Grinnell College to Host Performance of “No Blue Memories: The Life of Gwendolyn Brooks” on Jan. 28

Event Details

Time: 7:30 p.m.
Date: Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2020
Location: Roberts Theatre, Bucksbaum Center for the Arts, 1108 Park St., Grinnell

No Blue Memories: The Life of Gwendolyn Brooks brings to life the story of one of Chicago’s most beloved figures. She was an icon, a poet laureate, and a Pulitzer Prize winner — but she was also a treasured educator and mentor to the countless writers and children who knew her as their very own “Miss Brooks.”

Weaving together poetry, storytelling, sound design, original music, and striking visuals, No Blue Memories is an exploration of Brooks’s beloved city and a story of how she navigated identity, craft, and politics over the course of one of the most remarkable careers in American literary history. The performance combines intricate paper puppetry, live actors working in shadow and an original score for an unforgettable multi-media experience.

The concert is part of Grinnell College’s Public Events Series, which sponsors major performances of significant cultural import. The Committee for Public Events, which includes faculty and students, selects between four and six noted performers to visit campus each academic year.

Manual Cinema

Manual Cinema is an Emmy Award winning performance collective, design studio and film/ video production company founded in 2010 by Drew Dir, Sarah Fornace, Ben Kauffman, Julia Miller, and Kyle Vegter. Manual Cinema combines handmade shadow puppetry, cinematic techniques, and innovative sound and music to create immersive stories for stage and screen. Using vintage overhead projectors, multiple screens, puppets, actors, live feed cameras, multi-channel sound design, and a live music ensemble, Manual Cinema transforms the experience of attending the cinema and imbues it with liveliness, ingenuity and theatricality. The company was awarded an Emmy Award in 2017 for “The Forger,” a video created for The New York Times, and named Chicago Artists of the Year in 2018 by the Chicago Tribune.

Tickets

Although the performance is free, tickets are required. Tickets will be available beginning Jan. 24 in the box office at the Bucksbaum Center for the Arts, 1108 Park St., Grinnell. The box office is open from noon to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Phone reservations are not accepted, although interested individuals may call the box office at 641-269-4444 to check on ticket availability during open hours.