Photo: courtesy Old Town
School of Folk Music
July 2007 | Choice News
The Old Town School’s Golden Hootenanny
Mother Mississippi and the music of Chicago have one thing in common: they never stop flowing.
This year is the 50th anniversary of one of Chicago’s great musical institutions, the Old Town School of Folk Music. After opening Dec. 1, 1957 in Chicago’s Old Town neighborhood, the main branch of the school moved in 1998 to an historic art deco building in Lincoln Square that was formerly a branch of the Chicago Public Library. The Old Town School now stands amidst one of the city’s most culturally diverse neighborhoods in an historic art deco building on Lincoln Ave.
“It started off as a group of people getting together in a living room to play music together and have a good musician stand there and say ‘Alright, here’s how you put your fingers if you want to play a D chord,’” said executive director Bau Graves.
The school formed during a boom in the world’s folk music scene. It mirrored attitudes on folk music and saw enrollment increase during the 1960s folk revival movement, expanding its program during the 1970s.
But a dramatic decrease in participation during the late‘70s left the school flirting with bankruptcy. A change of leadership in 1982 brought new hopes, as the curriculum expanded and the folk revival trend ended, pushing the school in new directions.
Today the school boasts such cultural diversity as Aztec ceremonial dance, a cabaret vocal class and a Japanese Taiko drum class. The school offers classes in four disciplines — music, dance, theatre and visual arts — and an early childhood musical development program launched in 1985 called Wiggleworms that continues to thrive. Enrollment now averages around 6,000 students per week, 2,700 of them children, in four locations. Graves mentioned that a fifth location is in the works, across the street from the main branch, though it is not expected to take form for a few more years.
“The attitude that I think permeates this place is one of openness and a real generosity and spirit that welcomes people in to give it a try,” Graves said. “The basic idea behind the school is that everybody can play music and has an equal right and opportunity to enjoy it.”
“The attitude at the center of what Old Town School stands for is not just attempting to improve Chicago, but wants to improve the whole world,” Graves said. “What is our goal? It’s to make this a world that people want to live in and is a decent place for everybody.”
To learn more about 50th anniversary events, visit oldtownschool.org/fifty.
— Shaina Levee
Photo: Sarah Morton
The Bloomingdale Trail:
A Park in the Sky
Perched above the packed, bustling streets of Chicago’s Near Northwest side is a long, underused strip of land that could be a boon for the community.
The Bloomingdale Trail is three miles of abandoned train tracks stretching west from the Chicago River to Central Park Avenue in the Humboldt Park/Logan Square neighborhood. Although the trail is already an idyllic oasis for a few people, concerned citizens, architects and city officials have been working to make it a public place that nearby residents and all Chicagoans can enjoy.
“It’s a forgotten little stretch of earth in the middle of a dense Chicago neighborhood,” said Ben Helphand, president of Friends of Bloomingdale Trail (FOBT). He is trying to help realize the potential of the trail as a major transportation connector and place where people can walk, bicycle or just hang out.
Today the Bloomingdale Trail, although neglected by its owner, the Canadian Pacific Railroad, is cared for by the FOBT, which does regular large-scale clean-ups along the tracks. Helphand explains that the trail has become a haven for the homeless, who build tent cities that the FOBT removes. Still, Helphand reports that as soon as they are gone, the tent cities reappear. Although it’s understandable why the homeless would choose such a locale to live, developing the Trail as a public park space could solve the problem.
The efforts to transform the Bloomingdale Trail seem to be gaining ground. Starting in May public exhibition of the plans was held at Acme Art Works at 1741 N. Western Ave. in order to gain community input for the project.
Ideas for the Trail range from the minimalist to the wild; posters offer plans such as keeping the Trail the same, growing crops and adding hills or basketball courts. The Trail’s elevated and linear nature makes it fairly unique. In NY’s Manhattan’s “Highline,” a similar project which is transforming an old West Side elevated line into a green deck — appears to be the only one like it in the country.
Completing the Bloomingdale Trail project may not happen as quickly as some would like. The tracks are still owned by Canadian Pacific, although the city has purchased nearby “pocket parks” to eventually complement the Trail. Requests for engineering proposals will likely be sent out next year.
To learn more about the project visit bloomingdaletrail.org.
— Josh Singer
Breathing Peace: Chicago’s Peace School
Celebrates its 35th year
“Inhale wooorld ... exhale peaaace,” Master Charles Kim’s voice vibrates, filling the room with his relaxing tone. This year, the Peace School celebrates its 35th anniversary, where peace breathing is one aspect of the multi-faceted practice taught in the Lincoln Ave. storefront studio.
In 1972, the late Grand Master MyungSu Y.S. Kim moved his family and Martial Arts practice to Chicago from Korea, where he started a training program combining peace breathing, yoga, meditation and Martial Arts. This unique practice dedicates each breath and movement to world peace.
The approach even works for those with hectic lives — in the words of Head Instructor and Education Coordinator Jennifer Kim, “You always have time to breathe. You’re breathing right now, so why not utilize the breath in a positive way?”
In addition to peaceful practice, the founder worked to establish a global day of peace. Mayor Bilandic acknowledged Peace Day in Chicago in 1978, which, with thousands of letters typed by Peace School volunteers and sent across America, spread to 540 cities, then to all 50 states in 1980. In 1986, the United Nations designated the school a Peace Messenger because of its work in getting proclamations of peace days from governors and mayors throughout the nation. “And it all started here,” says Jennifer Kim, “with a little group of volunteers and typewriters!”
