From the outside, Adrian Tann’s store, Saiote, looks isolated on its stretch of Milwaukee Avenue. Though it’s just a few blocks north of the fancy boutiques and trendy restaurants near the intersection of North and Damen, it might as well be a world away.
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That’s how Tann hopes you’ll feel when you visit Saiote, the name of which is a variation, he says, on the name of a friend, Masai writer Tepilit Ole Saitoti. He wants it to be “a kind of sanctuary, where people in the community can gather and interact.” Since opening the store a year and a half ago, he’s hosted free public events such as classical guitar performances and poetry readings. “The business side is one thing,” he says, “but the arts side is equally important.”
He says he learned Swedish in only two months (“well enough to get by”) and found he had a facility for languages (he also speaks French, Spanish, and some Norwegian). He stayed in Sweden for two years, supporting himself by coaching children and playing on a professional basketball team in Stockholm. By then he wanted to learn flamenco guitar, so he moved to Seville to study, signing on with a different team.
Tann holds his next public event at 7 PM this Friday, June 22, when he hosts the premiere screening of a documentary examining several archaeological sites in the Nubian Desert of northeast Africa. Nubia and the Mysteries of Kush will be shown this fall on PBS. The film’s producers and cameraman will be on hand to answer questions. Admission is free.
