Music was at their core.
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It brought Liz Ziehl and her friends together to give back to the community using the tool they felt would work best: singing.
But what they didn’t know was how much that effort would evolve and grow further than they’d ever imagined.
“There’s power in singing,” Ziehl said. “Everybody’s voices come together and lift things up and we have this community that we build by singing together.”
Ziehl is one of the founding members of Music & Potlucks, a nonprofit organization based in the Oak Park and River Forest area that hosts live music events along with food drives and other donation events to support local helpers.
They accept donations online but also collect food and funding as they perform at different venues, from music lessons in church basements to sold out shows on area stages.
Their first show in spring 2017 sold out of the over 100 tickets available at Doc Ryan’s in Forest Park and created a sense of fellowship in the community, despite weather challenges including a power outage and rain getting inside the venue.
Ziehl and cofounders Stephanie Schrodt and Betsy Backes knew the effort was something that had to be continued.
“It was so joyful, we were laughing, it was the community coming together,” Backes said. “Sometimes when bad things happen, people just sort of gather around and it strengthens it. Somehow, that bad thing that happened made our first event unbelievable.”
Over the span of more than 300 shows, they have collected and donated over $50,000 and hundreds of pounds of food, diapers and toiletries, Schrodt said.
They’ve been donating to Beyond Hunger, a hunger-relief program based in Oak Park that serves 13 zip codes across Cook County, since 2019.
Through food drives and monetary donations, Music & Potlucks has provided over 8,000 meals to the community, said Corina Robinson, the communications manager for Beyond Hunger.
“They’re a great partner for sure,” Robinson said. “They are truly focused on bringing awareness to local efforts and we appreciate them a bunch.”
Mark Dvorak, the group’s artist in residence since its commencement and a teacher at the Old Town School of Folk Music for over three decades, leads participants in singing American folk music — a genre, he said, that has its roots in social gatherings.
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The camaraderie that folk music induces inspired Dvorak in his days as a youth listening to Bob Dylan and John Denver, and he found it fitting for the organization’s main style.
“It’s mostly for fun and for us all to learn how to participate together and I think it’s a powerful model of how the world might be,” Dvorak said.
The group’s board consists of six people, and though Dvorak isn’t a board member he recognized the influence that it’s made on the community.
“It sprung out of a real necessity,” he said.
They’ve also given to other social service agencies around the area, including Housing Forward, Building Chicago, A House in Austin, Peace Corner Youth Center and Intonation Music, according to their website.
They also have a grants program in place, which are given out a few times per year and are usually $500 or more. They are set to give one out this month as well as one in December.
But even when they’re not performing and collecting donations, they give the community members a place to share the love of music.
Jon Ruggless has been bringing his daughters Izzy and Carli to the groups monthly folk jam sessions at the Friendly Music Community in Berwyn for the past few years.
It’s a family-friendly event that he and his children have enjoyed coming to.
“It’s very engaging, they’re very friendly,” Jon said. “Not only do they welcome you in, but if you’re not sure what you’re doing, they help you along the way.”
Though none of them are professional musicians, they still enjoy the space to be amongst other people who enjoy the art form.
“It’s a sort of magic when everybody’s making music together,” Carli said.