Luis Rodriguez Reads Poetry Hull House Wednesday, March 16

DATE
March 16

TIME
5:30 PM Reception
6:00 PM Reading

WHERE
Residents’ Dining Hall
800 South Halsted Street

 

Co-sponsored with The Poetry Foundation

READING
Join us on March 16 for a special reading by activist and award-winning writer and poet,
Luis Rodriguez.

For the first time, Luis will recite a new poem commissioned by the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum for the Alternative Labeling Project, a new series that transgresses and challenges the way we think about objects and artifacts and the extraordinary stories they tell.

We are thrilled to be co-sponsoring this event with the Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. Hull-House and the Poetry Foundation have a long history that begins with Harriet Monroe–American editor, scholar, literary critic, poet and patron of the arts–who founded Poetry magazine in 1912. Monroe lived as a resident at Hull-House for a short time, where she connected with Jane Addams and became one of Addams’ primary readers and literary peers. The two women also belonged to the Society of Midland Authors, an elite literary circle, which included important modern writers like Clarence Darrow, Hamlin Garland, Carl Sandburg, and Lorado Taft.

ABOUT LUIS RODRIGUEZ
Luis J. Rodriguez is one of the leading Chicano writers in the country, with 14 published books in poetry, memoir, fiction, nonfiction, and children’s literature. His poetry has won the Poetry Center Book Award, the PEN Josephine Miles Literary Award, and the Paterson Poetry Book Prize, among other accolades. Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A., his 1993 memoir of gang life, has sold more than 300,000 copies; it received the Carl Sandburg Literary Award and a Chicago Sun-Times Book Award, and was designated a New York Times Notable Book. His latest poetry collection, My Nature Is Hunger: New & Selected Poems, appeared in 2005 from Curbstone Press/Rattle Editions. Rodriguez helped found Chicago’s Guild Complex, Tia Chucha Press, and Rock A Mole Productions, which organizes arts festivals in Los Angeles. He is renowned for his work in gang intervention.

ALTERNATIVE LABELING PROJECT
Can a common museum label—so often the omniscient voice that provides factual evidence that identifies artifacts and objects in a museum’s collection—sensually engage us, inspire revolution and reform, or provide pleasure and comfort?

Can a museum label be a poem, an essay, or piece of music?

The Jane Addams Hull-House Museum asks these questions in its new series of Alternative Labels that presents diverse voices and encourages visitors to view history from a fresh perspective.

We invited Luis Rodriguez, one of the country’s leading Chicano writers, the International Contemporary Ensemble, a vibrant, cutting-edge new music ensemble, and Terri Kapsalis, a writer and performer, to choose artifacts from our collection and compose labels that challenge and provoke. For the final part in the series, visitors will be invited to exercise their voices and participate by creating their own alternative label for an object in our collection.

These labels, non-traditional in format and presentation, will be placed throughout the museum over the next few months to provide alternative encounters that will introduce visitors in fresh ways to the extraordinary history of the Hull-House Settlement.

Co-sponsored with The Poetry Foundation

Journal Of Ordinary Thought: Winter 2011 Writing On Food

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

CONTACT: Hollen Reischer/ Assistant Director, Neighborhood Writing Alliance/ Editor, Journal Ordinary Thought

773-684-2742 /  hreischer@jot.org

The Neighborhood Writing Alliance is proud to present

“I Always Like Plenty of Napkins”

Winter 2011 Journal of Ordinary Thought

NWA Writers on Food

 

CHICAGO—The Neighborhood Writing Alliance (NWA) announces “I Always Like Plenty of Napkins,” the Winter 2011 issue of the Journal of Ordinary Thought. This food-themed issue features prose and poetry from Albany Park, Uptown, Chicago Lawn, Bronzeville, the Near West Side, Humboldt Park, and St. Leonard’s House. Photographs of Chicago’s food culture, taken by DePaul University students under the guidance of professor and photographer Jason Reblando, accompany the writing.

