Harrold, a Chicago native, will read from book, and from her poetry, and will be joined in conversation by SPECTRA host Ryan Collins. The discussion will open up for audience members to participate. Then, the rest of the night will be a dance party, featuring DJs Samuel P. (Quad Cities – Sound in Space series) and Leja Hazer (Chicago – Smartbar, Gramaphone Records).

Doors open for a social hour at 6:00 p.m., reading and discussion starts at 7pm, and music runs 8:00 p.m. – midnight. The event is free and open to the public, and Harrold’s book will be available for purchase. Donations to MWC are welcome and go to support youth writing programs in the QC. Please contact Ryan Collins at MWC with questions and media inquiries: ryan.collins@mwcqc.org | 309-732-7330.

About Chicago House Music: Culture and Community:

Chicago house music originated in the city’s Black, gay underground in the late seventies and became one of the most popular musical genres in the world by the end of the century. In Chicago House Music: Culture and Community, Marguerite Harrold tells the story of the genre’s rise and the prolific creators who have sustained it for decades. You’ll learn about house music’s early innovators, like Ron Hardy and Frankie Knuckles, who transformed the social and political turmoil around them into a revolution in dance music. You’ll also hear remembrances from contemporary figures in the house community, like DJ Lady D, Avery R. Young, Czboogie and Edgar “Artek” Sinio, who have forged new paths as the genre has evolved. It’s a story about much more than music—it’s about a community struggling for acceptance, love, liberation, and freedom, and about the creative pioneers whose resilience helped turn house music into a worldwide phenomenon.

Full of interviews and first-hand accounts from the people who stood behind the turntables, carried crates of records, or danced until dawn, Chicago House Music is the history of an art form that continues to be a force for social interaction, spiritual liberation, and community today.

Pre-Order link: https://beltpublishing.com/…/chicago-house-music…

Praise for Chicago House Music: Culture and Community:

“Chicago house music is more than a Spotify playlist, or category of 12-inches in your nearest dance-friendly record store. As Marguerite Harrold’s deeply felt book shows, Chicago house is a culture and a way of life; it’s a community and a family; it allows us to feel and hear a broad range of religious and subcultural roots of expression; it’s an expression of Black and brown queer communities, and it’s the face of pop music; it is a definitive expression of Chicago, incubated by marginalized communities counteracting political and economic neglect.
Chicago House Music: Culture and Community captures these complex facets that all house heads know to be true, and Harrold lays out the details with the kind of care and passion that should hook a curious novice who doesn’t know Marshall Jefferson from Marshall Fields. This vital book shows the Chicagoans who did the work to open clubs, promote parties, spin records, and build house music into a vital international phenomenon.”

—Leor Galil, senior staff writer for the Chicago Reader

“Chicago House Music: Culture and Community is a history lesson of black music, from blues and gospel to soul and disco, and how it all converged in Chicago to give birth to house music. Author Marguerite Harrold, who witnessed the scene firsthand, takes you on a journey through the clubs, studios, and streets of the Windy City, where a musical revolution took place. Through extensive research and interviews, the story of house music is told with passion, insight, and respect. You will feel like you are there as the music is taking place, blossoming, and spreading across the world. This book is more than a reference book. It is a love letter to Chicago house music, and a tribute to the black culture that gave it life.”

—Barbara E. Allen, filmmaker of House Music: A Cultural Revolution

Bio for the Author:

Marguerite L. Harrold’s work is a revolutionary act of kindness, gratitude, agitation and community mobilization. Her poems thread the ecology of being human through urban and rural landscapes, in order to explore the ways in which we connect to place, dislocation and to one another. She earned a Masters of Fine Art in Creative Writing/Poetry from Columbia College Chicago. Marguerite was nominated for the 2020 Pushcart Prize (Matador Review). She was also nominated for a 2020 Illinois Arts Council grant (Chicago Review) and was a 2020 finalist for an Allied Arts Council grant. She is a member of the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley and attended the Bread Loaf Orion Environmental Writers Conference. She has poems published or forthcoming in the following journals: Anti-Heroin Chic, The Blue Nib, Jubilat, pulpmouth, The Chicago Review, and more.

Bio for the DJs:

Samuel P.

The man behind the Sound In Space series, Samuel P. is a local QC record-collector & DJ. A music enthusiast from a young age, he fell in love with record collecting during his time living in Chicago. When Samuel’s behind the decks you can expect to hear everything from jazz to disco to house music with a few surprises mixed in.

Leja Hazer (smartbar, gramaphone records, hesperian sound)

Chicago’s Leja Hazer is a key figure in the city’s dance music scene. He’s currently the talent buyer at the renowned smartbar and previously worked at the legendary Gramaphone Records. With influences spanning from Jazz to House to Soul and Funk, Leja tends to lean towards groovy and laid back vibes while still showing some Chicago grit.

The SPECTRA Reading Series manifests thanks to the generous support of the Illinois Arts Council.