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Arts & Entertainment

An Evening with Kristin Lems

Evanstonian Kristin Lems is perhaps the tallest female singer to perform for Hogeye Folk Arts. That's it. That's our hook; the rest is just fluff.
Kristin wrote her first song, "Hula Hoop with Your Honey," at age 11. She neither had a honey nor know how to hula hoop, but she says the words "had a catchy rhythm." For the past three decades, Lems has continued to write songs whose words, rhythms, and tunes are all "catchy." And it didn't take her long to find themes more relevant than the hula hoop.
In a more recent composition called "Trivial Pursuit," she derides preoccupation with the insignificant: "What's the middle name of Paul Revere? / How many bubbles in a glass of beer? / If you know, it's clear you'll master Trivial Pursuit / But don't ask how much money from our taxes goes to war / The answer isn't funny and it makes the game a bore."
Feminism, human rights, and the environment have characterized Kristin's four folk albums and one tape of music for children, and her work for the women's movement earned her the President's Award at the Illinois conference of the National Organization for Women.
"I started reflecting on women everywhere. Are there universals in our experiences? In every society women are in the rear, although in different cultural forms." Lems also muses, "Where are all the women in music? Why is it that women take all of the music lessons and yet men become the performers?" (Happily, not always the case, Kristin. Enter stage left.)
Lems once paired with Chicago artist Peggy Lipschutz, who "choreographed her drawings" to Kristin's music, as they did about ten years ago on our stage. Lems jokes that she's gone from "singing mostly for men in the early '70's to singing mostly for women in the '80's and mostly for children in the '90's." Good news: She sings for and to all of us in 2012.
Let Kristin teach you a few things about life on April 28 in the Josephine Gray Parlor at Lake Street Church. $15.

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