To Roam Chicago: The Flaneur’s Dream
A quick note: To continue with tradition, I feel it is important to mention that for this week’s walking journey, I was able to make a commute into the city. (Yay!)
When I arrive in the city, it is Saturday 23rd at around 11 a.m. and I am surrounded by the bustling sounds of trees rustling in the breeze, cars racing across streets, and fragments of phone-call meetings from others walking by. I was luckily greeted with sunshine
Albeit, I must admit I did have a target destination for this week’s walk. Staying true to my summer hobby, my intended destination was the Unabridged Bookstore on Broadway St. As one of the oldest independent bookstores in Chicago, it was satisfying to both indulge in my hobby as well as learn about some of the city’s history that was previously hidden to me. From what I understood, the Unabridged Bookstore is best known for its incredibly inclusive selection of books published by authors belonging to minority groups and its support for the LGBTQ+ community. In addition to not only presenting their allyship to a number of minority groups in the city, the bookstore has also pledged to make monthly donations to the Equal Justice Initiative (fighting for racial and economic justice in America), the Gerber/Hart Library archives (preserving history and culture of the LGBTQ+ community in Chicago), as well as the Chicago Abortion Fund & the Midwest Access Coalition (organization’s in support of reproductive rights), so when you shop there you are not only supporting a local Chicago business, but also supporting the local equity organizations as well. Overall, I absolutely adored the visit and since it is only one stop north of Fullerton and a ten-minute walk away, I would not be surprised to find myself there again soon.
After spending around 30 minutes too long browsing the bookstore’s collection of media, I finally had finalized my purchase and it was around 12:30 p.m. when I had made finally started my journey as a flaneur. My next stop, this one unplanned, was a small plant store down the street under the name Plant Stand Collective, and like a true flaneur, I found myself wandering in. The only way I could describe this small shop is all consuming. The air instantly seemed to be of higher quality, the city sounds had immediately dimmed, and after walking in, the view of the street disappeared as if you were walking into another world. It was like my eyes were flooded with the simplest beauties of life. Opening in 2020 initially using the Broadway St. space as a pop-up, the Plant Stand Collective has officially made their residence permanent. After establishing their presence in the community, they made partners with Feeding People Through Plants to help donate and raise money for the GreaterChicago Food Depository. While stopping here was completely coincidental, I am happy to have helped support the greater Chicago area through business. (The owner also had a small tree frog named Mango, although he was not visible unfortunately.)
As we continued exploring the area, true to the tail end of the summer season, there were several farmer’s markets lining the streets, and I was lucky enough to stop at one on a street corner coincidentally placed within a playground. While there were so many sensations occurring all at once, you could distinctly smell the tamale stand, the French pastry stand, and the fresh flowers sitting right across from them. The day was perfect. I had the morning off from work paired with the perfect weather for walking, I found myself delighted to see what the rest of the day would hold. But it was acknowledged by Kathleen Rooney that the city has a stereotype to be found dangerous and unsafe. This recurring theme and statement is repeated throughout her work titled “It is not waste all this, not placed here in disgust, street after street”, while seemingly a confusing title for an anecdote, she writes about an experience she has while on an adventure for a swiss army knife with her friend. While in our class discussions, we have repeatedly talked at length about challenging stereotypes, today was a day my family and I could have taken benefit from warning advice. Our day continued on, along with our trip within the farmers market, we browsed for fresh ingredients for dinner and searched for a meal equating to lunch. After not having much luck finding subsistence that worked with my mom’s dietary restrictions, we paid for our fruits and vegetables using our cards and made our way across the street. Our next stop, we had spotted across the street from the market, and was a bustling breakfast joint under the name Eggsperience.
This place could not be described as anything but having “good vibes”. Small children running to their tables with adults conversing over coffee, it was the picture of a movie made restaurant. The best thing about it? I found out later that Eggsperience supports local farmers with a farm-to-table mission that allows them to sustainably gather their ingredients. Completely by coincidence that all the stops we had made previously fulfill conscious efforts to the community around them. (I did also love the half-inside-half-outside detail as well). We took the proper time to sit and enjoy our meals with leisurely pleasure before deciding to move on.
After our overly filling brunch at Eggsperience, we had wandered our way east to the shoreline of Lake Michigan. On our way to the spot, I did my best to channel the vibes of Turnbull’s field notes in the city as he tries to “fully immerse [himself] in the detail of the city”, I took pictures of plants sitting on porches and doorsteps. I recorded walking by pristine buildings with architecture that deserve to be photographed, which is where I had recorded my gif.
This leads us to now, when I explain my previously foreshadowed crazy event that happened in the city. Well maybe not occurring in the city, the preceding events certainly did. After spending a couple of days at home, compiling this project together, nothing was out of the ordinary. Reading, reflecting, more reading. There is an idea detailed in De Certeau’s work titled Walking in the City where he explains that when you reach the highest point of the city, it’s as if you’re taking yourself out of it. In this same way, it is explained that when you take one perspective, there is then one that you are missing. While I took a hopeful perspective on my time in the city, looking for things to notice and take note of, my family and I missed small details behind the scenes. Once we had used our debit cards at the farmers market, while we were focused on what was next and what was ahead of us, we missed that a third party had swiped our banking information. This kind of thing makes you wonder about what else you could have missed or what you could have noticed to prevent this kind of thing. Subsequently, we had also missed a hit-and-run and a shooting incident further North up the street. While I think about how I missed these things as well, how many other people missed and happened to disregard the things that happened to others, unknowingly?
At the end of the day, after composing and recording small pieces and fragments of my day, despite the things I noticed and the things I left unnoticed, I have compiled them into a video here.
(1262).
