CCLaP

Greetings, if this is your first time to the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography; my name is Jason Pettus, CCLaP's Executive Director, and I welcome you. I thought I would take a moment, for all of you who are new, to explain exactly what the center is all about, and what exactly we do. This information is also laid out all pretty-like in a PDF brochure, for those who would prefer reading it that way; simply right-click on this link and choose "Save Link As..." to your hard drive.

CCLaP's mission is to connect underground artists of outstanding quality with the audience eagerly seeking these artists; we do this by maintaining a uniquely personal relationship not only with our artists but with our audience as well. It's to both groups that we seek advice, project ideas, tips on who to feature, even hosts of our live events, workshops and clubs. And instead of maintaining separate membership and artist-development programs, CCLaP combines the two into one, bringing both artists and patrons together in not only a professional but social way.

CCLaP's specific list of products and services can be broken down into the dozens, but roughly fall under one of the following groups:

Live events: Those we usually charge an admission fee for, unless otherwise noted. Includes the weekly CCLaP Slam; monthly CCLaP Showcases; monthly CCLaP Sessions; as well as special events. All events, unless otherwise noted, are $3 for the general public, free for both Members and Fellows.

Creative work: A growing collection of artistic work on display, made by both Members and Fellows of CCLaP, as well as fans and audience members. This collection will also be turned into merchandise, starting later this year, that will be sold online and in general gift stores in the Chicago area; it is the main way our for-profit center plans on paying our bills.

Community events: Those that are usually free to the general public, unless otherwise noted, most also organized and run by our Members and Fellows. Includes workshops on both artistic and business issues; a series of discussion and hobbyist clubs; an entire series of intelligent family events; as well as our special "CCLaP After Dark" series, specifically for those over the age of 21.

CCLaP Online: Special online features we offer only at our website. Includes a regularly-updated podcast; an ever-growing collection of frequently asked questions; a collection of over 30 RSS feeds; as well as a special section called the Sandbox, where artistic work is released under a special Creative Commons license, for other artists around the world to use legally in "mash-ups." This section will also eventually include the "Cafe Network," a new social network CCLaP will sponsor, linking visual artists with the cafes and other retail spaces in Chicago that feature artists, as well as the audience looking for both these artists and venues. It will also eventually include a wiki, maintained by our Members and Fellows, entitled "The CCLaP Guide to Being a Self-Sustaining Artist."

Publications: Starting early in 2007, there will also be a publications section to the CCLaP website, where you will not only be able to download the latest eBooks for free, but also directly order and pay for our latest paper books, to be FedExed or mailed straight to your home. (CCLaP is currently seeking a publications intern for the 2007 winter semester; to get an early jump, contact us now.)

Regular events start in September 2006; CCLaP is currently hosting a series of special one-time events throughout the summer. To learn more about any of these products or services, please click on their category in the sidebar menu.

Hey, this is pretty cool; I'm happy to announce that CCLaP is an official participant in the "100 Geek Dinners in 100 Days" event taking place this summer, sponsored by a South African winery called Stormhoek. The winery has just started selling their product in America, in fact, and have come up with an ingenious way of promoting it; they are sponsoring 100 random dinners all over the country this summer, some hosted by groups and others by individuals, where they are providing enough free Stormhoek wine to get everyone involved at least half-lit. Now that's an ad campaign I can get behind!

Anyway, our dinner will be coming up in early August, hopefully on Saturday, August 5th from 7 to 9 pm; we can accommodate up to 10 guests, and are ready for your reservation right now. To RSVP, simply contact the staff; the event is free, just like all our community events are, although you will need to pay for your own food. By the way, we are seeking a restaurant who would like to host this event! If you own a BYOB restaurant in Chicago yourself, or has a friend who does, who would like to see the restaurant mentioned incessantly here in the coming months, as well as photos and videos posted afterwards at Flickr and YouTube, you should feel free to contact us as well.

