Due to coronavirus, the NBA has suspended its 2019-20 season.

NBA To Suspend Season Following Tonight’s Games pic.twitter.com/2PTx2fkLlW

— NBA (@NBA) March 12, 2020

The Chicago Bulls have 17 regular-season games remaining. If and when those games will be played is unclear.

Some thing to note during this week:

This is the actual week of St. Patrick’s Day. While most of the events were scheduled for the previous weekend, some may have been put off with the many cancellations in civic observances. I am trying to keep track of any cancellation or postponement, so some events scheduled for the previous weekend may re-appear here.

So far, I’m seeing, in the wake of the COVID-19 virus emergency, most venues have been posting that they are increasing their diligence in cleaning and sanitizing their premises, and offering more chances for patrons to clean up as well.

Monday, March 16

St. Patrick’s Day, March 17

Wednesday, March 18

Thursday, March 19

Chicago, known as the city that works; however, in the winter of 1981, the city was paralyzed by a record January storm. This caused Michael Bilandic to lose his position as mayor against Jane Byrne in the primary election due to his inept handling of one of Chicago’s worst blizzards. Jane Byrne won the Democratic nomination, becoming the first woman mayor of Chicago. However, Byrne inherited a multitude of problems in her first year in office. She battled strikes by transit workers, schoolteachers, and firefighters.

When Byrne demands an answer to how the police are combating crime in Cabrini Green, the answer was simple, “They keep it contained.” They don’t fight it, and they don’t try to prevent it. It is within these realms that we see the bigger context and the works of mobsters and politicians getting a percentage off of the drug sales and Byrnes interferences of their racketeering was not welcome in Cabrini Green. After hearing this, Byrne decided to move in the Cabrini-Green housing project in an attempt to repress the violence.

Lookingglass Theatre presents the world premiere of ‘Her Honor: Jane Byrne’ written by Ensemble Member J. Nicole Brooks.’ It tells the story about Byrne moving into Cabrini Green in March 1981. The play is filled with political drama and focuses on the stigma of African-Americans living in public housing.

To draw attention to the gang violence and the neglect which created deplorable living conditions at Cabrini Green, Jane Byrne decided to move into an apartment, hoping that her presence would diminish crime; while boosting her political career. Although her slogan stated, “As Long as It Takes,” Byrne left the apartment within 20 days.

Although her intentions to combat crime may have been sincere, others thought it was a publicity stunt. The hasty decision to have an Easter celebration, brought about an uproar from protesters of Cabrini-Green, led by lifelong activist and resident Marion Stamps. Byrne angered that her event of posing with children and Easter baskets for the cameras was ruined, she had them arrested, making it one of the most infamous stunts in the city’s history.

Christine Mary Dunford (who plays Jane Byrne) resemblance of Byrne is uncanny. She does an extraordinary job embodying Jane Byrnes’s mannerism down to the hand that shook when she was nervous or uncomfortable.

Thomas J. Cox was very entertaining as the corrupt public official, Alderman Fred Roti of the 1st Ward, who sparred with Mayor Byrne. Cox’s display of loyalty to the “Democratic Machine” (which was established by Mayor Richard J. Daley) set the tone for the many battles Byrne had to endure.

Taron Patton gave a superb performance as longtime resident Marion Stamps, who went toe to toe with Byrne. Frank Nall, who took on two roles, one as Byrnes husband Jay McMullen and the other as police commander. While he played the loving husband well, his role as the police commander was unsettling, as he believed that the cop’s only responsibility was to patrol the area.

Other notable characters that gave stellar performances were Willie “Mudlife Roc” as Kid, the grandson of Mabel, who was trying to find solace in the world in which he lived. Nicole Michelle Haskins makes her Lookingglass Theatre debut as Tiger, the heroic young girl, who took the bull by the horns and temporarily bonded with Mayor Jane Byrne. Robert Cornelius also made his debut at Lookingglass Theatre as the bookseller Black Che. Che, a statesman with the laid back demeanor that knew “What’s Happening,” garnered the respect of the Cabrini Green residents. 

J. Nicole Brooks captured the distressing lucidity of African-Americans living in the projects. A heart-rending moment was when an elderly resident Mabel Foley (Renee Lockett), talks to the reporter (Tracy Walsh) and tells her about all of the places she never visited. She mentions London, Paris, and includes downtown Chicago, which is only a few miles away from Mabel’s home. It provides a searing reminder of how the privilege is oblivious in understanding the lives of those stricken from the simple pleasures of life. And how people can become moronic to the plight of those imprisoned in a world of violence and fear. 

