past 300 years. The seaside retreat, reputed to be a home of some of Julius Caesar’s relatives, was buried by the same eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in AD 79 that buried Pompeii. Discovered by well-diggers in 1750, the excavation uncovered antiquity’s largest single sculpture collection and the only preserved library from the Greek and Roman world. Kenneth Lapatin has curated numerous groundbreaking exhibitions of ancient art, most notably Power and Pathos, the recent exhibition of Hellenistic bronze sculpture. Q&A and reception to follow. Free. Presented by the Department of Art History as part of the 2018/19 Smart Lecture series supported by the Smart Family Foundation.

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THEATER, DANCE & PERFORMANCE

T H E C H I C AG O I N T E R N AT I O N A L P U P P E T T H E AT R E F E S T I VA L : P E R F O R M A N C E S AT T H E LOGAN CENTER The 12-day, city-wide Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival showcases an entertaining and eclectic array of puppet styles from around the world including marionettes, shadow puppets, Bunraku puppets, tiny toy puppets, and distinctive, innovative styles of contemporary puppetry. The Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival is a mission-driven program of Chicago-based theater company Blair Thomas & Co. Founded in 2002, Blair Thomas & Co. is recognized as an international contributor to contemporary puppetry and a creator of uniquely expressive spectacle theater. The festival seeks to establish Chicago as the center for the advancement of the art of puppetry. Learn more and view the complete festival schedule at chicagopuppetfest.org.

P E D R O R E Y E S/ T H E TA N K : M A N U FAC T U R I N G M I S C H I E F

Fri, Jan 18, 8pm; Sat, Jan 19, 8pm; Sun, Jan 20, 3pm Post-show talk with Pedro Reyes: Fri, Jan 18 Logan Center, Theater East Noam Chomsky, Steve Jobs, Ayn Rand, Karl Marx, Elon Musk, and President Trump are

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among the figures represented in Pedro Reyes’s satirical puppet play, Manufacturing Mischief. The work tackles ideas around the ethics of artificial intelligence, the use of technology to solve all humanity’s problems, the current political climate in the United States, and Randian philosophy. The play, which grew out of Reyes’s artist residency at MIT, uses comedy to comment on morality, freedom, inequality, and techno-enthusiasm. Also, Karl Marx raps. Recommended for ages 13 and up General $20, $10 Students with ID (chicagopuppetfest.org/performances). Presented by the Logan Center with support from Theater and Performance Studies, in partnership with The Chicago International Puppet Theatre Festival.

L E S L I E DA N Z I G A N D J E S S I C A T H E B U S : ATA L A N TA

Thu, Jan 24, 7pm; Sat, Jan 26, 4pm; Sun, Jan 27, 4pm Logan Center, Theater East Atalanta is a work-in-progress original adaptation of the myth of Atalanta, using puppetry, circus arts and physical theater for an all-ages audience. Atalanta tells the story of how a young woman holds onto her well-earned independence as a powerhouse athlete while opening herself to the vulnerability of loving someone. Atalanta finds inspiration in Looney Tunes escapades, the transcendent resonance of myth and the graceful ferocity of strong girls. All shows followed by a discussion with the audience. Recommended for ages 5 and up. Free (no reservations required). Presented by the Logan Center with support from Theater and Performance Studies, in partnership with The Chicago International Puppet Theatre Festival.

U C H I C AG O M AYA PRESENTS: THRESHOLD

Fri, Jan 11, 7:30pm; Sat, Jan 12, 2pm & 7:30pm Logan Center, Theater East Comprised of 14 student-choreographed dance pieces, all centered around the theme of “threshold,” join UChicago Maya for their annual winter show. Pieces explore the contours and limits of both physical and abstract thresholds, interacting with them as points of transition between periods of change as well as between periods of consistency. Students $6 advance; General $8 advance; All $8 at the door (tickets.uchicago.edu, 773.702.ARTS). Presented by UChicago Maya.


T H E AT E R [ 2 4]

Sat, Jan 12 at 8pm FXK Theater, Reynolds Club Six teams of writers, actors, directors, and designers—led by four fearless curators— collaborate for a frenzied 24 hours to bring you an evening filled with brand-new plays. Never-before-seen and never-to-be-seenagain, this festival is not one to miss! General $4 (tickets.uchicago.edu, 773.702.ARTS). Presented by Theater & Performance Studies and University Theater.

