In our moment when shared ethical languages seem impossible and where associational life is in decline, this reading and discussion group aims to investigate several related questions: What conditions do ethics require? Is it possible to create a shared ethical world that is neither oppressively exclusive nor so capacious as to be meaningless? Is ethics even a useful register through which to discern "a good life" or are they dependent upon other social/material questions?  For this session, we'll continue with Alisdair Macintyre's After Virtue, Chapters 10-15, in which he lays out the case for virtue ethics as a remedy for our contemporary moral malaise. No need to have attended prior meetings to attend this one and no need to have finished all of the reading!

Our monthly gathering of newshounds and journalists. Like old pub gatherings where people would go to hear the town crier read the news aloud, a trio of journalists will each explain a story they’ve worked on recently, followed by audience questions, comments and concerns.

Bring your current textile project or one you'd like to start and learn from your fellow textile artists while working communally. Knitting, weaving, embroidery, crochet, and all other textile projects are welcome, as are all skill levels.

Come out and learn to play Go, one of the world oldest board games. It takes 10 minutes to learn, but a lifetime to master.

Join a collective of practicing writers to read, discuss, and receive feedback on your literary fiction. Writers should come prepared to share their stories or snippets of stories totaling no more than 3000(ish) words. Two hours, two pieces per session.

Join Pulitzer prize-nominated author Anand Gopal for a group discussion of his masterpiece non-fiction work on one town’s revolution in Syria.

Introducing the new monthly (or at least thereabouts) Wise Man Weekends series, during which we will attempt to go through Frederick Wiseman's entire documentary oeuvre, one film at a time. We'll be starting with Wiseman's 1967 masterpiece TITICUT FOLLIES, an acerbic look at the Bridgewater State Hospital for the Criminally Insane (as it was then called) that established Wiseman as a singular voice in nonfiction cinema.

A screening of works by Allan Ayala Hernandez, Mono Feb, Hugo Zelada-Romero, Daniela Morales, and Jesse Vela

Join animation mad man Parker Davis, author of Cryptid Corner and 1/2 of Harrison and Parker, for an introductory workshop on frame by frame animation. Parker's workshop will show that animation is actually an intuitive, forgiving, fun, active practice! Bring your computers, pen and paper, or whatever else you like, and watch your drawings come to life! WAINSTOP FTW

In anticipation of his visit on October 19th, we will read and discuss Pulitzer prize-nominated author Anand Gopal’s Days of Love and Rage, a masterpiece non-fiction work on one town’s revolution in Syria. Please read the entire book in advance of our discussion, or as much as you can handle :)

Come practice Arabic with speakers of all levels. Conversation will be friendly, accepting, and fun!

Come out and learn to play Go, one of the world oldest board games. It takes 10 minutes to learn, but a lifetime to master.

Join us to welcome the release of Direne Direne: Revolutionary Songs from Turkey, a compilation of leftist music released as a cassette by Torn Light Records as part of their Radio Topo series. Curated by Isaac Hand and Zeynel Gül, the tape captures the socialist chants, folk songs and psychedelic rock anthems that gave cultural expression to Turkey's left during the 60s and 70s. The event will include a short discussion with the curators and a live performance of a few songs. Purchase the tape here. Read its accompanying essay here. 

How to describe Nobuhiko Obayashi’s indescribable 1977 movie House (Hausu)? As a psychedelic ghost tale? A stream-of-consciousness bedtime story? An episode of Scooby-Doo as directed by Mario Bava? Any of the above will do for this hallucinatory head trip about a schoolgirl who travels with six classmates to her ailing aunt’s creaky country home and comes face-to-face with evil spirits, a demonic house cat, a bloodthirsty piano, and other ghoulish visions, all realized by Obayashi via mattes, animation, and collage effects. Equally absurd and nightmarish, House might have been beamed to Earth from some other planet.

This workshop is part of a series of skill shares for our group-led documentary, Halsted St. We will be conducting interviews up and down the street, going from Northalsted all the way down to Cave in Rock, a small town in southern Illinois. Poetry, historical re-enactment, and many other things will also feature in the doc. No problem if you can’t make them all, we’ll take whatever time you’ll give!

You are welcome to drop in for a casual, collaborative South Side Linux User Group (LUG) gathering to explore open source culture and practical tools to exercise digital agency.  A LUG is a community group for self-directed + collaborative study/learning/thinking related to open-source software/systems (those whose source code can be viewed, modified, and distributed freely). This includes not only technical learning/troubleshooting/experimenting/commiserating/encouraging, but also thinking about open source culture and tools to navigate AI/digital sovereignty/data use + privacy and their rising relevance in art/journalism/literature/science/politics + other domains. 

