June 28 - July 4, 2023

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Arts & Entertainment Event highlights of the week!

SportsWise

When NASCAR was about to celebrate its 75th anniversary, its officials wanted an iconic 21st century city, so they chose Chicago, even though NASCAR has its roots in the Prohibition era of the 1920s and 30s. The sport evolved from fast cars with souped up engines and stripped down bodies that could outdistance law enforcement while delivering what was then illegal booze. The music, food and race festival in Grant Park is a whole new way to experience NASCAR, and is also intended to broaden its audience. Read about what to expect.

Cover Story: Jim Peterik

For more than 50 years, musician and songwriter Jim Peterik has been turning out hits, initially for the Ides of March, with their 1970 classic, "Vehicle," about the friendly stranger in the black sedan; as a solo artist, and formerly of Survivor, which won a Grammy for "Eye of the Tiger," from the movie, "Rocky III." Peterik has never written a heartbreak song, because he married his first love, Karen, the inspiration for "Vehicle" and many of his other hits.

Inside Streetwise

StreetWise vendor A. Allen reviews the film "Chevalier."

The Playground

opinions, positions or strategies expressed by the authors and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views, opin

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT RECOMMENDATIONS

Compiled by Kyra Walker

Get Involved!

Remember, Reconnect, and Represent

Be a Connector and link with organizations to advocate for a better Chicago on July 4 at the Chicago History Museum, 1601 N Clark St. Listen to local leaders such as Mary Ellen Daneels, and make your mark on the community mural.

Enjoy crafts and games outside, hands on history facilitated by Natalia Virafuentes. Tour the museum with a Civic Action @ CHM guide, followed by a special screening of the Kartemquin Films documentary, "Represent" (pictured). The program begins at 11 a.m. with live music from the Americana Concert Band, and family festivities. From noon until 4:30 p.m., the museum will be open and Illinois residents get free admission. To receive the resident discount, visitors must either create an account or login to their museum account at chicagohistory.org

Physical Theater Festival 10th Season Kickoff Party

Let's Get Physical!

Join the Physical Theater Festival as it kicks off its 10th annual edition. Enjoy free drinks and small bites as you mingle with board members, artists, partners and members of the physical theater community. Attendees will also hear from the co-artistic director about what makes the 10th anniversary edition so unique, along with expanded programming, artistic residencies, cultural exchanges and physical theater shows. The event will be 6-8:30 p.m. June 29 at the Instituto Cervantes, 31 W. Ohio St. Reserve your free spot at physicalfestival.com

Author Talk!

Author Lorrie Moore: 'I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home'

Join American author Lorrie Moore in a conversation about the release of her new novel, “I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home.” Lorrie is an English professor at Vanderbilt University. She’s the recipient of a Lannan Foundation Award and a Lannan Fellowship, along with the PEN/Malamud Award. She also received the Red Sea Award for her achievement in the short story. Her latest release is a daring, meditative exploration of love and death, passion and grief, and what it means to be haunted by the past. See Lorrie from 6-7 p.m. June 28 at the Harold Washington Library Center, 400 S. State St.

Sewing Pride In!

Queer Quilting

End Pride Month with a collaborative art/project fundraiser for local trans and LGBTQIA+ groups on June 30 from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the second floor lounge of the Mayfair Presbyterian Church, 4358 W. Ainslie St. The mission is to acknowledge that the art and pride the queer community makes isn’t just for one month, but all year. Participants will help create trans and intersectional flags. This isn’t a quilting workshop, but there will be limited guidance on quilting techniques. Those who have sewing experience are highly encouraged to come and sew something on the quilt. Participants are also encouraged to bring their own supplies. Snacks and drinks will be available for sale. Register for free on Eventbrite.com

A Market for All!

LuckyMart

One of Chicago's most popular markets and block parties is making a comeback, noon-6 p.m. July 1-2 at On Tour Brewing Company, 1725 W. Hubbard St. Everyone of all ages (and their dogs) are welcome. The market will feature over 60 local and regional vendors who specialize in art, artisan crafts, vintage clothing and homemade goods. There will also be lively music, games, and much more. FREE admission, but reserve your spot on Eventbrite.com

Art & Activism!

