The Culture of Mushroom Hunters, May 7 @ 7:30 pm

Chicago Foodways Roundtable
and
Illinois Mycological Association
present

Morel Tales:
The Culture of Mushrooming

Presented by Gary Fine, PhD

Monday, May 7, 2018 at 7:30 pm
Joint meeting with the Illinois Mycological Association

Niles History and Culture Center
8970 Milwaukee Avenue, Niles, IL 60714
(Just north of Dempster)
Public transportation: Blue Line to the Jefferson Park CTA Station, from there it is 20 minutes on the PACE #270 bus to Milwaukee and Elizabeth.
Free Parking in the lot behind the building
Cost: Free. All are welcome!

Drawing on the observations of three years spent in the company of dedicated amateur mushroomers and professional mycologists. Gary Alan Fine explores the ways in which Americans attempt to give meaning to the natural world, while providing an eye-opening look inside the cultures they construct around its study and appreciation.

This will be an interview-discussion with Gary Alan Fine, whose book Morel Tales: The Culture of Mushrooming (2003), is considered a landmark work on environmental sociology. We will explore his examination of a thriving community, one with its own language, ceremonies, jokes, narratives, rivalries and social codes. We will learn of the American phenomenon Fine calls “Naturework,’ that is, culturally constructing one’s own place in the natural environment through communities with shared systems of assigned meaning.

“Naturework,” Fine observes, is something we all do on some level – not only birders, butterfly collectors, rock hounds, hunters, hikers, campers, and outdoor enthusiasts, but all of us who construct community through narrative and nature through culture.

Gary Alan Fine, PhD is a professor of sociology at Northwestern University. He has been a member of Illinois Mycological Association and Culinary Historians of Chicago.

This program is hosted by the Chicago Foodways Roundtable. To reserve, please e-mail: culinaryhistorians@gmail.com.

http://www.CulinaryHistorians.org

Niles Historical Society
8970 Milwaukee Avenue
Niles, IL 60714
847-390-0160

Niles Historical & Cultural Center is about a tenth of a mile Southeast from the Golf-Mill Shopping center. The former sheriff’s office has parking behind the building. The meeting room is on the third floor and is accessible by elevator as well as a large staircase. Restrooms are available on first and third floors. A museum volunteer will open the building for us this evening.

For public transport from the city, take the Blue Line to the Jefferson Park CTA Station, from there it is 20 minutes on the PACE #270 bus to Milwaukee and Elizabeth.
The museum is open to the public Mondays, Wednesdays

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