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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 6, Issue 28 Editor-in-Chief Adam Przybyl Managing Editors Emeline Posner, Sam Stecklow Deputy Editor Jasmine Mithani Senior Editors Julia Aizuss, Christian Belanger, Mari Cohen, Bridget Newsham, Olivia Stovicek Chief of Staff
Manisha AR
Education Editor Music Editor Stage & Screen Editor Visual Arts Editor Food & Land Editor
Rachel Kim Christopher Good Nicole Bond Rod Sawyer Emeline Posner
Contributing Editors Mira Chauhan, Joshua Falk, Carly Graf, Ian Hodgson, Maple Joy, Sam Joyce, Ashvini Kartik-Narayan, Rachel Schastok Amy Qin, Jocelyn Vega Staff Writer Kyle Oleksiuk Data Editor Jasmine Mithani Radio Exec. Producer Erisa Apantaku Social Media Editors Bridget Newsham, Sam Stecklow
IN CHICAGO
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
IN THIS ISSUE
A Sad Farewell
your power in city government depends
Last week, the Weekly heard a rumor too horrible to be true: Homestyle Taste, the Bridgeport northern Chinese restaurant beloved by Weekly editors and everyone else who entered its doors, was closing imminently. At first, we didn’t know what to believe; a call to the restaurant provided little information, and all we had were rumors from the (usually reliable) neighborhood rumor mill that is Jackalope Coffee & Tea House. By Sunday, the rumor had been confirmed by a sign in the window: Homestyle Taste is closed, with no plans (that we can find) to reopen. The rumor mill provided the explanation of a rapidly rising rent, which we were unable to confirm, so let us leave rumors aside here, and remember Homestyle Taste for what it was: one of the best restaurants in the city. Its varied offerings, mostly from the northern dongbei region of China, offered creature comforts and regional specialties with identical aplomb; its Kung Pao Chicken, for instance, elevated a familiar Americanized dish to new heights, while its iron hot pot or cold noodle offerings catered to curious palettes and homesick dongbei expats alike. It is difficult to run a small business like a restaurant in Chicago, and it’s disheartening to see one as beloved (just check the Bridgeport neighborhood Facebook page) as Homestyle Taste fall victim to something as seemingly arbitrary as rent. As the Weekly wrote in its 2014 Best of the South Side entry for Homestyle Taste, “it lives up to the near and dear sensibilities that its name invokes.” It will be missed.
“Structure makes the mayor weak, politics make the mayor strong.” mari cohen, city bureau..................4
on these lori lightfoot appointees
tying the green new deal to environmental justice on the south side
Sunrise Movement and local environmental justice organizers explore how the Green New Deal could help South Side communities. rebecca stoner.................................6 local businesses cash in on black chicago festivals but won’t back them
The Silver Room and the Chosen Few DJs talk logistics, cost, and reciprocity. the triibe team................................8 remembering labor’s history
The Pullman National Monument Preservation Society leads an educational tour about the 1894 Pullman Strike. helena duncan................................10
Director of Fact Checking: Sam Joyce Fact Checkers: Abigail Bazin, Susan Chun, Elizabeth Winkler, Tammy Xu Visuals Editor Ellen Hao Deputy Visuals Editors Siena Fite, Mell Montezuma Lizzie Smith Staff Photographers: milo bosh, Jason Schumer Staff Illustrators: Siena Fite, Natalie Gonzalez, Katherine Hill Interim Layout Editor J. Michael Eugenio Deputy Layout Editor Haley Tweedell Webmaster Managing Director
Pat Sier Jason Schumer
The Weekly is produced by an all-volunteer editorial staff and seeks contributions from across the city. We distribute each Wednesday in the fall, winter, and spring. Over the summer we publish every other week. Send submissions, story ideas, comments, or questions to editor@southsideweekly.com or mail to: South Side Weekly 6100 S. Blackstone Ave. Chicago, IL 60637 For advertising inquiries, contact: (773) 234-5388 or advertising@southsideweekly.com
Cover illustration by Ellen Hao
OUR WEBSITE S ON SOUTHSIDEWEEKLY.COM SSW Radio soundcloud.com/south-side-weekly-radio Email Edition southsideweekly.com/email Support the Weekly southsideweekly.com/donate Join the Weekly southsideweekly.com/contribute MAY 29, 2019 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 3
