Contract Buyer's League: an Exhibition

We had a full house for last Wednesday night's discussion of Family Properties! Special guest Jack Macnamara, who played a pivotal role in helping organize the Contract Buyer's League told us about this fabulous exhibit currently on display  at Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago, North Lawndale, 3555 W Ogden Ave in Chicago. Here are a few photos from the exhibit.

 

And don't forget, this Sunday July 26th in Winnetka is Justice Day 2015, Open Communities celebration  of Martin Luther King's 1965 speech on the Winnetka Green. It will be a family-friendly event with tables from various community organizations, music, arts and crafts, and children’s activities. It is, "an opportunity to recapture the northern suburb residents’ desire for social justice and for every individual to get involved".  We're hoping to display some panels from the CBL exhibit there too. Hope to see you!

will be a family-friendly event with tables from various community organizations, music, arts and crafts, and children’s activities. It is an opportunity to recapture the northern suburb residents’ desire for social justice and for every individual to get involved. - See more at: http://www.interfaithhousingcenter.org/caldetail.cfm?calendar_id=1116945#sthash.7DDAXTvw.dpuf

will be a family-friendly event with tables from various community organizations, music, arts and crafts, and children’s activities. It is an opportunity to recapture the northern suburb residents’ desire for social justice and for every individual to get involved. - See more at: http://www.interfaithhousingcenter.org/caldetail.cfm?calendar_id=1116945#sthash.7DDAXTvw.dpuf

will be a family-friendly event with tables from various community organizations, music, arts and crafts, and children’s activities. It is an opportunity to recapture the northern suburb residents’ desire for social justice and for every individual to get involved. - See more at: http://www.interfaithhousingcenter.org/caldetail.cfm?calendar_id=1116945#sthash.7DDAXTvw.dpuf

The Tragedy of Chicago Segregation

This week, Mary Barr will be back in town discussing her book Friends Disappear: The Battle for Racial Equality in Evanston. Barr's memoir focuses on the lives of white and black school friends from the 70s, and how race and class affected the outcomes of their lives.

Evanston's path to racial integration has not always been smooth, yet it sounds positively idyllic when compared  with Chicago. As in many northern cities, real estate boards and banks, in collusion with the Federal Housing Administration's redlining, conspired to prevent African Americans from obtaining mortgages, refused to allow them to buy property outside of the "Black Belt" and forced them to resort to outrageous "contract " agreements for inferior overpriced housing. The result was overcrowded neighborhoods, black homeowners working 2 jobs to keep up with exorbitant payments, and family and neighborhood disintegration.

This month, Open Communities (formerly Interfaith Housing) in Winnetka honors the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's speech on the Winnetka green, in which he addressed racial segregation in the Chicago suburbs. As part of this observance, EPL will be discussing  Family Properties: Race, Real Estate, and the Exploitation of Black Urban America, historian Beryl Satter's memoir of Chicago's unequal housing system, and those who fought it, including her father. Her fascinating mixture of urban history and family memoir explores the conflicts between family loyalty, communal responsibility, and racial animosity which resulted in tragedy for so many. We will also look at contemporary issues related to open and affordable housing in Chicago, the suburbs and the nation.

Please join us on Wednesday July 15th at 7 pm at Evanston Public Library. All are welcome! Call 847-448-8620 to get a copy of the book.

Civil Rights, Then and Now

50 years ago this summer, Martin Luther King spoke to over 10,000 people on the Winnetka Green about the racially exclusive nature of Chicago's northern suburbs. Evanston, like other suburban communities continues to struggle with this contentious issue, especially the effect of affordable

housing on racial diversity.

As part of the 2015 Justice Project, Evanston Public Library is proud to partner with Open Communities on Becoming a Welcoming Community: Then and Now, a panel discussion of the history of fair and affordable housing in Evanston, and what is being done currently to make Evanston a fair and welcoming community for all. We'll be speaking with representatives from Open Communities, the North Shore-Barrington Association of Realtors, the City of Evanston and the Evanston/North Shore NAACP.

We're looking back on Freedom Summer with several Civil Rights themed book discussions in June and July. Tuesday of course we're discussing Stokely , Peniel Josephs' acclaimed critical biography of the civil rights and Black Power leader. On Wednesday, the History group looks at one of Thurgood Marshall's early cases in Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America, And finally, on July 15th the History and African American Literature groups come together to discuss Family Properties: Race, Real Estate, and the Exploitation of Black Urban America,  a memoir of neighborhood segregation in Chicago. All 3 books are available at the 2nd floor desk of Evanston Public Library; call 847-448-8620 to get your copies.

