I. ART EXHIBITION
Brains, Brilliancy, Bohemia: Art & Politics in Jazz-Age Chicago
Mess Hall, 6932 North Glenwood Ave., Chicago, IL 60626
April 4 – April 26 | Tues-Friday 1PM-5PM | Sat-Sun 12-6
The first exhibition focusing on hobohemian culture, Brains, Brilliancy, Bohemia presents photocopies from Chicago’s ill-forgotten radical nightclub, The Dill Pickle Club, hobo gatherings, a documentary on “Clap Doctor” Ben Reitman and 1910s-20s ephemera, providing a timely look at the origin of American counterculture and working class art leading up to the Great Depression.
Material from the exhibition draws heavily from the archives of the Newberry Library, whose collections chronicle Chicago’s legendary Dill Pickle Club. The Dill Pickle provided a forum for free speech and the meeting place for many of the city’s most famous authors, intellectuals and radicals, including Carl Sandburg, Sherwood Anderson, Floyd Dell, Clarence Darrow, Lucy Parsons, Ralph Chaplin, Ben Hecht, Harriet Monroe and Vachel Lindsay. Included in the exhibition are photocopy reproductions of letterpress and woodcut handbills, fliers and posters announcing and advertising numerous lectures, readings, parties, plays and other regular activities.
In a video installation will be Marc Moscato’s The More Things Stay the Same, a short documentary examining the life and world of Dr. Ben Reitman (1879-1942), known in his day as “the Clap Doctor”, “King of the Hoboes” and “the most vulgar man in America.” Often best remembered as press agent and lover to anarchist Emma Goldman, Reitman’s work as caretaker for hoboes, prostitutes and the underclass continues to resonate with social and political relevance.
Also included in the exhibition are photocopies from 1910s pulp novels by A-No. 1 Tramp (Leon Ray Livingston), illustrations by Ernie Bushmiller, Franklin McMahon and Herman Rosse, and photos and ephemera from the Ben Reitman and Hull House collections at the University of Illinois. An audio interview with Studs Terkel and biographer Roger Bruns on Dr. Ben Reitman will also be available.
Admission is free and open to everyone.
II. EVENTS SERIES AT MESS HALL
All events to take place at Mess Hall and are free. B.Y.O.B.
Saturday, April 4, 7PM
Exhibition Opening
Join us for the opening, a screening of the short The More Things Stay the Same, an old-time banjo romp with Damien Fosse and a rousing sing-a-long of I.W.W. and hobo songs.
Friday, April 10, 8PM
Who is Bozo Texino? Screening w/ Ha Ha Ha America
Who is Bozo Texino? is a chronicle of the search for the source of a ubiquitous and mythic rail graffiti – a simple sketch of a character with an infinity-shaped hat and the scrawled moniker, “Bozo Texino” – a drawing seen on railcars for over 80 years. Taking inspiration from the beats, the film functions as both sub-cultural documentary and stylized fable on wanderlust and outsider identity. Screens w/ Ha Ha Ha America, an audaciously provocative skewering of assumptions about China vs. US global supremacy and pride.
Saturday, April 11, 8PM
Dil Pickle Club
Step high, stoop low and leave your dignity outside for a night of poetry, stories, music, art, pornography and conversation. Featuring artist, teacher and performer Theaster Gates; Paul Durica (founder of Pocket Guide to Hell Tours) on Charles Fort, the Fortean Society and The Book of the Damned; and Searah Deysach (owner of the Early2Bed sex shop) offers sex tips and screens independent lesbian pornography, with commentary, for the benefit of sexual well-being. Co-sponsored by Stop Smiling Magazine.
III. BOOK & LIMITED EDITION PRINT
The exhibition will have an accompanying 76-page catalog/ pamphlet that features an essay, an unpublished piece by Dr. Ben Reitman, reprints of Dill Pickle Club materials and a letterpress cover. Copies are cheap: $7! You can also support this project by purchasing a limited edition print. Copies of both the book and print will be available at all related events and lectures, select stores in Chicago and online.
IV. LECTURES IN AND AROUND CHICAGO
Friday, April 3, 12PM
Lecture at “Make and Bake” DIY lecture series
University of Wisconsin
Madison, WI
Monday, April 6, 1PM
Lecture in Alternative Curatorial Practices
School of the Art Institute at Chicago
Chicago, IL
Tuesday, April 7, 7PM
Lecture and screening
North Central College
Naperville, IL
Friday, April 10, 1PM
Lecture at School of the Art Institute at Chicago
Chicago, IL
Sunday, April 12, 12PM
InCUBATE Chicago Sunday Soup Lecture
The Orientation Center
2129 N. Rockwell
Chicago, IL
V. FUTURE BRAINS
Plans are in the works for future exhibition showings. After its run at Mess Hall, Brains will be travellin’ on down to the NFO XPO at this year’s Version Fest at the Co-Prosperity Sphere, April 25-26 (Chicago, IL). A show will also take place in Portland in the coming months. Stay tuned for more info.