The beautiful 96-page journal features:

an introduction by Lisa Yun Lee, Director of the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum;

photographs of Chicago’s food scene taken by

DePaul University students taught by professor and photographer Jason Reblando;

and writing by over 60 NWA writers.

Read prose and poetry about food justice issues, food memories, and food culture:

• “Too many fat kids going to

Too many burger joints, taco joints, pizza joints, fried fish joints, BBQ joints

Too many McDonald’s, Burger Kings, White Castles, Taco Bells…”

Christelle Evans

Hall Branch Library, Thursday Writing Group

• “Years later, I remember sitting on the side of the bed when he was in a wheelchair, as together we ate Archway cookies, cheese, and Pepsi on ice.”

Jeanette Moton

Hall Branch Library, Monday Writing Group

• “But a true Greek salad, a true horiatiki, is not of the Food Industrial Complex; it is of the village. In Greece, open-air markets are still alive and well. Every town has local growers who gather on the weekends to sell fresh produce to their neighbors.”

Stavroula Harissis

Albany Park Branch Library

NWA writers will present their work on Tuesday, March 15 from 6-8 p.m.

at the Jane Addams Hull House Museum Residents’ Dining Hall (800 S. Halsted).

Admission is free, and complimentary copies of “I Always Like Plenty of Napkins” will be available.

This location is handicap accessible.

The Neighborhood Writing Alliance is a Chicago-based not-for-profit that runs writing workshops for adults in low-income Chicago neighborhoods and publishes pieces from those workshops in its quarterly, award-winning publication, the Journal of Ordinary Thought. NWA presents the writers and their work in 25–30 events and readings each year. NWA workshops are free and open to adults of all levels of writing experience.

Website: www.jot.org.

Video Of/About Wisconsin Demonstrations Against Scott Walker

There is no order to these videos.  More will be added as people send them to me or as I glean them from the web. Most recent added are at bottom of each section (Video and Text)

Video Links

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJOtUEORNkw&feature=player_embedded Solidarity video from Madison

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZ5CqhL5X4o Todd Alan Price in Madison

http://www.youtube.com/user/tprice1963?email=share_video_user Todd Alan Price in Madison

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8SEo9NV-UA Young trade unionists in Maryland

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdLcGW4LRQc&feature=player_embedded I am a teacher

http://www.readersupportednews.org/off-site-opinion-section/72-72/4988-qdemocracy-uprisingq-in-the-usa Noam Chomsky on Democracy Now

http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/02/17/6075298-never-poke-a-badger-in-the-eye Rachel Maddow – Poke A Badger In The Eye

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CjcneEagoCE#at=75

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=6291 TRNN: Class Struggle in Wisconsin. Paul Jay interviews AFL-CIO leader

http://vimeo.com/20110135 Cheesehead rally, NYC 2/18/2011

http://bit.ly/fr17Yc Impromptu b-boying in the rotunda
http://bit.ly/e3Ht3W State Senator Lena Taylor: Teachers are in the house!  2/15/2011
http://bit.ly/ebBF07 Firefighters at the capitol — bagpipers

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/jobswithjustice Jobs With Justice site follows the activities closely with video, photo and text

http://vimeo.com/20089255 Matt Wisniewski’s excellent video beautifully captures the mood.  He sets up shots from the rallies of 2/15-2/17 to a background of Arcade Fire’s “Rebellion (Lies)”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_-NlVCPYWs The ED show (NY) calls on Democrats to have backbone, support workers (interesting clip of Ted Kennedy)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/41675756#41675330 The ED show from Madison Feb. 18 focuses on concessions made by workers, applauded by Democrats, and rejected by Scott Walker

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=6299 Matt Rothschild (The Progressive Magazine) talks with TRNN about the history of progressivism in Wisconsin and the current battle)

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150104432416234 Posted by Michael Shallal, Cabbies support the Madison demonstrators

