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“Art to provide people with perspectives and values that aren’t consumerist,” I read in the You Are Beautiful project statement. Or as Ai Gallery director Kim Hoffman explains: “The You Are Beautiful project is intended for everyone, not just the artist. The artist may take away from the project the feeling of being creative for its own sake, but more so, they may feel that they are participating in something greater than themselves, spreading a message that is important for the world to hear.” Which returns me to Weeds, unexpectedly. Still open, I learn. Although tellingly, I missed Open Mic Night to eat confit of Swan Creek suckling pig at Blackbird. Maybe I had subconsciously wished to avoid seeing my favourite Chicagoland memory tucked into the revitalized neighbourhood I knew had grown around it. Crate & Barrel. Starbucks. Loft conversions. No parking to be found on North Dayton, where 12 years ago no sensible person would have left a car unattended in the first place. But then I grew curious, of course. And I phoned. I got Sergio, who laughed when I asked about a poem. Then grew almost serious when he learned which poem. “The City,” he said. “We’ve been saying that poem every Open Mic Night for the past 23 years. And everything in that poem, about gentrification, [Gregorio Gómez] said it way before it happened. The man’s a prophet!” I tracked down the prophet, naturally. And yes, Gómez confirmed for me, his 1979 poem had indeed been written about gentrification and recited every Open Mic Night for all these years. Every night, that is, but three. “Last Open Mic Night of 2005, I said, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, this is the last time I’m going to do The City to close the night.’ And I belted it out with all my heart and everybody joined in. Then I come in 2006. I go three weeks without doing it.” And here Gómez, 45 years a Chicagoan, pauses for dramatic effect. He is, after all, a performer. “And then people started doing it without me!” And I think, Well of course they did, in The Ci-tee. Amen. — Write to us: letters@enroutemag.net |
