Programs and Discussions

Quicklinks: May | June | Coming Later This Year | Past Events

Each month, One Book, One Chicago presents:

• @ HWLC: A “main stage” event at the Harold Washington Library Center downtown
• @ CPL Branches: Discussions, exhibits, workshops and more in library locations
• @ Community Partners: More events with community partners in your Chicago neighborhood

Our list of where and how to engage will grow throughout the year. Check back often for updates.

All programs are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted, with no reservations required. For more information, call (312) 747-8191.

May

@ HWLC

The Great Migration: Conversation with Timuel D. Black, Jr., Linda Johnson Rice and Adam Green
Monday, May 6, 6:00 p.m.
Harold Washington Library Center
Cindy Pritzker Auditorium
400 S. State Street
Chicago historian and recent Champion of Freedom Award recipient Timuel Black is a foremost authority on the Great Migration, about which he’s written extensively. Linda Johnson Rice was raised by parents who came to Chicago from the South and built one of the largest and most successful black-owned media companies in the world, Johnson Publishing Company. Join them and historian Adam Green for a lively discussion across generations of how the Great Migration shaped the city and their lives.
Presented in partnership with the Chicago Urban League.
This program is presented as a pairing with the May 16 event at Chicago History Museum, listed below.

@ CPL locations

StoryCorps @ your library—Tell Your Migration Story!
May through October
Selected CPL locations
Chicagoans always have a story to tell, especially when it comes to how their history intersects with that of the city. CPL teams up with StoryCorps, a national nonprofit oral history project that aims to create a portrait of who we are as Americans, to offer opportunities to tell your migration story. In order to fully explore how migration has shaped Chicago, we invite you to sign up for a 40-minute interview session. Tell us how and when you made Chicago home, and how your community has been shaped by migrants. Invite someone with a great migration story to be interviewed by you, or come with a friend or loved one to help you share your history.
To learn more, and to sign up for a 40-minute session during the times below, call (312) 747-8191.
StoryCorps @ your library is made possible by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to the American Library Association Public Programs Office.

• @ Woodson Regional Library
  9525 S. Halsted Street
  Saturday, May 11, 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
  Wednesday, May 15, 5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
  Bring your photos, letters and objects to help you share your migration story.
• @ Northtown Branch
  6435 N. California Avenue
  Thursday, May 16, 4:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
  Saturday, May 25, 12:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Museum Education Talks—They Seek a City: Chicago and the Art of Migration
Saturday, May 11, 11:00 a.m.
Woodson Regional Library
9525 S. Halsted Street
Join an illustrated introduction, presented by Art Institute of Chicago staff, to the exhibition They Seek a City: Chicago and the Art of Migration, 1910-1950, in which foreign- and Southern-born international artists explored important social and artistic questions in the context of a shifting cultural landscape. After the presentation, stay to learn more about a special museum website and share your family’s story of migration through a recorded interview.
Presented with the Art Institute of Chicago

Blues Fest @ the Chicago Public Library
Chicago Public Library is thrilled to offer performances by blues musicians at our locations, presented in advance of the 30th Annual Chicago Blues Festival this June. This year the festival theme is “Rollin’ Up the River” celebrating the evolution of the blues from South to North up the Mississippi. Join us for these free performances at CPL. For more information on “Rollin’ Up the River” June 6-9, visit the Blues Festival.
Presented in cooperation with the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events

• Billy Branch
  Saturday, May 11, 2:00 p.m.
  Woodson Regional Library
  9525 S. Halsted Street
• Barrelhouse Chuck
  Saturday, May 25, 12:15 p.m.
  Sulzer Regional Library
  4455 N. Lincoln Avenue
• Speakin’ of the Blues: Celebrating Delmark Records’ 60th Anniversary
  Thursday, May 30, 12:15 p.m.
  Harold Washington Library Center
  Cindy Pritzker Auditorium
  400 S. State Street
  Observe the 60th anniversary of one of Chicago’s premier blues record labels, Delmark, with founder Bob Koester and manager Steve Wagner. Delmark recording artist Jimmy Burns, singer, guitarist and songwriter, performs.

Lecture and Exhibit: Memories & Milestones
Tuesday, May 7, 6:00 p.m.
Northtown Branch
6435 N. California Avenue
Ami Gandhi, executive director of SAAPRI, will present the stories of pioneer South Asian American immigrants—immigrants from India and Pakistan who came to Illinois between 1945 and 1965. This has been the first attempt by any group to document the history of South Asian immigration to Illinois in the pre-civil rights era.
The Memories & Milestones exhibit will be on display May 7 – June 1.

Exhibit: Faith in the Struggle: Rev. Addie Wyatt’s Fight for Labor, Civil Rights and Women’s Rights
March 23, 2013 – February 2014
Woodson Regional Library
Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History & Literature
9525 S. Halsted Street
This exhibit includes more than a hundred items selected from the archives of Rev. Addie Wyatt and Rev. Claude Wyatt. Addie Wyatt was born in Brookhaven, Miss., in 1924 and was an iconic local figure in the epic Great Migration of African Americans from the rural South to the cities of the North. Photographs, original manuscripts, correspondence, clippings, awards and memorabilia tell the story of her life and work.

