Words
Banter on a Mission
Deanna Kimberly Burrell considers flirting to be an art. At a workshop last Friday in the Listenbee Collection Art Gallery, she bestowed upon eager attendees a variety of flirting tips, like the importance of setting up a hypnotizing rhythm when sending out romantic signals. She encouraged ladies to twirl their hair. Men can swirl... »
Doppleganger
Jack Clark is early. He hovers around the well-stocked bar, looking to quell his anxieties about the lighting at Jimmy’s. Dmitry Samarov arrives soon after. Bearded, tattooed, dressed in 501’s and a pair of beat up wingtips, he looks part hard man and part St. Nick. Samarov situates himself at a table perpendicular to... »
Michael Ondaatje’s wise words
Tucked in the Performance Penthouse of the UofC’s Logan Center, Michael Ondaatje induced just as much laughter as he did thought at his talk last Monday, unafraid to admit that he’s neither working on any writing nor aware of the fact that students might dissect his work word by word. He settled the debate... »
All sketched out
Upon entering the Sketchbook Project, you sign up for a “library card.” Proceeding to a computer station, you can request books by location, theme, format, or medium. After you’ve chosen, a staff member retrieves your object of desire from the stacks and calls your name. The books have been made by any and all... »
Buying with Purpose
“Our Black Year,” a new book by writer and UofC Law School graduate Maggie Anderson, opens with the author and her Harvard-educated financier husband savoring a celebratory lobster in a chic Gold Coast restaurant. The ensuing tome, in a harshly ironic twist, expends most of its bulk following the same couple as they dodge... »
Out but not Down
Just as the modest wooden structure in the yard at 57th and Woodlawn brings together events from different times and places, SHoP was intended from its beginnings in October 2011 to provide a meeting point for differing perspectives. SHoP’s current arrangement, however, will soon be coming to an end in the summer with the... »
Voice of the People
Last Wednesday at ten of three, a small group had already started to gather around the locked doors of an out-of–the way University of Chicago classroom a full forty minutes before vaunted Marxist literary critic Terry Eagleton was scheduled to give a lecture entitled “The Death of Criticism?” Though a quick search for the... »
Writing Cure
“It’s an isolating subject,” Ann Hedreen said Saturday night, referring to Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, and other memory disorders. As organizer of a reading at Overflow Coffee Bar called “Brain Trust,” Hedreen brought together writers who have dealt with the isolation and sadness that comes from caring for someone suffering through such a disease. It... »
