Friday 10/12 – Thursday 10/18
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
13 SATURDAY Following the end of Guatemala’s 36-year civil war–the longest armed conflict in Latin American history, in which more than 150,000 people died and some 45,000 “disappeared”–the Archbishop’s Office on Human Rights in Guatemala interviewed nearly 7,000 people for its Recovery of the Historic Memory Project. “We are gathering the memories of the people because we want to contribute to the construction of a different country,” said Bishop Juan Jose Gerardi Conedera in 1998. Three of the project’s authors will discuss their findings at a free forum called “Refusing to Forget,” tonight at 7 at Lakeview Presbyterian Church, 716 W. Addison. Call 773-250-3407.
14 SUNDAY Today’s facetiously named Eighth Annual Festival for the Autonomous Territories of Chicago (actually it’s the first one) will showcase a hodgepodge of nonmainstream organizations, including Indy Media, arts-education outreach program the Stockyards Institute, Temporary Services art gallery, God’s Gang (a Robert Taylor Homes food co-op), and the People’s Republic of Delicious Foods (a “video food interactive portable rave lunatic group”). Highlights include a food foraging workshop (find it, cook it, eat it), a surveillance camera pinata (smash the camera, catch the candy), and an installation by co-organizer Ben Rubin that consists of “a text on the wall that says ‘flag repository’ and a big garbage can,” which he admits “may make people a little angry.” It’s today from noon to 10 at the Hyde Park Art Center, 5307 S. Hyde Park (773-561-5802); admission is free.
16 TUESDAY Susanna Kaysen’s new memoir about her ailing vagina, The Camera My Mother Gave Me, recounts what happened after she awakened one day to find that her private parts hurt like hell. Specialists and quacks offered treatments ranging from novocaine to oatmeal baths (none of which worked), and she finally had to kick out her boyfriend, who refused to take no for an answer. “It was practical to write it,” she says. “I needed a chronology in order to give each new doctor a proper history. And then it became a sort of mystery novel.” She’ll read from and discuss her book tonight at 7:30 at Women & Children First, 5233 N. Clark. It’s free; call 773-769-9299.
