Newsletter July/August 2020
|
|
Dear Skyline Village Chicago Members and Friends,
Skyline Village Chicago stands firmly and resolutely in opposition to all forms of systemic, institutionalized racism and oppression. We applaud our many members who give time and resources to help our underserved neighbors with no thought for outcomes or results.
When we saw the news that Black Chicagoans are dying of COVID-19 at higher rates than any other ethnic or racial group, we asked ourselves, “What can we do?” The Chicago uprising stemming from the murder of George Floyd made us aware there are many unexplored conversations we can offer the Skyline community.
In the coming months we'll add our voices to the growing chorus advancing racial justice in our beloved city. In this time of pandemic uncertainty we’ve learned a new way to bring speakers into your home through Zoom. Come along with us on this lively untraveled road as we strive to offer a new perspective on social justice programs.
Cheers,
Skyline Village Chicago Board
|
|
Skyline Village Chicago Needs Your Help
Since we haven’t been traveling, dining out or shopping as much we might have done in the past we're hoping that you might have a little extra disposable cash to donate to Skyline Village Chicago. Any amount is helpful -- perhaps the unspent cost of a lunch or dinner out or an overnight hotel room.
You can do so online at
www.skylinevillagechicago.org
. No need to log in. Just click on the “
Donations
” tab or mail your check to Skyline Village Chicago, P.O. Box 64524, Chicago, IL 60624.
Thanks to those of you who have already supported Skyline with your generous donations. They are deeply appreciated.
Our 501C3 status affords members tax deductions to the extent allowed by law.
|
|
Skyline Village Chicago is using Zoom to connect with members and friends. Please join us at one of the following.
|
Women’s Salon Zoom
Second Tuesday of Every Month
July 14, August 11
3:30-5:00pm
SVC members gather in conversation monthly to increase their awareness of cultural and societal notions on aging.
Watch your email for the Zoom invitation.
|
|
|
|
|
SVC Weekly Member Chat
Every Friday
4:00pm - 5:00pm
(Members Only)
|
Check in for a backyard over-the-fence chat on how you’re getting along during the Shutdown and what strategies you’re using to stay sane and healthy.
Watch your email for the Zoom invitation.
|
|
Friday Forum
The Latest on COVID 19 with Dr. Michael Ison
July 10
Program begins 11:00am - 12:00pm
Join us to hear Dr. Michael Ison, Professor, Divisions of Infectious Diseases and Organ Transplantation, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine as he discusses the latest information and data about COVID and what we can expect looking into the near future.
Click here to register
.
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Note: Zoom invitation says 10:30am but program begins at 11:00am
|
|
|
|
 |
Friday, August 28
12:00pm - 1:00pm
Topic TBD
We're working on our August Friday Forum. Stay tuned and watch your email for updates.
|
|
|
|
Join Skyline Village Chicago
Annual Dues $75 per individual, $100 per couple
Mail check: Skyline Village Chicago, PO Box 81334, Chicago, IL 60681
Our 501C3 status affords members tax deductions to the extent allowed by law.
|
|
|
May Friday Forum Summary
Ensemble: An Oral History of Chicago Theatre by Mark Larson
By Nancie Thompson
More than 75 persons signed in to see and hear Mark Larson, author of the recently published book “Ensemble: An Oral History of Chicago Theatre.” Mr. Larson was the featured speaker at the Skyline Village Chicago Friday Forum via Zoom on Friday, May 26.
Larson’s voluminous book (688 pages) is a rollicking history of the Chicago Theatre scene as It begins in the early 1950s and 60s with The Compass Players, Drury Lane, The Second City, Hull House, and many others. A quote from Amy Morton describes the closely-knit actors of that era: “In Chicago, we weren’t going to get rich, and we weren’t to get famous, so we just got good.”
As Larson pursued his goal to capture the essence of theatre in Chicago, he came to understand that his place in Chicago theatre would be, in the words of Joan Dideon, “on the edge of the story.” And it is in that voice that he makes the history come alive: through the words of Ed Asner, Barbara Harris and Joyce Piven to Michael Shannon, Tracy Letts, Laurie Metcalf, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and many, many more.