OFF OFF CAMPUS PRESENTS: O N E F I S H , T WO F I S H , T H R E E FISH, FOUR FISH

Fridays, Feb 1–Mar 1, 7:30pm The Revival (1160 E 55th St) For over 30 years, Off-Off continues to serve up unique weekly shows featuring sketch comedy, improvisation and various preglow performances from both talented and talentless groups across campus. Alumni include playwrights David Auburn and Greg Kotis, as well as innumerable writers, performers, upstanding civilians, and others who also turned out fine. See them here first. $5, boxoffice.uchicago.edu General $5 (tickets.uchicago.edu, 773.702.ARTS). Presented by Theater & Performance Studies and University Theater.

A W E E K E N D O F WO R K S H O P S

P H OT O G R A P H 5 1

Jan 17–Feb 17; Student Night with postshow refreshments Jan 18 Court Theatre History may well remember the work of Watson and Crick that shaped biology, but it was British chemist Rosalind Franklin who provided the key to the double helix DNA discovery. Photograph 51 shares the complex story of an ambitious female scientist in a world of men, her pursuit for the secret of life, and her forgotten accomplishments. General $38–74, Faculty/Staff with UCID $25–35, Students $20 or free on Wed/Thu (courttheatre.org, 773.753.4472). Presented by Court Theatre.

Fri, Feb 8, 7:30pm; Sat, Feb 9, 2pm & 7:30pm FXK Theater, Reynolds Club Each quarter, the UT workshop format gives directors a chance to explore the limits of their creative visions. This fall, see some of those visions come to life. Join us for a weekend of the following workshops: Outlook, written by Eren Ahn, directed by Eren Ahn; and 500 bucks and a pack of smokes, written by James Hutchison, directed by Ruthie Dworin. General $6 advance, $8 at door (tickets. uchicago.edu, 773.702.ARTS). Presented by Theater & Performance Studies and University Theater.

M AC H I N A L

Fri, Feb 15, 7:30pm; Sat, Feb 16, 2pm & 7:30pm Logan Center, Theater West Inspired by the infamous 1927 murder trial of Ruth Snyder, Machinal follows the story of a Young Woman in the industrial, male-dominated world of the 1920s. Playwright and journalist Sophie Treadwell captures the torture of a loveless marriage and ultimate struggle for freedom. General $6 advance, $8 at door (tickets. uchicago.edu, 773.702.ARTS). Presented by Theater & Performance Studies and University Theater.

THE DEAN’S MEN P R E S E N T: M AC B E T H

L A E S M E R A L DA A N D T H E H U N C H B AC K O F N OT R E DA M E

Sat, Jan 26, 7pm & Sun, Jan 27, 2pm Logan Center, Performance Hall UBallet’s annual winter production, La Esmeralda, reimagines Victor Hugo’s classic tale of the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Filled with love, betrayal, and tragedy, this ballet conveys powerful themes regarding love and trust interwoven through the language of dance and movement. Students and under-12 $5 advance; General $10 advance; Students and under-12 $7 at the door; General $12 at door. Presented by the University of Chicago Ballet.

Fri, Feb 22, 7:30pm; Sat, Feb 23, 2pm & 7:30pm FXK Theater, Reynolds Club Travel with the Dean’s Men back to 11th Century Scotland for Shakespeare’s most riveting and terrifying tragedy. Watch madness unfold as the Macbeth family retracts from the purest example of royal prestige into their primal instincts of revenge. General $6 advance, $8 at door (tickets. uchicago.edu, 773.702.ARTS). Presented by Theater & Performance Studies and University Theater.

FACULTY SIDEBAR KURTIS BOETCHE R Lecturer and Director of Design, is designing sets for Big River (Mar 15-Apr 14) and The Miracle Worker (May 10-19) at First Stage in Milwaukee. Boetcher is a Chicago-based scenic designer whose designs have been nominated for Jeff, NAACP, Ovation, and Falstaff awards. He is a recipient of the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Bob Z Award for Career Achievement in Set Design, and the LA Weekly Award for Best Production Design.

D E VO N D E M AYO Lecturer, will host a new play reading in Feb 2019. She is currently directing the world premiere of Scientific Method by Jenny Connell Davis for Chicago’s Rivendell Theater Ensemble. de Mayo is a founder and co-Artistic Director of Dog & Pony Theatre Company, which produces vital works of social and cultural relevance by new and emerging playwrights whose use of language and convention are daring and highly imaginative.

