Friday 12/4 – Thursday 12/10
5 SATURDAY A recent Reader cover story focused on the controversy surrounding plans to erect a fountain in honor of Nelson Algren in Wicker Park’s Polish Triangle. The story had a happy ending, and the fountain will be dedicated today at 11:30 AM at the intersection of Division, Milwaukee, and Ashland. Mayor Daley and Studs Terkel will preside. It’s free, of course. Call 773-252-0371 for more.
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On December 4, 1969, Fred Hampton and Mark Clark were killed in an early-morning raid on the Black Panthers’ west-side headquarters. Hampton’s son, Fred Jr., is now serving time for arson–a crime some say he didn’t commit. Two Free Fred Hampton’s Son benefit concerts today at 4 and 7:30 will feature the Last Poets, rappers Dead Prez, the Alyo Children’s Dance Theatre, and students from the Mount Carmel Martial Arts Academy, as well as Hampton Jr.’s mother, Akua Njeri. The shows are at the Fred Hampton Uhuru House, 5409 S. Halsted. Tickets are $12 in advance, $15 at the door. Call 773-924-7072 for more information.
7 MONDAY “Liberation is not the private province of any one particular group,” said African-American lesbian poet and activist Audre Lorde. Her poetry about civil rights, sexuality, and family inspired Adrienne Rich, Sapphire, and Sonia Sanchez, who are interviewed in the 1995 film A Litany for Survival: The Life and Work of Audre Lorde. Third World Newsreel filmmakers Ada Gay Griffin and Michelle Parkerson spent eight years working on the documentary with Lorde, who succumbed to breast cancer during the filming. But, as Lorde explained shortly before her death, “What I leave behind has a life of its own.” The movie will screen tonight at 7 at the University of Chicago’s Doc Films in Ida Noyes Hall, 1212 E. 59th (773-702-8575). Admission is $3.
