JANUARY
To help its 100-odd members write mystery stories with the bite of truth, the local lit group Sisters in Crime brings in expert speakers to address everything from hostage situations and tactical operations to forensic dentistry. Today at 11 AM representatives from the Plainfield police and fire departments will discuss All You Ever Wanted to Know About Arson and Were Afraid to Ask. The free event takes place at Centuries & Sleuths Bookstore, 7419 W. Madison in Forest Park (708-771-7243). For more information go to www.sistersincrimechicago.org.
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The world’s earliest gardens may have been Middle Eastern desert oases cultivated around 2000 BC and intended as refuges from rather than celebrations of nature. Since then, gardeners around the world have tried to grow their own versions of paradise on earth. Photographic murals (supplemented by live re-creations) of the cream of the crop–from Hadrian’s villa in Tivoli to shogun Ashikaga Takauji’s Kyoto retreat–make up In Search of Paradise: Centuries of Great Garden Design, at the Chicago Botanic Garden. The garden’s largest indoor show to date, it runs through March 30 in the Education Center. Today’s schedule of related events includes a free concert of Renaissance music by Choral Sounds of Chicago at 2 in the Alsdorf Auditorium. The garden is located at 1000 Lake Cook Rd. in Glencoe. Admission is free but parking is $8.75; a $2 donation is suggested for “In Search of Paradise.” Call 847-835-5540.
This American Life host Ira Glass spent ten years of his youth in Hebrew school, but he says it didn’t exactly take. Now he’s stuck trying to figure out what it means to be both Jewish and a nonbeliever. “Should I pretty much just kiss the synagogue and the rest of Jewish life good-bye?” he writes in an E-mail. “I mean, I know that at some level I have no choice over the fact that I’m a Jew. I just am, and that’s that. But without God in there, it feels sort of silly and nostalgic to gather with the Jewish community in any way.” Nonetheless, he’ll discuss God, Man and Radio tonight at 6:30 with Rabbi Aaron Petuchowski at Temple Sholom, 3480 N. Lake Shore Dr., Chicago. Tickets are $20 and include dinner; for reservations call 773-525-4707, ext. 324, or E-mail linda@sholomchicago.org.
The Guild Complex’s three-part series Exploring America in Change: Silenced Voices/Hidden Communities concludes tonight with readings by Cherokee/English/German-American writer Diane Glancy and Filipina writer Luisa Igloria. Igloria will read recent poems and part of her essay “Views of War and Citizenship From Between Two Shores,” in which she reflects on colonialism. She’ll also discuss how nonmainstream writers are pigeonholed–“either you’re ‘ethnic enough’ to fit into a niche market, or you’re ‘too ethnic’ to go over well with some idea of a broader and more universal audience–these opposing terms can be used whenever convenient,” she says. “I’m very aware of the specificity of my own formation and my writing, how it is not necessarily representative of a Filipino/Filipina position, although it may on occasion address parts of that larger or more collective experience.” The readings will be followed by a discussion moderated by author and former missionary Tom Montgomery-Fate; it all starts at 7:30 at the Guild Complex at the Chopin Theatre, 1543 W. Division, Chicago. Admission is $7, $5 for students and seniors (773-227-6117).
