1 . Green Line Performing Arts Center

329 E Garfield Blvd. Chicago, IL 60637

Upcoming Programs Include:

Monday Feb 4 | onwards 7—9 pm

First Monday Jazz is a free monthly event showcasing local Chicago jazz artists.

Sunday Feb 17 | 10—11 am

Bring your kids to listen, learn, sing, dance, and interact! South Side Story Time is a small gathering that centres on readings for its young attendees along with the chance for their parents to socialize. Open to families with children of all ages.

Wednesday Feb 20 | 7—8:30 pm

Join us for an evening of storytelling featuring the dynamic singing, In the Spirit by Emily Hooper Lansana. This performance will highlight a range of stories that demonstrate women’s creative and political genius from folk heroines to Nobel Peace Prize winners.

Every 1st Saturday of the Month | 3—5 pm

Explore your child’s artistic curiosity with hands-on art workshops designed to stimulate creativity and play. These interdisciplinary workshops are exciting for the entire family, offering activities from music to arts and crafts. Come to learn something new! Appropriate for families with children. Registration is encouraged.

Follow Arts + Public Life on Facebook for more event details and a full list of all upcoming performances.

2 . I was the only kid in college with a reason to go to the mail box, because my mother never believed in email, in Facebook, in texting or cell phones. I was literally waiting by the mailbox to get a letter with a warmest comfort from her.

So when I moved to New York and got depressed, I did the only thing I could think of. I wrote those same kinds of letters like my mother for strangers, and tucked them all over the city: in cafes, in libraries, and even in the subway. I blogged about those letters and promised if asked for a hand-written letter, I would write one.

Overnight, my inbox became this harbor of heartbreak — a single mother in Sacramento, a girl being bullied in Kansas, a 22-year-old immigrant, all asking me to write them and give them a reason to wait by the mailbox. And this is how I initiated the act The World Needs More Love Letters.

Today I run a global organization fueled by those trips to the mailbox. It is a miracle. But the thing about these letters is that most of them have been written by people brought up in a paperless world where some best conversations happen on a screen. We have learned to diary our pain onto Facebook, and we speak swiftly in twitter.

Therefore, I’ve been carrying this mail crate (大木箱) with me these days, which is a magical icebreaker. So I get to tell total strangers about a woman whose husband was traumatized (受精神创伤) from war, and how she left love letters throughout the house saying, “Come back to me.” And a man, who had decided to take his life, slept safely with a stack of letters just beneath his pillow, handwritten by strangers who were there for him.

These stories convince me that letter-writing will never need to be about efficiency, because it is an art now, all of it: the signing, the scripting, the mailing.

3 . Nanako Hama was holding a light envelop. When she tore it open with care, locks of hair emerged. Many strangers send Hama locks of their hair, hoping to recycle it.

People generate a huge amount of hair waste. Nearly all of that waste ends up in landfill, where it can release harmful greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. But hair possesses useful qualities that it’s a shame to simply throw it away. That’s why people all around the world, like Hama, have been collecting hair and finding innovative ways to recycle it, including making mats (垫子) out of it for removing oil leaks in the ocean.

Hama is part of the nonprofit Matter of Trust (MoT) members working at more than 60 centers dotted across 17 countries, using machines to make hair donated from local salons and individuals into square mat, which are then used to clean up the floating oil. “Hair is particularly well-suited for this,” says MoT co-founder Lisa Gautier. “That’s because its rough sort of outer layer lets oil stick to it.” MoT’s mats have been used in major oil leaks, including the 2010 Deepwater Horizon and 2007 Cosco Busan incidents.

In a 2018 study, Murray, an environmental scientist at the University of Technology Sydney, in Australia found that mats made of recycled human hair could absorb 0.84 grams of oil onto its surface for every gram of hair—significantly more than polypropylene (聚丙烯),a type of plastic that’s typically used to clean up floating oil. Besides, hair is also useful as fertilizer (化肥). Hair contains a relatively high nitrogen (氮), a chemical element crucial for plant growth, and each lock of hair is made of roughly 16 percent of this essential nutrient. Last year, more than 560 gallons of liquid fertilizer made from human hair was sold to farmers in northern Tanzania and the feedback from the farmers has been very encouraging.

