Friday 1/17 – Thursday 1/23
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The Chicago chapter of ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) sent ten busloads of protesters to October’s antiwar march on Washington, and they hope to dispatch even more to tomorrow’s follow-up rally and march on the Washington, D.C., Navy Yard to protest a war with Iraq. “This is going to be big, but we’re not sure how big,” says one of the organizers. “Many people think this will be the last demonstration before the war–that the U.S. is going to wait until January 27, when the UN inspectors make their report, and then launch the war.” A round-trip ticket is $80, but the send-off’s free. The chartered buses leave tonight at 5:30 from behind the School of the Art Institute on Columbus between Jackson and Adams (they’ll return Sunday morning). Tickets should be purchased in advance but space may be available tonight on a first-come, first-served basis. Call 773-250-7006, E-mail chicagoanswer@attbi.com, or go to www.answerchicago.org for more information.
18 SATURDAY Stephanie Lenore Kuehn’s new play Final Angel is based on the 1994 rape of Chicago Bar Association employee and aspiring actress Lynn Green, who was taking a break on an unoccupied floor of the organization’s Loop office building when she was attacked by a homeless man. Green, who says she had a near-death experience during the crime, spent eight hours helping police draw a composite sketch of the man; he was nabbed the next day in front of the CBA. Green struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder for years afterward, and won a $2.2 million contributory negligence suit against the building’s management company in 1999. Produced by Green’s theater company, Fine Arts Enterprises, Kuehn’s play draws on Jungian themes and the Greek myth of the abduction and rape of Persephone to add context to Green’s story. Tonight’s performance is at 8, and the show runs through March 2 at Theatre Building Chicago, 1225 W. Belmont (773-327-5252); tickets are $27.
22 WEDNESDAY Utopian thinking’s been around since Plato, but for some reason every stab at paradise–no matter how feasible and well-intentioned–seems doomed to fail. For the new book Visions of Utopia, University of Chicago emeritus professor of religion Martin Marty (who himself helped design a utopian city in the 60s) joined forces with New York Times critics Edward Rothstein and Herbert Muschamp to explore the history of utopian ideas. Looking at everything from the writings of Sir Thomas More and the architecture of Adolf Loos to Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, the authors come to disparate conclusions about the meaning of such efforts: Rothstein argues that utopias are only fully realizable in art; Marty holds that while they may be impractical there’s spiritual value in the process of trying to realize them. Tonight at 7 he’ll discuss the collaboration at 57th Street Books, 1301 E. 57th (773-684-1300). It’s free.