POLITICS
Your Power in City Government Depends on These Lori Lightfoot Appointees BY MARI COHEN
O
n May 20, Lori Lightfoot was the first Black woman to be sworn in as Chicago’s mayor, and, for the first time in eight years, someone other than Rahm Emanuel holds the city’s executive seat. Much of what Lightfoot will be able to do in that seat will be determined in a key City Council meeting that’s planned for May 29—the day this issue hits newsstands. That’s when the new City Council sets the rules of order and approves committee appointments that will last for their fouryear terms. The mayor’s official duties, as set out by the City Clerk, include presiding over City Council meetings; submitting legislative proposals and recommendations to the City Council; submitting the city’s annual budget; appointing people to various city positions, including department commissioners, officers, and members of boards and commissions; vetoing legislation; and casting tie-breaking votes in City Council. In terms of official structure, Chicago is considered a “weak mayor” city when compared to other cities, said Larry Bennett, emeritus professor of political science at DePaul University. That’s because the City Council has certain powers, including voting on the budget that Chicago is required to pass each year and approving certain administrative appointments, that it can use as leverage against the mayor. But despite what’s on paper, Chicago mayors have historically exercised significant authority in practice by working the political system. “Structure makes the mayor weak, politics make the mayor strong,” said Bennett.
4 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY
¬ MAY 29, 2019
POLITICIANS’ BALANCE OF POWER
U
nder the strongman administrations of Richard J. Daley, Richard M. Daley and Emanuel, the mayor controlled the content of the resolution laying out the Council’s structure, according to Dick Simpson, a former alderman and University of Illinois Chicago professor of political science. (Simpson endorsed Lightfoot in the mayoral battle.) This includes appointments of members and chairmen to the City Council’s sixteen standing committees on various topics, where legislation is referred after it’s introduced. These chairmanships are attractive to aldermen because they come with funding to hire committee staff, who sometimes also work on an alderman's ward-specific matters unrelated to committee activities. This allows mayors to cut deals with aldermen in return for giving them prestigious appointments. Noah Moskowitz, a community organizer on housing issues for progressive group ONE Northside, said Emanuel’s significant power made it hard to advocate for ONE Northside’s issues on the City Council, since Emanuel usually opposed the group’s agenda. In one specific example, Joe Moore—the recently ousted longtime 49th Ward alderman—initially cosponsored the Keeping the Promise ordinance, a plan to better hold the Chicago Housing Authority accountable to using its surplus funds for building more public housing; the plan was supported by ONE Northside and other housing advocates. But once Emanuel appointed Moore as chair of the Housing and Real Estate Committee in 2015, Moore switched to opposing the bill, holding up its progress. Furthermore, while aldermen and
“Structure makes the mayor weak, politics make the mayor strong.” the mayor have the power to introduce legislation, a ProPublica Illinois analysis earlier this year found that, under Emanuel, aldermen overwhelmingly tended to introduce legislation only related to issues in their own wards, such as building permits or parking meter hours. The mayor, meanwhile, introduced the majority of citywide legislation. Moskowitz said his group is now feeling “optimistic” with a new mayor in office who has pledged to increase affordable housing, including through amending the city’s Affordability Requirements Ordinance. The Sun-Times reported last week on Lightfoot’s choices for committee chairmen and other council positions, including Progressive Caucus Chair Scott Waguespack to lead the finance committee and Gilbert Villegas as floor leader. She needs twentysix votes to pass the legislation. Because Lightfoot campaigned as a political outsider angling to disrupt what she described as the corrupt status quo, she might have some more trouble wrangling the City Council than mayors past. Veteran aldermen who lost committee leader slots, like Anthony Beale, have previously threatened to rally votes to organize their own committee structure if Lightfoot elevates outsiders like Waguespack. Lightfoot’s clashes with the old guard of the City Council illustrate a particular irony: She campaigned on the promise to usher in a different type of government than her predecessors, but to get anything done, she may have to act like them. “One of the problems with city
