Park Blog

MONTICELLO — Chicago writers Sandra Jackson-Opoku and Tina Jenkins Bell spent three weeks at Allerton in the spring/summer of 2023 as part of the Artist-In-Residence Rooting a Deeper Connection (RDC) program. RDC highlights and celebrates the arts and study of nature within Black and Latinx communities.

Jackson-Opoku grew up in the Windy City and still resides there as she composes works of historical fiction, non-fiction and dramatic works, including the award-winning novel, The River Where Blood is Born.

Bell is a Gary, Indiana native who currently lives in Chicago. She is a published author of flash fiction and short stories. She also writes plays and works as a freelance journalist and literary activist. Bell’s flash fiction, “Swimming,” was published in Jet Fuel Review and chosen for inclusion in Best of Small Fiction 2022.

We sat down with the writers to learn what they worked on while they were at Allerton, their impressions of the park, and what they like to read when they aren’t concentrating on their own works.

Question: What did you work on while you were at Allerton?

Jackson-Opoku: I’m working on a few, but my main residency project is a historical novel that is currently known as “Days of DuSable.” It kind of gives a speculative look at the life of a man who was Jean Baptiste DuSable. He was biracial and established the first permanent settlement that would become Chicago. Although he has been historically erased, his legacy as the founder of modern Chicago is being acknowledged more and more.

The initial setting of the book is the 18th century, the Revolutionary War era, because that is the time that DuSable establishes his trading post at the place where the Chicago River meets Lake Michigan.

It is actually a time travel novel, so it moves all around through time, from that period up until the present.

Jenkins Bell: I am working on a collection of short stories. The working title is American Ghetto. American Ghetto delves into lives of people living on the edge while trying to balance themselves, improvise and progress despite vital missing links, or claw their ways toward the American dream. These stories primarily reflect African American experiences, which are also American experiences.

American Ghetto stories will traverse time, moving from historical, to modern day, to the future. So, the stories I am focusing on here are going to be speculative. I have a huge interest in our impact on the environment; the environment’s impact on us. I’m a geek about reading articles where Mother Nature is saying ‘no more,’ like disappearing shorelines and about things we thought we would always have, like water.

 

Question: What are your impressions of Allerton? What do you think of the park?

Jenkins Bell: Allerton is beautiful with its formal gardens, the Mansion, and the various homes and structures surrounded by forests and meadows. I love and am inspired by the park. (Park Operations Manager) Micah (Putman) gave me a tour. Micah talked about things from the science end while I shared things from the speculative end. Somewhere in the middle of that, we were able to merge science with fiction — the believability of a stretched truth. For me, having the land as a muse is very important.

Jackson-Opoku: It’s been very inspiring to me because some of the grounds and formal gardens are quite lovely. But the untouched wilderness helps me evoke what the landscapes DuSable traveled might have looked like in the late 1700s. It’s a landscape that is much less altered than Chicago.

 

Question: When you write, is it easier to be inside or out in nature?

Jackson-Opoku: It varies according to what I’m working on. For this project, I think I am more inspired by being in nature. I will take some notes, but I don’t usually write in those settings. I absorb the sounds and the sights and the way it feels — the atmosphere — then I try to evoke it.

Jenkins Bell: I agree. I’ve been all over the grounds and keep a journal with me, but as far as sitting down to write I’m going to find a little space either here (in the Greenhouse) or The Residence or the Mansion — to write or create without distractions.

 

Question: If you are going to read something for enjoyment, is there a certain genre or certain book you gravitate to?

Jenkins Bell: It just depends on the book. The Sweetness of Water was beautifully written and a favorite of mine currently.

I brought some books to re-read, like Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower. This summer, I will re-read some of the classics from James Baldwin and go back to that. But I’m always open to reading something new in various genres.

Jackson-Opoku: My reading tastes are very eclectic. I read a lot, like a couple of books a week. Some of it is research, some is to admire and analyze the writing craft. But then I also sometimes like to read the literary equivalent of junk food. So I have another sideline and that is as a mystery writer, so when I just want to veg out and mindless reading, I like to read mysteries and crime fiction.

