Common Ground Doc Chi Premiere on Nov. 18
Naturally Chicago hosting event for star-studded regenerative agriculture film
Regenerative Ag Doc: Can You Dig It?
As many Local Food Forum readers know, I am the communications consultant for Naturally Chicago, the trade association for our region’s Natural Products consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry.
So I’m pleased to share that Naturally Chicago, on Saturday, November 18, is hosting the Chicago premiere of Common Ground, a documentary about regenerative agriculture that aims to inspire a food and climate revolution.
This inspring — and star-studded — film will be shown at 8 p.m. on November 18 at the Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood. Tickets can also be purchased for a VIP reception starting at 6:30 p.m. at the adjacent Music Box Lounge and Steingold’s Deli next door.
Common Ground is a follow-up to Kiss the Ground, filmmakers Josh and Rebecca Tickell’s documentary about reversing soil loss to address climate change. Their goal is a movement to engage a billion people to support a regenerative farming system that produces nutrient-dense food and sequesters vast amounts of carbon in the soil, making food production a climate solution.
Stars of film and TV, including Laura Dern, Jason Momoa, Rosario Dawson and Woody Harrelson, plus other food and farm leaders are featured in the film.
Attendees at the VIP reception will meet the Tickells and local food luminaries who include Rick Bayless, chef/co-owner of Frontera Restaurant Group and co-founder of Frontera Farmer Foundation; Will Allen, pioneering urban farmer and author of The Good Food Revolution; and Jim Slama, managing director of Naturally Chicago and founder of the new Locally Made program that connects Natural CPG brands with retailers.
To attend the VIP reception, you can purchase a VIP ticket… become an Event Host… or become an Event Partner. Click the button to learn more and make your selection.
Or click the button below to go to the Music Box Theatre website, where you can purchase VIP tickets or tickets for the film showing only, which begins at 8 p.m. Tickets, whether VIP or film only, enable you to attend the post-film panel discussion featuring the filmmakers and local food luminaries.
All proceeds from this event support Naturally Chicago's Locally Made program, a groundbreaking initiative designed to connect Illinois retailers with the region's emerging and top-performing brands, many of which are women and minority owned. Their mission is to help natural product entrepreneurs increase sales, create jobs, and thrive in the competitive retail grocery segment.
Learn About Southside Co-op Saturday on Zoom
The developing Southside Food Co-op, which is seeking to open its first community market in Chicago’s under-resourced Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood, is holding a Zoom meeting this Saturday (November 4) at 12 p.m. central to updates on their plans and progress.
The meeting is free and is open to all. The Meeting ID is 388 691 1572.
According to Southside Food Co-op’s website:
A Better Way of Eating, Business, Living, and Life
All Americans deserve access to fresh, healthy, and affordable food. Like many other low-income communities, the South Side of Chicago lacks enough food retailers that carry affordable, nutritious food.
Southside Food Co-op (SSFC) is a Black-led, community-owned cooperative grocery store bringing affordable healthy foods, quality goods, and local products to south side neighborhoods that have endured decades of disinvestment.
Our vision of food sovereignty on the south side includes creating access to foods our community loves: collard greens, eggplants, okra, and summer squash. We will stock local produce and jars of honey. We will partner with urban farmers in our neighborhoods to make sure our residents have access to their lovingly grown food. In the process we will create dignified jobs, build generational wealth, and create a place that offers community for local residents.
That’s a vision we should all get behind. Learn more by attending Saturday’s Zoom call.
Bob’s World, and Welcome to It
My life is pretty much an open book, and I have shared so much about myself that regular readers may know a lot about me. But among the things I haven’t talked a lot about is that I am a serious music lover.
So serious that I had a side gig reviewing concerts for the Third Coast Review arts and culture site from 2019 through this spring, when my day (and night) workload precluded continuing what was a lovely hobby on steroids (I hope to get back to it if my hamster wheel ever slows down).
I mostly covered classical music, of which I am more a fan than an expert, though I did get to cover two Brandi Carlile concerts I’ll never forget and some other things that, as you’ll see below, reflect my eclectic tastes in music.
The photo above is from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra concert on October 21, which featured pianist Conrad Tao (he’s the one standing next to the piano) soloing on George Gershwin’s 1925 Concerto in F.
I have been a huge Gershwin fan since my youth, having been introduced early on to his ground-breaking Rhapsody in Blue (1924) — the composition that introduced the spirit of the Jazz Age to classical music and resonated with the seemingly boundless optimism of New York City (my hometown) in the years before the Great Depression.
His Concerto in F, composed the next year, is a longer, more complex piece, also with a New York vibe but a bit darker, with more nervous energy. Its fast-paced piano solos also are challenging for the soloist. But Tao — born in 1994 in downstate Urbana — gave a breathtaking performance that prompted the audience to cheer after the first movement (a rare deviation from classical music tradition) and rise to a thunderous standing ovation at the conclusion of the piece. It was a memorable night out.
OK, did I mention my musical tastes are eclectic? My wife Barb, who is Irish-American, got me interested in Celtic folk music years ago, which ultimately led to us becoming fans of the related folk music of French Canada. On October 18, we attended the Old Town School of Folk Music concert of Le Vent du Nord (The North Wind), a favorite group that is celebrating its 20th anniversary.
There are many similarities between these folk music genres. Fiddles play a central role, both in the upbeat dance tunes and the often-sad songs. The mandolin is present in both Celtic and Quebecois folk.
Both variants of this folk music emphasize the accordion, although in Quebecois music, it seems like it is always played by a big man.
But those flying feet in the photo above are one of the biggest differences. Foot percussion is a lot like Irish step dancing, except it is performed sitting down with the tapping done on a resonant board, usually while the musician is playing along with an instrument. This technique provides a lot of the propulsive energy to Quebecois concerts.
Then there’s this. Rarely seen today, it is a stringed instrument played with a crank, which is said to have originated more than 1,000 years ago. If had never before seen a hurdy-gurdy, now you have.
I didn’t review this concert, but I did do a writeup the last time Le Vent du Nord came to town in January 2020. Little did we know it would be our last Old Town concert before the pandemic would shut down live music for a very long time. Here’s a link to that review if you want even more savoir faire about Quebecois music.
And what’s this? After a roughly 30-year hiatus, I’ve been squeezing in piano lessons at Old Town School. Unlike my nature photos at Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, though, I won’t be ready to exhibit this for quite a while.