Don't forget, we are also ready to accept your proposals for other "CCLaP After Dark" events; social get-togethers specifically for those 21 and older, consisting of adults being adults. Click here to learn more; or for those seeking news just about the After Dark program, we have a special HTML page that always shows the latest, as well as a special RSS feed just for those entries.

Come this fall, CCLaP's family-event program will kick into full gear, including events on at least a monthly basis organized by the center's staff. For now, though, we are more than ready to start accepting our first event proposals, by all of you in the Chicago area who might be interested in organizing and running one.

What do we mean by 'family-friendly?' Well, the hope anyway is that it be a smart event, literally meant for an entire family; something that engages both the parents and children, something that lets them both grow as individuals and mature as a unit. This being Chicago, of course, we imagine that events will follow a traditional seasonal schedule: that is, during the winters here, family events will mostly be indoor activities like readings and crafts, while during the summer our events will include more field trips, scavenger hunts, stamping events and the like. The point of CCLaP's family-event program, like all the rest of our services, is to act as a laboratory; to let people in the community try new things, take chances, put together events that they think others might enjoy.

All community events are run by our Members and Fellows; or non-Fellows can run a family event as a way of qualifying for a Fellowship, if they prefer. To propose one, simply contact the CCLaP staff; if accepted, the center will pay for all your publicity and promotion, as well as help you find an appropriate venue if you need assistance. For those who are interested in just the news here about the family-event program, we have a special HTML page that always shows the latest, as well as a special RSS feed just for those entries.

Come this fall, CCLaP's community club program will kick into full gear, including events on at least a weekly basis, some actually organized by the center's staff. For now, though, we are more than ready to start accepting our first hobbyist and discussion club proposals, by all of you in the Chicago area who might be interested in organizing and running one.

What do we mean by 'club?' Well, that's simply a community event (that is, free for the general public), where those with a specific interest come together as a group of peers. Perhaps that might be for discussing the arts or politics, where a different book or subject is picked for each month's salon; or perhaps all of you share a common hobby, like knitting or rubber-stamping, origami or model-making. Or perhaps you're interested in starting a local chapter of a national organization, but need help organizing and promoting it: a Chicago chapter of Great Books, for example, or Socrates Cafe, or the Esperanto Society. The point of CCLaP's club program, like all the rest of our services, is to act as a laboratory; to let people in the community try new things, take chances, put together events that they think others might enjoy.

All community events are run by our Members and Fellows; or non-Fellows can run a club as a way of qualifying for a Fellowship, if they prefer. To propose one, simply contact the CCLaP staff; if accepted, the center will pay for all your publicity and promotion, as well as help you find an appropriate venue if you need assistance. For those who are interested in just the news here about the club program, we have a special HTML page that always shows the latest, as well as a special RSS feed just for those entries.

Come this fall, CCLaP's community workshop program will kick into full gear, including twice-monthly workshops for working writers organized by the center's staff itself. For now, though, we are more than ready to start accepting our first workshop proposals, by all of you in the Chicago area who might be interested in organizing and running one.

What do we mean by 'workshop?' Well, that's simply a community event (that is, free for the general public), where something of interest or importance is being taught to a group of others. This could be artistic in nature -- how to be a better writer, how to be a better photographer -- or perhaps focus more on the business side of things -- how to read a contract, how to pitch to a gallery owner. The point of CCLaP's workshop program, like all the rest of our services, is to act as a laboratory; to let people in the community try new things, take chances, put together events that they think others might enjoy.

All community events are run by our Members and Fellows; or non-Fellows can run a workshop as a way of qualifying for a Fellowship, if they prefer. To propose one, simply contact the CCLaP staff; if accepted, the center will pay for all your publicity and promotion, as well as help you find an appropriate venue if you need assistance. For those who are interested in just the news here about the workshop program, we have a special HTML page that always shows the latest, as well as a special RSS feed just for those entries.