 

Question: Is there anything else you would like to add about your experience at Allerton?

Jackson Opoku: I would like to express my gratitude to Allerton Park and Rooting a Deeper Connection for hosting us in such a lovely setting, and for holding space for writers of color and marginalized experiences. I think I speak for the both of us when I say how much I appreciate that initiative.

 

More info

To see more of these authors works, go to For Love of Writing (FLOW), a website they helped form to lift the writing community by connecting writers with resources and hosting events to publicize the community of African American writers and:

Sandra Jackson-Opoku

https://flowauthors.com/sandra-jackson-opoku
https://twitter.com/jacksonopoku
https://www.instagram.com/sjacksonopoku/
https://www.facebook.com/sandra.jacksonopoku/

Sandra Jackson-Opoku is author of the American Library Association Black Caucus award-winning novel, The River Where Blood is Born, and Hot Johnny and the Women Who Loved Him, an Essence Magazine Bestseller in Hardcover Fiction.

Her fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and dramatic works are widely published and produced. They appear in Both Sides: Stories from the Border, story South, Another Chicago Magazine, New Daughters of Africa, Novus Literary Journal, Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction, the Chicago Humanities Festival, Lifeline Theatre, and other outlets. She also coedited the multi-arts anthology, Revise the Psalm: Work Celebrating the Writing of Gwendolyn Brooks.

Jackson-Opoku’s work has won a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, an Esteemed Literary Artist Award from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, the Lifeline Theatre BIPOC Adaptation Showcase, a Globe Soup Story Award, quarterfinals placement in the Stage 32 Diversity Springboard Screenwriting Contest, a Plentitudes Journal Fiction Prize, the Minotaur Books/Malice Domestic Best First Traditional Mystery Books Competition, and more.

Sandra Jackson-Opoku has taught creative writing at Columbia College Chicago, the University of Chicago, the University of Miami, and Chicago State University. She presents workshops, readings, and literary presentations in schools, libraries, and arts organizations worldwide.

 

Tina Jenkins Bell

https://flowauthors.com/campaign-2
https://authory.com/TinaJenkinsBell
https://twitter.com/tinajbell
https://instagram.com/tejay2016
https://facebook.com/tjbell2

Tina Jenkins Bell is a published fiction writer, playwright, freelance journalist, and literary activist. Bell has had numerous short works published in journals and anthologies, including “To the Moon and Back,” Hypertext Journal, which was nominated for an Illinois Arts Council award, “Swimming,” Jet Fuel Review, which was selected as best small fiction by Somber Press and also recently nominated as best short fiction on the web. More recently “The Visit,” Re-Living Mythology received a favorable write up in the Publisher’s Weekly. A playwright, Bell’s two plays, Cut the Baby in Half and A Conversation with Lorraine Hansberry and Gwendolyn Brooks, an Indignant Women Collective collaboration, were produced as staged readings. She is a co-founder of FLOW (For Love of Writing) and has collaborated with numerous writing and arts organizations, authors, and bookstores to offer literary programming in Chicago’s underserved communities. She is currently working on a short story collection, American Ghetto and her second novel, Down and Dirty in Kosciusko, Mississippi.

Fabian Tasson said it was love at first sight when he met his future wife Barb at a gathering more than five decades ago.

“The moment I danced with her I knew I would spend my life with her,” he said.

Sealing the deal was when Barb, a Central Illinois native, took him to Allerton Park for the first time.

“Would you like to see a magical place?” she asked him. “It’s a magic place in the prairie in the middle of the corn and soybeans. I think you’re going to be shocked,” Barb said.

Fabian, who grew up in Michigan, was indeed surprised, especially when he eyed the House of the Golden Buddhas.

About two years later — at 10 a.m. on a Monday morning, Aug. 19 of 1968 — the couple was married at that spot, on the upper floor of the House of the Golden Buddhas.

