the listener

Reminder: "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" at rec room TONIGHT!

2009-05-06T11:18:00.003-05:00

Tonight Wednesday, May 6th, rec room presents: "Won't You Be My Neighbor?"Curated by: Katie HartsockShow description: It’s a beautiful day for a neighbor—except when it’s not. Whether we live lawns away or narrow alleys apart, we’re exposed to—sometimes literally—a spectrum of experience through the people we arbitrarily spend most of our lives beside, above, or below. Rec Room invites readers to

Rec Room Shout Outs!

2009-04-24T08:50:00.003-05:00

Two months ago rec room did a reading panel at the AWP conference here in Chicago. Della Watson, Krista Franklin, Erin Teegarden, Allison Gruber, Nicolette Bond and I were on the panel. Afterward we had a lot of people tell us what a great panel it was, how much they enjoyed it, how it was the most incredible thing AWP had ever offered and they were honored to be there (that might be an

Five Alive: rec room's 5 year anniversary!

2009-04-23T22:12:00.004-05:00

Rather than write a recap of a great night, or try to come up with some vaguely relevant anecdote of my own, I asked Erin for permission to post the essay she read at the Five Alive show. She did such a great job of laying out our history and what we're doing (or trying to do). And, if you love rec room, I think you should take an opportunity to tell her how much you appreciate the work she puts

You Give Me Growing Pains, Theodore Huxtable

2009-03-17T18:53:00.001-05:00

When I think of TV in the 80s, I think of the many things I missed out on. It’s not that I’m too old or too young—I’m in fact perfectly-aged to have been raised by television in the 1980s. The problem was that my family lived at the bottom of a valley, surrounded on all sides by wooded hills. We had a glorious TV antenna that reached up way past the house in hopes of catching those precious waves

AWP: It's All About Me

2009-02-22T18:33:00.000-06:00

Erin and I repeated our mantra for the week with the conviction of religious ascetics. Because really, as you should know, it is All. About. Me.So it is no surprise that Rec Room was all over the place over the AWP weekend. First, on Thursday afternoon, Erin Teegarden joined folks from several other Chicago reading series on a panel discussing "Chicago's Literary Landscape." Later in the evening

Reading Bondage: Only the Microphone was Ashamed - December 3, 2008

2009-01-04T17:44:00.001-06:00

There were two things that stood out about the rec room show on December 3. The first is that it was freaking freezing the back room of the bar, and the second, more importantly, is that the show was one of the funniest, entertaining and interesting shows I’ve seen anywhere.For a lot of people, speaking in front of an audience is unthinkable, let alone reading your own creative work in front of

"Concession" -- November 5, 2008

2008-12-04T11:22:00.000-06:00

It was the day after an historic day. And, like all days after historic days, people were tired and hungover. It’s something you have to concede when you have a literary performance show on Nov. 5, 2008. So, though the turn out for “Concession” was a little poor, the enthusiasm from the performers more than compensated. In addition to gathering Chicago performers, our curator, Miki Howald, got

Chicago Calling - October 1, 2008

2008-10-29T19:50:00.004-05:00

When Dan asked to do a show at Rec Room as part of the 3rd Annual Chicago Calling Arts Festival, we knew immediately what a great idea it was. CCAF featured Chicago-based artists collaborating in performances and projects with artists living in other locations — both here in the U.S. and abroad. These collaborations will be prepared or improvised, and some performances will involve live feeds

In Other Words/In Other Worlds - September 3, 2008

2008-09-28T19:56:00.000-05:00