Woodlawn
Fever to Tell: The Chicago Storytelling Guild’s thirteenth annual festival shows stories aren’t just for kids
When asked about being a professional storyteller, Judith Heineman consistently fields the same question: “Do you read stories to children?” As the activities of Heineman and the Chicago Storytelling Guild show, this question hardly brushes the surface of the art, a skill that appeals to the young and the old through a wide variety... »
Puppet Mastery
Alaskan puppet troupe Reckoning Motions’ performance of “The Great Ziggurat,” held last Tuesday at the Experimental Station, was challenging, elegantly evocative, and all-around enjoyable. The piece, based loosely on the biblical story of the Tower of Babel, explores the concepts of humanity’s penchant to build up and tear down, making use of tower allegories... »
Woodlawn’s Hidden Treasures
Everyone agrees that Woodlawn is changing. The neighborhood that once suffered from widespread arson, gang warfare, and a plummeting population is now seeing reinvestment in housing, a new grocery store, and a wealth of new cultural opportunities. And at 64th and Woodlawn, a historic church is ringing with rare Baroque music on the third... »
Best of the South Side 2009: South Shore and Woodlawn
South of Hyde Park stretch two lakefront neighborhoods with very different histories. Woodlawn was once a prosperous neighborhood, helped along by the World’s Fair of 1893 and the El tracks that connected it to downtown. In the 1940s and ’50s, integration brought a sudden demographic shift, and after the 1968 riots that raged across... »
Dramatis Personae: Hyde Park Community Players present their first show at the Experimental Station
Early last winter, Paul Baker realized a long-time dream of bringing a community theater company to Hyde Park. Inspired by his teenage daughter’s passion for theater and the neighborhood’s need for quality theater produced in a spirit of collaboration, Baker hit the streets of Hyde Park, posting yellow flyers emblazoned with an emphatic call-to-arts:... »
Hard Knocks Café: The Living Room Cafe serves meals and more to low-income residents in Woodlawn
On a Saturday morning in May, the line for a table at the Living Room Café goes out the door. Every seat around each hardwood table is filled and the atmosphere is noisy with conversation. Servers take orders and drop off stacks of pancakes, strips of bacon, and plates piled with eggs, hash browns,... »
Artist Games
Strange contraptions greet revelers who come to try their hand at King Ludd’s Midway Arcade, housed at the Experimental Station on 61st Street and Blackstone Avenue. Don’t expect to see Pac-Man, and leave your quarters at home. This arcade is different. Here, gaming meets art, and basic mechanics trump the digital age. The Experimental... »
The Bridge: The Woodlawn Collaborative connects students in Hyde Park with their neighbors to the south
Huge, empty fields spread across the Midway at 59th Street and the wide expanse of Washington Park borders Cottage Grove Avenue to the west. Few University of Chicago students, buildings, or student-targeted shops are spotted past these buffer zones, and fewer still go south of the traditional boundary of 61st Street. Private property stickers... »