Mr. Larson spent four years of his life in more than 300 joyous conversations with actors as well as with designers, composers and many others who have played a crucial role in making Chicago theatre so powerful, influential, and unique.
Mark Larson is a Golden Apple Ward-winning educator who has worked at Evanston Township High School, the Field Museum, the Lincoln Park Zoo, and National Louis University.
Mr. Larson’s’ presentation was recorded and is available online
here
|
|
|
|
June Friday Forum Summary
Alliance for the Great Lakes
"What's Happening to Our Lakes?"
By Nancie N. Thompson
On June 26 Skyline Village hosted the Alliance For The Great Lakes for a timely and informative discussion entitled “What’s Happening to our Lakes?”
Alliance staff members Katie Larson and Olivia Reda presented an overview of the Alliance mission and activities, which include working with researchers and nearly 20,000 volunteers to protect the Lakes from plastics, aquatic invasive species, and agricultural pollution. Responding to questions about the current high level of the lakes, they noted that the level was at its lowest from 1999-2014. But due primarily to climate change, the lakes are now at their highest levels, causing serious beach erosion. Generally, they pointed out, such dramatic changes in lake levels take place over a period of several decades. A Q & A blog addressing lake levels can be found at the Alliance website.
www.greatlakes.org
In response to questions about how individuals could help diminish the pollution in the lakes, a simple suggestion with a big impact is the use of a microfiber laundry ball in our laundry machines, like these listed on
www.alternativeapparrel.com.
The laundry ball collects microfibers into “fuzz we can see” and easily dispose of, keeping microfibers out of our waterways and oceans.
The Alliance for the Great Lakes was recorded and is available online
here
|
|
|
|
Support Skyline Village Just by Shopping
Log into Amazon through
www.smile.amazon.com
. Choose Skyline Village Chicago Inc as your charity and .5% of your purchase will be donated to help SVC continue it's mission. That's it! Everything else - all your logs ins, lists, saved items and all the prices will be exactly the same.
|
|
We are emerging from our cocoons. Some members have even been seen dining on the sidewalks of neighborhood restaurants. If you have a story to share, of staying in place or of summer travel, and would like it included in the September – October newsletter, please send it, along with pictures, to
judy.karlov@gmail.com
by August 20
th
. When your device asks you whether pictures should be small, medium or large, please choose large.
|
|
|
|
Chicago Urban Sketchers
By Anna Rappaport
|
I have had a wonderful time with Urban Sketchers Chicago
(http://urbansketchers-chicago.blogspot.com
) “Let’s Sketch” assignments. Every week there is a sketching assignment; the most recent was to sketch your closet. Afterwards we share our work with each other and see different ways that people approach a similar assignment.
|
|
Staying with Family
By Colly Nichols
|
I am still staying in Wheaton at my daughter’s, but next Sunday I am going to fly to Atlanta to stay with my son and his family for a while. I have a very cool mask made from Cubs fabric!
I just finished Michael Connelly’s new book
Fair Warning.
I also read
The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance during the Blitz
by Eric Larson, about Britain in 1940, and Anne Tyler’s latest,
Redhead by the Side of the Road
, all really engrossing reads. This is certainly a time of life when we have lots of time to read!
|
|
Birding in Connecticut
By Richard Sylvia
|
Not long after we arrived in New Haven, CT last year, we discovered Milford Point, 8.5 acres of barrier beach with adjacent tidal marshland. When we need to escape the monotony of the pandemic, that’s where we often go.
Ruth is an enthusiastic birder, and the Point is one of the most active migratory areas on Long Island Sound. Plovers of all sorts, oystercatchers, terns, willets, killdeer, osprey — these and more stop to feed or nest every spring. Ducks of many types and loons winter over.
