November 6, 2019

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SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY The South Side Weekly is an independent nonprofit newsprint magazine written for and about neighborhoods on the South Side of Chicago. We publish in-depth coverage of the arts and issues of public interest alongside oral histories, poetry, fiction, interviews, and artwork from local photographers and illustrators. The South Side Weekly is dedicated to supporting cultural and civic engagement on the South Side and to providing educational opportunities for developing journalists, writers, and artists.

Volume 7, Issue 5 Editor-in-Chief Adam Przybyl Managing Editors Sam Joyce Sam Stecklow Deputy Editor Jasmine Mithani Senior Editors Julia Aizuss, Christian Belanger, Mari Cohen, Christopher Good, Rachel Kim, Emeline Posner, Olivia Stovicek Politics Editor Jim Daley Education Editor Ashvini Kartik-Narayan, Michelle Anderson Music Editor Atavia Reed Stage & Screen Editor Nicole Bond Visual Arts Editor Rod Sawyer Nature Editor Sam Joyce Food & Land Editor AV Benford Sarah Fineman Contributing Editors Mira Chauhan, Joshua Falk, Lucia Geng, Carly Graf, Robin Vaughan, Jocelyn Vega, Tammy Xu, Jade Yan Data Editor Jasmine Mithani Radio Exec. Producer Erisa Apantaku Social Media Editors Grace Asiegbu, Arabella Breck, Maya Holt Director of Fact Checking: Tammy Xu Fact Checkers: Abigail Bazin, Susan Chun, Maria Maynez, Sam Joyce, Elizabeth Winkler Visuals Editor Lizzie Smith Deputy Visuals Editors Siena Fite, Mell Montezuma, Sofie Lie Shane Tolentino Photo Editor Keeley Parenteau Staff Photographers: milo bosh, Jason Schumer Staff Illustrators: Siena Fite, Katherine Hill Interim Layout Editor J. Michael Eugenio Deputy Layout Editors Nick Lyon, Haley Tweedell Webmaster Managing Director

Pat Sier Jason Schumer

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Over the summer we publish every other week.

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Cover Photo by Lee Bey

IN CHICAGO IN THIS A week’s worth of developing stories, odd events, and signs of the times, culled from the desks, inboxes, and wandering eyes of the editors

A Technological Miracle in Eviction Court There’s now a record of what goes on in Chicago’s eviction courtrooms—for the first time in sixteen years. After several years of lobbying by the Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice, the Administration Office of the Illinois Courts spent $370,000 to install microphones in each courtroom to create transcripts of court hearings. Installation began more than four months ago and finished in early September, but “software problems” meant the microphones didn’t start recording until the Reader’s Maya Dukmasova asked the chief judge’s office about it in late October. By some miraculous coincidence, the microphones started working the very next day.

The benefits of a transcript are obvious: Chicago’s eviction courts go through around 20,000 cases a year, eighty percent of tenants are not represented by a lawyer, and hearings take an average of one minute and forty-four seconds to decide whether a resident will lose their home. With that volume and speed, mistakes are inevitable; a record of the hearing allows tenants to appeal the decision, ensure judges are interpreting and applying the law correctly, and get a chance to stay in their home.

The Reader’s story focused on the impact recording equipment will have for tenants, but the history is equally shocking. In the early 2000s, eviction courtrooms lost all of their recording equipment and court reporters, the victim of unspecified “budget cuts.” Since then, residents without the finances and foresight to hire a court reporter have faced the loss of their homes, without even a record to ensure the law was followed. The eviction courts remain stacked against tenants, but correcting this long-standing inequity is a move in the right direction.

House and Home Nearly three and a half decades after its heyday, traces of Chicago house are heard on dubplates and whitelabels around the world. Outside the U.S., the genre has long been recognized as one of the Midwest’s greatest cultural exports—and in recent years, it’s gained institutional support in its hometown, from the collection of Frankie Knuckles’ records at the Stony Island Arts Bank to the Chicago House Music Festival.

Amidst this, Jesse Saunders’ interview with Newcity doesn’t just recount history—it casts light on his role in shaping it. The Warehouse, Muzic Box, and Power Plant have long been canonized, but Saunders’ recollection of the Playground on 14th and Michigan adds intimate detail of a club lost to time.

No one should get stuck in the past, of course—today, Saunders is one of the ringleaders of the wildly successful Chosen Few DJs (as well as the stepbrother of Wayne Williams, who founded the crew while still in high school back in 1977).

But interviews like Saunders’ make the human details clearer. Take, for instance, his reflection on the 1984 single “On and On,” which paired 808 kicks with dub delay, and just about created house music in the process. Plenty of ink has been spilled on the relationship between R&B, disco, soul, and house—but to hear Saunders tell it, “On and On” was directly inspired by the loss of a bootleg track with the Space Invaders bassline.

ISSUE three day care centers to close on the southwest side

“We are having a really hard time finding placement for our children.” jacqueline serrato...........................4 an asian american lens on environmental justice

“At the end of the day, collective action is better than individual action.” nancy chen........................................5 history is now

Throughout this book, history doesn’t repeat itself so much as stretch continuously forward. jessica eanes......................................7 safe haven links churches and schools

“I wouldn’t take her anyplace else.” siri chilukuri....................................9 ode to the shrimp tease

I repeat: THIS. IS. NOT. FAST. FOOD. av benford.......................................11 southern exposure

Throughout the book, Bey weaves together his sharp photographs with their historical context. lee bey..............................................13 shooting for a breakthrough at wgci music contest

God gave you a gift, you gotta use it in a good way. morley musick.................................18 ‘a

drop in the bucket’: anti-violence leaders blast mayor’s budget plan

“Nine million dollars is really a drop in the bucket in terms of what we need, but I hope it’s only the beginning.” brian freskos, the trace...............21

EDUCATION

JACQUELINE SERRATO

Three Day Care Centers to Close on the Southwest Side

Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago will shut them down November 26th

BY JACQUELINE SERRATO

C

atholic Charities, a social service agency of the Archdiocese of Chicago, will shut down their Head Start programs in the city effective November 26.

Parents from the Southwest Side who relied on Catholic Charities for affordable day care received letters at the end of October with the news that “with heartfelt sorrow,” the administration and advisory board decided to close the remaining child development centers in Chicago: St. Joseph in Back of the Yards, Our Lady of Tepeyac in Little Village and its Chicago Lawn center.

“Upon analysis of projected, current, and historical expenses and revenue, Catholic Charities has and will continue to have a significant deficit that the agency can 4 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

no longer afford to absorb and still continue with the rest of the services it offers,” said Laura E. Ríos, the vice president of child, youth and family services.

The day care centers provided education for low-income children three to five years old focusing on “language, physical, socialemotional and cognitive development” where parent involvement was a major component of learning, according to its website.

Liliana Celso, the mother of a threeyear-old enrolled at St. Joseph, said parents should have been given more advance notice.

“We are having a really hard time finding placement for our children. Other child care is not available in the area that is affordable to the community, and most schools are at capacity right now,” she said.

¬ NOVEMBER 6, 2019

Catholic Charities reported that the majority of its $6.5 million for child development programs came from local and state government in 2018. For fiscal year 2019, the nonprofit had a projected budget of $6,422,000, according to its annual reports.

“Unfortunately, we are not immune to the funding challenges facing all human service providers in Illinois…we are working with the City of Chicago as our funder and other providers to facilitate the transition for impacted families,” director of communications Brigid Murphy said in a statement.

Chicago began moving toward universal preschool under former Mayor Rahm Emanuel and modified its early childhood funding formula. (This summer, Emanuel’s chief of early learning stepped down.) Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s budget included $120 million for pre-K and set the goal of universal pre-K for all four-year-olds by 2021.

The Department of Family and Support Services granted funding to Catholic Charities through the end of November 2019, but the organization was not among the 25 child care providers selected for a one-time extension, according to the city website.

“The roll out of Universal pre-K (UPK4) in communities across the city and new state policies that allow children to enroll in kindergarten earlier will shape a new early childhood ecosystem that community-based programs and public schools must respond to,” according to DFSS. In recent years, Catholic Charities closed three separate child development centers and other service facilities. Grace Mission in Gage Park and St. Aloysius in Wicker Park announced their closure in 2016 due to “uncertainty around government funding.” Our Lady of Lourdes in North Lawndale also closed in 2016 due to low enrollment “which then resulted in budget issues,” according to Murphy.

That year, the CEO of Catholic Charities, Monsignor Michael Boland— who stepped down this summer after thirty years leading the nonprofit—said the budget impasse under Republican former Governor Bruce Rauner created a crisis in which the state owed them millions of dollars in services rendered.

The closure of the Head Start programs “aren’t a direct result of the budget impasse,” Murphy said. “But it’s safe to say most nonprofits are still recovering financially from that unfortunate episode, in addition to chronic underfunding for years before

and after.”

On Wednesday, parents and children protested in front of St. Joseph. Sandy Barrera, a delegate in the parent committee, is circulating an online petition to keep St. Joseph open.

Celso estimates that, at St. Joseph alone, 210 children will be displaced, and thirty-one staff members will lose their jobs.

“Some of the staff here at the center take the responsibility of picking up our students from surrounding schools, which include Hedges, Chavez, Hamline, Lara, and Seward Elementary,” the petition reads.

“We need your help to keep St. Joseph open and available to the community.”

Clementina Patiño, who has put three of her children through the Little Village Head Start and is involved in the parent committee, said parents are “dismayed” by the closures because they don’t have alternatives for child care.

Parent leaders will be on-site throughout the week collecting signatures to keep the center open. Our Lady of Tepeyac center stands to lose 174 children and twenty-nine teachers and staff, according to their online petition.

With the closing of the centers, immigrant families will lose ESL and GED classes and other free programming.

Ten years ago, clergy and immigrant advocates questioned whether Catholic Charities was serving the Latinx community proportionate to their population and church membership. WBEZ found that Latinx residents were less than twenty percent of the agency’s clients despite census numbers indicating they made up twenty-eight percent of Cook and Lake county residents living in poverty.

The three facilities scheduled to close this month served 502 children and 460 families in areas of the city that are majority Latinx. Catholic Charities continues to run two suburban child development centers in Berwyn and Summit.

Illinois is among the fifteen least affordable states for day care in the country, outpacing what families spend in rent, according to a study by nonprofit Child Care Aware of America.

Last year Chicago’s Catholic Charities chapter celebrated its hundredth anniversary. Jacqueline Serrato is an independent journalist born and raised in the Little Village neighborhood.

Follow her on Twitter at @HechaEnChicago.

She recently wrote for the Weekly about the histories of the Little Village and South Chicago Mexican Independence Day parades and Fred Hampton’s Rainbow Coalition.

