Wishing I lived in Chi-town

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Author Message   Ferociouskitty Veteran Poster Username: Ferociouskitty Post Number: 328 Registered: 02-2008 Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) Posted on Monday, July 14, 2008 - 07:06 pm:        And not just because Cynique is there...;-) Is that tour guide Lucille Clifton? If Lucille Clifton had spent more time in Chicago than Baltimore, she might have ended up in the Guild Complex's Poetry Performance Incubator. For the six people in the Guild Complex's Poetry Performance Incubator, they have taken on the jobs of poet, playwright, ensemble member, actor, contributing set designer and…tour guide. Yes, tour guide. The inaugural Poetry Performance Incubator will debut its inaugural performance, Tour Guides, at the Viaduct Theater on Friday, July 18, through Sunday, July 20. Tour Guides asks the question, "What is Chicago?" The variety of answers includes landmark neighborhood locations like Harold's Chicken and Moo & Oink. (It's about so much more than the Sears Tower and the John Hancock for Chicago natives.) The poets will take you on the CTA, on tours of their neighborhoods, through the tastes and smells of Chicago food – this is an eating town – and into the heart of how those of us who live here nestle next to and grate against those around us. The Poetry Performance Incubator is a pilot project of the Guild Complex that has been percolating for the last five years. Though Chicago has a strong tradition of performance poetry, few poets have the developed sense of stage craft that actors have. Even fewer have worked in an ensemble setting. The Incubator pushes at the intersection of poetry and theater with the aim of creating a truly hybrid form. Poets and actors auditioned for the Incubator with the criteria of learning the theater or developing their writing, whichever was the less familiar for them, which included writing work for others as well as themselves and staging the work through an ensemble process. It should be noted that Tour Guides is performed by the group of poets who collaboratively wrote the piece. Kimberly Dixon, Steven Evans, Stephanie Gentry-Fernandez, Ricardo Gamboa, Tricia Hersey and Rupal Soni have developed their hybrid craft under the guidance of award-winning director Coya Paz, co- founder of Teatro Luna and a poet herself. Performances of Tour Guides will be: Friday, July 18, 7:00 p.m. Saturday, July 19, at 7:00 p.m. Sunday, July 20, at 2:00 p.m. Viaduct Theatre, 3111 N. Western Ave., Chicago. Tickets are $8. Order through the Viaduct Theatre box office at 773.296.6024. For more information, please check the Guild Complex website www.guildcomplex. org. We promise, you'll leave the theater knowing more about Chicago than when you got there – even if you're a local. Happy hump day -- and we mean Wednesday, The Guild   Ntfs_encryption "Cyniquian" Level Poster Username: Ntfs_encryption Post Number: 3290 Registered: 10-2005 Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) Posted on Tuesday, July 15, 2008 - 11:13 am:        Great city. I always had a fun time. Lotta music, art, Chicago style blues, interesting mix of ethnic foods, sports, museums, galleries, night life, awesome historical and contemporary architecture. The list goes on....   Cynique "Cyniquian" Level Poster Username: Cynique Post Number: 12446 Registered: 01-2004 Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) Posted on Tuesday, July 15, 2008 - 06:17 pm:        Yep, Chicago is a great metropolis, aesthetic - and dangerous. Away from its down town area, life on the street is perilous. Young Blacks and Hispanics are sitting ducks for the random gunfire the splits the air daily, leaving dead bodies in its wake.   Ntfs_encryption "Cyniquian" Level Poster Username: Ntfs_encryption Post Number: 3297 Registered: 10-2005 Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) Posted on Tuesday, July 15, 2008 - 08:51 pm:        "Young Blacks and Hispanics are sitting ducks for the random gunfire the splits the air daily, leaving dead bodies in its wake." So sad. It's in epidemic proportions across Americas major urban cities (also now spreading to rural areas). When I was recently in Ohio, it was one Negro after another in the news papers and on the local TV news in their now fashionable orange jump suits for murder, attempted murder and major drug dealings. No where near the city I grew up in. I don't recall a fraction of the lethal violence and senseless street thug behavior I saw this past month (as a kid growing up). I can imagine what it's like in a major city like Chicago.