L E S L I E DA N Z I G Assistant Professor of Practice in the Arts, is creating an adaptation of the myth of Atalanta (Thu, Jan 24, 7pm; Sat, Jan 26, 4pm; Sun, Jan 27, 4pm) as part of the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival. The work-in-progress features puppetry, circus arts, and physical theater for ages 5 & up. Co-created with director Jessica Thebus; performers Amanda Crockett, Sean Garratt, and Michel Rodriguez Cintra; composers/musicians Ava Kaplan and Livia Reiner; and puppet-maker K.T. Shivak.

CO N N E C T I N G T H E D O T S T H R O U G H G U O B AO C H A N G : CO N T E M P O R A RY C H I N E S E OPERA , FILM, AND TV

Fri, Feb 22, 9:30am–5pm; Sat, Feb 23, 10–5pm Logan Center, Performance Penthouse Film Screening: Thu, Feb 21, 7pm Logan Center, Screening Room This two-day symposium will explore the connections between contemporary Chinese opera, film, and television through the lens of Guo Baochang’s work. A screening of Dream of the Bridal Chamber (Chungui meng , 2005) and a discussion with director Guo Baochang and cinematographer Hong Yong will precede the symposium on Thu, Feb 21. Free. (More information: eastasia@uchicago.edu) Presented by the College Arts Council, Franke Institute for the Humanities, and Center for East Asian Studies.

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GRENADINE

Fri, Mar 1 at 7:30pm; Sat, Mar 2 at 2pm & 7:30pm Logan Center, Theater East In an epic quest for lost love and a good meal, Neil Wechsler’s Grenadine chronicles four companions and their search for a mythic woman. Winner of the 2008 Yale Drama Award, this play explores a fantastical world, full of fruits, fiddles, and a two-legged Dachshund. General $6 advance, $8 at door (tickets. uchicago.edu, 773.702.ARTS). Presented by Theater & Performance Studies and University Theater.

CRECIE

Sun, Jan 20, 4pm Logan Center, Performance Hall This operetta, written in iambic pentameter verse, celebrates Brown, Jr.’s poetic prowess.

CYBERSOUL

Sun, Feb 24, 4pm Logan Center, Performance Penthouse Contemplating human interaction and morality in cyberspace, this high-tech production—in which screens themselves are also characters—foreshadows the millennial generation’s arrival.

KICKS & CO.: P L AY S Y M P O S I U M

Mon, Mar 18, 7pm Logan Center, Performance Hall A major musical set on a college campus in the American South during the early days of attempted desegregation, Kicks & Co. was originally produced and directed by Lorraine Hansberry & family in 1960 at Arie Crown Theater in Chicago. Free; RSVP required (tickets.uchicago.edu, 773.702.ARTS). Presented by Logan Center Community Arts.

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Please step aside for a moment, ma’am. A strike at my bare feet. someone else exits the coffin, and they go on and I am here. I have no bomb but I wish I had something to mop the blood with. Security, security, my body is yours. All around me a taxonomy of luggage: raven black briefcase Prada purse, two seasons ago pink cheetah print suitcase, a faded fuschia trolley bag

O S C A R B R OW N , J R . ARCHIVE PROJECT The Oscar Brown, Jr. Archive Project presents five staged readings of entertainer and activist Oscar Brown, Jr.’s musical plays. Born and raised on Chicago’s South Side, Oscar Brown, Jr. (1926–2005) was a prolific singer, songwriter, playwright, poet, civil rights activist, and actor who passed away with most of his writings undiscovered. The Oscar Brown, Jr. Archive Project—led by two of the artist’s daughters, Africa and Maggie Brown—is in residence this year at the Logan Center, and is dedicated to preserving and sharing the musical and literary works of Brown, Jr.

Anti-Ode to this TSA Woman Touching Me Right Now

I did not offer my body to you. I sacrifice at the altar of the state. I am grateful to be here, I am grateful to be here, I am grateful to be he—each red beep the sound of prayer. We make a home of thanking no one.

F O R C O LO R E D G I R L S

Mar 14–Apr 14; Student Night with post-show refreshments Mar 15 Court Theatre A sisterhood of eight women tell their stories through dramatic prose poetry, music, and movement. Told in vivid language, their experiences resound with fearless beauty and unity, despite exposing the unending challenges and oppressions that women of color face every day. General $38–74, Faculty/Staff with UCID $25–35, Students $20 or free on Wed/Thu (courttheatre.org, 773.753.4472). Presented by Court Theatre.