Earlier today I made mention of CCLaP's first "After Dark" event, social get-togethers we host specifically for people over the age of 21. You can click here to read the details, but it's basically a "geek dinner" being sponsored by a South African winery named Stormhoek, who will be providing plenty of free bottles of their products in exchange for you paying for your own food. I was just reminded by some friends, though, of another thing that will be happening around the same time; that CCLaP will be getting in its first official batch of merchandise, not only the t-shirts owed to Members and Fellows but also buttons (EU: badges), stickers and postcards.

And since we'll need to get those t-shirts to our community anyway, and since there still won't have been any center-wide social events at that point, I've decided to just make a two-part night out of it; to still host the Stormhoek dinner from 7 to 9 pm that night, for a total of 10 people, and then to move the activities to a nearby bar, for a much larger and drink-only CCLaP "Swag Night." This will be the community's first chance to physically meet each other; for Members to hang out with fellow fans of the arts, for artists to hang out with other artists, and of course for both groups to mingle as well. This will also be a chance for existing members of the community to pick up their promised t-shirt, as well as for new people to sign up immediately for one.

Venue not yet determined! Hmm, hmm! Know of a fun tavern-style bar where we could hold such an event, say from 9 to 11 pm on Saturday, August 5th? Please contact us to send along suggestions and recommendations. Don't forget, if you're interested in tracking just news about the CCLaP After Dark program, we have a special HTML page where you can always find the latest, as well as a special RSS feed containing just those entries.

So, earlier this week I broke the news about CCLaP's first center-wide social event: something we're calling "Swag Night," which basically means that our first batch of t-shirts will finally be ready, which we'll be handing out at a bar that's yet to be determined. And if this wasn't enough, I've now decided to throw down another gauntlet: that I, Jason Pettus, will personally be picking up the bill for the first $100 in drinks that members of the CCLaP community order.

So yes, artists, that means if you get there early and drink fast, the entire thing's free for you. And for all of you with white-collar jobs who can afford their own drinks, come down and be entertained by all the drunk artists! That's the whole point of CCLaP's social events, after all, to bring together both the creative community and those who love the underground arts, in a direct way we hope you'll find much more satisfying than some $75-for-a-totebag ripoff con job traditional membership program.

CCLaP's "Swag Night" is currently scheduled for Saturday, August 5th, from 10 pm to midnight; let us know if you own a tavern in Chicago and would be interested in hosting it. The bartender gets a 20-percent tip on top of the hundred bucks, by the way. And don't be surprised if we have a couple of great impromptu performances from local poetry slammers...those who got there early and drank fast, anyway.

So, I have some news to share today that I'm not particularly excited about, nor particularly happy about; that due to a lack of money, I've had to postpone CCLaP's live-events schedule to spring of 2007, versus this Friday when it was supposed to kick off. It's a frustrating decision for me, one that I put off until the last possible second -- after all, we were less than a thousand dollars away from being ready to start the live-events schedule, and I was really hoping that we might have pulled off a miracle there in the last couple of weeks. But alas, no.

Of course, this isn't all bad news; I've decided in fact to move CCLaP's publishing schedule, originally slated to begin next spring, up to the present day. So for the majority of you who interact with CCLaP (all you website visitors, that is), not much will change here; we'll still be featuring great creative work from brilliant artists around the world, and also sharing news and tips from the rest of the world of the underground arts. In fact, for those of you who live outside Chicago, you actually may be pleased by this announcement; it means not only the usual short stories, poems, essays, photos and more here at the site, but also a continual series of full-length electronic books being published by us too, all of them available for free, none of which contain crippling digital-rights management (DRM) software.

It probably goes without saying that it's been a stressful week for me; that's why I've decided to take just a bit of a break from CCLaP, perhaps a week or so, to regroup and get in touch with the authors and artists who I've been talking with this summer. As always, I appreciate the support that many of you have given the center, and hope that you'll continue to visit here this fall and winter.