Amy Day 8/09

August 9, 2017

Amy Day 08/09: An evening celebrating the life of Amy Krouse Rosenthal

August 9, 2017
5:05 – 9:09 PM
All events are free and open to the public.

Schedule of Events:

5:05PM:
Meet at “The Bean” (aka Cloud Gate in Millennium Park, Chicago)
A re-proclamation of Amy Krouse Rosenthal Day + a read-aloud of select AKR work

5:25PM:
Yellow Umbrella Parade (from “The Bean” to Carrie Secrist Gallery, 835 W. Washington BLVD, Chicago)

5:55PM:
Talks | Presentations | Performances with:
Katie Froelich
David Jones
Tom Lichtenheld
Nick Gage

7:07PM:
Closing Reception

In 2016, Amy Krouse Rosenthal (AKR) envisioned a different kind of beauty salon: a forum where artists, authors, musicians, and others would convene to talk about and work on the beautiful things they were making. These events aim to evoke the spirit of this salon by bringing together family, friends, and former collaborators to make a new beautiful something together.

On August 9th of last year, AKR hosted a 12-hour book launch for her memoir, Textbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal (Dutton), at the Bean in Chicago’s Millennium Park. Mayor Rahm Emmanuel decreed that August 9th would henceforth be known as “Amy Krouse Rosenthal Day” in Chicago, citing AKR’s “steadfast commitment to literature, film, and our city.” On this, the first AKR Day since her passing, we celebrate those gifts she gave to her community by gathering, remembering, and creating.

All of AKR’s work had a profound simplicity to it. Whether it was her children’s books, adult books, visual art, happenings, musical events, videos, radio segments, or performances, she made the ordinary into something extraordinary. Her focus on the magic in seemingly small, mundane things cultivated a sense of community and universality. AKR: A Beauty Salon is an amalgam of experiences designed to encourage visitors to experience and participate in the generous creative energy that AKR represented and offered.

Participants for Amy Day 8/09 include:

KATIE FROELICH is a yoga instructor and sister of AKR
DAVID T. JONES is the Chief Creative Officer of Third Street, a Chicago and Indianapolis-based advertising firm
TOM LICHTENHELD is a children’s book illustrator and AKR collaborator whose work includes Duck! Rabbit! (Chronicle Books, 2009)
NICK GAGE is a Chicago-based singer/songwriter. He is known for writing the music for Amy Krouse Rosenthal’s Beckoning of Lovely
RUBY WESTERN is a performance artist, comedian and the guest curator of AKR: A Beauty Salon

Amy Krouse Rosenthal (b. 1965, Chicago – d. 2017, Chicago) was a person who liked to make things. She wrote both adult and children’s books, created tiny films, and worked with TED and NPR as a collaborator and speaker. Rosenthal graduated from Tufts University and built a career in advertising before she published her first children’s book, Little Pea, in 2005. Over the next 12 years, she wrote more than 30 children’s books including I Wish You More, Uni the Unicorn, Duck! Rabbit!, Exclamation Mark, and many other New York Times bestsellers. She penned groundbreaking memoirs including Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life and Textbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal. Her best-known film project is The Beckoning of Lovely.

In February 2017, Amy wrote an essay entitled “You May Want to Marry My Husband,” which was published in The New York Times. Within one week, it had been read by over four million people and featured on many national news outlets. She and her husband Jason raised their three children on a tree-lined street in Chicago.