Jazz, Drinks, and Joy…the first Get Lit event was a night to remember!
This past January 10 we launched our brand new after-hours series Get Lit and our first-ever event was an absolute blast. Inspired by the classic children’s book The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats, we warmed up with live jazz music, typewritten poems, a fun photo booth, and, of course, refreshing adult beverages. Thank you to everyone who joined us and helped make this a special evening, especially Revolution Brewing who donated beers to the cause. Check out some highlights and photos of Get Lit: A Snowy Day below!
“There was typewriter fun, a jazz band, a bar, artwork, immigrant stories, and Poems While You Wait. Visiting this remarkable place has become my January tradition, a chance to fill in the blank writer canvas that emerges at the turn of the year. What a night.”
—@kellyqanderson on Instagram
Get Lit is a new after-hours event series from the AWM on the second Tuesday of every month from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm. It is, dare we say, the most LIT happy hour in downtown Chicago with a different theme each month. Our next event, Get Lit: Down With Love, takes place February 14 and tickets are on sale now. This is the anti-romance Valentine’s Day party you’ve always wanted complete with bitter cocktails, a breakup song playlist, and open mic during which we’ll read love rejection letters from famous authors. Whether you want to bring a date, find a date, or break up with a date….Get Lit: Down With Love is the place to be. Get your tickets here!
Live Jazz Music
Local musicians Tim Fitzgerald and Tom Vaitsas set the mood for A Snowy Day with cozy jazz tunes. With Fitzgerald strumming his guitar and Vaitsas on the keys, they provided the ideal background music to listen to as guests mingled and explored our exhibits. We love jazz here in Chicago and were grateful to have two stellar musicians on hand to guide the evening. Thank you Tim and Tom!
A Snowy Day Photobooth
What sort of happy hour event would it be without a photobooth? We put together this fun photo opp station with the scene and props inspired by The Snowy Day, a story in which a little boy explores his snow-covered city. Guests enjoyed posing with prop hats, paper snowflakes, silly signs, and even (fake) snowballs! Somehow we didn’t start an all-out snowball fight, but maybe next time…
Here are some of our favorite pics from the photobooth.
Fun with Typewriters
Our friends from Poems While You Wait were also on hand to write winter-themed poems on their vintage typewriters. These talented poets take a word or phrase suggested by guests and turn it into an original poem right on the spot. Plus, all attendees had the opportunity to write their own work on one of the many typewriters at the Story of the Day desk. The clickety-clack of the typewriters combined with the jazz music was a wonderful sound to behold.
Thank you once again to everyone who made our first-ever Get Lit event a special one. Check out more photos from past events below, as well as the schedule for the next three events. The full list of upcoming Get Lit happy hours can be found here.
Written by Nate King, Photos by Nikki Geslani
