FRIDAY 3/26 – THURSDAY 4/1
While the layers of Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient take time to fully reveal themselves, the author’s poetry tends to be clear and concise–yet full of depth. Tonight Ondaatje will read from his new collection, Handwriting, at 6 in the Art Institute’s Rubloff Auditorium, Columbus and Jackson. Admission is free. Call 312-443-3600 for more.
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Since 1970 the artist-run Chicago Public Art Group has involved communities in making large-scale mosaics and murals. Tonight the group will celebrate the move to its new digs at 1259 S. Wabash with an open house, at which cofounder and artist John Pitman Weber will sign copies of a new and improved edition of his book Toward a People’s Art: The Contemporary Mural Movement. The open house is from 4 to 7; a housewarming with music and drinks follows from 8 to midnight. Both are free. Call 312-427-2724 for more information.
28 SUNDAY It takes 40 gallons of sap to make just one gallon of maple syrup. That explains why the real thing costs more than good old Log Cabin. Visitors to the North Park Village Nature Center can taste the results and take guided walks of the grounds at this weekend’s Maple Syrup Fest. It’s free (though the flapjacks and brats they’re offering will set you back a few bits) and runs from 10 to 3 Saturday and today at 5801 N. Pulaski (312-744-5472).
The Vermeer Quartet joins a group of church leaders tonight to perform Haydn’s 1786 composition The Seven Last Words of Christ, which combines music and the spoken word. Theologian Martin E. Marty of the University of Chicago, Archbishop Francis Cardinal George, and others will present original meditations. A discussion with members of the Vermeer Quartet starts at 7 (the meditations begin at 8) at the U. of C.’s Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, 5850 S. Woodlawn. Tickets are $10; those 17 and under get in free. Call 773-702-7300.
