Roots Salon: Art that Digs Deep
Jamie O’Reilly is a singer, writer, and arts producer with a 40 year plus history as an arts activist in the vibrant cultural landscape of Chicago and its neighboring communities. The Roots Salon and the Roots Legacy Projects are programs of her cultural arts business J. O’Reilly Productions. Jamie hosts soirees and curates the Roots Salon, a century old family tradition of presenting art, performance and conversation.
2024 Update
Roots Salon is beginning its 4th year at Tre Kronor Swedish Bistro, presenting Salon in a dinner theater setting. Watch for updates on the blog pages.
Here are some of the Roots Salon events from 2023
Jan Tre Kronor Roots Salon, Epiphany Night
Feb Roots Salon, Feast of St. Brigid at the Heikes, Glen Ellyn home
Mar Tre Kronor Roots Salon, Women’s History Month Poetry Night
May Tre Kronor Roots Salon, Mothers and Daughters, Jamie, Meg, Nia
July Tre Kronor Roots Salon Bastille Day concert Jamie with Meg, Nia, Sarah
Sept Tre Kronor Roots Salon Jazz Night featuring the Peter Swenson Trio
Nov Tre Kronor Autumn Songs of Peace, Jamie with John Erickson
Roots events have included Roots Fest: a music festival featuring local favorites, End of Life/Afterlife: a year-long arts residency in collaboration with St. John’s Episcopal Church, Rekindling the Salon: an artist retreat and concert for the HotHouse at Lakeside Studios in Michigan, and the Roots Master Speakers Series: talks with high profile Chicago area personalities, Rick Kogan among them. IN OLD CHICAGO was the focus of 2023. More on the blog.
2023 Roots Legacy Project IN OLD CHICAGO
Roots in Ireland 2022. Read more here.
Roots in the Garden are the first intimate gatherings post pandemic.
With the introduction of the Roots Legacy project, Jamie honors the rich cultural heritage of the O’Reilly clan who have contributed to the Chicago arts scene since the late 1890s. She celebrates the life of her mother Winifred, (1924-2019) a classically trained singer and theater director, who was a strong creative force into her ‘90s. Winifred’s German father Otto Giebel was a gifted visual artist. Her mother Margaret was an accomplished pianist. Jamie’s extended family includes 13 siblings, their partners and progeny. Look for songs, poems, stories and events here, on Jamie’s blog and on FACEBOOK.
“Canopied with trees screened by thick bushes,
Friar Tuck, on the O’Reilly house, early 1900s.
retired from the street,
Full of odd corners, with odd people as its favored guests;
Spouting poetry and music and youthful philosophy
From all its old pores till the gray hours of the morning; Harboring many tellers of true but unbelievable stories of the four heavens and the four hells. A delightful, unforgettable house it was.“
How did Roots Salon come about?
As with many first generation Irish immigrants at the time, Grandfather James helped build the Illinois-Michigan Canal in Lockport, IL. He then became a founding member of IBEW the local electrical workers union. Sisters Mame and Nell were labor union organizers. Mame was a teacher and founding member of the Chicago Federation of Teachers. Nell (Dorothy Ellen, pen name Eileen Dhu), was a dancer, illustrator and published poet. She one of the first students of the School of the Art Institute. In 1909, Nell married Irwin St. John (“Friar Tuck”) Tucker, a newspaper man, and later Episcopal priest, as World War I broke out. Tuck and Nell were pacifists. And of the Chicago Literary Renaissance era, of Bughouse Square, the Hobo College, the Dill Pickle Club, into and after the first world war. They were close friends of aural historian Studs Terkel, who would later become a friend of Jamie’s. Uncle “Tex”, Edward O’Reilly, a newspaper man, rodeo rider and mercenary soldier, is the subject of the Lowell Thomas biography “The Greatest Living Soldier of Fortune”. Tuck and Nell brought the soirees to their Rogers Park home (1920s-50s). Their son Dan, a composer, newspaperman (and guiding light of Jamie’s musical life), and his wife Margaret hosted “musicales” at their home in Evanston until Dan’s death in 2010.
Jamie O’Reilly’s Roots Salon began in 2006 with a performance series hosted by Jamie and brother Beau, answering the need of Chicago artists seeking an intimate venue. Located in Jamie’s home, events at Roots were word-of-mouth happenings presenting music, visual art, poetry and theater. Jamie expanded her role as the Salonnière for the Roots Salons hosting neighborhood caroling at Christmas, a monthly women’s salon, membership events that included a master speaker series, and Rootsfest, a summer music festival. The Roots “House” Bands included The Jamie O’Reilly Trio and Midnight Moxie, the doo-op rock band made up of Sarah Chang, Meg Broz and Nia O’Reilly Amandes, who performed in area clubs and festivals.
Jamie still fosters the family tradition, hosting salons and programs at intimate Chicago area venues. (see blog)
Roots Salon Timeline
- 2006 Jamie creates Roots Salon in her 100 year old home
- 2006/07 Rhino Theater Festival uses Roots as host-site
- 2009 RootsFest, annual music fest, is started (2009 – 2014)
- 2011 The Women’s Salon: Community of Voices is begun
- 2012 Roots & the Women’s Salon produce “What Will the Neighbors Say”,
- art installation in Winnemac Park: the Chicago Park District/Chicago Artist Month
- 2013 Spring: New kitchen is designed to accommodate Salons
- 2013 Summer: Roots Thrive Series and member card initiative is launched
- 2013 Fall: Master Speaker series started. Winter Ancestor Series launched.
- 2014 Collaboration with St John’s Episcopal Church, HotHouse at Lakeside, MI
- 2015 Winter-Rising: Snowbound Artist Diaries project, Roots finale on Leavitt Street
- 2016 Rogers Park Salons: Peace and Pasta, Willem O’Reilly book release, Roots Salons at Wishbone Restaurant begin: St. Pat’s Day, MayDay, Thanksgiving
- 2017 Roots Salons: Anne Hills, Michael Smith, Wishbone Salons continue
- 2018 Dia de los muertos at Roots, Wishbone Salons continue
- 2019 Wishbone Love’s Sweet Song concert, Center Portion Solstice Salon
- 2019 IN OLD CHICAGO debuts to a full house.
and Love’s SweetSong CD recording is released. - 2020 The Covid pandemic hits – work is stalled; videos attempted
- 2021 Jamie revives the In Old Chicago program; plans Roots Ireland trip
Past projects
Women’s Community of Voices at Roots Salon
They offer her fragments of story
from Working on The Border, Maureen Flannery
to take home to the other side,
stories already cut into pieces,
ripped down the middle,
large parts condoned off with razor-wire.
The Women’s Salon was a group of writers from a broad spectrum of life experiences sharing conversation on end-of-life, politics and art-making. Members included Iwona Biedermann, Maureen Connolly, Maureen Flannery, Catherine Gallogly, Kristin Lems, Loretta Line, Willa Moore, Anne Schultz. Mary Watson and Jamie O’Reilly, Salonnière.
