CHICAGO POEMS, published by Carl Sandburg in 1916, is an ode to a city. It’s a clear eyed and unapologetic love letter: where you tell your true-love you love them not in spite of their imperfections but because of them. This was Sandburg’s first volume of poetry, written in the years just after 1912 when he moved to Chicago.

In some ways, Sandburg’s writing was before its time–more like the social realism you associate with the later 1920s and 1930s–think Grant Wood’s American Gothic, think Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother. This was a time when industry, agriculture, and the worker were the heroes of popular art.

Sandburg starts Chicago Poems with “Chicago.” Read it here and see its opening stanza visualized in poster art by clicking on the images above.

CHICAGO BY CARL SANDBURG

        Hog Butcher for the World,
        Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
        Player with Railroads and the Nation’s Freight
            Handler;
        Stormy, husky, brawling,
        City of the Big Shoulders:

They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I
    have seen your painted women under the gas lamps
    luring the farm boys.
And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it
    is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to
    kill again.
And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the
    faces of women and children I have seen the marks
    of wanton hunger.
And having answered so I turn once more to those who
    sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer
    and say to them:
Come and show me another city with lifted head singing
    so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cun–
    ning.
Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on
    job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the
    little soft cities;
Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning
    as a savage pitted against the wilderness,
            Bareheaded,
            Shoveling,
            Wrecking,
            Planning,
            Building, breaking, rebuilding,
Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with
    white teeth,
Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young
    man laughs,
Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has
    never lost a battle,
Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse.
    and under his ribs the heart of the people,
                        Laughing!
Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of
    Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog
    Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with
    Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.

Lange will be the subject of an upcoming AMERICAN MASTERS film.

PART ONE

PART TWO

About THIRTEEN

For fifty years, THIRTEEN has produced a wide array of high quality, ground-breaking and provocative programs for public television audiences in the New York area and across the country. Their 50th Anniversary Video Vault samples of some of the finest programs produced by THIRTEEN over the last half century.

The ‘Astarte’ Interview

BY SHERI CANDLER
Having secured regular income and a new home at New York’s City Center complex, the company was up and running again after the near disastrous break with the Harkness Foundation. The years 1966-69 were a fruitful time of creation of work within the company and Robert Joffrey began to do something he had long strived for, reviving works by the masters from ballet history, particularly from the Diaghilev era.

Boris’s Cakewalk, Jooss’ The Green Table, Arpino’s Olympics, Trinity and The Clowns, Massine’s Le Tricorne were all notable works created or revived and performed at this time, but few had the same impact as Robert Joffrey’s Astarte.

Astarte is the Greek name of a goddess known throughout the Eastern Mediterranean from the Bronze Age to Classical times. She is associated with sexuality, fertility and war. Former Joffrey dancer Trinette Singleton remembers the day the rehearsal sheet went up announcing that a new ballet was being created by Mr. Joffrey:

“When Astarte first started into rehearsals, nothing was said. The rehearsal sheet went up and it just simply said new ballet, my name, Dermot Burke’s name, and Robert Joffrey’s. We went in and we were nervous and excited to be working with Mr. Joffrey. We had no idea what to expect. There was no music and we simply started working on movement. Nothing was said; we were in the dark. That was the beginning. We were clueless.”

Dermot Burke injured his knee soon after rehearsals started and he was replaced by Max Zomosa.

“Max had already been working with the company. He had done Death in The Green Table, so Mr. Joffrey knew his acting abilities were pretty stellar. For the longest time we were just in a studio working with Mr. Joffrey without being given the overview. He was just working on movement. The next thing that was added was music. He was using Iron Butterfly’s ‘In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida’ and having us move to certain rhythms in that.”

“We would do residencies at the Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington in the summers and that’s where a lot of times new works were created and so that was where we really got into working on this piece. One day, he brought in a musician, Hub Miller, that he knew from Seattle. He probably had been meeting and talking to Hub weeks and weeks before Max and I ever knew it, about writing a commissioned score for this particular piece. Hub wanted Mr. Joffrey to listen to a couple of rock bands that were sort of making a scene in Seattle at that time. So we go to this night club place and there’s a band playing, it’s the Chrome Circus, and suddenly they’re going to be doing the commissioned score for it, and Hub’s going to head it up. So, okay, there’s going to be a rock band in the pit. That was part two of the equation I guess you could say.”

“We did some touring through Idaho and Iowa after that and the company manager came to me and said you’re leaving on the red eye out of here tonight, you and Max and Mr. Joffrey are going back to New York. Next thing I know, they’re trucking us off to the airport and put us on a plane. That’s when he sort of revealed the whole scope to us. And it was like ‘what do you mean we’re going into a film studio tomorrow morning?’ we were just shocked. We had no idea. We got off the plane and went to a film studio with Gardner Compton and Emile Ardolino and started filming.”

