Newcity Chicago August 2021

AUGUST 2021

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AUGUST Arts & Culture 2021 8 Art AUGUST 2021 Newcity The Conversation What Flies But Never Lands? 3 asks us to reconsider the past..................... 51 Elly Fishman discusses “Refugee High” Design 12 Open Architecture Chicago Ways of Seeing brings change in marginalized communities ...........................5 6 Vivian Maier's photographs Mood: Wall Shelves ...................................... 5 8 tell stories of an earlier Chicago Dining & Drinking 17 Road tripping to sample In the Land of the the craft beers of Green Bay........................ 61 Enchanted Highway Film In search of art and salvation where the bu alo roam Tarantino from heel to toe 6 3and back again .............................................. 29 Lit On Vacation Kyle Beachy discusses Meditations on getting away “The Most Fun Thing: Dispatches from a Skateboard Life” ............................... 6 5 43 Music et a Job The Mountain Goats return A cartoonist’s sketchy work history 67with “Dark In Here”........................................ Stage Nicole Clarke-Springer guides Deeply Rooted through a pandemic to the Pritzker Pavilion 69.................................. Reviews Fill your vacation days 7 1with culture .....................................................

Newcity AUGUST 2021 LETTER FROM THE EDITOR It was a sunny summer day in the late eighties, and Jan and I were stationed at a booth at a South Loop street fair, promoting our new newspaper, when a young couple pushing a little girl in a stroller stopped by and struck up a con- versation. The dad was an aspiring young writer, and we were an aspiring young publication so… As we worked together on many stories in those early years and in the decades since, the writer, Ted Fishman, became a close friend, along with his wife Sara. Ted's career as a national magazine writer and bestselling author took off, and we traveled together—China, Brazil, even a dude ranch in Colorado. Our families spent times of happiness together, like weddings, birthdays and grad- uations, and supported each other at sadder times, like funerals, as well. So when that little girl in the stroller, Elly, grew up and became a writer like her father, I had seen the progress all along the way. And with her first book, Refugee High, scheduled to publish this month, I wanted us to cover it in a way that reflects and acknowledges the life we've all shared. It's unconventional and, usually, just wrong to have someone close to a subject write about them, but sometimes breaking the rules makes more sense than following them. So I asked Ted to write about Elly and her first book, in hopes that his front-row seat throughout her journey would yield a richness of insight no other writer could tap into. I think it worked. BRIAN HIEGGELKE 4

Now On View Through October 2021 Helmut Jahn: Life +Architecture is a dynamic retrospective honoring the late Chicago architect and style icon. The exhibit pays tribute to Helmut’s design legacy and its impact on Chicago and the world, a story told through sketches, models and photography.

Newcity AUGUST 2021 CONTRIBUTORS ON THE COVER Cover Photo ANYA DAVIDSON (Cartoonist, “Get A Job”) is a cartoonist, writer and Brian Hieggelke musician living in Chicago. She is the author of three graphic novels, including Cover Design “Band For Life” from Fantagraphics Books. Dan Streeting TED FISHMAN (Writer, “The Conversation”) is a Chicago-based writer Vol. 36, No. 1417 and the international best-selling author of “China, Inc.” and “Shock of Gray.” His books appear in twenty-seven languages. In addition to Newcity, the PUBLISHERS many publications he's written for include The Atlantic, The New York Times Brian & Jan Hieggelke Magazine, Esquire, GQ, National Geographic, Harper's, The Wall Street Journal, Associate Publisher Mike Hartnett USA Today, Chicago Magazine, Chicago Reader and too many defunct titles EDITORIAL to mention and in whose demise Fishman only played a very small part. Editor Brian Hieggelke Managing Editor Jan Hieggelke ISA GIALLORENZO (Writer, “Me, Myself and I”) is a half-frazzled/half-chill Art Editor Kerry Cardoza mother and fashion journalist who keeps trying to have a life of her own while Design Editor Vasia Rigou dealing with an extremely adorable—and demanding—little kid. Dining and Drinking Editor David Hammond DAVID HAMMOND (Writer and Photographer, “Guns and Butter in the Film Editor Ray Pride Land Up North”) is Newcity’s Dining & Drinking Editor, and his pieces about Music Editor Robert Rodi food/drink and travel have also appeared in Chicago Tribune, Sun-Times, Stage Editor Sharon Hoyer Better and other publications. Travel inspires him, and past trips to Wisconsin ART & DESIGN have introduced him to butter (!), exceptional craft beer, and the inside of the Art Director Dan Streeting Monroe County Jail. Senior Designers Fletcher Martin, Billy Werch BRIAN HIEGGELKE (Writer, “In the Land of the Enchanted Highway”) Designer Stephanie Plenner is Newcity’s co-founder. MARKETING Marketing Manager Todd Hieggelke MÁNA HJÖRLEIFSDÓTTIR TAYLOR (Writer, “Ways of Seeing”) is a OPERATIONS writer, editor and musician based in Chicago. She is the co-founder and editor General Manager Jan Hieggelke of The Documentarian Magazine. Distribution Nick Bachmann, Adam Desantis, Preston Klik JAC KUNTZ (Writer, “The Rear View Horizon”) is an Atlanta-based art journalist, copy-editor and public relations coordinator. Her freelance writing Retail price $10 per issue. In certain locations, focuses on contemporary visual art, culture, travel and long-form interviews.  one copy is available on a complimentary basis. Kuntz has experience working in art galleries, with art departments in academic Subscriptions and additional copies of current institutions, and for non-profit spaces. She earned a M.A. in Arts Journalism and back issues available at Newcityshop.com. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a B.F.A. in Painting from Copyright 2021, New City Communications, Inc. Clemson University. All Rights Reserved. Newcity assumes no responsibility to return JOHN MOSS (Writer, “24 Hours in Springfield”) is a longtime Newcity unsolicited editorial or graphic material. All contributor. He has written about a range of subjects, including mushrooms, rights in letters and unsolicited editorial or professional wrestling, natural building and the sport of netball. graphic material will be treated as uncondition- ally assigned for publication and copyright ROBERT RODI (Writer, “When The Going Gets Good”) is an author, purposes and subject to comment editorially. spoken-word performer and musician who has served as Newcity’s Music Nothing may be reprinted in whole or in part Editor since 2014. He’s written more than a dozen books, including the without written permission from the publisher. travel memoir “Seven Seasons In Siena.” His literary and music criticism has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, Salon, Newcity is published by The Huffington Post and many other national and regional publications. Newcity Communications, Inc. 47 West Polk, Suite 100-223, MONICA KASS ROGERS (Writer, “Grass”) writes and photographs Chicago, IL 60605 from Evanston. Her texture art photographs of Chicago alleyways can be seen at rogers.mk and The Alley Project on Instagram. Visit NewcityNetwork.com for advertising and S.L. WISENBERG (Writer, “A Traveler’s Lexicon”) edits the online literary editorial information. journal Another Chicago Magazine. Her books include “The Sweetheart Is In”; “Holocaust Girls: History, Memory & Other Obsessions”; and “The Adventures Subscribe at Newcityshop.com of Cancer Bitch.” DAVID WITTER (Writer, “One Night in the Voodoo Museum”) has been a contributor to Newcity since 1987, nearly its first year of publication. Witter has also written several books including “Oldest Chicago I” and “II” and “Chicago Magic: A History of Stagecraft and Spectacle.” 6

Summer exhibitions across Chicago, featuring work by MacArthur Fellows Carrie Mae Weems. Installation view, Contact Photofest, Toronto, 2019. Solo projects: Three unique group shows: Dawoud Bey: Portraits from Chicago (1993–2001) Toward Common Cause: Art, Social Change, Arts + Public Life and the MacArthur Fellows Program at 40 Smart Museum of Art, Through August 28, 2021 The University of Chicago Much Unseen is Also Here: Through December 19, 2021 An-My Lê and Shahzia Sikander Museum of Contemporary Photography Stony Island Arts Bank Through August 29, 2021 Through December 19, 2021 Jeffrey Gibson: Hyde Park Art Center Sweet Bitter Love Newberry Library Through October 24, 2021 Through September 18, 2021 Whitfield Lovell: The Spell Suite South Side Community Art Center Through September 25, 2021 Kara Walker Presenting Negro Scenes Drawn Upon My Passage through the South and Reconfigured for the Benefit of Enlightened Audiences Wherever Such May Be Found, By Myself, Missus K.E.B. Walker, Colored DuSable Museum of African American History Through October 16, 2021 Carrie Mae Weems: A Land of Broken Dreams Logan Center for the Arts, The University of Chicago Through December 12, 2021 TowardCommonCause.org #Fellows40 Toward Common Cause is organized by the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago in collaboration with exhibition, programmatic, and research partners across Chicago.

