Friday 11
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Crime and Punishment is the theme of this year’s Chicago Humanities Festival, which will examine the current fixation with all things illicit. It begins at 4 this afternoon with journalist and historian Tim Pat Coogan, a noted authority on the Irish Republican Army, who will draw a distinction between Terrorists and Freedom Fighters in a lecture at DePaul’s Merle Reskin Theatre, 60 E. Balbo. Today’s other festival offering is a staged reading of T.S. Eliot’s verse drama about the martyrdom of Thomas a Becket, Murder in the Cathedral. It’s performed, appropriately enough, in Saint James Cathedral, 65 E. Huron, at 6:30. Nearly 40 other programs will be held at ten different sites in the downtown area on Saturday and Sunday. Of special note: Yale law prof Stephen Carter, author of Confessions of an Affirmative Action Baby, talks about the influence of race in the American criminal justice system at 3 PM Saturday in the Simpson Theatre of the Field Museum, Roosevelt and Lake Shore Drive. Also, journalist, critic, and clotheshorse Tom Wolfe delivers the festival’s keynote address, Crime and Moral Fever in the 1990s, at 10:30 AM Sunday in Orchestra Hall, 220 S. Michigan. Tickets for these talks and most other festival events are $3. Call 939-5212 for a complete schedule. To purchase tickets, call Orchestra Hall’s box office at 435-6666.
Saturday 12
Billed as the “end of the millennium irregular poetry magazine,” the four-year-old literary journal Hammers releases its ninth issue this month. Publisher Doublestar Press will mark the occasion with a reading at 7 tonight at Barnes and Noble bookstore, 1701 Sherman in Evanston. A selection of the issue’s 49 contributors (about half from the Chicago area) will be on hand. Admission is free. Call 708-328-7555 for details.
Wednesday 16
The Chicago Coalition for the Homeless holds its annual fund-raising concert tonight at the Park West, 322 W. Armitage. This year’s event features perennial supporter Bo Diddley plus three classic Chicago bluesmen and their bands: Billy Branch, Son Seals, and Junior Wells. Hope Fest includes lots of music, dancing, a buffet, silent auction, and a cash bar. Tickets are $30; doors open at 6:30. Call 435-4548 for details.