Housing Justice in Chicago Today: Arts and Activism

Join Willie “J.R.” Fleming (pictured) and Tiff Beatty in a conversation on the intersection of art and activism in Chicago’s housing. Hear from organizers, cultural workers and former public housing residents as they share the ways creativity spurs action and policy, as well as how both home and housing can nurture talent and creativity. Join them, 7-9 p.m. June 29 at the Green Line Performing Arts Center, 329 E. Garfield Blvd. FREE, but register on Eventbrite.com

Outdoor Movie!

Films on the Green | 'The Artist' by Michel Hazanavicius

Bring a chair and/or blanket for a free movie at 8:30 p.m. June 28. "The Artist," directed by Michel Hazanavicius, is a silent, French drama/romance that takes place in Hollywood between 1927 and 1932. The film focuses on the relationship between a rising young actress and an older silent film star. Although the movie is in French, there will be English subtitles. The movie will be screened at Belmont Harbor Park, south of the Belmont Harbor South parking lot at Lake Shore Drive and Belmont Avenue, 3100 N. Lake Shore Drive. More info and registration at Eventbrite.com

Outdoor Theater!

Broadway In Your Backyard At Wicker

60 minutes of music featuring some of Chicago’s most talented musical theatre voices. Hear classics from Broadway past and present, as well as Disney favorites, 6-7 p.m. June 29 at Charles Wicker Park, 1425 N. Damen Ave. FREE.

Learn About City Art!

Graffiti Writing and Mural Creation

Join graffiti artist Paul Puschautz 3-5 p.m. June 29 and learn the basics, using spray paint and plywood. After a quick lesson, participants can contribute to the community mural that will be hung in the Chicago Public Library's Vodak-East Side branch, 3710 E. 106th St. Recommended for age 13+. Masks strongly recommended in all CPL spaces. FREE.

Celebrating Traditional Music!

Mexico and Our Music at Barrett

Attend this free event and listen to the sounds of Mariachi Tradicional Juvenil. The goal of this Little Village 10-member ensemble, age 9-15, is to keep their music alive. They will play 6:30-7:30 p.m. June 30 at Charles Barrett Park, 2022 W. Cermak Road.

nascar takes over grant park

by Suzanne Hanney

NASCAR's roots date to the Prohibition era, but in planning their 75th anniversary, officials were looking for an "iconic" 21st century city, so they chose Chicago, says NASCAR Chicago President Julie Giese. Chicago was already one of the top three markets for their fan base, so a July 1 -2 auto race on downtown streets, around Grant Park, was also a good way to introduce the sport to new audiences.

NASCAR’s very first street race will feature a 2.2-mile course on Michigan Avenue, Lake Shore and Columbus Drives with 12 leftand righthand turns, starting and ending at Buckingham Fountain, and showcasing landmarks like Lake Michigan and the Art Institute lions. NASCAR officials were looking at Chicago even during the pandemic, when they plotted a virtual street race, Giese said in an NBC Chicago video hosted on YouTube.

The racing and music festival is “all about Chicago and having a good time,” a reinvention of the auto race experience, Giese said. There will be four full concerts – by The Chainsmokers and The Black Crowes July 1, Miranda Lambert and Charley Crockett July 2 – food, culture, racing, music.

“It’s the first time for the City of Chicago and NASCAR, [which] will be part of something that’s never been done before in a sport that has been around 75 years,” she said. A Ferris wheel will harken back to the original one at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, and there will be free events in Butler Field.

Saturday, July 1 at 4 p.m., the Rising Stars of NASCAR will compete in the 55-lap (121-mile) NASCAR Xfinity Series Loop 121 race. Sunday at 4:30 p.m., the biggest names in racing will be in the 100-lap NASCAR Cup Series Inaugural Grant Park 220.

The Chicago street course brings to life last summer’s virtual, eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series, according to the Charlotte Observer. Just as important, the street course means that NASCAR officials are responding to competition from Formula 1 racing, where open-wheel cars zoom around city streets. F1 has become one of the fastest-growing sports in the U.S. since the 2019 Netflix documentary, “Drive to Survive.”

Transporting the sport to a downtown filled with other events also expands its representation into the future, driver Bubba Wallace said. “You’re going to get that next Bubba Wallace that’s sitting in the stands like I was when I was 9 years old to be like, ‘Hey I want to do this one day, but I want to be better.’”

