The American Legion, Post 42 located at 1030 Central Street was the place to be Saturday night, October 1st for the launch of Evanston Live. Over 100 people gathered for this community-based retro-cool talk show featuring Evanston artists, musicians, chefs, local notables and historians.
The event kicked off with cocktails and professional event entertainer, Michael Kett with music by DJ Pound. The show was hosted by Evanston Live creator Tammy Job. The night featured interviews with Shorefront Legacy Founder, Dino Robinson and Evanston Actor, Antoine McKay. Mark Collins, twenty year Evanston resident, high school art teacher and painter conducted the interviews. Dino shared the history of the founding of Shorefront Legacy Center and his extended family instilling his love of history with a story about his grandmother, Marjorie Rose, making it really click for him as a young man. He also offered information on Shorefront's current exhibit, "Legacies" and other upcoming activities. Antoine spoke about his journey early on to becoming an actor and his parents exposing him to famous comedians like Flip Wilson and Mark Twain. He shared some of his favorite roles as well as information on his new project on Amazon, "Written Off" and his theatre McKay Arts.
Nina Uziel-Miller took the stage sharing her first live literary performance of a story called, "The Shoemaker". The story was a poignant and beautiful story of parenthood's struggles and celebrations. This was also Susan Abraham's first live solo performance and she played guitar and sang vocals to "Different Drum" written by MikeNesmith, "You're the One That I Want" written by John Farrar, "Smokin' the Boys" by Audra Mae and the Almighty Sound. Both first time solo performers wowed the sold out audience.
The night ended with a lip sync battle between two Evanston residents, Peter Fitzgerald and Erika Carey who in Jimmy Fallon style lip synced sections of famous songs including "Little Red Corvette" and "Interjections". The laughter from the audience could be heard a mile away.
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Closing out the night the band The Good, The Bad and They Ugly a Chicago-based power trio whose three members hail from the South Side of Chicago, Los Angeles, and Istanbul, Turkey took the stage and guests danced late into the night to classic rock tunes, including "Folsom Prison" and "I Want you to Want me".
Tammy Job, Evanston Live creator said, "My hope was to gather people from our amazing community to share their music, art, and stories. I wanted to connect folks who may not know one another and expose them to some great talent in our city. The American Legion was the perfect place to host this event. There is so much history in this 96 year old building and community and Brett Hallongren and his team are great partners."
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Evanston Live will take place every other month at the American Legion and funds will support the American Legion as well as raise funds for a scholarship for a graduating Evanston high school student. The next show is December 10th and tickets for the 21-and-older event are $11 and are available online here. Get you tickets early as the event is expected to sell out. The line-up for the next show will be released online on Facebook @evanstonlive.
For more information email liveat42@gmail.com.
Links to the October 1st Evanston Live Guests can be found below:
Mark Collins - http://www.markcollinsart.com/about-me.html
Michael Kett - http://www.michaelkett.com
Antoine McKay - http://www.Mckayarts.net
Nina-Uziel Miller - http://www.litro.co.uk/2016/05/essay-longest-bone/
Dino Robinson/Shorefront Legacy Center - http://www.shorefrontlegacy.org
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly - steinkarate@sbcglobal.net