“It’s just a great way to use hair in a productive way. Hair is an answer literally hanging in front of our eyes—for oil and soil,” Hama says.

7 . When colds and flu hit, many people automatically turn to over-the-counter (OTC) medicines to push through and treat their symptoms. Although these medicines are easily accessible and widely used, it might come as a surprise to many people to learn that they are not risk-free. A study estimated that every year, 26,735 people went to the emergency room for adverse (不利的) events related to OTC cold and cough medicines.

When two or more drugs are used together, their interactions can sometimes produce unexpected harmful effects. Physicians are typically knowledgeable about potential drug interactions, so it is very important for patients to ask their healthcare providers which OTC medicines are safe for them to use.

It is important to read the package ingredients of OTC medicines closely to avoid duplication of doses (剂量重复). Cold medicines are typically made up of multiple ingredients. A person who takes a single-ingredient medicine paired with one of these multi-ingredient medicines can receive an unsafe dose of that ingredient.

While everyone could potentially experience adverse effects from cold and flu medicines, some groups — including older adults, children and pregnant women — may be at greater risk. Older people who are using prescribed drugs to treat multiple health conditions may have a higher risk of drug interactions because of the higher number of medicines being used at the same time to treat different conditions. The aging body is not as expert at absorbing, distributing and clearing medicines as younger bodies are. This can put older adults at higher risk for an overdose and drug-to-drug interactions with some medicines.

The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention do not recommend giving cold medicines to children under age 4. Because of a variety of factors, young children have a higher risk of an accidental overdose and adverse events that could lead to death.

8 . The village super league, or “Cun Chao” in Chinese, is a soccer game among different villages in Rongjiang County, Southwest China’s Guizhou Province, and it is so down-to-earth but popular that it has attracted not only the attention of football legend Michael Owen, but also millions of Chinese netizens (网民), who are paying attention to this non-professional football league.

The players come from a variety of backgrounds. They are vendors, drivers, students, carpenters, tilers, former butchers and brick factory workers. Their ages range from 15 to over 40 years old. At the game site, representatives wearing various traditional national costumes play national musical. instruments and enter the arena (竞技场) with the players, and perform songs and dances.

“This kind of football game is natural and with ‘pureness’ and it is driven by the enthusiasm of the ordinary people not the economic benefits. The game is providing not only values of sports, but also a way of socialising with low costs,” an expert noted. “This kind of atmosphere is very rarely seen and is treasured, especially for people in urban areas who are getting increasingly busy and under great work pressure, and when they look at the fun, relaxing and down-to-earth way of life in the countryside, they will naturally be interested,” experts said. There is at least one good impact brought by “Cun Chao” to Chinese soccer—to make more people see the pureness of joy brought by the sport and encourage them to play soccer.

Today, more and more grassroots sports events are held in the mountains and are using sports as a medium to showcase the unique charm of the local area, reflecting a vibrant lifestyle filled with agricultural activities and rural fun.

10 . On today’s blog post, I’ll talk about my favorite magazines. I love reading books and magazines, and I’m learning so many useful tips about health y living, daily life, etc.

Women’s Health

Women’s Health has a unique content. You can find various interesting information about healthy living or exercises you can do at home. I also love their writers because they explain every topic so simply that you can even understand biological articles.

Healthy Food Guide

I totally recommend it to everyone because it has lots of useful information about being healthy during your daily life. In this magazine, you can find articles about foods you often eat but don’t have much idea what they contain or if they’re healthy. If you are searching for new diets, this magazine gives you all the information.

Time Out

Time Out is a well-known magazine and it’s free in my city. Every time I see a Time Out magazine, I get it because it has lots of useful tips. I got Time Out London when I was in London, and I discovered new restaurants, galleries, museums and events. This magazine has various information about the city life. For example, it gives you the events that are happening near you. It gives you tips for the railway stations and other transportation choices.

La Cucina Italiana

If you love cooking Italian food, this magazine is for you! It has lots of recipes and also restaurant reviews. You can also find popular restaurants near you in this magazine. I’ve also read articles by famous chefs from my city.