Efficient patting down of what is mine: widening hips, gift from Nani in her saffron sari, making halwa. Dadi listening to her radio, all night-gown pale. Milk curdles in the kitchen and my mother waits at the airport. Arms, legs, extremities, liabilities, risky, frisky, it’s all the same. Random. Your large palms find my breasts,

FUN HOME

Fri, Mar 15 at 7:30pm; Sat, Mar 16 at 2pm & 7:30pm Logan Center, Theater East Based on Alison Bechdel’s best-selling graphic memoir, Fun Home highlights the journey of the playwright’s growing understanding her own father’s death and hidden desires. The 2015 TonyAward winning musical explores sexuality, identity, and seeing your parents through grown-up eyes. General $6 advance, $8 at door (tickets. uchicago.edu, 773.702.ARTS). Presented by Theater & Performance Studies and University Theater.

MERRIE ENGLAND

Fri, Mar 15, 7:30pm; Sat, Mar 16, 7:30pm; Sun, March 17, 2pm Mandel Hall Spurring over five hundred amateur productions during Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation year (1953), Sir Edward German’s Merrie England was the first new project launched at the Savoy Theatre after the death of Arthur Sullivan. A classic of British musical theater, Merrie England unfolds to the backdrop of an idyllic, romanticized Tudor period…that is quickly unraveled by scurrilous love, jealous rivalries, harebrained murder plots, and witchcraft, of course. Featuring masterful wordplay and a lively score in the style made famous by its predecessors, German’s patriotic operetta is a raucously fun tribute to the pioneers of English comic opera. Patron $60, General $25, Students $5 (tickets.uchicago.edu, 773.702.ARTS). Presented by the Department of Music and The Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company.


and I wonder at all the people who have touched me: first love, soldered kiss roommate’s black hair on my neck long fingers in my petaled cunt grandpa’s eyelashes on my cheek angry brother, wringing my hand My arms they stink of threat. That I would dare enter through your door. How could I move? I’m not really talking to you. Silence has made a knot of my tongue. To unfurl it would be to release the ocean. Ma’am, I’m going to have to check your hair. Sugarcane juice sharp, scent of jaggery, oil of coconut and its hairy whiskers,

tangible form, in order to live out loud. This theatrical production infuses dance, spoken word, a live band, and visual arts to tell stories of liberation connecting the past and present, while going forth into a more purposeful future. What is freedom? Not only does this spark a needed internal conversation, but it helps the audience to connect the dots that leads into a more abundant life and united society. Tickets $40-$65 (tickets.uchicago.edu, 773.702.ARTS). Presented by Praize Productions, Inc. and Logan Center Community Arts.

AFTERHOURS: F O R C O LO R E D G I R L S

Thu, Mar 28 Smart Museum & Court Theatre Join other under-40 arts lovers for a pre-performance reception at the Smart Museum of Art, and meet the cast of Court Theatre’s production of For Colored Girls before heading over to the show. Under 40 $35 (pre-performance reception at the Smart Museum and performance at Court Theatre). Presented by Court Theatre and the Smart Museum of Art.

bounce of endless sun, frizz of mud-soaked earth and rain, where the stray dogs howl, a dirty river that is still ours —these are not words you have in mind. More like BIG, more like ETHNIC, more like BROWN, more like TOO MUCH HAIR. Your hands are on my scalp, they orphan each curl, splay the parts out like a ritual killing, ripe for the hunt, the slow-burning touch of nation. You’ve done this before. You’ll do it again. It’s not your fault. My hair is ruined.

—Urvi Kumbhat, BA‘19, English and Creative Writing

PRAIZE PRODUCTIONS: SMELLS LIKE FREEDOM

Sat, Mar 23, 7pm; VIP Reception: 6pm Logan Center, Performance HalL Award-winning Praize Productions’ Smells Like Freedom takes the audience on a spiritual journey to both define and refine their definition of freedom. It allows the audience to manifest freedom in the

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On October 10, 2017—what would have been prolific Chicago-born entertainer and activist Oscar Brown, Jr.’s 91st birthday—Maggie Brown happened to meet Dan Logan at the Logan Center’s fifth anniversary celebration. It was there that Maggie, one of Oscar Brown, Jr.’s daughters, learned that the Logans (the benefactors of the Logan Center) were not only fans of her father’s work, but Dan even recalled interviewing him during his days as a journalist. This chance meeting led, just a year later, to the launch of the Oscar Brown, Jr. Archive Project at the Logan Center, with Maggie and her sister Africa—the two youngest of Brown, Jr.’s seven offspring—serving as co-directors and Artists-in-Residence.