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZsOKNfNkfQ Rep. Gordon Hintz chews out his colleagues for trying to force the “Repair Bill” through

http://vimeo.com/20168864 Matthew Wisnewski’s part 2, Feb. 18 and 19, set to “The Cave” by Mumford and Sons

http://www.youtube.com/user/cinderbelle319 Straightforward explanation about the situation surrounding the Wisconsin demos and the “Budget Repair Bill.” This is the first video by this 22 year old.  Hope to see a lot more

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/41674668#41674668 Rachel Maddow drops some valuable Wisconsin and workers history to put things into perspective (then goes into her analysis, that this is all intended to give Republicans local and then national dominance in electoral politics):

http://vimeo.com/20146715 Todd Alan Price interviews, along with Luciano on camera (about one hour)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fCm6JcOMuM&feature=player_embedded Police officer testifies about the peaceful protests, Limbaugh and Fox News distortions

http://www.thenation.com/video/158811/students-and-workers-join-together-wisconsin Todd Alan Price for The Nation

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31& TRNN examines how cutbacks in public services/public workers is a phony solution

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31& Paul Jay (TRNN) proposes that Wisconsin’s billionaires should make some sacrifices too . . .

http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2011/02/wisconsin-ohio-indiana-new-york.html In this video from New York’s Ed Notes, Ed Schultz conducts interviews at a protest rally in front of Fox News HQ.  The video ends with a brillian satirical speech, imploring the crowd to pity the poor, suffering billionaires.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/22/walker-unions-wisconsin-protests_n_826908.html?ref=fb&src=sp Whoops!  Cutting benefits may actually COST money . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHIyRFH5r-I&feature=email Substance News video of the Feb. 26 solidarity with Wisconsin demo.  Background: Utah Phillips sings Solidarity Forever

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=6367 TRNN sums up the struggle after the rally March 5, 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG9I-oA_Er0&sns=fb Two Weeks In Madison, a tribute video which is very effective

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjCEW2J30oM Wisconsin Senate passes anti-collective bargaining bill  March 9, 2011

Music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYiKdJoSsb8&feature=player_embedded Pete Seeger and a “Solidarity Forever” video montage

http://www.youtube.com/wethepeoplewisconsin#p/c/7471346814D51E57/24/zWCixXEe35g Tom Morello sings “World Wide Rebel Songs” and brings greetings from Cairo to Madison

http://www.youtube.com/wethepeoplewisconsin#p/c/24/zWCixXEe35g Tom Morello sings to a rally on the state Capitol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHIyRFH5r-I&feature=email Utah Phillips backs this video up with an especially sonorous Solidarity Forever

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0P4ZAyROfI Wayne Kramer is joined by Tom Morello and a bunch of others for jamming Kick Out The Jams

And Text and Non Video:

http://wisconsinwave.org/four-ways-build-wisconsin-wave-against-corporate-rule Wisconsin Wave

http://chilaborarts.wordpress.com/2011/02/16/the-aaup-comments-on-a-coordinated-attack-on-public-workers/ AAUP comments posted  on this blog

http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2011/02/10/copy/kasich-to-public-workers-you-strike-you-get-punished.html?adsec=politics&sid=101 Ohio threatens public workers

http://cwcs.ysu.edu/about/news/senate-bill-5-testimony Sherry Linkon & John Russo testimony re Ohio

http://www.progressive.org/wx021511.html Matt Rothschild on Wisconsin wars

http://www.truth-out.org/wisconsin-crowds-swell-30000-key-gop-legislators-waver67882 Truthout: Wisconsinites rally

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/the-best-protest-signs-at-the-wisconsin-capitol 45 Best signs at the Capitol

http://m.host.madison.com/mobile/news/opinion/editorial/article_61064e9a-27b0-5f28-b6d1-a57c8b2aaaf6.html Capital Times: Walker’s budget aids cronies