Head Instructor Greg Garrett, who started at the Peace School when he was 17, says that working alongside the late Grand Master Kim “was like sitting down with Mahatma Gandhi — he just had that presence — he was a magnet, a personality you just couldn’t refuse.” Grand Master Kim’s momentum and energy continue to flow through the school after his death. Current Peace School president Master Charles Kim hopes to continue the work accomplished by his father. He has aspirations for the school to become an educational institution, training leaders to work sincerely for humanity while spreading ideas of world peace through the U.S. and beyond.”
Peace Day 2007 will be held at noon on Friday, Sept. 21, in Daley Plaza. Visit peaceschool.org or email for more information.
— Jessie Tierney
Photo: courtesy City of Chicago
A Taste of (Vegetarian, Vegan and Organic) Chicago
In a city known for its hot dogs, ribs, beef and sausage, it’s hard to imagine finding marinated and grilled, herbed tofu cutlets and veggie tamales at the city’s annual Taste of Chicago. But, thanks to A Natural Harvest, even vegetarians — and vegans can find something to eat among the cheeseburgers, Polish sausage and BBQ beef on a stick.
A Natural Harvest was started in 1982 by Cheryl Simms and became the first vegetarian vendor at the Taste of Chicago in 1984. Since then, its been a regular participant at the Taste as well as at the Chicago Air and Water Show, the Chicago Marathon, the Chicago Jazz Fest and many other local festivals.
“Participating in the Taste of Chicago is an attempt to raise people’s consciousness about better food choices,” says Simms. “Most people are pleasantly surprised when they find our booth, and then look for us every year.”
A Natural Harvest’s menu includes marinated and grilled, herbed tofu cutlets with sesame or ginger tamari sauce, vegetarian tamales, roasted corn on the cob with soy butter and Cajun/Creole topping, cheese fries, plain or with Creole topping and cheese sticks. This year the focus is on using organic ingredients — the tamales are organic, along with the tofu cutlets, which are also new for 2007.
After enjoying some wholesome organic food, be sure to stop by the Goin’ Green Area just west of A Natural Harvest’s booth. The Goin’ Green Area is new to the Taste of Chicago and features easy steps on making small changes to live a greener life, including classes and interactive seminars on natural pest control, sustainable building materials, solar power, car sharing and more.
Taste of Chicago is the world’s largest food festival, attracting over 3.5 million people annually. This year’s Taste is June 29 to July 8 in Grant Park; 11am to 9pm daily (until 10pm on July 3). Look for A Natural Harvest at Booth #59 on Columbus near Balbo, and the Goin’ Green Area just west of Columbus and half a block north of Balbo. For more information visit tasteofchicago.us.
— James Faber
Have Cause, Will Travel
On July 7, Live Earth — one of the biggest concert events to hit the planet — will bring Al Gore’s climate-crisis message to millions of music-lovers with 24 hours of live performances simulcasting from New York, London, Johannesburg, Rio de Janeiro, Shanghai, Tokyo, Sydney, Hamburg and Istanbul.
While Live Earth may be the biggest and baddest of them all, it’s certainly not the summer’s only party with a purpose. Check out these nifty message-driven tours coming soon to a venue near you:
The Eat Well Guided Tour of America: This summer, Sustainable Table, The Meatrix and the Eat Well Guide are celebrating sustainable foods by visiting farms, farmer’s markets and restaurants that serve local fare. The tour kicks off August 2 in Hollywood, then travels up the coast and across the states (in a veggie bus, of course). See if they’re visiting your town or follow along on their blog at SustainableTable.org/roadtrip.
30 Days of Peace: Launching on the anniversary of September 11 and running 30 days (ending on the birthday of Daniel Pearl — the journalist who was kidnapped and killed while investigating Al Qaeda), the 30 Days of Peace initiative unites peace organizations around the world with events and online media. There’s also a Gandhi music tour and a 30-day non-stop prayer vigil. Visit CultureOfPeace.org.
Sustainable Living Roadshow: With off the grid eco-festivals, eco-fashion shows, community action projects, alternative medicine workshops and educational seminars on topics ranging from solar energy to biofuel, this pack of travel bugs cruises the nation in CleanFuel Caravans to inspire communities to “live in more direct sustainable harmony with the earth.” For the 2007 tour route visit SustainableLivingRoadshow.org.
The Buried Life: What’s on your list of things you want to do before you die? Skydiving? Getting a tattoo? Learning to garden? This summer, four young Canadians are roadtripping across the United States, determined to cross 100 goals off their lists, while documenting their journey on film. The best part: they’re challenging everyone they meet along the way to do the same. Chart their success and offer support at TheBuriedLife.com.
— Jenny Rough
Go Ahead, Get Mad
Cool Globes … Not So Cool
Congratulations to Chicago on its biggest greenwashing project to date. If you’ve walked along Chicago’s lakefront recently you no doubt have seen some of the 100 large globes on display as part of the “CoolGlobes: Hot Ideas for a Cooler Planet” project. Cool Globes uses public art “to inspire individuals and organizations to take action against global warming … solutions that can be put into practice every day ... at home, on the job and in your school.”
Well, the art may be cool, but there is nothing cool about some of the project’s sponsors, who are some of the most egregious environmental offenders out there: Excelon, which maintains 13 nuclear power plants; McDonald’s, Pepsi and Starbucks, whose litany of abuses would fill every page of this magazine; Medline and Abbott Labs, who put pharmaceutical waste and EDC’s into our water supply, and Chicago Magazine, which must cut down a small forest and process it with every harsh chemical available in order to put out each glossy issue.
Don’t believe the hype!
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