Friday 18
Historian and journalist Garry Wills is the star of the ninth annual Printers Row Book Fair, which runs from 10 to 5 today and tomorrow along Dearborn between Polk and Congress and features offerings from booksellers throughout the midwest. Accompanying this literary gold mine are a variety of readings on several stages. Wills kicks things off at the Dearborn Station stage (Dearborn and Polk) with an 11 AM reading. Other highlights include Ed Zotti talking about his relationship with Cecil Adams, erudite author of “The Straight Dope” (main stage at 12:30 today), and a panel on architecture with Stanley Tigerman at 11 AM tomorrow on the Hyatt stage. Everything’s free; call 987-1980 for more.
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A pair of one-acts by the Parabasis Theater were so well received at the Bailiwick Directors’ Festival this year that the company is remounting them for a month at Sheffield’s School Street Cafe. The pair–Lanford Wilson’s A Poster of the Cosmos and Tongues by Sam Shepard and Joseph Chaiken–runs in preview tonight and tomorrow at the cafe, 3258 N. Sheffield. Performances are Sundays, Mondays, and Tuesdays through July 20. Show time is 7:30. It’s $8; call 274-8351.
Pritzker Park is the sliver of grass and trees on State Street just north of the Harold Washington Library. The park and various local schools are presenting a series of Tuesday noon programs; today instructors from DePaul and the School of the Art Institute are presenting Drawing in the Park, a free one-hour session of drawing instruction (art supplies provided). And, with the exception of July 6, various art, music, and story-telling programs will continue weekly until September 28 in the park. Call 456-0117 for details.
Diane Ravitch, assistant secretary of education, noted historian, and author of several books on the quality of education in American schools, speaks tonight at 6 as part of the Newberry Library’s lecture series on Thomas Jefferson. Ravitch will talk on “Jefferson, Education, and the Founding of the University of Virginia,” relating Jefferson’s ideas on education to contemporary American problems. The talk is at the Scottish Rite Cathedral, 915 N. Dearborn; it’s free. Call 943-9090, ext. 310.
