EVANSTON, Ill. — A local theater has partnered with a podcast and an African-American history nonprofit to produce a series exploring the history of the Evanston Sanitarium, which later became known as Community Hospital.
“Echoes of Evanston: The Soul of a Community Hospital” is a multi-part creative collaboration between Northlight Theatre, Evanston Rules and Shorefront Legacy Center. The first episode, featuring Karliss Sutton, is now available online.
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The hospital served the black community of Chicago’s North Shore from 1914 to 1980. At the time the sanitarium was established in a house at 1918 Asbury Avenue, both Evanston Hospital and St. Francis Hospital refused to treat black patients.
The new series focuses on the contributions made by Black doctors, nurses, health care workers and patients during times of segregation.
Northlight Arts Fellow Toru Campbell transformed interviews with local residents into a dramatic reading, which was performed at Northlight Theatre on Monday.
From left to right, director and writer Tolu Campbell, Evanston Rules’ Laurice Bell and Ron Whitmore, and interviewees Collette Allen and Rhonda Craven address the audience during a reading at Northlight Theatre in Skokie on June 24. (Greg Inda/Northlight Theatre)
Evanston Rules co-hosts Laurice Bell and Ron Whitmore then edited the material to create a podcast series.
Northlight Executive Director Timothy J. Evans said in a statement that he is proud of the partnership, which has enabled the theater to deliver a compelling experience that extends beyond the stage.
“Working with Evanston Rules and Shorefront on this project about the community hospital has given us the opportunity to get to know the Evanston community in a deep and meaningful way, while also highlighting the lasting impact these powerful stories have on current social struggles,” Evans said.
The podcast series features interviews with over a dozen local residents who have had first-hand experiences at Community Hospital. Interviewees include Collette Allen, Bernie Bates, Rhonda Craven, George Dotson, Dudley Fair, Eleanor “Brownie” Fraser, Deb Galloway, Lynn Green, Bennett Johnson, Donna Johnson, Spencer Jardine, Teal Miller, Willie Miller, Karliss Sutton, Connie Taylor, Romy Taylor and Donna Penn Townes.
The project is supported by the Illinois Department of Human Services and the Field Foundation of Illinois’ “Healing Illinois” initiative, which aims to engage in racial healing efforts to build bridges between Illinois’ diverse communities.
In the first episode of the podcast series, Sutton, a lifelong Evanston resident, shares his extensive knowledge of Evanston’s Black history and speaks of the vibrant and thriving community that existed before integration. He discusses institutions such as the Community Hospital and provides insight into the role it played in serving the Black community at a time when other hospitals refused to provide medical care to Black people.
Earlier this year, Northlight partnered with the Shorefront Legacy Center to implement the Evanston Reparations Legacy Project, training high school student journalists to document the stories of people who received reparations funded with local cannabis tax revenue.
The theater company began in Evanston and moved in 1997 to the North Shore Performing Arts Center in Skokie.
Northlight officials planned to start construction on the new theater in Evanston next year and originally had hoped to have it finished by the end of this year. They now hope to have it finished in the fall of 2026.
The project is expected to cost about $24 million, with $2 million of that coming from the city’s share of federal coronavirus relief funds and a record $3 million donation from Paul Finnegan, chairman of private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners and a former city board chairman.
Pictured, from left to right, Tolu Campbell, Norissa Pearson, BJ Jones, Alexandria Crawford, Collette Allen, Ron Whitmore, Dudley Fair, Rhonda Craven, Laurice Bell, Tim Evans and Kim Hoopingarn attend a staged reading of the interviews as part of the multi-part creative collaboration, “Echoes of Evanston: The Soul of a Community Hospital,” on June 24. (Greg Inda/Northlight Theatre)
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