The Pocket Guide to Hell is a series of walking tours, parades, and reenactments of Chicago's often lesser-known historical moments in social justice, true crime, and labor history. Led by hobo culture buff Paul Durica, the next one takes place April 30 as part of Version Fest at the corner of Randolph and Des Plaines, aka Haymarket Square. This is where, almost 125 years ago to the date, labor activists held a demonstration advocating better wages, job security, and humane working conditions—and where violence escalated once the police stepped in, and a number of people died. These days labor struggles are all pizza party rallies and ignoring judge rulings; let's not forget where it all started.

ReadyMade: Why the scene of the Haymarket Riot?
Paul Durica: This year is the 125th anniversary of the Haymarket Affair so I thought it'd be appropriate to do something on the actual site. In our culture we tend to reenact moments from our martial past, Civil War battles, things like that. These often occur in far off, rural places that feel detached from the present. So I want to do a full-scale reenactment—costumes, props, a mob of people—in the center of the city. And I want to remember an event that played an important part in spurring the labor movement. The Haymarket occurred because workers went on strike for the 8-hour day and fair wages. Given what's going on today in places like Wisconsin and Ohio, we need to remember that part of our past as much as something like the Civil War.

How do you find your reenactors?
Everybody who shows up is going to be part of the crowd of "workers" gathered around the wagon where the speakers were. That is, spectators will also be participants in the reenactment.

But I also need 175 people to play police. I've been contacting various arts, educational, and social justice groups and asking them to put together squads of 6 volunteers. So there will be a Quimby's squad of cops and a Hideout squad of cops, and so forth. It will feel a bit like a parade in that sense. We'll have about 30 organizations involved.

Playing the 8 Haymarket anarchists are a mix of professional and amateur actors. Tim Samuelson from Cultural Affairs is sharing narrator duties with the actress and activist Alma Washington. Jon Langford and Environmental Encroachment will be playing some music. I really want this to be an event that draws on a lot of different communities in Chicago. We're all the legacy of the Haymarket.

Do people ever mistake what you’re doing for the real thing?
No, but we do get some weird stares. Particularly when the Parade of the Unemployed marched through Greektown, or when we did a walking tour of the old Hobo neighborhood, which is now West Town--those people don't like learning that their luxury condos were once flophouses and cage hotels.

What about police?
The funny thing about the cops is that they'll always talk to the fake cops at the events, even if the fake cops are wearing Keystone hats and cardboard mustaches and hitting people with foam billy clubs. The real cops, for one reason or another, seem to view the fake cops as the authority figures. And the fake cops are usually just friends of mine.

All of Paul's tours have been free and open to the public. This time around he's looking for a bit of assistance for this huge reenactment. Head on over to Kickstarter and help the guy get some costumes and a prop horse.

[Poster by Zach Dodson; Police photo by Jacob Knabb; Judge photo by Reallyboring on Flickr]

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