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.

I know it's early, but I wanted to go ahead and get an entry up concerning the CCLaP Sessions, for those who are interested; the series is set to begin on September 15th, and we already have a whole collection of intriguing guests to announce.

So what are the CCLaP Sessions, you might be asking? Well, the Sessions are our attempt to highlight a side of the literary world not usually given the spotlight; the world of the intellectuals, the editors and reviewers of the industry, columnists and journalists and others who don't often get to express personal opinions in public. I in particular find this side of the literary world just as fascinating as the creative writers themselves; and based on the audiences I've seen at similar past events, I suspect that there's a large crowd out there who shares this opinion.

CCLaP Sessions are two hours apiece, from 8 to 10 pm on Friday evenings; in the first half, an interview is done with the guest on-stage by me (Jason Pettus, CCLaP's Executive Director), in a freeform conversational style in the manner of Charlie Rose or Tom Snyder. During the intermission, then, questions on notecards are collected from the audience; the second half then tackles these questions, along with more conversation. The entire thing is recorded, by the way, and complete MP3 versions released for free at the website a few days later, under a Creative Commons license and completely devoid of crippling copy-protection software.

The CCLaP Sessions will be held in the back room of Dollop Coffeehouse, at 4181 N Clarendon in the Uptown/Buena Park neighborhood; click here to see an interactive Google map of the location. And even at this date, I'm very happy to announce that we have three really great guests lined up for the first three shows, ones I hope you're as excited to see speak as I am. On Friday, September 15th, for example, we have Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn, one of the first mainstream columnists in America to embrace blogging, and to this day one of the only ones to really get what blogging can add to traditional journalism. For this Session, we'll be talking with Eric about his start in the journalism industry, what led him to both the Tribune and to blogging, some of his crazier adventures as a well-known columnist, and both his intellectual and political thoughts about the future of journalism, both the traditional and the new-fangled citizen kind.

On Friday, October 13th, then, the CCLaP Sessions is proud to welcome Jonathan Messinger, the wearer of many hats here in Chicago: the Books editor of Time Out: Chicago; founder and host of The Dollar Store Show at the Hideout; and co-founder of Featherproof Books, a highly respected small press. Needless to say, this will be an event jam-packed with funny stories and interesting opinions, so make sure to get there early.

And then on Friday, November 10th, the CCLaP Sessions will be featuring a friend of mine, Andrew Huff, founder and editor-in-chief of Gapers Block, an irreverent Gawker-like guide to Chicago news, events and politics. What Andrew's done with Gapers Block is pretty amazing, I think, and is what led me to wanting to be friends with him in the first place: in just a few years, he has taken something that was essentially a personal hobby, and has turned it into a publication that has garnered national recognition, is quoted regularly by the Chicago mainstream media, and is (gasp) actually turning a profit. And he's managed to do it while being a magnanimous fellow, and both a friend and supporter of the local arts. Andrew is usually not so forthcoming about his personal opinions, in his capacity as editor-in-chief of a journalism publication; I think it'll be interesting to hear him speak on the 10th, about some subjects he maybe usually doesn't get a chance to talk about.

All events are $3 for the general public, free for both Members and Fellows. If you're interested, by the way, in just tracking the news here about the CCLaP Sessions, we have a special HTML page that always shows the latest, as well as a special RSS feed just for those entries.

I know it's early, but I wanted to get an entry up about the upcoming CCLaP Showcase series, for those who are interested. Right now it's set to begin on Saturday, September 23rd, and continue monthly on Saturdays after that.

The CCLaP Showcases are a way for the staff of the center to highlight writers we think worth promoting, but who might not yet have the body of work needed for their own feature or one-person show. Each showcase is grouped around a common theme, whether relating to the writers or the work in question -- "sexy librarians," "bloggers," "politically-incorrect erotica," the list just goes on and on. Each showcase, then, will feature from four to eight such writers, hand-chosen by the CCLaP staff, each reading for about 15 minutes.

We are currently in talks with a local independent bookstore, concerning hosting the CCLaP Showcases; more details will be released here as they become available. We are also always on the lookout, by the way, for other independent bookstores and cafes who would like to host similar events, as well as our Member-led clubs, workshops and social events; doing so will get your logo shown on every page of this site, as well as select printed material. To express an interest, please simply contact us. The CCLaP Showcases are programmed and hosted by Nikki Patin, Director of Live Events. And don't forget, working writers, joining our free Fellowship program will get you first invitation to perform at such events.

Interested in just tracking the news about the CCLaP Showcases, by the way? We have an HTML page here where you can always find the latest, as well as a special RSS feed just for those entries.

I know it's a little early to be talking about this, but I wanted to get an entry up here at the website about the upcoming CCLaP poetry slam (known simply as the CCLaP Slam), for those who are interested. Right now it's set to begin on Tuesday, September 19th, and to be held every Tuesday after that.