The only question on the streets is, “Is Chicago getting enough in return?” That’s what candidates in the recent mayoral election -- winner Brandon Johnson and Paul Vallas -- asked. Intermittent lane closures began June 18 on Balbo, Columbus, and

DuSable Lake Shore Drives, Roosevelt Road, and Michigan Avenue, which added to congestion caused by construction on the John F. Kennedy Expressway and hindered access to the Museum Campus. DuSable Drive will begin reopening July 2, with all track walls and fences down by July 15, according to https://www.chicago. gov/city/en/depts/oem/provdrs/ emerg_mang/news/2023/april/ the-city-of-chicago-and-nascarannounce-traffic-plan-for-nascar-.html

NASCAR has a three-year contract with the city, and will pay a $500,000 fee this year, $550,000 in 2024 and $605,000 in 2025, according to theathletic.com In addition, the city will receive $2 for each ticket sold and a percentage of net commissions on concessions and souvenir sales. NASCAR will also pay a $50,000 security deposit for any damages to Grant Park. Giese said that NASCAR will also contribute to Chicago Public School STEAM and STEM programs.

Giese, who moved to Chicago last August to head a staff of more than a dozen, is playing a long game with NASCAR’s $50 million investment in the July 1-2 event. She meets almost daily with civic and business leaders over logistics, road closures, expenses and revenue for the city, corporate sponsorships, even the postponing of the annual Taste of Chicago until September. Previously, Giese was project manager for the three-year, $400 million renovation of NASCAR’s marquee Daytona International Speedway; she has also overseen major renovations to Talladega Superspeedway, Phoenix Raceway and Richmond Raceway.

“The message that I’ve shared in every meeting, every conversation that I’ve had is that we are committed to putting on the most spectacular event for the city of Chicago and for our industry,” Giese said on theathletic.com. “And we are committed to making sure everyone knows what to expect. That’s a big reason why we’ve set up an office here, why we have a full-time staff here in

Rashanah Baldwin

park & Downtown

Chicago that is dedicated to this event, that’s out and about talking to the community, being community partners, working on a lot of community giveback initiatives. Those are the things that the more we can do, it just puts us in a really good spot moving forward.”

NASCAR officials also quote their study by CSL International, which says that 100,000 visitors watching the race could have a $113 million impact on the local economy, according to theathletic. com

Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce President Jack Lavin agreed, in an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times hosted on the Chamber’s website. “Today, as our city continues to recover from the pandemic, we must embrace this spirit of big thinking if we, as a community, want to revitalize and diversify our economy…But this is not just another feather in the cap of Chicago’s rich history as a sports town – it’s also big business, and perhaps even an economic and reputational imperative.”

NASCAR – the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing –was formally incorporated in February 1948 after its first official race in Daytona Beach, FL. A few months earlier, in late 1947, Bill France Sr. organized a meeting of drivers, officials and promoters at the Streamline Hotel in Daytona Beach to create a sanctioning body for stock car racing.

The roots of stock car racing are in the Prohibition era of the 1920s and 30s, according to the Mob Museum in Las Vegas. In order to transport then-illegal alcohol, bootleggers had to elude federal agents and police. Their cars looked ordinary, but the engines were modified for extra speed; floorboards and passenger seats were removed for extra liquor capacity, and extra suspension springs were added to handle the weight. “Rumrunners” also had to be good at both driving and mechanics. Spend too long on a flat tire, and you could wind up in jail.

Jim Peterik:

Turning out hits for more than 50 years

by Stella Kapetan

For more than 50 years, musician and songwriter Jim Peterik has been turning out hits, initially with The Ides of March and their 1970 classic “Vehicle” about the friendly stranger in the black sedan, as a solo artist, and formerly of Survivor. Survivor’s success includes the Grammy Awardwinning anthem to perseverance, “Eye of the Tiger;” “The Search is Over” and other staples heard on classic radio.

The west suburban Berwyn native, now 72, recently sat down with StreetWise Magazine in the music studio in his south suburban Burr Ridge home to talk about his career, which includes writing hits for The Beach Boys, REO Speedwagon, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Sammy Hagar and others. He is also still creating, recording and regularly performing live today, with The Ides of March, Cornerstones of Rock and Pride of Lions.

“It’s all about the feedback I get from people whose lives were touched or inspired by something I wrote and performed,” Peterik said about his success. “I’ve heard “Eye of The Tiger” and “The Search is Over” have been used for people in drug rehab. That means a lot to me.”

Peterik first displayed his musical talent playing the ukulele while singing with his sisters in the back of the family’s 1952 Chrysler on trips to Florida. A few years later, at age 9, he began playing the guitar, “because I was old enough to wrap my hand around the neck,” he said.

