Chicago Center for Urban Life & Culture

Alumni Visit

1998 Summer Session Alum Masamichi Ogasawara drove up to visit Chicago Center yesterday! He is now a PhD student studying herbacious plants in the wetlands of South Carolina.

Poem from a Chicago Center Resource

Arthur of the Neighborhood Writing Alliance wrote the following commentary from last night’s event with Alma College students participating in a literary LearnChicago! Program.

An enchanted evening with Carrie and Soni

Seated in the quiet as I entered: twelve students from Alma.
They came from the shores of Michigan in modest numbers, venturing
with instruction in the urban jungle.
Splintered into small groups they explored the heretofore-unseen
depths of the red, green and blue lines. They conquered the
magnificent mile from Montrose to Morgan Park.
Many shapes, scenes and cultures clashed before they ascended from a
bus on a Bronzeville evening behind the balmy shades of a public
library.
Ten female denizens and two male counterparts bent an ear to hear the
saga of Hyde Park, while their faces reflected their ambition by
degrees from communication toward business as usual.
Some had never seen, let alone ride on the conveyances that offered a
glimpse of stories that were never told.
Laughter permeated the ambient room full of teacher and student alike,
while paper notebooks fluttered with dainty fingers as a steady city
rain beat a soft staccato on the concrete and asphalt streets just
beyond the place where White Sox play.
listened intently as they queried our justification, searched our
motives and absorbed some of the best spontaneous writing we had to
offer.
The pen of Poetry, and personal experiences of a people that
articulated truth was poured on the few souls that lived in towns and
on farms where population barely exceeded one thousand.
College credits were counted as ethnic cuisine had been consumed by a
charlatan who dined on pizza, chicken feet and Chinese food.
My director Carrie sifted through the minds of the young men and women
that migrated from the motor state and invited them to not only
participate but to comprehend the direction that the Journal had for
their lives.
I personally enjoyed reading to them, watching their eyes as they
lined the long tables in the relaxed atmosphere.
Surrounded by a multitude of tomes they waved goodbye to a barren
building and a witty writer in a wheelchair.
Unfortunately this motley crew did not have diversity of melanin
enhanced minions but it did not detract from the smiles I received as
I pointed myself southward and painted myself gone while the darkness
encompassed Mc Cormick Place and the end of I- 55 and the end of the
day!