It’s a little hole in the wall on Chicago Avenue. Easy to miss if you’re not looking for it. But it came to life last night. The Abraham Lincoln Bookshop – and its proprietor, Lincoln expert and memorabilia trader Daniel Weinberg, hosted Ravinia Festival in a panel discussion with some of the composers and musicians the festival commissioned to celebrate the bicentennial of the birth of Abraham Lincoln.  The discussion was webcast live, and that presentation will be available for viewing soon at Ravinia.org. Ravinia President and CEO Welz Kauffman, who instigated the many Lincoln activities and commissions over the past three years joined the panel with Chicago composer Lita Grier, whose “Anne Rutledge” set to music the Edgar Lee Masters poem that told the story of Abraham Lincoln’s one true love; Elbio Rodríguez Barilari, whose “Lincolniana” fused classical, Latin rhythms and spoken word to flush out the relationship between Lincoln and Mexican president Benito Juarez; the Lincoln Trio, who toured the state with performances of Lawrence Dillon’s award-winning chamber piece “The Better Angels of Our Nature;” and Chicago's own Ramsey Lewis, who won rave reviews for his multi-media jazz tone poem “A Proclamation of Hope.” The live web discussion was held in the quaintly attractive Abraham Lincoln Book Shop at 357 Chicago Ave, Chicago. Each artist talked about the experience of turning history into art and their own personal thoughts on America’s first martyred president. Usually, I’m satisfied having the work speak for itself, but it was fascinating to hear the artists tell their tales.

Russell Jenkins
Manager of Graphics and Photography