Chicago Irish & the Green River

Growing up in Chicago, you quickly come to learn that the Irish community is a force to be reckoned with, from plumbers to politicians, parades to pastimes. Although I'm half Irish, half Mexican, my parents felt very strongly about not losing either heritage, so we had close ties to the Irish community of our city. I grew up Irish Step dancing and playing fiddle. My brother played tin whistle, joining sessions in the neighborhood pub or the regional Fleadh. My parents passed down a plethora of old folk songs, so I could regale you with anything from a ballad to come-all-ye.
I also grew up helping my dad in the garden, and he'd tell tales of my grandfather's love for roses and my great-grandmother's homemade tea. For me, the luck of the Irish meant searching for shamrocks in our local city park, practicing the gift of gab with friends and family, and enjoying potatoes in any form you can cook em.
However, there's another side to Chicago's Irish culture and traditions, where we're known for dumping dye into our local river, and drinking copiously from dawn til dusk each March. This prompts violence, litter, and debauchery, (where many are protected from serious charges by a shield of white privilege and connections to the police force). My family isn't a bunch of teetotalers by any means, but traditions of moderation and a traditional religious holiday have been altered by American gluttony and excess. We also have long traditions of altering our local ecosystem, from the Irish canal workers who reversed the flow of the river, to the stockyards workers who dumped endless refuse into Bubbly creek, to Irish machine politicians who put toxic industry next to residences, valuing the bottom line over people's health.
Looking back, the Irish have a strong connection to the environment, prompting the original love of all things green. A people in tune with the rhythms of the ocean were drawn to the midwest similarities of our inland sea. Reduced by poverty and English domination to only one variety of potato, the famed Irish potato famine should have taught humanity the important lesson of biodiversity. Growing many varieties of any species, especially food, makes us more resilient when disasters strike. Instead companies like Monsanto have narrowed the range of seeds and foods grown in the US, building monopolies on Roundup-ready varieties, and hurting our resilience in the face of coming climate change. I wonder if Monsanto founder and Chicago-born Irishman John Francis Queeny had really intended a system this short-sighted.
I know the river reversal was a historic necessity in the face of uncontrollable sanitation issues, I know the low-wage stockyards workers didn't have much say in the waste their industry produced, and I know the river dye isn't actually toxic. Local plumbers have used the solution for years to check our pipes for flow problems. But try telling all that to the invasive species currently encroaching on our city and our Great Lakes system, or the people still living on the river watching bubbling methane gas affect their quality of life, or think about the lesson we're showing our youth, that it's ok to dump things in the river if it's all in good fun.
As we prepare for a celebratory season this March, I invite my community to consider what it is we're celebrating when we dye our local waterway, consider how we move forward from the mistakes of our past, and consider the fine line between fun and mockery. I'm not going to go and guilt you for wearing a green glittery top hat or shame anyone for wanting to have a good time. Just know there is much more to Irish culture than St. Paddy's day. We should celebrate the good green earth we were blessed with, rather than trashing our city streets with beer cans. Can't we make the river greener by adding more marshland reserves, trees, and waterside oases? Which elements of our heritage will we pass on to our children? And how can we do justice to our past by being good stewards of this planet for our future?

Want to learn more?
The photos above are from the Vivian Maier exhibit at the Chicago History Museum, taken at the Chicago St. Paddy's Day parade in the 1960s. Check out a video of the river dyeing here.

Want to help contribute to seed biodiversity and get a good start on your garden?
Check out the UIC Heritage Garden's spring seed swap this Sunday at the Hull-House museum

Want to help clean up the river in Chicago? Join the Friends of the Chicago River at LeBagh Woods on Foster this Saturday

Want to see some music and dance and other Irish culture this weekend? Check out the Irish American Heritage center on the North side or Gaelic Park down South

Chocolate: Drink of Gods, Food of Mortals - The Exhibit

Last Spring I had the joy of curating an exhibit for the UIC Latino Cultural Center, based on a series of public programs we hosted exploring the many dimensions of Chocolate. The exhibit was put on display in April 2015 in the UIC Library, where it remains on display until April 2016. Check it out while you have a chance!

