African-American Artists Find Kindred Spirits in Noyes Art Exhibit

By Victoria Scott

The clay pots of Marva Jolly and carved wooden staffs of David Philpot evolved from humble childhood fascinations - hers with mud pies and his with sticks.

The two longtime friends, now mature and well-known African-American artists in Chicago, are featured in "Kindred Spirits," an exhibit celebrating Black History Month from Jan. 27 through March 14 in Gallery I of the Noyes Cultural Arts Center.

Concurrently on exhibit in Gallery II upstairs are interpretations of the same theme by Evanston artists Elmer Conner, Ebony Joy, Ra Joy, Martin Mancera, Nadine "Yadi" Royster, Peggy Tarr and Esther Williams-Hays.

Ms. Jolly and Mr. Philpot have much in common, says Chie Curley, who curated their exhibit. Both came to art in middle age and are self-taught artists who teach others. They create from the most basic of materials - mud and sticks - work that "straddles the line between craft and fine art," says Ms. Curley.

Ms. Jolly, born in Mississippi in 1937, uses the vocabulary of the rural South in her work. Mr. Philpot, a product of Northern urban housing projects, seems to reach far beyond his environs for the forms and motifs of his pieces.

Ms. Jolly's ceramic pots, pit-fired and charred, bear the influences of the old crops she watched her father burn and their ashes, left as fertilizer. They attest to the female artistry she saw in the farming community around her.

The quilting bees in her small town, the star quilt under which she slept, the simple meals her mother presented so artfully revealed to her the "rich legacy of the black people, especially black women," she says, and continue to inspire her art.

Ms. Jolly turned to a career in ceramics in 1982 after more than 20 years in teaching and social service, making what she calls "an audacious decision for a black middle-aged woman."

The exhibit features her "story pots," which Ms. Curley describes as "figurative and narrative." These clay pieces seem to Ms. Jolly to "reflect the voices I've heard and listened to all my life... .[They] also talk about the capacity to grow, a quality that is present in all of us."

A young David Philpot was so inspired by the movie "The Ten Commandments" he longed to create a staff as powerful as that of Charlton Heston's Moses. But wood was as scarce in his impoverished city environment as in the biblical desert.

He waited till dark to cut off the limb of a tree growing near his apartment door to make his first staff, called Genesis, in 1971. Many of those that followed were carved from the "stinkweed" trees that spring up in abandoned lots.

Not until 1981, when he won first place in an arts and crafts festival at the DuSable Museum of African American History, did Mr. Philpot consider the staffs as anything but a hobby - or consider himself an artist.

He carves, paints or decorates the abstract patterns of his walking sticks with beads, chains, mirrors, leather or faux jewels. Reminiscent of African artifacts, they have appeared in exhibits around Chicago and the United States.

Works by several artists either born in or living in Evanston appear in Gallery II.

Margaret ("Peggy") Tarr paints most often in oils, with a color palette enlivened by the time she spent in Hawaii. Encouraged by friends and family to pursue her art from an early age, she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Art Institute. The New Jersey-born artist says she hopes her work "captures the compassion and influence of [my mom, neighbors and teachers] whom I loved so much and who cared deeply for me."

The portrait of a woman in a black straw hat is of her late mother, a domestic worker she describes as "intelligent, ethical, and humorous...aware of social niceties but not consumed by them."

Ms. Tarr submitted "Evenin'," an acrylic painting of a black man holding a jacket, for the first Black History Month exhibit at Noyes. She broke the glass while readying the work for the show; luckily, the late Michael Phillips was able to replace it in time.

Esther Williams-Hays, who has degrees from the Art Institute, Kendall College and National Louis University, is a master storyteller and arts educator who is exhibiting photos from two mission trips to Ghana in 2005.

"Going to Ghana was like going home," she says. She observed the human connection between Africans and African-Americans in their work and day-to-day activities.

And she was stunned by the resemblance of the land to Mississippi, the home of her sharecropping father, commenting, "My first visit to Mississippi I was...struck by the vivid colors in the landscape. The color of the dirt, the green all around...left me speechless...So, when I first arrived in Ghana I immediately felt the same thing, along with the feeling that I belonged."