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/116502958.html Walker rejects unions concessions

http://www.wlea.org/ Tracy Fuller, Exec. Director of the Wisconsin Law Enforcement Association regrets/repudiates endorsement of Scott Walker

http://www.thenation.com/blog/158741/aaron-rodgers-we-need-your-voice-wisconsins-working-families Dave Zirin calls on Green Bay Packer quarterback and shop steward, Aaron Rodgers to take a stand in Wisconsin

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/18/russ-feingold-wisconsin-protests_n_825325.html Russ Feingold rallies workers in Madison

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/480120 Wisconsin uprising spreads to Indiana and beyond

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/480123 Walker’s statement shows the bill is not intended to solve the “economic crisis in Wisconsin”

http://www.seiu721.org/2011/02/post-1.php SEIU Local 721:  All eyes are on Wisconsin

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/479560 12 things you need to know about the Wisconsin uprising (Alternet)

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=550496537&v=wall#!/album. Brett Jelinek’s extraordinary photo album of the rally Saturday, Feb. 19

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0211/49888.html From Cairo to Madison, Free Pizza!  Culinary solidarity in action

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/20/ West Virginia public workers rally in support of Wisconsin workers and to win rights for themselves

http://labournet.de/internationales/usa/arbeitskampf.html This German source for news about labor in the US has a section on Wisconsin.  This blog is sourced there as well as other info.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704900004576152362740149144.html? Michigan Governor Rick Snyder won’t pick fights with unions

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/02/22/indiana-democrats-flee-state-to-protest-anti-union-bill/ Indiana Democrat legislators follow the lead of their Wisconsin colleagues

http://blog.aflcio.org/2011/02/23/breaking-news-from-indiana-right-to-work-withdrawn/ AFL-CIO reports that Indiana Republicans withdrew right=to=work legislation

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/02/22/hundreds-rally-at-iowa-capitol-over-labor-laws/ Iowans rally to support Wisconsin demonstrations

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/23/us/23ohio.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha24 NYT reports on battles in other states, catching Wisconsin fever

http://thinkprogress.org/2011/02/21/leader-egyptian-unions-wisconsin/ Egyptian unions support Wisconsin protesters

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/02/22-13 Rose Ann De Moro on refusing to make benefits concessions

http://chicago.indymedia.org/newswire/display/93540/index.php Garth Liebhaber’s photos in Madison highlight members of the Chicago Teachers Union

http://www.channel3000.com/news/26998145/detail.html Saturday, Feb 26 will be the last day demonstrators will be allowed to occupy the capitol building in Wisconsin — unless officials heed the advice of the police.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/ Tom Morello, Madison, Frostbite and Freedom

http://www.stltoday.com/news/state-and-regional/missouri/article Missouri considering “right to work”

http://blogs.forbes.com/rickungar/2011/02/25/ Taxpayers Contribute Nothing To Public Employee Pensions

http://bigozine2.com/feature/?p=548 Bill Glahn interviews Wayne Kramer of the MC5, archival story from The Big O with relevance for today

http://www.montevidayo.com/?p=1026The Poet Brenda Cardenas reports from the scene and reflects on personal and political history

https://www.facebook.com/notes/ This link is a restricted one and requires that you are “friends” with Lew Rosenbaum on facebook.   Nick Lampert, Aaron Hughes and Dan Wang appeal from Wisconsin.

http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/03/09/anti-public-employee-bill-passes-senate- Anti collective bargaining passed by Wisconsin Senate

100th Anniversary: Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

[ In previous posts on this blog, we've discussed this important event and the creative expressions that emanated from the tragedy (Poetry Anthology: Walking Through the River of Fire; Centenary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire; Julia Stein's Bibliography of Triangle Fire Poetry, Plays, Novels and Literary Criticsm).  The time is approaching when commemorations will be held throughout the country.  Workers United, the union that is the successor/descendant of the original garment workers unions of the 1911 era, holds annual events to commemorate the fire;  this year the union is hosting a web site that is collecting and sharing information on the activities around the country, as well as promoting the many events local to New York.  You can find that information at Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition. You will also find on that site a portal to a great deal of resource information on the fire and its consequences. The following post gives information just received from Leigh Benin, an author of a forthcoming book on Triangle.

