Ballers’ delight

TREASURE HUNT Printers’ Ball antendees can load up on free swag.

Photo: Adam Travis

Legendary parties always seem to end with the cops.

The organizer and driving force behind the Poetry Foundation’s annual Printers’ Ball, Fred Sasaki—who self-effacingly titles himself “the doorman”—recalls his reaction to the men and women in bulletproof-blue, who showed up a few hours into the 2007 edition at the Zhou B. Art Center in Bridgeport.

“I remembered that Fred is one i away from fired,” he says. Last year’s strange, lingering police raid came down to improper liquor licensing at the venue itself. In the year-round planning that goes into each ball, Sasaki learned his lesson, “That night was a great demonstration of the intricacies of event planning,” he says.

This year’s fourth annual showcase at the Museum of Contemporary Art will most likely outdo last year’s event in both numbers and spectacle, but it won’t invite any flatfeet along for the ride. More than 100 of the city’s literary and publishing organizations will descend upon the MCA, which has its intricacies as well. After flip-flopping over whether to keep the Koons exhibit open during the event, as of this writing the museum has decided to keep it closed, citing the fragility of the work and security costs. All of the other exhibits—including the Calder mobiles and stabiles—will be open that evening, according to Jackie Terrassa, assistant director of public programs at the MCA. But ballgoers won’t miss one of Koons’s most-celebrated and priciest works. All of the magazines, broadsheets, journals, organizations and literature ranging from pet magazine Chicagoland Tails to the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs’ Literary Arts and Events will be giving away their art free of charge in the atrium beneath Koons’s massive Hanging Heart.

Regardless of what happens with the exhibit space, the Printers’ Ball is its own attraction. Expect to see more recent issues from ball veterans Another Chicago Magazine and International Socialist Review, to name only two, as well as many new publications and literary endeavors from the Chicago area. With the exception of liquor, everything at the ball will be free, from the mags to DJs to hot dogs and chips in the Wolfgang Puck Café.

Attendees can fill their bags with free lit at any time during the four-and-a-half-hour event, as well as catch two rare performances. There will be a staging of Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai’s Killing Him: A Radio Play from 6–7pm, translated in English for the first time in POETRY’s July/August issue. And the 7–9pm slot marks the return of the Dollar Store performance series—hosted by TOC’s Jonathan Messinger—which will feature an object from a dollar store chosen as inspiration for local artists, including Baghdad native and Chicago-based director-artist Usama Alshaibi.

“Each Printers’ Ball is driven by circumstance and enthusiasm,” Sasaki says, playing down the international spectrum of this year’s events. “We play with themes and a rotating cast of organizers and artists.”

Though last year’s numbers were difficult to calculate, ballgoer attendance has increased dramatically each year, from 900 at the HotHouse in 2005 to more than 1,100 at the Double Door in 2006. Expect more at the MCA.

Sasaki remains humble about his annual event, “The one-night stand is nothing compared to the valiant lit outfits involved: our writers, designers, illustrators, editors, organizers and readers; and the publishing, educational, arts and city institutions that bolster us.”

That’s how legendary parties endure.

The Printers’ Ball begins at 5:30pm at the MCA on Friday 22.