The public can meet the exhibiting artists and enjoy refreshments and music by the Walter Clark Jazz Quintet on Jan. 27, 3-5 p.m., at the Noyes Cultural Arts Center, 927 Noyes St.

GREEN COLUMN

Green in Perspective

By Nathan Kipnis, AIA, LEED AP

There has been a tremendous amount of information put out about various green and energy-related items. But a lot of the time, people have difficulty comprehending what all of this means. A car emits 6,000 pounds of CO2 a year; a well-insulated home can save 400,000 BTUs a month; normal use of electricity amounts to 700 kilowatt-hours a month. What do these statistics mean? Such an overload
of numbers may seem too distant to be meaningful.

Automobile Carbon Emissions
To put these numbers in perspective, some standard units need to be defined in understandable terms, beginning with carbon emissions. A gallon of gasoline weighs about 6.3 pounds. It contains quite a bit of carbon, as gasoline is a hydrocarbon. When it burns, each molecule of carbon in the gasoline links with two molecules of oxygen. Without getting too heavily into the chemistry, the 6.3 pounds of gasoline produces about three times as much carbon dioxide by weight. Therefore, burning a gallon of gasoline produces about 19 pounds of CO2.

Now, think about a 20-pound bag of charcoal for a backyard grill, which is a good comparison to the carbon dioxide output from burning one gallon of gasoline. Imagine periodically tossing charcoal briquettes out the window while driving down the road. 

So a 16-gallon tank of gasoline produces over 300 pounds of CO2. That is like loading 15 large bags of charcoal into a car trunk. In a year, a car that actually gets 25 miles per gallon (mpg) and drives 12,000 miles will use 480 gallons of gas and will produce 9,120 pounds of CO2.  This is about twice as heavy as the weight of the car itself. The emissions weight doubles for a vehicle that gets only 12 to 13 actual mpg.

It is often heard that trees can absorb some of this human-generated CO2. While there is no simple formula to explain how much CO2 any given tree will absorb - it depends on many different variables - one reasonable estimate is that a moderately fast-growing hardwood tree will sequester about 135 pounds of CO2 per year. The car that gets 25 mpg would need 68 trees to cover its annual CO2 output.

Carbon Statistics
The average daily CO2 emissions per person in the United States is 122 pounds or more than 22 tons of CO2 annually, which is the equivalent of 2,250 20-pound bags of charcoal a year. The average daily output per person for the world is only 24 pounds, nearly five times less than the average, while the amount that could be emitted per person without raising CO2 levels in the atmosphere is nine pounds.

The per capita daily usage in is just about half of the at 63 pounds. is 46.5 pounds, is 33 pounds, and in only 10.9 pounds per person per day. Some of these countries have high standards of living but do so in a much less wasteful way. It would be wise to incorporate their methods and techniques into everyday lives in this country.

Homes
Because buildings produce the vast majority of CO2, a basic understanding of what a typical home emits in a year is needed. According to the EPA's personal emissions calculator, the average household produces more than 27,000 pounds of CO2 annually, and that is for a two-person home. Evanston homes are typically larger than the average. Using our charcoal bag analogy, that would be 1,350 of the 20-pound bags of charcoal. Good luck storing those in the garage.

Most people do not think twice about leaving a light bulb on. However, a 40-watt bulb burning for 24 hours requires one kilowatt of electricity, which produces about one pound of CO2 (here in northern Illinois). To put that in perspective, an average person can generate about 100 watts during an hour on a bicycle - and be dead tired doing it. Stationary bikes can be connected to various types of lights. It is instructive to compare the energy expended pedaling to illuminate a 100-watt incandescent bulb to the pedaling required to illuminate an equivalent fluorescent bulb. For the latter, the effort is many times easier.

Summary
With more and more news about global warming, the public is being exposed to many new forms of abstract numbers. Figuring out a way to relate those numbers to understandable experiences can help everyone see the light.