ENVIRONMENT

An Asian American Lens on Environmental Justice

ALEXIS KWAN

CAAEJ works to inform its community and push for collective action

BY NANCY CHEN

F

rom bitter melon to bok choy, planting vegetables in backyard gardens has given immigrant families in Chicago a degree of food sovereignty, providing them access to specialty produce that can be difficult to find on supermarket shelves.

In 2000, Kelly Chen was in elementary school when her family purchased a house in Bridgeport. Like many fellow Chinese American families living nearby, the Chens started their own vegetable garden in their yard. When Chen got to high school, she started to learn about the urban pollution endemic to big cities, including the potential

for lead poisoning in soil, commonly found in areas with industrial activity. Chen started to wonder: Is the soil my family grows vegetables in contaminated?

The concern remained lodged in the back of Chen’s mind as she went through college and graduate school for urban planning, where her coursework finally prompted her to search for a soil testing facility. The results she found online were neither especially helpful nor accessible. “I didn’t find any lab in Chicago. The results included some links to research papers, and a lot of shady sources,” Chen recalled. She

eventually found a lab at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana that would test the soil, so she dug up a soil sample from her family’s yard and brought it over to the lab. After all those years of speculation, Chen’s fears were confirmed: the test results showed elevated lead content—notably higher than the 400 parts per million (ppm) standard designated by the EPA as being a safe threshold for gardening and children’s play areas.

After sharing the results with her parents, Chen wondered if her extended network of family, friends, and neighbors

might also be planting in contaminated soil. University of Illinois researchers have noted that “Chinese origin households have a higher density [of gardening] than anywhere else in the city,” after a 2012 study found an abundance of home-based gardens in Bridgeport, Chinatown, and Armour Square, all home to high concentrations of Chinese immigrants. With these immigrant communities in mind, Chen felt a moral obligation to raise awareness. “It feels really unjust, that just because you don’t speak English fluently, or maybe you have a lower income—it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t NOVEMBER 6, 2019 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 5

ENVIRONMENT

know this information that so readily impacts your life and your family’s lives.”

Last year, Chen was introduced to Andrea Chu through a mutual connection.

Chu has a master’s degree in environmental planning and organizes for both Asian Americans Advancing Justice and Food & Water Watch. Both women were interested in environmental justice as it impacts Asian American communities, and they joined forces to form Chicago Asian Americans for Environmental Justice (CAAEJ). CAAEJ is currently focused on the Chinatown Environmental Justice Initiative, which aims to educate and empower residents in neighborhoods with high concentrations of Asian American residents on environmental justice issues in their communities.

Practically speaking, this has consisted of going door-to-door in Chinatown, where ninety percent of residents are Asian, and in Bridgeport, where approximately one third of residents are Asian, to talk to people about their gardens, offering to test soil samples and helping residents determine what to do in the likely event that their soil is contaminated.

So far, the volunteer-run group has worked with an independent lab to test six samples from across Bridgeport; all but one site came back with results ranging from potential risk to high risk—meaning that the EPA recommends that the soil be excavated and replaced, or that all gardening take place in raised beds. Additionally, the results indicated that children’s access to these sites should be restricted to mitigate health risks. In the coming year, the goals for CAAEJ’s Chinatown Environmental Justice Initiative include fundraising and building partnerships with local universities to be able to continue offering soil testing, to build a larger volunteer and knowledge base, and to gain more expertise about the lead issue in Chicago and share the best mitigation practices.

Chu hopes CAAEJ and the Chinatown Environmental Justice Initiative can be a way for Asian Americans to recognize they face many of the same challenges as Black and Latinx communities when it comes to environmental issues. A long-term goal for CAAEJ is to join in solidarity and collaborate with other, longer-established local groups representing communities of color in Chicago. These include Neighbors for Environmental Justice, an advocacy group that formed last year to oppose the plan to build a MAT Asphalt plant in McKinley Park, and Little Village Environmental 6 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

“It feels really unjust, that just because you don’t speak English fluently, or maybe you have a lower income—it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t know this information that so readily impacts your life and your family’s lives.”

Justice Organization, a group that has organized successful grassroots campaigns to close down the Crawford and Fisk coal power plants and to remediate the Celotex Superfund site into the twenty-one acre La Villita public park.

Chu has been offering a workshop for the past year called “Asian Americans and Environmental Justice,” whose key themes are the need for solidarity across class and color lines and the urgency for leveraging advocacy as part of an organized group rather than focusing on individual-level action. The workshop argues that environmental justice should especially matter to Asians living in urban America, because Asian immigrants living in cities are often concentrated in residential neighborhoods that bear a disproportionate amount of negative health impacts from urban industry. Chu highlights the example of Richmond, California, where Asian and Black residents living near a Chevron oil refinery have organized time and time again to demand greater corporate accountability for toxic emissions and to block the expansion of the refinery.

During the workshop, Chu also delves into the challenges specific to Asian Americans organizing as a group: each Asian country speaks its own different language—sometimes multiple popular dialects within a single country, and residual cultural schisms exist between Asians whose countries of origin had historical conflicts.

Asian Americans as a demographic group have the broadest wage gap in this country, and to varied extents in different regions of the U.S., Asian Americans often struggle with a kind of invisibility in being underrepresented in political and cultural conversations.

On a global level, Chu’s workshop highlights evidence showing how the detrimental impacts of climate change will hit Asian countries especially hard.

¬ NOVEMBER 6, 2019

Population is highly concentrated in Asia, and there are many vulnerable coastal zones in South Asia in particular, including numerous islands in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Environmental scientists project that these areas will be unlivable by 2100.

Though carbon emissions from developing countries have increased significantly in recent years, Asian countries did not produce the majority of emissions that cause climate change over the past two hundred years. As of 2014, the U.S. accounts for close to one third of all carbon emissions to date and leads the world in current highest emissions per capita, at 16.2 metric tons per person. “This is all information that people probably have heard about, but maybe in different contexts,” Chu said during a recent workshop in Kenwood.

Chu’s intention through the “Asian Americans and Environmental Justice” workshop is to illustrate the stakes of environmental inequity in this country and on a global scale. She structures ample room for discussion, allowing participants to ask questions and to contribute their own experiences to the conversation. She’s offered the workshop about twenty times in the past year. It’s a time-intensive, quintessentially grassroots approach to building up the base for a nascent Asian American voice in Chicago. As an undergraduate, Chu studied environmental science at Ohio State, where the academic as well as extracurricular communities focused on environmental issues were predominantly white. “At Ohio State the largest environmental group was called Students for Recycling.

[Coming from an Asian background], our grandparents and parents are already reusing and recycling everything. I just felt that their frame of reference was not relevant and not addressing the most urgent issues, ” Chu told the Weekly. She also criticized the Sierra Club, one of the largest environmental

nonprofits in the country. “[The Sierra Club] has a long history of taking land away from Indigenous people for ‘conservation’ reasons. The majority of their staff are white, from middle or upper middle-class backgrounds. Their priorities are more relevant to privileged audiences, audiences of middle class Americans. Their priorities are less relevant to urban communities of color.”

As it continues to establish itself in Chicago, CAAEJ’s approach is to center the people most impacted by environmental injustice and to nurture the Asian American voice within the public discourse on environmental justice. To that end, Chu emphasizes the critical need for Asian Americans to organize and to engage with their political representatives, forprofit businesses, and other civic entities as a community rather than as individuals.

“At the end of the day, collective action is better than individual action,” said Chu. To Chicagoans who care about environmental justice and want to make a difference, she said, “It would be better if [people] focused their energy on fighting petrochemical infrastructure and lobbying their political representatives for renewable energy legislation. This is going to be way more effective than recycling plastic or pestering your friends about bringing totes to the grocery store.” Asian Americans & Environmental Justice Workshop. Japanese American Service Committee, 4427 N. Clark St. November 14, 6pm–8pm. facebook.com/ChiAsianAmEnviroJustice Nancy Chen is an arts and culture writer who is a recent transplant from Philadelphia to Chicago. She works at the Art Institute in the museum’s Department of Learning and Public Engagement. Her reviews and stories have appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer, PlanPhilly, the Artblog, the University of Chicago Arts Magazine, and Newcity.

EDUCATION

History is Now A new history helps understand conflicts around education in Chicago today

BY JESSICA EANES

THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS

T

he second CTU strike in less than ten years has forced the city government and the parents of children enrolled in Chicago Public Schools to contemplate the issues of overcrowding, under-resourcing, and neglect plaguing the system. Published last October, Elizabeth Todd-Breland’s A Political Education: Black Politics and Education Reform in Chicago Since the 1960s arrived at the perfect time to make it clear that, far from a repetition of history, the current moment is merely the latest in a long arc. Todd-Breland’s book is a thoughtful, timely, and necessary grounding in the modern history of Black education reform movements, which have centered on struggles for community control, fights

for adequate resources, and a myriad of battles around the desegregation of schools.

The 2012 teachers strike serves as a frame for the book, and Todd-Breland drops sharp, understated commentary and deftly presented synthesis squarely in the middle of the current conflict.

Todd-Breland is an associate history professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and is currently serving as a member of the Chicago Board of Education after being appointed by Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who ran on a platform including an elected school board but tried to kill a bill proposing one shortly after taking office. In her book, Todd-Breland skillfully establishes the major activists and players in the major

movements and uses their biographies to illustrate broad context, changing social currents, and the shifts in power and discourse over time. These straightforward personal histories give the entire text an engaging, accessible tone without falling into a narrative that hinges on charismatic leaders. Todd-Breland pays careful attention to the collaborative efforts and social groups underpinning each moment, be it success or failure. This seamlessly introduces the reader to the major political and social organizations of the time, as well as the different factions and positions on issues relating to education reform.

The strongest section of the book, covering the history of the Institute

of Positive Education (IPE) and the related New Concept Development Center (NCDC), lands as a painfully direct commentary on current times. The organizations developed in the 1960s and 1970s, in a segregated environment where schools located in Black neighborhoods were characterized by overcrowding and under-resourcing. At the same time, communities were being disrupted by citylevel infrastructure decisions such as the construction of the Dan Ryan Expressway.

Descriptions of historical conditions in CPS schools are particularly poignant when read against a contemporary backdrop of school closures that disproportionately affected the same under-resourced neighborhoods NOVEMBER 6, 2019 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 7

EDUCATION

where the IPE and NCDC did their work.

The IPE and NCDC were tied to the Black Power movement, and sought to create a curriculum and educational environment that centered African culture and excellence, eschewing mainstream rhetoric attributing struggles of Black and urban populations to pathology.