EllyTHE CONVERSATION by Ted C. Fishman Fishman Newcity AUGUST 2021 When Newcity asked me to interview As a writer who is the parent of a writer, reading how Elly balances the my daughter, Elly Fishman, in advance of her up- order and disorder of the diverse, messy, wondrous world of the refugee coming book, “Refugee High,” I knew I wanted to children at Sullivan into “Refugee High” is transcendent. There are few ask about the drama in making the book. When things more deeply personal than the relationship between a narrative Elly talked about her work she related what she was book and reader. Okay, parenthood may be one of them. Yet, for me, one learning about the people she was getting to know. of the great gifts of “Refugee High” is that it connects the lives of a school, And “Refugee High” focuses so completely on a neighborhood and these new Americans into the lives of our family. them that I still didn’t know how she got so close When Elly’s grandfather, now ninety-three, read the manuscript, he said to them and on what terms. The book is about ref- it brought him back to his first years in America and the school that ugee students at Chicago’s Roger C. Sullivan High helped him get his footing. I have to think other readers will feel a deep School, which today has one of the highest propor- connection, too. tions of refugee students of any high school in America, all from the world’s worst troublespots. What was your way into the topic of young refugees? Our family also has a history as refugees, and many settled on Chicago’s North Side not far from Sul- It goes back to 2017 when Trump was inaugurated. Like many people, livan. One of Elly’s grandfathers fled with his par- I was paying very close attention to the rapid shifts that were happen- ents and siblings from Germany when Nazis threw ing on a national level, and particularly around immigrants and refugees. his brother over a bridge and killed his cousins. One of the first things Trump did was to announce his travel ban on Naturally, our whole family has been following El- people coming from seven majority-Muslim countries. When I learned ly’s work at Sullivan closely and getting to know about that, I attended a protest at O'Hare Airport in Chicago. I remem- the students, their families and the school staff ber riding the Blue Line train to the airport. It was filled with people of through the stories she witnessed and collected all ages and all demographics holding signs. They were coming togeth- during her three years of reporting. er to protest this draconian and atrocious policy Trump announced. Once I arrived at the International Terminal I found over a thousand people chanting, “No one is illegal,” “No Trump, no KKK,” “No fascist USA,” and “We are not terrorists.” I asked myself, not only, who are these people who are rising up around refugees and immigrants, but also who are the refugees and immigrants who are stuck on the other side of these walls and currently held up in immigration? I wanted to know where they go after they land in Chicago? And what are their experi- ences like? Particularly with refugees, their fate wasn't really something I had been aware of before. 8

Photo: Alyssa Schukar

Newcity AUGUST 2021 In particular, I was immediately interest- Harper with a lot of trauma that he was it's not a savior narrative in any way. It’s ed in where young refugees might land, and working through himself. And in some ways, not about these teachers saving these kids. what school might they end up at. I’ve I think that made him a very sympathetic I was never interested in telling that kind always really loved reporting out of schools. leader for a school like Sullivan, where so of story. I was far more interested in show- I think schools are some of the most dy- many students are carrying really heavy ing all the ways in which both teachers namic, interesting, complicated, exciting burdens and have experienced incredible and students struggle, support, buoy and places to report about and spend time in. amounts of trauma before they even walk challenge each other. I really wanted to em- You know, all the world’s joys and sorrows through the doors. He had an intimate un- phasize that. and excitements and fears and hopes land derstanding of what it meant to deal with at the doors of school. personal trauma and in some ways, was still Still, the story of the students is getting a handle on it himself as he was always front-and-center in your Several sources told me that Sullivan starting in his role as principal. book. How did your relationships High School was the place that had be- with the students unfold? come the neighborhood school for refugee Can you say a little bit about his team teens. So I just called the school’s front of- there that works with these kids? The ethics of reporting around young peo- fice, and asked if I could talk to the principal. ple, and especially young people with That’s how I met Chad Adams. (He now One person who was important to my re- trauma, is something that I thought a lot goes by Chad Thomas.) porting, to the story and to the school is about. I wanted to be very careful to make Sarah Quintenz. When I started, she played sure that the kids felt like they had agency. And what was your conversation a dual role as a with Chad like? teacher of English That they felt comfortable with Language Learn- me. And that they could raise Chad is an easy person to talk to. He’s from ing and as head of a hand at any time and say, the South, and he has that Southern charm. the ELL program. “I’m uncomfortable,” or “I don't He’s really open. You talk to him and it’s like She had a lot on want to do this.” I wanted to you’ve known him forever. her plate. make sure that was really clear from the start. He told me that Sullivan had recently And there been designated the city’s first newcomer are awesome I also didn’t come into the center; the first school that was officially for parts of Sarah’s story with any idea of what refugees, but Sullivan was also for asy- own history it was going to be. When I lum-seekers and immigrant students in too, which started reporting, I just sat Chicago. That came about because over influenced in the back of the classroom the last several years, Chad, along with his her teaching. for a couple of weeks trying staff, have made a really concerted effort to to understand how the school make Sullivan the landing place for refu- Yes, Sarah was a worked. It also gave kids a gees in Chicago. military kid. She chance to get familiar with my moved close to face and with me. We even did So, this was a second or third act for ten times, I think, a few exercises to encourage him, right in Chicago Public Schools? before she got to high school. Sarah defi- a sense of comfort. One was nitely has an understanding of what it called \"hot seat,\" where I sat at Yeah, this was, and remains, his first job as means to be itinerant as a young person the front of the class with a plastic bucket principal. He’s still there. He had also been and have to start over, build community and of candy, and kids could ask me any ques- an English teacher before that in a few dif- adjust to different schools, different settings, tion they wanted. And when they did, their ferent public schools. But just before Sulli- different cultures and environments. She reward was an answer and a piece of candy van, he was vice principal at Harper High did end up living in Rogers Park starting in that I would throw to them. School in Englewood. high school. Her family is still around so Sarah also helped me set up lunchtime she’s deeply connected to the neighbor- sessions where kids could come in and just He was at Harper at a troubled hood. Her mom was a lifelong teacher, so ask me questions or share their stories if time, right? Sarah grew up in a household of educators. they wanted to. And that started to show me who was interested in me, who was in- He was there when the “This American Life” The year before I started my reporting, terested in what I was doing, and who felt reporting team spent several months re- Sarah had gone through some pretty tough comfortable with it. I didn’t want to push porting inside the school. One of the big- times. She'd separated from her husband any kid that wasn’t. gest challenges at that school was gun and was struggling. And in the book, there’s Once I started to get a sense of who violence and the cycle of gun violence. the story about how, when she took a leave those kids were, I just started talking to Chad experienced the loss of students as of absence, the students kind of raised them and not even interviewing them, just both victims and as perpetrators. her back up and buoyed her in a really talking to them, getting to know them a lit- beautiful way. tle bit. I didn’t ask them about the places And do you think that kind of loss they fled from, unless they wanted to talk informed his view of his role as a What did you think of that? about that. I asked them about who they principal when he got to Sullivan? were in that moment at Sullivan, at school Understanding teachers as complicated that day. And I told them, they could do the Definitely. I mean, when Chad got to Sulli- humans is a huge part of the story because same with me. I wanted them to feel like van—this is a big part of the book—he was they could ask me questions, too. It wasn’t in the midst of a PTSD episode. He left a one-way street. 10