Alliance on Homelessness Receives HUD Grant

The Evanston Alliance on Homelessness  (EAH), recently announced that the Department of Housing and Urban  Development (HUD) awarded $963,175 to Evanston agencies to help those who are homeless and help prevent others from becoming homeless. Through a street count, EAH determines the size of  Evanston's homeless population and monitors the needs of that  population. Grants for ten programs for the coming year went to four agencies: Connections for the Homeless ($562,505), Housing Options for the Mentally Ill ($312,268), YWCA Evanston/Northshore ($70,652) and Housing Opportunity Development ($17,750).

The Evanston Alliance on Homelessness, is a community-wide network of  professionals from social service agencies, members of the religious  community, staff from City and County governments, and concerned  members of the community. EAH was formed 10 years ago in response to a HUD mandate that any  jurisdiction wishing to access federal funding for the homeless must  establish a Continuum of Care (CoC) to organize and deliver housing  and services to meet the specific needs of people who are homeless as  they move to stable housing and maximum self-sufficiency.

City Names New Library Director

Mary M. Johns has been appointed the new director of the Evanston Public Library. The new director will assume her position Feb. 18.

 Ms. Johns' appointment was the result of a national search and committee selection process that included input from library board members and staff, as well as administration from the City Manager's Office.

Ms. Johns will head the activities and services of the Evanston Public Library and be directly responsible for staffing, staff development, public relations and development, budget and planning. She will attend all meetings of the library board as well as City Council and other committee meetings as necessary.

Ms. Johns comes from Lincoln, Neb., and served as director of public library operations for LSSI, a consulting firm in Germantown, Md., that provides library management services for communities across the United States.

At LSSI, Ms. Johns was responsible for operations support to public library accounts in Tennessee, Texas and Kansas. Her duties included assisting and mentoring management at local library sites regarding daily operations and identifying and developing infrastructure to support efficient operating practices.

Prior to LSSI, Ms. Johns served in assistant library director capacities at municipal and county libraries including Lincoln City Libraries, Lincoln, Neb.; Maricopa County Library District, Phoenix, Ariz.; and Chandler Public Library, Chandler, Ariz.

She holds a Master of Library Science degree from University of Arizona.

A Book Review

"A Free Life' "

By Sue Brooke

"A Free Life," by Ha Jin, is an insightful novel about a Chinese graduate student trapped in the United States after
the Tiananmen Square massacre.

Many of China's intellectuals felt they could not go home again after that horrible event, and the United States granted them automatic asylum. However, many were not equipped to live and work in the United States, having planned on careers back in China and lacking English language skills.

The novel's main character, Nan, had always wanted to write poetry, but had been assigned instead to study political science. He has lost the heart for getting his Ph.D. His U.S. financial aid has disappeared; in China everything had always been provided. Granted the freedom to do what he wants, he is terrified.

When the novel begins, Nan is married and has a 4-year-old son. His wife, Pingping, had joined him in Boston a couple of years earlier, but neither has seen their son, Taotao, in three years.

A flight is arranged for him to join his parents. But Taotao, who has been living with Pingping's parents, does not speak English. In the first days in the United States, Taotao quotes communist slogans and wants to go home. He does not understand that none of them can go back.

Back in China, artists and intellectuals were important people, but in America they become mere immigrants with poor accents and no applicable skills. As the men flounder in their search for a new career, the women become stronger.

Because it is easier for the women to get menial jobs, thus bringing in some income, it becomes commonplace for the wives of these scholarly husbands to leave them for Caucasian men or Chinese-Americans. But both Nan and Pingping are determined to keep their tiny family together, though Nan does not feel any passionate love for his wife.

Nan bounces from one menial job to another until he lands a job working in the kitchen of a Chinese restaurant. He observes and learns quickly and decides that he and Pingping can open their own restaurant.

The author, Ha Jin, knows whereof he writes. Having left China in 1985 to do graduate work at Brandeis University, he supported himself by being a busboy in a Chinese restaurant.

Like Nan, he traded his future in China, where he would have walked into a prestigious job as a professor and seen his work published in Chinese, for life as a jobless immigrant in the United States. Following his American dream, he decided to write and publish in English. His novel "Waiting" won the National Book Award in 1999.