In particular, however, we urge you in Chicago to save the date of April 7, 2011. On that date Chicago will be participating in these commemorations with two programs, one in the late afternoon at Gage Gallery of Roosevelt University (18 S. Michigan)  and in the evening at the 430 S. Michigan building of Roosevelt University (as part of the annual gala presented by the Working Women's History Project).  More information to follow shortly! -- Lew Rosenbaum]

In New York:  Save the Date

Thursday, March 3, 2011: 6:30 to 8:30 pm

Adelphi University Performing Arts Center

Arcadia Press new book on Triangle will be available Feb. 28, 2011.

Garden City, New York

Meet authors/film makers reception 5:30 to 6:30 pm

Light Refreshments

[To reserve seats for this free but ticketed event, RSVP to Rob Linne Linne@adelphi.edu or Leigh Benin Benin@adelphi.edu]

Remembering the Triangle Fire

An evening of film, talk, music, and theatrical performance

Sponsored by:

Adelphi University

The Education and Labor Collaborative

The Triangle Fire Families Association

Original Music by the Adelphi University Music Department

Film Preview: HBO’s soon to be aired documentary “Triangle: Remembering the Fire”

Panel Discussion of people featured in the film will be moderated by Roma Torre of NY 1

Daphne Pinkerson: Director and Producer

Michael Hirsch: Co-Producer

Bruce Raynor: President, Workers United

Katherine Weber: Author, Triangle

Leigh Benin, Co-Author, The New York City Triangle Factory Fire

Suzanne Pred Bass, Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition

Vincent Maltese, Triangle Fire Memorial Association, Inc.

Short Original Theatrical Performance by the AU Theater Department

Order the book by Leigh Benin, Rob Linné, Adrienne Sosin, & Joel Sosinsky here

What Is A Word Worth? The Public Square’s Cafe Society Debates The Issue

[When is a word forbidden?  What does excising a word from normal discourse do?  These questions might be brought up in the context of this weeks discussion centering on the purging of "nigger" from the text of Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn.  Here is what  writer Dave Marsh underscores about whitewashing the word away:

"I would rather hear the word "nigger" in a conversation, used properly for history or quotation, or in a sentence of any kind than the puerile "the N-Word."

Who is the euphemism sheltering? Either it assumes that there are those auditing the conversation or reading the sentence who do not know what that epithet means and should not find out or it means "we all know," and in effect, that's nudge, nudge, the okey-doke.

If you counted all the times that people use "the N word" to replaced "nigger," you would find that it is used damned near as often as it was in 1884."

Makes you think about how much like a secret handshake saying the phrase "n-word" is.  If you can't make it to the Cafe Society, you can use the DIY toolkit to foment your own!  --  Lew Rosenbaum]

Cafe Society Next Week’s Topic: What is a word worth?

Café Society will be meeting at Valois (1518 E 53rd St, Chicago) from 7-8pm and at Panera Bread (1126 E Walnut St, Carbondale) from 7:30-8:30pm on Thursday, February 3,or have your own discussions using our Cafe Society DIY Toolkit.

From “New edition of ‘Huckleberry Finn“ to lose the ‘n’ word by Keith Staskiewicz

“What is a word worth? According to Publishers Weekly, NewSouth Books’ upcoming edition of Mark Twain’s seminal novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn will remove all instances of the ‘n’ word—I’ll give you a hint, it’s not nonesuch—present in the text and replace it with slave. The new book will also remove usage of the word Injun. The effort is spearheaded by Twain expert Alan Gribben, who says his PC-ified version is not an attempt to neuter the classic but rather to update it. ‘Race matters in these books,’ Gribben told PW. ‘It’s a matter of how you express that in the 21st century.’”