Todd-Breland’s clear-eyed yet sympathetic portrayal of the movement is a vital and refreshing approach. She gives a voice to those opposing the sexism institutionalized in the movement, and talks about the burnout caused by group expectations of total and exclusive dedication to the cause. Framing and illuminating this section is the book’s most compelling figure, Soyini Walton. A Chicago native who grew up with firsthand experience of CPS’s failure to serve the needs of its Black students, Walton became one of the few Black educators to secure a teaching position with CPS. She gave that up after more than seven years to immerse herself in work for the movement, shifting to full-time work with IPE. Walton’s frank discussion of the administrative and institutional weaknesses of the IPE humanizes the movement’s history and is a timely warning to modern activists: “We certainly saw people fall off over the years...never to set foot in the place again. I think I quit twice!”

This attention to the faults of the movement lends a depth to the narrative that makes the rest of the book even more engaging. The description of the two organizations’ underlying philosophy sends a clear message about the significance of IPE to the larger movement of Black education reform: “For IPE the importance of Africancentered education was understood as part of a larger cultural battle for the minds and consciousness of Black people in America... this was not a question to be taken lightly but a matter of life or death by ‘genocide of the mind.’” This approach forced IPE to work in total independence from CPS. While some of its organizers and instructors had ties to CTU, reform of and driven by the union happened parallel to IPE’s work rather than as a collaboration. Todd-Breland’s discussion of IPE’s dedication to independence is inflected by an observation at the beginning of the chapter that “ongoing concerns about IPE’s workload requirements, scale, and financial sustainability ultimately contributed to the organization’s decision to reengage with the state by opening public charter schools in the 1990’s.” The Betty Shabazz International Charter Schools 8 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

network came out of this decision, a choice made to give students served by NCDC tuition-free access to the resources that state funding under the charter system allowed.

Given the role charter schools have come to play in conversations around school reform, primarily as a means of funneling money away from under-resourced public schools, this move ties NCDC’s legacy into

and taking leadership roles. The strike in 1969, which was predominantly about teacher salaries, was widely opposed by the Black members of the union who “argued for resources and control” and saw the union as unlikely to share gains from the strike equitably with Black schools. Almost fifty percent of Black teachers crossed the picket line to protest the union’s focus on

The issues central to the current strike—proper staffing, reasonable classroom sizes, and funding libraries at Black and Latinx-majority schools— demonstrate the ways the legacy of segregation and neglect persist. current battles over education reform in an interesting way. The tendency of charter schools to have predominantly white faculty and administration with student bodies comprised mainly of Black and Latinx students, in Todd-Breland’s words, “evokes the very types of colonial Eurocentric ideologies that groups like IPE were founded to combat.” Activists such as Rosie Simpson, who have been involved in Black education reform as long as the IPE but focused on direct reform of CPS, strenuously opposed charter schools and accuse them of funnelling resources away from the same students the IPE seeks to support.

The interaction between the CTU, segregationist policies, and teachers’ strikes is particularly interesting in Todd-Breland’s discussion of the racial divide inside the CTU and how it played out in the strikes of 1969, 1971, and 1973. That era was defined by the struggles around school integration following the Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, and forced CTU to deal with the racism institutionalized within their own structure.

The first strike in 1969 was opposed by a massive organization of Black teachers.

With segregated faculty and policies that made it difficult for Black teachers to become fully certified, it was not felt that the union represented the interests of its Black members, who were addressing these issues by actively building participation in the union through encouraging engagement

¬ NOVEMBER 6, 2019

the priorities of its white membership.

The organizers had success with gaining recognition inside the union, with AfricanAmerican membership in CTU rising from thirty-four percent in 1969 to forty-two percent in 1977.

Todd-Breland directly connects this successful change, along with the tradition of community-driven activism outside the union, to the 2012 strike, citing them as the source of that action’s overwhelming support. Given the focus on class sizes and wraparound services as points of contention in this latest strike, the history tying the sixties to 2012 feels starkly modern. The issues central to the current strike—proper staffing, reasonable classroom sizes, and funding libraries at Black and Latinxmajority schools—demonstrate the ways the legacy of segregation and neglect persist.

The fact that these are not issues over which the union is legally permitted to strike highlights the pattern of shifting power to prevent change Todd-Breland documents throughout her book; the 1995 revision to the law that enacted this limitation came during a period when Black representation in the CTU was high, a situation that has deteriorated in subsequent years along with other markers of equity.

In discussing changes inside the CTU during the sixties and seventies, ToddBreland also pushes back against erasures common in histories of the era, pointing out that a retrospective from 1974 on activism

in the sixties focused on men who’d left teaching at the expense of women who’d contributed to the movement and remained in the classroom: “As had been the case during their days of intensive organizing, the contributions of Black women were once again largely hidden.” This is more than a nod to current trends around reclaiming history, as it underscores the fact that many of the people responsible for the work of the reform movements remained engaged in that work even when the signposts associated with their work fell away. Throughout this book, history doesn’t repeat itself so much as stretch continuously forward, shifting with the times but relentlessly resisting resolution.

That case for historical continuity is so well-rendered that it’s disappointing when discussion of the rise of Harold Washington falls into charismatic leader tropes so deftly evaded in earlier sections. As a brief introduction to Washington and his political influence, the book remains solid, highlighting his efforts to bring together CPS employees, the parents and families of CPS students, and business leaders to address reform in a series of summits and public discussions. However, the discussion of the aftermath of his sudden death in office, and the ultimate dissolution of the coalition he built, lacks the intimate nuance and specificity that make earlier sections of the book so effective. The epilogue has some satisfying bite delivered in the meticulous, matter-of-fact tone established in earlier sections: “In 1996 roughly 43 percent of CPS teachers were Black. By the 2016-17 school year, Black teachers made up only 22 percent of the CPS teaching force.”

However, much of that content could have been more effectively integrated with the final chapter of the book.

Then again, with teachers returning to class after a strike over resources and equity in education that went on even longer than the 2012 strike framing this history, we’re clearly still living in the thick of the artfully articulated struggle. The true epilogue to Todd-Breland’s work is in last week’s news. Elizabeth Todd-Breland, A Political Education: Black Politics and Education Reform in Chicago Since the 1960s. $24.95.

University of North Carolina Press. 328 pages Jessica Eanes is a freelance writer and editor living in Chicago.

EDUCATION

Safe Haven Links Churches and Schools

A CPS program provides out-of-school services in churches throughout the city

BY SIRI CHILUKURI

I

t’s the end of summer camp, and kids are sitting at tables in the basement of Woodlawn Baptist Church. Everyone is going around and giving compliments to each other—kids compliment their fellow campers and recount funny or memorable events that happened over the summer. Ms. Kayla Bell, known at camp as Miss Kayla, gets up and compliments the children on how much they’ve matured over the summer.

“All of you have taught me a lot. I’m really going to miss you,” she said.

This summer camp is not run by a private company or a non-profit, but instead by a partnership between the Chicago Public Schools and faith communities across the city. The program is called “Safe Haven,” and while it serves children all over the city, most of its partners are on the South and West Sides.

Safe Haven is managed by CPS’s Office of Faith Based Initiatives. In addition to Safe Haven, the office runs programs such as Children First Fund, which provides families with funds for funeral services should the death of a student occur, and Adopt-A-School, which connects schools to faith communities that support the school through volunteers and donations.

Safe Haven was started under thenMayor Richard M. Daley’s administration and contains three programs: after-school programs, extended programs during spring break, and summer camp. It serves 12,000 children annually, includingover 1,000 this

past summer, according to Alan Conley, the current director of the Office of Faith Based Initiatives. “One of the strongest initiatives that we had was the Safe Haven program,” said Conley.

For the parents of the children that attend the Safe Haven program, it isn’t just another city program—it’s a lifeline.

The program often fills a need for working parents seeking a place for their kids to stay engaged and safe while school is out during the summer months. Jennifer Moore, who has a daughter in the program, said “Hopefully they'll have it [Safe Haven] here every year, because I drop her off and, you know, one hundred percent of the time, you’re worried: if you’re working, who’s going to take care of the little one? When I’m at work, I have no worries at all. So I would use them and suggest them to anyone who is looking for childcare.”

Nicole Bell, the program director for Safe Haven at Woodlawn Baptist Church, noted the program is often the only choice for many parents who do not have access to other resources during the summer break.

“It gives more people in the community an opportunity to have their children be able to do something over the summer that they might not—as a matter of fact, a father just came in today and was like, ‘I’m so grateful that you guys are here, I don't know what I would have done with my son this summer, ‘cause I can’t afford the summer camps that charge $200 a week or $1000 for the

Saint Sabina Church

summer,’” said Bell.

Each church is able to offer its own unique spin on the program. Concord Missionary Baptist Church in Woodlawn has a longtime connection with Aaron Franklin, co-founder of MuzicNet School of Music in Chatham. As a result, the church was able to create a Safe Haven program that emphasizes music more than most.

In an interview, Franklin spoke about the positive impact of music on children’s lives. “The importance of music in children’s

OLAN MIJANA

education—it helps them in their math skills, their reading skills, their spatio-temporal skills, so many benefits, even their social skills. It gives them more confidence, which allows them to interact with other students on a more advanced basis,” said Franklin.

“Every Safe Haven program should have a music component, again, there are so many benefits. When you accomplish something like music or sports or whatever, it seems to occupy their attention, which will then take away attention from the negatives.”

NOVEMBER 6, 2019 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 9

EDUCATION

“I wouldn’t take her anyplace else.”

At Woodlawn Baptist Church, Nicole and Kayla Bell helped expand the current anti-bullying curriculum to address antiLGBTQ discrimination and ableism.

“One time we were walking down to the park and they came across a woman who was disabled, so then we were able to pose a conversation about that because of some of the reactions that we got. We just talked about how everyone’s different and some people are unique and there’s just different things about everyone, and how we should embrace those differences rather than just note that they are different,” said Kayla Bell. “You would be amazed at six- and seven-year-old’s idea of sexuality and how it relates to them. We’ve had quite a few conversations as far as relationships in terms of boys and girls and being nice to people who might identify themselves differently than us,” said Nicole Bell.

Parents and volunteers have noted that the program allows children to access and discuss their emotions in a way that does not happen in the classroom setting. Nicole Bell explained, “[Safe Haven] gives adults and children an opportunity to talk about things that you don’t really talk about in everyday life. In a school setting, you teach children about rules and things like that, but you don’t get a chance to engage their thoughts about rules, or how they're feeling about having conflict with their classmates.”

Parent Laticia Taiwo said, “I like the program because they have mentors. They have young adults that are working with the kids and they encourage [the kids] a lot. They talk to them about the problems or spats that they might have with other students.”

Volunteers also noticed positive growth in the behavior of the children between the beginning and end of the summer. “When they got here they weren’t very disciplined, but they were whatever their parents wanted them to be, but now they’re well-versed to go anywhere” said Artist Mitchell. Mother and volunteer Natasha Martin saw this with her own kids, saying “My children, they’re twins, so they stay together a lot. But with this program I see them venturing out and separating from each other and being with the other children.”

