Friday 25
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Most Chicago guide books feature Graceland Cemetery on the north side as the preferred resting place of local luminaries but unjustly neglect the south side’s Oakwood Cemetery. More a park than a graveyard, Oakwood has more than half a dozen lakes, immaculately kept lawns and gardens, a chapel, and the largest mass grave of Confederate soldiers north of the Mason-Dixon Line. Enrico Fermi, Jesse Owens, Ben Wilson, Ida B. Wells, Flukey Stokes and his son “Wimp,” and a bunch of former mayors (buried under skyscraper monuments and elaborately designed crypts) are there too. The most modest tombstone, however, belongs to Harold Washington. A marble rectangle simply lists his name, the years of his life, and the legend “He loved Chicago.” Oakwood staffers say he still gets between 5 and 30 visitors each day. The Chicago Historical Society sponsors a tour of Oakwood Cemetery today from noon to 4:30 PM. It starts with tea in the Society Cafe, at North Avenue and Clark Street, and then proceeds to the south side. It’s $18, $15 for CHS members. Call 642-4600.
Cicadas have the longest life cycle of all insects–either 13 or 17 years, depending on what family they belong to. After they hatch, baby cicadas burrow beneath the earth and suck juices from plant roots. When they emerge, they do it en masse. Thousands upon thousands of 17-year cicadas are scheduled to deluge the Chicago area, particularly the suburbs, in the next few weeks: they’ll shed their brown husks, fly around until they find a mate, have babies, and drop dead by summer’s end. You can find out more by attending tonight’s lecture on cicadas by University of Chicago entomologist Dr. Monte Lloyd, probably the world’s most renowned cicada expert. It starts at 7:30 at the Chicago Academy of Sciences, 2001 N. Clark. Admission is $6, $4 for members. Call 549-0775.
Back in 1964, the late Al Weisman picked up a flag, gathered a bunch of neighborhood kids, and marched around the block to celebrate Memorial Day. Those were the beginnings of the Wellington-Oakdale Old Glory Marching Society parade, the New Town fest now in its 27th year. One of the kids marching in the original parade was Weisman’s son Tony, who took over as parade marshal after Weisman died in 1974. This year, Tony will be introducing a new marshal –his five-month-old son Adam. The parade kicks off at 11 AM from the corner of Pine Grove and Wellington and makes its way down Sheridan Road to Diversey Parkway. The Jesse White Drum & Bugle Corps will provide the beat. The parade ends at Saint Joseph Hospital, where marchers will receive surprises from the Sisters of Charity and be entertained by the Jesse White Tumblers. It’s all free. Call 327-4924 or 664-5051.
Tonight’s Hidden Leaves: A Celebration of Asian American Poetry, part of this year’s Asian Heritage Month celebration, draws from sources both past and present: Vivian Choy, Dwight Okita, and Reader theater critic Mary Shen Barnidge will read from their work. Okita and his mother, Patsy, will perform a poetry “duet,” including excerpts from the diary she kept while incarcerated in the World War II California detention camps for Japanese Americans. And William Hohri, an activist in the Japanese redress movement, will read from actual congressional testimony regarding the camps. The program begins at 7 PM at Live Bait Theater, 3914 N. Clark. Admission is $4. Call 883- 5219.