So why chocolate? you might ask. Chocolate has its roots in the heart of the Americas, where indigenous communities saw spiritual and cultural importance in this bitter drink. Since the 15th century, when European colonization brought the continents into more contact, Chocolate has spread from its Latino origins around the world, where it has become important to many other cultures as well. Theobroma Cacao (the tree that produces Chocolate's base ingredient) grows only in tropical regions, but the later stages of processing usually happen in wealthier northern industrial countries. This transnational nature of chocolate ties together many people, and many structural systems of labor, environment, and cultural concern. Chicago has also been a hub for chocolate production, reaching its peak as the Candy Capital of America in the mid-20th century.
Chocolate is something that ties us together, but can also help us to see stark differences between our cultural and economic situations. Chocolate growers in Cote D'Ivoire might have never actually eaten the final product they're producing, while factory workers in Chicago might work long hard hours. Indigenous growers in central America recognize the ways Theobroma Cacao is intertwined with the whole rainforest ecosystem, while someone in Japan might marvel at a massive chocolate waterfall in a local mall. Check out the full online exhibit here.

Here's a couple of examples of objects and labels I created for the exhibit:

Theobroma Cacao Tree Replica
Paper Mache; Chicago, USA
LCC Staff, 2015

This replica was made by students at the UIC Latino Cultural Center out of recycled materials, but real cacao trees can grow up to 40 feet tall! The Theobroma (“Food of the Gods”) cacao tree is originally from the rainforests of Central and South America, where shade, heat, and humidity are essential for this sensitive species. Tiny midge flies pollinate the tree’s white flowers, which then fruit into large multicolored cacao pods.
Today, chocolate sales expand around the world, but the areas it can grow are actually shrinking. Climate change and devastating deforestation are threatening the future of the cacao plant, along with many other essential products from the rainforest. This important ecosystem is the source of 80% of foods used by the developed world, from avocados to essential medicines. Be mindful buying tropical resources to help protect the rainforest for future generations.


 
Children in Hull-House Courtyard
Photograph; Chicago, USA
UIC Hull-House Yearbook collection, 1895

“Our very first Christmas at Hull-House, when we as yet knew nothing of child labor, a number of little girls refused the candy which was offered them as part of the Christmas good cheer, saying simply that they “worked in a candy factory and could not bear the sight of it.” We discovered that for six weeks they had worked from seven in the morning until nine at night, and were exhausted as well as satiated. The sharp consciousness of stern economic conditions was thus thrust upon us in the midst of the season of good will.”

– Jane Addams, 20 Years at Hull-House, 1910

Today, UIC stands in a neighborhood that was once dense with industrial factories, sweatshops, and tenement housing. Many children never attended school, but rather worked to support their families. Hull-House advocates like Jane Addams and others made great strides to limit child labor, improve local working conditions, and increase access to education and recreation. Despite this progress, these issues remain relevant in Chicago and around the world.
Was child labor involved with producing your holiday candy?


Molinillo
Wood; Mexico
2006
Early waves of Latino Chicagoans arrived in the 1910s and 20s, bringing with them different cultural practices and chocolate recipes! The 1930s and 40s saw new waves of Latino immigration, drawn by jobs like chocolate production. By the 1950s, the neighborhood around Halsted and Polk streets was the heart of Mexican Chicago. When the University took over in the 1960s, much of the community moved southwest to Pilsen and La Villita, but symbols from the old neighborhood remain, like St. Francis Church on Roosevelt or Cordi Marian Settlement on May Street. This chocolate stirrer (molinillo) could have been purchased at the nearby multicultural Maxwell Street market, alongside other chocolate utensils.


