Old-School Salons Inspire Chicago Literary Salon

By Betsy Mikel in Arts & Entertainment on Mar 22, 2010 5:20PM

The London and Paris literary salons of the 17th and 18th centuries were epic. They had intellectuals, they had drinking, and they had conversation and debate. When Jamie Freveletti started hearing a lot of strong opinions about monogamy after some recent political scandals, an idea crept into her mind. Why not introduce the topic amongst intellectuals, drinking, conversation and debate? The Chicago Literary Salon was born.

For tomorrow night's inaugural event, Freveletti has organized a panel of experts who will be speaking on monogamy. Specifically, they'll be bringing their expertise to try to answer the ever-popular question Does Monogamy Kill the Soul? Freveletti is trying to bring the key components of a salon to the Chicago Literary Salon. First, the intellectuals. Lori Andrews is an expert on genetics and law and Mordechay Balas is a senior instructor at the Kabbalah center. Comedians Hollie and Steve Himmelman will help take off the edge. "We need someone who can make us laugh," said Andrews. "Maybe monogamy's not possible, maybe it is, but it's got to be anything, it's got to be fun." Drinking played a big role in the original salons, just as drinking will tonight. Alcohol makes the atmosphere feel more social and less academic. People didn't attend literary salons for extra credit points from their teachers; they attended because they wanted to learn in a social and stimulating environment. Tomorrow night's event has the same goal.

Even though this is the first Chicago Literary Salon, Freveletti already expects a good turnout. She said she wouldn't have organized it if she didn't think there was interest for this type of event. She knows simply from interaction on Facebook that people are crazy for debate. "Everyone loves to see what's going on, everyone's jumping in," she said. "Everyone wants to get together and talk. They want a forum to go to that's not a bar persay, but has alcohol. Their friends are there, and they can learn something." To make sure everyone has a chance to get involved in tonight's monogamy conversation, the panelists will responding to questions submitted by the audience and will be mingling with the crowd after.

If you can't make it tomorrow night, there is always the next Chicago Literary Salon to look forward to, when the panel plans to discuss if the rules of dating matter in 2010.

Chicago Literary Salon, Marche, 833 W. Randolph St., March 23, 6 p.m., $18. RSVP at Salon@chicagoliterary.com.