-

Our father went on to impact the jazz world, theater community, and Black Arts Movement, and was best known for his classic recordings “Sin and Soul” and “We Insist! Freedom Now Suite” with Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln. He was also a jazz lyricist (“All Blues,” “Afro-Blue,” and “Work Song”) and playwright, with musical productions rooted in the South Side of Chicago like “Opportunity, Please Knock,” produced with the Blackstone Rangers in 1967, to the pioneering “Kicks and Company” in 1961 at McCormick Place,

The archive project’s purpose is threefold: to assemble, preserve, document, interpret, disseminate, and perform the various works created by Brown, Jr., a multi-talented singer, songwriter, composer, author, playwright, poet, essayist, and thinker; to expand access to his creative works by establishing an archival collection for research; and to produce some of his lesser known works and compositions for exposure to wider and younger audiences. Born October 10, 1926, in Bronzeville, our father grew up absorbing the sights and sounds of his South Side community. He began performing early, as a teenager, and was one of the chief practitioners of delivering spoken word over jazz in the late 1950s. During the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, Brown became a pioneer in the entertainment industry, writing and performing songs, poems, and plays that celebrated African American life and the fight for social justice.

There seemed to be a kind of poetic justice at work when Dan stepped forward to kick off our archival preservation efforts…it marked yet another example of the Logan family’s dedication to the arts.”

Our Dad the grand pap

—Maggie & Africa

He combined various musical genres, such as jazz, blues, folk, and gospel, to fashion his message of justice, and enjoyed entertaining and educating his listeners, coining the word “edutainment” to describe his approach and style. “Edutainment”—the blueprint that he designed to transform despair into hope and promise by developing the natural talents of his people—is a marked contrast to the dehumanizing lyrics and violent imagery that have become far too prevalent today. Indeed, edutainment has been tragically underutilized in the face of endemic violence flowing from within and without disenfranchised black communities. 34 | arts.uchicago.edu

and Off Broadway with Muhammed Ali starring in the title role in “Buck White.” But few people know that he authored over a thousand poems, wrote numerous essays, and brought the Jackson 5 and Avery Brooks to national attention through his Gary, Indiana Talent Show in 1968. Our father was committed to channeling his talents in an outpouring of prose, literature, and artistic expressions for what he called Human Improvement Potential (HIP), which he defined as any ideas or


activities that advance the interests of humanity and involve making positive moves in healthy directions. While greatly respected by literary contemporaries such as Lorraine Hansberry and Gwendolyn Brooks, our father may be one of the leastknown Chicago writers of his era.

As mothers of three, we have seen first-hand what

“Oscar Brown, Jr. should be remembered as a prolific talent who raised the collective consciousness through the medium of art.” —Maggie Brown

as a home for the archival project. As performers— Maggie, an acclaimed Chicago vocal performer; Africa, a singer, actress, and musician—we had already established a working relationship with Bill Michel, Executive Director of the Logan Center, and Emily Hooper Lansana, Director of Logan Center Community Arts, in the Logan Center’s opening days, and we appreciate the value of the facility for performance and exhibition in the community.

“The recognition and exposure of our father’s unparalleled body of work is past due, and as stewards of our family legacy, we are committed to making the archive a reality. Both of us are married to the music, and convinced that when the world can experience the unique style of artistic expression we grew up on, future generations will treasure it, too. —Maggie & Africa

of rap By Maggie and Africa Brown

is being fed to young consumers of music and entertainment. We both share a sense of urgency to carry on the work started by our father; we believe that the dissemination and exhibition of his musical and literary works, along with sharing the Brown family story, is not only valuable to American history, but adds significantly to the catalog of positive artistic output that contributes to a healthy cultural environment. From the outset, the Logan Center made the most sense

