Sugar Beet, Cheryl Munoz

Cheryl Knecht Muñoz, Sugar Beet Co-op co director - Oak Parker

At the beginning of August I visited with Cheryl and her kids in their urban garden "The Victory Garden" in north Oak Park. Cheryl has been on my list for a while, she and Jenny Jocks Stelzer are co-directors of The Sugar Beet Food Co-op Their vision "is to nurture our diverse community through the practice of cooperative economics and through educational programming honoring a more sustainable relationship between the foods we eat and the world we live in." and provide high quality, locally sourced food produced in ecologically sounds ways to Oak Park and the surrounding areas in the next two years.

While out to harvest some kale she taught the children about edible wild flowers growing along the path.

The whole place was lush with all shades of green.

Cheryl's family and my family are in a babysitting co-op together, she has taken care of my kids and I her's. Our first conversation sometime last winter revolved around our shared interest in permaculture and bioneers so I knew she would be a lady of community and this year has really proved this. Teaching children at the YMCA about healthy eating from one's own garden, organizing an edible garden tour, showing a bunch of men how to can foods, this Sugar Beet gal is the type of person I was hoping to find a lot of when moving to Oak Park.

George Bailey

Sometimes it takes just walking through the front door of someone's home to know you really like them.



All of us who attend the Oak Park Farmers Market will know the soulful voice of George Bailey. Children surrounding him and his drumming partner to partake in the music making, but it was his mentoring of underpowered teen boys that attracted me. As my Oak Parkers project evolved I quickly became attracted to passionate people, people who deeply care about the work they do and George is a deep person. Musician, mentor, painter, writer and teacher, I’m not sure if he is more passionate about one of these over the others, I’m guessing he doesn’t think of it like that, I’m pretty sure there is a lot of passion is all that he does.

His home is a comfortable one. One where I would have been happy to sit and talk for hours about the Dogon people, painting, ancestry, moving from the south to Chicago, Chicago, family, his teaching at Columbia, life...

I walked out of his house into a steamy summer morning reminded that I love people; I love to hear people talk about their life and loves. I love to see what people are working on, their painting, their cooking, their garden whatever it is that excites them. And I was reminded that yes there are fascinating people all around us every day if we just take the step to get to know one another.

David Patterson

David Patterson - Oak Parker - Music Historian

As I worked through my Oak Parker project I often get questioned about who or what type of person I want to include. In one such conversation I answered that I am interested in a collector, someone who has an odd or large collection of something and was connected with David Patterson and his collection of autoharps.
Why autoharps,

When I left academia in 2004 and became an "independent scholar," I decided I wanted to try something completely different. For a while in the deliberations, it was a toss-up between the ukulele and the autoharp, the latter of which I remembered only vaguely from grade school. Then one day I watched the mockumentary, "A Mighty Wind," which parodies the folk music movement, and one of the actors was playing an autoharp. And that decided it for me right then and there! So I bought my first one in late 2004, took a few lessons at the Old Town School of Folk Music, and the rest is history!

After walking into David's home in early July it didn't take long to notice his extensive music and DVD collection, the thought quickly entered my head he must have every artist documentary worth viewing. We began discussing how he became an Oak Parker, one of the main reasons being to volunteer at the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust and the Unity Temple Restoration Foundation. As a music historian and expert on the work of John Cage and 20th-century avant garde music, Patterson's more recent project has been on the compositions of William Carey Wright, Frank Lloyd Wright's father. Being that I am married to an architect whose other great love is music it wasn't my first conversation on music and architecture and their influences on each, but it is an ever fascinating one and David has delved deeply into this pairing in the Wright family.

Please take a moment to read a little more about his upcoming album of the music of William Carey Wright here and music's influence on Oak Park's and America's most influential architect.

David Sokol - Oak Parker

Oak Park, The Evolution of A Village

Being that David Sokol is the author of a book titled 'Oak Park, The Evolution of A Village' I felt he would be a good person to meet while working on my project which could be titled 'Oak Park, A Portrait of a Village'.

I picked up a copy of the book at The Book Table after hearing about it on the local TV channel. And reading the list of other books he has authored realised we already had one of his books in our home 'The Noble Room'. Another on his list is 'Oak Park, Il. Continuity and Change'.

His bio reads
David Sokol is professor emeritus and former chair of the Department of Art History at UIC, where he taught American art and directed the program in museology.
He served a term as a trustee of the O.P. Village Board, several years on the Plan Commission and many years on the Historic Preservation Commission. Sokol served as vice-president of the Unity Temple Restoration Foundation and as a board member of the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio Foundation. He currently chairs the Oak Park Public Art Advisory Commission and recently completed a term on the Il. Historic Sites Advisory Council. He was elected to the O.P. Library Board in April 2011. Sokol is also a past president of the American Culture Association.

Taking this all into account I went and met with David at his Oak Park home. Beautiful stained glass welcomed me at the doorway, his office with books from floor to ceiling is the perfect setting for writer/historian, and a home filled with fine art. Having served on so many boards and reserched our Village in depth I was delighted to add David's face to this project.

The Balloon Guy

I have been adding to my Oak Parker project a little slower during the summer months, been busy with kids, outdoors, pools, festivals and local events. There aren't many Oak Park family events that pass that one doesn't see The Balloon Guy at, and so I felt he would be a good addition to the project. So I met him one very wet stormy Thursday night at the TNO event and got a couple shots in.

He definitely is an Oak Park character

David Lyons

Franciscan Outreach

Franciscan Outreach contacted me about visiting their soup kitchen and overnight shelter/transitional housing and taking some photos for them. Here are some of the people I met. Some help out at the soup kitchen on a daily bases, others are very newly homeless due to airline layoffs, and one was packing his bag leaving transitional housing and heading home. You can read about the work this organization does here With over 300 beds a night provided to some of Chicago's homeless every night of the year, and supper provided to many more people in need at their soup kitchen they are working hard to help their community.

I don't get to spend a lot of time with the guests when working but I always come away with a warm heart. There is such a strong connection to someone who is sharing a little of themself in this way. The recording of who they are right then in their life brings us together briefly, I get to see them, connect with them. My hope is that through these photos others out there might make a connection too, take a moment to see these people, look in their eyes and in some way reach out and help every now and again.

Sugar Beet Gala

Summer is keeping me busy and away from my computer, I should post a little something from time to time and so I'll show some images from one of the most fun filled of summer nights. If you live in the Oak Park area and haven't heard of The Sugar Beet Food Co-op it's time to check them out as they build steam.

" The Sugar Beet Cooperative will provide high quality, locally sourced food produced in ecologically sounds ways. Not only will we offer good food at fair value to member-owners and the community, The Sugar Beet Co-op will also serve as a neighborhood gathering place for sharing and learning, which in turn will support our regional food shed.
The vision of The Sugar Beet Co-op is to nurture our diverse community through the practice of cooperative economics and through educational programming honoring a more sustainable relationship between the foods we eat and the world we live in. "

Cheryl and Jenny tell a little of what they are doing and the farmers they plan to work with.

all photos are Here