Friday 6
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When Salman Rushdie went into hiding last year, one inadvertent victim of the whole mess was his wife, Marianne Wiggins. Her novel John Dollar, described by some critics as a disturbing female version of Lord of the Flies, had just hit U.S. bookstores. After she went underground with Rushdie, her publisher canceled all promotional appearances, including one at Barbara’s Bookstore. Wiggins, who is no longer hiding with Rushdie, has finally made it to Chicago for a reading and autograph party for her much-praised novel. It begins at 7 PM at Barbara’s, 1350 N. Wells, and it’s free. Call 642-5044.
Saturday 7
“Kids have fun playing connect the dots in the sky,” says April Whitt, an Adler Planetarium associate astronomer who helps tell the tales of Leo the Lion, Andromeda the Princess, and Big Bear, also known as the Big Dipper. Her tales are part of Star Stories, the planetarium’s sky show for kids. Kids will also get a visit from Meteor Mouse and a tour of Chicago’s skyline as part of the show, presented at 10 AM Saturdays and Sundays through April 29 at the planetarium, 1300 S. Lake Shore Drive. Admission is $1.50 per person. Call 322-0300.
At the State of Illinois Art Gallery, eight Illinois artists are exhibiting work that reflects on Death. They use myth, fantasy, humor, poignancy, and brutality in their considerations of death via disease, war, natural disaster, and natural causes. The show, which runs through May 18, may be viewed for free from 9 to 6 Monday through Friday at the gallery, on the second floor of the State of Illinois Building, 100 W. Randolph. Call 917-5322.
Doug Timmer, author of The Homeless in America; Charles Hoch, author of New Homeless and Old: Community and the Skid Row Hotel; and Otis Thomas, a former homeless person who now works with social agencies that reach out to the homeless, will be the panel participants in today’s “Society in Focus” program, Homelessness in the U.S. The free presentation begins at 12:15 in the theater of the Public Library Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington. For more information call Mary Timmer at 269-2830.