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¬ NOVEMBER 6, 2019

While the program currently serves thirty-seven churches, there is a desire for increased funding. “Certainly we need more funding. Right now CPS, we put up $900,000, we get $1 million from the city, so it’s a $1.9 million budget. Right now we have thirty-seven churches across the city. That’s not a lot of money, but we want to make sure that we’re able to continue offering the program at no cost to our parents,” said Conley. For the fiscal year ending in 2019, the Chicago Public Schools system had an operating budget of about $5.98 billion.

The lack of funding limits available activities, and requires volunteers to teach classes. “It would be nice if we could get an official dance instructor that could teach them technical terms and positioning and how exercise helps them stay nimble,” said Nicole Bell.

Clifton Davis, who runs the Safe Haven program at Saint Sabina Church in Auburn Gresham, expressed his desire for more broad and diverse activities for children who participate in Safe Haven. “I wish it was more of a variety of classes for them to do instead of just working with that curriculum, which is why we try to institute different things like our arts and crafts,” said Davis.

Moore has been thankful for Safe Haven this past summer. Between her work at Lurie Children’s Hospital and running her own jewelry business, she was glad to have a space where her daughter can have fun. “The name says it all, I was looking around for a program after school let out, and I actually know the Bells, and I wouldn’t take her anyplace else.” Siri Chilukuri is a journalist and science student at The New School in New York. She last wrote for the Weekly about Josh Levin’s The Queen.

FOOD

SHANE TOLENTINO

Ode to the Shrimp Tease It will not come fast, but the fish on Dock’s menu is worth the wait

BY AV BENFORD

T

he air in the Dock’s at 87th and State is thick with wafts of today's wellseasoned grease. Not old grease—I can tell because old deep-fryer grease weighs down the air around it; weighs down the food cooked in it; turns light yellow cornmeal into coffee brown and sends the dregs of last week's fried chicken down with every bite.

The smell of what must be onion and garlic powders permeates everything. My eyes water in part from anticipation and in part from the well-crafted pungency of Dock’s’ fish batter. The small shop’s single flat-screen TV is mounted high on one wall and is tuned to ESPN, broadcasting Sunday’s maladies: blowouts, turnovers, and favorites to win—losing badly. The radio is

on an R&B station playing just loud enough to fill the room, serving up Kem and Anita Baker to the waiting guests.

This location of Dock’s, a thirty-five year old Black institution for Chicago-style fried fish, has steadily remained in its corner spot in the Chatham Ridge shopping mall at 87th and State for many years, even as other locations—such as the ones on the

West Side and on 79th and State—have gone. They open at 11am Monday through Saturday and at noon on Sunday, and, no doubt about it, there is always a line.

It frequently runs ten people deep, with another fifteen folks in the booths waiting for their food. Why? In this extremely popular establishment, there is only one person manning the register, answering

NOVEMBER 6, 2019 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 11

FOOD

phones, making drinks (including shakes), and bagging and handing off takeout. As a culinary professional, I know that in a business of this volume, each one of these duties can be fulfilled by a different person.

Here, there is one Black lady, moving with intentionality, speed, and with what looks like multiple arms.

In big-tent salesman fashion, Dock’s boasts promises to their patrons on a poster tacked to the wall for all to see. I feel that measuring a restaurant against their own claims is one of the most surefire ways to gain the full picture of a place. In most areas Dock’s is true to their word, but in one key area the Docks on 87th fails their patrons. Here, I will be evaluating each bullet pointed promise against Dock’s’ delivery, highlighting the triumphs and opportunities.

The Weekly has not independently verified any of these claims. The reviewer’s statements are those of observation, experience, and opinion.

“All meals are freshly prepared… FAST!” The fish may be fried but it ain’t fast.

I repeat: THIS. IS. NOT. FAST. FOOD. Each ticket is cooked to order. In the twenty times I’ve been here since moving back to Chicago this past winter, everyone in this place waits: even the Uber Eats drivers who are picking up pre-orders, they wait. In the past, I’ve waited over forty-five minutes just to have my order taken and another fortyfive minutes for the order to be prepared.

Over the past year, I’ve tried a number of ways to cut this order time. Calling in?

The number listed on Google is wrong and even when you call the right one, eight out of ten times no one answers. Uber Eats?

This is fried fish, best when scalding hot, and delivery tends to steam the order in the bag while letting the heat escape, leaving you with soggy, cold—but still tasty—fish.

These days I tend to try and come when they open, when the ever-present line is at its shortest. I order, then grocery shop next door while they make it, to save time. On a recent visit, I’m lucky. The line is light and moving fast. Ten minutes to order. Fifteen to fry. I eat in.

Don’t get me wrong, there are other establishments whose fish is as good or better than Dock’s’, but few have a customer base as rabidly loyal.

“We serve the whole filet broken pieces become tasty nuggets” Frequently when I am looking to change things up I will order the Sea Nuggets.

Usually treated elsewhere as a remainder dish—made from the remainder of the preparation of another menu offering—the nuggets here, as promised, are a star, made from broken fillets and trimmings of mainly whiting. They are one of the most popular menu items. Coated in Dock's’ signature breading, they are light, flavorful, and served in hungry-man portions. I can never finish an order, even a small one, in a single sitting.

Like everything else here, the Deep Sea Nuggets starting at $5.29 are well priced for the amount and quality of the food you get.

“Our proprietary breading are light...but so flavorful!”

The breading here is more of a dusting than a full coating and this seafood is seasoned within an inch of its life. In my opinion, the tastiness of the breading is one of the main reasons Dock’s has been a staple on the South Side for over three decades. Don’t get me wrong, there are other establishments whose fish is as good or better than Dock’s’, but few have a customer base as rabidly loyal. Folks will wait in their cars for the better part of an hour just to bring a little bit of it home. In my opinion this is in no small part due to the breading.

“Our whole wheat buns are natural grain...no preservatives added.”

Dock’s does a few things that are out of the ordinary. Aside from their competitive pricing, their famous Fishwich Sandwich (made with whiting) is served on wheat buns. Wheat buns—not white bread slices as is typical of fried fish establishments.

Dock’s serves slices of wheat bread with all of their filet orders as well. They say that their bread is natural with no preservatives added.

(Now, “natural” is one of those terms that sounds like everything and means exactly nothing. Though tossed around by health advocates and major food brands, “natural” has no enforced standards and is therefore an empty phrase.) I can say that the bread, which does not fall apart as you eat it, does do a great job of soaking up the oil from the whiting filets.

“We cook in 100% cholesterol-free vegetable oil.”

Old oil reeks and you can smell it in the air of an establishment perverse enough to neglect their deep fryer. Old animal fat, like lard, has an even stronger smell. It sticks with you, too, in your hair, your clothes. The smell can stay with you all day after eating in the wrong fried food spot. What is worse is what it does to your insides: bubble gut and heartburn. The slick feeling at the back of the throat. The belching up of bad decisions.

I have never had this experience at Dock’s.

The fish is light. Their batter is always golden and not an overused brown. Also probably part of the reason this place has such a loyal following.

Our “Big Shrimp” are the largest and meatiest you find anywhere.

On 87th Street, for the price, you can’t beat the Shrimp Tease special. For $2.69 plus tax, Dock’s will treat you to five shrimp, tail on, each an inch to an inch-and-a-half in diameter, with a side of crackers and a packet of what is essentially cocktail sauce.

The shrimp will be perfectly fried, which in my opinion is fried to a crisp, not fried to a tooth-cracking crunch. The Tease is a great accompaniment dish to any other item on the menu—a little something extra to go with your fillets of catfish or perch.

Jumbo shrimp are a long-standing favorite of mine since childhood. My first time eating them was with a friend and her mom in Beverly. The clerk fried up the shrimp that my friend and I picked out and we scarfed down our bounty in the car. Sweet and whole and dressed in just the right amount of grease, we ate them so quickly that the smell of fried shrimp barely had time to permeate the car. Until that moment I had only had them heavily breaded, birthed from white boxes tucked in the back of the freezer. Dock’s is the closest I get to this childhood memory of hot and fresh. ...But the wait. The wait for these wellseasoned classics is a major factor. And to top it off today is the fourth day in a row that the credit card machine has been out of order. I’ve seen the cashier get cursed out on multiple occasions because of the wait, so on the way out, I asked Shakicia, the day’s onewoman counter band, how she deals with angry patrons, having myself been one on a few occasions. “I don’t pay them no mind. I listen, give them a refund if they want, and let them talk to my manager—she’s good at calming folks down.”

Rating: 3.5 out of 5. 1.5 stars off for the wait. Dock’s 112 W 87th St Chicago, IL 60620 773-723-6320 Other Locations 4011 W. 167th Country Club Hills, IL (708) 206-1919 321 E. 35th Chicago, IL 60616 312-929-2336 AV Benford is a Food and Land Editor at South Side Weekly.

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¬ NOVEMBER 6, 2019

ARCHITECTURE

Excerpt: Southern Exposure Selected photographs from a new book on South Side architecture

BY LEE BEY

In Southern Exposure, published October 15, photographer and writer Lee Bey journeys across the South Side with his “bulky 35mm Canon and tripod,” documenting the architecture that people living in the rest of the city (not to mention state or country) tend to forget about. Bey is deeply connected to his subject matter: his grandparents came to Bronzeville as part of the Great Migration, and he writes about Chicago Vocational, the high school where he trained to become a

printing press operator before an English teacher encouraged him to pursue journalism. Throughout the book, Bey weaves together his sharp photographs with their historical context—the story of Pullman’s creation, or an account of the resurrection of Bronzeville’s Rosenwald Court Apartments.

The Weekly picked out a few of the best pictures from Southern Exposure below, but go out and buy the whole thing, preferably at your nearest South Side bookseller.

Illinois Institute of Technology Old Main Building, 3301 South Federal Street. With its red brick and pronounced arches, this Louis Sullivan-esque building, built in 1892, was designed by architects Patton & Fisher.

NOVEMBER 6, 2019 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 13

ARCHITECTURE

Stephen A. Foster House and Stables, 12147 South Harvard Avenue. Designed

by Frank Lloyd Wright, the residence was built in 1900 as a summer house for a Chicago attorney.

Anthony Overton School, 221 East Forty-Ninth Street. Glass-paned, gallery-like hallways surmount the school’s south entry.

14 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

¬ NOVEMBER 6, 2019

ARCHITECTURE

St. Gabriel Catholic Church, 600 West Forty-Fifth Street. The church’s handsome main elevation and tower.

NOVEMBER 6, 2019 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 15

UNTITLED arts.uchicago.edu/logan/gallery

Logan Center Gallery • Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts • 915 E 60th St Chicago IL 60637

November 15

Camille Norment —

ARCHITECTURE

RED FLAME

Lu and Jorja Palmer House, 3656 South King Drive. Designed by William L. Clay and built in 1885, this three-story dwelling is one of the city’s best examples of the homes built for the very rich in nineteenth-century Chicago. The house is in deplorable condition, thanks to its Chicago developer owner.

