2026 Annual Meeting: The Blues in Rogers Park

After a brief report on the State of the Society and board election, our 2026 Annual Meeting will feature guest speaker Michael Frank. A long-time Rogers Park resident, Frank is President and CEO of Earwig Music Company.

Frank will lead us on his path of discovery: of the Blues, the music business, the people he met and stories he collected along the way.

A young Michael Frank came to Chicago to listen to the blues in 1972 and never left. In 1978, he started Earwig Music, the Chicago-based record label focused on marketing, distribution, and management of blues and roots music artists. The company has released more than 80 Blues CDs.

As CEO, Frank has mentored and managed the careers of blue legends like Honeyboy Edwards and Jim Brewer. He is a voting member of the Grammy Awards, and a judge of the Blues Foundation’s annual International Blues Challenge.

Frank also works to preserve the history of the blues. He and co-author Janis Martinson Herbert transformed Honeyboy Edwards’ oral history of his life and career into a book, The World Don’t Owe Me Nothing. He co-produced, with Lynn Orman Weiss, the documentary film Six Generations of the Blues: From Mississippi to Chicago.

Don’t miss this opportunity to hear about it all, by a member of our Rogers Park/West Ridge community.

The Annual Meeting is free and open to all, but only current RPWRHS members may vote in the Board of Directors election. Space at the Library is limited, so register now to reserve your spot.