African American Literature Discussion: Stokely

Tuesday, June 16, 7 pm, Small Meeting Room, Main Library
Preeminent civil rights scholar Peniel E. Joseph presents a groundbreaking biography of Stokely Carmichael, arguing that the young firebrand's evolution from nonviolent activist to Black Power revolutionary reflected the trajectory of a generation radicalized by the violence and unrest of the late 1960s. Fed up with the slow progress of the civil rights movement, Carmichael urged blacks to turn the rhetoric of freedom into a reality, inspiring countless African Americans to demand immediate political self-determination.

History Book Discussion Group: Devil in the Grove

Wednesday, June 17, 7 pm , Seminar Room, Third Floor, Main Library

Before Thurgood Marshall would argue Brown v. Board of Ed in front of the Supreme Court that he would go on to join, he led the legal defense of four young black men falsely accused of rape. Gilbert King's Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America, a gripping account of that case, was awarded the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction.

Becoming a Welcoming Community 50 Years Later

Thursday, June 25, 7 pm, Community Meeting Room, Main Library
50 years ago this summer, Martin Luther King spoke to over 10,000 people on the Winnetka Green about the racially exclusive nature of Chicago's northern suburbs. Evanston, like other suburban communities continues to struggle with this contentious issue, especially the effect of affordable housing on racial diversity.
Evanston Public Library is proud to partner with Open Communities on a panel discussion of the history  of fair and affordable housing in Evanston, and what is being done currently to make Evanston a fair and welcoming community for all.
Speakers:
Gail Schechter -  Open Communities
John Fuller - Evanston NAACP
Lin Ewing - North Shore-Barrington Association of Realtors
Sarah Flax - Evanston Housing and Grants Administrator

 

History /African American Literature Book Discussion Group: Family Properties

Wednesday, July 15, 7 pm , Seminar Room, Third Floor, Main Library

Chicago became the most segregated city in the north as a result of a complex system of legal discrimination and financial exploitation.  In Family Properties: Race, Real Estate, and the Exploitation of Black Urban America, historian Beryl Satter tells the story of this system and those who fought it, including her father, in this fascinating mixture of urban history and family memoir.
In this special event, the African American Literature and History book discussion groups join forces for this program in recognition of the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's visit to the North Shore and the North Shore Summer Project.

Stokely= Malcolm + Martin?

Martin Luther King was  the preacher of nonviolence and integration, Malcolm X the prophet of  black self defense by any means necessary. And then there was Stokely ,the linchpin connecting them, who supported nonviolence as a practicality yet, coined "Black Power"; Stokely, who believed in black economic independence, but within an international,  Pan African framework. All three were full of contradictions, all three were challenged by each other. Yet two are icons, while Stokely, the only one of the three to live past age 40, is largely forgotten.

Peniel Joseph grapples with the legacy of Stokely Carmichael in Stokley: A Life, our AAL discussion for Tuesday June 16th. How did his Trinidadian roots shape his economic and political philosophy? How did he influence both King and Malcolm? And is it ironically the absence of violent death at a young age that has caused his fall into obscurity?

Join us next Tuesday at 7:00 pm as we explore the fascinating story of Stokely Carmichael, aka Kwame Ture. For a copy of the book, call 847-448-8620.

Dorothy West and class, color, and the black bourgeousie

Dorothy West is something of an anomaly: a peripheral figure in the Harlem Renaissance, she published only 2 novels: The Living is Easy in 1948 and this month's AAL choice The Wedding in 1995.

Although a generation younger, she hung out with Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen,  roomed with Zora Neale Hurston, and traveled with other black writers to the Soviet union to film a documentary on black life in the United States. Unlike Hurston, whose work focused on the rhythms and folklore of  rural African Americans, West wrote about the black middle class, especially the conflicts based on skin color hierarchy. In her New York Times obituary, Ms West is praised for her, "brisk narratives, an eye for detail and wit [used] to explore the aspirations of well-to-do blacks and the interplay of race, class and intraracial tensions in America".

Like Colson Whitehead's Sag Harbor, The Wedding focuses on an exclusive African American community on the east coast. However, the central theme running through the novel is class and color: extended flashbacks describe the struggles of the family ancestors, whose goal was usually to "bleach" out the family line. As Shelby, the blond, light skinned youngest daughter plans her wedding to a white jazz musician, she must face up to generations of familial and community expectations, and reconcile them with her own desires and sense of identity.

Please join us for the discussion this coming Tuesday May 19th, 7:00 pm at the Evanston Public Library. Call 847-448-8620 to have us hold a copy of the book for you.

