Presented by Celtic Women International and led by Maureen Smith, the iBAM!
Literary salon is an amalgamation of short glimpses into the enchanting world of Irish culture
Presenters, Saturday and Sunday October 15,16 include:
12:00 - Photographer Sheena Jolley - A great photographers Focus on Nature, and her involvement with the documentary “Na Redlegs: Ireland’s Sugar Slaves” photographing the poor white community in Barbados, descendants of Irish people deported by Cromwell.
12:30 - Kathy Cowan -Singer, Storyteller - “Songs and Poems of the Irish Immigrant.” From the time of the Great Hunger to now, Kathy will sing and read poems that tell the story of Immigration to Chicago.
1:00 - Mary Ann Kelley McDermott RN MSN EdD FAAN; critique of "Ireland’s Loss Britain’s Gain Irish Nurses in Britain Nightingale to Millennium"
1:30 - Consul General of Ireland profiles full details on applying for citizenship, a passport, the working holiday authorization program, retiring and studying in Ireland and more!
2:15 Colin Davidson, iBAM’s 2022 Person of the Year will give an illustrated talk on his body of work.
3:00 - Ann McGlinn - Her recently released novel Ride On, See You (Cuidono Press) is set primarily in Dublin, Ireland, where she attended school as a youth.
3:30 - Mary Pat Kelly - “Derry Girls” and Beyond: A City Reborn. Mary Pat spent the Summer in Derry working on her book about how Ireland has been transformed during the last 50 years. It combines memoir with interviews with some of the key figures, many of them women, who have a changed their country utterly. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Derry. “When I first started coming in 1984 it was a city under siege, with one restaurant that closed at 6 pm and, as the Phil Coulter song goes, “bombed out bars and armored cars.” I was there to do a documentary for WTTW about John Hume, the SDLP and the struggle for nonviolent change."
4:00 Rosemary Feurer Mother Jones Project, Statue. She is writing a new biography of Mary Harris “Mother” Jones. She teaches labor history at Northern Illinois University. She is Director of the Mother Jones Heritage Project, which is sponsoring a new play “A Table For Two at the Dill Pickle,” depicting a conversation between Irish labor and independence advocate James Larkin and Mother Jones.
4:30 - Maureen Connolly - Irish Influence in My Novels. Maureen is published in The New Guard, Write City, and The Country Doctor Revisited, among others. Readings include Printers Row, Space, and Guild Complex. Poetry book Wing. Awards from Illinois Arts Council, Chicago Writers Association, Machigonne Fiction Prize.
5:00 Maureen Smith. A Parting Glass
Grab a beverage, and enjoy a relaxed chat with the woman who organizes the Lit Salon, and share ideas for next year!
SUNDAY
Noon: Virginia Boyle - A Wee Look at Ireland, from The Year of the World 3500 BC through 2022. Virginia Boyle is a hereditary Seanachi (bard, storyteller, genealogist) of The Boyles of Killeacle, Kerry from Tyr Boylach, The Land of the Boyles,1601. She continues to tour the world performing original works.
12:30 - Claudia Anderson, Songs in the Irish Singing Tradition
Since retiring from teaching voice and speech in The Theatre School, DePaul University in 2019, Claudia has been focused on singing, guitar, flute, and tin whistle, learning songs and tunes. She participates in the large community of live and zoom singing circles and Irish music sessions.
1:00 - Brenna Briggs - Virtual presentation. Brenna is the author of The Liffey Rivers Irish Dancer Mysteries & Mothers Addicted to Irish Dancing.
1:30 - Theresa Choske - Haunted Castles of Ireland. Theresa wll present a visual program offering the stories behind several haunted castles of Ireland.
2:00 - Lois Farley Shuford - Telling family stories, why it matters. Lois is the author of Finding Home: An Irish American Story. Released in March 2022, this narrative non-fiction book weaves memoir, history and the unwinding of a 100 year old mystery. Author and investigative reporter Lauren Etter, say Finding Home is “a moving and poetic tale told with the humor and grace of a story teller, the doggedness of an investigative journalist and the incisiveness of a historian.”
2:30 Maureen Smith - The Big Brick House: a Digital Family Archive.
Maureen Smith heads of the local branch of CWI. She has a passion for history.
3:00 - Kelly Doherty - Irish Language Introduction. Kelly has a passion for Gaelic, and has been learning and teaching it for years. She will give a brief introduction to Irish language
3:30 Josephine Craven & Barney Farrelly - Irish Play Readings. Josephine has been involved with theatre in Chicago for over two decades: acting, directing and producing. She is a founding member of Inisfree Irish Arts Theatre group, and a lifelong devotee of the oral tradition Ireland is famous for with a particular focus on WB Yeats and James Joyce. Barney is a founder of Gaelic Park Players, performing with them for 30 years. He hails from Co Monaghan and is a complete natural on stage - particularly when eating food - and an audience favorite since he first trod the boards in “A Pound on Demand” in 1992.
4:00 - Kathy O'Neill -
Meet Me at That Place We Used to Go
Kathy O’Neill is a writer and storyteller in the Chicago SLAM story tradition. The award winning writer, arts producer and journalist has been published in New City, Book, Film Globe & ABCNews.com.
4:30 -Maureen Smith - Closing of Salon