@ Community Partners

Fierce & Fabulous: A New Look at the Ebony Fashion Fair
Thursday, May 16, Cocktails 5:30 p.m., Program 6:30 p.m.
$15, $10 members and students
Chicago History Museum
1601 N. Clark Street
For 50 years the Ebony Fashion Fair, created by Eunice Johnson, brought the world’s most exclusive fashions to black communities throughout the nation. CHM’s new exhibition is a perfect opportunity to look at the fair’s influence through an LGBT lens. Curator Joy Bivins presents an introduction to Ebony, while Chicago couturier Tommy Walton provides a personal view of the fair’s fabulous history. For more information, visit OUT at Chicago History Museum.
This program is presented as a pairing with the May 6 event at Harold Washington Library Center, listed above.

DuSable Museum Book Club Discussion
Sunday, May 19, 2:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
DuSable Museum of African American History
740 E. 56th Place
(773) 947-0600
Introducing the DuSable Museum Book Club, providing a unique forum to discuss exciting and emotive literature related to African American history and culture. Be among the first to take part in these dynamic learning experiences, starting with reading The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson. The DuSable Museum Book Club discussions are facilitated by the DuSable Museum Education Council and include a light reception.

They Seek a City: Chicago and the Art of Migration, 1910-1950
Through June 2
Art Institute of Chicago
111 S. Michigan Avenue
Modern Wing, Galleries 182–184
During the first half of the 20th century, the city of Chicago was shaped and reshaped by waves of migration and immigration as African Americans poured in from the South and newcomers arrived from Europe and Mexico. They Seek a City is the first exhibition to focus on the art produced by the wonderfully diverse communities that made Chicago their home. Over 80 works primarily by Southern- and foreign-born artists—many rarely seen by the museum’s audiences—come together for this look at the city’s rich art of migration, as Chicago became the polyglot, cosmopolitan place that it remains today.
For a full list of programs, visit www.artic.edu/they-seek-city.

Rising Up: Hale Woodruff’s Murals at Talladega College
Through June 16
Chicago Cultural Center
78 E. Washington Street
Fourth Floor Exhibit Hall
This exhibit features six monumentally scaled murals painted in 1939-42 by African American artist Hale Woodruff. Newly restored to their original, vibrant colors, the murals are accompanied by 30 paintings and prints that document Woodruff’s work from the 1920s to the 1940s, making this exhibition a rare opportunity to see this important Harlem Renaissance artist’s work in depth. Exhibit programs include a lecture on April 25 and gallery talks on April 18 and May 16. For more information, visit the Chicago Cultural Center.
Presented by the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events

June

@ HWLC

Panel: Storytelling and Public History
Wednesday, June 6, 6:00 p.m.
Harold Washington Library Center
Cindy Pritzker Auditorium
400 S. State Street
Chicagoans understand their history as much through each other’s stories as through history books. CPL celebrates this tradition and the way our stories celebrate the many cultures of our city with the current One Book, One Chicago celebration of Isabel Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns and the broader theme of how migration has shaped Chicago. Join artist Samantha Hill, Albany Park Theatre Project director David Feiner, author Miles Harvey, historian Jennifer Brier and moderator Dawn Turner Trice of the Chicago Tribune for a discussion of how storytelling informs our understanding of history and shapes our culture.
Presented in partnership with Chicago Tribune, Printer’s Row Lit Fest

@ CPL Locations

StoryCorps @ your library—Tell Your Migration Story!
May through October
Selected CPL locations
Chicagoans always have a story to tell, especially when it comes to how their history intersects with that of the city. CPL teams up with StoryCorps, a national nonprofit oral history project that aims to create a portrait of who we are as Americans, to offer opportunities to tell your migration story. In order to fully explore how migration has shaped Chicago, we invite you to sign up for a 40-minute interview session. Tell us how and when you made Chicago home, and how your community has been shaped by migrants. Invite someone with a great migration story to be interviewed by you, or come with a friend or loved one to help you share your history.
To learn more, and to sign up for a 40-minute session during the times below, call (312) 747-8191.
StoryCorps @ your library is made possible by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to the American Library Association Public Programs Office.

