The Chicago Underground Library Returns!

fter a brief hiatus, the Chicago Underground Library makes its return with an all-out literary bash. 

Chicago Underground Library presents
The Science of Obscurity!
an official Printers Ball lead up event
Friday, July 10th

Details and an interview after the break!

The Chicago Underground Library celebrates “The Science of Obscurity,” an evening of new, unpublished, and in-progress works presented as science fair experiments. The night will also feature a public book launch via catapult and the mass purging of rejection letters–community literary rituals in need of revival!

If you are a writer, publisher, bookmaker, or booklover of any stripe who has recently finished writing a book, has published a book in the past year, or just feels like taking out some aggression on a publication of your
choice, we invite you to celebrate by launching your work into space–or at least halfway down the block. We define “book” broadly, so zines, magazines, chapbooks, textbooks, and more are welcome. Read a paragraph, then release!

And while we’re busy launching texts outside, we’ll be dissecting the mysteries of the literary universe inside. Join a dozen local, national, and international writers as they intricately explain the scientific principles
underlying their work, real or imagined. Dioramas! Volcanoes! Colorful graphs! Higher mathematics!

We’ll cap the remarkable evening with the shredding and launch of your collective rejection letters, so take them out of storage and cart them along to hand over to our nurturing, accepting staff at the Rejection Table.

This event is free and for all ages. Its other attractions will include the dazzling debut of the Chicago Underground Library’s artist-designed drop boxes, debutantes, prizes, and a raffle!

Friday, 10 July 2009, 7­10pm
Jupiter Outpost (1139 W. Fulton Market, Chicago)
Food and drink will be available for sale + BYOB
Free, all ages

So just what is the Chicago Underground Library?  I was lucky enough to ask Nell Taylor, Underground Library extraordinaire, a few question about what they do.

Q:  How long has the Underground Library been in existence?

A. We’ve been around in one way or another since February of 2006, got our first space in November of 2006, lost it the following December in 2007 and that, combined with a number of other issues, forced us to take a hiatus until December of 2008 when we moved to our current location. I think half of the organizations I know have a similar first-three-year history. :) We’re back, and we’ve rebuilt, and have an amazing network of volunteers including librarians, artists, writers, and theatre people, from directors to performance artists.

Q.  So What is the Underground Library all about?

A.  We catalog everything from Chicago, ever, and make no quality or importance judgments. This is probably the most unusual thing about our collection. All materials are also indexed in a way that allows the connections between them to become more obvious. (See the MIT presentation linked below for more details on how/why we do what we do.)

We try to use our collection not just as a repository, but as a way to generate new work that has more relevancy to and awareness of the local context. We try to keep one foot in every possible creative field in terms of our volunteers, and that extends out to our other projects. We have two mini-archives that we’re developing within the collection, a “storefront theater project” to archive documentation and scripts of fringe and ephemeral performance, as well as a similar project for the art community. We intend to expand into audio and video as we grow.  Our Events page has a good rundown of recent activity and extracurriculars, including educational outreach, which we also just started working on in earnest.

And here is a long, detailed outline (yes, outline) of a presentation on the CUL that one of our volunteers, Raizel Liebler, and I gave at MIT’s Media in Transition 6 conference earlier this year that discusses our philosophies and approach in depth, particularly as they relate to technology and information theory (dork city):

http://underground-library.org/?p=629

For even more info, here are a couple of articles:

http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2008/dec/13/entertainment/chi-1213-underground-library-libdec13
http://www.newcitychicago.com/chicago/6776.html
(and more) http://underground-library.org/?page_id=65

Thanks Nell!