And what is a 'poetry slam,' I hear many of you asking? Well, it's a joke of sorts, a gimmicky bar trick invented by a fellow Chicagoan named Marc Smith in the 1980s, as a way of getting a drunken late-night audience to be quiet and listen to poetry; over the years, though, it has turned into a legitimate competition, one with even an annual national tournament. The slam itself couldn't be much simpler: before the show starts, a number of random people in the audience are selected, who then become the "judges" of that night's slam. Poets, then, get on the stage one at a time, and have three minutes in which to perform an original poem or monologue; the judges give them a score from one to ten (highly influenced by the cheering/booing audience around them), with the higher-scoring poets moving on to the next round.

The CCLaP Slam will work the same way most traditional ones do, but with two major exceptions: that judges will actually give two scores, one for writing and one for performance; and in the case of our slam, scores will be kept secret until each round is completed. We at CCLaP feel that the slam is perhaps just a bit too weighted on the side of performance ability instead of writing; that's why we've instituted the scoring system we have, to help those competitors who may be excellent with the pen but not so hot yet on a stage. And we also believe that publicly-announced scores after each poet lead to a situation called "score creep;" where judges feel an unnatural pressure to keep increasing the score for each subsequent poet, in order to keep the howling drunken audience members at bay. By keeping the score results secret until each poet is finished performing, we hope it will lead to judges casting much more honest votes for how they think each poet did.

Six competitors will be allowed into each CCLaP Slam; after the first round this will be dropped to four poets, and then to two for the final round. The winner each week will receive a small prize, either in cash or as a gift from one of our sponsors. Weekly results will also be tallied; come May 2007, the eight Chicago poets with the highest cumulative scores will be invited to the CCLaP city finals. From those eight, four will eventually be chosen to represent CCLaP at the 2007 National Poetry Slam (or NPS), being held next year in fabulous Austin, Texas. Although this can't be promised at this point, we are also hoping to subsidize team members' expenses to the national tournament, to the point where they will only need to pay for their food and drinks while there; if possible, we will also be setting up a 10-day spoken-word tour for the team, on a straight line from Chicago to Austin in the week and a half before the NPS.

Oh, and don't forget that the slam is merely one part of a much larger overall event; each evening, in fact, starts with a 45-minute non-competitive open mic, and also contains a 30-minute featured performance, either by a local veteran or touring out-of-towner. (Out-of-town artists, by the way, can simply contact us to learn more about featuring at the slam while visiting.) The entire event lasts approximately two and a half hours, typically from 8 to 10:30 pm.

CCLaP is currently seeking a great venue for our poetry slam. Do you know of one? Please let us know! Please bear in mind that the venue needs to possess the following traits in order to be considered: a dedicated back room to hold the slam, away from the general crowd; both cheap drinks and expensive ones; within four blocks of an el stop; and perhaps most importantly, a barstaff who actually wants the slam there, and will hopefully even get up and perform themselves on a regular basis. We offer a very simple deal for any venue who's interested: that we charge a small cover fee to attend ($3; free for Members and Fellows), and the venue keep all other revenue made at the bar that night. We are also seeking either one person or a team who would be interested in hosting the CCLaP Slam each week; please contact us to express an interest.

All events are $3 for the general public, free for both Members and Fellows. If you're interested, by the way, in just tracking the news here about the CCLaP Slam, we have a special HTML page that always shows the latest, as well as a special RSS feed just for those entries.

More about poetry slams: 2007 NPS Austin; Poetry Slam Inc (national organization for the NPS); Chicago's Green Mill poetry slam (the one that started them all); Chicago's Mental Graffiti poetry slam; Kurt Heintz' An Incomplete History of Slam.

Wow, hard to believe, but after two years of working on the plans for this arts center, our live-event schedule finally begins in a mere two and a half weeks. Yikes, I'm nervous! And that's because we still have a lot to do before the first event happens, including finding venues for our three ongoing shows. Want to help? Got a place in mind? Here's how the month of September is looking, for those who are interested...

--To start, on Friday September 15th will be the first CCLaP Session, in this case featuring Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn. This was formerly scheduled to be held at a coffeehouse in the Uptown neighborhood, owned by the boss of my last day job; but he and I have ended up having a falling-out, so now we're back to having no venue. (It's this previous day job, in fact, that has ended up causing all these problems with CCLaP in the first place; namely, that I ended up putting in over 420 work hours at it in two months, leaving me with just absolutely no time at all this summer to work on these final details.)

--Then on Thursay, September 21st will be the first of our CCLaP Showcases; three to five mid-level writers, many with their own books and zines, each reading on a common subject picked in advance. And yes, once again, we currently have no venue associated with this show.

--And then on Monday, September 25th, comes the date that I know many of you are looking forward to -- the first CCLaP Slam and open mic. And no, we don't have a venue for this yet either!

