Sunday, April 19
6:30 PM
Tre Kronor Restaurant
3258 W Foster
Tickets are $30
Reservations are required, online:
https://www.jamieoreilly.com/events/roots-april-19-salon-american-work-with-chris-walz-and-jimmy-conway/

Make reservations at event page.

https://www.jamieoreilly.com/events

A Note from Jamie
April: Poetry Month. Spring’s fresh beginning. From the poetry of Gwendolyn Brooks, Carl Sandburg and Bertolt Brecht, to the singing of folk ballads, searing blues and fervent anthems, to a surprising story from our venerable guest writer, Roots Spring Salon AMERICAN WORK promises to be a rich and memorable evening.

We’ve shaped the eevning to include stories and songs about occupations and vocations that run a gamut of skills – highlighting the life of the worker in their element – from the factory to the mine; from the breadline to the rodeo. With a nod to my friend the late oral historian and author Studs Terkel.

Joining me at Tre Kronor will be musicians Chris Walz and Jimmy Conway, Roots regular Judi Heikes, and guest writer Maureen O’Donnell (who made a career as an obituary writer at the Sun Times.) What a treat!

About Maureen O’Donnell
Maureen O’Donnell worked for 13 years as the obituary writer for the Chicago Sun-Times but says her job never seemed like work. It was her privilege to hear the stories of eyewitnesses to history and share them with the world. She felt she was carrying on the tradition she learned from her Irish parents of being a seanchaí (SHAWN-a-key) – or storyteller. Once, a reader told Maureen she was a psychopomp. She had to look that word up. Psychopomps are beings from mythology who ferry the souls of the living to the realm of the dead. Maureen served as president of the Society of Professional Obituary Writers and she’s won numerous writing awards.

Prior to becoming the Sun-Times’ obits writer, she spent 20 years covering crime, politics, Chicago schools and the Jeffrey Dahmer case for the newspaper. Before joining the Sun-Times, Maureen was a reporter for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and the City News Bureau of Chicago. She’s a Northwest Side native and graduate of Mundelein College.