Over time, I took note of who kept com- a place existed just in the backyard of dancing together. They’d pull in kids from AUGUST 2021 Newcity ing around to talk to me. And also who I where my husband grew up. Which, inci- other countries and cultures and teach formed a good dynamic with. That was im- dentally, is the backyard where we had our them appropriate footwork. portant because we were going to be part wedding brunch. of each other’s lives for what ended up be- Those were really special moments. ing several years and continues to be true And yes, I have been really lucky to trav- More than anything, coming to understand even now. I wanted to make sure we could el, and I love traveling and immersing my- these individual kids and their stories, and build something together. self in different places and cultures—espe- spending so much time with them is what cially foods!—but when I thought about really stuck with me. It’s still in my marrow, How’d you finally choose? refugees, I thought about these images that in a way. so many of us see, which are, you know, From a narrative perspective, I wanted to people fleeing on boats, people in crowded Can you say a little bit about the have kids from different countries who have refugee camps, holding their sick children. families of the kids? different experiences. I ended up following Desperate images. They’re important to see, a young guy who’s Congolese, but was but that was not what I saw at Sullivan. It It felt really important to me to understand born in a refugee camp in Tanzania. He’s was a completely different version of the who their families are. Even if the kids don’t “Belenge” in the book. I also changed all refugee narrative and one that disrupts that always get along with them, because they the names of the kids in the book to protect image in productive ways. are teenagers, and even if there are increas- them. That way they have the option of ing gulfs between these kids and their whether they want to come forward and What is different, what is different parents, I wanted their parents to be part of identify themselves. from the picture and what you saw? the story. There’s Mariah, who’s from Basra, Iraq. Well, with the young people… they’re teen- I was always surprised by how open and Shahina is from Yangon, the capital of agers. They’re flirting, they’re on Snapchat, generous their parents were. First of all, al- Myanmar. There’s Alejandro, who is not a they’re playing pranks on each other. most every time I went over to one of their refugee but is actually an asylum-seeker They’re singing the same K-Pop songs that houses, they would prepare me an elabo- from Guatemala. kids all over the world are singing. K-Pop rate meal. And this is coming from people is definitely the great unifier, by the way. who have so little but are so incredibly wel- You can tell from this small K-Pop and anime. coming and generous. And I was very collection that you just mentioned moved by that. And also, really excited to that this is a very multicultural school. The kids are making bad jokes, they’re eat all of this amazing homemade food and obsessed with boys, or girls, in the next row many, many dishes that I had never encoun- When Chad invited me to Sullivan, I had no in their classes. They’re studying for exams, tered before. Oh, boy. idea what to expect. I spent a lot of time they’re not studying for exams, they’re eat- in different Chicago high schools, both ing less-than-great cafeteria food. At the I remember sometimes they would say, public and private, and I had never walked same time, you really get a sense of their “I thought you were bringing your husband,” into a school like Sullivan ever. There are individual cultures that they’re bringing in- but it was still food for twenty. thirty-eight languages spoken inside Sulli- side the walls of Sullivan. They’re wonderful van. There’s Arabic and Swahili and French and messy, and young and learning, and Breaking bread with people is such a and Urdu and Spanish. It’s an incredible making mistakes, and also making great wonderful thing. It was a way that they soundscape and scene to witness. Over decisions. It was just this really kind of could share their world and their culture half the school are either immigrants or ref- beautiful thing to see. with me. For many of these families, ugees. You walk down the halls and it’s this so much feels out of their control. They’re amazing mix of global and American fash- Did you encounter anything not people who necessarily chose to land ions. There are groups of girls in hijabs and that you thought was just in the United States. They were forced high-tops, mothers wearing traditional so overwhelming that you to flee their countries and don't get to [African] lupita dresses, with their kids and couldn’t shake it? choose where they end up. Cooking and wearing big Beats headphones around their making their home dishes are a way to necks and Nike sneakers. I spent a lot of time observing the scenes share a piece of home. of Sullivan and in the kind of organic spac- It’s just a really exciting space to walk es, so the library and the hallway and the You know, in no way do I think that “Ref- into. It only took me ten seconds to realize cafeteria. That’s where you find what they ugee High” is the definitive story about there was absolutely a story here to tell. often call the “soft curriculum.” Or, the kind refugees, or even the particular people that of lessons in American culture outside of I wrote about in the book. I’m so grateful In your life, you’ve traveled to a curricular learning. And that’s really where that I had the opportunity to give these lot of places, been through a lot of most of the book sits, in those spaces. young people a platform to share their sto- international airports and hostels ries. And to be part of that is something I and foreign places. How did it For instance, there were a few days feel really privileged to be able to do. I hope compare even to those? when the kids were preparing what they it creates space for more stories like theirs were calling a “Winter Market.” The kids to be told. What was amazing was that this place were organizing all these donations from was in the middle of this residential block people in the community, including clothes, “Refugee High” will launch in Rogers Park. My husband, your son- household goods and pantry items for ref- with a virtual author event sponsored in-law, grew up two blocks from there. ugee families to come and take. And when I’ve spent a lot of time in that mile radius they were together, they just started having by the American Writers Museum, around Sullivan and I had no idea that such fun. They each took turns plugging in their August 10 at 6:30pm. phones and playing their own music and “Refugee High: Coming of Age in America” by Elly Fishman, The New Press, 288 pages 11

Newcity AUGUST 2021 TWO SOCKS ARE HANGING FROM A THREAD: ays of Seein a black sock on the left, and a white sock on the right. They are at a noticeable distance from each other, each sock touching the edge of the frame, and drying in the sun after, I assume, spinning in the laundry. The black sock’s pair makes a small appearance at the bottom of the left frame, but the two different-colored socks are mostly noticed as separate lonely objects, pinned to a line with pink clothespins. This is one of the many photographs that moved Vivian Maier’s me in “Vivian Maier: In Color,” at the Chicago History Museum. Next to this photograph of the black and white socks is a striking Photographs image taken at a Chicago train stop in 1977. Two women sitting on the same bench, with their backs to each other. A white woman Tell Stories of on the right is illuminated by the sunlight. To the left of her, a Black an Earlier woman has her head down, and is sitting on the edge of the bench. Chicago In the other rooms, patterns like this appeared in pairs. A photo- graph of white children playing in a sprinkler is placed next to a photograph of Black children looking solemn behind a glass win- dow. Two Black women looking back at the camera, about to cross a street, where white men in suits stand on the other side. The od- yssey of a segregated city, quietly placed in square frames, con- verse with each other decades later. by Vivian Maier did not necessarily take these photographs with Mána the intention of placing them together, but curator Frances Doren- Hjörleifsdóttir baum noticed the striking juxtaposition when she placed them Taylor side-by-side. We speak over Zoom about the exhibition and when I mention this to her, she tells me, “When you start paying atten- tion to certain patterns, you might see them appear in surprising places. I appreciate how close Maier was paying attention to her surroundings. She appears to be mindful of certain tensions be- tween certain groups of people, as well as similarities.” When Dorenbaum began to curate this exhibition, she was aware of the weight of her task. She sifted through hundreds of color negatives, most of them donated by Jeffrey Goldstein and unseen to the general public until now. She had to select a small 12 number to showcase from this large selection of negatives, and some were damaged, as they had faded over time. Additionally, she was doing all of this from her hometown of Toronto. Because of the pandemic, she couldn’t travel to see the negatives in person, and going through the collection of Maier’s color photographs was a collaborative effort with other museum staff who enjoyed recog- nizing the locations photographed. The exhibition includes six- ty-five prints dating from 1956, the year that Maier moved to Chi- cago, until the late 1970s. These photographs are categorized by Dorenbaum into the ways that Maier was “looking.” There are sev- en sections: looking up, down, from behind, straight on, through, afar, and up close. “I hoped that the variety of images would draw people in enough to think a little more about the photographs themselves, and maybe what those reveal about subjects in them, rather than leaning too heavily on them revealing about her biography,” Dorenbaum says. She explains that she wanted to highlight the “gentler” side of Mai- er’s work, since she is mostly known for her evocative street por- traits. The selected photographs vary in their composition, but they highlight Maier’s constant gaze on the world, her fastidious way of looking and her intricate way of documenting her surroundings. For a photographer like Vivian Maier, there is still so much that is unknown, and so much that goes into printing, framing and curating her photographs that is based on assumptions and instincts for cu- rators such as Dorenbaum. There are also several assumptions that I realized I was subconsciously using to define Maier’s work. As we

Three Highland Park Toddler on a ferry, likely Woman in a yellow and Profile of a young man firemen, Highland Park, white tent, likely Chicago indoors, likely Chicago, Illinois, August /Tres Minnesota, June / c. /Perfil de un joven en bomberos de Highland Park, suburbs, October / el interior, probablemente Highland Park, Illinois, Niña pequeña en un Mujer en una tienda de en Chicago, hacia . agosto de . Inkjet print, campaña amarilla y blanca, Inkjet print, , Gift ferry, probablemente en Three workmen resting , Gift of Je rey beside a casket in a probablemente en los of Je rey Goldstein, Goldstein, © The Estate Minnesota, junio de . cemetery, location suburbios de Chicago, © The Estate of Vivian unknown, circa . octubre de . Inkjet Maier CHM, ICHi- of Vivian Maier CHM, Inkjet print, , Gift print, , Gift of Je rey ICHi- © The Estate of Vivian Goldstein, © The Estate of Je rey Goldstein, Maier CHM, ICHi- of Vivian Maier CHM, © The Estate of Vivian ICHi- Maier CHM, ICHi-

