Program Set for CLHOF's 5th Annual Induction Ceremony

Scholars, Artists and Family to be Present 

What: CLHOF's 5th Annual Induction Ceremony

When: Saturday, Dec. 6, 7-9 p.m.

Where: Roosevelt University's Ganz Hall, 430 S. Michigan Ave., 7th Floor

How: Register To Ensure Your Seating

                                       PROGRAM

Rick Kogan .....................Opening Remarks
 
Herbert K. Russell ............Presenting for Edgar Lee Masters 

Nellie Ognacevic................Reading Lydia Puckett, Pauline Barrett and Lucinda Matlock from Spoon River Anthology 

President Teresa Amott .....Accepting on behalf of Knox College for Edgar Lee Masters 

Useni Eugene Perkins ........Presenting for Margaret Walker

Sandra Seaton....................Reading from Margaret Walker’s For My People 

Marion Coleman ..................Accepting for her mother Margaret Walker 

Bayo Ojikutu .......................Presenting for Willard Motley 

Leslie Holland Pryor .............Reading from her great-grand uncle Willard

Motley’s Knock On Any Door 

K. Sheldon Bailey .................Accepting for his great uncle Willard Motley 

Carolyn Saper .......................Presenting the Rutledge Awards prizes 

Kathleen Rooney ...................Presenting for Margaret Anderson 

Cynthia Judge .......................Performing from June Skinner Sawyers’ Life Without Roses 

Nell Taylor .............................Accepting on behalf of the Read/Write Library for Margaret Anderson 

Dmitry Samarov ......................Presenting for Shel Silverstein 

Mitch Myers.............................Accepting for his uncle Shel Silverstein 

Marta Collazo .................Presenting for David Hernandez and reading Why I Deal Words 

Batya and Matea Hernandez will be among the many
family member on hand to celebrate. 

Julie Parson-Nesbitt .........Reading David Hernandez’s
The Day Chicago Blew Up
Jaime Diego Rivera ...........Reading David Hernandez’s Rooftop Piper and Kid Love
Matea Collazo ...................Playing violin to accompany her father’s poetry
Batya Hernandez............ Accepting for her husband David Hernandez
Rick Kogan ..................... Closing

Native Son Adapted For South Side Stage

Chicago’s South Side, in the 1930s, was where all the black residents lived. Their legal segregation prevented opportunities afforded white citizens, opportunities in education, employment, housing, health care, police protection—what we now understand to be basic human rights. Chicago’s South Side, today, is where many black residents live. Their schools have been shuttered, their citizens tasered and shot by police, their parks and libraries underfunded, their housing often haphazardly managed.

The problems are of course more nuanced than 80 years ago. Progress has surely been made since the Jim Crow era. But similarities exist.

Court Theatre’s adaptation of Richard Wright’s Native Son, premiering tonight and running through Oct. 12, brings Bigger Thomas to the stage. The theater, set just north of Bigger’s fictional rattrap apartment, is the domain of the University of Chicago, a mixed neighborhood of professors and students, blacks and whites and Asians, rich and poor. But roam beyond the perimeters of the modern integrated neighborhood and things begin to turn more pre-Civil Rights eraish.

“All of the issues and pressures that Wright wrote about are still very relevant and prevalent in our society,” says playwright Nambi E. Kelley. “My adaptation focuses on how Bigger is impacted from the inside out, about these pressures and how those ills inform the picture he sees of himself in his own mind.”

Court Theatre, in recent years, has fought to make itself into a center for diverse, classic theater, with an emphasis on literary masterpieces. Court’s winter 2012 production of Ralph Ellison’s The Invisible Man was a huge success, garnering praise and enthusiasm throughout the community. 

So when American Blues Theater approached Court to propose a partnership, there was no hesitation. “It was the perfect coming together of everything,” says Court marketing director Kate Vangeloff.

Nambi began the process of adapting the novel in the fall of 2012, completing a 450-page draft that she eventually whittled down to 85. She agonized over the sprawling story’s essential elements, and how to remain true to her artistic voice while maintaining the integrity of Wright’s original vision.

“It has been my favorite novel from a very young age,” says Nambi.  “Wright writes great dialogue.  His dialogue translates very easily to the stage because it has high stakes, is direct, and is full of character.  What was challenging to translate was the long stretches in the novel where Bigger is in conversation with himself about his choices.  I hope I've found a way to illuminate his internal struggles that is theatrical, engaging, and true to the original work.”

In the novel Native Son, why Bigger did what he did is as important as what he did. The novel’s examination of Bigger’s character makeup, and how the white dominated social structure informed it, posed important questions at a time when such questions were rarely spoken aloud.