January 5

16 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

¬ NOVEMBER 6, 2019

ARCHITECTURE

Rosenwald Apartments, Forty-Seventh Street and Michigan Avenue. The Rosenwald’s expansive interior courtyard.

An up-close view of the Rosenwald’s brickwork.

Lee Bey, Southern Exposure. $30. Northwestern University Press.

192 pages.

NOVEMBER 6, 2019 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 17

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MUSIC

Shooting for a Breakthrough at WGCI Music Contest Hopeful artists talk God, hustling until they make it, and supporting each other

BY MORLEY MUSICK

L

ast month, radio station WGCI ran a music competition in partnership with AT&T ahead of its music summit this Saturday, inviting aspiring artists to submit their songs. From these submissions, the contest judges will select four artists to perform at the summit, which will also feature appearances by Fat Joe, G Herbo, and Doja Cat, as well as panels on how to break into the music industry. Two of the four finalists will be selected to receive personal meetings with Roc Nation and 300 Entertainment.

Over the past four Saturdays, WGCI has been hosting music submission events at different AT&T stores around Chicagoland.

Last Saturday, October 26th, artists gathered at the AT&T store on 95th and Western, waiting to submit their music for a chance at these opportunities.

At the store, WGCI’s DJ Kyle played top ten rap songs over the speakers, periodically plugging phone plans. It had been raining since morning and the strip mall parking lot was slick with water and gasoline. A contestant wearing pristine Air Jordans shook his head with dismay after stepping in an oil slick. The other contestants had to shake off their beautiful clothing upon entering the store—their shoes decorated in leopard print and spikes and loose strings, their sweatshirts printed with sharks and tigers, and their jeweled pendants of angel wings and marijuana leaves. They waited in line to hand off their USBs to DJ Kyle, listening to his advice with deference and distracted excitement. Afterward, on the store’s pleather couch, artists chatted and planned future collaborations together.

Their friends and relatives waited while they decided where to meet and which open mics to attend.

I spoke with contestants Rock Sway,

Big Mouth Bo, Holli D. Barzz, MANSION, SteveO Stoner, Ivori Skye, and JKatana about their music. Interviews have been condensed and edited for clarity.

MANSION The artist MANSION wore a tank top, matching brown wristbands, and a white angel wing pendant on a gold chain. He filmed the store and both of us during our interview.

His artist name stands for “Making A New Start In Our Neighborhood,” and he runs an organization called HOPE, or Helping Other People Eat, of which he is the founder and sole member.

I been rapping for thirty years. I grew up in Englewood all my life. I’m from the projects, man. A lot of problems right now is, they takin entertainment, and trying to make it into real life. You go into the studio and say something about somebody. These guys actually gonna come and get you for that.

Artists today, man, violence is all they see.

They wake up in the morning, step out the door, and see guns and drugs. You come right now to 79th and Halsted, I could show you an eight-year-old with a banger, weed, and everything. It’s getting younger and younger. But a lot of the incidents that happen is just cause people hungry out there, and just trying to get people to hear that in their music. That’s the reason why you don’t hear nobody mention “Oh, I woke up and had a good day…” You not gonna hear that.

Lemme tell you the biggest problem.

You can’t have these radio stations playing stuff, “go pop a pill,” “pop this,” “pop that,” and have that playing on the charts, number one. You gotta slow your promotion down and start doing real good music. Cause guess what? The devil was who? He was the god of

music. He loves it!

You gotta look at it and say “God gave you a gift, you gotta use it in a good way.” I got a song called “Blue Skies.” That’s a song about being grateful every day, waking up and seeing blue skies. “Show me heaven,” “Flip through the pages of life,” all my songs got meaning behind it that’s not only gonna touch the Black person. That’s why I don’t like Farrakhan. If you dealing with one color, you the devil, I can’t mess with you. If you dealing with one color, you ain’t of God. Another song, “Show out.” Meaning every time you step out, I want you to show out. “Every time I step out it’s a blowout, Im’a show out, shinin when I go out, drippin diamonds when I roll out, every show is sold out coast to coast so get yo dough out. I’m about to show out, show out.” Nice song, “Show out.” Let the world know who you are. Show out.

Holli D. Barzz and Ivori Skye Holli D. Barzz wore a blue vest lined with faux-fur, sparkles in her hair, a spangled fanny pack, and a heart-shaped jeweled pendant. In a recent freestyle video, she wears an EBAY shirt, a chain that reads “BOSS” in capital letters, and a dense green afro. Her live performance videos are enthralling. She met fellow artist Ivori Skye at the AT&T store and promptly decided to collaborate with her on a music video.

My basketball coach gave me the name “Hollywood” cause I used to dress up before basketball games, and he would say, “Oh you think you Hollywood.” As I got older, I just shortened it to Holli D, then I added Barzz when I started rapping. I been rapping for six to seven years, but I been doing poetry since I was eight. My friends at school used to tap on my desk and ask me to spit my

poem, faster and faster.

I don’t sound the same on nothing I do.

I’m versatile, which is great cause it’s easy marketing. I never look the same. I never want to be bored. I wear six-inch heels on the stage and jump up and down. I have to get your attention and if I don’t have it, I’ll grab it. And if I don’t grab it, I’ll take it. I will make you put up your phone towards me. If I get a person not paying attention, I’m just gonna stand right next to ‘em and rap. Every open mic I can get my hands on.

But at the same time, it’s a lot of janky promoters that promise you a lot of stuff and they get your money, and they’re bad with promoting and the shows don’t be packed, or your set is cut, you only get two minutes of performing when you’re supposed to get five or seven. They use famous artists on the flyer, so they make you really think you’re opening up for famous people, but the whole time they’re on tour somewhere. Or they pop in at the end of the night and they don’t take your CD. The free open mics have better energy.

Who do you like in rap right now?

I don’t listen to other artists on the radio, so I won’t mimic them. I just listen to myself. I could listen to myself all day. Not to sound weird, but I do. I listen to how I was breathing, how I spaced my rhymes. I normally come up with a song when I’m driving. I come up with a hook, saying it over and over again until I stop at a red light. Or during my lunch break. Then I write down the hook. I want to be a professional. I wanna use that, actually, as a platform to invest in other stuff.

I wanna leave something behind for my kids that’s way bigger than me.

Cause my nine-year-old is my biggest fan. He’ll light a candle and get my laptop

NOVEMBER 6, 2019 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 19

MUSIC

DJ Kyle (center, kneeling) with artists who came to submit their work on the 26th, including JKatana kneeling on the left, Royal in the center, Holli D. Barzz to her right, and Ivori Skye behind her.

set up for me, like, “Are you ready to rap now?

Can I listen?” And he’ll say, “I like that.”

Right now, I’m working on a hit single. I’m gonna try to be everywhere with that single.

You gonna see me standing at the red light with a sign made, with my Youtube, all of that. I’m gonna be out here doing it myself.

I’m also pretty sure my new friend is gonna help me too.

I just came to drop off music, but I met some incredible people. I met her (Ivori Skye) first. I always got charged so much for music videos, I couldn’t afford them, but she charges in my price range. So, we gonna link up, and she’s gonna do my editing for me.

What are you all doing together?

Ivori Skye: I don’t know, cause when she just said that, that was the first I had heard of it (laughter). She didn’t even mention that in the car when she was listening to my music, but I’m down.

20 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

Holli: I gotta do a song that’s like “She’s so free-spirited, and she’s talented.”

I got talent, she got talent. Why not put it together?

Holli then won a raffle ticket to attend the music summit and wandered off to retrieve it.

What about you Ivori, what’s your music background?

I’m working towards my second degree in the entertainment business. I’m certified in social media marketing too. I rap, I sing, I act, I make films, I do photos, and I’m starting a business called From the Ash Media. I want my name up there so people see it on the music video and they say, “Oh they made it for how much?” I’ve done music videos, and done PA work, and worked as an actor.

Anything I get to help further my brand, and get me out there and help other people.

With my knowledge, I don’t believe in keeping it in. Even with my classes in school,

¬ NOVEMBER 6, 2019

WGCI

I always tell all my friends what I learn, entertainment law, all that. There’s too many people in the music industry trying to be selfish, holding onto information, keeping all the wealth to themselves. Which is crazy, considering that most hip hop culture is Black, which is always our problem anyway, which is we don’t come together. I try to help in any way I can. That’s why I would hop on a song with Holli. I don’t mind at all. I’m working on an EP called Angelic Demons that hopefully will be ready by end of November. Ivori Skye all across the board.

JKatana and sister Royal Royal approached me while I was talking to another artist, saying that I should meet her brother. She then seated me next to her brother, artist name JKatana, and the three of us chatted for a long time. By the end of our interview, the posters had been taken down, and everyone had left.

JKatana: I’m here just hoping to have a good time, see what the opportunities is all about, hoping we get chosen. I got nineteen tracks in total. I got a mixtape out on all platforms, it’s called ADHD. I have ADHD. I don’t wanna say I grew out of it, but I did a little bit. School was a little bit different for me. I kinda felt isolated from other students. This is something I always wanted to do, but I was insecure about it for a while. I wanted to be an independent artist. I wanted to be in control. I wanna create my own destiny, my own legacy.

Royal: Then one day he just came to me and he was like, “Sis I want you to be my manager.” Cause I’ve been in the music industry for a very long time, doing music promotions for different artists, but I never really managed anyone. So we’re actually going through this journey together. I really want the world to know who he is. The first project I wasn’t really involved, he just did his own thing. But then we started doing the videos. Ever since then, it’s been takin off. Once he did “Ovalooked,” that’s when I knew, “Ok, we really in this.”

Seeing what he’s doing, it pushes me further in the things I’ve been doing for years. Cause I don’t always get the credit I deserve. I don’t look for that. Even when we somewhere, I always push him to the front.

He’s always pushing me to the front too.

I’m learning to not always be in hiding, or be in the cut, cause that’s what I’m used to, cause that’s my comfort zone. We just gotta do this. This is for you, I don’t care if I go broke. At the end of the day, I know I did it for you. And you know that somebody believed in you. I hate talking about him cause I get emotional, I get emotional all the time when I talk about him. I’ve always wanted somebody to believe in me as much I believe in him. We didn’t come together for no reason. As soon as we came together, it was click. After that, it’s been magic. I really want the world to know who he is. The 107.5 WGCI Music Summit, presented

by AT&T, Harold Washington Cultural Center, 4701 S. Martin Luther King Dr. Saturday, November 9, 8am–4pm. General admission $55, V.I.P. Artist (panel discussion, play your music and get feedback) $99. bit.ly/ wgcisummit2019 Morley Musick is a writer from Chicago.