Vivian Maier photographed next to a tripod display in a camera store wearing a red sweater under a loose black coat New York, New York, circa 1955. Inkjet print, 2021, Gift of Jeffrey Goldstein, © The Estate of Vivian Maier CHM, ICHi-180175

spoke, I recognized a trope that gets immediately placed upon She had an artistic eye for composition and colors, but AUGUST 2021 Newcity Maier because of the way in which her photographs posthu- Maier also had journalistic instincts, wanting to know and un- mously rose into fame. Pamela Bannos, author of “Vivian Mai- derstand what was happening around her and documenting 15 er: A Photographer’s Life and Afterlife” noted in her introduc- historical moments. In her 8mm films, she zooms in and ob- tion that “our current lack of understanding of this woman and serves, especially during the demolition of the Chicago Stock her passion for photography stems from oversimplifications of Exchange, which appear both as film and still photographs. her emergence and packaged versions of the story.” Many Chi- The fragments of the Stock Exchange felt scattered like the cagoans know the story of the thousands of negatives bought debris from the demolition, in the exhibition space. I found at an auction by John Maloof, Jeffrey Goldstein and others in perspectives of them in each “looking” section. Maier also 2007, who then elevated her into fame. The 2013 documenta- often photographed newspapers, fairs, the Republic Nation- ry “Finding Vivian Maier” describes this discovery in more de- al Convention and police officers. There is a photograph of tail, but there was “no definite statement that she wished for an American flag glowing in the sun, twisting in the wind, seen this,” Dorenbaum reminds me. “Maier is not here to speak from above. Paired with this photo is a Chicago Tribune news- about her work or her life,” she says, adding that Maier left mi- paper with the headline “Nixon in shock; call his condition nor instructions on her negatives in terms of how to print them, ‘critical.’” There are also many photographs of strangers’ hands, but not much else that could help the curating process. and what the hands are holding: a lunchbox, a briefcase, two hands holding each other. I am reminded of Roland Barthes’ It is difficult to say how much the biography of a photogra- observation in “Camera Lucida,” “What the Photograph re- pher matters, since it depends on the nature of their work. Mai- produces to infinity has occurred only once: the Photograph er photographed the children that she was nannying, but is it mechanically repeats what could never be repeated existen- just because she is a woman that she got categorized as a tially.” Maier photographed to document, to capture the fleet- “nanny photographer” when her photos were first discovered? ing moments that were about to disappear. She captured her Famous male street photographers such as Joel Meyerowitz, own history as well, documenting her shadow and reflection, William Eggleston and Garry Winogrand were not subject to but without knowing that her photographs would be printed, being defined by their day jobs. But as a photographer who framed and exhibited. also happened to be a nanny, Maier’s perspective is a unique one, and she might have benefited from taking the train to her Though there is a lot we don’t know about Maier, we know various jobs with her camera in hand. The majority of what we that she has created within herself an important photojournal- do know about her life is narrated through her photographs. ist of a past Chicago. I went twice to the exhibition, to take notes Since, unlike a writer or keeper of a diary, she did not document and look at the photographs, and both times I overheard con- her personal thoughts, what is noticeable through her docu- versations between people and the memories that the photo- mentation of people is that she was charismatic. She spoke graphs brought out of them. I listened attentively, as if there with people and asked permission to take their photos, which were clues in the images. There were two women who remem- can be seen in how often there are smiles and eyes that are bered going to the Chicago Theater, taken by their mothers looking directly into the lens, creating a sense of comfort and once a year to go see a movie. They narrated these stories to consent in her portrait photographs. She often includes herself themselves as they looked at Maier’s photo of downtown Chi- in the photographs, too, via her reflection, to participate in this cago. I also overheard someone astonished and perplexed by act, documenting her own existence. how she took her self-portrait in the mirror. I wanted to explain to him that it was partly a reflection of the window to the street, Maier was an artist constantly experimenting with tech- with a mirror inside the store, that created the illusion of three nology. Her color photographs are proof of her curiosity and Maiers. Instead, I let him remain amazed by the magic that she constant experimentation. She did not stick to one medium, was able to capture in the mundane. I invite you to appreciate to one camera or to one type of film. She is most known for the small details as well, and to see Maier as an ambitious, cu- her Rolleiflex camera, which can be seen in her self-portraits rious and prolific photographer, not simply a nanny with a cam- taken in mirrors, but Dorenbaum tells me that she often car- era hobby. What is left when we can just appreciate photo- ried two or more cameras around her neck to switch between graphs for their aesthetic beauty, for their way of capturing the color and black-and-white film, as well as other types of for- fleeting moments before they are gone? mats. The exhibition at the museum includes audio recordings she made, as well as 8mm films. When I ask Dorenbaum why In the last room of the exhibition, there is audio of Maier she included the audio fragments, she says, “I tried to show speaking into a recorder. “Well, I suppose nothing is meant her humor, her curiosity, her bold opinions, forging her femi- to last forever. You have to make room for other people. It’s a nist path. She was always trying to learn, constantly trying to wheel. You get on, you have to go to the end, and then some- understand the technology to maximize it.” She adds, “I real- one else has the same opportunity to go to the end and so ly value how photographs tell stories.” The sound recordings on, and somebody else takes their place. There’s nothing new are exhibited as QR codes on the walls. When I listened to under the sun.” If you get the chance to be alone in the exhi- several, I heard her attempts at learning about herself, the bition space, which I only was for a few seconds, the photo- world, all while using new technology. Maier speaks into her graphs feel like a safe haven. They are invitations to reminisce, recording device with intention: “Now, I want to also make a glowing in Ektachrome hues, with the neon lights of down- little experiment. I think I better stick to the volume of seven town in the 1960s appearing like the stained glass of a church. and tone of four or five.” This layer of depth and dimension alongside the color photographs are additional details that “Vivian Maier: In Color” at the Chicago History Museum, compose the ever-expanding portrait of Maier as an artist. 1601 North Clark, through May 8, 2023.

ReCsaplol n&se Bringing hundreds of Image: Sixteen Paths, 2021. Photo credit: Daniel McCullough. diverse & unique cultural events Daniel Minter ROOTWORK The Lynden and its collection of 50 monumental sculptures is to Chicago’s neighborhood parks. open 10am-5 pm daily (except Thursdays). Admission is free. Join Us! June – October. In the Healing Language of Trees, of which this exhibition is a part, is supported by the Joyce Foundation through a 2021 Joyce Award to Daniel Minter and Lynden Sculpture Garden. NightOutInTheParks.com lyndensculpturegarden.org For more information about your Chicago Park District STAY CONNECTED. 2145 W Brown Deer Rd, Milwaukee, WI 53217 visit www.ChicagoParkDistrict.com or call 312.742.7529 or 312.747.2001 (TTY) City of Chicago Lori E. Lightfoot, Mayor Chicago Park District Board of Commissioners Chicago Park District, Michael P. Kelly, General Superintendent & CEO SCHOOL IS BACK IN SESSION! SCHOOL JULY 30 – AUGUST 29 GIRLS; GET $20 MAIN FLOOR SEATS FOR OR, THE AFRICAN SELECT DATES USING CODE NEWCITY20 MEAN GIRLS PLAY By Jocelyn Bioh Directed by Lili-Anne Brown Major Corporate Sponsor Corporate Sponsor 312.443.3800 | GoodmanTheatre.org Partners Groups of 6+ only: 312.443.3820

ART ANINDSEASRCAHLOVF ATION WHERE THE BUFFALO ROAM TEXT AND IMAGES BY Brian Hieggelke



ONCE YOU DRIVE WEST BEYOND TCHAEPISTATALT,E BISMARCK, you are struck by several things. One is the vastness of the sky PREVIOUS and that the grasslands roll to the horizon, a simple beauty apart from nature's PAGE flashier images of grandeur. Here, the plains echo eternity, helping explain the religious devotion that still flourishes in these parts. Regent, North Dakota The other is the absence of human life, LEFT beyond the evidence it has been here at some point, in the form of roads and signs and, very occasionally, the small towns you drive “Teddy Rides Again,” through. Many of those towns are already ghost towns, or teetering 1993, Gary Greff on the edge. It starts to feel like a ghost state. Which is the fear of North Dakotans, that this state and its rural heritage will disappear entirely into the Buffalo Commons, swallowed up by its fast-growing metropolises, especially Fargo on the eastern edge of the state, which has seen its population grow by nearly twen- ty percent in the last decade alone. Even with modern-day boomtowns like Fargo, North Dakota is a sparsely populated state. With a surface area of 70,700 square miles, it’s bigger in land mass than Illinois with its 57,915 square miles, but for every square mile of the “Roughrider State,” you’ll encounter few- er than ten people. With almost 230 people per square mile in Illinois, you might be able to imagine the difference. North Dakotans cling to their tradition so fiercely because of the price they’ve paid to live, they and especially their ancestors. My great-grandfather Kristian “Chris” Dragland left his parents’ homestead in McVille, in the eastern part of the state, when his father Lars, who’d brought the family over from Norway, was found dead in his barn, around the time of the Panic of 1907 and the lengthy eco- nomic contraction that came with it. Chris headed west, to New En- gland, North Dakota where he was granted a homestead farm by the U.S. government and eventually married. My grandmother and many of her twelve siblings were born there and, for almost thirty years, they endured the isolation and the brutal North Dakota winters as they made a life as farmers, until the Dust Bowl swept away all chanc- es to make a living and my great-grandfather borrowed against his farm in order to keep going, only to lose the farm to the banks when the drought overstayed. They headed back to McVille. Years later, my parents met in Fargo. Though I’ve visited the Fargo region nearly every year of my life, I’d never been to western North Dakota until this summer, when we visited the Badlands.

