NOMAs Af-Am Art

My father recently went to New Orleans on business and, on one of his days off, went to NOMA, or the New Orleans Museum of Art. He returned back home praising their collection and suggesting he and I return there to check out their upcoming exhibit Beyond the Blues: Reflections of African America in the Fine Arts Collection of the Amistad Research Center [April 10-July 11]. Thru connections, he was able to get a preview of the collection to be displayed. His report dictated that the exhibit was a fair combination of contemporary pieces with historical goodies sprinkled in throughout. The collection features sculptures, paintings, prints and slightly less developed sketches and drafts of more developed masterpieces. Totaling over 140 works, the collection misses nothing on the subjects of classes, races, and other divisions in African American life, including that in New Orleans itself. My father says that the glimpse he was given was extraordinary, but the general public will have to wait for another month before it is unveiled.

Chicago Gangs

I didn't really know what to write about for the Chicago unit. But to focus on the theme of the city of fact and the city of feeling. I decided to take the idea of Chicago gangs because each gang in Chicago has a certain area to which the claim as their territory and therefore there is feeling tied to the psychically of the area as well.
There has been a written history of gangs in Chicago by the University of Chicago and their site I thought it had a lot of information on uncovering the stereotypes of what is put out by mass media. Another source I thought was interesting was an NPR story of a sociologist Sudhir Venkatesh who wrote a book about being a part of the Black Kings as field work for his doctorate. His book "Gang Leader for a Day" came out in 2008 which tells his stories of when the gang leader J.T. gave him the reins to be the leader of the Black Kings for the day. I don't know if what Venkatesh did was successful as finding an inside into what it means to be a part of a gang to have the psychically of your neighborhood mean so much. Here's the link to the npr book interview.

Crime in Chicago and the Role of the Media

The city of Chicago has always been infamous for its gangland and violent reputation. Being an urban hub, whereby many American industries are centred, this is not surprising, however when researching the city’s crime statistics in recent years, I was shocked by how prevalent Chicago’s violence seems to be. According to the Chicago-Sun Times, Chicago is home to ‘four of the 25 most dangerous neighbourhoods in the country’, and year after year it rivals New York and LA in the most dangerous crime-filled city title. In regards to Tuesday’s Rotella reading, I wondered to what affect all the sensational journalism surrounding Chicago’s crime rate has had upon its population rate, and how the media influence public opinion and stereotypes about the area. According to an article in ‘The Huffington Post’, it reports that despite increasing crime rates, the metropolitan area ‘increased by nearly 73,000 people from July 2007 to July 2008, making the population 9.6 million’.

What this suggests then, is the sense that media sensational journalism is not affecting newcomers desire to enter the city. However stereotypes regarding Chicago’s violent background are still evident in the media. When reading Gregory’s ‘Southern Diaspora’, the idea that the African American migrant was portrayed as the ‘violent disruptor’ was shown repeatedly. Interestingly I found that this racial stereotype is still perpetuated in the media today; African Americans are still presented as the gang-leaders and perpetrators of Chicago’s crime levels. Arguably this does not help race relations, and suggests that the media’s sensationalistic news-reporting techniques only help to fuel racial stereotypes and discrimination.

Here are some articles from the Chicago Redeye which highlight how the media plays a role in perpetuating ideas surrounding Chicago crime:

http://homicides.redeyechicago.com/

Lollapalooza

Between our talks of folk music and the Black Migration, which brought hundreds of jazz and blues musicians to Chicago, I couldn’t resist talking about one of our country’s biggest music festivals. With the lineup set to come out soon, The Lollapalooza Music Festival is set to bring crowds in the 60,000’s daily. The Festival takes place in Grant Park, Chicago, and guarantees the city around thirteen million annually, however, Lollapalooza was not always as successful. In 1991, Perry Farrell, the lead for Jane’s Addiction, decided to create a traveling rock festival for the new sounds emerging from the west coast. Among the first bands, were Jane’s Addiction, Nine Inch Nails, Butthole Surfers, and the lone rapper, Ice T, all of which performed on a stage with no side, or back stage. The next year, given its mild success, the festival took off again with many of the up and coming grunge artists like Pearl Jam, Sound Garden, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and another lone rapper with an affinity for ice, Ice Cube. The Festival held it’s own for the next few years with bands like The Smashing Pumpkins, Green Day, Beastie Boys, The Flaming Lips, Cypress Hill, The Roots, Redman, Metallica, The Ramones, Wu Tang Clan, Rage Against The Machine, and Snoop Dogg, but eventually took a hiatus in 1997. Six years later, the festival was scheduled to visit thirty cities in two months, however many fans did not attend due to high-ticket prices. Another tour scheduled for 2004 was to consist of a two-day festival-taking place in each city but it was cancelled due to weak ticket sales across the country. In 2005 Lollapalooza was resurrected as a two-day destination festival in Grant Park, Chicago, with an even greater variety of performers (70 acts on five stages) than that of the touring festival. Though the festival is one of the biggest in the country, it has lost some of its counter cultural following to the mainstream sounds of today.

