Poster child

On Saturday 24 and Sunday 25, the Intonation Music Festival will host not just music, but music posters by artists from around the country. The art of the rock poster—screenprinted pieces that leave a trail of music history as much as they promote shows—was born in the 1960s. Interest in the handcrafted collectibles waned in the ’70s, rallied in the ’80s and has exploded over the last five or six years. “There’s very little art direction going on, so it gives people a certain freedom,” says show curator Steve Walters of pushing ink through a silk screen stencil onto paper. Walters, who’s been making posters for 15 years, founded the Screwball Academy six years ago to pass along his know-how; he’ll do demos both days of the fest. On July 29 and 30, Pitchfork Music Festival will host Flatstock 9, the famous traveling poster convention that was spawned in San Francisco and has traveled to Austin, Texas, and Seattle; July will be the first time the show, sponsored by the American Poster Institute and featuring artists from around the world, has visited Chicago.—Leah Pietrusiak