For a story that took place nearly 40 years ago, “Her Honor: Jane Byrne,” is a mixture of grit and the unflinching truth that Byrne faced during her time in office as mayor. It provides touching moments of raw realism covered with laughter regarding the life of Chicago politics and its segregated communities. 

Let’s Play recommend “Her Honor: Jane Byrne” at Lookingglass Theatre.

Lookingglass Theatre
Her Honor: Jane Byrne
Written and Directed by Ensemble Member J. Nicole Brooks
February 26 – April 12, 2020

Michael,

You have nailed it. One of your life goals, something you told us many years ago when you were childless and single was that at age 35 you wanted to be coaching your son or daughter in baseball. And now at exactly 35 you have been approved to coach H’s local rec league team. It will be some T-ball, some coach-pitch, and should be all fun. Your mother and I congratulate you and guarantee you that coronavirus and weather permitting, our spring will be filled with sunshine, sidelines, and sandlots.

I have one request. Be a good coach. Not necessarily a winning coach–at this level no one should be keeping score. Not a hard-ass coach–many of these kids are having their first experience in organized sports and they should learn that this is friendly competition for the fun of playing the game. Not a biased coach–H should learn immediately that Daddy is the coach for all the kids. And it goes without saying there should be no gender bias.

So what does being a good coach mean to me? Focus on the basic skills you can guide the kids in. Running, throwing, catching, and the idea that physical activity is fun and healthy. Let the kids know that athletics can be a good release from stress, not something that will add to whatever stress they will feel through adolescence and teen years. Let them know that getting a hit is great, but so is cheering a teammate (or a competitor) on a (Willie) Maysian throw or an (Andruw) Jonesian catch.

Emulate the coaches who had a positive impact on you as a youth. Remember also the ones who had you and your teammates in tears. Don’t be one of those coaches. And that youth-basketball coach we witnessed last month? The one who endlessly berated the teen-aged official and disrupted the game? Swear to yourself you will never be that guy.

Prepare yourself. Does the rec league offer training? Take in what they have to offer and filter it through your own sensibilities. Talk to any friends who have already coached and think about what they have to say. Find a good book or website that can guide you as you guide the youngest all-stars.

With no one counting runs, with no stats, and with no victories or losses, how will you know if you are a success? Take a mental snapshot of each kid at the beginning of the season. When the schedule winds down, ask yourself how many players have improved their basic skills since those first days. Ask yourself if you can identify one memorable moment from each child’s season. And be sure that you have shared those highlights, have shared them with everyone.

One more measure of your accomplishment: Next spring check the league rosters to see how many of this year’s players have registered for another season of the old hardball. If you have led them right, making sure each felt their 2020 season was fun and positive, they will all return for 2021.

And Mom and I will be there too. We’ll always have your back. Hit this one out of the park, son!

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After months of feeling full of myself – on my Schwinn with the balloon tires, look ma, no-hands-cocky – I woke up this week decidedly deflated. I don’t know why. But there I was, damp from the night sweats, contemplating life’s transience and the harsh realities imposed by one funeral to the next.

“What’s wrong,” my wife asked.

I was just about to answer, the familiar Pavlovian reactions to imaginary woes bubbling up on cue… why go on, nobody cares, what’s the purpose…when I stopped short; whiplash abrupt; surprising Arlene, and more importantly, myself, with an unexpectedly perky answer, “nothing, absolutely nothing.”

I do not know neither where the angst nor perspective came from, but suddenly I realized, the question of the morning and for all the mornings that wait for my eyes to open, is not what’s wrong, but “what’s right?”

And bam, I made an emotional U-turn. Because I know the answer! I’m conscious of all that is good in my life. And what waits to be done in the time I have left.

For starters, there is the guiding light of the “lovingkindness” prayer I say at the end of meditation, “May I be a source of healing for all beings.” (A bit presumptuous, but the intention is to be caring and kind to each person who comes into my life, one at a time). That is purpose enough to leap out of bed.

The lofty affirmations aside, I’m blessed with good health, I have a dozen projects that keep me busy all day long, I have friends, and I have love… feelings of deep affection for so many people in my life.

Perhaps the most important of my blessings, is to be aware of them! When I wake up as a discouraged, grumpy pessimist skulking around the house, I can choose to behave differently because I am mindful of whom I am and who I want to be. Whatever I decide to do, the choice is mine.

I can make it so by simply saying so.

Literally, I have the power to create myself at each moment. All of us do.

To draw upon that astounding power, start with an understanding of our tendency to explain our lives as “story,” a narrative of the actual experience. That is remembering, not experiencing!

