Friday 7/12 – Thursday 7/18
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13 SATURDAY Between 1975, when the Khmer Rouge invaded Phnom Penh, and 1999, nearly 150,000 Cambodian refugees entered the U.S. About 6,000 of them live in the Chicago area, and 400 are expected to participate in today’s Surviving the Journey: Cambodian American Walk to Freedom event–to which they’re encouraged to bring “symbols of Cambodia and their personal journey to America.” But regardless of where they’re from, anyone who signs up can walk and attend the picnic that follows. Registration is from 9 to 12 in the parking lot across the street from the Aragon (1106 W. Lawrence). The two-mile walk starts at 10 and ends at noon at 2831 W. Lawrence, where there will be a ground-breaking ceremony for the future Killing Fields Memorial and Cambodian Heritage Museum and Library–the nation’s first. The $25 registration fee benefits the same. For more call 773-878-7090.
There are almost 100 murals in the Pilsen neighborhood, some of which date back to the beginnings of the Mexican mural movement launched in 1968 with Mario Castillo’s Metaphysics (Peace), which has since been destroyed. “A lot of them are indoor murals, but those are a bit harder to track down,” says Linda Tortolero, executive director of the Pilsen/Little Village Information Center. Fortunately, she knows where they are and is leading today’s neighborhood tour of Pilsen and Little Village–two communities linked by Cermak Road that are home to the largest concentration of Mexican-Americans outside East LA. The tour bus leaves at 10 AM (and returns around 2) from the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington. Tickets are $25 (lunch is not included), $20 for students, seniors, and kids 8 to 18. To reserve a spot call 312-742-1190.
17 WEDNESDAY “Away With Gaudy Foreigners and Artificial Varieties!” and “Restore the Native Vegetation!” were a couple of the adamant captions for illustrations in Wilhelm Miller’s 1915 tome The Prairie Spirit in Landscape Gardening. The landmark book was the first to push an indigenous style of landscape design, and was recently reissued with an introduction by University of Western Australia professor Christopher Vernon. Vernon links Miller’s ideas with the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, Walter Burley Griffin, and Warren Henry Manning, among others. Vernon, who did the bulk of his research while teaching landscape architecture at UIC, will give a free slide lecture tonight at 6 called Kindred (Prairie) Spirits: Wilhelm Miller and Jens Jensen. It’s at the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington, and takes place in conjunction with the CCC’s Jens Jensen exhibit, which was recently extended through July 28. Vernon will give another talk, “Second Nature: The Garden Art of Frank Lloyd Wright and Walter Burley Griffin,” tomorrow night at 7:30 at Pleasant Home, 217 S. Home in Oak Park. Admission to that event is $12; call 708-848-1976.
