In preparing the last Front Porch I’ll post here in my time as the NWA intern, I looked far and wide through our collected JOTs—trying to touch on a broad sampling of all that work, and trying to recall which pieces had spoken especially strongly to me. In the Fall 2011 issue, “I Am Here,” I came to a piece by Larry Ambrose, called “The Bluebird.” I must not have been paying attention, or maybe [...]
I’ve been the resident Blog and Social Media Intern here for just slightly over six months now. And this week marks the, um, “transfer of power”—there are some ceremonial procedures that go along with it, but that’s proprietary intern information—over to our new intern, Helen, who you’ll be getting to know in short order. But six months is a pretty significant chunk of time, you guys! I don’t really know how to process it, but [...]
In this edition of Meet the Philosophers, we talk to NWA Board Member Michelle Wright about the amazing diversity of Albany Park, the life of the written word as an archive of expression for the future, and the power of philosophical questioning that we all share. What is your name? Michelle M. Wright If you had to give yourself a title, what would it be? Boss of the World. How long have you lived in [...]
As we’ve been exploring this spring with our Neighborhood Rhythms programming, the oral tradition in various cultures lives where community and self-expression meet. The occasions and rituals of communal, oral expression can take the form of storytelling, sharing, music—and in the case of the scene in NWA writer Baba Tony Brown’s piece “Mother Mary Carter Smith’s Circle of Love”—some of all of these. Baba Tony relates working at the heart of a revival of oral [...]
As part of our Neighborhood Rhythms programming, on Thursday, June 27, NWA will host a special event featuring Dr. John Kimsey and his band, The Twisted Roots Ensemble: Kimsey, vocal and guitar; Lia McCoo, vocal, flutes and percussion; Steve Hashimoto, bass; and Brad Newton, hand drums. The session, “A Walk Through Twisted Roots,” will feature musical performances as well as a talk by John about the writing/composing process out of which he developed his award-winning [...]
Guest post by NWA writer Rochelle George Wooding The Art Institute of Chicago and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago are two different buildings. I learned that quickly on the night of May 22, 2013. Approaching these buildings was thrilling and scary, due to my unfamiliarity with the latter building. But to my surprise, winding staircases and old friends pleasantly surrounded me. This was my first time attending the annual NWA Every Person [...]
The legacy of World War II is very much alive among us. The stories of those who fought in the war, or lived through it here at home, are still being told—by the people themselves—at places like the Oak Park Township Senior Lunch Program, and among families and in the culture at large. Today marks the 69th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Normandy. And while we remember this as a momentous and heroic event, [...]
The dilemma NWA writer Sallie M. Lee presents in her piece “In My Apartment Complex” is surely familiar to anybody who’s lived in an apartment building: if you’ve got noisy neighbors, you might ask them to keep it down from time to time, but sometimes it can’t really be helped. If they’ve got some kids running around, how long is it ever going to stay quiet, even with the best of intentions? Sallie calls to [...]
I’m sure a lot of you have been following the outbreak of protest, and the violent suppression of it, in Turkey the last several days. The police break-up of a peaceful demonstration and sit-in in the small Gezi Park in central Istanbul has ballooned into massive protest in cities across Turkey. But as huge and momentous as the protests have become, it hasn’t been all that easy to follow: much of the mainstream media in [...]
The haiku form is a centuries-old tradition in Japanese poetry, with deep roots in even older styles. It was imported into English-language poetry in the twentieth century. The haiku in English shares much of the Japanese style’s essential spirit, although certain elements and approaches couldn’t help but be shifted in the translation. The familiar structure that we know in English haiku—the three lines of 17 syllables, generally broken into some variation on two lines of [...]
In preparing the last Front Porch I’ll post here in my time as the NWA intern, I looked far and wide through our collected JOTs—trying to touch on a broad sampling of all that work, and trying to recall which pieces had spoken especially strongly to me. In the Fall 2011 issue, “I Am Here,” I came to a piece by Larry Ambrose, called “The Bluebird.” I must not have been paying attention, or maybe [...]
One Last Thing from the Outgoing Intern: Thank You and Farewell, for Now!
I’ve been the resident Blog and Social Media Intern here for just slightly over six months now. And this week marks the, um, “transfer of power”—there are some ceremonial procedures that go along with it, but that’s proprietary intern information—over to our new intern, Helen, who you’ll be getting to know in short order. But six months is a pretty significant chunk of time, you guys! I don’t really know how to process it, but [...]
In this edition of Meet the Philosophers, we talk to NWA Board Member Michelle Wright about the amazing diversity of Albany Park, the life of the written word as an archive of expression for the future, and the power of philosophical questioning that we all share. What is your name? Michelle M. Wright If you had to give yourself a title, what would it be? Boss of the World. How long have you lived in [...]
As we’ve been exploring this spring with our Neighborhood Rhythms programming, the oral tradition in various cultures lives where community and self-expression meet. The occasions and rituals of communal, oral expression can take the form of storytelling, sharing, music—and in the case of the scene in NWA writer Baba Tony Brown’s piece “Mother Mary Carter Smith’s Circle of Love”—some of all of these. Baba Tony relates working at the heart of a revival of oral [...]
Twisted Roots: Music, Politics, and the American Dream Blues
As part of our Neighborhood Rhythms programming, on Thursday, June 27, NWA will host a special event featuring Dr. John Kimsey and his band, The Twisted Roots Ensemble: Kimsey, vocal and guitar; Lia McCoo, vocal, flutes and percussion; Steve Hashimoto, bass; and Brad Newton, hand drums. The session, “A Walk Through Twisted Roots,” will feature musical performances as well as a talk by John about the writing/composing process out of which he developed his award-winning [...]