Nambi’s narration, likewise, focuses on Bigger’s psychological underpinnings, but with much more emphasis on the novel’s first two acts rather than the final act that largely takes place in a courtroom. The play runs about an hour and a half, a remarkable distillation of a story of such enormity.

At a recent discussion at the Arts Club of Chicago, Nambi discussed growing up near the Ida B. Wells 

Professor Kenneth Warren and playwright Nambi E. Kelly
discuss the adaption at the Arts Club of Chicago. 

housing project and also in Englewood. It shaped her young life and her perspective as she adapted the play. Nambi was just eight years old when she first picked up a copy of Wright’s novel, and her emotional reaction caused her parents to determine that the subject matter was too mature. Nambi did return to the novel for nearly a decade, but when she did so Native Son took hold of her all over again.

Kenneth Warren joined Nambi for that Arts Club discussion. Ken, a literary historian who has taught at the University of Chicago these past 23 years, warned that readers process text differently at the time of publication than in later years. He also noted that civic rights reform was then inextricably linked to the Socialist movement. But he agreed that much of Wright’s story remains current.

Wright was inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame as part of its inaugural class in 2010. 

Advance ticket sales for the run have been brisk, but some still remain. Groups of 10+ enjoy 30 percent off tickets, waived handling fees, free parking, and discounts at local restaurants. Contact groups@courttheatre.org or call (773) 834-3243 to make a reservation.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Donald G. Evans is the founder and executive director of the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame. He is the author of the novel Good Money After Bad and short story collection An Off-White Christmas, as well as the editor of the anthology Cubbie Blues: 100 Years of Waiting Till Next Year. He is the Chicago editor of the Great Lakes Cultural Review. He serves on the American Writers Museum's Chicago Literary Council and the committee that selects the Harold Washington Literary Award.


donaldgevans@hotmail.com

Harry Mark Petrakis To Receive Lifetime Achievement Award

Harry Mark Petrakis has been writing very good books for a very long time. He started writing short

stories in the late 1940s and finally sold one to The Atlantic in 1955, or nearly six decades ago. At 91, Harry continues to produce literature at the highest levels, is working now on another memoir, Song of My Life, that he says will be more forthcoming still than his other memoirs. In those six decades, Harry has established himself as the premiere chronicler of Chicago’s Greek Town. He has set much of his fiction there. He has authored essays based on his long experiences living in that neighborhood. He has written about his travels to Greece, and his family history of immigration from Crete to America. He has explored Greek history and mythology--its heroes, literary and otherwise. In short, Harry has created and recreated a world of vast possibility and tragedy, a world of gamblers and gangsters, priests and peasants, cabbies and cooks: generations upon generations of the lucky and the cursed. Kurt Vonnegut once blurbed, “I’ve often thought what a wonderful basketball team could be formed from Petrakis characters. Everyone of them is at least fourteen feet tall.”

The Chicago Literary Hall of Fame will present Harry Mark Petrakis its Fuller Award for lifetime achievement on Saturday, Oct. 4 at the National Hellenic Museum. The ceremony, which runs from 7 until 9 p.m., will include dramatic readings, music, food and drink. Harry will be there to make a speech upon his acceptance of the award.

For more details about the Fuller Award ceremony, visit our eventbrite link at:

http://www.eventbrite.com/e/clhof-harry-mark-petrakis-2014-fuller-lifetime-achievement-award-tickets-12925260803

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Donald G. Evans is the founder and executive director of the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame. He is the author of the novel Good Money After Bad and short story collection An Off-White Christmas, as well as the editor of the anthology Cubbie Blues: 100 Years of Waiting Till Next Year. He is the Chicago editor of the Great Lakes Cultural Review. He serves on the American Writers Museum's Chicago Literary Council and the committee that selects the Harold Washington Literary Award.


donaldgevans@hotmail.com

Silent Auction Tickets Available

I’m always the best customer at our silent auctions. It is me, more than anybody else, who is soliciting donations, cataloguing auction items, printing up certificates, writing content for the program, and finally corralling all the stuff and getting it down to the event site. So I know what I want before anybody even gets there.

Three years of CLHOF silent auctions. I’ve got a signed Interrupters poster hanging in my basement opposite the signed Chris Ware New Yorker cover. I’ve seen Remy Bummpo’s An Inspector Calls and the Sanfilippo Estate’s Christmas concert. My son Dusty has a signed Starling Castro picture and a cool handmade leather bracelet.

