Opens Saturday Apr 4, 2009 (7–9pm)
Apr 4, 2009 – Apr 26, 2009
Tuesdays–Fridays (1–5pm)
Saturdays–Sundays (noon–6pm)
Chicago's history is ripe with singular moments, but one of the more amazing — the rise of "hobohemia," a revolutionary hobo counterculture in the early 20th century — is far from common knowledge. Artist/curator Marc Moscato shines a light on the hobohemian scene with the first major survey of its visual culture, Brains, Brilliancy, Bohemia. One of the hubs was the Dil Pickle Club, a speakeasy, art gallery, and tea room that served as an open forum for radical agitation and the exchange of ideas (and where intellectuals and writers mixed with hookers and labor organizers). In addition to Dil Pickle ephemera, photographs, posters, and hobo-penned pulp novels, the exhibition includes a documentary about anarchist doctor Ben Reitman, the so-called "King of the Hoboes."
– Karsten Lund