government was that the mayor dominated the City Council,” said Bennett, the DePaul political science professor. “We have a new mayor coming in attempting to restructure the city order, and in order to do that she has to behave like a power political figure.” The last time that City Council members defied the mayor and organized themselves was during the Council Wars of the 1980s, when a group of twenty-nine aldermen opposed to the administration of Harold Washington, the city’s first Black mayor. According to Bennett, Washington’s administration is the only time in recent history when the City Council used its full power, including threatening to block budgets and appointments, to push back against the mayor. “My general sense is that neither the aldermen, the mayor or the city have the appetite to go through that again,” said Simpson. HOW YOUR VOICE IS HEARD IN GOVERNMENT
B
eyond what happens with the Council, Lightfoot will have opportunities to appoint members to over one hundred city boards and commissions, from the Animal Care and Control Commission to the Board of Education to the Zoning Board of Appeals. She’ll also be able to fire or hire heads of city departments like the Chicago Police Department, Chicago Park District, and Chicago Public Schools. In some cases, the municipal code or relevant state law doesn’t give the mayor explicit
power over appointing a new head and requires approval of the relevant city board or the City Council. But since the mayor appoints people to the boards, the mayor has a lot of power over who is chosen and who is terminated. The leader of each board and commission can set the tone for how the public can interact with policies under consideration or influence decisions. For example, Steve Berlin, executive director of the Chicago Board of Ethics encourages residents to attend meetings, posts documents on Twitter for public discussion and enforces transparency rules. Other leaders have been known to cut public comment time short, neglect to post meeting agendas and minutes and hold meetings without a quorum. While some agency and department heads will undoubtedly change under Lightfoot, others may stay on. “There is not a tradition of moving everybody out when a new administration comes in,” said Bennett. But, he adds, “We haven’t had many changes in administration.” So far, Lightfoot has announced she plans to keep several of Emanuel’s agency heads, including his police superintendent, Chicago Public Schools CEO, Chicago Housing Authority CEO, and Park District commissioner. Commissioners serve set terms as laid out in the city’s municipal code, and the mayor can reappoint or replace them when the term is up. Some positions require City Council approval. Some Emanuel appointments have expiration dates in late 2023 or 2024 beyond Lightfoot’s first term, but many will expire during her tenure. At the end of May, for example, all eleven members of the Community Development Advisory Committee will see their terms expire. Yet even when terms haven’t yet expired, mayors can often exert their influence to get board members to step down, paving the way for new appointees. On Wednesday, the seven members of the Board of Education announced they would resign, even though three of them have terms that don’t expire until 2022. Lightfoot has pushed for at least a partially elected school board, but until state law makes that a reality, she’ll have the power to appoint the board’s new members. Richard J. Daley exerted control over his appointed commissioners—usually people with Democratic Party positions or civic notables—by marshaling the power of the political machine in its heyday. “If it was one of these people was part of the Democratic organization, if he or she ran afoul of mayor Daley they were going to
