WHAT MOUSE ARTS AND LETTERS CLUB IS: Mouse Arts and Letters Club is a membership-based cultural society located in the Bridgeport neighborhood of Chicago. All the members are invited to contribute to its programs, which will begin on January 16 in the former credit union we have leased on 555 W 31st Street.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN AT THE MOUSE ARTS AND LETTERS CLUB: For the past year founding club members have hosted News Night and Translation Night at various venues across the city. At Translation Night, professional and amateur translators have read and discussed their translations of literature from all over the world. At News Night, working journalists have shared their work in informal talks with the public. At both events, everyone eats and has a good time. These events will take place at Mouse, as will film screenings, newsroom gatherings, reading groups, chess leagues, language classes, poetry readings, history lectures, acoustic concerts and many other things. As a club member you will also have access to the facility on co-working days and during our expansive after-work hours. If you’d like to come read in our reading vault, or just hang out, you can. We hope our club will help to strengthen bonds of friendship between Chicago’s rich journalistic, artistic, and literary communities.
WHY WE ARE STARTING THE MOUSE ARTS AND LETTERS CLUB: Chicago once had THE DIL PICKLE, the DROP INN, the WIND BLEW INN, and other clubs that gathered people together for debates, readings, and fraternization. Mouse will, like them, be your warm, friendly space that defies national borders, political reaction, and cultural philistinism while allowing you to enjoy and partake in the best cultural programs and projects. At our events like News Night and Translation Night we talk and think through things as friends and equals. We will not bore or patronize you with panel discussions and we will not depend on grant funders. If you share the ends, can employ the means, and embody the spirit, you should apply to join.
WHO MAY JOIN THE MOUSE ARTS AND LETTERS CLUB: We are currently searching for dues-paying members who believe in what we have modeled with projects like News Night and Translation Night and want to lend their creative and organizational talents to like-minded gatherings. Those who are pursuing the arts may be straightened and stifled for lack of money and patronage; others may have bartered away their soul's vocation for money and status. Mouse Arts and Letters may be their only hope and redemption. Our membership rate is $45 a month, but we will never turn away interested members for lack of funds. Talk to us about alternative payments.