How does chocolate connect to your life? Contribute your own choco-story to the project here.
Want to see the traveling exhibit come to your library or exhibit space? Contact the UIC Rafael Cintrón Ortiz Latino Cultural Center at lcc@uic.edu

Green Cleaning Guide

Working as an intern with the Field Museum's Keller Science Action Center this summer, I had the great opportunity to help with the Chicago Climate Action Toolkit. The Toolkit is a project that's taken many years to come together, starting with Field Museum anthropological research into many Chicago communities. Building off of the interests of community members and organizations, action plans were implemented, and following guides provide inspiration and opportunities for other people to continue the work with their own communities. Find out more about the toolkit here.

After working with the toolkit for much of the summer, leading educational programs, connecting with community organizations, and editing toolkit tools for wider uses, I launched into a new project. Partnering with the Chicago Coalition for Household Workers and the Latino Union, we worked to create a guide that would help people think about the environmental, labor, and social issues involved with cleaning. Helping people make healthy, safe, and sustainable decisions everyday can also mean giving them the tools to make their own inexpensive cleaners. Find the Green Cleaning Guide here or read our introductory text here:

"Cleaning your home is a part of everyday life, whether you do it yourself or hire someone to do it for you. And if you are the person being hired, you may even do a double shift by not only cleaning your own but also someone else’s home. This guide gives valuable information for everyone involved in creating a healthy home. Green cleaning not only keeps homes and workplaces healthier, but reduces the number of toxins we put into our wider environment and reduces how much our consumer spending contributes to climate change.

 
Sustainability, or “going green,” includes more than reducing our carbon footprint. It extends into doing things in ways that maintain the health and safety of people in the places where they live and work. When we talk about green cleaning it includes reducing carbon footprint, reducing exposure to toxins, and approaching cleaning work in ways that avoid injury or otherwise improve well being. This guide introduces ideas for making these sorts of improvements in how we do green cleaning. Perhaps unique to this type of guide, it also offers advice on how to talk about green cleaning so you can get family, roommates, employers, or employees on board with making these mutually beneficial improvements to the environments you share."

As a continuation of this whole conversation, and in recognition of the gendered and unequal conditions many house cleaners face, local Pilsen community center Casa Michoacan is partnering with the UIC Latino Cultural Center and the Latino Union to explore green cleaning next Saturday. Want to come? Check out the Facebook event here.


Want to find out more about the work of the Chicago Coalition of Domestic Workers? They're opening a Worker's Center in Albany Park to Domestic Workers next week March 8th on International Women's Day, with a Grand Opening Event from 10:30-1pm at 3416 W. Bryn Mawr. 

Want to find more tools? Check out the whole Chicago Climate Action Toolkit here, to find information about retrofitting your home, eating better, discussing climate change with others, or enjoying nature for better overall wellness.

Public Engagement Visit 2: Polish Museum of America

This historic institution is located just up the road along Milwaukee from Intuit on Augusta off of the Kennedy, in today’s Noble Square or West Town neighborhood, the historic home of Chicago’s Polish community. I arrived a good hour early before they opened, but the lovely lady at the front desk suggested a spot down the road where I could get a nice omelet and a cup of coffee while I waited, a sweet suggestion that led me to a stroll around the neighborhood and part 1 of this blog trilogy. I happily returned after my stroll and was welcomed warmly once again.

The Polish Museum of America is a core member of the Chicago Cultural Alliance, a consortium of ethnic museums and cultural centers across the city birthed out of the Field Museum’s Cultural Connections program in the early 2000s. Although I had driven by the PMA for my whole life, growing up on the Northwest Side, it was through learning about the CCA that I was really inspired to visit, but I was still surprised by the size of the space and the awesome collection once I got inside. I was given a short, informal tour by a young history major named Adam, who had worked for the museum for about a year after graduating, as collections assistant and educator.

The museum shares the building with the Polish RomanCatholic Union of America, which was founded in the late 19^th century, and sparked the museum in 1935. The museum started in one room on the second floor, but grew into its own entity on the second and third floors of the building. During the 1939 world’s fair in New York, the first in which Poland officially participated, a huge collection of artistic works were gathered in the US from across Poland, featuring a wide variety of art, from wood, to paintings, to clothing, stained glass, and folk art. When Hitler invaded Poland, they didn’t want this collection of art destroyed, so the country donated it to US Poles in the hopes that it would remain safe. The collection found its way to the newly established PMA in Chicago, and still forms the majority of the stunning collection.