In honor of their 55th anniversary, the Tassons expressed their thanks by sponsoring a bench right next to where they took their marriage vows.

“We wanted to leave our mark of gratitude to the park,” Fabian said of the donation.

Happy Anniversary, Barb and Fabian. Wishing you many more!

Do you have a love story to share? Send it to seh7@illinois.edu.

MONTICELLO — The Mansion Solarium at Allerton Park and Retreat Center has always had one of the best indoor views at the Monticello-area park, with large windows looking out towards a reflecting pond and 14-acre meadow.

After updates that were undertaken over the winter months, the Solarium is also a more flexible space with a mind towards being more public-facing.

Included in the work was installation of a new bar, a large area rug that helps level portions of the original brick floor, and indoor/outdoor furniture that can work equally well for hotel guests, weddings and corporate clients.

“I think it makes it more functional for hotel guests,” Allerton Associate Director of Retreat Center and Programming Jordan Zech said. “Just having a dedicated space for a morning breakfast spot, or afternoon/evening place with a beautiful view.”

It fits in with a long-term plan to make the 1900-era Mansion more available for overnight stays, or to simply come out for a drink from the bar.

Speaking of the bar, the new one took a good bit of work, as original brick needed to be pulled up to replace plumbing, then re-installed even before carpenters went to work. The rug put down lightens up the space but still leaves bricks around it in full view.

“I’m pleased with how much brick you still see,” Zech said of the roughly 48- by 20-foot Solarium.

Park Associate Director of Park Operations Richard Burton said the changes in the bar from an L-shape that blocked doors to the adjacent Pine Room to a U-shape helped pave the way for an appealing backsplash and a more visually appealing space.

“The changes with the new bar now allows full access to both sets of doors to the Pine Room, and the back bar allows for a much more aesthetic way to store the glassware and liquor.  The equipment was updated to include a dishwasher and icemaker for much improved user and guest operations,” Burton said.

The project — along with new lighting and paint for the Mansion Library and extensive upgrades to a hotel room that once housed Robert Allerton’s partner John Gregg — was done during the winter months when there is less hotel and event traffic.

Planned for years, the effort could not have been done without donors who stepped up to fund the projects.

“These significant improvements wouldn’t have happened without the support of our generous donors” Allerton Associate Director of Advancement Bridget Frerichs said.

One of those donors was David and Debra Rathje, who funded the work in the Solarium as well as recent work done in the outdoor Fu Dog Garden and House of the Golden Buddhas.

The couple recently viewed the completed work in the Solarium and were pleased.

“It just all came together beautifully,” Debra Rathje said. “I just always like this room.”

David Rathe agreed.

“It looks wonderful, it really does,” said the Cerro Gordo-area native and University of Illinois graduate. “We just love this place.”

Thanks to support from Susan and Steven Zumdahl, significant work was also done in the Mansion Library, which is a focal point for conferences, Allerton-sponsored events and weddings. Twelve incandescent and multi-vapor HID light fixtures were replaced by 18 recessed, LED fixtures, seven spotlights to shine light on statuary and about 100 feet of linear LED tape light.

The fixtures are also dimmable and programmable, and “reduced our energy use by more than 75 percent” in that space, Burton said.

Updates continue in the library, which will also include updated furniture.

 

About Allerton

Allerton Park and Retreat Center is a 1,500-acre public park located just southwest of Monticello, Illinois. The park features formal gardens, natural areas, nearly 16 miles of hiking trails, sculptures, and a historic 1900-era Georgian mansion/retreat center that hosts conferences, weddings and other events. The Mansion and other park properties also feature 34 rooms available to the public for overnight stays.

Allerton Park and Retreat Center is part the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The park’s vision is to inspire the community to utilize and value nature, history, and the arts through accessible and sustainable programming, research, and facilities.

More information is available on the park website, www.allerton.illinois.edu.

