Friday 9/5 – Thursday 9/11
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Now that it’s a mere 35 million miles from Earth and fully illuminated by the sun, Mars can be seen with the naked eye–even here in the city. But getting a good look at its polar ice caps and other surface features requires a good telescope. Tonight from 9 to midnight the Adler Planetarium will set up several on its south lawn and open its observatory for free tours and public viewing as part of an event it’s calling Mars Madness. Inside, the Sky Theater will feature a special presentation called “Mars Tonight”; tickets to that are $5. The planetarium is at 1300 S. Lake Shore Dr.; for more call 312-922-7827 or see www.adlerplanetarium.org.
6 SATURDAY “This crowd is worse than any I have seen in Mississippi,” Martin Luther King Jr. told the Reverend Kwame John R. Porter during their 1966 Marquette Park march against segregated housing. Several thousand angry white residents responded to the demonstrators by pelting them with rocks and other objects; King himself was struck in the head. Now, says Porter, “as we celebrate the 40th year of the march on Washington, we must also celebrate Dr. King’s impact on Chicago and Marquette Park.” The area saw still more trouble from white supremacists when Latinos, Arabs, and African-Americans began moving there in the early 80s, but today’s free Unity Fest Picnic in the park celebrates the neighborhood’s diversity. Porter will speak at the event, which runs from 10 AM to 4 PM and also includes performances by the 411 Gospel Rappers, El Gallito de Jalisco, and Arab and Lithuanian dancers. The park’s at 6700 S. Saint Louis; bring your own food and lawn chairs. For more information call 773-436-7989 or 773-925-0397.
In June, League of Women Voters president Kay J. Maxwell wrote to the U.S. Senate to express the organization’s concern about the sinister effects of the war on terror: “In 1942, during World War II, the League wished ‘to preserve the greatest degree of civil liberty consistent with national safety.’ That concern continued during the ‘witch hunt’ period of the early 1950s, when the League conducted a two-year, community education program known as the ‘Freedom Agenda’ that provided opportunities for Americans to discuss and learn about their freedom under the Bill of Rights.” Maxwell also wrote to League chapters across the country, asking them to provide similar community education forums on Patriot Acts I and II. For tonight’s free panel, The U.S. Patriot Act: What’s Happening to Our Civil Liberties?, the Illinois chapter has assembled a list of heavy hitters that includes American Library Association deputy director Deborah Caldwell-Stone, former U.S. congressman and federal appeals court judge Abner Mikva, U.S. attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, Judge Sandra Otaka, and Arab-American Bar Association president Rouhy Shalabi. The program runs from 5:30 to 7:30 at the Harold Washington Library Center, 400 S. State. Call 312-939-5935 or see www.lwvchicago.org for more information.