Questions for consideration

• What is problematic about replacing the “n-word” with “slave” and “Injun” with “Indian” in the Adventures of Huckberry Finn?
• Are there possible benefits?
• How might this change take away from the nature and intention of the book?
• Is this an attempt to sanitize American culture?
• If so, what are potential intended and unintended consequences?

Want to find out more?

A case for censoring Huck Finn
Censorship of ‘Huck Finn’ tasteless but not mandatory
To tweak or not to tweak a literary classic: Pro-censor
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn… through censorship!
Letter: Censoring Huck Finn

Café Society SCHEDULE

1st Thursdays
7-8 p.m., Valois, 1518 E 53rd St, Chicago
7:30-8:30 p.m., Panera Bread, 1126 E Walnut St, Carbondale

2nd Fridays
5-6 p.m., Ron’s Barber Shop, 6058 W North Ave, Chicago

3rd Wednesdays
1:00-2:00 p.m., Chicago Cultural Center’s Randolph Street Café, 77 E Randolph St, Chicago

4th Week
Roving Cafe Society, Location, date, and time to be announced.

Vivian Maier, Chicago Street Photographer

From Chicago Tonight, with Phil Ponce, on WTTW Channel 11

Posted by John Maloof, http://vivianmaier.blogspot.com/

Cultural Connection: Vivian Maier
The amazing story of Vivian Maier, a Chicago nanny who took more than 100,000 photos during her lifetime but never showed them to anyone. Now that she’s gone and her photos have been discovered, some say she may rank among the top street photographers of the 20th century. Jay Shefsky brings us tonight’s “Cultural Connection.”
More Vivian Maier photos and information
The show at the Chicago Cultural Center, Jan. 7 – April 3

The link to the Chicago Tonight clip is also here. . .

Documenting The Forgotten Ones: The Working Class Eye Of Milton Rogovin

[An extraordinary exhibit opens Jan. 20, 2011.  Original prints, many never before exhibited, representing the life work of acclaimed photographer Milton Rogovin will be on view until June 30, 2011.  Rogovin was active politically in Buffalo and was blacklisted during the 1950's.  He lost his optometry practice then, and decided to turn to photography as a way to continue to speak out.  Visit this link to explore the work of Milton Rogovin, to hear the interview with Rogovin and his daughter on his 100th birthday ( Dec. 30, 2009), read Rogovin's poetry (Milton Rogovin reads his own poetry in the interview), and much more.  The Gage Gallery link gives updated information about the exhibit and events in the exhibit space. - Lew Rosenbaum]

Gage Gallery hours

Monday – Friday 9-6
Saturdays 10-4

 

Working-Class Eye of Milton Rogovin

A one-of-a-kind, vintage photo exhibit that tells compelling stories about work and working-class people through the eyes of renowned photographer Milton Rogovin.  The debut exhibit, The Working-Class Eye of Milton Rogovin, features some striking images of workers from the living photographer’s collection that have never been seen before by the public. 

 

Working-Class Eye of Milton Rogovin

Born in 1909 in New York City, Rogovin went to Buffalo, New York, for work as an optometrist. Involved in political work as well, Rogovin looked to socialism as a model for improving the lot of workers and was called before the House Unamerican Activities Committee in 1957.

 

Working-Class Eye of Milton Rogovin

As a result of this, Rogovin’s business dwindled and he decided to pursue photography as a means to express the worth and dignity of people who make their livings under modest and difficult circumstances.

 

Working-Class Eye of Milton Rogovin

“This show is different and very exciting for my family because it is one of those rare times when organizers of a show took the time to choose the images themselves and to exhibit them uniquely through the lens of the working-class eye.” said Mark Rogovin, son of the documentary photographer.

Rogovin opened his father’s vast collection to Ensdorf, who curated the new exhibit, in consultation with Roosevelt labor historians Erik Gellman and Jack Metzgar. The three Roosevelt professors spent more than four months sifting through more than 1,000 photos of working-class people taken by Rogovin during the last half century in order to present the exhibit that is unlike any previous Rogovin show.