suffer some consequences, cuts to spending in their ward, something like that. Or if it was one of these civic figures, these people didn’t have much capacity to push back against Daley,” Bennett said. Now that the city no longer operates as a machine akin to Daley’s, mayors have to use different tools to keep officials in line. “People who got appointed to those boards, they might get an angry phone call from Rahm Emanuel, but he couldn’t really pull the rug out from under them,” Bennett said. “It’s a subtle shift from authoritarian to something that’s more like strong influence and persuasion.” POLICIES THAT AFFECT YOU
T
he board members appointed by the mayor have significant power to shape city policy. For example, last year, the Board of Education approved the closing of four Englewood high schools amid significant opposition from Englewood activists and the Chicago Teachers Union. The plan was created and modified by CPS staff (also headed by a mayor-appointed CEO), but required ultimate approval by the board. Emanuel’s appointed Board of Education also approved his 2013 plan to close fifty neighborhood schools. In addition to voting on school closings, the Board of Education has a number of other powers granted by state law, including setting the district’s budget, purchasing and selling school buildings, approving collective bargaining agreements with district employees, issuing bonds, and much more. The Police Board, on the other hand, has a narrower range of duties, but is still powerful when it comes to Chicago police accountability. The board’s main responsibility is deciding disciplinary cases when the police superintendent proposes firing an officer or suspending an officer for more than a month. The Emanuel-appointed board is currently considering disciplinary charges against four officers involved in the alleged cover-up of the Laquan McDonald shooting. (Lightfoot herself is a former police board president.) In August 2019, three board members’ terms will expire, and Lightfoot can make appointments. The Police Board is also responsible for selecting new police superintendent candidates for the mayor to pick from. But in practice, there’s latitude for the mayor to bend these rules. In 2016, after firing Garry McCarthy, Emanuel chose to reject the Police Board’s options and pick his own
candidate, Eddie Johnson. He got it done by having the City Council vote to temporarily change the rules governing the police superintendent selection process. After he announced he would not run for another term, Emanuel came under fire for enshrining “golden parachutes”— or generous severance payouts if they are fired—in the contracts of several of his agency chiefs. This means that if Lightfoot chooses to fire and replace the City Colleges chancellor, Chicago Housing Authority CEO or Chicago Public Schools CEO, it could be costly to the city, which would be liable for giving the departed officials six months to a year’s pay under their contracts, as the Sun-Times reported in January. One read on Emanuel’s maneuver is that it’s a way to keep the outgoing mayor’s appointees in power even after he’s left office, said Simpson, the former alderman. That strategy, however, isn’t failureproof: Michael P. Kelly, the Park District commissioner Emanuel appointed in 2011, started his tenure without a contract. When the Park District board ultimately drew one up for Kelly that included a “golden parachute” provision in the months before Emanuel left office, it reportedly drew the mayor’s ire for not clearing it with him in
advance, according to the Sun-Times. The Park District board and Kelly ultimately decided to terminate the contract. Although the Chicago Democratic machine’s old way of organizing people to create “a fair degree of unanimity” is mostly gone, Bennett said, Lightfoot’s administration will still contend with the residual influences from decades of strongmayor rule. “The degree to which City Council members have tended to accede to mayors is definitely a byproduct of an old method,” Bennett said. “But what Lori Lightfoot is dealing [with] is much more fluid.” ¬ Originally Published Documenters.org
for
City
Bureau’s
City Bureau is a nonprofit civic journalism lab based on the South Side of Chicago. Mari Cohen is the Weekly’s workshop manager and a senior editor. She last covered the aldermanic elections in Englewood for the Weekly.