Jessye Norman: Standing and Singing for over 50 years

Jessye Norman is one of several internationally acclaimed African American opera singers: Kathleen Battle, Denyce Graves,  Grace Bumbry, Shirley Verrett, Leontyne Price. Like them all, she acknowledges a debt of gratitude to the legendary Marian Anderson, whose historic performance at the Lincoln Memorial, (after the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to allow her to sing at Constitution Hall) was a pivotal moment in the Civil Rights struggle.

Like Anderson, Norman is a pioneer;  the only African American woman to sing the great Wagner roles on the international opera circuit. Her 1969 operatic debut, as Elisabeth in Wagner's Tannhauser was highly significant, since it challenged Wagnerian ideals of female "purity". Although Grace Bumbry had earlier played the sultry seductive "bad girl" Venus in the opera, the notion of a black woman as Wagner's Teutonic, virginal heroine was harder for some to accept. Yet Norman triumphed in the role both in Europe and nearly 20 years later at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

Norman is not one to dwell on past slights, (although an incident with CBS' Morley Safer still rankles). Her memoir Stand up Straight and Sing! reveals a consummate artist with a staggering work ethic: she never arrives for a performance less than several hours in advance, and she rarely sings in a language she has not intensively studied and learned to speak fluently. And although she rarely refers to politics, it is clear that she views her role as an ambassador for American and specifically African American culture with great pride

Join us as we discuss this fascinating artist and activist at this month's African American Lit discussions, Tuesday April 21st, 7:00 pm. in the Small Meeting Room of Evanston Public Library. Copies are available at the 2nd floor desk: call 847-448-8620.

Black History books every month

I expect many of you will be attending the April 4th reading of The Piano Lesson, here at Evanston Public Library, part of Goodman Theater's August Wilson Celebration. One of the wonderful aspects of this series, and of reading the plays together last year at the Library was that it brought together such a diverse group of people to read and discuss African American literature.

Luckily, you have a variety of opportunities to read and talk about African American themed books here at EPL! In addition to our own AAL group, the GLBT, graphic novel, and history book groups will all be discussing black themed works over the next few months...

(Copies are available  at the Readers Advisory desk on the 2nd floor a month before the discussion; to register or reserve a copy call 847-448-8620 or register online.)

GLBT Book Discussion: Sister Outsider

Tuesday, April 14, 7 pm, Small Meeting Room, Main Library
Greg Salustro , former Evanston Arts Commissioner, and chair of “Reeling 32”, Chicago’s LGBTQ annual film festival leads a monthly discussion of books and plays by or about members of the gay/lesbian/bi/transgender community. The sixth title is Audre Lord's, Sister Outsider, a collection of fifteen essays written between 1976 and 1984  which explore and illuminate the roots of Lorde's intellectual development and her deep-seated and longstanding concerns about  the concept of difference—difference according to sex, race, and economic status. These  the essays stress Lorde's oft-stated theme of continuity, particularly of the geographical and intellectual link between Dahomey, Africa, and her emerging self.

 History Book Discussion: Forever Free

Wednesday, April 15, Small Meeting Room, Main Library
The South surrendered precisely 150 years and six days prior to when we’ll meet to discuss the emancipation of the slaves and the complex legacy of what followed in Forever Free: The Story of Emancipation and Reconstruction, by Eric Foner.  Foner, a Pulitzer Prize-winner, is generally considered to be the leading historian of Reconstruction.

 

League of Graphic Novel Readers: 21

Friday, April 17, 7pm, Comix Revolution, 606 Davis Street (map)

21: The Story of Roberto Clemente is a biography of the first Puerto Rican baseball star, from his impoverished childhood to his athletic accomplishment and his humanitarian work. Copies of 21 will be held at the Reader's Services desk on the 2nd floor and will be available for purchase at Comix Revolution.  

 History Book Discussion: Devil in the Grove

Wednesday, June 17, Small Meeting Room, Main Library
Before Thurgood Marshall would argue Brown v. Board of Ed in front of the Supreme Court that he would go on to join, he led the legal defense of four young black men falsely accused of rape. Gilbert King's Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America, a gripping account of that case, was awarded the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction.

 History Book Discussion: Family Properties

Wednesday, July 15, Small Meeting Room, Main Library
Chicago became the most segregated city in the north as a result of a complex system of legal discrimination and financial exploitation.  In Family Properties: Race, Real Estate, and the Exploitation of Black Urban America, historian Beryl Satter tells the story of this system and those who fought it, including her father, in this fascinating mixture of urban history and family memoir.