Our dear friend Tom Frank joined us at the Experimental Station on Monday, September 15, for a reading from his newest book The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule. Click here for a in-depth review of the event by Progress Illinois.

In case you are among the uninformed, Tom is the editor of "The Baffler Magazine" and best-selling author of "One Market Under God" and "What's the Matter With Kansas?".

On Wednesday, June 18, at 7:00 pm, Bryon Mealer, the author of All Things Must Fight to Live: Stories of War and Deliverance in Congo, will give a reading at the Experimental Station (home of the Invisible Institute), 6100 S. Blackstone. (For a description of the book: http://www.bryanmealer.com) Refreshments will be served. I hope you will join us.

A desire for change is mobilizing record numbers of voters to participate in theprimaries this presidential election season. A diverse, robust, and ever-changing population is asserting itself in the electoral process. But how democratic is the political process in this country? As a society, how can we understand and overcome the racialized nature of American citizenship? Who gets to vote, who doesn't and why? And ultimately, how much do our votes really count?

When he first arrived in the U.S. with his immigrant parents in 1967 at the age of twelve, Jamaican-born Clive Campbell, aka DJ Kool Herc, carried with him the seeds of a cultural movement.

Short film lovers join us at the Experimental Station this Friday at 7:30pm for a screening presented by the Chicago Short Film Brigade. The screening will feature bicycles, ship wrecks, hip-hop, phrenology and MORE! $5 suggested donation. Blackstone Bicycle Works will be providing secure and monitored bicycle parking, so ride your bike!

Details about the films are available at www.filmbrigade.com.

On Wednesday, June 18, at 7:00 pm, Bryon Mealer, the author of All Things Must Fight to Live: Stories of War and Deliverance in Congo, will give a reading at the Experimental Station (home of the Invisible Institute), 6100 S. Blackstone. (For a description of the book: http://www.bryanmealer.com) Refreshments will be served. I hope you will join us.

The Renaissance Society and the Experimental Station invite you to a staged reading of ORENTHAL, written by Maarten van Hinte, and directed by Ron Parsons, artist in residence at Court Theater. ORENTHAL is a one-act, one-man play, portraying the rise and fall of O.J., an all-American superstar, versus Shakespeare's Othello. It is a monologue with cuts and scratches back and forth between Shakespeare, mainstream USA, and the streets that feed America's dreams and nightmares.

The ORENTHAL reading is FREE and open to the public. Reception to follow.

On Friday, May 16, Wendy Johnson will read from and discuss her book, GARDENING AT THE DRAGON'S GATE. Please join us for this exciting event! Doors will open at 6:30pm. The reading is free and open to the public.

For more information about Wendy Johnson, read on.

Join us at the Experimental Station for the release of Rick Perlstein's NIXONLAND, just out. Some already think the book will win a Pulitzer Prize, and it has been on the cover of the Sunday New York Times Book Review. Festivities will begin at 7:30pm.

Join us at the Experimental Station on Thursday, May 29, 2008 at 6:30pm for a candid conversation around the intersection of race, ethnicity, and aesthetics in contemporary art. How do we begin to unpack the complexity of race and respresentation as it relates to the art market? A thoughtful group of artists, curators, art historians and collectors will share with us their thoughts in a candid conversation with members of the arts community.