MAY 29, 2019 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 5
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
Tying the Green New Deal to Environmental Justice on the South Side At a meeting in Brighton Park, the growing youth-led national Sunrise Movement made a case to local organizers
BY REBECCA STONER
I
n 2018, a report from the International Panel on Climate Change warned that averting catastrophic climate change would require “rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.” This February, Alexandria OcasioCortez (D-NY) and Ed Markey (D-MA) introduced into Congress the Green New Deal, a bold proposal to slash emissions to net zero by 2030, keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), guarantee a job for every American, and “counteract systemic injustices” by ensuring all Americans have access to clean water, air, and healthy food. One of the Green New Deal’s primary backers has been the Sunrise Movement, a youth-led climate action group. On April 27, Sunrise hosted its first Green New Deal Town Hall in Chicago at the Brighton Park Library. The group also hosted a city-wide town hall on May 18. These are just two of the 100 town halls Sunrise plans to host across the country. Each is a chance for them to demonstrate that a Green New Deal won’t just benefit the world in 2030 or 2050—it can address the environmental and economic challenges communities are facing now. The recent town hall in Brighton Park focused on environmental issues on the Southwest Side and how a Green New Deal might address them. “Why should a Latino from Little Village care about the Green New Deal?” asked panelist Jose Luis Torrez, a City Colleges student advisor who recently made 6 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY
¬ MAY 29, 2019
an unsuccessful bid for 14th Ward alderman. Torrez answered the question indirectly, talking about how his environmental consciousness had been awakened by his brother’s struggles with severe asthma. Torrez attributed his brother’s respiratory issues to growing up in proximity to the former Crawford Power Generating Station in Little Village. “We almost lost him several times,” Torrez said. “What’s killing us are all the things we can’t see.” Coal-fired power plants like Crawford release pollutants that contribute to asthmatriggering smog. They are heavy emitters of lead, arsenic, mercury, and other pollutants that can damage the nervous and respiratory systems, and even cause cancer. Crawford and Fisk Generating Station, the other South Side coal-fired power plant, closed in 2012 after declining to upgrade their plants to meet federal air quality standards. South and West Side residents all too often lack access to the clean air, water, and healthy food the Green New Deal promises. According to a 2018 map created by the Natural Resources Defense Council, communities on Chicago’s South and West Sides face disproportionately high levels of environmental exposure. After Sunrise representatives Paul Campion and Alex Westrich outlined the Green New Deal and the current state of climate politics, the six panelists delved into environmental hazards Southwest Side activists are battling, including lead service lines that taint drinking water and
the McKinley Park MAT asphalt plant, which, activist Cristina Martinez argues, exposes residents to toxic air pollution. Some panelists, like Martinez, called upon the audience to support environmental justice initiatives already underway. She is a member of Neighbors for Environmental Justice, a group that has opposed the asphalt plant since McKinley Park residents learned of its existence. Others talked about new policies or programs that could address systemwide environmental justice issues. “We need a $1.3 billion jobs program to eliminate lead and poverty in Chicago,” said union organizer and community activist Pete DeMay, who recently lost a campaign for 12th Ward alderman. He proposed leveraging EPA funding to create jobs replacing the 400,000 lead service lines that transport water from the water main into homes. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there is no safe level of lead exposure, which can negatively impact children's’ neurological
ELLEN HAO
development. Panelists focused less on climate change and more on the immediate health impacts of industry on residents. Torrez, for example, didn’t mention that coal power plants are responsible for eighty-one percent of the electricity industry’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to ToxTown, a project
HOUSING