He was 14 in 1964 when friend and classmate, Larry Millas knocked on his door and asked if he wanted to start a band. “Music was my life at that point,” Peterik said. They were The Shon-Dells, then Batman and the Boy Wonders, a name that lasted about two weeks. “Then [bass player] Bob Bergland said, ‘I’m reading [Shakespeare’s] Julius Caesar, and I came across the phrase, ‘Beware the Ides of March,’” Peterik recalled. “Bergland said, ‘That sounds like

our new name.’” They played local backyard BBQs and in high school gymnasiums and split their $20 fee. Their song “You Wouldn’t Listen” reached No. 42 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 7 on WLS Chicago in 1966.

Then they struck it big in 1970 when Peterik was an 18-yearold freshman at Morton College and penned “Vehicle.” He was inspired by a girl, Karen, whom he met at a Turtles concert in 1968. “She would ask me to drive her places but would insist we were just friends,” Peterik said. “She said, ‘I want to date other guys. It’s not a date - you have the cool car. Can you take me to modeling school?’ I did, so I could be next to her. Week after week, she’d shake my hand. I thought, 'All I am is your vehicle baby.’ I had never heard the word used in a song.” The words in the song about the stranger offering a ride to the nearest star was based an anti-drug pamphlet Peterik’s lab partner showed him that depicted a man stopping children to sell drugs.

The song shot up to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, and after hearing it on the radio, Karen called Peterik and agreed to a date. She became his wife two years later. “All my songs are written for Karen.” Peterik said. “I rarely write sad love songs because I really never experienced heartbreak.”

“Vehicle” features Peterik using a gruff voice that sounds years older than 18, accompanied by a horn riff. Peterik said as a result, people mistook the band for Blood Sweat & Tears. He was, in fact, channeling Blood Sweat & Tears’ lead singer David Clayton-Thomas, along with Ray Charles. Charles was an early, major influence on Peterik, along with Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash. “Musically, I am the mutt of so many influences,” Peterik said.

With the record’s success, the band hit the road with Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and other top names. “We were sharing a deli tray with the Grateful Dead,” Peterik said, while

avoiding the drug- and liquor-infused lifestyle often associated with rock 'n’ roll. Peterik recalled arriving at a party at the invitation of Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant and finding what Peterik described as an orgy, with plenty of drugs and semi-dressed women. “We left,” Peterik said. “We went across the street to Dunkin’ Donuts, our comfort zone.”

Peterik left The Ides of March in 1973 to “break new ground musically and be influenced by different musicians and style,” he said.

Following the 1976 release of his solo album “Jim PeterikDon’t Fight the Feeling,” he toured with Heart and opened for Boston’s first live performance. Peterik recounted how he helped Boston’s lead singer, Brad Delp, overcome stage fright. “He had never performed in front of that many people. He came over to me and said, ‘Jim, I’m afraid to go out there.’ I said, ‘You go out there, and you rock them.’ I pushed him into the spotlight. He did great.”

Survivor and Eye of the Tiger

In 1977, Peterik was back in Chicago and had a goal. “I wanted to create the best band ever,” he said. The result was Survivor, the band Peterik would lead to the top of the music charts and earn the industry’s highest awards. Guitarist Frankie Sullivan and lead singer Dave Bickler were also from the Chicago area.

Survivor performed at Haymakers, Beginnings, The Thirsty Whale and other local bars until the day Sylvester Stallone called and asked Peterik to write a song for the 1982 movie “Rocky III.”

Stallone had told his friend Tony Scotti, head of Survivor’s

Jim... Give me a call. It's Sylvester Stallone'

record label, Scotti Brothers Records, that he was looking for a song for the movie. Unbeknownst to Peterik, Scotti played Survivor’s “Poor Man’s Son” for Stallone. "Stallone said, ‘Give me Jim’s number,”’ Peterik recounted. “I get home, and there is a message on my answering machine. ‘Hey Jim, that’s a nice answering machine you got there. Give me a call. It’s Sylvester Stallone.”’ Peterik thought his road manager, Sal, left the message as a joke. “Karen overheard and said, ‘Who is that? You idiot, you better call him back just in case,” Peterik said. “I thought it was a good sign when he answered with ‘Yo.’ He said, ‘Hey Jim, call me Sly. I need a song for “Rocky III.” I don’t want to use “Gonna Fly Now.” I want something for the kids, something with a pulse. Can you help me out?’ I said, ‘Absolutely.’”