Americans love an impossible dream, and nowhere is tilting at windmills more disadvantageous than in western North Dakota, unless, of course, you mean it literally, given the prevalence of wind farms in the region. Newcity AUGUST 2021 Teddy Roosevelt famously burnished his cowboy credentials there in his mid-twenties when the wealthy New Yorker’s political aspirations suf- 20 fered a setback and his wife and mother died the same day. Heartbroken, he moved to a ranch he’d bought in the Badlands and put himself back RIGHT together. He later claimed, “I have always said I would not have been Pres- “Pheasants on the Prairie,” ident had it not been for my experience in North Dakota.” The love is mu- tual: a national park there now bears his name, the only national park , Gary Gre named after a person. The North Dakota Badlands rise up in Western North Dakota, forming a grandiose border between the Great Plains to the east and the Rocky Mountains to the west. With buttes—small mountains with flattop hair- cuts—punctuating great vistas filled with wild bu alo, horses and prairie dogs, the park, with its remote location, o ers perhaps one of the most unpopulated experiences still available in an overrun National Park Sys- tem. A three-hour moderate hike up and down the buttes exposes the vis- itor to countless breathtaking panoramas and a range of ecosystems that includes dense forests and near-desert-like conditions; we even spotted cactuses underfoot. Less-ambitious visitors drive a long car trail through the park that still rewards them with ample wildlife encounters. The most popular entrance to the park is in the town of Medora, which has thrived for much of the last century as a more authentic take on Fron- tierland than the one found in Disney’s Magic Kingdom. With its perma- nent population of , Medora is a preserved cowboy town, complete with saloons, cookouts, museums and, of course, shopping. Its economic en- gine is the “Medora Musical,” an All-American, family-friendly revue with high production values that brings in more than , visitors a year. The town’s unabashed cornpone character will be given an urbane nudge in a few years, when the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, designed by the cutting-edge Norse architects Snøhetta, opens its doors. In the last fifteen years, North Dakota has enjoyed a boom of another flavor, as its northwestern region around the city of Williston led the state into its status as the number-two oil producer in the U.S., after Texas. It was a transformative rush, with men swarming in to fill the high-paying jobs created to keep the oil pumping and a pervasive sense of a flimflam hustle gripping the region. Hotels were built to house workers throughout the region, including, at its southern edge, in Dickinson, which is also the closest large city near Medora. We stayed at a La Quinta Inn there just o the interstate. Signs on the door and the registration desk warned us to take o our muddy boots before we entered. Though the oil boom has receded with lower prices of the commodity and a collapse in demand during the pandemic, the town of Medora is a perpetual boomtown, thanks to its status as a tourist destination. It owes its unlikely success largely to the obsessive vision of Harold Schafer, a success- ful North Dakota businessman who created Glass Wax, Snowy Bleach and Mr. Bubble and, when he sold the company, put his money behind the Medora Musical and the preservation of Western culture in the town.





Less than 50 miles east of Medora, a two-lane highway intersecting with the interstate is marked by a large sculpture, “Geese in Flight.” At feet tall, feet wide and nearly eighty tons, it’s AUGUST 2021 Newcity in the Guinness World Records as the world’s largest scrap-metal sculpture. It also serves as the gateway to 23 the Enchanted Highway, a series of seven roadside sculptural installations running from Interstate to the LEFT town of Regent, thirty-two miles away. “Geese in Flight,” To understand the madness of the Enchanted High- , Gary Gre way you have to acknowledge the complete improba- bility of Medora, a town of about the same population ABOVE operating with a foundation counting more than Gary Gre million in assets. The Enchanted Highway was started thirty-two years ago by Gary Gre , a native of Regent, North Dakota, a town of about one hundred, who saw it as his quest to save his hometown from the ghosts. If not for Gre , Re- gent’s only claim to fame would be that North Dakota’s retired senator Byron Dorgan grew up there. “My grand- father came over here from Germany,” Gre says. “Got through Ellis Island. He rode the train out here, then they were on the wagon train too. He set up a farm with what- ever they got for homesteading— acres. And then he basically raised his family. There were twenty-one kids in that family. And he survived the Dust Bowl; he did what he had to do to survive. He made moonshine, and sold it to the local guys. My brother now farms the homestead farm.” Given this, how could Gre not do everything he could to save the town? We arrived in Regent on a Sunday morning, directly from a short visit to my ancestral hometown of nearby New England, where we walked mostly empty streets and took a few photos before hitting the road. In gener- al, Main Street is not where North Dakota farmers spend their Sabbath, and we expected to find the same in Re- gent. We pulled up to the Enchanted Highway Gift Shop expecting it to be closed, but were surprised when it was not only open, but that its lone sta member was the founder of the whole enterprise, Gary Gre . We tend to mythologize the lives of our impossible dreamers, in the same way we fantasize about life on the farm. Whether it’s the idea of the gentleman farmer or the pop-culture silliness of shows like “Green Acres,” us urbanites glorify a lifestyle that is, in reality, grinding hard work, from sun- rise to sunset, at low wages that might even disappear entirely thanks to the vagaries of weath- er or markets. At seventy-two, Gre has been grinding away at his dream for thirty-two years, and it’s not getting easier. He grew up in Regent as the oldest of eight children, but did not want to farm. “My folks farmed,” he says. “I didn’t wanna farm, so I went into education. I got my degree in el- ementary and junior high; taught for eleven years as a fifth- and sixth-grade teacher, seventh and eighth grade. Then I went back, got my masters. Then I was a principal for eight years as junior-high principal.”



At the age of forty, Gre was AUGUST 2021 Newcity ready for a change. Back home between jobs, he saw that his 25 hometown, which had once had a population as high as LEFT & ABOVE “Tin Family,” , was dying. “I thought, how , Gary Gre do I bring people to help keep this small town alive?” he says. “And this is the idea I came up with. I never laid a bead of weld in my life, never had an art class. Just said, well, how do I keep Regent alive? And I didn’t know what to do. We had the paved road from the interstate to here, and I thought, now, how do I bring people from the interstate to here? And I didn’t know what to do. And a local farmer, out of town, welded a small man hold- ing a bale, out by the mail. Then it dawned on me; that’s what the ranchers and farmers of the Midwest are good at. They had to know how to weld to survive. So, let’s use what they were good at to our advantage. But I thought, no one’s going to drive thirty miles for normal sculp- tures, but they might drive for the worlds’ largest.” He started with the “Tin Fam- ily,” three miles north of town. It wasn’t easy. “I’m not married and so forth,” he says, “but I told people I lived on , a year. And they said, ‘How could you live on , a year?’ Well, the way it works out is, when I came home, my dad owned a trailer park. There was a trailer there that he said, ‘you can live in that and don’t pay no rent or any- thing.’ So, I lived in the trailer when I first started. And then basically, my folks would give me one meal a day, and they’d provide me milk and bread for the week. And my brothers who farmed would butcher once a year, and they’d put meat in my freezer, and I went on fuel assistance. A few times I had to get some food stamps. I’m not proud of it, but I had to do what I did. I just built the Enchanted Highway. I lived on nothing. I didn’t entertain a lot; I didn’t go out a lot, but family was around, so we got together to play cards, and we did things. I can’t say I regret it, because I was around family.” Three decades and seven installations later, Gre ’s enthusiasm for his project is unwavering. He’s a consummate salesman, a one-man tourism bureau for his tiny town. A few years back, he realized that even if he could lure folks down the road—according to his counter, about , cars drive the Enchanted Highway into Regent each year—to save the town they would need something to keep visitors around to spend some money. So he decided it needed a hotel, and when the local school was merging with another town’s facility nearby, he took the building over and converted it into the nineteen-room Enchanted Castle Hotel along with a steakhouse and a tavern. Unfortunately, with the oil boom waning and at a size too small for bus tours going into Medora and too small for a local col- lege’s dinner theater, it’s a long way from viable. But Gre is using its grounds for his next sculpture,