MONTICELLO — Allerton Park was inducted into the Old-Growth Forest Network on Earth Day on Saturday, April 22, 2023. Staff from the Old-Growth Forest Network presented a plaque to Park officials at a short recognition ceremony followed by a hike to showcase the spectacular natural features of the park.

Allerton Park, owned by the University of Illinois, consists of about 1,500 acres of natural areas. The Illinois Natural Areas Inventory (INAI) surveyed Allerton Park in 1976 and 2008 documenting 470 acres of very high (old growth and second old growth) and high (old growth and old second growth; grazed) quality forest on the site. This is the largest area of high-quality forest in the Grand Prairie Natural Division. Allerton Park holds INAI category designations of I (high-quality natural communities) and II (specific suitable habitat for endangered or threatened species). Dominant tree species at Allerton Park include White, Black, Northern Red, and Bur Oak, Shagbark, Shellbark, Mockernut and Bitternut Hickory Hackberry, Silver Maple, and American Sycamore.

According to Nate Beccue, Natural Areas Manager at the park, “Allerton Park is one of the most beautiful forests in Central Illinois and also one of the largest areas of contiguous forests. Large, forested tracts like Allerton are important breeding areas for many neotropical birds whose populations have declined dramatically as forest fragmentation has created smaller isolated woodlots throughout the region.”

The mission of the Old-Growth Forest Network (OGFN) is to connect people with nature by creating a national network of protected, publicly accessible forests. The organization’s goal is to ensure the preservation of at least one forest in every county in the United States that can sustain a forest, estimated to be 2,370 out of a total of 3,140 counties. OGFN’s program works to identify forests for the Network, ensure their protection from logging, and connect people to these forests to experience mature and old-growth forests. OGFN also educates about the extraordinary ecological and human wellness benefits of old-growth forests, and speaks out regarding immediate threats to specific ancient forests. Founded in 2012 by Dr. Joan Maloof, OGFN has recognized over 190 forests in 33 states. Allerton Park will be the second Illinois forest to join the Old-Growth Forest Network, following Beall Woods State Park in Wabash County on April 15th. The full list of forests in the Network may be viewed at www.oldgrowthforest.net.

Nick Sanchez, Network Manager for OGFN said, “Earth Day is the perfect day to celebrate and recognize Allerton Park. Whether you’re seeking an immersive time in nature for spiritual renewal, or seeking answers to questions that have informed more than 300 research papers, this forest provides outsized benefits that extend far beyond its boundaries and we are proud to welcome it into the Network.”

OGFN depends on volunteers in each U.S. county to help identify and induct forests into the Network. Interested volunteers are welcome to contact OGFN through www.oldgrowthforest.net.

Playwrights and former Allerton Artists-in-Residence Nicole Anderson-Cobb and Latrelle Bright delivered a powerful event with “unsettled: An African American Reflection on the Potawatomi Trail of Death,” presented in the Music Barn on April 15.

During their time at Allerton last spring, Anderson-Cobb and Bright researched the history of the land that eventually became Allerton Park.

During “unsettled,” they told the story of the Potawatomi Trail of Death, which in 1838 saw 859 indigenous American Potawatomi forcibly removed from their homeland in Northern Indiana and marched to Eastern Kansas. Their path led them through Monticello, where three who died earlier on the march were buried.

“As African American educators, artists and parents of Central Illinoisans, Latrelle and I wanted to examine the history of the land that became Allerton Park and Retreat Center,” said Anderson-Cobb.

“Among other topics we researched — since the 1838 Potawatomi Trail of Death passed through Monticello — we decided to create an experience for participants that reflected on the 1838 Potawatomi Trail of Death and the relevance of those incidents for Central Illinoisans today,” she added.

And that’s how “unsettled” was born. Those attending the event heard a brief presentation on the history of the land Allerton Park sits on, then hit the trails to gain more insight and education on the topic. Adding to the experience was a trio of talented musicians who sang both inside and on the trail.

Anderson-Cobb said she was grateful to Dee Lund at the Piatt County Historical Society for her help in researching their topic, as well as for the resources available at the Allerton Public Library.