Our monthly gathering of newshounds and journalists.  Like old pub gatherings where people would go to hear the town crier read the news aloud, a trio of journalists will each explain a story they’ve worked on recently, followed by audience questions, comments and concerns.

Bring your current textile project or one you'd like to start and learn from your fellow textile artists while working communally. Knitting, weaving, embroidery, crochet, and all other textile projects are welcome as are all skill levels.

Maps, ideas, pizza party, setting of group intentions! Time to finalize schedules, assemble teams, and produce itineraries detailing how we will accomplish the checklists we’ve agreed on. 

This workshop is part of a series of skill shares for our group-led documentary, Halsted St. We will be conducting interviews up and down the street, going from Northalsted all the way down to Cave in Rock, a small town in southern Illinois. Poetry, historical re-enactment, and many other things will also feature in the doc. No problem if you can’t make them all, we’ll take whatever time you’ll give!

Come vent about your workplace issues and organizing struggles at a fun, informal game night, featuring cards, board games, and chess. Open to anyone interested in labor organizing, from organizing veterans, to workers completely new to organizing, who are curious about improving their workplace. Complaining builds community! Every fourth Friday of the Month.

In our moment when shared ethical languages seem impossible and where associational life is in decline, this reading and discussion group aims to investigate several related questions: What conditions do ethics require? Is it possible to create a shared ethical world that is neither oppressively exclusive nor so capacious as to be meaningless? Is ethics even a useful register through which to discern "a good life" or are they dependent upon other social/material questions?  For this session, we will read Chapters 1-9 of Alisdair Macintyre's After Virtue, in which he diagnosis our shared lack of a shared moral language. No need to do all of the reading or to have attended previous sessions in order to jump into this one! 

Join Shail Modi to help make crane puppets for an upcoming play called “Craniacs”, about cranes and the people who love them.

Observe a variety of interview tactics and then go out into the field and conduct interviews yourself! Following our field exercise we will return to the club to reflect on our experiments.

Screening: Studs Terkel, As it Lays,  Celebrity interviews, Interrogations

This workshop is part of a series of skill shares for our group-led documentary, Halsted St. We will be conducting interviews up and down the street, going from Northalsted all the way down to Cave in Rock, a small town in southern Illinois. Poetry, historical re-enactment, and many other things will also feature in the doc. No problem if you can’t make them all, we’ll take whatever time you’ll give!

This session will teach you the basics on how to form an organizing committee and have conversations with your co-workers about building power to improve conditions on the job.

Topics include:

    Building an Organizing Committee

    Having Organizing Conversations

This single-session training covers the core skills you need to start organizing your workplace.

If you’re interested in our comprehensive training, see our Fundamentals of Workplace Organizing training series. 

In the face of resistance, in the wake of imperialist attacks on communities of immigrants, an art exhibition honoring the legacy of Latine artists within the Chicagoland area. El Barrio Esta Vivo! Open call for art that showcases Latine artists within the Chicagoland area, a celebration of culture and resilience.

Come practice Arabic with speakers of all levels. Conversation will be friendly, accepting, and fun!

Learn the fundamentals of camera operation and cinematography from three seasoned filmmakers. Teachers will go over: Exposure Triangle (ISO-Aperture-Shutter Speed); Framerate; Camera navigation; Camera Settings; Pulling Focus, Shallow/Deep Focus.

Screenings: Onomichi (1963); The Masters of Disaster (1986)

This workshop is part of a series of skill shares for our group-led documentary, Halsted St. We will be conducting interviews up and down the street, going from Northalsted all the way down to Cave in Rock, a small town in southern Illinois. Poetry, historical re-enactment, and many other things will also feature in the doc. No problem if you can’t make them all, we’ll take whatever time you’ll give!

This September is the 25th anniversary of the beginning of the Global War on Terror. On September 12th, "the day after,” please join the Independent Labor Club for a film screening and retrospective discussion on 25 years of GWOT social revolution and the role of media workers in resistance.

On the 25th anniversary of the War on Terror, join Mouse members in considering a definitive document of the American invasion of Iraq: “Homeland: Iraq Year Zero” by Iraqi-French film director Abbas Fahdel. The two-part, six hour documentary records Fahdel’s family’s life before and after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. It is a monumental and shattering work made of thousands of ordinary moments of life in and around Baghdad.