SUNDAY, MAY 1

Benton House: A Community of the Future
Benton House (3052 S Graten)
12pm
Admission: Free

12pm
Benton House is an independent, volunteer-run social service agency in the Bridgeport neighborhood of Chicago that focuses on addressing need and providing recreation and education.  Continuing the settlement house tradition, we thrive on community members' involvement.  Come by and get a look at the ways we are working to cultivate investment in our neighborhood's people and places.  We will have presentations, discussions and work groups for our youth programs, food pantry and community garden.  Our house is your house.  Stop by for program highlights, tours and histories of the place, to get involved or just hang out.

Panel Discussion: Come Together, Bridgeport!
4pm

People of Bridgeport are banding together and making accessible, direct action for regular folks to address issues like crime, business development and social services.  Come for a lively discussion of different ways people are shaping the future of a safe, vibrant community. 

Panelists Include:
Thomas Gaulke - Pastor, First Lutheran Church of the Trinity
Maureen Sullivan - Co-Founder of Save the Ramova Foundation and Bridgeport Business Association
Joe Trutin - Neighborhood activist and owner of The Video Strip
Esther Wong - Executive Director, Chinese American Service League
Moderated by Joyce Fernandes - Executive Director, architreasures

Things That Are Longing To Appear
Eastern Expansion (244 W 31st St.)
6-9pm
Admission: Free

“Things That Are Longing To Appear” is a storefront installation / window display by artist Bill Talsma that consists of six modified ‘open & closed’ signs presented at 244 W. 31st Street in Chicago. These signs—the kind usually displayed at small businesses—have been redesigned, rewritten and combined together to form a master sentence that spans the 6 objects. Subsequently, thoughts about the reappearance of things as reproduction are simultaneously woven across the signs (and through the master sentence) with smaller, prefabricated marquee-style letters.