By Cara Jepsen
House plants, hanging baskets, fruits, herbs, vegetables, wild flowers, shrubs, annuals, and perennials will be on sale at this weekend’s garden fair in Hyde Park. Street gardeners who want to beautify public areas in Hyde Park and Kenwood may apply for $30 worth of free plants, which they’ll be expected to tend throughout the growing season. The fair is sponsored by the Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference and takes place from 9 to 6 today and 9 to 4 tomorrow at 55th and Lake Park. It’s free; call 752-8072.
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Imagine life without electricity–no refrigerator, no E-mail, no ten o’clock news, no caller ID. In the southern Guatemala village of Plan de Buena Vista it’s a reality; villagers cannot call for emergency help, tune in to the news, or pump water without it becoming contaminated. For an initial investment of $15,000 the people there would be able to do all these things and more. Tonight, Star Missions, a group that works to support southern Guatemala, holds a fund-raiser for Plan de Buena Vista called “Light Up the Night.” WMAQ’s Roberta Gonzales emcees and Smoking Fish will a play a plugged-in set or two. The $25 event is from 6 to 10 at North Beach, 1551 N. Sheffield. Call 244-3681 for more.
When Jay Leno was in town, he did a lengthy Tonight Show segment on the difference between LA and Chicago cuisine. The gist of the obvious bit was that Angelinos nibble on sprouts while Chicagoans gnaw on bones. Today a community cookbook fair will showcase Chicago’s culinary diversity, including such recipes as the Anti-Cruelty Society’s vegetarian dog biscuits and such cookbooks as the UIC Children’s Center cookbook for children (made up almost entirely of pictures) and the Matousek Family Cookbook (full of Czech-Cuban hybrids). Barbara Kuck, curator of the Culinary Archives and Museum at Johnson and Wales University, will give a slide lecture, “Chicago Cookery and Culinary Imprints,” at 2. The event takes place from noon to 4:30 at the Harold Washington Library Center, 400 S. State. It’s free; call 747-4975.
The Chicago Artists’ Coalition is holding an artists’ salon featuring Museum of Contemporary Art curators Lynne Warren and Lucinda Barnes. They’ll address such topics as whether local artists will be more widely represented in the museum’s new digs, which open in June. The discussion starts at 6:30 tonight at the coalition, 11 E. Hubbard, seventh floor. It’s free but reservations are required; call 670-2060.
Five years ago I took a writing class from novelist Maxine Chernoff at Truman College. She was always encouraging, and she had a knack for picking out the nuggets of corn in the general dungheap of our work. I would have taken more classes from her, but graduate school and her move to California got in the way. She’s back in town this week to read from her new novel, American Heaven. Tonight she’ll be at the Guild Complex at the Chopin Theatre, 1543 W. Division, at 7:30. Admission is $5; call 907-2189 for more.
