..Preserve Maxwell
Street 
Protect
Deutsch, Español, Francaise, Japanese, Svenska, Tagalog
Also see
Blues Still Holdin On Maxwell
Street, July 2004
Three Recent Books on Maxwell Street,
Photo Essay: Maxwell Street, Chicago 1975 to 1984 by Nathaniel Burkins
Art Exhibit and Panels on Maxwell St. Artist & Bluesman
Frank Scott Jr., February 13 and
Frank ‘Little Sonny’ Scott Jr. – a brief biography of an Artist, Activist, and Bluesman
Benefit For Chicago Bluesman Little Scotty,
New Book:
Chicago’s Maxwell Street by
Gethsemane
Church Celebrates 80th Anniversary, July 28 to
Alan Lomax, Friend of Maxwell St., dies
King of
Maxwell Street, Jimmie Lee Robinson, Passes On,
Premiere of MAXWELL STREET: A Living Memory: A Film
by Shuli Eshel. Attend
on
Parishioners Demonstrate against UIC Crackdown on St.
Francis Church. Images and Press Release.
New Book: Near West Side Stories -- Struggles For Community in
Cardinal George Blesses Us but UIC Threatens Us
- UIC vs. St. Francis of
Wim Wenders
on Maxwell Street,
Historic Maxwell Street Photo Posters by Frank Scott Jr., now available
The Faces of Old Maxwell Street, 2001, a photo essay
Maxwell Street documentary on Discovery Channel. A new one!
Bobby Davis Blues Band's new song: '
The Maxwell Street Community Speaks. Text and images of the protest boards, Sept. 9
Maxwell Street Radio Documentary, 'The Struggle
for
Maxwell Street Video on the Internet
"The cadences and tonalities of this music later evolved into rock and
roll. In short, the musical development that was centered around
the
- Read what people wrote from around the world.
- Images of old Maxwell Street: photos, video, and audio, a master list
- Playing Blues on Maxwell Street in the 1940's: Jimmie Lee Robinson and Frank Scott Jr.
- Johnnie Mae Dunson's Plea and Blues Lament to Mayor Daley and UIC Chancellor Broski
- Save Maxwell Street -- from Alan Lomax
- Save Maxwell St. - from Studs Terkel
- Simone de Beauvior's Maxwell Street - by the famed existentialist and feminist author/philosopher
- Maxwell
Street and the Crucible of Culture. Essay by Yale History Professor
- Art Shay's Maxwell Street: Nelson Algren and Marcel Marceau
- Save
Maxwell St. -- from Jay Gulledge,
- Save Maxwell St. from famed sociologist. Ray Oldenburg
- A Day on Maxwell Street: A Student's Perspective by Melissa Wozniczka
- A letter to U. of Illinois President Stukel from State Rep Judy Erwin, Vice Chairman of Illinois House Tourism Committee
- Maxwell St. Photo Impressions 1998 by Lee Landry
- Reviews
of 'And This is Maxwell Street'. Live
recordings on
- Maxwell Street on a rainy Tuesday, August 24, 1999, photos by John December
- Pictures from making the
documentary, The Struggle for Maxwell St.(Nowmedia
- Jimmie Lee Robinson's latest song: Maxwell Street Tear Down Blues (background, words, wav and ra files)
- Replies to Stanley Fish about UIC and Maxwell Street Preservation
- An
alumnus takes note by Professor Chris Koziol,
Architectural Preservation Inst,
- Robert "Bilbo" Walker visiting Maxwell St., August 8, 1999
- The Battle over Maxwell
Street - cool website by
- Blues Bars in the Maxwell Street Area Past
- Maxwell Street Tidbits
- Bargain Day Image of Maxwell Street
- Tours of old Maxwell Street. See it before it disappears.
- Maxwell
St.: A Connecting Place, Interview with Henrietta Thomas by
- Willard Motley's Maxwell St. by Faustino Gonzalez
- Visit Tino
and Maria Gonzalez's Maxwell St. T-Shirt website.