We’re at that point where I’m cataloguing what we have and making last-minute attempts to get more. I’m especially keen on tickets to Daniel Nearing’s new film Hogtown premiering at the Siskel Film Centre, and a weekend stay at a hotel in Lake Geneva. I want the tickets to Native Son at the Court Theater and the in-home wine tasting certificates.  I’m interested in the Lake Claremont Press book basket, and the Dmitry Samarov prints, and the Carl Sandburg pilgrimage to Galesburg, IL.

But as much as I want to win these and other items, I want more to be outbid. The money we raise at the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame’s fourth silent auction on Aug. 24 needs to sustain us as we continue to produce quality programming and content and generally celebrate our city’s great literary heritage.

The event is at the Haymarket Pub & Brewery on Aug. 24, from 5-8 p.m. David Eigenberg is our special guest.

Please buy a ticket, donate an auction item, and come to the event.

Buy tickets at:

http://clhofsilentauction2014.eventbrite.com/

To set up a donation, send me an email at:

donaldgevans@hotmail.com

Hope to see you there. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Donald G. Evans is the founder and executive director of the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame. He is the author of the novel Good Money After Bad and short story collection An Off-White Christmas, as well as the editor of the anthology Cubbie Blues: 100 Years of Waiting Till Next Year. He is the Chicago editor of the Great Lakes Cultural Review. He serves on the American Writers Museum's Chicago Literary Council and the committee that selects the Harold Washington Literary Award.


donaldgevans@hotmail.com

Chicago Fire’s David Eigenberg To Appear at Our Silent Auction Fundraiser

Before he went away to New York, still longer before he went away to L.A., and eons before he returned to Chicago a successful working actor, David Eigenberg had decided to be a carpenter. Since graduating from Naperville Central in 1982, Dave had pinballed around: jobs in auto parts and hardware stores, a here-and-gone stint at the University of Iowa. Then Washburne Trade School at 31st and Kedzie. But Chicago has always been good to Dave, and it came through for him then: the Chicago Public Schools, of which Washburne was a part, went on strike.

David Eigenberg, as Christopher Herrmann, on Chicago Fire

“I had nothing to do,” Dave recalls. “Didn’t know how long the strike was going to be. A week into it, there was an audition.”

The play was One Shining Moment, a Drury Lane Water Tower Place musical featuring a solid cast of professional actors, including Kevin Anderson as John F. Kennedy. About the only real acting Dave had done to that point was as a 12-year-old, when he appeared in a Naperville community production of Kurt Vonnegut’s Happy Birthday, Wanda June. But he got cast in the chorus.

“I’m always looking for something to engage, excite me,” Dave says. “A piece of my brain has to be stimulated.”

To say it was a straight road from a down-time chorus gig to TV stardom would be dishonest: Dave’s serpentine path took him to the U.S. Marine Corp Reserve, acting school in New York, the audition circuit, one-off parts on shows like Homicide: Life on the Streets, ER, King of Queens, Ghost Whisperer and NCIS. He traded crappy apartments in downtown Naperville for crappy apartments in Manhattan. Even his breakthrough, winning the part of Steve Brady on the popular show Sex in the City, was a grind. He’d auditioned a bunch of times for various episodes--three or four-minute improv sessions designed to showcase his talents—and never won those roles. And even though Dave impressed enough to inspire the producers to create the role for which he became known, his job as Steve Brady was season-to-season, and when the series ended he found himself scrapping for work again.

“Failure helps you appreciate success,” Dave says.

A few years back, Dave landed the part of Christopher Herrmann on Chicago Fire. Dave’s Herrmann is a fiercely loyal, feisty fire fighter. He has a big heart and a ton of courage and a hair-trigger temper, a self-effacing guy who thinks drinking with his buddies is a proper conclusion to all things good or bad. A Chicago guy.

 Critics and fans love the show, which is filmed entirely in Chicago. It is a Chicago three decades removed from the one Dave knew as a restless and self-described “belligerent young man.” Naperville, for example, has grown from a small simple town dotted with family farms to a large affluent town filled with corporate centers. But home is home, and with the show being renewed for a third season something occurred to Dave that he’d pretty much ruled out: he should come back.

And so, despite the distance from the TV and movie industry, despite the weather that Dave’s wife Chrysti very much wanted to avoid, and despite the fact that so much had changed since his adolescent days, Dave and his family bought a single-family bungalow in Bucktown. Dave and Chrysti, along with five-year-old son Louie and five-month old daughter Myrna, are busily settling into their new Chicago existence.

Dave agreed to join us as our special guest at this year silent auction fundraiser in part because he admires, respects and is inspired by great literature, including, but not limited to, inaugural inductee Nelson Algren.