“The Deer Family,” “The Knight and Dragon,” and he’s got big , Gary Gre ideas for more. “Behind it, we own twenty acres of land,” he says. “So, I thought I’ll maybe build some sculptures back there. Some major sculptures. Then, you can’t see ‘em from the road; you can’t see ‘em be- cause the hotel’s in front of it. So then do something with metal art, and sort of do a theme park, so maybe I can charge people to go in to see it. Then maybe they’ll stay at the hotel. So, maybe I can raise some funds that way; become a destination.” Gre works like a farmer. He described his typical week to me as working at the gift shop on weekends, am- pm, then going over to the steakhouse/tavern and serving customers from pm until pm. On weekdays, he’s got someone to cover the gift shop for him, so he goes to the ho- tel and serves breakfast at am, then goes to church at : am before he starts weld- ing on his latest sculpture, which he does from am till pm, when he goes back to the hotel and serves customers until pm. Every day. Newcity AUGUST 2021 The sad truth is that, in spite of its scale and success at attracting visitors and at- tention, the Enchanted Highway remains a solitary endeavor. Gre has set up a foun- dation, but it’s basically just his family. His meager revenues come mostly from the gift shop, which he says brings in , a year, and the hotel has gaming—North Da- kota legalized gambling in —that brings in , as a one-man show. And I thought the city would come a year. All in all, the whole operation costs seventy-to- on board more; well, they haven’t. I thought the state would 26 eighty thousand dollars a year, Gre says, and that’s with- come; they haven’t. I thought maybe there was a philan- out him getting paid anything. Costs include the creation thropist out there that would see that I was doing this, but of the mammoth sculptures, yes, but also the acquisition that hasn’t happened. So, I’m sort of a one-man show. of the land they sit on, either through lease or purchase, Now I’ve reached the point of, after thirty-two years of and then the maintenance of the existing sites: mowing welding, giving my life to it, I hate to see it die when I die. the grass, repainting and repairing sculptures. So I’m sort of at a crossroads in my life. I want to see some- At this stage of his life, Gre is thinking a lot about his thing happen. I gotta make something happen. I mean, if project’s future. Will it survive him? The town that he devot- it means I’m gonna have to go to the state, and if it means ed his life to saving, which he has saved for all intents and I’m gonna go to the legislature and you hear of a guy that purposes, has never supported him. Anyone who’s read welded himself to the capitol front door, you’ll know who Sinclair Lewis’ “Main Street” will understand. It’s not that it is. Because if I gotta get publicity, I’m gonna get some- anyone had a better idea, it’s just that who was he to decide thing, somewhere, somehow, because I’ve stuck too much how to save it? After all, he’d moved away for almost two into it, and people enjoy it. People come down and they decades, making him something of a carpetbagger. And it’s say, ‘This is worth it! This is gol’ dang it.’” not like he went to the town council with a Powerpoint pro- We left Gre and drove his Enchanted Highway, stop- posal or anything. He just did it. Still, this slight is more emo- ping at each sculpture along the way. In spite of it being tionally hurtful than a lost economic opportunity. His town a Sunday morning, we encountered other visitors at each could not a ord to support this project now even if it want- and every stop along the way, making their way to Regent. ed to. And it has, inevitably, leaned into it a bit. The closed We headed back toward Fargo on the Old Red/Old Ten storefronts on Main Street are now “museums” and the Scenic Byway, which had become Highway in , town pays for inexpensive flyers promoting the Enchanted only to become obsolete with the interstate. From the Highway along with other businesses. colossal Assumption Abbey in Richardton, to the ghost I ask Gre to consider the whole of his accomplishment. town of Sims and even the Salem Sue, “The World’s Larg- Looking back, does he have regrets? “I mean, I’m happy I est Holstein Cow,” we took in one town after another fight- did it,” he says. “I guess I expected more support. I’m a ing for survival like Regent. But none could match the one-man show. And you know, you can only do so much magic of the Enchanted Highway.

Regional Destinations Aurora Area Convention & Visitors Bureau Glessner House 43 W. Galena Boulevard, Aurora, IL 60506 1800 S. Prairie Avenue, Chicago, IL 60616 630.256.3190 / enjoyaurora.com 312.326.1480 / glessnerhouse.org Plan a visit to scenic farms & orchards where you can harvest a bounty Explore architecture, history, and design at the National Historic of delicious fall produce, then take in a show at the award winning Landmark Glessner House, an 1887 Gilded Age mansion fully restored Paramount Theatre, debuting the first ever regional production of with its original furnishings. The house is widely regarded to be the Kinky Boots. Take a moonlit tour of the Farnsworth House, an icon of urban residential masterpiece of architect H. H. Richardson, and its American architecture designed by Mies van der Rohe. Enjoy outdoor design influenced Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, and many others. adventure on & along our gorgeous stretch of the Fox River, or find fall It is located two miles south of downtown on historic Prairie Avenue. colors on tap at our local breweries. Pair your visit with shopping and Opportunities to experience Glessner House include regular guided dining in charming, historic downtowns. Find visitor discounts, lodging public tours, specialized tours, private group tours, as well as courtyard options, and travel guides at enjoyaurora.com. concerts and a variety of online programs. Advance ticket required. photo: TheChicagoCouple.com / Aurora Area CVB photo: James Caulfield Grohmann Museum at Illinois Humanities Milwaukee School of Engineering ilhumanitites.org/travelingexhibits 1000 N. Broadway, Milwaukee, WI 53202 414.277.2300 / grohmannmuseum.org Illinois Humanities is excited to announce two new traveling exhibitions, Voices and Votes: Democracy in America — which highlights America’s The Grohmann Museum Collection is comprised of more than history of civic action and the results of that action — and the Illinois 1,500 paintings, sculptures, and works on paper from 1580 to the Freedom Project — an exhibition highlighting the pursuit of civil rights present. They reflect a variety of artistic styles and subjects that by and for African Americans in Illinois. document the evolution of organized work—from farming and mining to trades such as smithing, glassblowing, taxidermy, and shoemaking. These concurrent, complementary exhibitions, sponsored by Illinois Earlier works depict rural forms of labor, such as men and women Humanities, will visit six Illinois communities now — March 2022! working on the farm or in cottage industries, while later images Make this a must on your summer cultural to-do list! show tradespeople engaged in their work, leading to the Industrial Revolution and beyond. Advertising Feature

Regional Destinations Lynden Sculpture Garden OS Projects 2145 W. Brown Deer Rd., Milwaukee, WI 53217 601 6th Street, Racine WI, 53403 414.446.8794 / lyndensculpturegarden.org 262.800.3564 / osprojects.art The Lynden Sculpture Garden: 50 sculptures, 40 acres, OS Projects is a contemporary art gallery in downtown 15 minutes north of downtown Milwaukee. Lynden offers Racine featuring visual artists in solo and small group exhibits. a unique experience of art in nature through its collection The gallery’s primary focus is on artists living and working in the of monumental sculptures and temporary installations Chicago-Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee urban corridor. While the sited across park, pond, and woodland. Open year-round range of media the gallery presents is broad—encompassing (closed Thursday), Lynden also offers public programs, painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, photography, video/ performances, and indoor exhibitions. Admission is free. film and installation—the exhibited artists are unified in their engagement with topical issues, experimentation with materials image: Folayemi Wilson, Eliza’s Peculiar Cabinet of Curiosities, 2016. and processes, and adherence to craft. Hours are Saturdays 12-5 Photo: Jim Waldman. and by appointment. Go Rogue in Quincy, IL Fermentation Fest: Grassland Edition 800.978.4748 / SeeQuincy.com Sat & Sun, Sept 25-26, 11 am–6 pm Unleash your curious! With a prolific landscape of awe-inspiring Witwen Park & Campground architecture and an artistic culinary scene, Quincy provides the S9855 County Rd. E, Sauk City, WI 53583 ideal destination for food and design enthusiasts. fermentationfest.com / [email protected] Experience the colorful downtown via Summer Flavor Tours— Fermentation Fest is back September 25-26 with a celebration a walking adventure to five venues guided by a local food ambassador, of live culture in all its forms. For this special Grassland Edition, infusing entertaining historical nuggets. Saturdays through Sept 25. Wormfarm Institute has partnered with researchers at University of Wisconsin–Madison to showcase regenerative, grassland-based Explore distinctive niches via self-guided driving tours. Mid Mod agriculture. The fest will include demos, art, performances from Quincy showcases thirty examples of this marvelous era. dance to “Grassical” music in an open-air Tabernacle to Scandanavian cow calling, local food, fermented beverages & more. We invite our More Self-Guided Driving Tours: Gateway City | Mural Find + Dine urban neighbors to take part in this polycultural rural revival. Maine Street Mile | Off the Record Advertising Feature

THE REAR VIEW GUNS AND BUTTER HORIZON IN THE LAND UP NORTH —Jac Kuntz —David Hammond ME, MYSELF AND I I WAS AT THE HOTEL SHOREHAM, a lakeside —Isa Giallorenzo outdoor pizza restaurant in rural Minneso- ta at the end of June, and a Twins game was playing on the television at the bar. I was mesmer- ized by the images of baseball, scenes I've seen so AUGUST 2021 Newcity many times that I often use the games as LAETXRICAOVNELER’S white noise, a background that is work —S.L. Wisenberg friendly. But right then and there, all I want- ed to do was sit at that bar outside with a cold beer and watch a team that means little to me play baseball on TV. This got me thinking about the amplification of simple 29 pleasures we're all experiencing this summer… which in turn led me to the topic of vacations. These annual rituals of escape seem so important right now. —Brian Hieggelke WHEN GRASS THE GOING GETS GOOD —Monica Kass Rogers —Robert Rodi ONE NIGHT 24 HOURS IN THE VOODOO IN SPRINGFIELD MUSEUM —John Moss —David Witter