Because the Audubon Society leases it from the state, Milford Point remains a small, pristine oasis on a shoreline that is mostly overdeveloped and inaccessible. The Society runs a science center near the parking lot. Swimming is not allowed, so even in the summer we find the shoreline empty, though we see the cramped beach houses stretched out from its borders in both directions.
|
|
Richard’s wife, Ruth Hoberman, furnished this picture and description of a Piping Plover. Piping plovers are endangered and adorable, with big eyes, a black collar, and a "unibrow." They nest in the sand--shallow indentations that are easily destroyed by inattentive humans and dogs.
|
|
Hints for Traveling During a Pandemic
By Judi Chapnick
Hotels:
Some hotels (Holiday Inn Express is one) allow you to reserve rooms that have been unoccupied for two to five days. You may ask them to take the bedspreads off the bed, and you may want to take your own pillows. You might also want to take a sheet with you to use on the sofa or chairs. Other precautions: spray Lysol in the room and on the sheets; wrap the TV control in Saran; take hand sanitizer, Clorox wipes, masks, and gloves.
Food:
Plan to take food with you in a cooler. Think about energy bars, oranges, apples, hard-boiled eggs, Laughing Cow cheese wedges, cans of wild tuna with pop-tops, or tuna salad in a plastic tub. Prepare and wrap your favorite sandwiches. We went to carry-out restaurants and got extra food for the next day.
The Love Travel Stops gas stations are very clean. You can look them up on their App: Love
’
s Connect. Add their locations to your route, and plan your restroom stops!
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”
Mark Twain
|
|
Happy 50
th
Anniversary Guila and Sandro
By Giulia Guidotti
We were married 6/27/1970 at the Church of S.Francesco in Florence, Italy.
These are a couple of photos after the ceremony. Sandro was a young MD invited to NIMH as a post doctor scientist & I was working on my Master in Social Work. He left on Thanksgiving Day & I joined 3 years late. We were supposed to celebrate the 50
th
anniversary in Florence with our friends. My Chicago friends decided to cheer us up, they organized a Zoom meeting with all of them & delivered appetizers, dinner, cake, wine & champagne for the anniversary dinner. It feels so good to be loved.
|
|
SVC Advocacy
Making Our City More Livable
|
SVC is involved in making our beloved Chicago more livable. COVID-19 has offered new challenges and opportunities, including opening streets for outside dining and create a safe way to dine out with friends. Here are some ways we are supporting a more livable Chicago:
Adapting Streets for COVID-19
You can find lists and maps of Chicago street closures
here.
Make Way for Diners Program
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced the city will block off six streets, to motor vehicles for outdoor dining, giving restaurants more space to serve customers while abiding by social distancing guidelines.
- Chatham: 75th Street (Calumet to Indiana)
- Lakeview: Broadway Street (Belmont to Diversey)
- Little Italy: Taylor Street (Loomis to Ashland),
- Little Village: 26th Street (Central Park to Harding)
- Rush Street (Oak to Cedar)
- Randolph Street’s side service streets in West Loop (West of the Kennedy Expressway to Elizabeth)
Black Lives Matter
Skyline Village Chicago stands firmly and resolutely in opposition to all forms of systemic, institutionalized racism and oppression. Black lives matter acknowledges the disproportionate toll the coronavirus pandemic has taken on black and brown families in Chicago.
Many of our members give time and resources to help our underserved neighbors with no thought for outcomes or results. The Chicago uprising stemming from the murder of George Floyd made us aware we have a long way to go. What more can we do? In the coming months we hope to bring impactful programs to you that will help inform us in how to advance racial justice in our beloved city.
Here is a list of suggested books, movies, articles, podcasts and videos on race and racism that Skyline Village Chicago members and friends are reading and watching. We hope you join us in deepening our understanding of these matters and being part of the solution.
Books
Movies/TV
•
Selma
(Available for rent)
Articles
Podcasts
TED Talks
Support Community Organizations
A list of community organizations and partners that we hope you consider supporting and following on social media. These organizations are doing amazing work to confront many of the systemic issues faced throughout the Chicago area.
City Lit Theatre
As part of the ongoing conversation related to the Black Lives Matter protests, City Lit is making available for free download the full text of The Bloodhound Law by our resident playwright Kristine Thatcher. City Lit commissioned and produced the play in 2015 as part of our Civil War Project. Scrupulously historically accurate, The Bloodhound Law examines Illinois's involvement with the Fugitive Slave Act, which legalized the kidnapping of African Americans in Northern cities. The "bloodhound law" was supported by both of Illinois's U.S. senators at the time, but opposed by the heavily abolitionist people of Chicago. The play sheds important light on the origins of the struggle still going on.