And for most of us, for most of the time, that is how we live our lives, guided by pre-conditions, seeing the world as we have been taught to regard it, not necessary as it is.

I’ll prove it to you.

Read this sentence quickly: “Paris in the the spring.”

Invariably, all of us will read the phrase with a single article, omitting the second “the.” The lesson: we miss what is there when all we see is what we pre-condition ourselves to see!

I still wake with a groan and a growl when the night’s dream has hurled me into the past or worse, left me facing the hellish specter of eternal doom. The past and the fear of the future provide ample justification for giving up and giving in to the often painful realities of aging. But I have a choice. I can be a victim of circumstances or I can take responsibility for my behavior. I can choose the here and now as the relevant moment.

Only by living in the space of ‘what is’ can I become open to the possibility of ‘what can be.’

This past week, I fell back into the old narrative, as I invariably will do from time to time. But the lapses are short in duration and the periods between, longer in length.

The Day of Absence debut in 1965, during turbulent times as America was still embattled with polarization between whites and blacks over issues like the voting rights act, and the Selma to Montgomery march when Alabama State troopers attacked civil-rights demonstrators outside of Selma, Alabama, on a Bloody Sunday. Playwright, actor, and director Douglas Turner Ward, who was also the artistic director of the Negro Ensemble Company, wrote the two-part play Happy Ending: And, Day of Absence featured by The Congo Theater at Victory Garden Theater. 

Performed at Victory Gardens Theater, Congo Square Theatre presents Ward’s Day of Absence, directed by Anthony Irons. Day of Absence is a play where depending on the ethnicity of the audience, the perspective alters. For the white audience, it pierces the soul of historical racism that many today dismiss as stereotypical feelings unresolved from the past. 

For the African-Americans in the audience, it’s a reminder of the past, and present hatred and discrimination we faced daily and a way to bring attention to this unsettling doubt whites believe about racism. 

The question isn’t whether there is any humor in this play, because Day of Absence is disturbingly humorist. It can be hard to see images of hate translated into something you can now joyfully poke and ridicule. The real question is whether through the humor will white America see the pain that people of color had to endure from their racist viewpoints.  

DOA is a one day story, where all the people of color disappear from a Southern town. Clueless to why this strange occurrence is happening, two white men named Lou and Chem, who are talking, looking, and greeting people coming into the store, recognizes this phenomenon and are perplexed.  

The satire in DOA takes a very sharp poke at white privileges and makes references to their inability to function without the support of people of color. Scenes where whites parents are unable to quiet their crying child without the help of Keke, the child’s caregiver. Or when Lou and Clem make comments about how a black female hair changes its length from one day to the next. 

Then a major crisis breaks out when the white Mayor and its white staff members realize that all of the people of color have disappeared and the terrified outcry from the entire town, seeking law enforcement to bring them back once found. When that doesn’t work, the Mayor plays the “blacks love me” card and goes on local television to rally the absent people to return.

Ann Joseph, as the Mayor, -is funny, and she delivers a touching, albeit racist speech to the absentees—including comparing her love for the blacks with the memory of her black caregiver “Mam-nanny.” 

Ward’s Day of Absence features people of color, which were all blacks during the original production in white face. This reverse minstrel-show brilliantly delivers a message to the world that this symptomatic type of bigotry is unacceptable.  

DOA has a plethora of exceptional actors. Kelvin Roston, Jr. Sonya Madrigal, Bryant Hayes, Jordan Arredondo, and Meagan Dilworth. However, we had to call out the fantastic performance of Ronald L Conner duel role and Luke and Jackson.     

Day Of Absence was brave for taking daggers regarding white people who can’t drive themselves, can’t care for their children, or throw out their garbage, bringing attention to the ugliness of racism with a peal of laughter. The message of a day of absence remains prevalent even today. Director Anthony Irons satire’s message of propaganda is refreshing and comical. Irons updated some of the negative references, slurs, slang, and terminology used today to describe ethnic groups while also making fun of ICE and Trump. Signs with a two-fold meaning like, “COME BACK AND WE’LL STOP,” as it turned, providing its real connotations, “AND FRISK.” 

DOA attempt to show the hatred of racism, trying to make whites feel embarrassed with the history of their past; however, I’m sure most walked out more angered than uncomfortable, which blacks would reply; welcome to our world.    

Let’s Play recommends Congo Square Theatre, Day of Absence at Victory Gardens Theater.

Congo Square Theatre at Victory Gardens

Day Of Absence

Written by Douglas Turner Ward

Directed by Anthony Irons

February 27 – March 22, 2020