CHICAGO BRIEFING April 2005

News this month

In mourning

The death of Pope John Paul II had a big impact in Chicago, which has the world’s second-largest Polish population after Warsaw. Karol Jozef Wojtyla, who was elected Pope in 1978, remained involved in the well-being of Polish Catholics behind the iron curtain. His elevation to the papacy was a boon for his Communist-dominated countrymen, who otherwise felt left on the wrong side of history.

On the city’s north-west side, the basilica of St Hyacinth was where many Poles came to grieve. Polish immigrants are well integrated here, but many concentrate in the city’s building and plumbing trades. Chicago also boasts America’s largest Catholic school system and its second-largest Catholic archdiocese. The city was the site of one the pope's first visits to the US, in 1979.

Orange juice

In his second stop on a quick American tour to thaw Ukrainian-US relations, Viktor Yushchenko, the new president of Ukraine, and his Chicago-born wife Kathy Chumachenko-Yushchenko visited Chicago on April 4th and 5th. The prospect of seeing Mr Yushchenko, who famously won in Ukraine's presidential election after mass rallies followed a rigged vote in November, drew 1,400 people to a downtown ballroom on Monday night. Visitors patiently waited nearly three hours for his appearance and then greeted him like a rock star. “Yush-chen-ko, Yush-chen-ko” chanted the crowd, including many who wore orange neckties and scarves to show their support.

Mr Yushchenko met a group of business leaders, financial executives, representatives from non-profit groups as well as key members of the local Ukrainian community. He outlined his plans to create a business-friendly Ukraine, by battling corruption and lowering taxes. Meanwhile, his wife addressed students at the University of Chicago Business School. Chicago has around 100,000 Ukrainians, and many saw the visit as a homecoming for Mrs Chumachenko-Yushchenko, who moved to Ukraine 14 years ago. Chicago and Kiev became sister cities in 1991.

Rebound

The other orange wave to hit Chicago on April 4th came from fans of the University of Illinois men’s basketball team, which reached the finals of the national college basketball tournament. Despite a dramatic come-back in an earlier playoff game, the Illini succumbed to North Carolina in the championship game, 75-70, when the final buzzer sounded on the 100th season of Illinois Basketball. The team’s mascot, Chief Illiniwek, was not there to help: he has drawn controversy for years over what Native Americans argue is a racist image.

All in the past

The popular head of the Chicago Historical Society (CHS), Lonnie Bunch, has been tapped to head a yet-to-be-built African-American history museum at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. The museum, which may not open for another 15 years, is expected to cost $300m to $400m. It was authorised by Congress in 2003, though the idea was first proposed in the 1920s. Mr Bunch, a former Smithsonian curator and an African-American, is often praised for his grand plans and fundraising skills.

This move comes soon after Mr Bunch announced a $22m renovation of the CHS for its 150th anniversary, including adding exhibit space and overhauling most of the permanent displays. The work is expected to be finished by autumn 2006, in time for the CHS's birthday celebrations. Mr Bunch has said he will stay at the Historical Society until June.

Bellow's gift

Saul Bellow, a prize-winning novelist with a huge influence on American fiction and long ties to the city, died on April 5th at the age of 89. He spent most of his life here, immigrating to the city as a child and later teaching for 30 years at the University of Chicago. Although he spent the last 12 years of his life in New England, Mr Bellow, who won a Nobel Prize and a Pulitzer among many other honours, had what the Chicago Tribune called a “lifelong love affair with Chicago”.

The rhythms and vitality of the street fuelled most of his books, and his heroes—immigrants, hucksters, intellectuals, dreamers—all struggled to find meaning amid the mess of postwar America. “The Adventures of Augie March”, published in 1953, was Bellow's breakthrough. It opens with one of his most memorable lines, and reads like a valentine to his chosen American city: “I am an American, Chicago born—Chicago, that somber city—and go at things as I have taught myself, free-style, and will make the record in my own way: first to knock, first admitted; sometimes an innocent knock, sometimes a not so innocent.”

Catch if you can

April 2005

Body Worlds

Until September 5th 2005

On the road for years, this remarkable show at the Museum of Science and Industry might amaze, intrigue, shock or horrify you—but it will not leave you unmoved. More than 200 people donated their cadavers to the project's director, Gunther Von Hagens, so that he could variously skin or dissect them before preserving the results by a process he calls “plastination”: replacing body fluids with clear, flexible plastic. One of the more shocking displays is the corpse of a woman who was eight months pregnant, her belly cut away to reveal a fully-formed fetus.

Another features a posed family made up from their blood vessels. A third shows a man playing basketball with his skin removed, revealing the extraordinary interplay of muscle and sinew.
Quite a few of the bodies here have blackened lungs, pointedly making clear the effect of smoking on the body. Mr von Hagens's critics claim he is a morbid and ghoulish showman, but the show is clearly educational. His project has apparently persuaded several thousand people to promise him their corpses.

Museum of Science and Industry, 57th St and Lake Shore Dr. Tel: +1 (773) 684-1414. For more information, see the museum's website. See the show's official website.

More from the Chicago cultural calendar