Nevertheless, last year’s lineup was dope:

http://2009.lollapalooza.com/

History of the Fest:

http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2003/07/13/tem_wwwtem1ahist13.html

The Chicago Spire

In searching for something to write about for this weeks blog, I came across plans for the project of the Chicago Spire. The Chicago Spire is a skyscraper that was under construction at the junction of Lake Michigan and the Chicago River. It was designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava and if completed, it will stand at 2,000 feet (610 m), and with 150 floors, it will be among the tallest freestanding structures in North America. Plans for the spire were first announced in May 2005 by Christopher T. Carley of the Fordham Company and the project was supported by many Chicagoans and city officials.

However, due to the late 2000's recession, Carley failed to obtain crucial financial support to undergo the build. First of all, this really shows the huge knock on effect the recession has had on big construction business. But in light of our class discussion I got to thinking about this project because of the inspiration and ideas for its design. After talking about local culture and buildings of cultural significance like Monticello, DC's NMAI, the Chicago spire stuck out as an interesting building to analyse. Its design was influenced by nature and has been described by the architect as a smoke spiral coming from a campfire near the Chicago River lit by Native Americans indigenous to the area. This I think is an interesting link that makes me think of the time and effort put into the design of the NMAI in DC, and how its exterior perceived its unwavering role of representing native American culture in amongst DC's "capital government setting". The spire has been dubbed a giant "drill bit" by the public and the media have likened it to a "tall twisting tree" and a "blade of grass". Its design and shape also alludes to an obelisk, the ancient egyptian construction used in DC; the Washington Monument.
This may be going off on a tangent, but it seems to me that the spire could be Chicago's cultural reaction to 2001's terrorist attack of the twin towers. No doubt many will believe that any towering structure built in the US is now a reactionary tactic to show the world that America is still on top and will keep fighting back with their culture to defend their history of the American dream and unwavering American pride and patriotism.
On December 9th, 2009, The Sun-Times announced that construction could be resumed due to increase in funding and construction will be finished in 2012. Here's hoping Chicago.

here is a short video animation of the spire-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNI37ncgdXQ&feature=related

Chicago

This website gives a short history of the of the demonstration that took place in the Haymarket. It also gives a description of the monument and where it stands. However, there are some very interesting side notes on the page as well. The first of which is that this massacre later lead to a movement at a world conference. At this world conference it was mentioned that May 1st should be remembered as "Labor Day". Interestingly enough, one of the few people at the conference to not sign onto this idea was the delegate from the United States where the actual massacre had taken place. This article also connects to the reading about the historic account of the migration North, different people had different opinions on how the actual event happened and therefore want the event to be remembered in their own specific way.

http://www.kentlaw.edu/ilhs/haymkmon.htm

Millennium Park

I think that the space in Millennium Park is similar to the open space that allowed for the creation of a new Chicago after the fire that occurred downtown, burning most of the city. Previously occupied by railyards and parking lots, the park-located in the heart of the city-is representative of Chicago as a contemporary destination. The new park transformed a previously ugly part of downtown into a site for tourists, artists, protestors, and musicians alike. At the turn of the Millennium, the park was built to offer an array of benefits to the city (economic, aesthetic, spatial).

The park consists of a collection of sculptures that in some way represent Chicago culture.

The bean (Cloud Gate), for example, brings Chicago's skyline down to the person viewing the sculpture. The bean emphasizes both the sky and land of the cityscape, depending on the angle at which it is viewed.

Another significant sculpture in the park is the Crown Fountain. The fountain displays people of all ages, races, and genders. The images projected on the two monoliths, separated by a puddle of water, are symbolic of the people who come from different classes, races, and genders that harmoniously occupy the city.

Overall, I think the park (I may be overanalyzing this) represents Chicago as the land of opportunity. I think this because the layout of the park (and many of the sculptures in the park) are very open and do not feel enclosed in any sort of way, perhaps symbolic of open possibilities for the city's inhabitants. The park's sculptures utilize both land and water, key resources for Chicago's development during the Industrial Era. This could be symbolic of Chicago's success throughout the Progressive Era.

the bean:

http://www.adventurist.net/trips/chicago/millennium_grant_parks/photos/cloud-gate-1.jpg

crown fountain:

http://www.bigartsthelens.com/wp-content/themes/livingos-upsilon-1/smoothgallery/images/Big_Art_St_Helens_CROWN_FOUNTAIN_Chicago_smooth.jpg