of the US National Library of Medicine. The audience seemed more energized by local issues than national-level ones: DeMay elicited more hisses and boos by talking about “TIF gravy” and the controversial Lincoln Yards development than Campion did by mentioning the Koch Brothers, who use their fossil-fuel fortune to stifle action on climate change. (It’s worth noting, however, that a firm owned by the Koch brothers came under fire for storing petroleum coke, an oil refinery byproduct linked to heart and lung disease, on the Southeast Side, and closed down in 2015.) But some members of the forty-person audience already had ideas about what the Green New Deal could bring to the South Side. When the panel broke for a discussion on the question, the crowd, which trended slightly younger and whiter than a random sampling of Chicagoans, buzzed with ideas. Sarah, who asked that her last name and neighborhood be kept private, said that “empowerment, autonomy, and access” would follow community control of renewable energy sources. “Historically, that’s something working-class people have been shut out of.” For decades, the environmental movement has faced a divide between the Big Greens—larger, better-funded organizations staffed mostly by white college-educated professionals—and local environmental justice groups staffed by and serving what are known as “frontline communities”: low-income communities of color disproportionately burdened by pollution and climate change. The split was evident in the debate that arose when Mayor Emanuel announced Chicago would be joining the Sierra Club’s Ready for 100 campaign, where cities pledge to transition to one hundred percent renewable energy. Campion testified in favor of the plan, and the Sunrise Movement in Chicago celebrated its passage. But a coalition of South and West Side environmental justice groups criticized Ready for 100. “Our communities have time and time again seen the city of Chicago use high-level resolutions as a tactic to avoid addressing equity, public health and environmental impacts in Chicago’s neighborhoods, and the announcement follows this pattern,” they told WTTW. The audience at the town hall reflected a mix of constituencies: people who work in solar, people who work in film, members of the Democratic Socialists of America, parents of young kids, and a delegation from
panelist Jackson Potter’s social studies class at Back of the Yards High School. No one in the crowd needed the Spanish translator’s services, suggesting that Sunrise still has more work to do to connect with Latinx communities on the South Side. Alex Westrich, the event’s organizer, says that she sees Sunrise as “bridging the gap” between the two approaches to environmental activism. Westrich, a white, college-educated Brighton Park resident, says she organized the event to “elevate the voices of my neighbors and other community members who have done so much” to address environmental injustice. “The Sunrise Movement places environmental and climate justice front and center in their campaign,” Westrich says. “Everyone is in this fight together. Everyone has a story to tell, and we want to hear everyone’s stories, especially people who have been disadvantaged and disenfranchised. The more we hear those stories, the more we as a society are going to be motivated to do something about it.” Sunrise organizers hoped the town hall would be a point of entry for new members. At the event’s end, attendees were urged to support Sunrise’s work along with opposition to local polluters. They received a list of upcoming events to turn out for: a climate strike, the city-wide Green New Deal Town Hall on May 18, and a hearing for the MAT Asphalt Plant’s five-year operating permit. Campion asked the audience to think about the organizations—churches, schools, and workplaces—they already belonged to. Still a student himself, at Loyola University, he assigned some homework: “Could you get them to sign on to a Green New Deal?” ¬ Rebecca Stoner last wrote for the Weekly about Bridgeport’s new Starbucks.
MAY 29, 2019 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 7
MUSIC
Local businesses cash in on Black Chicago festivals but won’t back them
MORGAN ELISE JOHNSON, THE TRIIBE
The Silver Room and the Chosen Few DJs talk logistics, cost, and reciprocity BY THE TRIIBE TEAM
I
t costs real money to throw events. There’s really no way around that, according to members of The Silver Room and the Chosen Few DJs. On Thursday at The Promontory in Hyde Park, both groups talked openly and candidly about the incredible amounts of time, labor, love and money it takes to host two of the biggest Black Chicago parties of the year. This July 6 marks the twenty-ninth anniversary of the Chosen Few Picnic & Festival, which originally started as an intimate family reunion behind the Museum of Science and Industry. Today, the house music picnic brings about 40,000 people to the South Side’s Jackson Park, according to Block Club Chi. The Silver Room Sound System Block Party is celebrating its sixteenth year on July 20. The party got its start in Wicker Park near The Silver Room’s first location at 1442 N. Milwaukee Ave. When owner Eric Williams moved The Silver Room jewelry and apparel shop to 1506 E 53rd St. in Hyde Park, the block party moved with it. Both events have generated four million dollars in revenue since their starts, 8 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY
¬ MAY 29, 2019