Brown, Jr. said: “[With] the Grace of God we’ve got, [we] need never fire a shot.” We believe that preserving, organizing, and making the works of Oscar Brown, Jr. available in a tangible way could unleash a healing cultural force—a force that requires harmonizing in a unified rhythm. In addition to conservation activities, we will highlight Brown, Jr.’s musical plays during our residency, several of which have been selected for staged readings. The first of five productions to take place at the Logan Center was on October 10: Journey Through Forever, which our father called a D.O.M.E.: dramatic organization of musical expression—a device that he developed as a way to organize and arrange various poems and compositions to effectively produce a full musical theatrical piece. The performance of Journey Through Forever set the stage for the residency with a packed house, and the date of the first reading was not lost on us: It took place a year to the date of Maggie’s meeting with Dan Logan, and would have been our father’s 92nd birthday. The Oscar Brown, Jr. Archive Project will be a treasure trove of poetry, literature, music, and stage plays created by this Chicago artist and deep thinker whose work was sometimes suppressed and conveniently labeled as ahead of his time.

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View Oscar Brown Jr. Archive Project events on pg. 32. Oscar Brown Jr. Photo: Courtesy of Maggie and Africa Brown.


YOUTH & FAMILY

S M A R T M U S E U M : FA M I LY DAYS

L O G A N C E N T E R FA M I LY S AT U R DAYS Logan Center Cultivate your child’s artistic curiosity with hands-on art workshops and interactive performances with engaging themes led by local artists, art organizations, and UChicago students. These interdisciplinary workshops are fun for the whole family, offering activities from music to arts and crafts for youth ages 2-12.

CO O L K I D S : A C E L E B R AT I O N O F YO U T H I N T E C H

Sat, Jan 5, 2–4:30pm Technology is all around us and today’s youth are at the very center of the explosion. Join us for an afternoon full of young techies, innovation, and new ideas produced for and by the brightest of minds. Featuring short films from Chicago artist Brandon Breaux + more.

DA N C E F O R T H E C U LT U R E

Sat, Feb 2, 2–4:30pm Meet us on the dance floor as we learn moves that sit at the heart of many cultures. Take family-friendly dance classes with international flair, enjoy live instrumentation, and exchange your favorite dance moves from popular culture.

C H I L D R E N ’ S B O O K AT H O N

Sat, March 2, 2–4:30pm Books have been the bedrock of many of our childhoods. Help us continue this tradition as we take an afternoon to celebrate the whimsical authors who provide us with creative children’s stories and equally beautiful illustrations that transport us into another time and place. Free; registration recommended (tickets.uchicago.edu, 773.702.ARTS). Presented by Logan Center Community Arts.

Sat, Jan 5; Feb 2; & Mar 2, 1-4 pm Smart Museum of Art Family Days at the Smart celebrate the creative potential in all of us. Drop in—with new projects each month, our Family Days offer young people and caregivers an opportunity to creatively engage with art, artists, and ideas together. Art-making supplies and other materials are provided. Family programs are best for kids 4–12. Children must be accompanied by an adult at all times. Free; all materials provided. Presented by the Smart Museum of Art.

J UNIOR ARCHAEOLOGISTS ( AG E S 5 -1 2 )

Sat, Jan 12, 1-3pm Oriental Institute Museum Let loose your inner Indiana Jones! Families dig into our simulated excavation while learning about the real science of archaeology at the Oriental Institute’s Kipper Family Archaeology Discovery Center. This program includes an interactive guided tour of the galleries. Fun patches available onsite. Free. Presented by the Oriental Institute Museum.

N U B I A : L A N D O F T H E B OW

Sat, Feb 2, 1-3pm Oriental Institute Museum You’ve heard about ancient Egypt, but what about their neighbors (and sometimes conquerors!) to the south? Journey up the Nile to Nubia, a civilization rich in gold, famous for their archers, and with more pyramids than Egypt. Discover the tombs of Nubian queens, explore the history of Nubia and Egypt, and get hands-on with artifact replicas. Free. Presented by the Oriental Institute Museum.

GREENLIGHT SERIES: IN THE SPIRIT

Wed, Feb 20, 7pm Green Line Performing Arts Center (329 E Garfield Blvd) The GreenLight Series illuminates the varied performing arts disciplines producing work

in the Green Line Arts Center. Join us for an evening of storytelling featuring the dynamic duo, In the Spirit: Zahra Baker and Emily Hooper Lansana. This performance will highlight a range of stories that demonstrate women’s creative and political genius from folk heroines to Nobel Peace Prize winners we continue to find ways to triumph even amidst chaos and challenge. The evening will include an open mic for guests to share women-centered stories as well. Free. Presented by Arts + Public Life.

