The Dil Pickle Club

THE DIL PICKLE CLUB TO BE REVIVED AT THE ZEBRA LOUGE

Radical "Chicago Renaissance" nightspot will be resurrected by editors of Lumpen and Stop Smiling, following the Newberry Library's Bughouse Square Debates in Washington Square Park.

Chicago—The Dil Pickle Club is scheduled to resume activities on Saturday, July 26, 2008, at the Zebra Lounge in the heart of Chicago's Gold Coast neighborhood. Editors from Lumpen and Stop Smiling magazines have programmed a night in tribute to the historic and Dil Pickle Club (Dil with one L!) featuring "short speaking" about the history of "hobohemia" and topics of controversy, new writing, piano cabaret, and performance art.

What:
The Dil Pickle Club

Where:
The Zebra Lounge
1220 N. State Pkwy
Chicago
[Clark/Division Redline or several CTA Bus Routes]

When:
Saturday, July 26, 5 PM to 8 PM

Features:
Free Admission, Live Music by Tom King Clear, Short Speaking by Gale Aherns, New Writing by Michael Marcinkowski, Picture Show by Robin Hustle, Performance Art by Matthew Nicholas and Eric Warner, and Surprises.

Created by local artists, musicians, writers, and organizers, the Dil Pickle Club invites interested parties to mingle and participate in a series of art parties without boundaries. The first happening will occur after the Newberry Library's Bughouse Square Debates in Washington Square Park, down the street at the legendary Zebra Lounge piano bar.

Admission is free. For more information e-mail dilpickleclub@gmail.com.

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About the Dil Pickle Club
Founded in 1914 by former Wobbly Jack Jones, Jim Larkin, and the cadre of Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.) and the Charles H. Kerr Company—and made famous by "clap doctor" Ben Reitman—the Dil Pickle Club became known as the controversial center of the "Chicago Renaissance." Writers Sherwood Anderson, Carl Sandburg, Djuna Barnes, William Carlos Williams, Vachel Lindsay, and Kenneth Rexroth, mingled with radicals, unemployed workers, prostitutes, gangsters, and slumming Gold Coast socialites at the famed "Pickle." The irreverent spirit of the Dil Pickle Club was illustrated by the motto emblazoned on the club's door: "Step High, Stoop Low, Leave Your Dignity Outside."

Although its original location (reached by squeezing "Thru the Hole in the Wall Down Tooker Alley, to the Green Lite Over the Orange Door") is long gone, the new Dil Pickle Club will meet three times yearly, in July, November, and March, featuring works by Chicago artists and their international cohorts.

About Lumpen
Lumpen is a family arts, politics, and culture magazine based out of Chicago. Visit lumpen.com

About Stop Smiling
Stop Smiling is the magazine for high-minded lowlifes, a bimonthly arts & culture publication based in Chicago and New York City. Visit stopsmilingonline.com