Gage Gallery

The Working-Class Eye of Milton Rogovin

Opening reception and presentation by Mark Rogovin
Thursday, January 20, 2011
5-8 p.m

Featured events during exhibition:

• February 18: Newberry Labor History Seminar
• March, TBA: annual Chicago Center for Working-Class Studies “Getting Paid to Cause Trouble” panel
• April 1st: Graduate student History/Sociology Conference keynote event, speaker TBA
• April 7th: Triangle Fire 100th anniversary event in Gage Gallery featuring Professor Jo Ann Argersinger from Southern Illinois University, co-sponsored by Roosevelt and UIC History Departments and the New Deal Center at Roosevelt.
• April 20th: Melanie Herzog, Professor of Art History, Edgewood College, presentation on her biography of Milton Rogovin
• June 23rd: Working-Class Studies conference event, featuring Janet Zandy, Professor of English and American Studies, RIT on the “Working-Class Eye” and Erik S. Gellman, Assistant Professor of History, Roosevelt University on “Rogovin in Historical Context”

Exhibition made possible by generous financial support from Susan B. Rubnitz.

Sponsored by Roosevelt University’s College of Arts and Sciences, the Chicago Center for Working-Class Studies, and the Labor and Working-Class History Association.

Supporting the Peace Movement is No Crime

[You may not want to read any further.  It could be dangerous. Worse than any virus that might infect your computer.  You see, the FBI is convinced that reading about peace, reading about opposing war, reading about people organizing to defend themselves against threats to their economic survival are subversive acts.  Lest the FBI descend upon you early one morning, you may consider closing your browser now.  If, however, you believe that if you hide for too long you might be the last one left and in need of help, well, check this out.]

 

Opposing war and occupation is not a crime

By Staff, Fight Back News

January 1, 2011

Read more articles in In-Justice System

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following call from the Committee to Stop FBI Repression.

Join the National Day of Action on Tuesday, January 25, 2011

In December 2010, under the direction of U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, the FBI delivered 9 new subpoenas in Chicago to anti-war and Palestine solidarity activists – bringing the total number of subpoenaed activists to 23. Patrick Fitzgerald’s office is ordering the 9 to appear at a Grand Jury in Chicago on January 25.

In response, we are calling for protests across the country and around the world to show our solidarity. Hundreds of organizations and thousands of people will be protesting at Federal Buildings, FBI offices, and other appropriate places, showing solidarity with the 9 newly subpoenaed activists and with all the activists whose homes were raided by the FBI.

Fitzgerald’s expanding web of repression already includes the 14 subpoenaed when the FBI stormed into homes on September 24th, carting away phones, computers, notebooks, diaries and children’s artwork. In October, all fourteen activists from Chicago, Minneapolis, and Michigan decided to not participate in the secret proceedings of Fitzgerald’s Grand Jury. Each signed a letter invoking their Fifth Amendment rights. However, three women from Minneapolis – Tracy Molm, Anh Pham and Sarah Martin – are facing re-activated subpoenas. They are standing strong and we are asking you to stand with them – and with the newly subpoenaed nine activists – by protesting Patrick Fitzgerald and his use of the Grand Jury and FBI to repress anti-war and international solidarity activists.

Defend free speech! Defend the right to organize! Opposing war and occupation is not a crime!

**Tell Patrick Fitzgerald to call off the Grand Jury!

**Stop FBI raids and repression!

Please organize a local protest or picket in your city or on your campus and e-mail us at stopfbi@gmail.com to let us know what you have planned.