A Film Review

"The Bucket List"

By Brian Murphy

Countless movie trailers exist in which, even before their conclusion, the filmgoer has already predicted the plot and inevitable outcome, surmised what kind of performances to expect from well-known marquee actors and presumed how the filmmakers will try to elicit their chuckles and tears. 

Inexplicably, one of those predictable, hokey films occasionally comes along and we find ourselves, despite our better judgment, succumbing to its whims. "The Bucket List" is one of those films.

Director Rob Reiner ("A Few Good Men," "Misery") could have renamed the film "The Odd Couple Fight Death," as stars Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman eschew method acting and play upon their preconceived characters to surprising effect.

Accordingly, Mr. Freeman is Carter Chambers, a reserved, wise mechanic, faithful husband and loving grandfather.  Mr. Nicholson plays Edward Cole, an eccentric, boisterous businessman with four divorces under his belt.  Neither role is a stretch, but the two revered actors forge a connection that elevates screenwriter Justin Zackham's simplistic plot and far-fetched depiction of terminally ill cancer patients.

The two men meet when they become roommates in the cancer ward of a hospital that Mr. Cole, the head of a group that privatizes financially failing hospitals, happens to own.  At first it seems like an easy device by Mr. Zackham: having Mr. Cole, a man whose company gobbles up hospitals and then cuts corners at the patient's expense, end up as a victim of his own greed.  However, the humor of Mr. Cole's getting his just desserts is effective, and hopefully those who run hospitals will see this film and keep in mind  that they, like the rest of us, will not be around forever.

The first half of the film centers on the two strangers forming the kind of bond that could develop between two people fighting death in a cramped living envi-ronment. Mr. Reiner wisely avoids the typical pitfalls of soft lighting, weeping characters and mood music. Instead, we witness honest character interaction in a somber hospital room bereft of overwrought manipulation. 

Mr. Chambers tries to retain his dignity and right to make choices for himself while his wife, out of fear and love, tries to control his decisions and his care. With all this on his mind, Mr. Chambers creates a list of things he wishes to do before he kicks the bucket. With a billionaire, devil-may-care friend like Mr. Cole around, it does not take long for the two to embark on a worldwide tear that involves such things as skydiving, car racing, African safaris and visiting the Taj Mahal.

This is where the story almost spins out of control, as it crams too many excursions into an hour or less of film time. 

The realities of chemotherapy and terminal illness are shucked for images of two men suddenly brimming with vitality. Further, the exterior digital shots of foreign lands do not match the film stock, and some of the backgrounds with the two actors looking like they were shot on a sound stage.

However, the film recovers as the characters realize what is truly important in life, and the ability of the film to deliver laughs with death right around the corner is a testament to its humanity, no matter how hokey it gets.      

Not surprisingly, the greatest asset of "The Bucket List" is Morgan Freeman's stirring narration. Mr. Freeman, perhaps the finest narrator in Hollywood, could bring gravitas to an Adam Sandler flick.  His deep, resonant tone anchors the film, bringing poignancy (and perhaps a few tears) to a story about people trying to die without regrets.
Rated PG-13 for language,  including a sexual reference.

TREES aRound Evanston

Introducing the 'Evergreen' Conifers

By Libby Hill

According to the Sept. 16, 2007, New York Times, while Ken Burns was previewing the Grand Canyon segment of his upcoming (2009) series on national parks, he heard a reference to deciduous trees, but presumably saw evergreens. He commented, "I don't mean to nitpick. ... those are not leaves, they are needles."

Here's a botany lesson for Mr. Burns.  Needles are leaves. They are just very narrow and scale-like. Even prickly cactus thorns are leaves. Christmas tree needles that burrow into rugs are leaves.

Evergreens have leaves all year round; they just lose them gradually, from the inside out. Like other leaves, needles photosynthesize, using sunlight to turn water and carbon dioxide into the sugars that fuel the tree. Needles live for one to several years, depending on the species of tree.

Needles have adapted to retain water in extreme climates. They have a very small surface area and a waxy coating permeated by tiny openings through which gases pass in and out to keep cells functioning. Because they retain chlorophyll year round, they can photosynthesize at any sunny opportunity. 

