Single What? Female...

THERE ARE PICTURES COMING!

I swear! Just been having some issues with uploading but they will be coming soon :) Also, I am not always good about taking them, but I got a good bunch in Chi-town yesterday and in Galesburg so I will post them when I can figure out how to soothe my cranky camera...

IN THE MEANTIME... I could not have had a better hostess than Sommer Austin during my all too brief stay in Chicago. When not temping and doing promotion work, she is a serious improver, working with the Playground Theatre and having recently graduated from the Improv Olympics program. She is charming, funny, and active coming up with numerous suggestions, helping me print up a sign and accompanying blurb in order to help attract interviewees in coffee shops et al and also just being a great guide of her neighborhood.
She and her boyfriend Andrew (also a lovely and smart person) also have an apartment that would make most New Yorkers cry...HUGE (7 rooms I believe?), spacious, great neighborhood and costs half of what a similar place would cost in NYC; it was a little painful and hard to leave. They live uptown in Chitown. kinda like Jeff and I live uptown in New York and do have to deal with folks who claim they "need a passport" to go that far north, but I'll tell you, Sommer and Andrew have it good in Andersonville as it is a very diverse neighborhood featuring a heavy Swedish contingent as well as Middle Eastern (Taste of Lebabnon rocks, by the way), Vietnemese, and Thai primarily. It was amusing to see looming over the Middle Eastern bakery, the water tower painted with the Swedish flag.
Andersonville also boasts one of the longest drags of local businesses in the country. There was ONE Starbucks, but no other chain stores or coffee shops for blocks, which for this New York resident, was something close to shocking after dealing with the ever growing proliferation of Duane Reades, Starbucks and other such chains. (Though admittedly, Inwood does have a handful of new local businesses; a trend I hope will continue :))
The day started as soon as I got off the train with heading uptown to dump my bags, clean up, finally check internet and make the plan to hit various coffee shops in the neighborhood.
We made our way to two coffee shops where my little sign reading "What Are You?" did not spark much attention...or rather, got a few odd looks at one coffee shop and the none at the other really. I did get a great interview out of Sommer, though, who talked to me about how she never had to deal with the question herself...until she dyed her hair red. Since then, she's been asked about her background weekly(!) We later met Rafael. He had walked into Coffee Chicago to kill time before going to the Blockbuster across the street and luckily agreed to kill some of that time talking to us. He grew up in Jamaica, Queens and then lived in Florida and was never asked "What are you?" until he came to Chicago. He claims it's due to the fact that in his old neighborhood, you were either Puerto Rican or Dominican so it wasn't a big deal. Later when he was in Miami, Florida the general feeling was "'well, you're not Cuban...'". But in Chicago, "they need to be sure. They need to put you in a category...and they like to guess here "Oh I thought you were 'this' or 'this'" He happens to be Dominican. Lastly, we met Big Al, bouncer at the Green Mill. The Green Mill is a FAB jazz club from the Capone days and Big Al is a stocky, cue-ball bald, handlebar moustachioed gentleman with a bear claw ("pinky of a brown bear...you ever seen a brown bear?")hanging around his neck. I asked him if he'd ever been asked the question and his first response was "Well, I'm Polak." Second generation American apparently, and he says he has been asked a few times, but it's no big deal to him.
After the gypsy jazz we saw, we headed over to the Improv Olympics building where you can see photos of Amy Poehler and Tina Fey among others as well as some pretty darn fierce improv. Andrew had told us that he had heard that playwright Tracy Letts might join improv icons TJ and Dave on stage tonight as he has been known to drop in, so reservations were quickly made. Even if Mr. Letts did not show, I was told that seeing TJ and Dave is generally a spiritual experience hence I was excited to go. And for $5, I did get to see them do some INSANE long form improv. Just amazing. They basically performed characters from a party that went awry. It was a great story told in an hour with full characters and a great random moment; it was funny, touching, real...and amazing to see these guys work so well together...amazing flow.

