CHICAGO TRIBUNE ARTICLE | U.G. PERFORMER'S PHOTOS
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CHICAGO TRIBUNE ARTICLE
BURKHART UNDERGROUND IS GROUND ZERO FOR OPEN-MIKE AUTHENTICITY By Justin Hayford
Special to the Tribune
February 25, 2000
If you feel like you're entering somebody's living room when you walk into Burkhart Underground, that's because you are.
Every Sunday evening Fred Burkhart, photographer, painter, poet and would-be impresario, transforms his Lakeview basement into Burkhart Underground: An Authentic Coffeehouse. Hordes of young poets and musicians slum there until the wee hours of the morning, trying out their latest creations at Burkhart's open mike.
Of course it's not a real coffeehouse at all; for a five-dollar donation you can brew yourself a cup of joe in his kitchen. But compared with the franchised profit machines masquerading as coffeehouses all over town, it's as authentic as they come.
The ceiling is low and unfinished, the floor a patchwork of mismatched area rugs. Red lights hang around the room, and the air is thick with the scent of cigarettes and incense. Every square inch of wall space is jammed with art. Surveying the tapestry of 20-something neo-beatniks draped around the room, you know you've hit ground zero of bohemia.
Burkhart has occupied this clapboard grotto for 15 years (although the tiny new condominiums springing up across the street don't bode well for his continued longevity in the space). He's run a photography studio and art gallery upstairs all those years, but last March he decided to open his basement to anyone wanting to straggle in.
With his long gray beard and fiery stare, Burkhart may look like a lunatic to his upscale North Side neighbors. But on Sunday nights he's the epitome of grace, welcoming each new visitor, hopping from clique to clique like the most refined of social hosts.
"People meet here, make friends, fall in love," he says. "Lives change. It's sort of a halfway house. Or maybe a switching station.
"And the young people, they trust me. They have their breakdowns and breakthroughs, but they can't talk to their parents or boyfriends or whoever. So they come to me. I give them the straight truth, the permission to be whatever they are."
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Burkhart Underground opens every Sunday at 7 p.m. at 2845 N. Halsted St.
$5 donation - includes coffee, tea, soda and snacks. 773-348-8536.
BURKHART STUDIOS
2845 N. HALSTED STREET CHICAGO ILLINOIS 60657 773 348-8536
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