according to Lumpen radio personality Mario Smith, who moderated Thursday’s conversation. Williams doesn’t see any of that money. The Silver Room Block Party is free, and most attendees spend their money at vendors inside of the party or at surrounding businesses. Though, when Williams asks local businesses for donations and support, the answer usually is “No.” “I remember at the old Block Party [in Wicker Park], 7-Eleven would have a line out the door,” Williams said Thursday. “They made tens of thousands of dollars. I asked them to give me $300 or $400. They said, ‘No. Go get sponsors.’ It ain’t that easy.” One challenge for the Chosen Few DJs is getting people to understand the reason behind their ticket prices. When the house picnic was behind the Museum of Science and Industry, it was free. Once more people started showing up, and they had to move to Jackson Park, expenses increased exponentially. They had to charge attendees for entry. “We have to set up a fence around that entire park where we have the Chosen Few picnic,” said Alan King, one of Chicago’s
original house music djs. “Just to put up the fence, before you think about putting anything inside of that fence, is $20,000. Our expenses annually are hundreds of thousands of dollars.” Thursday’s event served as a kickoff to both group’s July events, and a fundraiser for a new scholarship they’re launching at Kenwood Academy High School. The scholarship is their way of continuing the legacy and traditions of house music and Black culture in Chicago. Read Thursday’s conversation below. On the costs of throwing the Silver Room Sound System Block Party and Chosen Few Picnic & Festival: Wayne Williams (Chosen Few DJs): If you have a House party, and you invited twenty people, and 2,000 come to your party, you gon have to buy some more food. You gotta get more bathrooms. You gotta get more food. You gotta get security, and more sound [speakers]. It was free when it was fifty people and 100 people and 250 people [attending the picnic]. But 20,000 people? C’mon now.
Alan King (Chosen Few DJs): I can sit here and go through all the expenses: security, permits and insurance. It’s hundreds and hundreds of bathrooms, and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of tents. [There is] a VIP area with a huge viewing stand that gets constructed and air-conditioned tents and a caterer and food. We have to set up a fence around that entire park where we have the Chosen Few picnic. Just to put up the fence, before you think about putting anything inside of that fence, is $20,000. Our expenses annually are hundreds of thousands of dollars. Eric Williams (The Silver Room): The first year we did it, it probably cost me $800. We had extension cords from the house. Our generator costs tens of thousands of dollars now. It went from zero dollars to a whole bunch. Security was my boy. Security now is thirty or forty dollars an hour [per security guard]. Stages are a whole bunch of money. So the cost is hundreds of thousands of dollars. We technically can’t charge because we’re on the city street. I remember at the old Block Party [in Wicker Park], 7-Eleven would have a line out the door. They made tens of thousands of dollars. I asked them
MUSIC
“That one 7-Eleven on the corner made more money in one day than any other 7-Eleven in the region. Why couldn’t they donate $500?” to give me $300 or $400. They said, “No. Go get sponsors.” It ain’t that easy. People always say that. Ron Trent (The Silver Room): We’ve talked about this for years: the spirit of reciprocity. I don’t understand how you expect anything to grow without putting it back into your own community. I don’t get it. This idea of everything being free is actually what’s destroying our scene. It was an exclusive thing when we were going to underground parties in the 80s. You had to hear about it, but you also had to pay money to keep the lights on [and] to keep things so that it can be an enjoyable experience for you. So why would you expect it to be anything else now? But that’s the problem with our people. We don’t put back into our communities. We want everything for free but we don’t wanna put no energy back into our communities. We sat up and tried to figure out ways to get some of the neighborhood restaurants and things of that nature [to give] us a little money for all the people that we’re bringing into the neighborhood. They won’t even do it, but they make thousands upon thousands of dollars. That’s greed. Terry Hunter (Chosen Few DJs): I swear to you I would never ever forget this. I had a connection with a major credit card company. I’m not going to say the name. We sent them the very beginnings of the sponsorship deck, and they wanted in. Once I sent them the [actual] deck, they looked at us and said, “We can’t put anything into this. We can’t put any money in this.” And I was, like, “Why not?” They was, like, “First of all, your price point is too low. Probably one percent of your crowd uses our credit card.” And I’m, like, “That’s the reason you should be trying to sponsor this.” They was, like, “No, because I don’t think they really can afford the card.” Our cover at that time, I think, was still twenty dollars. They was, like, “We sponsor events that’s $100 or more.” Mario Smith (Lumpen Radio personality): I want to speak to one thing really quickly about 7-Eleven. This is the honest to God truth. For the one day, in Wicker Park, when the Silver Room Block Party was being held, that one 7-Eleven on
