Friday 19
Horace Cayton was a pioneering black sociologist and author of the noted study Black Metropolis. Today he’s the subject of The Life and Legacy of Horace Cayton, a free one-day seminar running from 12:30 to 4:30 at the Woodson Regional Library, 9525 S. Halsted. Participating panelists include Jackson State prof emeritus Margaret Walker, author of Jubilee and a friend and colleague of Cayton’s; novelist Cyrus Colter; Irma Jackson Wertz, Cayton’s wife in the 1930s; Northwestern sociology professor Aldon Morris; and Richard Hobbs, author of The Cayton Legacy. Call 747-6910 for more.
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“We’ve been declared a national treasure by the Polish government,” says Cracow Philharmonic director Gilbert Levine. It’s “a wonderful designation to have, but that and $1.15 will get you a ride on the subway.” A fire last year destroyed not only the orchestra’s home, but its music library as well. Rebuilding will be no easy task in a baby capitalistic country where orchestra members make in the neighborhood of $60 a month. The ensemble stops here on its “emergency tour,” a nine-city American fund-raising trip, for one afternoon show at 3 in Orchestra Hall, 220 S. Michigan. Tix run from $15 to $60; call 435-6666.
Experimental choreographer Joe Goode says his new work, Convenience Boy, is “about life in a disposable culture, about the cult of immediacy–Convenience Boy is himself a high priest of this culture. He does everything fast with no attachments. He is a comic figure who has detached himself from human connection to the furthest degree.” Goode, a San Francisco-based daring young dancer and performance artist, hits town for 8 PM performances Thursday through Saturday at the Dance Center, 4730 N. Sheridan. Tickets for those are $12 Thursday and $14 Friday and Saturday, with discounts for students and seniors. But you can also see him for free today at a preview and discussion at the Harold Washington Library, 400 S. State, at 12:15. Tonight he’ll lead a master class in dance composition at the center. That’s from 4:30 to 6:30, and it costs $10. He’ll teach other advanced technique classes this week as well; call 271-7804 for more.
Green on Thursdays, say the makers of a documentary of the same name, refers to a practice of the 1800s in which gay men would wear green ties one day a week to identify themselves to one another. The film, directed by Dean Bushala and Deirdre Heaslip, premieres tonight; it tracks the recurring beatings, stabbings, and shootings endured locally by gays and lesbians even after the passage last year of the Chicago Hate Crimes Act (which gave sexual orientation protected status along with ethnicity). The film also includes videotext segments by Charles Christensen, music from Ellen Rosner & Camille, and still photography from the likes of Allen Nepomuceno, Paul Vosdic, and Paul Roesch. It plays at 8 tonight at the Music Box, 3733 N. Southport. Tix are $15, $40 if you want to go to the reception afterward. Call 227-7676 for info.