JUSTICE

‘A Drop in the Bucket’: AntiViolence Leaders Blast Mayor’s Budget Plan

A coalition of more than two dozen community groups asked the city to earmark $50 million for gun violence prevention. Lori Lightfoot's proposal calls for far less.

BY BRIAN FRESKOS, THE TRACE This story was published in partnership with The Trace, a nonprofit news organization covering guns in America. Originally published online October 25. Reprinted with permission.

P

rominent figures in Chicago’s gun violence prevention movement have criticized Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s 2020 budget blueprint for not going far enough to support programs designed to stop shootings. The dispute comes as the mayor grapples with an extraordinary budget shortfall.

For months, more than two dozen organizations have been pressing city leaders to set aside $50 million for communitybased violence prevention efforts. But as Lightfoot unveiled next year’s budget proposal during an address on October 23, she indicated that she was seeking a fraction of that amount—$9 million—for violence prevention.

“This was her first opportunity to show that she is truly committed to making Chicago one of the safest cities in America, but she failed at that opportunity,” the Reverend Ciera Walker-Chamberlain, who runs the group Live Free Chicago and is a leading voice in the push for more antiviolence funding, told The Trace. “It was very disappointing to see.”

The funding is tucked into a citywide spending package that totals $11.65 billion.

Lightfoot is trying to close a yawning budget gap, and the situation has opened her up to new lines of criticism from those who fear that she is backsliding on the progressive

agenda that she rode into office.

Administration officials have said the $9 million figure cited during Lightfoot’s address does not include additional funding for street outreach programs through the Department of Public Health, nor does it count the salaries for the eleven full-time employees of the newly established Mayor’s Office of Public Safety. Together, those items would bring the total amount budgeted for violence prevention up to $11.5 million.

“Since day one, Mayor Lightfoot has demonstrated her highest priority and greatest responsibility as mayor is ensuring peace and safety in all of Chicago’s neighborhoods,” a spokesman for the mayor’s office, Pat Mullane, said in a statement emailed to The Trace. “And while Chicago is facing a historic deficit, Mayor Lightfoot has made a monumental down payment toward the City’s comprehensive violence reduction strategy by investing $11.5 million in this year’s budget, a seven-fold increase in funding since 2019—the largest year-over-year increase in recent history—to allow the City to expand community-based street outreach, integrate trauma-informed victim services and provide intensive, youthfocused interventions for those who are at the highest risk of violence.”

Lightfoot’s address came after a weekend that saw more than forty people shot—four of them fatally. So far this year, Chicago has recorded more than 400 homicides and more than 1,760 shootings, a marked drop from the same period in 2016, when violence surged to levels not seen in

nearly two decades. Despite the decline, Chicago consistently records more killings than New York City or Los Angeles—cities with larger populations.

During her speech, Lightfoot stressed her dedication to “ensuring the safety of every home and every block in Chicago.”

But the funding she proposed for violence prevention has some people questioning her seriousness.

“The mayor mentioned public safety as her number one calling,” said Marshall Hatch Jr., who runs the MAAFA Redemption Project, a faith-based violence prevention program in the city’s West Garfield Park neighborhood. “I appreciate religious language, but if that language is not matched by a commitment, then it’s pretty hollow.”

While disappointment in the budget proposal abounds, many community leaders interviewed for this article continued to express support for Lightfoot’s broader antiviolence agenda and praised her hiring of two renowned violence prevention experts to top posts in her administration.

They also noted that Lightfoot’s proposal sought more funding for gun violence prevention than those from previous administrations and acknowledged the city’s fiscal problems put the mayor in a tricky position.

Eddie Bocanegra, the senior director of READI Chicago, an anti-violence program run by the Heartland Alliance, said the proposed monies paled in comparison to what New York City and Los Angeles

had given to similar efforts. He urged Chicago’s elected officials to find a way to boost spending as they debate the budget in coming weeks.

“If violence is a core issue that the city and the mayor really want to address, that needs to be reflected in the budget and the amount of support that they’re willing to put behind these programs,” said Bocanegra, who also chaired a committee that advised the Lightfoot administration on public safety issues during her transition into office. “Nine million dollars to work with all the individuals who are at the highest risk of violence is really nothing, and I don’t think it’s going to help much in sustaining the programs that the private philanthropic community has already invested in.”

Since Chicago’s violence surged in 2016, an array of new community groups have emerged to help reorient at-risk individuals and reduce shootings. But the work has been almost entirely privately funded. The dearth of public dollars has stopped programs from reaching all those in need, and some worry that the private funding may dry up in years to come.

Lightfoot made combating gun violence a centerpiece of her bid for mayor, pledging to shore up community-based prevention and intervention programs.

Then came the unexpected news, a few days before Lightfoot’s inauguration, that the 2020 budget gap was projected to eclipse $700 million because of ballooning pension payments and expensive borrowing practices under the outgoing Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

NOVEMBER 6, 2019 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 21

JUSTICE

JUSTICE

Months later, officials revised that estimate even higher, to $838 million—the biggest shortfall in the city’s modern history.

Lightfoot administration officials scrambled for a way to close that gap without taking the widely unpopular step of hiking property taxes. Their solution relies on a mix of debt refinancing, increased taxes on rideshares and food sold at restaurants, as well as a host of other maneuvers, some of which will need approval from state lawmakers.

Despite the funding shortfall, some violence prevention leaders were confident that the Lightfoot administration would make good on its commitment to more fully back violence prevention efforts.

“Nine million dollars is really a drop in the bucket in terms of what we need, but I hope it’s only the beginning,” said Father Michael Pfleger, a renowned violence prevention activist who also serves as the senior pastor at St. Sabina Church on the South Side.

In his statement, the mayor’s spokesman said that the administration was continuing to work closely with state, county, and private funding partners to maximize investments and resources to “ensure our neighborhoods have access to the services and supports they need and deserve.”

Conversations about how to tackle gun violence in Chicago have become increasingly intertwined with broader debates about the socioeconomic ills that have undercut neighborhoods on the South and West Sides, where much of the violence is concentrated.

Lightfoot touched on that link during her budget address, speaking about gun violence in the same breath as affordable

housing, homelessness, and mental health services. To some, the speech signaled that she grasped the complexity of the battle against gun violence — even if she was unwilling or unable to better fund violence prevention efforts this time around.

“I was moved to tears by her speech,” said Teny Gross, executive director of the nonprofit Institute for Nonviolence Chicago. “What I saw was a mayor with a heart for the community and the well-being of the whole of the city in mind.”

Gross added that $9 million was a “good downpayment” to make up for decades of disinvestment and discrimination in South and West Side communities, but much more money was required. “The mayor knows it,” he said. “The question is: Will the aldermen and the larger, affluent communities support the mayor in doing the right thing and spending the necessary $50 million?”

As the debate plays out, advocates plan on using the coming budget debates to push for more funding. Their efforts will focus on an ordinance introduced in the City Council in September that would provide the sought-after $50 million for a new executive department to concentrate exclusively on gun violence prevention.

“We’ll still be meeting alderman, we’ll be meeting with community members, and canvassing and making phone calls and pushing it every way we know how,” said Walker of Live Free Chicago. “We’re fighting for people to live. This is literally a life-and-death situation.” Brian Freskos is a reporter at The Trace based in Chicago.

AMELIA DIEHL

22 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

¬ NOVEMBER 6, 2019

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EVENTS

BULLETIN We Are Witnesses: Chicago Chicago Public Library, Chinatown Branch, 2100 S. W November 7, 3pm–5pm. Free. bit. ly/Casino_Southside The Marshall Project and Kartemquin Films partnered to create a short-video series that gives voice to crime victims and perpetrators, law enforcement officers, and families of incarcerated people. The series, We Are Witnesses: Chicago, is an immersive conversation about justice that includes people from diverse communities.

Some parts of the film may be difficult for sensitive viewers. ( Jim Daley)

Community, History, Place and Equity National Public Housing Museum, 625 N. Kingsbury St. Tuesday, November 12, 5:30pm–7pm. Free. bit.ly/NPHM_Equity Earlier this year, Preservation Chicago launched a Neighborhood Outreach Program to help preserve historic places in communities that have historically been disinvested from. The program identifies historic assets and develops strategies to preserve them. Mary Lu Seidel, Preservation Chicago’s director of community engagement, Bernard Lloyd, a Preservation Bronzeville representative, and Andrea Reed, a Preservation Roseland representative, will join a panel discussion on the program’s successes thus far and how historic preservation can contribute to a community’s sense of place. ( Jim Daley)

Barrio America: How Latino Immigrants Saved the American City Newberry Library, 60 W. Walton St. Tuesday, November 12, 6pm–7:30pm. Free. bit.ly/ BarrioUSA Andrew Sandoval-Strausz will discuss his book Barrio America: How Latino Immigrants Saved the American City and sign copies. The book charts the compelling history of how Latino immigrants revitalized American cities after decades of disinvestment and white flight. Contrary to the prevailing mythology that young white professionals and creatives revived urban centers at the close of the 20th century, Sandoval-Strausz argues the reversal was 24 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

largely driven by Latino newcomers who purchased homes and started businesses there. ( Jim Daley)

2019 Teen Services Summit Harold Washington Library Center, 400 S. State St. 8:30am–4:30pm. Free. bit.ly/ TeenServicesSumm The Chicago Public Library hosts a daylong program that explores how to best serve LGBTQIA+ youth in educational settings. Geared towards in-school and after-school educators who work with teenagers, the summit will include a keynote from representatives of The GenderCool Project and breakout sessions featuring the Chicago Freedom School, CPL youth librarians, and Queering the Parks. ( Jim Daley)

Jackson Funeral Home Records Digital Launch Chicago BEE Branch Library, 3647 S. State St. Thursday, November 14, 1pm–3pm. Free; register in advance. bit.ly/JacksonFuneral

will discuss the 1919 Red Summer with Cameron McWhirter, a Wall Street Journal reporter and the author of Red Summer: The Summer of 1919 and the Awakening of Black America, and Jacqueline Stewart, a professor of Cinema and Media Studies at the University of Chicago and the author of Migrating to the Movies: Cinema and Black Urban Modernity, and director of the South Side Home Movie Project. ( Jim Daley)

Poetry Magazine’s Fall Party Poetry Foundation, 61 W. Superior St. Thursday, November 14, 7pm–9pm. Free. bit. ly/PoetryFall2019 Poetry Magazine has been a Chicago literary mainstay for more than a century; come celebrate the publication’s staying power with contributors, editors, and poetry fans. Subscription specials, individual issues, and refreshments will be available. ( Jim Daley)

