Tag Archives: community

Opera-Matic’s New Moon on the Lagoon

Opera-Matic's New Moon on the Lagoon


In this audio piece, I eavesdrop on rehearsals for Opera-matic’s very cool New Moon on the Lagoon, an “evening lullaby parade”, featuring a 15 foot tall giant moon that will be lit up from within by projections of facial expressions.

It’ll be happening Friday May 10th and 11th, 2013 at the Humboldt Park Lagoon in Chicago. For more info, visit: opera-matic.org/upcoming-events/

This piece originally aired on Reclaimed Soul on Vocalo. Reclaimed Soul features music spun on original vinyl records, and stories of people making our world better (artistically, economically, etc) with old materials.

You can tune in to Reclaimed Soul live at 8pm CST on vocalo.org, 89.5fm (NWI/CHI) and 90.7fm (CHI)


Blackstone Bicycle Works teaches South Side Kids to build bikes (and dreams, too)

 

Blackstone Bicycle Works is an offshoot of the creative incubator known at the Experimental Station (located at 61st and Blackstone). Recent recipients of Seattle’s Best Coffee’s Brew-lanthropy Award, the Bicycle Works has been teaching local youth Bike Mechanic skills as well as healthy life lessons since 1994. They offer reasonable bike repairs and sell refurbished bikes in the space starting at $90.

 

 

The program is just one cog amidst all the good things going on at the Experimental Station…


version 11: the new chicagoans

This Month, Chicago welcomes back both springtime and Versionfest (BTW, I think I saw a daffodil on South Shore Drive the other day).

Organized by the good folks behind local Arts & Culture publication Lumpen, the Fest runs from April 22nd until May 1st in Bridgeport (a neighborhood that’s been going through a lot of changes in recent years).  Speaking of change, according to their website:

These years of recession, insolvency, uncertainty, and calamity have affected us
in ways we couldn’tve imagined before.

…But there is hope… Version 11 is a
celebration of the Chicago communities — projects, spaces, groups, individuals
— creating their own strategies for participatory economies,  co-prosperity,
and the pursuit of genuine happiness. Version will demonstrate the possible,
celebrate the impossible, and showcase the ingenuity, spirit and passion that
create The Community we aspire to take part in together. This is an invitation
to share your community, your goals, your dreams for a better Community of the
Future. It’s all we have left.

Events for the Fest include:

* The New New Chicagoans
* The MDW
Fair

* Materiél Magazine
*
Maria’s Community Grant

* TLVSN
* reenactment of the Haymarket
Affair

Below, an image from “Printervention” (an part of Version Fest 10). Jive On.


School Closings as School Improvement

inclusion What you’re missing on Vocalo.org (Chicago’s user-generated audio website & radio station):

Vocalo.org user DJFreeHuey uploaded a first person audio piece:

“Concerned parents and teachers of Chicago Public Schools students are speaking out and protesting Chicago’s Renaissance 2010 Initiative and the city’s approach to closing and ‘turning around’ numerous neighborhood schools.”

click here for “School Closings as School Improvement….”