Upcoming events.
Power of Your Vote
Planned Parenthood Illinois Action hosts their first bilingual voter education event to discuss voting rights, the importance of local government, and how to make your voice heard.
Nicola Twilley Presents Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves
Join us for a conversation with author Nicola Twilley about her latest book, Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves.
Film Screening: Cat City
Film screening: Cat City, a feature documentary chronicling Chicago’s love/hate relationship with feral cats.
Film Screening: Ma'am Tere
Film screening: Ma’am Tere, a film about specialty coffee in the Philippines and the people behind it.
Land in Common
On Sat., Nov. 11, join us in the Packingtown Museum at The Plant for an interdisciplinary symposium on land justice. Topics include the ideological underpinnings of the idea of ‘the commons’ and its application in Europe and the US, how urban farms become microcosms for new social worlds, and how civil rights law can combat environmental racism.
Symposium: The Future of Meat
On Sat. Nov. 12, the Goethe-Institut Chicago presented a day-long symposium at The Plant exploring the past, present, and future of meat. Convening speakers whose perspectives are informed by religious ethics, environmental policy, critical animal studies, and the science of creating alternative meat, this event considered the impacts of the meat industry and suggested alternatives for its future.
Image courtesy of the Natick Soldier Systems Center Photographic Collection, via the Goethe-Institut Chicago
Microplastics in our Bodies: What’s in our Water, and Why does it Matter?
This past event was a lively discussion with leading experts on microplastics, leaving participants with an action plan to be part of the solutions. A full video recording of the event is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC6uStBp1Fw
Slides from the presentation are found in the section on microplastics here:
https://www.insidetheplant.com/researchlearning
Fundraiser: Faces of Homelessness
Join us for a fundraiser for the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, with programming by the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless and featuring photography by Jeffrey A. Wolin on Fri. June 24 at 6-8pm.
Unfolding Disability Futures
Experience Unfolding Disability Futures, with site-specific performances and installations by local disabled artists on Sat./Sun. Jun. 4-5 and 11-12.
Photo credit: Justin Cooper.
Polish Americans and the Struggle for Organized Labor
Celebrate May Day with Dominic Pacyga and a free in-person presentation on Polish Americans and the Struggle for Organized Labor on Sun. May 1 at 3pm.
Join us to learn about Polish Americans' important role in the history of organized labor in America. This illustrated talk will address the history of Polish Americans and their involvement in the union movement from the first strike in North America in 1619 to today’s struggle to organize workers and expand the role of organized labor in the economy of the United States.
Mottainai Kitchen - free film screening
This past event was a free film screening of Mottainai Kitchen, which explores a “zero waste kitchen revolution” during a road trip across Japan. The film screening and panel discussion were presented in partnership with the One Earth Film Festival during Reuse-a-Palooza at The Plant.
Packingtown Museum Opening Reception
This past event was the long-awaited official launch of the Packingtown Museum. The program included brief remarks from Dominic Pacyga, museum curator and professor emeritus of history at Columbia College, and John Edel, the founder of The Plant and the Packingtown Museum.
If you missed it, we invite you to explore the Museum remotely through the video linked below, or see the event calendar for The Plant to plan your in-person visit.
The Central Manufacturing District: America’s First Planned Industrial District
This past event may be viewed on YouTube at the link below, and it includes subtitles in English and Spanish.
Principal and Architectural Historian Erica Ruggiero of McGuire Igleski & Associates, Inc. presented an overview about the Central Manufacturing District’s origins, heyday, and decline, and the fight to save this one-of-a-kind industrial landmark.
“Build it… and they will come.” This was the philosophy Frederick Henry Prince was operating under when he acquired the Chicago Junction Railroad in 1892 and began building an innovative industrial “office park” along the rail line. Twenty million dollars later, Chicago’s Central Manufacturing District encompassed over 900 acres between six tracts of land and included streets, sewers, rail facilities, docks, an architecture and engineering department, and on-site gardeners– as well as clients including Goodyear Tires, the U.S. Army, William Wrigley & Co., Westinghouse Electric, and more.
"The Chicago Stockyards: 150 Years of Spectacle and Innovation" by Dominic A. Pacyga, Ph.D.
This past event may be viewed on YouTube at the link below, and it includes subtitles in English and Spanish.
Dominic A. Pacyga, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of History at Columbia College Chicago, presented this journey through 150 years at the Union Stock Yards, an epic slice of Chicago with a layered past famously fictionalized in Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, celebrated through the unions who fought for the eight-hour workday, and kept running through workers in the adjacent Back of the Yards neighborhood.