I am the founder and Executive Director of the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography (CCLaP), a new organization in the city that will be opening this September. Our website, at cclap.org, will be opening much sooner, this May in fact, but at this early date still leaves us with no real online presence yet. For those, then, who are already interested in CCLaP at this early date, I have put together a 20-page PDF brochure explaining the center in full detail; you can download it by right-clicking on this link and choosing "Save Link As..." This is being released as a free and open document, by the way, so feel free to repost it at your own website, email it to friends and the like. (Please note that this document was not really designed for printing, although should print on regular sheets of paper just fine if need be.)

The latest:

APRIL 13: Well, okay, all you fellow nerdy early adpoters of Google Calendar - here are some actual events that you can add to that calendar. At least, it's my attempt at coding the right link to a Google Calendar event; please let me know if you have any problems with it. Below is the information that will be added, followed by the direct link for adding it.

Friday, October 13
The CCLaP Sessions: Jonathan Messinger
Dollop Coffeehouse: 4181 N. Clarendon, Chicago
(Calendar event has direct link to Google map)
The second of our monthly series of on-stage interviews with interesting intellectuals. This month, Jonathan Messinger, wearer of many hats: not only the Books editor of Time Out: Chicago, but also host of the Dollar Store Show at the Hideout, editor-in-chief of ThisIsGrand.org, and co-founder of Featherproof Press.
Add this event to your Google Calendar

Friday, September 15
The CCLaP Sessions: Eric Zorn
Dollop Coffeehouse: 4181 N. Clarendon, Chicago
(Calendar event has direct link to Google map)
The first of our monthly series of on-stage interviews with interesting intellectuals. This month, Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn, regarding the upcoming mesh between traditional journalism and online activities like blogs and wikis.
Add this event to your Google Calendar

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MARCH 22: I'm happy to announce three major pieces of center news at this early date:

1) Our Director of Live Events has officially come on board - her name is Nikki Patin, and you can learn more about her here, if you want.

2) Our first partnering venue has officially come on board - it's Dollop Coffeehouse, 4181 N. Clarendon, in the Uptown/Buena Park neighborhood north of Wrigley Field. They will be hosting our live-event series "The CCLaP Sessions," one-hour on-stage interviews with intriguing intellectuals.

3) And speaking of the CCLaP Sessions, we have our first guest to officially announce as well - it's Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn, one of the first midwestern newspaper columnists to embrace blogging as a new medium. I will be interviewing Mr. Zorn on-stage for this event, in the style of public radio, talking about a variety of subjects - his background, his thoughts on Chicago journalism history, how blogging both supports and clashes with this history, and a lot more. It will be on Friday, September 15th, at 8 pm; admission is $3 for the general public, free for Members and Fellows. Please contact me if you'd like to know more.