Let me tell you what
kind of woman Elysabeth Alfano is: she battered her wrist, then threw out her
back, and during the midst of these horrible setbacks to her life and
livelihood, she called to ask what she could do. For me.
My first live introduction to
Elysabeth was passing. She had agreed to bring out her film crew to our first
induction ceremony at Northeastern Illinois University to shoot an episode of
her show Fear No Art Chicago. She was
all bustle and business, nabbing Audrey Niffenegger and Sara Paretsky and Bill
Savage for interviews, searching for the late-arriving Stuart Dybek, fiddling
with more perfect backdrops—essentially trying to take full advantage of every
single opportunity presented in this brief time before the ceremony began.
The episode turned out absolutely
fabulous. It was filled with smart, piercing commentary and weaved into and out
of Chicago literature past and present. It captured the spirit of what we were
trying to do, on that our first big night as a literary organization. It
occurred to me then that among Elysabeth’s many, many gifts, her chief talent
was an ability to realize potential. She treats every moment and especially
every relationship as precious, and if occasionally she seems quick it’s a
decisiveness built on the desire to create.
Elysabeth, whether consciously or not,
has spent her career redefining the word art. She started out, years ago,
owning a glass art gallery in River North, then moved into textiles and fashion
design, and has shown, in her many projects and collaborations since, a grand
appreciation of creative endeavors of all stripes. Her writing on the Huffington Post, as well as her
interviews on Fear No Art Chicago and
the joyous The Dinner Party,
celebrate and probe musicians, painters, actors, directors, writers, chefs, and
on an on. The enormity of Elysabeth’s curiosity shows in her selection of
guests that, in music, say, run the gambit from classical to folk to pop.
Elysabeth knows a lot of people. People
she’s interviewed; people she’s written about; people with whom she’s
collaborated; people who know people she knows; people involved with her other
projects, like the Beethoven Festival.
When I asked Elysabeth if she might
help with the silent auction, I hoped it would interest her. But I also knew
that she had plenty of her own projects to tend to, and getting involved with
the CLHOF was a thankless undertaking.
She listened: another thing at which
Elysabeth is especially good. In the place of a pause, you could almost hear
her sleeves being rolled up.
Elysabeth helped make contacts and put
into place much of what will ensure Saturday night is special. From reaching
out to Nora Dunn to calling in a favor with a wine distributor to tweeting out
invitations to securing donations to making her own donations to recommending
upgrades to the party details, Elysabeth’s whatever-it-takes approach got
results.
I’m in awe of Elysabeth’s combination
of ability, tenaciousness and talent, and grateful for all she’s done in
advance of Saturday’s event.
At first opportunity, go find
Elysabeth’s columns on Huffington Post.
Google her past Fear No Art Chicago
episodes. Then get yourself tickets to one of the next Dinner Parties, either
Oct. 29 or Nov. 26.
The chef on Oct. 29 is Brown Trout’s
Sean Sanders, and the guests are Michelle Boone (Chicago Commissioner of
Cultural Affairs), David Manilow (Executive Director of Check Please!), and Susanna Negovan (Editor of the Sun-Times’ Daily Splash).
I’ll be there on Nov. 26, as I don’t
want to miss Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me!
host Peter Segal SNL alum Tim Kazurinsky, violinist Rachel Barton Pine, or the
food from Nellcote’s Jared Van Camp.
Elysabeth has donated a pair of tickets to an upcoming event, but you’ll have to outbid me for those. If you fail, and you might, go anyway.
Donald G. Evans is the founder and executive director of the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame. He is the author of the novel Good Money After Bad and editor of the anthology Cubbie Blues: 100 Years of Waiting Till Next Year. His short story collection An Off-White Christmas will be published by Simon & Schuster later this year. He is the current Senior Artist-in-Residence at Chicago's Cliff Dwellers Club and the Chicago editor of the upstart journal Great Lakes Cultural Review. He serves on the committee that selects the annual Harold Washington Literary Award recipient, as well as the Chicago Literary Advisory Council of the American Writers Museum.
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