Bridgeport's Hip and Glorious Future

By Justin Sondak in Arts & Entertainment on Oct 21, 2005 7:15PM

Hoping you and thousands of your closest friends can turn 35th Street into one big baseball Mardi Gras this weekend, our very own South Side Yawkey Way or Waveland Avenue? Don’t count on it. Come game time, Officer Friendly won’t let you get near the stadium without a ticket. But if you’re savvy enough to linger around Bridgeport six hours before game time tomorrow, an unusual pre-party awaits.

The Select Media Festival, loosely conjoined with Chicago Artists Month, takes over the other half of Bridgeport this weekend. The arts are indeed everywhere—even a few blocks from the World Series. What you call Bridgeport, they call The Community of the Future. What you call touring an undiscovered neighborhood, they call “navigating underused urban geography for our festival activities.” When they say “our alternative spaces, galleries, experimental cultural centers, artist collectives, festival initiatives, and nomadic projects develop at an incredible rate,” you say those hipsters are overrunning my neighborhood!

They are indeed. Twenty five neighborhood haunts throw open their doors to a largely unsuspecting public. Meet up with guided tours at 2 or 3pm, or decipher the counter-cultural aesthetic at your own pace. Festival organizers hope you’ll linger around South Morgan St. to patronize three north side exports: Quimby’s, Myopic, and Odd Obsession Video. That evening, history will be made. I’m talking of course about the opening of the Bridgeport MOMA. Finally, the dream of converting an old industrial building into a home for funky installations will be realized!

This weekend’s all about indulging two intense passions: art and playoff baseball.