ALL BONES ABOUT IT ( AG E S 8 -1 2 )

Sat, Feb 23, 1-3pm Oriental Institute Museum Think skeletons are just for Halloween? The bones inside you would disagree: you use your skeleton every day! What’s more, written on your own bones is the story of the physical activities you take part in and the food you eat. Explore how this knowledge helps archaeologists learn about the lives of ancient people while also learning how to help your own bones tell the great story of healthy living. We’ll give you a kid’s crash course in bioarchaeology while you get hands-on. Fun patches available onsite. Free. Presented by the Oriental Institute Museum.

N OW R U Z C E L E B R AT I O N

Sat, Mar 9, 1-4pm Oriental Institute Museum Celebrate the delight of the coming Persian New Year Nowruz! Color eggs, visit a Haft-Seen table, hunt for artifacts in the galleries, and take your New Year photo! Free. Presented by the Oriental Institute Museum.

H Y D E PA R K YO U T H S Y M P H O N Y: BET WEEN THE LINES Sat, Mar 9, 4-6pm Logan Center, Performance Hall All three orchestras of the HPYS will participate. Musical direction by Matthew Sheppard (Artistic Director) and Lindsay Wright (Associate Artistic Director). Free. Presented by the Hyde Park Youth Symphony..


INFO

CALENDAR

For a complete list of events and exhibitions, visit arts.uchicago.edu.

LOCATIONS

See the following pages for a map of over 20 arts locations on or near our South Side campus.

TICKETS

Learn about and buy tickets for arts events and performances at the University of Chicago through the UChicago Arts Box Office online, in person, and over the phone. To purchase tickets for Court Theatre, visit courttheatre.org or call 773.753.4472. BOX OFFICE URL tickets.uchicago.edu ADDRESS Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts 915 E 60th St Chicago, IL 60637

WALK-UP HOURS Tue–Sat, 12pm–6pm (later on show nights) Sun–Mon Closed PHONE 773.702.ARTS (2787)

TRANSPORTATION

Getting to the University of Chicago is just a quick car, bike, train, or bus ride away. For more detailed transportation information go to visit.uchicago.edu.

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

CTA (Chicago Transit Authority) The CTA is Chicago’s public transportation system, offering a large network of buses, elevated trains, and subways around the city. Take the 2, 4, 6, or X28 bus from downtown Chicago or take the Red or Green Line train toward the Garfield/55th stop and transfer to the 55 Garfield bus. » Download Transloc Transit Visualization, the real-time bus location and arrival app, at uchicago.transloc.com. Metra Train The Metra Electric District Line commuter rail runs from the downtown Millennium Station hub at Randolph & Michigan to University Park, IL. Exit at either the 55th-56th-57th or 59th/University stops at UChicago. Visit metrarail.com for fares, timetables, and other details.

ACCESSIBILITY

Persons with disabilities who need an accommodation in order to participate in events should contact the event sponsor for assistance. Visit answers.uchicago.edu/19772 for information on Assistive Listening Devices.

BIKING

Bike racks can be found at various locations on campus. All CTA buses are equipped with bike racks, and Metra allows bikes on trains with some limitations. Chicago’s Divvy Bike system has many new and upcoming stations in and around Hyde Park. The 24-hour bike pass will provide you with unlimited rides for up to 30 minutes. Find more information and a full map of Chicago stations at divvybikes.com.

PARKING

You can find more information about bike tours and rentals at choosechicago.org.

Parking Garages The preferred visitor garage is located at 55th St and Ellis Ave. The Campus South Parking Garage is located at 6054 S Drexel Ave, near the Logan Center for the Arts, open to non-permit holders after 9am. Visitors may park at the Medical Campus parking garage, at 59th St and Maryland Ave.

ACCOMMODATIONS

Limited street parking is available around campus.

Parking Lot Wells Lot, located near the Logan Center at 60th St and Drexel Ave, is free after 4pm and all day on weekends.

The University of Chicago has certain relationships with hotels in Hyde Park and around the city of Chicago for visitors, students, faculty, staff, alumni, and hospital guests. Some of these hotels may offer discounted rates or special services for UChicago affiliates. Make sure to mention the University of Chicago when you make a reservation to learn more about these benefits. To find out more about preferred hotel program, go to visit.uchicago.edu/accommodations

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E. 53RD

E. 53RD

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E. 54TH

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VISITOR MAP 1 E. GARFIELD BLVD

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S. MARTIN LUTHER KING DR.

