Friday 4/11 – Thursday 4/17
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“I remember being a kid on the playground and saying, ‘You’re such a Yoko Ono,’” says Kristin Van Loon of the Minneapolis-based Hijack dance company. “It’s wild that a little kid was aware of her being the bitch that broke up the Beatles, which is how people knew her.” Many years later, however, after doing some research on the Fluxus artist, she and Hijack coartistic director Arwen Wilder became fans. Their new Hijack’s Yoko Show consists of six pieces that they describe as “post-contact improv,” including a spectacle featuring a dozen dancers in full Yoko drag. The 90-minute program also includes a musical collaboration with local vocal improviser Carol Genetti, sound scores by Chicagoans Michael Hartman of TVPow and Milkbaby (Barry Bennett), and live music from Marshall Hanbury and Sheldon B. Smith of Chicago and Melissa Birch of Minneapolis. “It would be really fun to have people come to the show who think they hate Yoko Ono and end up liking it,” says Van Loon. “Or maybe they’d still hate Yoko Ono and like Hijack.” Performances are at Link’s Hall, 3435 N. Sheffield, tonight and Saturday, April 12, at 8 and Sunday, April 13, at 7; all will be followed by free postshow discussion. Tickets are $10, $5 for those under 18. For reservations call 773-281-0824.
12 SATURDAY Baseball’s Negro League flourished from 1920 until the late ’40s, when the top black players moved into the majors, taking their fans with them. Today’s Tribute to the Negro League Baseball Player Legends will feature a discussion and autograph session with Negro League legends Ted “Double Duty” Radcliff, Charles Johnson, Hank Presswood, Johnny Washington, Dennis Biddle, and Al Spearman. A screening of the 1992 documentary Only the Ball Was White kicks things off this morning at 10:30 at the DuSable Museum of African American History, 740 E. 56th Place. It’s free with admission to the museum, which is $3 for adults, $2 for students and seniors. Call 773-947-0600.
16 WEDNESDAY Jazz musician, composer, arranger, and conductor William Russo got his start playing trombone when he was seven and living on the near north side. He was the chief composer and arranger for the Stan Kenton Orchestra by the time he turned 21 and went on to start the London Jazz Orchestra and the Chicago Jazz Ensemble; he also helped found the Body Politic and Free Theater. From 1965 until last year Russo also chaired Columbia College’s music department; he passed away in January from pneumonia related to a two-year battle with cancer. Today Corky Siegel, the Chicago Jazz Ensemble, the Columbia College Jazz Ensemble, vocalists Carol LoVerde, Laura Walsh, Bobbi Wilsyn, and Reader critic Albert Williams will perform selections from his work at a free Celebration of the Life and Work of William Russo. It’s hosted by radio personality Roy Leonard and starts at 1:30 in Columbia College’s Getz Theater, 72 E. 11th; call 312-344-6102.