Click
here
to download The Bloodhound Law.
Here also are links to City Lit's postings on related topics that we think may help provide additional background on the need for this conversation.
|
|
Our friends at Good Memories and Sounds Good Choirs are rehearsing online. Read about them
here:
|
|
|
|
Sounds Good! and Good Memories Choirs
Rehearsals via ZOOM Mondays, 12:00pm - 1:00pm via ZOOM
The Sounds Good/Good Memories Choirs were just beginning their rehearsals for a spring concert when the covid-19 shutdown hit. They were up and running within the week with Facebook Live and Zoom rehearsals. In the end, they miraculously (if you are in the choirs, you know how true this is) produced a virtual video with 177 singers.
Congratulations to Jonathan Miller and his whole crew and to all the singers who figured out how to record themselves without the help of their grandsons. Enjoy “The Storm is Passing Over” and look for familiar faces.
|
|
|
|
Nominations Are Extended for the Senior Hall of Fame Awards
Nomination forms can printed and faxed or emailed or filled out online.
|
|
|
|
Did you get your CENSUS Form?
|
|
Our Community Partners
Many of our friends are conducting online classes and events. Click into their newsletters and websites for information
The Adlai Stevenson Center on Democracy
Website
Beth Finke MasterTeachers™:
Website
Center for Life and Learning 4th Presbyterian Church:
Brochure
Mesulam Center for Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease:
website
Rush Generations Center for Excellence in Aging:
Website
Sounds Good/Good Memories Choirs:
Website
Streeterville Organization for Active Residents:
Website
|
|
Join Skyline Village Chicago
|
|
Renewing Members
Nina Appel
Michael Darcy and Lenore Holt-Darcy
Larry and Marlene Elowe
Carol Koenig
Janice Vache
|
|
Annual Dues:
$75 Individual, $100 Couple
Send a check to:
Skyline Village Chicago, P.O. Box 81334, Chicago, IL 60681
|
|
|
City of Chicago COVID-19 Update
If you have questions, concerns, need help that is not an emergency, call 311.
Essential Baby Items
Mayor Lightfoot announced a call to action for Chicagoans to donate essential baby items such as diapers, wipes, and formula to support those most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and recent events, beginning the week of June 22. Local nonprofit organization, Share Our Spare, will serve as a centralized donation hub for essential items that will be distributed to neighborhoods in need. Those interested in supporting these efforts can donate to Share Our Spare:
www.shareourspare.org
Chicago’s Community Response to COVID-19
“
In This Together”
is a community- based initiative to collect digital records that document personal experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. As we are all affected by this crisis in varying degrees, the Chicago History Museum hopes to collect the diaries, journals, oral histories, images, recordings and other materials to help tell stories of this unprecedented time in history.
“In This Together”
will feature personal accounts to provide depth and context for what this era has been like for the everyday people experiencing it.
Send your COVID-19 memorabilia to the Chicago History Museum
Scooters Are Back!
Chicago's Scooter sharing program is back. Learn more about it
here
Chicago Department of Family & Support Services \
Read/Download the Senior Services Live Enrichment Brochure for information about services and programs through July.
Five Reasons to Wear a Face Mask
Scammers are busy and target seniors, including with COVID-19 themed scams.
How to Protect Yourself from Scams
|
|
Do you have something you'd like to share with your Skyline Village friends in the next newsletter? A news story, a poem, blog, piece of art, photo, a Favorite Thing, a quote? How have you been creative during our Stay Safe / Stay Home time?
We'd love to include you in upcoming newsletter and the website.
Send to editor@skylinevillagechicago.org.
|
|
The Purple Robe Song Series celebrated Juneteeth with "Lift Every Voice and Sing,"
|
|
Seen by Regan Burke at Newberry Park, Sunday evening 7/5 at around 6:30. Does anyone know who she is?
Watch and delight in hearing her sing from Puccini's Madame Butterfly
|
|
The Skyline Village Chicago community of older adults engages
in cultural, educational and social programs. We are active, informed
and connected advocates within our unique, vibrant high-rise neighborhoods.
|
|
Copyright © 2020 All Rights Reserved
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
