Local Writers + Dilapidated Space = Cool Event

By Betsy Mikel in Arts & Entertainment on May 28, 2010 6:00PM

We like literary events that bring together a diverse range of writers. We like art in vacant buildings. So we think we would like seeing a prose artist, a novelist, a sci-fi author, a poet and a blogger read work in an empty urban space. Tonight, the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography and The Op Shop are coming together to offer a free literary show in a dilapidated retail space in Hyde Park. The theme is urban decay and urban renewal. Which is fitting, because the location of tonight’s performance will be demolished later this summer.

This will be the first CCLaP live literary event. That’s exciting for CCLaP founder and sole employee Jason Pettus, who started the organization a few years ago with only $300 (enough money to buy a high-end tape recorder and some business cards). As an educated photographer and full-time creative writer, Pettus was frustrated with trying to stay afloat as a professional artist. “I had come to realize that my creative work often slipped into these strange little niches that commercial companies often don't like touching,” he said. He knew there was an audience for his work, but no one wanted to publish it. So he started CCLaP. “CCLaP exists to promote what I call 'underground' artists, however you wish to define that -- whether cutting-edge in their actual material, or experimental in the ways they get their work out to the public,” Pettus said.

Somewhere down the road, Pettus imagines CCLaP with its own physical headquarters. That’ll take a lot of time, money, and a strong local presence, and he’s slowly working his way there. Right now, CCLaP consists of critical essays, a twice-monthly podcast, electronic books, and the occasional social event in Chicago. He also envisions discussion clubs and workshops, gallery pub-crawls and bicycle tours of public artworks. That’s why tonight’s event at The Op Shop is a big deal. CCLaP is finally expanding its presence beyond its website. And it’s happening in what sounds like a really cool space. Pettus said it’s an Art Decoish building that dates all the way back to Early Modernism. It’s housed a bank, a clothing store, a video rental space, and tonight will be the temporary home of some literary artists. Read more about them below.

Sally Weigel / Sally's book at CCLaP
Ben Tanzer / Ben's book at CCLaP
Mark Brand
Jason Fisk
Katherine Hodges

Urban Decay & Urban Renewal, tonight at The Op Shop, 1530 E. 53rd St., 8 p.m., free, BYOB. If you can’t make it tonight, it’ll be recorded so check out next the next CCLaP podcast.