After this, then, CCLaP settles down into its regular schedule; the Slam every Monday, the Showcases the third Thursday of each month, the Sessions the second Friday of each month. Anyway, that's the latest; and if any of you either own or work at a venue in Chicago that would be interested in sponsoring one of these shows, or simply know of a cool place that you think will likely say yes, by all means please let us know. By all means let us know!

Happy news to report today; that the CCLaP Showcases, our monthly themed exhibition of mid-career writers, finally has a host. It's Katherine Hodges (pictured above outside the excellent Quimby's Bookstore in Wicker Park), someone who's been a friend of mine for a long time, and who I'm proud to have joining our staff.

For those who don't know, Katherine has been involved with the world of small-press and zine publishing since literally a teenager; in fact, it was a music zine she did in high school called "Spiffy" that first brought her to national attention, after her infamous article "My Mom Made Dinner for Pavement." (Her mom in fact even made Pavement a cake, with a big P made of icing on the top; when they asked what the P was for, she replied, "For Pavement!")

Katherine has been in the forefront of the basement-press community since then, regularly attending conferences and conventions on the subject around the world, as well as self-publishing a series of confessional booklets and zines, detailing such subjects as weight, identity, and moves to giant cities at a young and possibly not-ready age. (Her latest project, for example, is entitled "City of Destiny" and concerns all of these subjects; but Katherine asked me not to link to its blog, because "Oh God, I haven't updated it in such a long time, I'd just be ashamed of myself at this point." So okay, Katherine, update that blog already!)

And speaking of which, Katherine has of course asked if she can have a little extra time to get herself ready for these shows, which we're of course happy to do; and that's why the official start date for the CCLaP Showcases is now set for Thursday, October 19th. Don't forget, the Showcases has its own page here at the website, as well as its own RSS feed, for those who would like to check out the latest news concerning just that subject; and since Katherine is now a Fellow of the center as well, she too has her own webpage and her own RSS feed. I hope you're as excited as I am that Katherine is now in charge of this series; I'm looking forward to some great Showcases this fall!

Hi ho, all -- Jason Pettus here, CCLaP's Executive Director. There has been lots of little tweaking going on recently of the center's plan, as we get more involved with the final things that need to happen before our live-event schedule starts. None of them have been interesting enough for their own entry here, frankly; but now that some have accumulated, I thought it'd be okay to post them all at once.

--First, as another entry here goes into detail, we have a host for our monthly CCLaP Showcases, a basement-press and zine veteran named Katherine Hodges. She needs a little time to get up to speed, though, which means that the series will now not begin until Thursday, October 19.

--Second, we've been thinking it over for awhile, and have finally decided that we're going to change the admission fee to our live events, before they actually start; to $5 total, from the $3 it had previously been. We ended up deciding on this for a number of reasons; to put us more in line with our direct competition, so that we could earn a little more per show, and of course because it's easier to eventually lower the price for a show than eventually raise it.

--Third, as long as we're moving the start date of the CCLaP Showcases to late October, we've decided to do the same with the CCLaP poetry slam and open mic too; this will give us more time to secure a venue, and get out the first round of publicity regarding the show.

--And then finally, some fairly major and sad news to announce as well; that Nikki Patin will not have the chance to be our Assistant Director anymore. It's a story as old as time itself unfortunately; since we do not have the budget for CCLaP to be Nikki's full-time job, she simply must make her full-time jobs her main priority. Did you know, by the way, that Nikki works at some amazing places around the city already, including The Center on Halsted and Young Chicago Authors? Or that she has an amazing creative career of her own, which keeps her constantly touring or recording almost a third of the entire year? Yeah, she's awfully busy; which is why I can't blame her for not having the time to take on CCLaP as well, even though it's still admittedly disappointing news to me.

Nikki's deciding at this point if she'll have the time to still be the host of the CCLaP Slam; I'll let you know later this fall, as soon as I know myself. For those who are curious, Nikki's former duties will simply fall back to me; I'm open for maybe hiring a new Assistant Director if someone is interested (please just contact me if you are); or maybe just relying on volunteers to take on very specific aspects of operations (like fundraising, the social-event program, marketing, etc), working maybe only five hours a week, in return for a free Fellowship and all the benefits that come with that.

Anyway, that's what's going on with us! It's strange being a transparent company sometimes, I'll tell you; how the public sees every step of what's going on, before the final plan is put in place. Don't forget that our first show, The CCLaP Sessions featuring Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn, is still coming up on Friday, September 15th; and we're actually getting pretty close to finalizing a new venue for the show, too, and should hopefully have the name of the place to announce just about a week from now (or a week before the show, if you want to think of it that way). Zorn's columns recently have sometimes just been side-splittingly funny in this righteous way (including recent rants against Kumbaya and Olympic gold-medalist Shani Davis); I'm really looking forward to sitting down and talking with him.

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.