A Conversation with Timuel D. Black, Jr. and Susan Klonsky

For nearly 150 years, the Jackson Funeral Home was an enduring national symbol of the African-American funeral business that sprang up after the Civil War to serve Black families who were turned away by white morticians. Founded in Philadelphia in 1867 by Emanuel Jackson and his three sons, the funeral home was later established in Chicago in 1901. Charles S. Jackson Funeral home was located in the Grand Crossing neighborhood, where it operated until 2012. Ten years of records digitized by the Bronzeville Historical Society will be made public at the Chicago BEE. Attendees are encouraged to bring the names of ancestors whose funerals were held at the home, and research guidance will be provided. ( Jim Daley)

Hyde Park Union Church, 5600 S. Woodlawn Ave. Sunday, November 17, 2pm–4pm. Free. bit.ly/TimuelBlack

Red Summer / Winter Blues

Simon Balto: Occupied Territory: The Policing of Black Chicago

DuSable Museum of African American History, 740 E. 56th Pl. Thursday, November 14, 6pm–8pm. Free; register in advance. chicago1919.org/red-summer-winter-blues Filmmaker Barbara Allen of Middle Passage Productions will present her in progress documentary, which covers the upheavals of 1919 to place the Chicago race riot in national context. A rough cut of the documentary will be shown, and Allen

¬ NOVEMBER 6, 2019

Timuel D. Black, Jr. and Susan Klonsky will discuss their new book Sacred Ground: The Streets of Timuel Black. The book opens during the 1919 Chicago Race Riots— when then-infant Black and his family had just arrived from Birmingham, Alabama, as part of the first Great Migration. It traces his childhood and education in Bronzeville and other South Side neighborhoods that are the titular “sacred ground” and follows him through World War II, the Civil Rights Movement, and his friendship with Barack Obama. Contact Kathy Huff at kathy@ rogerhuff.com for details. ( Jim Daley)

Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture, 5733 S. University Ave. Monday, November 18, 4:30pm–6pm. Free. bit.ly/ BaltoTerr In Occupied Territory: Policing Black Chicago from Red Summer to Black Power, Balto, an assistant professor of AfricanAmerican history at the University of Iowa, examines the evolution of policing

in Chicago beginning with the 1919 Race Riots and culminating in the Black Power struggles of the 1960s and 70s. The book also details how Black citizen-activists challenged police repression, and reveals how mass incarceration emerged fully formed from the foundations laid by nearly a century of police occupation of Black communities. Copies of the book will be available for purchase. ( Jim Daley)

VISUAL ARTS Corey Hagelberg: The Effects of Bad Government URI-EICHEN Gallery, 2101 S. Halsted St. Opening reception Friday, November 8, 7pm–10pm. Open by appointment through December 6. (312) 852-7717. Free. urieichen.com Whether he’s developing creative spaces or etching black-and-white woodcuts, Gary-raised artist Corey Hagelberg reckons with the idea of social change across the Calumet region. This exhibition at Pilsen’s URI-EICHEN Gallery will showcase work informed by the “environmental injustice” taking place in his hometown. (Christopher Good)

Tessellate at Spudnik Press Cooperative Spudnik Press Cooperative, 1821 W. Hubbard St., Apt. 302. Event on Friday, November 8, 6pm–10pm; installation on view through November 10. Free. (312) 563-0302. spudnikpress.org/event/tessellate Whether you could print a risograph in your sleep or don’t know recto from verso, all are welcome at Spudnik’s evening of “collective artmaking and installationbuilding.” The event, part of Hubbard Street Lofts’ extensive Open House night, will encourage self-expression through all forms of print media, from screen printing to paper embossing. (Christopher Good)

Five Works: Kelly Kristin Jones Mana Contemporary Chicago, 2233 S. Throop St. Friday, November 15, 6pm–8pm. Free.

RSVP at bit.ly/five-works-mana. (312) 8500555. manacontemporary.com Chicago-based artist Kelly Kristin Jones arranges photographs in a sort of spatial collage as a means to address political and

EVENTS

social themes. On Friday, she’ll discuss and present her work at Pilsen’s Mana Contemporary. (Christopher Good)

The Last Cruze Exhibition Walkthrough The Renaissance Society, 5811 S. Ellis Ave., 4th Fl. Saturday, November 9, 3pm. Free.

RSVP at bit.ly/last-cruze-walkthrough. (773) 702-8670. renaissancesociety.org Over the course of 2019, photographer and professor LaToya Ruby Frazier interviewed the workers of a General Motors plant in Lordstown, Ohio as their factory was “unallocated.” On Saturday, Frazier will walk visitors through the resulting installation: a colossal oral labor history, presented in a fashion she describes as “half holy, half assembly line.” (Christopher Good)

MUSIC WGCI Music Summit Presented

by AT&T Harold Washington Cultural Center, 4701 S. Martin Luther King Dr. Saturday, November 9, 8am–4pm. General Admission $55 plus tax. bit.ly/WGCIMusicSummit Chicago artists, producers, songwriters and managers will be given the opportunity to join in one space for a day of musical networking and education. Artists like Fat Joe, Doja Cat, K. Michelle, G Herbo, and more are expected to appear to host panels discussing the ins and outs of the music business. Directly following the event is a music showcase at The Promontory where local artists will put their talents on display.

(Atavia Reed)

Windy City Stories The Promontory, 5311 S. Lake Park Ave. W. Tuesday, November 12, 8pm, doors open 7pm.

Early bird $10, General Admission $15 in advance. bit.ly/WindyCityStories Local Chicago artists are coming together for a night of lyrical litness. Stop by to check out performances from rappers like ‘LGado, OG Stevo, and Preme or bop along to a few DJ sets. (Atavia Reed)

Muntu Dance Theatre and Nunufatima Dance Company

Presents: Elevate Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E. 60th St. Friday, November 15, 7:30pm. General Admission $30 plus tax; children $20 plus tax; concert and after-party $75 plus tax. bit.ly/ElevateConcert2019 The Muntu Dance Theatre and Nunufatima Dance Company are joining forces for “Elevate,” a display of African culture through the power of dance and music.

Choreographer Kameika Brown of Jamaica will debut the World Premiere of “Kumbaca." (Atavia Reed)

Windy City Crash Pop Fest 2019 Co-Prosperity Sphere, 3219-21 S. Morgan St. Saturday, November 16, 5pm–midnight.

General Admission $12 plus tax. bit.ly/ CrashPopFest2019 Now in its third year, the Windy City Crash Pop Fest will bring together some of the best dream pop and post-punk bands the genre has to offer for a night of tunes, booze and swag. Local bands Panda Riot, Lightfoils and Fauvely are expected to hit the stage. (Atavia Reed)

Red Bull Music Festival Chicago Multiple locations across the city. November 17–30. Prices $20 and up. bit.ly/ ChicagoRedBullMusicFestival The Red Bull Music Festival is back for a two-week celebration of the Chicago music scene. More than 40 artists will be playing at local venues across the city. This year’s headliners include Chicago-born artists like Grammy award-winner Lupe Fiasco, Jamila Woods, and more. (Atavia Reed) `

STAGE & SCREEN

‘ways of knowing’ by Honey Pot Performance Experimental Station, 6100 S. Blackstone.

November, 7–10. 7:30pm. Tickets $20, students and seniors $15 or pay what you can. bit.ly/2r6g1eW Ever wonder about the meaning of mastery and expertise? This collaborative, processbased performance project will explore these concepts with a public share of stories and skill-sets in the process of art making.

(Nicole Bond)

Oedipus Rex Court Theatre, 5535 S. Ellis Ave. Begins Thursday, November 7 through Sunday December 8. Ticket prices vary. Call or visit the box office at (773) 753-4472 or courttheatre. org Marilyn F. Vitale Artistic Director Charles Newell brings a twenty-first century vision to Sophocles’ Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex, as translated by Court Founding Artistic Director Nicholas Rudall. This tragic tale of fate and identity, with multi-cultural casting, is the first in the Court’s Oedipus Trilogy, to include Gospel at Colonus, on stage next May to round out the 2019–2020 season, followed by Antigone, performed during the 2020–2021 season. (Nicole Bond)

Cinema 53: Beloved with Charlene Carruthers and Kaneesha Parsard Harper Theater, 5238 S. Harper. Thursday, November 7, 6pm. Doors open 6:45pm. Free

admission. For more information contact the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture, (773) 702-8063.

The next installment of the Cinema 53 series which aims to present provocative films by and about women and people of color, will screen the film based on Toni Morrison’s 1987 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Beloved, followed by a conversation with strategist, author and Black liberation movement organizer Charlene Carruthers and UChicago Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of English Language and Literature. (Nicole Bond)

Krush Groove: Incomplete History of Hip-Hop Columbia College, Conway Center, 1104 S. Wabash. Friday, November, 8. 6pm. Free admission. southsideprojections.org South Side Projections presents the 1985 fictional account of who’s who of early hip-hip film—Krush Groove. Based on the early days of Def Jam Recordings manager

NOVEMBER 6, 2019 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 25

EVENTS

Russell Walker, featuring: Sheila E., New Edition, the Beastie Boys, LL Cool J and so many more. The night begins with a DJ set

by Coolout Chris with student-produced videos from 6–7pm and ends with a Q&A following the film. (Nicole Bond)

FOOD & LAND Farmer's Markets Saturdays George Washington Carver Black Farmer's Market, Kennedy-King College, 6301 S Halsted St. Saturday, November 9, 2019, 9am– 2pm.

Sundays 95th Street Farmers Market, 1835 W. 95th St. Sundays, 8am–1pm. Through November.

95thstreetba.org/farmers-market Maxwell Street Market, S. Desplaines St. & W. Taylor St. Sundays, 9am–3pm. bit.ly/ MaxwellStMarketChicago Wood Street Urban Farm Stand, 1757 W. 51st St. Sundays, 9am–noon. Through November 24.

Multiple Days UHSC Farm Stand, 1809 W. 51st St. Mondays–Fridays, 9am–1pm, through November 25.

Farm on Ogden Food Stand, 3555 W. Ogden Ave. Tuesdays & Thursdays, 11am–7pm; Wednesdays, Fridays, & Saturdays, 10am– 6pm. chicagobotanic.org

Folded Map Project at Englewood Branded Englewood Branded, 1546 W 63rd St. Through December 1st. Opening reception Saturday, November 9th. 6pm – 9pm. Free. bit.ly/FoldedMapEnglewoodBranded Photographer Tonika Johnson’s Folded Map Project, a straightforward yet visually powerful examination of Chicago’s segregation, is composed of sets of ‘Map Twins:’ pairs of Chicago residents who inhabit North and South versions of the same address. This month, Johnson’s project returns to her native Englewood for an exhibition at the Englewood Branded retail space. Attendees can find their address on a large-scale map of the city and leave pins to mark their presence in case their twin stops by. (Sarah Fineman) 26 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

“The 78” Racial Equity Town Hall 2 Benito Juarez High School, 2150 S Laflin St. Saturday, November 9th. 11am – 2pm. Free. bit.ly/RacialEquityTownHall The Midwest branch of mega-megadeveloper Related last year broke ground on construction of “Chicago’s 78th neighborhood” in the undeveloped South Loop plots just below Roosevelt. Highrise buildings, three new roads, and a new Red Line stop are all in the works. Activist organization Chicago United For Equity is hosting their second town hall as part of a Racial Equity Impact Assessment (REIA) they’re conducting of the project. This one’s focused on discussing “who benefits and who burdens.” Citizens, residents, noncorporate entities, make your voices heard!

