Magic Music - A favorite Chicago blues icon, the legendary harmonica-playing Billy Branch, hosts Monday evening's "Blues/Hip-Hop Intersection," a performance combining the two genres of music. Directed by Chicago Public Radio's Sylvia Ewing, this one-night-only performance is part of Steppenwolf Theatre's Traffic series. This celebration of Chicago blues and Chicago hip hop will explore our town's rich blues legacy and its parallels to hip hop, combining performance, poetry and perspective to reach a multi-generational audience. The program was originally produced by and aired on Chicago Public Radio.
The evening celebration will showcase the talents of such luminaries as Billy Branch's group, The SOBs (Sons of Blues), hip hop poet and singer Avery R. Young, poetry slam vets Kevin Coval and Idris Goodwin, emcees Beatmonstas, Butter, FM Supreme, Itch 13 and Sense, vocalists Mae Koen and Ugochi and harmonicist Russ Green. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased online at www.steppenwolf.org or by calling (312) 335-1650. Showtime is 7:30 p.m. and Steppenwolf Theatre is located 1650 N. Halsted.
Radio Rocks - An assortment of local media will be in WCGI/107.5 studios on Friday beginning at 2 p.m. as guest host Doug Banks passes the afternoon drive baton to Tony Sculfield in preparation of the debut of "Riot Radio" on Monday. Now, that ought to be a real "sho nuf" riot! . . . WVON's Jon Alexander Daye, the host of On Target from 10 p.m. to midnight, just received confirmation of a two-hour, one-on-one interview with a former Black Panther Party member, Flores A. Forbes, who was the personal security for BPP founder Huey P. Newton. His hot new book, Will You Die With Me?, just hit the book stores. "We'll explore the demise of Fred Hampton, Mark Clark along with the fall and failures of other BPP leaders," Daye says, "and compare what the BPP did then with what Black leaders are doing - or not doing - now." Listen in tonight (Thursday). It promises to be "explosive," he says.
Happy B'day - wishes go out to our esteemed and beloved U.S. Senator Barack Obama, WVON/1450-AM Radio's Melody Spann-Cooper, Sen. (and Rev.) James Meeks (I-15th), U.S. Cellular's Greg Hinton, the Chicago Urban League's Derrick Baker, Ch. 32's Robin Robinson, Min. Bamani Obadele, Syreeta Wright, Johnny Graham (of Earth, Wind and Fire fame), Dr. Franchot Thompson III, Susanna Beavers Chavers, Hugh Allen and Mari-Annie Price Vincent.
Family Fun - The Eta Xi Sigma Alumnae Chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. hosts its Eighth Annual Sigma Round-Up Picnic, "A Family Affair," on Aug. 20 in Grove #10 of Dan Ryan Woods (enter @ 87th and Western) from noon - 6 p.m. Bookbags filled with school supplies will be given to the first 20 young folk in attendance. Other school supplies will also be available. The fun festivity is designed to highlight the sorority's commitment to youth in its national program, "Operation Big Bookbag." For any additional information, you may contact Sydney Stewart at (773) 405-1244.
Congratulations - to Eboni C. Howard, Ph.D. on being named the first director of Erikson Institute's Herr Research Center for Children and Social Policy after a year-long nationwide search. Erikson Institute is one of the nation's leading graduate schools in child development. As director, Dr. Howard, 35, holds the Frances Stott Chair in Early Childhood Policy Research. A researcher at the Center since January, she received a bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago in 1992 and a doctorate from Northwestern University in 2000.
The new appointment will give Dr. Howard the responsibility of advancing the mission of the Center, which is to produce applied research and analysis that will inform and support the development of public policies throughout the Great Lakes region that support the healthy development of children birth to age 5 and their families.
Before joining Erikson, Dr. Howard led evaluation studies at the University of Chicago in the areas of childhood education, early intervention, child abuse prevention, and foster care practices. As a research associate at the Joint Center for Poverty Research at Northwestern University and UCLA, she was the lead ethnographer in a large welfare reform evaluation study. She has received numerous awards, including a Minority Graduate Research Award from the National Institute of Health. She also served as a graduate fellow at the Joint Center for Poverty Research, Northwestern University/University of Chicago, and received the Scholl Fellowship at Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago. A native of Madison, Wis., Dr. Howard resides in Chicago.
Save the Dates - The folks over at ABJ Center for the Arts want us all to "red circle" our calendars or highlight our Palm Pilots and Blackberrys -or whatever - for Sept. 15-16 when they present and host the Silver Year Celebration (that's 25 years!) of Dream Girls, the phenomenon that took Broadway by storm. The showcase at the DuSable Museum is being produced by ABJ Center of the Arts, ABJ Community Services, Inc, and Men of Heritage Productions. Tickets at $30 are already available for sale. Call (773) 947-0447.
Special, Special Guest - Janet Jackson, Virgin Records recording artist and a singer-songwriter, producer, dancer and actress, visited Clear Channel Radio's WGCI and WVAZ-103 FM studios on Wednesday to promote her new album, 20 Years Old, which is scheduled to hit stores Sept. 26. The youngest child of the Jackson music family, who is on a nationwide promotional tour, was the in-studio, on-air interview guest of Troi Tyler, Ramonski Luv, Joe Soto and guest host Doug Banks. While there she also visited Clear Channel's program director Elroy Smith.
[Author Affiliation]
Theresa Fambro Hooks
teesee@chicagodefender.com
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