“When you read something that sends you to another place, that does something to you that you never thought…it can be an amazing experience,” Dave says. “What we know about most people, one of the few things other than the bones of man, fossil remnants, arrowheads…the thing that has been preserved is the stories they’ve told.”

In 20 years living in New York and another seven in Burbank, Dave experienced the theater and film world in nearly every conceivable facet: acting in Broadway and off-Broadway plays; appearing in TV shows, independent and feature films; building stages; running lights; as a stage manager and art director. Though Dave is most known for his TV roles, he’s had a really fine film career, notable for the fact that he’s been in interesting and good movies like Mothman Prophecies, See You in September and Goodye, Ludlow.

“I’ve always been interested in the whole thing,” Dave says. “I’d trade all of it if I could write.”

Dave says he has written a lot, but never with any success. His own writing efforts have given him an even greater appreciation and respect for scriptwriters, such as those on Chicago Fire who fuss over every word.

Fans of Herrmann and Brady will no doubt find a lot to like in the real-life David Eigenberg. He’s a thoughtful, hard working family man, intent on raising his children himself despite the crazy schedule his TV life demands, a serious actor who’s not at all impressed with himself.

The whole point of the silent auction fundraiser is to raise money; Dave knows that. He’s willing to trade a precious evening off in favor of helping our little organization keep going. With the money we raise Aug. 24, we’ll come closer to realizing our potential of being the primary champion of Chicago literature, and building a database of its books and authors. And of course continuing to create programming and tributes, such as our Fuller Award honoring Harry Mark Petrakis Oct. 4 at the National Hellenic Museum and our fifth annual induction ceremony Dec. 6 at Ganz Hall honoring Margaret Anderson, David Hernandez, Edgar Lee Masters, Shel Silverstein, Willard Motley and Margaret Walker.

For those who buy a ticket (just twenty dollars), come out to bid on various item (everything from theater tickets to a Carl Sandburg pilgrimage in Galesburg, IL), the bonus is: you’ll get to meet Dave. It’s not the kind of event where you stand in line and get an autograph, but more the kind of event where you wander over and ask Dave, “Hey, tell me about Sara Jessica Parker?”

Tickets are on sale now, and we are still accepting donations of items to be auctioned off.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Donald G. Evans is the founder and executive director of the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame. He is the author of the novel Good Money After Bad and short story collection An Off-White Christmas, as well as the editor of the anthology Cubbie Blues: 100 Years of Waiting Till Next Year. He is the Chicago editor of the Great Lakes Cultural Review. He serves on the American Writers Museum's Chicago Literary Council and the committee that selects the Harold Washington Literary Award.


donaldgevans@hotmail.com

Our Major Fundraiser: Five Ways You Can Help

We’re all set for our fourth annual silent auction fundraiser, to be held Aug. 24 from 5-8 p.m. at the Haymarket Pub & Brewery.  This is a fun event—a fantastic venue, interesting people (including celebrity guest David Eigenberg, from Chicago Fire), bargain auction items, a bar full of craft beer. And so forth.

Special Guest David Eigenberg

We need to make a bunch of money on this thing. This is our only major source of income (we hope for that to change, but right now: it’s true) and the money raised at this event has to pay for everything we do at the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame. It will pay for our Fuller Award ceremony honoring Harry Mark Petrakis; a beach party celebrating the 100th anniversary of Margaret Anderson’s Little Review; sponsorship of youth writing awards; exhibits in partnership with the Sherwood Anderson Literary Center and other partners; our annual induction ceremony this Dec. 6 at Roosevelt University’s Ganz Hall; creation of a database of Chicago literary sites, people and books; and more.

Here’s how you can help out:

1. Buy a Ticket. They are only twenty bucks, and all that money goes to the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame.  You get your first beer free, other than that you’re on your own—Haymarket has a nice selection of food and of course a wide variety of excellent beer. Even if you cannot come, buy a ticket.

2. Donate Something: All the old standbys—restaurant certificates, theater and sports tickets, collectible

Peter Sagal at the 2013 silent auction, also at Haymarket. 

books, artwork, vacation homes—work. So do baskets—if you represent an organization, use that as a theme. Booze is always popular—whiskey, wine, beer, you name it. But don’t limit your donations to stuff. Whatever you do well can be an auction item. We’ve had people put on magic shows, give scuba diving lessons, create living theater experiences, make quilt wall hangings, offer handyman services, give private tours. We want something for everybody at the auction, all price ranges. Send items to me: Don Evans, 618 S. Humphrey Ave., Oak Park, IL 60304. Or else email me and we can arrange a pickup.

