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Aquarius Press is announcing a series of
three books by Margot McMahon.

Mac & Irene: A WWII Saga

Margot's father, painter and artist reporter Franklin McMahon, was a prisoner of war in WWII. Much of his story is at FranklinMcMahon.net. The new book is based on scrapbooks Franklin McMahon kept. Learn about and register for an online Chicago authors' panel in which Margot will discuss Parachuting Artists.

Cover for If Trees Could TalkIf Trees Could Talk
If Trees Could Talk
is a hybrid historical fiction/memoir that uncovers family secrets through the clues of Margot's father’s paintings and her mother’s writings. "This is all they left to follow the breadcrumbs of their life story. The fear of losing my mother and her patterns had already happened, now Dad was ailing and I don’t know my grandparent’s names let alone where I came from. As I discover my Northern Irish Catholic roots, I realize my adventurous life has been a quest to understand my past." 
SCAN ME: QR code

If Trees Could Talk has received an award from the National Federation Press Women!

It qualified by being the 2022 Mate E. Palmer First Place Book Award from the  Illinois Women Press Association.


Franklin McMahon watercolor and pencil image of politians in press conference
RESIST! A Visual History of Protest
Franklin McMahon was front and center for much of the protest movements over fifty years that changed America. Her father's art journalism illuminated Margot McMahon's book, RESIST! A Visual History of Protest released in December 2022. His drawings and paintings have been shown for the past six years throughout Chicagoland and will be exhibited in 2022-23 at the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art. RESIST! painting exhibition of his drawings includes the Bryand Milam trial, the Edmund Pettus Bridge protest, and Iraq War protests. The Fair Housing at 50 exhibition at the Oak Park River Forest Museum includes an artwork by Franklin McMahon. The Chicago History Museum, which published an online exhibition of McMahon’s collection of Chicago Conspiracy Trial paintings in 2020 includes Franklin McMahon's art. The images can also be found online: a Chicago History Museum book shows and tells how paintings of the Emmett Till Trial were created for Life magazine by Franklin McMahon in 1955. Related films can be found at Chicago Film Archives. Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, 2320 W. Chicago Exhibition: December 17, noon through February 12, 2023.

Cover of Mac & Irene: A WWII Saga

 

Order Mac & Irene: A WWII Saga here.

Order If Trees Could Talk here. Or learn more and order from Bookshop.org.


Press about the books:

Windy City Reviews
Historical Novel Society  
Wisconsin Writers Association
Wednesday Journal
 

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Parachuting Artists: Irene & Mac Newsletter.


Or take a photo of this QR code to access the newsletter, Amazon sales, and updates.
SCAN ME: QR code


Airdrie book cover

 

Airdrie
By Margot McMahon. 

A young adult "mini book" from Margot McMahon's coming of age in Chicago,
where she discovers her passion for art, justice and the mystery of trees.

Learn more and order from Bookshop.org.

Order from Auquarius Press/Willow books here.




The Fifth Season: The Chicago Tree Project
By Margot McMahon, with photographs by Tess Landon



The Fifth Season received the 2020 Mate E. Palmer First Place Book Award from the Illinois Women's Press Association.

A book celebrating fifty sculpted trees by thirty renown artists over 30 miles of Chicago Park sculpture museum. The book is available at The Book Table in Oak Park on Lake Street, or online from More Books or Amazon.

The first section of the book is an explanation of the importance of keeping condemned trees in urban nature. The second section is poetry of the vital life within a dying tree including feeding birds, creating burrows for animals and interactions with the grove of like trees. The third section is a service workshop to care for the park and parkway saplings. We would like to create an exchange between neighborhoods with teens to plant a tree in another neighborhood in exchange, and care for the tree planted by others with an annual picnic or reading by the two high schools.

 

See the A.S.A.P! video.




Gwendolyn Brooks sculpture Honoring the life of Gwendolyn Brooks

Margot has created first sculpture in a Chicago park of an African American woman, only the second sculpture of any woman in the parks.

The Chicago Literary Hall of Fame, in partnership with the Chicago Park District, the Poetry Foundation, and Brooks Permissions, has installed the memorial in Gwendolyn Brooks Park. The larger-than-life bronze portrait of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Gwendolyn Brooks, a porch modeled after the poet’s childhood writing spot, a stepping stone path etched with memorable Annie Allen quotations, and a stone circle symbolic of her enlarged world post-literary acclaim celebrate Brooks' life and achievements.

The Chicago Literary Hall of Fame has been awarded a Chicago Community Trust Acting Up grant to help fund its proposed “From the Porch of Gwendolyn Brooks” program.

 

Brooks sculpture in kiln

The installation dedication ceremony

The Chicago Park District awarded the CLHOF a $2,000 grant and other support to help stage the unveiling on June 7, 2018, which would have been Brooks’ 101st birthday.

Margot McMahon Brooks installation
Nora Brooks and Margot present the sculpture.
  Margot delivering an address honoring Gwendolyn Brooks

  The installation: porch, poetry stones, sculpture, plaque, and sitting stones in a circle representing Brooks' wide recognition

Poems posted on porch   Don Evans speaking   Unveiling
Poems posted on the porch: neighborhood children are encouraged to use the space in a variety of ways.   Don Evans of the
Chicago Literary Hall of Fame
Photo by Don Seeley

  Cynthia Walls and Gwendolyn Brooks' daughter Nora Brooks Blakely unveil the sculpture.

Brooks daughter smiling and applauding   Angela Jackson   Haki Madhubuti and other attendants
Nora Brooks at the church ceremony.
Photo by Don Seeley
  Poet Angela Jackson reads Brooks' s poetry at the ceremony continuing in the nearby Kenwood United Church of Christ.

  Poet Haki Madhubuti is among the friends of Gwendolyn Brooks attending the event.
The crowd at the dedication ceremony in the Kenwood United Church of Christ
Photo by Don Seeley


Margot has shared her process for developing the installation to encourage needed contributions.

Video about Gwendolyn Brooks sculpture installationThe community warmly welcomed the additions to Gwendolyn Brooks Park as evidenced by broad press coverage including:

ABC 7 Chicago
Chicago Sun Times
Chicago Tribune

Moore Women Artists
OakPark.com
MSN.com

The Tribune also included the park in "Bucket List: 20 things to see linked to influential Illinoisans"

Sketch of Brooks installation


Wet clay over armiture   Hands
Margot finishing clay

  Mold making   Wax being melted
The pour   The sculpture   The sculpture with people
         
Brooks installation

Lonely Planet has the Gwendolyn Brooks Park as a travel destination.



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