By Cara Jepsen
Saturday 29
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
While the lower forms of humanity are across town sweating and waiting in line to buy $3 pickles on a stick, the city’s snootier residents will be sipping champagne and discussing art at this weekend’s Newberry Festival of the Arts, billed as an “upscale festival of the arts as unique as the Gold Coast itself.” Live classical music and gourmet food will enhance the mood of the festival, which features work by painters, sculptors, designers, and photographers. Musical guests include violinist and media darling Rachel Barton, who performs at 6 this evening. The festival takes place today and tomorrow from noon to dusk at Washington Square Park, Clark and Delaware. Admission is $4, $2 for children and seniors. Proceeds benefit the restoration of the park, which is the oldest in the city. Call 642-7007.
The mid-south-side neighborhood once known as Bronzeville encompasses a three-and-a-half-mile strip of century-old mansions and graystones that was the center of Chicago’s thriving black middle-class community during the first half of the century; activist Ida B. Wells, publisher John H. Johnson, and author Richard Wright once called the neighborhood home. While many of the buildings are now in disrepair, there has been a move toward restoration in recent years. Today’s Restoring Bronzeville historic house tour will offer attendees the chance to look at some of those newly restored and remodeled homes and landmarks as well as some projects in progress. Buses will depart from Corpus Christi Church, 50th and King Drive, at 1. The tour ends at 5 with a party in the church courtyard. Tickets are $10 in advance, $15 today. Call 924-1330.
Racial freedom and critical attention were among the reasons Paris became a mecca for African-American artists after World War II. Explorations in the City of Light: African-American Artists in Paris, 1945-1965, an exhibit opening today at the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington, features 70 paintings and sculptures from seven artists who worked in Paris during that period: Barbara Chase-Riboud, Harold Cousins, Beauford Delaney, Herbert Gentry, Lois Mailou Jones, Larry Potter, and School of the Art Institute alum Edward Clark. The exhibit, which runs through August 29, can be seen today from 10 to 7. It’s free; call 744-1424.
For the last 15 years FitzGerald’s has been the home of the American Music Festival, a Fourth of July roots-rock extravaganza that attracts a plethora of beer-drinking music aficionados. The fest, which kicks off today and runs through Saturday, has two stages–one in the club and one in the parking lot; there’s also a Cajun-American barbecue each day. Today’s performers are the Chuck Hedges Quintet, the Derailers, Terrance Simien and the Mallet Playboys, Alejandro Escovedo, and an unannounced group from Austin. It runs from 4:30 PM to 2 AM at FitzGerald’s, 6615 Roosevelt Road in Berwyn. Tickets are $15, $12 for those who arrive before 6. Call 708-788-6670.
