At Maxwell Street: Chicago's Historic Marketplace Recalled in Words and Photographs - Hardcover

Tom Palazzolo

9780978967611: At Maxwell Street: Chicago's Historic Marketplace Recalled in Words and Photographs

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0978967615 ISBN 13: 9780978967611

Publisher: Wicker Park Press, Ltd., 2008

Tom Palazzolo, a veteran Chicago filmmaker and photographer, has put together the book At Maxwell Street: Chicago s Historic Marketplace Recalled in Words and Photographs. In 1983, he led a team of his students and colleagues in creating a seminal documentary film called At Maxwell Street. A DVD version of the film is included in the book, about 50 minutes in length, along with additional compelling images of life on the street. Bill Stamets, a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, writes an essay on the DVD for the book, and he says of Palazzolo and his film, That street and this artist shared a kindred hustle and humor ... All manner of social occasions and minor rituals have drawn his attention for over forty years. In detail and editing he has shown off a surreal, juvenile wit. The book and the DVD combine to make a multilayered portrait of the long-gone Maxwell Street marketplace, which was razed by city officials and the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2001 to make way for development of the upscale University Village neighborhood. Palazzolo captures the essence of Maxwell Street in this book, and he employs a host of other artists to help him bring the old place back to life. Lionel Bottari, who grew up in the Maxwell Street neighborhood and whose father was a stall owner there, provides a poignant reminiscence. Linda Platt, a writer who grew up in the Back of the Yards neighborhood, tells a dramatic story of an incident that occurred in Maxwell Street when she was a child. Her husband, John Platt, provides two free-verse poems about Maxwell Street. Marcia Palazzolo, wife of the artist, and Bernard Beckman, another graduate of SAIC, each have their own sections of photographs in the book.

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About the Author:

Tom Palazzolo is a 1965 graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a visiting artist at the School from 1976 1990. He has been photographing activities at Maxwell Street since the early 1960s. He moved to Chicago in 1960 from his native St. Louis, MO. His many films include the narrative feature Caligari s Cure, and cinema verit� documentary classics Gay for a Day, Marquette Park: Chicago Nazis 1976 1978, and Sneakin and Peekin .

Review:

Maxwell Street was a really important place. It was full of vibrancy and a celebration of who we are as Americans, with roots from all over the world. A grassroots avenue for survival got created there for masses of immigrants and poor people. It preserved Old World culture, whether from Ukraine, Mexico, or Mississippi and mixed it with the new, creating art forms such as urban electrified blues. The people to be remembered are the ancestors of many of us. Maxwell Street was influential in making us who we are. By preserving the memory of Maxwell Street s past, Chicagoans of today give a gift of heritage to future generations. -- Studs Terkel --Studs Terkel

The gritty personality and irrepressible verve of our beloved Maxwell Street leaps from these pages: -- Palazzolo s keen, yet impish eye has immortalized a precious slice of Chicago history. -- Laura Washington, DePaul University Professor and Chicago Sun-Times Columnist --Laura Washington

I am writing this about 7 o'clock on a Sunday morning...exactly the time I headed for Maxwell Street dozens of times in the 60's and 70's. I kept going back because there was nothing else like it: the stuff they were selling; the smells we were smelling; the voices and music we were hearing; the pigeons, birds, and people, milling about; the bargains we got for items we didn't need; and the whole feeling of being in a world apart from the city, suburbs, or even open markets I had been to in Europe. Ah, Maxwell Street...nevermore. Thanks, Tommy Chicago for bringing it back (except the smells). -- Tom Weinberg, Chicago TV Producer --Tom Weinberg, Chicago TV Producer

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