Hyde Park

Yesterday I went on an informative tour of Hyde Park that mixed history with present day stories about their most famous resident, Barack Obama. The tour took us by his home (we weren't able to linger due to the heavy security) and by the barbershop where he would get his hair cut. The tour guide was the wonderful Christoper Benson, an associate professor at the University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign's Department of African American Studies and Journalism. Here is his recent article about Hyde Park published in Chicago magazine. The tour really gave me a sense of where Regina Andrews came from.

Here's a picture of Regina from the 1918 Hyde Park High School Yearbook.

Chicago (Hyde Park)

One idea that came from the Creative Non-Fiction course was to continue to move forward by doing a variety of things related to our projects. The instructor suggested that I go to Chicago to visit some of the places where Regina lived, worked, etc. I had planned to go at some point but I just found the perfect opportunity. The Chicago History Museum is giving a 4-hour bus tour on Saturday, June 27th. Hyde Park is the section of Chicago where Regina lived as a little girl. She's a graduate of Hyde Park High School--also attended by Amelia Earhart.

I was able to obtain pictures of the two homes where she lived from the Cook County Assessors website: 530 E. 45th Street and 4609 Vincennes Ave.

Association for the Study of African American Life and History

My proposal,“The evening under the stars:” The Cold War Adventures of a Negro Librarian, was accepted for the 2009 Conference of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History from September 30 - October 4, 2009. I'm looking forward to my presentation and to attending the other sessions.

Re: Creative Non-Fiction class

Last week I took a course through the University of Wisconsin's Writers-By-The-Lake program. It was inspiring! I got a lot of feedback from the instructor and the other participants and good ideas about how to improve my manuscript, Harlem Renaissance Librarian. I would highly recommend this instructor, Nancy Beckett, http://www.writingwithnancy.com/ and the program, http://www.dcs.wisc.edu/lsa/writing/wbtl.htm