An Evening At The Pekin Theatre Re Creates The Country S First Black Owned Music Hall

  “If you go to the corner of State and 27th now,” says Chicago historian Tim Samuelson, “you find a bunch of dirty parking lots. But if you went there in 1905 or 1906, you would find something very different: the Pekin Theatre.”

  “When everyone thinks of Chicago,” says Samuelson, “they think of jazz and the blues. But in the first decade of the 20th century, it was a syncopated city. It was all ragtime.”

  “I can’t imagine what it will sound like,” says Bruce, who wrote the lyrics with scriptwriter McKenzie Chinn, “but I know Reginald said he had been part of a presentation that did somehow use those two forms.”

“An Evening at the Pekin Theatre” Sat 6/17, 7 PM, northwest corner of 27th and S. State, 312-422-5580, ilhumanities.org, free, all ages