The third floor was once the great hall for the Roman Catholic Union, so the bones of the auditorium space, the stage and arched windows, were still noticeable behind the layers of vitrines and artworks. The center of the room held folding chairs pointing towards the stage, where the PMA hosts much of their public programming. The PMA is the hub for Pulaski day events, holiday celebrations, film screenings, and other events throughout the year. Adam and another worker were in the middle of setting up for an upcoming caroling event by putting out a new temporary exhibit of winter themed objects around the seating area. The PMA hosts school groups and community members, individuals and families, but the small number of visitors on an average weekday visit made for a nice intimate experience with a large and impressive museum.

Highlights of the collection include photos of historic Polish Chicago, folk art, costumes, and paintings, and an art deco poster collection from the 1930s and 40s on the main 3rd floor space. There was a sled ridden by an 18th century Polish princess, who became a French queen, and a massive stained glass window that blew me away walking in. In additional rooms, one found an impressive art gallery, and the Paderewski room, dedicated to the pianist and prime minister of Poland, who spent many years in Chicago. I didn't realize how large the museum would be, so I ran out of time to fully explore these other two spaces, but I definitely want to return and bring friends, and hopefully catch a public program to see the space alive with community.

Public Engagement Visit 3: Money Museum

This is the third part in a series of museums I visited Friday for a Public Engagement in Museums class assignment to assess engagement strategies at museums. My morning visits included a trip to Intuit Gallery and the Polish Museum of America, but after going to work for a few hours I had extra time, so I decided to check out some architecture downtown. My dad had recently suggested I visit the old Continental Bank atrium, which has beautiful murals wrapped around the epic bank space on the second floor. They're a little weird about security, so people aren't allowed to just walk around the whole room, but you can see plenty from the escalator entryway, and it's definitely worth a visit!

It turned out security would be a theme for my afternoon on Lasalle street. I was leaving Continental bank and remembered the Federal Reserve hosts a small Money Museum across the street at Lasalle and Jackson, by the Board of Trade. I hadn't planned to visit this museum when I packed ahead for the day, so I wasn't prepared for the metal detector and security check. I'd brought a knife to cut my avocado for lunch! So that was left in a safe at the front desk along with my water bottle, and I was allowed to proceed unhindered. The security guard was at least very nice, with a much more laid back and cheery disposition than those you'd find at the airport.

There was an immediate difference between this museum and the other two I'd visited that day: Money. It should come as no surprise, perhaps, but the quality and caliber of exhibit and display technology far surpassed that which is usually in the budget of your average non-profit organization. Everything was sparkly, new, and clean in this 15-year-old museum. Exhibits also also gave the sense of security in their fixtures, with heavy bolts, thick tempered glass, and plentiful lighting. There was a glass floor in the entryway where you could look down and see a sea of coins. When you stepped on the glass, rainbow track lighting lit up the sunken floor and made for quite an entrance.

The exhibit content was similar to what you'd expect in some ways, there were labels that told stories about how the Fed was founded, what the Fed does for the American economy, and how money is made and destroyed. One awesome feature of the museum was the top-notch collection of antique currency. They had confederate money, revolutionary-era money, state-specific currency from before the establishment of the fed, and military currency used to pay our armed forces posted overseas in the early 20th century. Most museums would have a hell of a time getting hold of rare currency like that, but of course, the fed exists to deal with the nation's old money.

Another surprising feature was the plentiful digital technology. For comparison, the Chicago History Museum has an awesome interactive exhibit on their first floor that lets kids take their picture in a postcard, use a digital touch screen to add their name, and email it to themselves as a souvenir. There were three such stations at the Money Museum. In one spot you could take a picture of yourself next to a suitcase of money, and the photo printed out right there. In another spot you could make your own currency, adding in a photo of yourself, decorative designs, and all the proper security features, then email it to yourself. In a third area you could take a quiz game, utilizing the information recently absorbed from exhibit labels, to decide what the fed would do in various national economic situations. Once you've successfully completed the game, you took a photo and could have your face printed on a newspaper article or magazine cover as the next head of the Fed! Each station featured two computers for multiple visitors to engage at once.