WHEN THE GOING GETS GOOD by Robert Rodi Newcity AUGUST 2021 IN ITALY, AU UST 15 IS A NATIONAL HOLIDAY; it's called Americans, of course, go “on vacation” as well, and with Ferragosto, from the Latin Feriae Augusti, referring to the festivals similar implications. But for us, the concept has an addition- 30 of the Emperor Augustus (though these days it's a celebration of the al, psychological element. Unlike Italians, we’re attracted Virgin Mary). Italians not only take the day off; they take a large to the idea of slipping not merely our physical moorings, but chunk of the month surrounding it as well, and head to the coun- our histories, reputations and behaviors. A new setting try's coastal resort towns. This phenomenon is so pervasive that if becomes an invitation to try out a new self. Since you’re you visit any major Italian city in August, you'll find only dazed only away for a week or two, the risk of a failed reinvention tourists wandering through ghost towns. is diminished; you just abandon the new identity when you return. In fact, the briefness of the time span seems to Not only will Italian families return to the same resort ev- embolden vacationers to make choices they wouldn’t ever ery year (usually renting the same beach house), entire neigh- make at home; the unsustainability of the new self becomes borhoods will move en masse—with the result that when they its chief attraction. At least one American city where the wake up in the morning and go out to greet the day, they see economy is fueled by tourism has not only recognized this, the same faces they’d see over their backyard fences at home. but made it an o icial slogan: “What happens in Vegas, stays They exchange the same gossip about the same people, cook in Vegas.” the same meals they cook at home, drink the same cocktails This summer is di erent, because the places we’re vacat- and watch the same TV shows. In the truest sense of the word, ing are our most intimate interior spaces. We’ve been shut this is a vacation (in Italian, vacanza); all these city dwellers up, in varying degrees of isolation, for more than a year, and have really done is packed up their lives and moved them the identities we’ll be trying out are the ones we haven’t used somewhere else. In every other respect their days play out since the spring of ; we’re hoping they still fit (or in some exactly the same. cases, hoping they don’t). This summer, more of us will be There must be something, then, about the act of leaving going both on vacation and going on holiday—eagerly leav- behind a physical space that provides renewal. The phrase ing behind the confines of our physical and spiritual four walls, “going on vacation” puts the emphasis on the act of desertion; while also actively seeking to find who we’ve become by a destination is only hazily implied. Compare this to the Brit- weaving that recovered self into the greater tapestry of a ish, who don’t go “on vacation;” they go “on holiday.” The newly reawakening human society. emphasis is on where they’re headed, not what they’re leav- In that sense, then, it’s not really a matter of going “on va- ing behind. For Britons, it’s a journey; for Italians it’s an aban- cation” or going “on holiday”; it’s a matter simply of “going.” donment. The Brits aim toward; the Italians flee from. See you there.

ONE NIGHT IN THE MVOUOSDEOUOM by David Witter IT WAS MID AFTERNOON IN NEW ORLEANS and so humid I could hear the footsteps of the sta members walking on AUGUST 2021 Newcity that the inside of my head felt like a sponge. Walking through the the old wooden floor, and mu led conversation. A white wom- French Quarter along Bourbon Street, I gazed at a man wearing a an with tattoos, wearing black, large earrings, goth in a time 31 black tunic, riding a unicycle, with the rainbow flag painted on his before it was mainstream, walked back to the courtyard. She shaved head. I saw another man, dressed in pirate garb with a green- asked me to play my harmonica and I did. and-yellow parrot on his shoulder. Happy Hour in New Orleans. I continued past the parade of outdoor bars and turned on Dumaine “These songs all talk about black cat bones, mojo hands, Street toward the New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum. Inside ‘fixin’ people, and casting spells,” I said. This was the culture the dark room I saw a collection of dolls, gris-gris and carved wood- they grew up with and they put it into their songs. But I later en figures, some dating back to the eighteenth century. A collection learned the di erence between voodoo and hoodoo. Hoodoo of altars combined Catholic symbols like crosses and plastic statues is the more commercial form, with practitioners charging of Jesus with symbols of the voodoo religion and items like cigars, money for charms and spells. This is probably what made its rum bottles, money, dice and beads. A human-sized skeleton with way up to Chicago. a top hat, perhaps representing Baron Samedi, and an alligator’s head, decorated with beads, peered out from the wall. Outside the storm raged. The rain was pounding vertical- ly, horizontally—in all directions like a child scribbling with a Standing underneath a painting of Marie Laveau, I told the thick leaded pencil. The woman who I was talking to told me caretaker how I had been interested in the subject since I she did not work there but served as a volunteer. was a teenager. Growing up in Chicago I heard songs like Muddy Waters’ “Got My Mojo Workin,” Junior Wells’ “Hoodoo “People come in here asking if we can turn somebody into Man Blues” and Lonnie Brooks’ “Two Headed Man” so much a zombie or asking if the voodoo dolls can get up and attack that I learned how to play them, which in turn led me to read- people,” the woman said. “A lot of them want to know how to ing books on the subject and striking up a long friendship put curses on old boyfriends. They think this place is like with Papa Doc Pulaski, who owned a voodoo shop in Chica- something out of ‘Tales from the Crypt’ or some late-night go. The caretaker and I kept talking, between groups of tour- movie. Voodoo is a religion that is based in Africa and has ists shu ling through. I even took out an old wooden harmon- been practiced for hundreds of years. We are a community ica I kept in my travel bag and demonstrated a few ri s. here in New Orleans that has the same beliefs and practices going way back, but people look at us like we are strange or As if somebody turned out a light, the sky darkened. The freaks or get scared and run out the door, not even taking the wind banged the house’s old wooden shutters. Thunder time to find out what we are really about.” roared and lightning flashed. Hot raindrops exploded o the sidewalk like fireworks. Horses pulling carriages veered o We continued talking about the city of New Orleans, my their paths. Drenched tourists tried to continue their drunken vacation, and the history of the city as they tidied up. I closed revelry on the streets and bar patios. The few visitors still at my eyes. I hesitated. What would happen if I fell asleep? With the museum left. I headed toward the exit. But the caretaker my head resting against the pillow on the white wicker stood before it. chair I remember dreaming. When I awoke the air was some- what cooler. I could still hear talking inside. Worrying about “You are an artist and a special person,” she said. “Stay and catching a plane the next morning I walked toward a gate rest until the storm passes.“ and let myself out onto Dumaine Street without thanking them. The storm had stopped but the streets were still emp- She led me to the back and opened the door to a sheltered ty. Waiting for the St. Charles streetcar I was warm and dry. area. Filled with sandy brick, ferns and cast ironwork, it was I thought of how nice everybody was to me, trusting me and a typical French Quarter courtyard. She pointed to a white providing shelter while they closed up. As the streetcar ap- wicker couch. “You can stay here.” The storm continued. proached I thought of a line from a famous play, something The sta locked the doors and closed the museum. The driv- about… “the kindness of strangers.” ing rain banged o the tin shelter. Putting my head back I realized I was alone with a group of strangers, inside the Voodoo Museum.

GUNS AND BUTTER its green fields coming alive in early summer, roadside fruit IN THE LAND stands and small little towns with their notorious speed traps. UP NORTH On a solo drive in the early seventies, I was captured by the local police and jailed for a night in Monroe, Wisconsin. I had increased my speed heading out of town and ended up go- ing in a ; with no money to pay the ticket, I was told I’d have to spend the night behind bars and talk to the judge in the morning. I asked my captor if I could bring into my cell a collection of John Donne’s poetry; though he looked at me by David Hammond suspiciously as he scrutinized a few pages of my book, he relented and so I had something to read while in stir. Jail food photo by David Hammond turned out to be not so bad—tomato soup and a sandwich of, naturally, cheese—and I remember my teenage incarcer- ROWIN UP IN THE PORTA E PARK NEI HBORHOOD ation as just another memorable Wisconsin adventure. of Chicago, vacations meant one thing: Wisconsin. On one family trip to Wisconsin, my dad wanted to stop at the Schlitz brewery. Schlitz—“the beer that made Milwaukee With our northern neighbor as the prize at the end of the famous”—was quite popular in the days before we all discov- school year, summer was the time when we’d go to Delavan ered craft beer, which is now produced across the state. Lake or Lake Delton. Once, as part of a noble e ort by my Walking through that Schlitz brewery sometime in the sixties, parents to make us kids happy, we journeyed to the Dells, I was appalled by what seemed to be some of the worst where we could exult in such attractions as Biblical Gardens, smells that ever entered my nose. The fermenting grains gave Enchanted Forest and, of course, Storybook Gardens, one of o what I used to consider an incredibly noxious odor—“how the first of the corny tourist destinations to open in the area; can people drink this stu ?” I thought to my young self. Hav- this fairytale place closed in , and I’m surprised it lasted that long. Newcity AUGUST 2021 On one of our trips to Delavan Lake, we stayed in a cabin with an ice box. Every few days, a man in a rusty old truck would pull up and using ice tongs he’d put a big, maybe foot- and-a-half square block of ice into the bottom section of a crusty wooden box. This ice hunk would keep our food cold, or at least cool, for a few days. I’d never seen or even heard of such a thing. It was cool, and it started me thinking about what life must have been like during the ancient days, you know, a decade or two before I was born. Travel opens the eyes. Also unique to Wisconsin was mandatory butter. My par- 32 ents, for health reasons, ironically, were inveterate margarine eaters, but to get margarine in Wisconsin meant getting a plastic package of white dairy-free oleo-based mush and working in a yellow annatto-based dye to make the marga- rine look like butter; the powerful dairy interests in Wisconsin ing toured many breweries since then, I’ve come to appreci- wanted to discourage use of this renegade spread, so they ate the aroma that arises when yeast works on grains. made it as unattractive and hard-to-use as possible. Butter. On a recent, post-pandemic trip to Wisconsin, we stopped I remember my first taste. I loved it, silky and creamy, rich, in the little town of Wild Rose for gas. The service station-con- and real. We got to eat butter when we were in Wisconsin. venience store had a sign on the window warning that masks Travel expands the palate. were health hazards and that you didn’t have to wear one. I believe it’s a good thing to know where your food comes There were lots of serious firearms displayed above the count- from, but I have rarely participated in the hunting of proteins er. Gesturing to the display behind him, a man in camos lec- in the wild. I learned to do so, for the first time, fishing for tured three young boys on the firepower of various weapons. bluegills on Delavan Lake. We’d get up early, when it was still The men’s washroom had religious tracts pinned to the door. dark out, which made it all seem like an adventure. We’d get I thought of Obama’s statement about how rural folks “cling in our little boat and row out to the middle of the lake, work to guns or religion,” and was entirely unsurprised to see a wiggling worms onto the hooks, and throw out our lines. The standard-issue Trump-Pence sign, standing beside a charm- water smelled like algae, warm and musty, and my brothers ing little lake at the edge of town. and I talked about the monsters that might live under the Right then, heading home and out of Wisconsin felt like calm waters, waiting to have us for their breakfast. Our cane we were leaving enemy territory. That is not a healthy attitude, poles were not professional gear, but we caught a lot of blue- and before the election, I had never thought of our gills, much to the dismay of my mother, who had the task of dairy-loving state to the north as anything other than a won- cleaning them: it was a revolting process—tables covered in derful resource and retreat for all Midwesterners. Although newspapers and fish guts—and time-consuming, but to this Wisconsinites did help put into o ice the most unabashedly day I order bluegills whenever they’re listed on a menu. anti-American president in my lifetime, Wisconsin flipped Present day, driving back from Green Bay, on a brilliantly blue in , so for that—and for the beer and the butter—we sunny morning, I was in a mist of nostalgia for Wisconsin, with should be thankful.