Peterik was sent a rough cut of the movie. Confident of his ability to write a good song, he rented a Betamax video cassette player and watched the movie with Sullivan, who cowrote the song. “When I heard Burgess Meredith say 'Rocky, you are losing the eye of the tiger,’ we looked at each other and said, ‘We have our title.’”

“Eye of the Tiger,” with Peterik on rhythm guitar and keyboards, spent more than six weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by Duo or Group with Vocal, a People’s Choice Award and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song.

“I was overwhelmed, really.” Peterik said of the Grammy Award win. “Suddenly I was in the company of some of my biggest heroes.”

People still tell Peterik how the song inspires them. “It has given a lot of people motivation to go the final mile of a 26-mile run,” Peterik said.

Left: The cover for the single of "Vehicle" with b-side "Lead Me Home, Gently," released in March 1970 on Warner Bros.

Above: The Ides of March in the recording studio (courtesy photo). OPPOSITE PAGE: Peterik holds his Grammy while in the recording studio (Stella Kapetan photo).

'Hey,

Bickler left Survivor in 1983, and Jimi Jamison came aboard. “He had a God-given gift of singing,” Peterik said of Jamison, who died in 2014. You believe everything that he sings. It’s like he lived every lyric he sings.”

In 1984, Survivor released the platinum album “Vital Signs.” “The Search is Over,” the power ballad that reached the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, is Peterik’s favorite song that he has written. He said it describes people who look for something in life but are too close or too blind to see it. He noted that “High on You,” another top 10, was written for Karen.

The power-driven “I Can’t Hold Back” nearly did not make it into the album. “We were cutting the “Vital Signs” album,” Peterik said. “We thought we were done. Roadies were packing up. Frankie started an appreciated guitar figure, and I sat down at the piano and started accompanying him. And Ron Nevison, our producer, said ‘What’s that?’ I said, 'We are just goofing around.' He said, ‘You are not goofing around. You are writing a song that has to be on the record.’”

Peterik was too busy on the road at the time to realize how successful the album had become. “It was upon reflection that it really hit me,” he said.

Survivor would also score in the top 10 with “Is This Love” from the album “When Seconds Count” and “Burning Heart” from “Rocky IV: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack.”

Peterik parted ways with Survivor in 1996 and concentrated on The Ides of March.

The many hits Peterik has written for other artists span a variety of genres. “I am a songwriter first above a musician and a singer,” he said. “I tailor my songs with the people I’m writing with and for. I am trying to fit into their style of music.”

For 38 Special, he teamed with their front man, Don Branes, and guitarist Jeff Carlisi to write 1981’s “Hold on Loosely.” The song closes all the band’s live performances “like the cherry on top - everybody goes wild,” Barnes said in an interview with Decades TV Network. Peterik based it on when Karen told him while they were dating that he was too possessive.

The trio also wrote “Caught Up in You” that 38 Special took to the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. Peterik said 38 Special ushered in a new sound in music. “They were the first band to really bridge southern rock and pop, and I was a big part of that.”

Peterik also displayed his versatility when he collaborated with Sammy Hagar to write “Heavy Metal” that Hagar sang for the animated movie of the same title.

The genesis for The Beach Boys song “That’s Why God Made the Radio” is a conversation with Brian Wilson over a meal at a Chinese restaurant. “We were discussing how great music sounded on AM radio through the dashboard of your car,” Peterik said. “Between gulps of shrimp Brian said, ‘That’s why God made the radio.’ I wrote that title down, and the rest is history.” The tune Peterik and Wilson wrote with Larry Millas and Joe Thomas captures the California sun and surf sound and is featured in the album with the same name released to coincide with The Beach Boys’ 50th anniversary.

'I am a songwriter first…'

Peterik and Dennis DeYoung, Styx co-founder and Chicago South Side native, share a 35-year friendship and live two blocks from each other. They wrote and recorded “Proof of Heaven” four years ago. “It reflects Dennis’ and my feeling that there is more to this life beyond what we see.” Peterik has high praise for his friend. “He has the most iconic voice in rock 'n’ roll,” Peterik said. “It is a signature sound that nobody has. You know immediately it’s Dennis DeYoung.” And Peterik has seen a side of him most fans have not. “He can be serious,” Peterik said. “But get him in front of a microphone, and he becomes a stand-up comic.”

