Chicago -
Evanston Survives!
“An overflow crowd listened to Chicago writer Ali Abunimah read from his book, The Battle for Justice in Palestine, at the Evanston Public Library on Monday after the library’s controversial decision [link added] to postpone, and then reissue, his invitation to speak,” the Tribune reports.
Here’s the video:
Posted on August 12, 2014
Plus: Great Lakes Segregation & Race Theorist Abe Lincoln
“Evanston Public Library officials on Monday re-issued a speaking invitation to a Palestinian-American writer after their earlier decision to call off his talk sparked an angry response on social media,” the Tribune reports.
“The Chicago writer, Ali Abunimah, said in a post on his website that he will accept the library’s change of heart over his Aug. 11 appearance for a reading and discussion of his book, The Battle for Justice in Palestine.”
Interest in Abunimah’s reading has surely multiplied thanks to EPL’s goof, but he deserves a higher local profile, given the influence of his website The Electronic Intifada.
Posted on August 6, 2014
Plus: Book Christmas In July And The 10-Year-Old Novelist
1. Barbara Byrd-Bennett Caught Lying About Availability Of Certified Librarians.
2. “It was like Book Christmas in July.”
3. Barrington 10-Year-Old Working On His Second Novel.
Posted on July 16, 2014
Plus: The Dissent Of Kanye West & The Conformity Of Non-Conformity
1. Chicago Man Who Wrote Guide On How To Survive Running With Bulls Gored By Bulls.
“Bill Hillmann co-authored Fiesta: How to Survive the Bulls of Pamplona last month. On Wednesday, as he was running in the annual Spanish festival, a fighting bull stabbed the 32-year-old in the leg. He’s recovering, his friend said.”
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With a foreword from the mayor of Pamplona.
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“At Curbside Splendor, we like work that emphasizes voice – unconventional, urban, distinctive. Bill Hillmann, former street brawler, gang affiliate, drug dealer, convict, Chicago Golden Glove Champion, and bull runner, is one of those voices.”
Posted on July 9, 2014
And: Before Ball Four
“The Fourth of July will be marked tomorrow, as usual, with barbecues and fireworks and displays of patriotic fervor,” Levi Stahl writes at the University of Chicago Press blog.
“This year, it will also be marked by the publication of a book that honors patriotism – and counts its costs – in a more somber way: Ashley Gilbertson’s Bedrooms of the Fallen. The book presents photographs of the bedrooms of forty soldiers – the number in a platoon-who died while serving in Iraq or Afghanistan. The bedrooms, preserved by the families as memorials in honor of their lost loved ones, are a stark, heartbreaking reminder of the real pain and loss that war brings. As NPR’s The Two-Way put it, ‘Never have empty bedrooms looked so full.'”
Here’s Gilbertson narrating some of his photos.
Posted on July 3, 2014
By Bob Chambers
The Price Of Silence: The Duke Lacrosse Scandal, The Power Of The Elite, And The Corruption Of Our Great Universities, by William Cohan.
This huge volume (almost 700 packed pages) is an often tedious, yet nevertheless riveting account of the biggest scandal in the history of American collegiate sports. For 14 months, beginning in early 2006, the so-called “Duke Lacrosse Rape Case” commanded the attention of the entire nation. It seemed to have everything: sex, race, spoiled preppy jocks, over-the-top faculty, sheep-like administrators, clueless trustees, a ravenous press, corrupt law enforcement authorities, unscrupulous lawyers and judges, North vs. South, white vs. black, wealth vs. poverty, and, very much in the mix, a university that millions of Americans loved to hate. Part of Duke’s problem in the 21st century is that its ambitions have far outgrown any semblance of the sleepy Southern school that even long ago already seemed to some to embody all that many people despised about that benighted region of the country. As The Price Of Silence strives to show, the university has now completely lost its way.
Posted on June 30, 2014
By Steve Rhodes
“BELIEVER: My Forty Years in Politics, by David Axelrod, will be published on February 10,” Playbook reports.
Ugh.
From the release:
“Whether as a child hearing John F. Kennedy stump in New York or as a strategist guiding the first African-American to the White House, Axelrod shows in Believer how his own life stands at the center of the tumultuous American century.”
So it’s all about him!
Posted on June 24, 2014
Plus: The Unknown Americans & The First Lady Of Track
1. Hot Lead, Cold Iron.
“Mick Oberon is a PI in 1932 Chicago, much along the lines of Mike Hammer or Sam Spade. Well, except that he uses a wand instead of a gun whenever he has a choice; he can do magic and only illusion keeps people from seeing his pointy ears.”
Posted on June 18, 2014
Plus: Stories From Canaryville
1. Jon Langford at Printers Row Lit Fest on Saturday.
Posted on June 12, 2014
By The Arts Palette
Under the Surface: A Photographic Portrait of the Middle East, by internationally acclaimed photographer Hossein Fatemi, will make its United States debut in Chicago on Saturday, June 7.
Featuring a number of never-before-seen photographs, the exhibition documents the many facets of the Middle East’s complex society, lifting the veil on some of the less observed areas and realities of daily life. The exhibition will also feature images published in The New York Times Sunday Review and The New York Times Lens.
A native of Iran and having traveled throughout the Middle East for more than a decade, Fatemi possesses a deep understanding and knowledge of Islamic cultures that differentiates him from American and European photographers.
Through his lens, Fatemi reveals the reality of daily life, particularly for women and youth, in a complex and changing society.
Fatemi’s work exposes the attempts of millions of people to navigate a precarious path through a thicket of religious legislation and custom while pressured by the infiltration of a fast-paced, modern world.
Posted on May 27, 2014