Robotics Meets Theatre — New Garage Theater Production of Heddatron

[What happens when a pregnant Ypsilanti housewife is captured by renegade robots, taken to a South American jungle, and compelled to perform Ibsen's Hedda Gabler in a company of robot actors?  What seems to be a farce transcends the farcical, or so reviews of other productions have indicated.  We are NOT posting this to complain that robots are taking living actors' jobs.  Nor are we posting this to complain about the descent of theater below suspension of disbelief.  Instead, this is an aspect of performance that is actually imitating life, needs to be taken seriously in this regard.  At CL&AF we are interested in robotics precisely because it represents a generalized elimination of what was once socially necessary but is now becoming unnecessary human labor.  Behind Paul LaFargue's challenging The Right To Be Lazy has always been the challenge to debilitating work, the opportunity to free up human creative labor to confront the difficulties of survival such as how to educate appropriately, how to adapt to our changing environment so as not to destroy ourselves and so many of our fellow creatures.  And while Heddatron may not pose this question directly,  in our opinion it is built into the fabric of the play itself when ChiBots and others are actually building robot actors, ad did Le Freres Corbusier in New York 5 years ago (NYT review is here).   The play opens at Steppenwolf's Garage Theatre Feb. 16, 2011. -- Lew Rosenbaum]

Sideshow Theatre Company presents

Heddatron

By Elizabeth Meriwether
Directed by Jonathan L. Green 

A Steppenwolf Visiting Company Initiative
In the Garage Theatre
Wed. February 16, 2011 — Sun. April 24, 2011

Sideshow Theatre Company’s Heddatron is a part of the 2nd Annual Garage Rep.

Tickets go on sale January 7th

Overview

A book falls from the sky and a depressed Michigonian housewife is kidnapped by a clan of renegade robots, whisked away to the jungles of South America, and forced to perform the title role in a mechanical version of Hedda Gabler. As a documentarian searches for the truth about the abduction and the woman’s family mounts a search party, Ibsen himself enters the picture to defend his well-made play. Sideshow is partnering with robotics experts across Chicago to present a cast of human actors and functioning robots in this bizarre and savagely funny Chicago premiere.

Sideshow Theatre Company’s Heddatron is a part of the 2nd Annual Garage Rep, which also includes The Strange Tree Group ‘s The Three Faces of Doctor Crippen and UrbanTheater Company’s Sonnets for an Old Century.

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Sideshow Theatre Company was founded in 2007. Sideshow’s mission is to mine the collective unconscious of the world we live in with limitless curiosity, drawing inspiration from the familiar stories, memories and images we all share to spark new conversation and bring our audiences together as adventurers in a communal experience of exploration.
For more information, visit www.sideshowtheatre.org.

Henry Giroux To Speak At DePaul in April

 

The School of Education  and The Department of Educational Policy Studies and Research Present….

Youth in a Suspect Society: Coming of Age in an Era of Disposability w/ Henry Giroux

This talk argues that with the rise of market fundamentalism and the ensuing economic and financial meltdown, youth are facing a crisis unlike that of any other generation. Young people, especially poor minority youth, are no longer seen as a social investment but as a problem and, in some cases, disposable. Caught between the discourses of consumerism and a powerful crime-control-complex, young people are either viewed increasingly as commodities or are subjected to the dictates of an ever expanding criminal justice system. In this speech, I explore the current conditions of young people and their everyday experiences within an emerging governing through crime complex, the neoliberal politics of disposability, and the ever present market-driven forces of privatization and commodification. I also raise some important questions regarding the role that educators, in particular, might play in challenging the plight of young people while deepening and extending the promise of an aspiring democracy.

-Henry Giroux

Henry A. Giroux holds the Global TV Network Chair in English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University in Canada. His most recent books include: The University in Chains: Confronting the Military-Industrial-Academic Complex (2007), Youth in a Suspect Society: Democracy or Disposability? (2009), Politics Beyond Hope (2010), Hearts of Darkness: Torturing Children in the War on Terror (2010).

When:   Tuesday, April 5, 2011
5:30-8:30pm
Where:  De Paul Student Center
2250 N. Sheffield
Room 120 AB