Still Going Strong

Peterik said “All That’s Mine to Give,” released last year with singer Toby Hitchcock, has already become a standard at weddings, bar mitzvahs, “every time people get together,” he said. “It’s about Karen. It’s a good example of two people who gave each other everything.” As the Pride of Lions, Peterik and Hitchcock released “Dream Higher” this month.

Peterik also uses his talent to fight cancer through the organization In Concert for Cancer that raises funds for patient support services, treatment and research. He has performed in their annual live show. They will release in August “The Fight of Our Life,” the song Peterik calls “our cancer anthem.” It features vocal performance by Peterik, DeYoung, Ray Parker Jr. and saxophonist Mindi Abair. Peterik has a personal reason for his involvement. “I always think of my mother, who was cured of breast cancer,” he said.

And Peterik is still with The Ides of March, the band that started it all more than 50 years ago. “It’s a family and a band of brothers,” Peterik said. In 1990, they were invited to a reunion in Berwyn’s Cermak Plaza Shopping Center’s parking lot, where Peterik said they played to a crowd of 20,000. They still perform about 30 concerts a year, mainly in the Midwest,

where the fans cheer at the start of “Vehicle.” “They usually greet us on their feet when we hit our signature brass call to arms,” Peterik said. The band is writing and recording material for an album to be released later this year.

The Ides of March has also joined with other classic groups that originated in the Chicago area - The Buckinghams, The Cryan’ Shames, The Shadows of Knight and The New Colony Six - to tour as Cornerstones of Rock.

The Ides of March also give back to the community. They formed a college scholarship program for fine arts students at Morton West High School after the City of Berwyn dedicated the portion of Home Avenue in front of the school as The Ides of March Way in 2010. The school is where all the original members formed the band.

In 2006, the band, together with Chicago’s Holy Name Cathedral, released “Sharing Christmas,” a 4-song EP featuring disc jockey Dick Biondi. The proceeds benefited the cathedral’s Thursday Suppers for people who are low-income or homeless.

With his full schedule, Peterik has no plans to retire. “I can’t say the R word,” he said. “You can’t retire from what you love doing.” And he is always trying to top what he has already accomplished. “I stay creative. People ask me what’s the biggest hit you have ever had, and I say 'I haven’t written it yet.’”

And despite his success, he said he is “still a kid from Berwyn at heart. People tell me I haven’t changed. I keep both feet on the ground.”

See Cornerstones of Rock live, at 3 p.m. Sunday, July 16, at the Des Plaines Theatre, 1476 Miner St. For full schedules, visit theidesofmarch.com

The Ides of March: Top row: Steve Eisen, Tim Bales, Henry Salgado Bottom: Mike Borch, Bob Bergland, Jim Peterik, Larry Millas, Scott May (courtesy photo).

StreetWise Vendor A. Allen reviews the film 'chevalier'

The recently released “Chevalier” movie is extraordinary, superb and wonderful.

The movie starts out with Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Joseph Boulogne in a violin duel with Amadeus Mozart. The duel is what the movie is all about. Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint Georges, should have been just as famous as Mozart. The violin duel begins with Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5. Bologne shows up and outplays the legendary Mozart. He adds a little soul to his style. The duel goes back and forth but the gist of it was that it was extraordinary to think that a Black man could play toe to toe with the 18th century violinist and composer.

It is superb because it shows how an illegitimate son of an African slave and a French plantation owner could rise to new legitimate and professional heights in French society. His father set him up for success when he sent him to the best school in France, where he perfected his music and fencing skills, so that he could rise to the social status of “chevalier,” or knight to the king. “No one can argue with an excellent Frenchman,” he said, as he dropped him off, and departed.

The movie is wonderful because the story is true. It also has the passion, the tension of social and racial issues that human beings faced yesterday and still today.

It is also wonderful, because excellence should never be judged by skin color. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, our kids should not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. The point is, excellence represents itself. It doesn’t have a need for color or social status to confirm or affirm its position.

"Chevalier" is in theaters as of print date.

"Chevalier" is also available from all major digital retailers, including Prime Video, Apple TV, Vudu, and Moves Anywhere

Kelvin Harrison Jr., Samara Weaving and Alex Fizalan in the film CHEVALIER.

(Photo by Larry Horricks. Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2023 20th Century Studios All Rights Reserved.)

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