Friday 7/2 – Thursday 7/8
When printmaker Ed Colker was head of the University of Illinois at Chicago’s School of Art and Design, he often collaborated with local poet Michael Anania. “Colker’s prints–fluid, metamorphic, largely non-referential and freely played–offer themselves as the poems’ complements, a visual activity of sense,” writes Anania in the catalog notes for Five Decades in Print: Ed Colker. The exhibit includes nearly 50 of Colker’s “illuminations” of poems by Anania, Walt Whitman, Pablo Neruda, Kathleen Norris, and others. Colker will be at tonight’s free opening reception from 5 to 7 at Columbia College’s Center for Book & Paper Arts, 218 S. Wabash, seventh floor (312-431-8612).
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“Out of many nationalities, races, or colors, we are one people” is the motto of this year’s African/Caribbean International Festival of Life. The weekend event includes motivational speakers, food, an arts and crafts marketplace, a gospel stage, and more. Today’s musical guests include Mighty Sparrow from Trinidad, Gypsy Fari from Belize, and seven-year-old local prodigy Maestro Harrell. The fest is from Friday through tomorrow from 10 to 10 in Washington Park, 55th and Cottage Grove. Tickets are $5; children under 12 get in free. Call 312-427-0266 for details.
Former death row resident Rolando Cruz will make a guest appearance tonight at Barnes & Noble’s monthly current-events discussion and debate group, the Forum. He’ll be joined by members of the Illinois Coalition Against the Death Penalty. The free event starts at 7:30 at 659 W. Diversey. Call 773-871-9004.