And then...I came to Galesburg.
Katie Rich, a funny and quirky improv pal of Sommer's who went to Knox College here said of Galesburg "there are more pigs than people". I haven't seen the pigs yet, but I haven't seen that many people either. When out last night, I went to Cherry St. as I had been told that's where the college students hang out - there are THREE colleges in this town. Three of the four bars I looked in on had two to eight people in them. McGillicuddy's, the last, was PACKED. Apparently, Thursday night is jazz night and all the young folk head there for it. There, I met Emily - a professor at Knox, and Lyndon, a local who gave me some great lines that I could not write down fast enough. He is black, but doesn't check that on forms as 1) he fears it may still keep him from a job in some places, and 2) he knows what he is. "I'm all black".

4.11
Besides being the home of Carl Sandburg, "The Old Main"-the last remaining site of the Lincoln-Douglas debates, and Ronald Reagan trail (apparently he was born here, too), Galesburg also happens to be home to one of the largest train depots in the country. I can tell you, when at the motel, despite being assured the quiet around here, one can hear the trains going by regularly. And that happens all day long. Wherever you are...save for the Gizmo - a Knox College cafe where the sounds of excited college chatter drowns out the train whistles. (I feel like such an old woman typing that).
Last night, as previously mentioned, I ended up at McGillicutty's, one of a handful of bars on Cherry Street. Compared to the other bars along this short drag, McGillicutty's looks like..well, the hip place that it is. It has an art deco feel with 1920's liqueur advertising, a large oak bar and a large open room full of high oak tables where folks can sit, sip their cocktails and watch the band play in a carved wood ensconced corner at the front of the place. Thursday night is jazz night and it's mainly students who play, but the occasional older pro may join them as did one phat trumpeter last night. While listening to the jazz, I enjoyed a $3.75 Guiness (!) and the conversation of Lyndon and later Emily and Greg as we discussed everything from my show to jazz, Jane Austen to feminism. Emily teaches at Knox college and recommended talking to her fellow English professor Gina Franco, a Chicana writer and poet who, as one of possibly two faculty of color, was made chair of the diversity committee mainly because she was, as Emily described her, "the resident brown person".
Of course, today turned out to be a busy day for Ms. Franco as she was running around to newly-accepted student events, but she managed to squeeze in some time to talk to me. She had some great insights about racial identity in academia, particularly at a small midwestern college that is TRYING to diversify their student body and faculty. And she also brought up that while being Latina, it is assumed that her literary focus would be on Latina issues, but she loves "the dead white poets" and would rather focus on her passion for their writing rather than be stuck in one genre.
Before speaking with Gina, I also happened to see three girls chatting at a table. I felt moved to talk to them as I figured at least two of them had been asked "What are you?" at some point. I was right. One student was Peruvian, the other Mexican German and French (though identifies as Mexican), and one adopted who does not know her roots yet. When I asked them if they had been asked "What are you?" Carmen and [ ] both nodded straight away. "Yes, all the time." Carmen, who grew up in a primarily white suburb of Chicago started getting the question early on, and like Rafael had mentioned, most people guess first and then finally ask her what she is. Then, when she says "Peruvian" she gets the "Peru? Where is that?" ahhhh...the sad state of geography in America.

I would have seen more of the sites in town, but I, of course landed in town during a stormy patch. I somehow, thankfully, was indoors during the downpours last night (eating dinner...speaking of dinner, I have to remember not to forget this rule when traveling across the midwest: do not eat the ethnic food. "Authentic Mexican" my a**...) There is supposed to be snow in Galesburg tomorrow and I fear that as Ottumwa is only two hours a way that I will deal with the same there, but next week is supposed to be lovely...should be lovely for Omaha and Denver...and Salt Lake City...and Winnemucca, NV...and and and...

the adventure continues...

Peace --Alex

posted by funkweee @ 11:13 AM