Friday 3/22 – Thursday 3/28
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In a 1998 interview for Salon.com, self-described “old Jewish-American writer lady” Grace Paley told A.M. Homes that “whatever your calling is, whether it’s as a plumber or an artist, you have to make sure there’s a little more justice in the world when you leave it than when you found it.” Over her 40-year career she’s tried to do her part through poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, and her wry voice and uncompromising passion for social justice have netted her both a 1987 senior fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and a 1978 arrest for protesting the arms race on the White House lawn. Tonight at 7 Paley–the upcoming recipient of the 2002 Harold Washington Literary Award–will appear with Michael Warr (author of We Are All the Black Boy) and Studs Terkel at a reading sponsored by the Guild Complex at the Chicago Historical Society, 1601 N. Clark. It’s $8, $5 for students and seniors; call 773-227-6117 for more information.
23 SATURDAY With city vacancy rates hovering at a tight 4.2 percent, public housing high-rises turning into mixed-income developments, and condo conversions popping up on every corner, it’s not surprising that many immigrants are having a hard time keeping a roof over their heads. This winter the Coalition of African, Asian, European and Latino Immigrants of Illinois published a booklet full of first-person tales of housing hardship. Today at 1, contributors will tell their stories as part of “Tales From the Hood,” a multimedia event examining Chicago’s housing crisis. It’ll also feature a screening of Video Machete’s En mi barrio, performances by Teatro Callejero and the House of Daniel Choir (made up of homeless men), and words from journalist Sisi Donald Mosby and the Puerto Rican Cultural Center’s Jose Lopez. The event runs till 4 in Roosevelt University’s Congress Lounge, 430 S. Michigan, second floor. There’s a $5 suggested donation; call 773-292-4980, ext. 224. i
27 WEDNESDAY Saint Sabina’s Father Michael Pfleger will take time out from tangling with the Southside Catholic Conference to riff on the third dying phrase of Jesus on the cross–“Woman, behold thy son; behold thy mother”–as part of tonight’s performance of The Seven Last Words of Christ. Composed by Haydn in 1786 and originally presented on Good Friday the following year in Cadiz, the work intersperses meditative musical passages with homilies. The Vermeer String Quartet, whose rendition of the work snagged it a 1996 Grammy nomination, will tackle the score, while Pfleger divvies up the speaking duties with the University of Chicago’s Martin Marty, Chicago Fire Department chaplain Landis McAlpin, and others. It starts at 8 in Rockefeller Chapel on the U. of C. campus, 5850 S. Woodlawn. Tickets are $10, free for those 17 and under; call 773-702-7059.