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S. PRAIRIE AVE

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S. PRAIRIE AVE

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The University of Chicago is a home to a variety of renowned arts destinations across campus. For complete information on academic, professional, and student arts programs and initiatives, visit arts.uchicago.edu/explore.

For a list of dining options and details about transportation and parking see visit.uchicago.edu

Professional organizations such as Contempo and UChicago Presents, student groups, and department-based groups perform and exhibit across campus. Learn more by visiting arts.uchicago.edu.

Museum Campus South partners visitmuseumcampussouth.com

For a list of other arts and cultural organizations and venues on the Culture Coast visit culturecoast.org.

38 | arts.uchicago.edu

Public art location. Learn more about public art on campus at publicart.uchicago.edu

U C H I C AG O A R T S V E N U E S 1 Arts Block Arts Incubator Peach’s at Currency Exchange BING Green Line Performing Arts Center 301–359 E Garfield Blvd arts.uchicago.edu/apl 2 Bond Chapel 1010 E 59th St rockefeller.uchicago.edu 3 Court Theatre 5535 S Ellis Ave courttheatre.org 4 Charles M. Harper Center: Chicago Booth School of Business Art Collection 5807 S Woodlawn Ave art.chicagobooth.edu 5

Cochrane-Woods Art Center 5540 S Greenwood Ave

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DOWNTOWN CHICAGO 8 MILES NORTH

25

L A KE

LAKE MICHIGAN

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RI ED OR SH

MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY

V

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JACKSON PARK

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NEAR CAMPUS 6 Film Studies Center Cobb Hall 5811 S Ellis Ave, 3rd Floor filmstudiescenter.uchicago.edu *See also #18 7

Francis X. Kinahan Theater Reynolds Club 5706 S University Ave 3rd Floor

8

Fulton Recital Hall 5845 S Ellis Ave

9 Gray Center Lab 929 E 60th St graycenter.uchicago.edu 10 Hack Arts Lab (HAL) 5735 S Ellis Ave, 2nd Floor hal.uchicago.edu 11 International House 1414 E 59th St ihouse.uchicago.edu 12 Lorado Taft House 935 E 60th St

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Max Palevsky Cinema Ida Noyes Hall 1212 E 59th St docfilms.uchicago.edu

19 Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts 915 E 60th St logan.uchicago.edu

23 DuSable Museum of African American History 740 E 56th Pl dusablemuseum.org

14 15

Mandel Hall 1131 E 57th St Midway Studios 929 E 60th St

20 Rockefeller Memorial Chapel 5850 S Woodlawn Ave rockefeller.uchicago.edu

24 Experimental Station 6100 S Blackstone Ave experimentalstation.org

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Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society 5701 S Woodlawn Ave neubauercollegium.uchicago.edu

17 Oriental Institute Museum 1155 E 58th St oi.uchicago.edu 18 The Renaissance Society Cobb Hall 5811 S Ellis Ave, 4th Floor renaissancesociety.org

21 Smart Museum of Art 5550 S Greenwood Ave smartmuseum.uchicago.edu 22 Special Collections Research Center Exhibition Gallery The Joseph Regenstein Library 1100 E 57th St lib.uchicago.edu/e/scrc/exhibits

25 Hyde Park Art Center 5020 S. Cornell Ave. hydeparkart.org 26 Seminary Co-op Bookstore 5751 S Woodlawn Ave semcoop.com 27 Museum of Science and Industry 5700 S. Lake Shore Dr. msichicago.org 28 Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House 5757 S. Woodlawn Ave. flwright.org

arts.uchicago.edu | 39


From family to friends: you want to be here.

Join us for our 2018-2019 visual, performing, and literary arts season! Most events are FREE.

The Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago is a multidisciplinary home for artistic practice. Connect with the Logan Center for concerts, exhibitions, performances, family programs, and more from world-class, emerging, local, student, and international artists.

logancenter.uchicago.edu Logan Center for the Arts 773.702.ARTS 915 E 60th St loganUChicago

Photo: Iphigenia. Photo: Matthew Gregory Hollis, courtesy of UChicago Theater and Performing Studies (TAPS)


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