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Geoffrey Atkins had world at his feet during reign as rackets champion. P.27
How would you fix the state’s fiscal mess? P.15
SPORTS
New Trier Green’s Jack Dolby hauls in postseason honors. P.24 Follow us:
No. 130 | A JWC Media publication
NEWS
Wilmette nixes townhouses
W
ilmette residents opposing the proposed seven-unit townhouse development on Wilmette Avenue breathed a sigh of relief when the Village Board unanimously voted against the development at its March 24 meeting. The Village Board’s refusal was in line with the Zoning Board of Appeal’s decision at its Jan. 21 meeting to vote against the development. Neighborhood opposition to the townhouse development has been strong. Signs stating “R-2 Zoning Means 2 Units Per Lot” have been visible on neighbors’ yards all along Wilmette Avenue and surrounding streets that would be impacted by the development. And residents opposing the development were in full force at the Village Board meeting. They were present handing out “NO” stickers as people entered the room and voicing their concerns during the public-comment period. Developer 1314-1318 Wilmette LLC sought a special use permit and three variances to Continues on page 12
Book reveals invigorating look at life in Cuba
Madeleine Plonsker
BY BILL MCLEAN
M
adeleine Plonsker nears a framed black-andwhite photograph of two fists grabbing what appears to be jail bars. The bold work of art — created circa 2007 by Cuban
photographer Jose Julian “Pepe” Marti — hangs on a wall in her Glencoe home. The collector suggests other interpretations of the photograph to a couple of visitors. “Maybe the person is looking out a window,” Plonsker says.
“Maybe the person is holding pieces of strings. Maybe the lines in the photograph represent light. “Maybe,” she adds, “the photograph had been manipulated to express another message.” She pauses. She lets the in-
COLLEGE ILLINOIS! OPEN HOUSE
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terpretations sink in, settle. She looks at her visitors, perhaps hoping to hear fresh reactions to the photograph. More than 120 photographs, taken by natives of Cuba, adorn the inside of Plonsker’s house. The bulk of those pictures and many others (produced by 50 Cuban photographers) enliven her new bilingual book, “The Light in Cuban Eyes: Lake Forest College’s Madeleine P. Plonsker Collection of Contemporary Cuban Photographs” (Lake Forest College Press). The New Trier High School graduate and former Winnetka resident started to collect the photographs on a trip to Cuba in 2002, during the island country’s “Special Period” — when it faced a severe economic decline following the withdrawal of financial support from the former Soviet Union. The rate of poverty grew during the period, a not-sospecial stretch for the indigent. Widespread hunger struck Cuba’s populace. “Artists in Cuba, I discovered, weren’t just hungry,” Plonsker says. “They were also hungry to show their talent. The most talented people are people who are struggling, people who feel a compulsion to share their views of the world through their art. “I found a very vibrant arts community in Cuba. The photographs I saw on my trips … quite eye-catching. Their work touched me. It came at a time
when Cubans were allowed to photograph everything in their country. They took pictures of life in Cuba, real life. “What I collected was true, post-revolutionary contemporary art.” Three months before Plonsker and Nelson Ramirez — a major Cuban photographer and the Director of Fototeca (photography repository) de Cuba — celebrated the publication of “The Light in Cuban Eyes” at an event at Lake Forest College (March 18) and later at the start of a two-month exhibition at the Robert Mann Gallery in New York, President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro announced the beginning of an initiative to normalize relations between the United States and Cuba. Aims of the thaw include the lifting of some travel and trade restrictions and the reopening of embassies in Washington and Havana. In 1961 the countries severed diplomatic relations because of Cuba’s alliance with the Soviet Union. “We’d been waiting for this news,” says a delighted Plonsker, whose first visit to Cuba was a cultural exchange tour she had arranged nearly 13 years ago. “It’s exciting.” What thrilled her well before the historic announcement was the reward of putting together a 10-pound book filled with Continues on page 12
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