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24 HOURS IN SPRINGFIELD by John Moss WHEN I STARTED ONLINE DATIN A FEW YEARS BACK, my passport had not seen a stamp for close to a decade. It had ex- pired three years earlier. I didn’t own a car—hadn’t owned one for nearly fifteen years. I was taking somewhere around .6 domestic trips per year that weren’t to visit family. My annual discretionary travel budget was fit for funding an overnighter to Downers Grove, so long as I packed my own dinner. I became especially conscious that this situational data contrasted with what I was seeing in profile after profile on the dating apps I’d signed up for. What a well-traveled bunch single Chicagoans are, so many having touched down on Newcity AUGUST 2021 anywhere from three to five continents, with aspirations to see all four oceans and climb the tallest peaks, always up for a weekend jaunt to San Francisco or New York City in be- tween. If you’ve never had the pleasure of online dating, traveling and vacations are a signal part of the mating call. Writing on the topic in Vox, Aditi Shrikant says, “Travel is integral to how we market ourselves while dating… Travel makes a person seem adventurous, rich, and interested in their own self-de- I do see why traveling and online dating go so well togeth- velopment, a.k.a. an ideal mate.” er. Both have an element of the unfamiliar, opening you up to 34 I could picture myself as the plus-one in every Machu Pic- new possibilities, expanding your geographical reach, pro- chu selfie and Northern Lights expedition uploaded in the viding a rush that can be addictive. After assessing my op- profile photos, never mind the corresponding narrative teem- tions for a getaway, I booked a ticket to Springfield on Am- ing with fundamental incompatibilities that would ensue. trak’s “Lincoln Service.” Coming in below fifty dollars for my (“ATTENTION: I live in Western suburbs. City guys YOU round trip, the price was golden. MUST OWN CAR.”) Conversely, a woman imagining herself But so too was the destination. On one of the dating apps as the plus-one in my world mainly saw her picture in some there’s a question—used to inform the algorithm to better Chicago dive with a bag of Combos, or as the uncropped fig- show compatible partners in your feed—that asks: If you were ure whose shoulder I’m clutching at Wrigley. Good times. In visiting a new city, where would you be most excited to go? my one photo not from Chicago, she saw herself seconds Options listed are tourist attractions, historically or culturally away from plunging down a mountainside on a bike. significant locations, sites where you can rub elbows with the For every twenty messages I sent to start up a conversa- locals, or back home. tion, my e orts produced only a response or two, often lead- For me, it’s almost always the historical sites. Even here in ing nowhere. So I spent even more time online, made even Chicago I love stumbling upon those Chicago Landmark more outreaches. Online dating is one of those areas in life, I plaques a ixed to buildings. And the way I understood was learning, where you can’t will yourself to succeed—in Springfield, having never been there, along with being the fact, the harder you try, the worse o you’ll be. At a certain home of our esteemed state government (my trip occurred point the virtue of hard work becomes the turno of desper- at the tail end of the two-year budget impasse), it’s a trove of ation. It’s sort of a cruel logic. Abraham Lincoln landmarks. Eventually I realized I needed to take a hiatus, a vacation Our train left from Union Station on a bright, hot Saturday from the taxing, addictive work of online dating. Then I morning in July. The Cermak Road Bridge passed by the win- thought, what better way to spend my online dating vacation dow; we were on our way. Which raises an important ques- than by getting out of town, evolving myself into more of an tion: At what point does a vacation actually begin? Is it when ideal mate while taking a break from everyday life—even if you turn on your “Out of O ice” auto-reply in Outlook (if you my everyday life was happening in Chicago, which itself can happen to be a corporate nine-to-fiver like me)? Is it when o er such an experiential spectrum that just living here feels you lock your front door? Arrive at your destination? Or may- like a trip at times. be when you can no longer see the Willis Tower? I had to tell

myself vacation began when I stepped o the train in Spring- ranger fielded a query on Lincoln’s relationship with his son AUGUST 2021 Newcity Tad, I concocted this scenario where a response to the mes- field, as the book I’d brought for company (Ron Chernow’s sage I had sent earlier led to the first date of a future great relationship, and what a terrific story this would make asso- “Washington,” sticking with the presidential theme) was face- ciating the relationship’s groundbreaking with some exalted 35 location like Lincoln’s home. I convinced myself that check- down on the open seat next to mine by the time we got into ing the app right here and now was golden. As we stood on the tour just outside of Lincoln’s home, I logged in. Nothing. Joliet, and I was back on my phone, logged in and browsing It was that sort of warped reasoning that dogged me the dating apps, replying to an existing conversation string, ask- rest of my twenty-four hours in Springfield—to outside the windows of the Lincoln-Herndon Law O ices (closed for ren- ing so-and-so would she be up for grabbing a drink when I ovations), into the Lincoln Presidential Museum and Old State Capitol, over to the Lincoln Depot, past all the Lincoln quirks, got back from my vacation? Then I logged out and closed my such as bike racks enriched by a kind of Lincoln penny. On the train back home to Chicago the next day I got my re- eyes. Done. sponse. She wrote Springfield sounded like an interesting trip idea, hoped I was having fun, and that she had met some- Early afternoon the train pulled into the Third Street sta- one at her CrossFit gym, best of luck in my search! tion in Springfield. Vacation had begun! I easily navigated to I’ve read that trips, vacations can alter your perspective, rewire your brain. I didn’t stay away from online dating as I where I was staying, the President Abraham Lincoln Spring- had planned or fully inhabit Springfield and leave my every- day life back home, but still I felt di erent as the “Lincoln Ser- field hotel—at twelve stories, it’s one of the taller structures vice” ate up miles of central Illinois farmland. I felt this weird optimism about the future, that one day I would be back in downtown, adorned with an oval portrait of Lincoln at the top Springfield with a plus-one to share the whole experience. The following day at work I merrily described my trip itinerary facing south, just in case. I left my luggage—a backpack—in to a group of coworkers. One of them, a guy who had grown up in the Northwest suburbs, said, “John, you realize you just my room and headed south to drop in on Lincoln’s home a took my sixth-grade field trip.” few blocks away. The Lincoln Home, where he lived from until he left for D.C. in , is maintained by the National Park Service. It’s a National Historic Site comprising several blocks of his- toric homes on twelve acres of land. Park rangers dressed like they just left Yellowstone shepherd visitors through a se- ries of outside tour stages, leading finally inside Lincoln’s home. This builds dramatic tension and provides an oppor- tunity to keep each tour moving forward. Shu ling along in a group of fifteen or so, my mind wan- dered from Lincoln to my iPhone. Instead of being fully pres- ent, experiencing the site of the only home Lincoln ever owned, I desired to check my dating inbox. While the park