Trees with needles are gymnosperms, with naked nut-like seeds that do not grow within the protection of an ovary. Seeds are usually produced within cones, hence the name conifers. 

A "berry" on an evergreen is really a modified cone, properly called an "aril." All conifers are wind-pollinated.

Evergreen conifers are no longer planted on our parkways because they obstruct sight lines and may be susceptible to salt spray. Several families of evergreens are planted in our parks.

Two species represent the Cypress family: white cedar, or Arborvitae, and Eastern red cedar. Both are typical ornamental foundation plants native to the United States and have reddish brown, stringy bark.

Arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis, meaning "of the west"), is also called "tree of life" because of its countless medicinal uses.  In the 16th century American natives taught Europeans to chew the vitamin C-rich leaves to ward off scurvy.

Thuja is Latin for cedar, an aromatic wood often burned as incense during ancient sacrifices. Arborvitae's scale-like leaves grow on flattened, overlapping branches. Some trees produce tiny cones. These skinny, pointy trees are often planted in rows as living privacy fences.

Eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana), or pencil cedar, is native to the eastern United States It has feathery, soft leaves and sharp, prickly leaves on the same tree.  It is used in perfumes, pencils, fence posts (because its heartwood is rot- resistant), and cedar closets (because its oil repels moths). Its light blue, berry-like arils are produced by female trees and have been used for flavorings. Tall red cedars provide refuge for wintering birds on Independence Knoll in Ladd Arboretum.

Japanese yew (Taxus cuspidata), in the family Taxaceae, is a slow-growing Asian native. Its flat leaves grow alternately on three sides of the stem. The red fruit is an aril. The entire bush is toxic in some manner to humans and animals, especially children, dogs, cattle and horses. Deer, however, can browse it down to the point of killing the tree with no ill effects to themselves. It all depends on the creature's digestive system. Very few Japanese yews, really overgrown shrubs, grow on our parkways.

Four species of pines (Pinus in the Pinaceae family) grow on our public land. Their round, thin needles grow in bundles wrapped in short sheaths at the base.

The white pine (P. strobus, Latin for pine cone) is native to our region.  Its almost white wood, much desired for building and boat masts, provides its common name. This lovely tree has soft, five-needle bundles.  A row of white pines grows at  the south end of Lighthouse Beach.

Three pines growing in Evanston have two-needle bundles. The Austrian pine (P. nigra, meaning black), is so named because of its dark crown. It is native to central and southern Europe and Asia Minor and thrives in urban conditions. Its dark green, heavy needles have rough sheaths and bend easily.

The red pine (P. resinosa for its generous amount of resin, which protects against bugs), is native to northeastern North America. Red pine needles snap when bent. Their reddish, scaly bark explains their common name. Austrian and red pines grow in Ladd Arboretum and are so similar that identification is challenging.

The Scotch pine (P. sylvestris, from the Latin sylva, "of the woods") is another import, native to Scotland and Spain across Eurasia to Siberia. This favorite Christmas tree has become so susceptible to a variety of diseases that my Christmas-tree farmer friends no longer plant them. A group of Scotch pines grows near the pond at Lovelace Park. Their strong, bare, curving orange branches make them easy to identify.

Spruce trees are also in the family Pinaceae. The genus name, Picea, refers to the pitch in almost all spruce species. The Norway spruce (P. abies), is native to northern and central Europe and is the fastest growing spruce. It can top 120 feet and grow to 40 feet wide. No wonder it is the official Christmas tree of New York's Rockefeller Center. Its dark green needles are about an inch long, its cones about six inches.  As the tree matures, its main branches turn up at the tips, but long branchlets growing along the limb give it a droopy appearance.  A Norway spruce grove grows near Emerson Street in Ladd Arboretum.

The lovely Colorado spruce (P. pungens) is native to higher elevations in the Western United States. The needles grow individually all around the twig. Pungens refers to their spiky ends. When growing in acidic soil, the silver-blue color of their leaves is stunning.  A picture-perfect display of young blue spruce decorates the south side of Leider Park, at the corner of South Boulevard and Asbury, in the Ridgeville Park District. South of the Levy Center, a group of mature blue spruce appears majestic against a backdrop of white snow.

