Chicago Cultural History
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Sundown in K-Town: North Lawndale Documentary Festival
Sundown in K-Town Teaser from BetterBoys Foundation on Vimeo. Better Boys Foundation (BBF) and Facets Multi-Media announce a film festival comprised of a series of social documentaries screened outside in the inner courtyard of the BBF Center at 1512 S. Pulaski Road . These groundbreaking documentaries such as The Murder of Fred Hampton (pictured at…
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Stony Island (the movie) returns to Chicago!
from siskelfilmcenter.org: STONY ISLAND (aka MY MAIN MAN FROM STONY ISLAND) 1978, Andrew Davis, USA, 97 min. With Richard Davis, Edward Stoney Robinson At the Siskel Center, 164 North State Street, Chicago Wednesday April 4th (8pm-9:30pm), Thursday April 5th (8:15pm-9:45pm) “Stony Island has been the birthplace of great American music and amazing musical talent, nurturing…
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a Chicago Be-In at Promontory Point, 1967
What’s a Be-In? Check the video below from the Lincoln Park Be-In for more background on the celebration of “Turning on and Tuning In”. Around the time of Chicago’s storied Blizzard of 1967 which dumped 23 inches of snow over the course of about 35 hours, out in San Francisco, the first “Human Be-in”…
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The Buckinghams: Chicago’s answer to the British Invasion.
The Buckinghams were by far one of the biggest pop-rock hit makers to come out of our city. Named for The Buckingham Fountain in Chicago (of course), the group was originally known as the Pulsations. They changed their names to a British-sounding name in hopes of benefitting from the British Invasion, the trend in the…
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La Cade: The little hair care company that made some big waves.
La Cade Products was another of many Chicago-based black hair care firms (that I detail here) during the late 60s through the 1970s. Though not as well-known as Supreme Products (who created Duke and Raveen) or Johnson Products (who created Soft Sheen, Afro Sheen, and Ultra Sheen), La Cade left behind scant but fascinating evidence…
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Don Cornelius: made Soul a household name.
One of the most amazing things about the life of Don Cornelius (and to be clear, this post is about his life… not his death) is the trajectory of his rise to prominence as an ambassador of Soul. Starting out as a radio journalist here on Chicago’s WVON in the early 1960s, he built important…
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Mahogany (1975): Cult Movie of the Week
Sometimes a post idea for Darkjive happens organically: the intersection of various occurrences in my life make it clear that I MUST post about something in particular. In this case, “Mahogany” started out as a request from a reader who thought that, because it was primarily shot here in Chicago, the lack of a post…
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Opportunity Please Knock Chorus: oscar brown, jr.’s collaboration with the blackstone rangers
In 1967, members of the Blackstone Rangers, a notorious Gang in Chicago, collaborated with singer/composer/playwright/activist Oscar Brown Jr. to create a Musical Revue called “Opportunity Please Knock”. About eight thousand people went to the show during the first weeks of performance (at Chicago’s First Presbyterian Church). Photos in this post are from that first run.…
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