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News from Garfield Farm |
On Sunday, April 27th at 2 pm, a multi-media
event including images, readings and music featuring 200 years of
nature writing in the Chicago region will be presented as “Voices
from the Land” at Garfield Farm Museum. Reservations and advanced
ticket sales are required.
While researching for his 2002 book, A Natural
History of the Chicago Region, Joel Greenberg uncovered hundreds of
primary sources, written firsthand accounts, describing the land,
animals, and plants of northern Illinois. Just released, Of Prairie,
Woods, and Water: Two Centuries of Chicago Nature Writing, brings the
words of settlers, bird watchers, poets, hunters, politicians, and wild
flower enthusiasts together in one book reflecting the beauty of this
most subtle landscape. Some of the writings were so inspiring,
Greenberg has brought them to life with the production of Voices from
the Land. This hour long piece includes photographic projections,
readings of these long forgotten once silent words, and musical
accompaniment by folklorists Tom and Chris Kastle.
Supported with help from Garfield Farm Museum
and a $2500 matching grant from the Illinois Humanities Council, the
program will debut at Garfield Farm Museum, a historically intact 1840s
prairie farmstead that is being restored as an 1840s working living
history farm museum. “We have our own words to enjoin this
program as Franklin Green Garfield recorded his impression of the
Illinois landscape he first saw in 1841,” stated Jerome Johnson,
executive director of Garfield Farm. “The grass, the sloughs, the
prairies were covered with a luxuriant growth of verdure. Deer took
cover in the tall grass and hazel brush along the edges of the groves
near some creek or spring, gave birth to their young, and hung about
the same locality until autumn,” wrote Garfield.
The program will be held at the Atwell
Burr House at Garfield Farm Museum. The Burr House, moved on site in
1991 for use as multi-purpose facility will also give testimony to the
landscape that was here. Over the heads of the performers, the original
log floor joists are exposed that were cut from the neighboring woods
over 160 years ago.
Greenberg and Johnson met at a book
signing of his first book. A mutual acquaintance’s name came up
in conversation and this set in motion the preservation of a critical
wooded 16 acres. Greenberg approached the museum to be the nonprofit
entity to sponsor the event and Garfield Heritage Society applied to
the Illinois Humanities Council for partial funding. Subsequent
performances will be held at Chicago Botanic Gardens on June 1st, the
Lincoln Park Zoo on June 22nd, Morton Arboretum July 20th, and at
Volo Bog July 27th.
Advanced ticket sales are required and reservations
may be made by calling (630) 584-8485 or e-mailing
info@garfieldfarm.org. Garfield Farm Museum is located 5 miles
west of Geneva, IL off ILL Rt. 38 on Garfield Road.