3. Be a Sponsor. We’ll produce a commemorative program that will include the auction catalogue, and interspersed throughout the pages will be ads for our sponsors. Everybody at the auction will get one of these programs, and we’ll also send them out to all the donors and supporters. About 300 programs in all. If you can be a sponsor/advertiser, email our treasurer Richard Reeder at richardreeder34@gmail.com.

4. Come to the Auction and Buy Stuff. It’s definitely a more the merrier situation. It’ll be a fun party and there will be plenty of whatnot worth getting.

5. Cut Out the Middle Man and Just Give Cash. We don’t get a lot of this, but we’d be really pleased if we did.

The trick here is simply to act: we’re a tiny nonprofit organization, and even a modest donation means a lot to us. Buying a ticket means a lot to us. Showing up means a lot to us. You can use one of the live links embedded in this appeal, or go to: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/clhof-4th-annual-silent-auction-fundraiser-special-guest-david-eigenberg-tickets-12113526885?ref=ecount

So do what you can and we’ll keep doing what we can.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Donald G. Evans is the founder and executive director of the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame. He is the author of the novel Good Money After Bad and short story collection An Off-White Christmas, as well as the editor of the anthology Cubbie Blues: 100 Years of Waiting Till Next Year. He is the Chicago editor of the Great Lakes Cultural Review. He serves on the American Writers Museum's Chicago Literary Council and the committee that selects the Harold Washington Literary Award.


donaldgevans@hotmail.com

New Class Announced

Without further ado, the 5th class of the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame:

Margaret Anderson
David Hernandez
Edgar Lee Masters
Willard Motley
Shel Silverstein
Margaret Walker

We made the announcement last Thursday night at Roosevelt University's Angell Room, a lovely

Evans, Metz, Durica and Howe (from left to right) discuss the
new class. (Photo by Erin Kibby). 

Sullivan-designed library space that overlooks Buckingham Fountain and Lake Michigan. Paul Durica, Lawrence Howe and Robin Metz joined me in discussing the newly-selected authors and providing insight into the rationale for their inclusion.

The nomination process started before the last induction ceremony ended. An 11-person committee created ballots that included up to six candidates, along with rationale for inclusion. A five-person selection committee assembled last month to debate the candidates and come to a consensus.

I learned a lot listening to Robin, Paul and Larry elaborate on the authors.

Robin pointed out that Masters, whose reputation relies almost entirely on Spoon River Anthology, was actually a prolific author. Masters wrote volumes and volumes of poetry (nearly 30), ambitious biographies (Lincoln, Twain, Whitman and Lindsay, among them), novels, memoirs and essays.

Paul talked about Anderson's legacy of having built important literary communities in Chicago. As a central figure in the Chicago Literary Renaissance, Anderson formed close relationships with virtually all the important literary figures; she not only published significant writers in her The Little Review, but served as an ambassador to a whole range of writers. In essence, Anderson helped establish Chicago as a setting for a literary life.

Lawrence Howe at Thursday night's discussion.
(Photo by Erin Kibby). 

Larry pointed out that Silverstein was a Roosevelt undergraduate in English for three years, and in fact started his career as a cartoonist and writer for the school newspaper, The Torch.  Silverstein became famous for his children's books, but he was a highly respected song writer, playwright and essayist, among many interesting facets to his career.

We all pitched in to illuminate Motley and Walker, both gigantic talents in their eras. Walker wrote a poetry collection and novel that were both highly anticipated and then lauded, and she was a well-ensconsed part of Chicago's literary fraternity, including membership in the South Side Writers Group. Motley was considered one of the finest writers of his era; Nelson Algren once described himself, in an inscription, as "the poor man's Willard Motley." Motley penned some famous lines that live on, and gave us Nick Romano, a protagonist equal to Chicago's greatest literary heroes, like Frankie Machine, Studs Lonigan and Bigger Thomas.

Now is the fun part. The 5th Annual Induction Ceremony will take place Dec. 6, from 7-9 p.m., at Roosevelt University's Ganz Hall. In the next month, we'll start to identify all the best presenters and performers to help us out that evening, and track down living descendants of the inductees to accept the honors we'll bestow. I always like the process of shaping the ceremony and this year's eclectic mix of inductees should give rise to a number of interesting possibilities.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Donald G. Evans is the founder and executive director of the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame. He is the author of the novel Good Money After Bad and short story collection An Off-White Christmas, as well as the editor of the anthology Cubbie Blues: 100 Years of Waiting Till Next Year. He is the Chicago editor of the Great Lakes Cultural Review. He serves on the American Writers Museum's Chicago Literary Council and the committee that selects the Harold Washington Literary Award.

donaldgevans@hotmail.com