Chicago Fit/Lit Challenge

In this Summer of Covid, we find ourselves struggling to maintain a healthy body and mind while also entertaining ourselves. Parents, especially, want to engage their children with activities outside the television screen. Our new online summer program, Chicago Fit/Lit combines physical fitness (walking or biking), reading (Chicago books) and writing (responses to literary experiences). Video narratives are also an option. The idea is, one week you read The Wizard of Oz, take a trip to Oz Park to see the statue of the Tin Man, and then tell (through writing or video) a little about what you experienced. Share what you learned. The next week you read Blue Balliett’s The Wright3, go check out The Robie House in Hyde Park (probably only from the outside), then tell us your thoughts. After that, maybe you read Marianne Malone’s The Sixty-Eight Rooms, stroll over to the Art Institute, and let us in on your experience. A library is a literary site, as is a bookstore, or even an educational institution like Englewood High School that produced writers Lorraine Hansberry, Gwendolyn Brooks, Sam Greenlee, Willard Motley, and Oscar Brown, Jr., among others.

Using our Discord channel, participants will log in and comment on activity throughout the week, leading to a Monday Zoom session in which participants share their achievements. Points will be awarded for visits to literary sites (list of options available on Discord), finished reading (book list also available on Discord), and responses (written or videotaped). The best responses will be published on the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame website, and prizes will be awarded to the most active participants. Registration for this program is $75, but scholarships are available for those in financial need. Email Founding Executive Director Don Evans; we don’t want price to inhibit young readers.

The program begins Monday, July 13 and runs five weeks until Monday, Aug. 17. The weekly check-in meetings are from 1-2 p.m. every Monday during the program. A registration fee of $75 is required; registration closes Sunday, July 12.