Winter Wonderland on Emerson

Whether shrill winds howl, unseasonable downpours drench or car stereos boom along Emerson Street outside Jacob Blake Manor, inside one cozy apartment, it is still Christmas. Using figurines and ornaments she has collected over the past four years, Henrietta Williams has created winter and Christmas scenes throughout her living room. On a dreary almost-winter evening in January, Ms. Williams' Christmas lights and decorations added to the cheer and solemnity of her holiday decorations.

Nearest the kitchen area a nativity scene with shepherds afar and magi up closer stretches out on snow-white cotton. "I love this time of year, to celebrate the birth of Christ," she said recently to some visitors.

In the center of each of the longer walls, three foot-tall nutcrackers stand guard, facing each other with grim mouths and bright uniforms. A cherubic choir stands atop the tallest bookcase, smiling faces caught mid-song. In two separate niches Ms. Williams has made snow scenes with ice skaters gliding on glass or mirror lakes. Her favorite, she says, is the house corner, a little village of houses and shops lighted from the inside - some Dickensian, others more modern - whose stillness still evokes the notion of life within. "I never had a doll house," said Ms. Williams, who retired a few years ago after a 40-year nursing career. "I love these houses."

She plans to keep the display up through February and says anyone who wishes to see it is "welcome to come by."

Photos by Levik Megerdichian

Butterflies to Ease Grief.

Students at St. Athanasius School have completed a service project designed to ease the hearts of grieving parents. The third- and fourth-grade students painted ceramic butterflies for donation to Children's Memorial Hospital, which will use them in a ceremony for parents who have lost a child. The parents select a butterfly they feel represents the spirit of their child. The students earned the money themselves to pay for the supplies. "Pac-o-Fun" magazine plans to feature the project in a spring issue. St. Athanasius was paired with the hospital by the Kindness Connection, which links schools and volunteer groups with organizations that need help.

Photo courtesy of St. Athanasius School.

For Ages Nine and Up - Fourth Grade Teacher Wins Award.

Lincolnwood Elementary School teacher Karen Luciana received the first annual "Golden Game Award" from the Chicago International Toy and Game Fair for her use of games as educational tools in her fourth-grade classroom.  "The students learn how to use strategic thinking and critical-thinking skills," she says, adding that she often made up her own games before she started going to the annual fair.  Her students are free to take any of her 100 plus games home with them "to get parents involved," she says.  She also holds an annual schoolwide "Game Day" when her students teach other classes how to play a new game.  Also recognized at the fair were fourth-graders Jordan Allen and Isaac Lichter for their original game "Rats in the Sewer," and Julia Bartol, who took fourth place in the fair's "World Geography Bee."

Photo by Joe Linstroth

Lincoln Essay Contest Announced

Secretary of State and State Librarian Jesse White encourages Illinois students in grades 5-12 to read President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and take part in a statewide essay contest to mark the 200th anniversary of Lincoln's birth.

"At the dedication of a cemetery in Gettysburg, Penn., the final resting place for more than 50,000 Americans who died in the Civil War," Secretary White said, "in fewer than 300 words President Lincoln made what has become one of the most revered speeches ever written.

"In 300 words or less, this essay contest represents an opportunity for students to share their personal thoughts and dreams about where we are as a nation, and their ideals for freedom, democracy and equal opportunity." Judges will select winners in grades 5-6, 7-8 and 9-12, who will be invited with their parents or guardians to Springfield for an awards presentation in conjunction with the bicentennial celebration of Lincoln's birthday on Feb. 12, 2009, and will receive a plaque and cash award:  $200 for first place, $150 for second place and $100 for third place.  The deadline to submit essays is May 31, 2008.  Essay forms have been sent to all Illinois public and private elementary and secondary schools, and they may also be downloaded from here. 
For more information about the essay contest, contact Bonnie Matheis at 217-558-2065 or bmatheis@ilsos.net.