“I had some costume fittings. It was a unitard, and they kept painting all over it and drawing things on it. At the film studio, they had a makeup person. His name was Hugh Sherrer and he designed this very elaborate lotus tattoo and the big eyes and all of that. They put it on me every day and kept saying, ‘You have to learn to do this yourself’ and I’m like,’oh, okay.’”

“We started filming and that’s when they explained there were going to be cameras in this balcony and in this balcony, in this wing and in this wing. That’s when he said the background screen was going to be moving and the band was going to be in the pit and that was when Max and I sort of got the whole picture. It was all very secret and he didn’t want anyone to know that it was going to be a psychedelic rock ballet. We weren’t to tell anyone. I think he didn’t want people coming in with preconceived notions and rumors of what it could be, expectations of maybe what it was or wasn’t. I don’t think he wanted to give the critics an idea of what was going on. It was shock value. I think he wanted to surprise everyone.”

“When Max and I finally got this whole picture in scope, I was terrified. I was like ‘oh, my God, this is big.’ I was nervous. I mean what if I fail this man? What if I get onstage and just blow it, you know. It was nerve racking. Max wasn’t as nervous. Max was kind of bigger than life and he loved being the center of attention and drama.”

Trinette Singleton in makeup and costume for Astarte filming

(View full post to see video)
JOFFREY: MAVERICKS OF AMERICAN DANCE tells the story of the first quintessentially American dance company, the Joffrey Ballet. Founders Robert Joffrey and Gerald Arpino revolutionized American dance by combining modern with traditional ballet to create a new and daring art form. Narrated by Tony and Emmy Award-winner Mandy Patinkin (Homeland), the 90-minute documentary is the first to chronicle the Joffrey Ballet’s pioneering dance philosophy. Award-winning filmmaker Bob Hercules traces the company’s struggles and triumphs: from its humble beginnings in 1956, touring the United States in a borrowed station wagon, to becoming one of the world’s most exciting and prominent ballet companies.

Using rare archival footage and behind-the-scenes photos, Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance features excerpts from signature company works, including Astarte, Trinity and Billboards (the latter with music by Prince) as well as its breakthrough collaborations with legendary choreographers Kurt Jooss (The Green Table) and Leonide Massine (Parade). The Joffrey Ballet also commissioned early works by Twyla Tharp (Deuce Coupe, As Time Goes By), Laura Dean (Night, Creative Force) and Margo Sappington (Weewis, Face Dances), introducing these innovative choreographers to larger audiences.

Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance illustrates the dynamic trajectory of the groundbreaking company through archival interviews with Joffrey (12/24/1930 – 3/25/1988) and Arpino (1/14/1923 – 10/29/2008) and original interviews with former and current Joffrey star dancers and ballet notables, including Gary Chryst, Trinette Singleton, Helgi Tomasson, Kevin McKenzie, Ashley Wheater, Christian Holder, Francoise Martinet, Davis Robertson, and Adam Sklute. These insiders describe what it was like to be a part of the company, Joffrey’s and Arpino’s different teaching styles, and how the Joffrey Ballet broke barriers by: accepting and cultivating a diverse group of talented dancers regardless of race and body type, integrating pop and rock music scores and art with social commentary, and resurrecting nearly lost early 20th Century masterpieces. They also explain how the company repeatedly resurrected itself after devastating financial and artistic setbacks such as the Rebekah Harkness funding power struggle, National Endowment for the Arts cutbacks, Joffrey’s death, and the move from New York City to Chicago in 1995.

* * *
American Masters Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance is a production of Lakeview Films, Inc. A presentation of THIRTEEN’s American Masters for WNET. Bob Hercules is writer and director. Jay Alix and Harold Ramis are executive producers. Una Jackman and Erica Mann Ramis are producers. Mandy Patinkin is narrator. Michael Swanson and Keith Walker are directors of photography. Melissa Sterne is editor and Mark Bandy is music composer. Susan Lacy is series creator and executive producer of American Masters.

American Masters is made possible by the support of the National Endowment for the Arts and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Additional funding for American Masters is provided by Rosalind P. Walter, Anne Ray Charitable Trust, Cheryl and Philip Milstein Family , The Blanche & Irving Laurie Foundation, Rolf and Elizabeth Rosenthal, Jack Rudin, The André and Elizabeth Kertész Foundation, Michael & Helen Schaffer Foundation, and public television viewers. Additional support for this program is provided by Vital Projects Fund.

In 1967, The Joffrey Ballet was the first American company to revive this pacifist work — for a different war and a different people — and it quickly became a signature performance, giving a socially relevant voice to the company.

See it for yourself in an archive Joffrey rehearsal from the 1960s.
(View full post to see video)

Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance premieres Friday, December 28, 2012 at 9 p.m. (ET) on PBS (check local listings).

To expand the story beyond what could be included in the film, the producers of Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance started this audio interview series to record the many stories and perspectives from the people who were associated with The Joffrey Ballet over its 56 year history.

Listen to the interviews and go deeper into the history of the company.

Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance premieres Friday, December 28, 2012 at 9 p.m. (ET) on PBS (check local listings).