About this item
The extraordinarily productive life of curator, artist, and activist Margaret Burroughs was largely rooted in her work to establish and sustain two significant institutions in Chicago: the South Side Community Art Center (SSCAC) , founded in 1940, and the DuSable Museum of African American History, founded in her living room in 1961. As Mary Ann Cain's South Side Venus: The Legacy of Margaret Burroughs reveals, the primary motivations for these efforts were love and hope. Burroughs was spurred by her love for Chicago's African American community - largely ill served by mainstream arts organizations - and by her hope that these new, black-run cultural centers would welcome many generations of aspiring artists and art lovers. This first, long-awaited biography of Burroughs draws on interviews with peers, colleagues, friends, and family, and extensive archival research at the DuSable Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Chicago Public Library. Cain traces Burroughs's multifaceted career, details her work and residency on Chicago's South Side, and highlights her relationships with other artists and culture makers. Here, we see Burroughs as teacher and mentor as well as institution builder. Anchored by the author's talks with Burroughs as they stroll through her beloved Bronzeville, and featuring portraits of Burroughs with family and friends, South Side Venus will enlighten anyone interested in Chicago, African American history, social justice, and the arts.
About the Author
Mary Ann Cain was born and grew up in south suburban Chicago during the tumultuous years of the 1960s and 70s. In 2003, while doing research on the south side of Chicago for her novel, Down from Moonshine (Thirteenth Moon Press, 2009) , she visited the Du Sable Museum of African American History, where she was introduced to Dr. Margaret Burroughs, founder. Her latest book, South Side Venus: The Legacy of Dr. Margaret Burroughs, chronicles the amazing contribution offered by this legendary figure whose work as an artist, institution builder, teacher, and community organizer has touched the lives of thousands of people around the world. Cain's previous publications include two books of scholarship on writing (Revisioning Writers' Talk: Gender and Culture in Acts of Composing; and Composing Public Space: Teaching Writing in the Face of Private Interests (co-authors Lil Brannon and Michelle Comstock) ; a novel, Down from Moonshine; and numerous articles, book chapters, short stories, poems, and essays in a wide variety of scholarly and literary journals and collections. Her awards include grants from the Indiana Arts Commission, the Featured Faculty Engagement Award, the Distinguished Internal Lecturer Award, and the Great Men, Great Women Award from Purdue University Fort Wayne, among others. She teaches creative writing, rhetoric, and women's studies at Purdue University Fort Wayne where she is Professor of English and Linguistics. Fort Wayne, Indiana, has been her home since 1995, but she and her husband, poet George Kalamaras, and their beagle, Bootsie, divide their time between Indiana and the mountains of Northern Colorado. Like Margaret Burroughs, she sees writing and art as important means towards achieving social justice. She regards writing as well as food as cultural gateways, writing, cooking and eating across many cultures and cuisines. Her dedicated exercise--hiking, yoga, jogging, walking--help her to keep eating and cooking without too much consequence.