• @ Sulzer Regional Library
  4455 N. Lincoln Avenue
  Thursday, June 20, 5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
  Saturday, June 29, 12:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
• @ Greater Grand Crossing Branch
  1000 E. 73rd Street
  Monday, June 10, 4:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
  Saturday, June 15, 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
• @ Harold Washington Library Center
  Talking Book Center, Fifth Floor
  400 S. State Street
  Saturday, June 8, 1:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. (during Printer’s Row Lit Fest)
  Thursday, June 13, 5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

@ Community Partners

Rising Up: Hale Woodruff’s Murals at Talladega College
Through June 16
Chicago Cultural Center
78 E. Washington Street
Fourth Floor Exhibit Hall
This exhibit features six monumentally scaled murals painted in 1939-42 by African American artist Hale Woodruff. Newly restored to their original, vibrant colors, the murals are accompanied by 30 paintings and prints that document Woodruff’s work from the 1920s to the 1940s, making this exhibition a rare opportunity to see this important Harlem Renaissance artist’s work in depth. Exhibit programs include a lecture on April 25 and gallery talks on April 18 and May 16. For more information, visit the Chicago Cultural Center.
Presented by the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events

Coming Later This Year

Stay tuned for additional information in the coming months:

• book discussions of The Warmth of Other Suns in October
• more StoryCorps @ your library through October
• genealogy workshops
• music performances
• writing workshops
• major speakers—artists, historians, writers and more

Save the Date

Isabel Wilkerson
Tuesday, October 1, 6:00 p.m.
Harold Washington Library Center
Cindy Pritzker Auditorium
400 S. State Street

Past Events

@ HWLC

Panel: The New Chicagoans
Wednesday, April 17, 6:00 p.m.
Harold Washington Library Center
Cindy Pritzker Auditorium
400 S. State Street
Join a panel of journalists, activists and thinkers as they look at Chicago as a gateway for migrants today, just as it was when the Great Migration drew so many African Americans here in the 20th century. How is 21st century Chicago becoming home to these recent migrants, and how does this influx of new citizens and workers play into the evolution of our city? Panelists include Adolfo Hernandez of the Chicago Office of New Americans, Tuyet Le of the Asian American Institute, Rebecca Tancredi of Upwardly Global Chicago and Lawrence Benito of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. Moderated by journalist Stephen Franklin, ethnic news director for the Community Media Workshop.
Presented in partnership with the Office of New Americans, City of Chicago

@ CPL locations

Bezazian Branch Book Club: Division Street Princess
Saturday, April 6, 2:00 p.m.
Bezazian Branch
1226 W. Ainslie Street
Join a discussion of the memoir The Division Street Princess by local author Elaine Soloway. Set in the 1940s, this memoir takes its title from the street that Studs Terkel exalts in his classic book, Division Street: America, and from the pet name her father gave her. Soloway lived in a three-room flat above her family’s grocery store. In her tale of bookies, poolrooms, sidewalk playgrounds and relatives who lived down the block, we learn about her loving but embattled parents, her adored older brother and neighborhood kibitzers.

Museum Education Talks—They Seek a City: Chicago and the Art of Migration
Saturday, April 6, 3:00 p.m.
Bezazian Branch
1226 W. Ainslie Street
Join an illustrated introduction, presented by Art Institute of Chicago staff, to the exhibition They Seek a City: Chicago and the Art of Migration, 1910-1950, in which foreign- and Southern-born international artists explored important social and artistic questions in the context of a shifting cultural landscape. After the presentation, stay to learn more about a special museum website and share your family’s story of migration through a recorded interview.
Presented with the Art Institute of Chicago

@ Community Partners

Community Discussions: Seeking “The Warmth of Other Suns”
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of American’s Great Migration takes its title from Richard Wright’s Black Boy, in which Wright describes his migration to Chicago and his hope that while he could not create his best life in the South, he could in Chicago. These three special discussions will explore Chicago’s history as a gateway for such hopeful migrants from the 20th century to today with a community conversation that starts with Wright’s words about seeking “the warmth of other suns” and asks if those who sought out Chicago during the Great Migration found what they were looking for. Are those migrants’ grandchildren living better lives? Is Chicago the better place sought by so many? And do immigrants to Chicago today have the same hopes for our city and are they finding it here?
Presented with Chicago Public Media (WBEZ) and the Center for Civic Reflection

• Tuesday, April 9, 6:00 p.m.
  WBEZ West Side Bureau
  2531 W. Division Street
• Wednesday, April 17, 6:00 p.m.
  WBEZ South Side Bureau
  6957 S. Halsted Street
• Monday, April 22, 6:00 p.m.
  WBEZ North Side Bureau
  2913 W. Devon Avenue

They Seek a City: Chicago and the Art of Migration, 1910-1950
Through June 2
Art Institute of Chicago
111 S. Michigan Avenue
Modern Wing, Galleries 182–184
During the first half of the 20th century, the city of Chicago was shaped and reshaped by waves of migration and immigration as African Americans poured in from the South and newcomers arrived from Europe and Mexico. They Seek a City is the first exhibition to focus on the art produced by the wonderfully diverse communities that made Chicago their home. Over 80 works primarily by Southern- and foreign-born artists—many rarely seen by the museum’s audiences—come together for this look at the city’s rich art of migration, as Chicago became the polyglot, cosmopolitan place that it remains today.
Related exhibition programming includes a Celebration of Migration at 6 p.m. April 4 and a seminar at 1 p.m. April 6. For a full list of programs, visit www.artic.edu/they-seek-city.