(Sarah Fineman)

Little Village Community Meeting on Mauser Permits Piotrowski Park, 4247 W 31st St. Thursday, November 7th. 6pm – 8pm. Free. bit.ly/ LVEJOMauserMeeting Packaging manufacturer Mauser, formerly BWAY, has long held production facilities at W 31st and S Kilbourn, steps from Piotrowski Park and Little Village Lawndale High School. The Little Villlage Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO) is hosting a neighborhood discussion of 1) a new permit the company has applied for to expand their operations, 2) foul smells and potential environmental contamination arising from the manufacturing facility and 3) how to proceed as a community regarding the above two developments. Refreshments and Spanish interpretation provided. (Sarah Fineman)

#IAmCraftBeer: A Discussion on Diversity in Craft Beer Goose Island Brewhouse, 1800 North Clybourn Avenue, Monday, November 4, 2019, 6pm – 9pm. $15. http://bit.ly/diversityincraftbeer The Goose Island Brew Company invites you to join them for #IAmCraftBeer: A Discussion on Diversity in Craft Beer.

This event, moderated by Liz Garibay, beer historian and the founder of Chicago Brewseum, will be a discussion with industry experts on diversity in craft

¬ NOVEMBER 6, 2019

brewing. Panelists for the evening include: Andrés Araya of 5 Rabbit Cerveceria, Diana Rodriguez of Goose Island Beer Company, Jill Hopkins of Vocalo Radio, Lesley Roth of Englewood Brews, Michelle Foik of Eris Brewery and Ciderhouse and Mickey Bryant of Black and Brew Chicago among others. Ticket purchase includes light apps and a welcome drink. Proceeds will benefit the Illinois Fire Safety Alliance which is dedicated to fire safety, burn prevention, and supporting burn survivors. (AV Benford)

Windy City Harvest Tour of The Farm on Ogden The Farm on Ogden, 3555 W. Ogden Ave., Tuesday, November 12, 2019 , 3:00pm – 4:30pm. Free. http://bit.ly/tourogdenfarm

Windy City Harvest presents a tour of The Farm on Ogden. This multi-use facility supports and sustains a healthy urban community by bringing food, healthy resources, and jobs together in one location.

It is a partnership of the Chicago Botanic Garden and Lawndale Christian Health Center and is managed by Windy City Harvest. The Farm on Ogden includes a 50,000-gallon aquaponics system, a 7,300-square-foot greenhouse, distribution for Veggie Rx, a commercial kitchen and teaching kitchen, aggregation space for Windy City Harvest Farms, and a yearround indoor market. (AV Benford)

10a Feria del Tamal en Chicago Chicago Sports Complex - C.S.C, 2600 W 35th St. Sunday, November 10, 2019, 9am – 6pm. Free admission, Businesses interested in participating contact 708-369-8424 http:// bit.ly/tamalefair Celebrating 10 years, The Tamale Fair and the Atole returns to Chicago. This is a family friendly event with music for all tastes, a handmade tamale pavilion and games for children. (AV Benford)

George Washington Carver Black Farmer's Market Kennedy-King College, 6301 S Halsted St. Saturday, November 9, 2019, 9am– 2pm.

Fernwood Community Outreach Church presents George Washington Carver Black Farmer's Market. According to their facebook page, this Thanksgiving focused Black farmer’s market will feature the freshest of produce from Arkansas,

Mississippi, & Louisiana. Tender collards maybe? Fresh cabbage? Winter squash? Oh yeah. (AV Benford)

Openings PILSEN – Brew Brew Coffee and Tea This opening is really a reboot. Brew Brew Coffee and Tea originally opened in 2014.

Now, it has a new cream tone and pink look, bringing a decidedly baja inspired feel to this specialty coffee shop and cafe in Pilsen.

The owners, siblings Jazmin, Diana, and Christian Medranom, have reformatted the new menu to have an evolving Mexican-American flavor with the help of Jay Ruff of Tattooed Chef Consulting.

The siblings intend to pay homage to their heritage with a selection of Mexican drinks including cafe de olla, or Mexican spiced coffee with cinnamon and piloncillo (raw dark sugar), and will also offer dark Mexican hot chocolate and seasonal drinks. brewbrewcoffeeandtea.com 1641 W. 18th St. (AV Benford) SOUTH LOOP – Il Culaccino Il Culaccino is the fifth restaurant in the Ruffolo family portfolio. They are also the driving force behind Franco’s at the Fountain in Millennium Park, Franconello Italian Restaurant in Beverly, and Jam ‘n Honey in Lincoln Park/DePaul. So they should be able to provide a very welcome uplift to the surrounding food scene. Opening at the end of the summer (this past August), Il Culaccino gives McCormick Place convention-goers a much closer option then traversing further into downtown. The new restaurant includes a wine bar, a tree-covered patio, and Chicago Italian-American classics

Se solicita señora que pueda quedarse en casa que sepa cocinar, lavar, planchar, y limpiar.

Dias serian de lunes a sabado.

Para mas informacion, favor de llamar a Sra. Elena 773-676-0210

EVENTS

like chicken Vesuvio. Ownership hopes to install a retractable roof on the patio by fall. ilculaccino.com 2134 S. Indiana Avenue. (AV Benford)

Closings JEFFREY MANOR – OvaFlo Southern Style Cuisine According to multiple postings on their physical and Facebook walls, as of September 23, 2019, Seafood and soul food spot OvaFlo Southern Style Cuisine is transitioning to a strictly catering business model. They thanked everyone that supported their journey and left contact information. Creative menu offerings that I hope they keep include their catfish poor boy, and properly fried green tomatoes.

Contact 872.256.1198 or ova.flo@yahoo.com (AV Benford)

NATURE Southeast Side Seed Processing Trumbull Park Community Center, 2400 E. 105th St. Saturday, November 9, 9am–noon.

Free (includes free parking). gl.audubon.org Join Audubon Great Lakes and the Chicago Park District for some native seed processing! Now that the growing season is winding down, it’s time to sort the seeds that volunteers have diligently collected. Volunteers at this event will sort different types of seeds, preparing mixes of native seeds that will be ready to plant next spring. All ages and levels of experience are welcome, and complimentary snacks and apple cider will be provided. (Sam Joyce)

Aquaponics with Plant Chicago South Chicago Library, 9055 S. Houston Ave. Wednesday, November 13, 6pm–7pm. chipublib.org Aquaponics is the combination of aquaculture (raising fish) and hydroponics (growing plants without soil). At this workshop led by Plant Chicago, you’ll be able to learn more about the science behind aquaponics, as well as build your own aquaponics system. (Sam Joyce)

The Right to Be Cold Harold Washington Library, 400 S. State St. Thursday, November 14, 6pm–7:30pm.

chipublib.org Sheila Watt-Cloutier, a climate activist and the former Chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, will be speaking at the Harold Washington Library. Watt-Cloutier’s memoir, The Right to Be Cold, explores her life on the edge of climate change in the far north of Canada. Doors open at 5pm, and seating is first come, first serve. Copies of her book are available for purchase, and she will autograph books after her talk. (Sam Joyce)

ABUSED by CLERGY in CHICAGO?

Honeycomb Project: Palmisano Palmisano Park, 2700 S. Halsted St. Saturday, November 16, 10am–11:30am. thehoneycombproject.org The Honeycomb Project is a Chicago nonprofit that creates volunteer opportunities that parents and kids can do together. This week, they’re volunteering with the Nature Conservancy and Chicago Park District at Palmisano Park in Bridgeport, removing invasive species and cleaning up the park. Kids and adults will also have an opportunity to learn about Palmisano’s transformation from a quarry to a restored natural area. Potluck lunch will follow. (Sam Joyce)

Bohn Park Workday Bohn Park, 1966 W. 111th St. Monday, November 18, 10am–1pm. openlands.org Join Openlands’s Beverly TreeKeepers in mulching and pruning trees at Bohn Park.

Make sure to bring your gloves, a water bottle, and eye protection; bringing your own tools is helpful but not necessary.

Coffee and muffins included. (Sam Joyce)

Wooded Island Bird Walk

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Museum of Science and Industry East Parking Lot. Saturdays, 8am–11am. Free. Contact Pat Durkin for more: pat.durkin@comcast.net. bit. ly/JPBirdWalk Join the Chicago Audubon Society for a bird walk through Jackson Park. Learn how to identify birds, while observing birds as they build their nests and raise their chicks.

You do not need to be a member of Chicago Audubon to participate. Walks are held weekly through December. (Sam Joyce)

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NOVEMBER 6, 2019 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 27

Tickets On Sale Now Get Tickets: chicagohumanities.org A LIMITED NUMBER OF FREE TICKETS FOR NEIGHBORHOOOD RESIDENTS ARE AVAILABLE WITH CODE NEIGHBORHOODS2019

THE CHICAGO COMMUNITY TRUST NEIGHBORHOOD NIGHT:

BRONZEVILLE

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8

Explore the power of the Black press, the complexities of race, and movements for gender equity.

7:30PM

SUPERMAJORITY Cecile Richards, former president of Planned Parenthood; Alicia Garza, co-founder of the Black Lives Matter Global Network; and Ai-jen Poo, director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance—have come together to found Supermajority, a new home for women’s activism and a community for people of all backgrounds, races, and ages who want to fight to make sure everyone is treated equally, no matter their gender. They will join Chicago Sun-Times columnist Laura Washington to discuss their motivation in creating Supermajority, and lay out their plan for creating gender equity.

6:00PM

6:00PM

THE LEGACY OF THE CHICAGO DEFENDER

SHORTLIST EXCLUSIVE:

The legendary Black newspaper has played a crucial role in the lives of many Black Americans over its more than 114 year history. Join former Managing Editor of the Chicago Defender Mary Datcher and Chicago Tonight correspondent Brandis Friedman for a discussion on the power of the Black press, and the future of the paper’s legacy.

TRADING RACES

Trading Races is Chicago artist Kenyatta Forbes’ incisive and playful card game. With each ensuing hand, players dig deeper into the dynamics and complexities of race—Blackness in particular. Forbes will discuss how she created the game--and facilitate a few rounds. Come prepared to play cards, have fun, and participate in difficult but important conversations.