There were also touch screen stations where you could find out info about the Fed, about common banking options, and the types of money the Fed shreds. At that table visitors could take away their own to-go bag of shredded money! My phone was dead by this time so I couldn't take my own pictures, but I certainly walked away with plenty of souvenirs nonetheless. There was also a traditional form of visitor engagement in the form of a feedback table, where you could fill out a card and drop it in a box, and take a postcard to send to your friends and family about your visit. A theater sat near the right of the entrance at the end of the exhibit, which could probably seat a whole classroom easily, so one could assume they have plenty of school visitors.

The Money Museum isn't rooted in a specific local ethnic community like the Polish Museum, it doesn't house a study or performance space like Intuit Gallery, but it is something we all have a certain connection to. There has always been a portion of society that has been suspicious of the Federal Reserve Bank, of centralized monetary systems, and the policies they use to alter our economy. But especially recently it seems like we've heard increased rhetoric of that sort, so perhaps museums like this one were created by the various Federal banks across the country to help educate and assuage the public about the role and benefits of such a system. Some might find financial policy boring, some might find it controversial, but they certainly work to make it seem engaging and rewarding at the Money Museum of Chicago.

Public Engagement Visit 1: Intuit Gallery

For my Public Engagement class this semester we were assigned to visit a museum, think about how the exhibits are engaging, and talk to another visitor about their engagement. I spent a Friday morning and afternoon visiting three small museums. Since it was a weekday, and wasn't a holiday, I didn't find other visitors, but I was able to engage with a neat variety of exhibits, and talk with workers at each place. I planned to visit the Polish Museum of America first, but arrived too early, so I went for a walk, grabbed a cup of coffee, and visited the beautiful St. John Cantius Cathedral on Chicago and Ogden, which has beautiful woodwork (photos to the right). I found myself right by the Intuit center, so I started there instead.

Intuit Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art
Located near the Chicago Blue line stop, Intuit is accessible, but unassuming from the outside. There's a large sign, but the warehouse look of the building and windowless walls and door give a secretive feel to the place. However, once I was inside, I was quickly greeted by a welcoming employee and guided into the gift shop to pay my $5 entrance fee. He asked how I had heard of the place, gave me the lay of the land, and provided a little info about the exhibits. I grabbed a few pamphlets and a sizable printout about the new exhibit and started exploring.
The new Caparena exhibit features sculptures that look like a cross between human, alien, or animal, made entirely of bottle caps and wire. The metallic look was tempered by the way they were layered to appear fluffy and rounded from a distance. They were on rows of pedestals at waist height, making them quite tall, with a few glowing lights under a couple of them. They were cool, but there wasn't much to engage with. In the back room, the walls featured a few more art pieces, some large and some small, a couple of them by the artist Henry Darger, and in the center of the room was a large bench, always a nice feature. In the back, a small exhibit featured the whole cramped one-room apartment of Darger, an acclaimed outsider artist with a passion for his work so strong that he sacrificed even a bed to make room for creative materials. This exhibit was definitely immersive, and weird, but let me wanting to see more of Darger's actual work, to see how the space influenced the art.

I will commend them for their large event space through a side door next door, their cute and nifty gift shop, their ample seating, and awesome bathroom. The bathroom was large, covered in wall art and artsy furniture, had two homey stalls, flowers, and nicely folded paper towels on the counter. I don't often review a museum's bathroom, but this one stood out and certainly influenced my sense of engagement with the space. Although the museum’s entryway and weird art may not appeal to all tastes, Intuit certainly makes the effort to make visitors feel comfortable and welcome in other ways. It seems like they do a lot of public programming, and often feature new exhibits, so I'll have to return and see the vibe and community of the space on a different day.