They are real
- On Saving Maxwell Street by Paul Oliver
- Maxwell Street deserves preservation -- T.J. Wheeler
- Preserve Original Jim's Hot Dog Stand by Bruce Kraig
- Letter to UI President Stukel from Chris Beiderbecke
- A Postmodern View of Maxwell St. by Priscilla Perkins
- B.B. King supports saving Maxwell Street.
- Hubert Sumlin about Maxwell Street.
- Charlie Musslewhite supports saving Maxwell Street.
- Buddy Guy supports saving Maxwell Street.
- Read a Plea from Bo Diddley.
- Papa Charlie Jackson Homepage. He recorded Maxwell Street Blues in 1926.
- Maxwell Street 1999, a poem by Margaret Mantle
- King of Maxwell Street, a poem by Al Handa
- Requiem for a Street by Carlos Cortez
- Coalition Protests Maxwell Street Destruction: Report and Images of April 4 Protest Rally
- Junior Wells dies. Listen to him speak about Maxwell Street as part of this Marty Spaulding interview; and read an interview by Allan Murphy.
- Jimmy Rogers dies (a son of
- Bernard
Abrams, of the Ora Nelle
label, dies. He was the first in
- Willie James of the Willie James Maxwell Street Blues Band dies.
- Attend Rally III: Best
Practices in Heritage Development and Cultural Tourism,
- Muddy Waters: The Mojo Man available at bookstores and from ECW Press.
- Robert Nighthawk
Discography/Homepage. He played and recorded on
- Sterling Plumpp's poems Maxwell Street (for Nate Duncan) and My father was a Maxwell St. junk peddler (for the Coalition)
- Read about supporter of Maxwell St. nominated to head National Endowment for Humanities.
- Mick Jagger on Maxwell Street.
- Learn what "Cheat You Fair" means.
- View the
See Dan Parker's Maxwell Street Bibliography. Read
the UIC student newspaper editorial "Still singin' the blues on Maxwell Street" , excerpts of
New York Times columnist Ira Berkow's
Maxwell Street Address, appeals from the Bill Ferris
of U. of Mississippi(nominee to head NEH), BBC Radio,
UK's Blueprint Blues Magazine, letter to Mayor Daley
from Lois Weisberg(City of Chicago Commissioner of
Cultural Affairs), a letter to UIC from Landmarks
Preservation Council of Illinois, National Trust For
Historic Preservation, City Lore: The NY Center
for Urban Folk Culture, Community Workshop on Economic
Development, Congressman Danny K. Davis, State Rep Coy Pugh, Congressman Bobby
L. Rush, Congressman John Conyers Jr., IAAAM (International Association of African-American
Music), Honeyboy Edwards
Remembers Maxwell Street ( quotes from his recent book), UIC Grad Student Alan P. Mammoser, Al Handa's Delta Snake Daily Blues,
Jason Koransky of Centerstage, Dan Aykroyd of Columbia
Pictures, Henry E. Juszkiewicz(CEO
of Gibson Musical Instruments), Buddy Guy(Grammy
Award Winner), comments by UIC Professor Sterling Plumpp
- Blues on Maxwell Street, excerpts from John McCarron's Tribune article on
Maxwell St., Bill Lavicka's
Letter to the Editor,
***Sing or listen to Muddy's Tears on Maxwell Street***
Read On Maxwell Street by Nathan Lerner: excerpts
from his recently discovered notes; and come see his photographs, an invitation to Nathan Lerner (1913-1997): A
Lifetime of Photographic Inquiry.
Also look at
Want to visit Maxwell Street in 1964? - images from And This is Free(Shanachie Video); read a note on Rock History from one of the film's makers; and learn about newly discovered audio tapes. Also see Cary Baker's Maxwell Street images.
