🎤📚 Chicago Misconceptions: Chicago Blues | CFC Winter Lecture Series 🍸

🎤📚 Chicago Misconceptions: Chicago Blues Wasn't Born in the Delta | CFC Winter Lecture Series 🍸

Was Chicago Blues really born in the Delta — or is that just another myth? 👀

Join us for the SECOND lecture of the season, featuring historian, musician & tour guide Walter Kiefer, as he unpacks how Chicago created its own electrified, urban blues sound — and how myths, marketing, and outsiders got the story wrong.

Lecture by Walter Keifer
📅 Tuesday, January 13, 2026

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🚨 REGISTRATION REQUIRED — READ FIRST
You MUST register outside of Meetup on Eventbrite to attend the live, in-person lecture.

This event is FREE, but registration is required to enter the speakeasy area for the lecture.
🗓 Registration opens: Tuesday, 12/30/25 at 9:00 AM (set reminder)
⚠️ Space is limited — register ASAP
👉 Register here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/chicago-misconceptions-chicago-blues-wasnt-born-in-the-delta-registration-1975056534261

If registration is full:
• Join the Eventbrite waitlist — people cancel and waitlist guests DO get in
• Walk-ins are allowed, space permitting
⭐ NEW, BIGGER VENUE — but it still fills up fast!

****IMPORTANT!! PLEASE NOTE THAT TICKETS FOR THE EVENT ARE NOT YET AVAILABLE. IT IS CRUCIAL THAT EVERYONE SETS A REMINDER TO REGISTER ON EVENTBRITE ON TUESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2025, AT 9 AM. RSVPING ON MEETUP DOES NOT SECURE YOUR SPOT. YOU MUST GO BACK AND REGISTER ON THE 30th VIA THE EVENTBRITE LINK TO CONFIRM YOUR ATTENDANCE.****

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🕕 ⏰TIMING & ENTRY DETAILS (VERY IMPORTANT)
• Meetup group meets at 6:00 PM
• Doors open at 6:30 PM
• Registered ticket holders admitted first
• Walk-ins may enter starting at 7:00 PM, space permitting
• Lecture begins promptly at 7:10 PM
➡️ If you are not registered, arrive close to 7:00 PM and be flexible.

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📍 Venue
Bad Apple Lincoln Park
658 W Belden Ave · Chicago
Historic, handicap accessible, with great food & cocktails
🍔 YES — food is available during the lecture
✔ Separate checks allowed
✔ More seating than past venues
✔ Food is excellent
https://www.badapplebar.com/the-bad-apple-lincoln-park

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🏙️ About the Series
Chicago for Chicagoans returns for their 9th Winter Speakeasy Lecture Series, designed to teach Chicago residents about the history of their own city.

Hosted at Bad Apple Lincoln Park, these pay-what-you-can events spark discussion about Chicago’s past — and how it continues to shape our future.

📅 NOW ON TUESDAY EVENINGS!

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🔍 This Year’s Theme: MISCONCEPTIONS
This season explores the unfair stereotypes, urban legends, and dubious assumptions surrounding Chicago’s past.

Each week features a different local Chicago historian & expert for 12 one-of-a-kind evenings of:
• Legendary tall tales
• Corrected mischaracterizations
• Disproven myths
• Lively discussion + tasty cocktails
Attend in person or watch the recorded lectures online afterward.

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📚 THIS WEEK’S LECTURE — 01/13/26
Chicago Blues isn't just Southern music brought north — our city's native, electrified version was a high-tech reinvention made possible by amplification, recording studios, and postwar urban energy from the Great Migration. Discover how marketing, myth-making, & white audiences lost the plot on what made our sound special. Lecture by tour guide, musician, & historian Walter Kiefer

🎤 Lecture by local guide Walter Keifer
Registration opens 12/30/25!

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👩‍🏫 About the Speaker:
Hailing from Cleveland, OH, Walter Kiefer is an engineer, musician, and marathoner. His interest in uncovering forgotten history began with bike trips along the Illinois & Michigan Canal (on a Chicago-manufactured Schwinn). This quickly followed into exploring the relics of industry and architectural oddities around the neighborhoods and attending Newberry Library lectures to find out what made Chicago ground zero for architecture and invention. He enjoys reading up on planes, trains and automobiles, running along abandoned rail lines, Sanborn fire insurance maps, playing any instrument with strings, and finding the best neighborhood festivals.

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🌐 Learn More & Watch Recordings
Chicago for Chicagoans:
http://www.chicagoforchicagoans.org/
Effing Chicago:
http://effingchicago.com/

🎥 Recordings posted the following Thursday:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChicagoforChicagoans
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chicagoforchicagoans/videos
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chicagoforchicagoans

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💛 Support the Nonprofit
Chicago for Chicagoans is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
Tax-deductible donations:
http://www.chicagoforchicagoans.org/donate.html

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🚇 Getting There
Public transit:
Google Maps or CTA Trip Planner
https://www.transitchicago.com/planatrip/

🚗 Parking:
• Metered parking on Lincoln, Fullerton & Halsted
• Some free side-street parking (watch signs)
• SpotHero lot directly across the street

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⚠️ NO-SHOW POLICY (PLEASE READ)
• 3 no-shows without updating RSVP = 3-month event freeze
• RSVP cut-off = event start time
• If late, message the host directly
• Failure to check in counts as a no-show
• Continued no-shows may result in removal from the group