Friday 7/4 – Thursday 7/10
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When aikido teacher Fumio Toyoda arrived in Chicago in 1974, there already were a number of martial arts schools around town. But he soon came to feel that most of the teachers were sorely unqualified–“I was surprised at the general lack of awareness about what makes someone eligible to be a martial arts instructor,” the sensei and Zen master said in a 1996 interview in Aikido Journal. Toyoda, who studied for 17 years in Japan before taking over the Ki Society dojo in Chicago, spent 27 years traveling around the country teaching and organizing. In 1984 he founded the Aikido Association of America, which provides training and certification to teachers and dojos; several years later he also founded the Aikido Association International and the Aikido International Foundation. Toyoda died on July 4, 2001, from an illness he contracted while traveling. His students later founded the Aikido Center of Chicago in his honor, and his wife, Pat, now heads the AAA and AAI. Today at 9 AM the school will hold a free Zen memorial service for Toyoda; it’ll be followed by a session of aikido training. The Aikido Center is at 3717 N. Ravenswood; call 773-472-3290 for more information.
5 SATURDAY Tomorrow, July 6, is the Dalai Lama’s birthday, and while the spiritual leader doesn’t generally celebrate it himself, since 1998 the date has also marked World Tibet Day, an international observance designed to draw attention to human rights abuses in that country since China invaded in 1950. Tonight’s Dalai Lama Birthday Celebration is sponsored by the Tibetan Alliance of Chicago and includes Tibetan music, dance, and food. It starts at 6 at Saint Andrew’s Greek Orthodox Church, 5649 N. Sheridan. Admission is $15; parking is free. Call 773-275-7454 for more info.
9 WEDNESDAY The nine actresses who appear in Teatro Luna’s The Maria Chronicles have all tried out for the same tired old parts. “One of the reasons we started the theater company [in 2000] was because we weren’t seeing a lot of opportunities for Latina actresses outside of the standard roles–maid, pregnant teen, someone named Maria or Rosa,” says company cofounder Coya Paz. “We thought this would be rich material.” The Maria Chronicles, an exploration of the lives of Latina actresses, was inspired by the experience of a company member who was asked by a casting director to do a generic Latina accent. Says Paz, “She just sort of said, ‘What kind do you want?’ and went through about 15 different accents a Latina could be doing. She ended up doing a version of what she called ‘the Taco Bell dog.’” The work in progress also examines the representation of Latinas in the media and the J. Lo phenomenon. Teatro Luna will perform a staged reading in English tonight at 7:30 at the Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn, as part of the Goodman’s Latino Theater Festival, which runs through July 20. Tickets are $5 and $9; call 312-443-3800. Teatro Luna’s full production of the piece will open in October; for more on that see www.teatroluna.org.