QUOTES FROM SOME OF OUR LETTERS
...blues musicians found
Every Sunday the community came together regardless of race or ethnic
origin. ...Letting something as rich as the
The National Trust for Historic Preservation joins with the Landmarks
Preservation Council of Illinois in urging the University of Illinois at
Chicago to work towards the preservation and adaptive reuse of the historic
buildings within the Maxwell Street neighborhood as part of UIC's
South Campus development plan. A sensitive rehabilitation of these historic
buildings and creative integration into the University's overall development
plan would recognize this cultural heritage and enhance the University
community's vitality by celebrating the diversity symbolized by
To African-Americans,
It was a music born in rural poverty and usually performed in flimsy
structures and ephemeral venues, often even outdoors, yet it has profoundly
influenced popular music throughout the world during the twentieth century. The
...to destroy Maxwell Street is the cultural equivalent of razing the
theaters of Broadway, tearing down the San Francisco Opera House, or the
leveling of the French Quarter in New Orleans. It will break the circuit of
cultural electricity in this county. And a priceless light will go out. -
Skip Henderson, Founder and Director, The Mount Zion
Memorial Fund, Inc.,
It was a celebration of life, a paradise for the artist who could see here the rich natural vari-colored maze of life, and he cherished it. Now, of course, all of us know how rare and precious it was. The true intercourse between people, a feel for real objects, unpackaged, that life had scarred and made more beautiful by use. - Nathan Lerner, Chicago
Great cities are steeped in their history, and there is great opportunity
in preserving and renewing
Chancellor Broski, I beg you to change the
direction of this urban renewal, for the sake of those who fought to overcome
racial prejudice so their music could be heard all over the world. Blues music
and the people who made it are the history, and so are the sidewalks they
walked on. - Ken B. (Moose) Larocque
<klarocque@oln.com>
The legacy of
I am a student, and I know that students appreciate such heritage and would embrace a University which appreciated it as well. - Annie Tully, The University of Washington, English Dept. <atully@u.washington.edu> Seattle
I enjoyed very much being on Maxwell Street, a place to be considered
unique in the World, boundary of the Delta and Ukraine. - Charles H. Contamine, author of La Route du
Blues <chc@infonie.fr>Paris,
The
Because of its importance to both the history of immigrant arrival and
the development of blues music,
Jazz and blues are indigenous to our country ...the origins represent
significant values to which we should adhere -- among them, strength of
community, courage and humility, pain and reward, spirituality and peace. The
blues was born in the heart of the
...as a culture we are forgetting where we came from. ...in order for
blues to thrive as it should, places like Maxwell Street, as Beale Street was,
must be preserved. We owe it to future generations - not just blues fans, but
musicians, Chicagoans, and all people of the world. - Mike Weeks,
However much the Market changed over the decades, it retained what the
British author Lawrence Durrell once termed "a
spirit of place" -- the sense of those who had come before. ... it seems, to this descendant of
We the Maxwell Community are trying to educate our children and at the
same time preserving our heritage and community history. - Gerardo Reyes,
St. Francis of
Write your Congressperson to support House Concurrent
Resolution 27: Recognizing the importance of African-American music to
global culture and calling on the people of the
Celebrate June as African-American Music Month - International Assoc of African-American Music
America's musical heritage music is the voice that proclaims who we are as a people ... Listening to the recordings of early blues musicians and jazz innovators, the legends of rock, rap, and soul, we hear and feel the sorrows and joys of the African American experience. - Letter from President Bill Clinton
Maxwell Street Information Links
Links to Friends and Supporters
Do not let selfish men or greedy interests skin your country of its beauty, its riches or its romance. The world, the future and your children shall judge you accordingly as you deal with this sacred trust. - President Theodore Roosevelt, Antiquities Act, 1906
Supporters are welcome to display the Coalition's
logo -- designed for us by the kind people of the And This is Maxwell Street
project.
Images at the top of this page courtesy of Studio IT. All rights reserved.
provided by OPENAIR MARKET NET as a service to The Maxwell Street Historic Preservation Coalition <mar@REMOVETHIStopicbox.com>