Free films at Chicago Cultural Center.
Where: Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington, Claudia Cassidy Theater, 2nd Floor North
WTTW presents Community Cinema in partnership with the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. Attend a free screening and discussion about an award-winning documentary every third Saturday of the month.
Cooked – Survival by Zip Code Saturday, February 15, 2020 Screening & Discussion Please RSVP.
Inspired by Eric Klineberg’s book, Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago, Peabody Award-winning filmmaker Judith Helfand looks at the inequity of natural disaster, beginning with her family’s own experience of Hurricane Sandy. She then focuses in on Chicago’s inadequate response to the deadly July 1995 heatwave, during which 726 people died, largely the elderly and people of color from the city’s impoverished South and West Side.
The screening will be followed by a panel discussion. COTC note: I saw this on PBS last week it was startling having lived through that heat wave.
Youth-Produced Films by Free Spirit Media Saturday, March 21, 2020
This event presents a selection of youth-produced films from Free Spirit Media, an organization that provides teens and young adults in communities of color on Chicago’s West and South sides with a comprehensive foundation in media literacy and hands-on media production experience. Please RSVP
After the screening, please join us for a youth-led panel discussion.
Who is Claudia Cassidy?
If you attend events at the Chicago Cultural Center you’ve no doubt visited the Claudia Cassidy Theater. Who is she/was she? Of course the spectacular Newberry Library, which holds her papers, has a nice biography online. To summarize: she was a sometimes caustic Chicago Tribune theater critic while maligned by some was still respected enough by her peers to get a theater named after her.
Newberry biography
Claudia Cassidy was born in 1900 in Shawneetown, IL, where she first encountered the performing arts on show boats that cruised the Ohio River. When she was 14, Cassidy’s parents George and Olive moved the family to Champaign, IL.
After graduating from the University of Illinois in 1921, Cassidy worked as a secretary at the Chicago Journal of Commerce, where she moved into theater criticism. Her sharp, opinionated writing style made her column an important feature of the Journal.
In 1941 she moved to the Chicago Sun and then the Chicago Tribune at the behest of publisher Robert R. McCormick. While at the Tribune, Cassidy wrote her “On the Aisle” commentary as well as other reviews and articles steadily 1965.
After 1965, Cassidy wrote on a free-lance basis for the Tribune, Chicago Magazine, and other publications, and from 1968 to 1983 she hosted a weekly radio program of arts criticism on Chicago’s WFMT-FM.
Cassidy, sometimes referred to as “Acidy Cassidy,” was an influential presence on the Chicago theater scene. Her writing alienated and angered some in the arts community, but her praise also promoted the careers of others, including Tennessee Williams, Lotte Lehmann, and Maria Callas.
Cassidy fiercely supported Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie,” which premiered at Chicago’s Civic Theatre in 1944. She also strongly influenced the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, where her public admiration or disdain of music directors had a direct effect on the CSO’s history.
Cassidy was married to William J. Crawford for 57 years. After his death in 1986, she retreated from public life and lived alone at the Drake Hotel. Her last published writing was for the 1990-1991 Lyric Opera program book. She died after a brief illness on July 21, 1996.
Her obit in the NYTimes Claudia Cassidy, 96, Arts Critic; Did Not Mince Words in Chicago give more details.
She got a theater named after her in 1997. Here’s the Trib article on the dedication. now we know!
