HUMBOLDT PARK — Furthering the legacy of one of Chicago's most famous yet under-appreciated writers, the Nelson Algren Committee will be celebrating the 28th anniversary of its founding on April 1 and what would have been the author's 108th birthday week.
Scheduled for 9 p.m. Saturday, the group's annual celebration of Algren's birthday will take place at 2418 W. Bloomingdale Ave.
Algren was born on March 28, 1909 and died in 1981.
Formed in December 1989, the Nelson Algren Committee, made up of "local literary types, including the legendary Studs Terkel," first met in the basement of Lottie's Pub to host a party to celebrate Algren, the "poet of Chicago's slums," according to the group's website.
Algren, the author of "The Man With The Golden Arm," "Walk on the Wild Side," and "Chicago: City on the Make," among many other books, short stories and magazine articles, lived in the 1900 block of West Evergreen Street in Wicker Park in the 1950s.
Much of Algren's Chicago-based work dealt with Poles in the area and were mostly out-of-print and unavailable in most local libraries when the committee formed.
Over the years, the group has been among the dead writer's biggest fans, helping to resurrect his literary works and advocate to rename the fountain in the Polish Triangle to the "Nelson Algren Fountain."
Among the festivities on Saturday will be performances by pianist Erwin Helfer, actor-director Gary Houston, writer David Witter, archivist Tony Macaluso, cabaret songbird Melodie Magnuson and activist Joe Kransdorf, who will talk about former Algren Committee member Norman Porter, aka J.J. Jameson, the fugitive poet "who now languishes in a Massachusetts jail cell," according to the event's Facebook page.
Coffee mugs that feature Algren's mug shot, courtesy of the Chicago Police Department, will be sold for $20 each. Admission is $10, while students and seniors pay $5.
For more information, visit the group's website, nelsonalgren.org or call 773-235-4267.