the corner made more money in one day than any other 7-Eleven in the region. We’re talking about the Midwest. Why couldn’t they [donate] $500 when they were making tens of thousands of dollars from noon ‘till whenever people left? That speaks more to them than it does to us. On when planning begins for the Silver Room Sound System Block Park and the Chosen Few Picnic & Festival: Alan King (Chosen Few DJs): I would say after we sleep for about two days. We always have a recap right after and we’re planning for the next year immediately. We’re thinking about things that went well [and] things that didn’t go well. Early in the year, January-ish, we’re meeting with the park district, police district, fire department [and] all the constituents that are there. Another thing a lot of people don’t see is [that] our event is on Saturday but if you go out to the space starting the Monday before, there are tons of people working full-time to set up that infrastructure and get that event ready for you all to stroll in on Saturday with or without a good attitude. We are paying a lot of money in labor for days and days and days. Eric Williams (The Silver Room): I try to take a little break. I start thinking about it in August or September. It really starts gearing up and ramping up on January 1 with weekly meetings and planning stuff out and trying to secure equipment because it’s festival season. You gotta get the stuff early because the cost will go up. On their biggest accomplishments:
mistakes
and
Eric Williams (The Silver Room): I honestly can’t say there’s been any huge mistakes that I can really think of. Let’s knock on some wood. I have two favorite times [of that day at the Block Party]. One is the 2pm to 3pm. People are jumping rope. The kids are there. It’s not so crowded. The second part of the day is when Ron [Trent] starts playing [his dj set]. I can stand on stage and watch everybody else have a good
time. I think the biggest accomplishment is just the fact that we’re doing it. [It’s been] sixteen years. Alan King (Chosen Few DJs): It’s certainly the twenty-nine years [of doing the picnic]. When this thing got to a certain point, it was almost out of our control. We had been financing it out of our own pockets. That way wasn’t ‘gon continue to work. We really had a decision to make at a certain point about ten years ago. Do we just pack it in and say it was a good run, or do these kids from the South Side figure out how the hell do we put on a world class music festival? And we decided we ‘gon try to figure out how to put on a world class music festival. I think that’s what we do. That’s what I’m proud of. Terry Hunter (Chosen Few DJs):
There’s two things that I’m proud of. One is that the event is being recognized across the world. I love the fact that we can go to other countries and people say, “We gotta come to Chosen Few.” That lets me know that we’re doing a good job. The second one is every year, January or February, everybody goes online and starts talking crazy about the Chosen Few Picnic. [They] get pissed off at us from the price to what djs we hire to what music we play. They talk so bad about us, and I love to see it because them the first ones in line every year. I love it. Wayne Williams (Chosen Few DJs): For me, I have to say it’s the people. We have a lot of people that come in from out of town. Chicago’s been getting such a bad rap on the news and in the media with the crime. I mean, we have crime, but you would
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LABOR
think it is the most dangerous city in the entire planet, right? When the people come from out of town, they say that the people of Chicago—which I know, and I love—are the most kindest and nicest. They’re giving them food and drinks. They help them with hotel rooms. For me, that’s amazing because I know this about our people. Rob McKay (The Silver Room): I come from a background of stage production and tour production. I worked with the very first Lollapalooza. I’ve done stuff with [rock band] U2. But at the end of the day, when those events are over, people go [home]. At the Block Part, there’s ownership. That’s the proudest moment for the people to have ownership in it. They kind of police what’s going on. You’d be hard pressed to try to set something off during the Block Party because everybody will turn to them and say, “You gon get your ass beat. This is something for everybody. You can’t come in and do that.” So, the ownership of the community is the highlight for me. Ron Trent (The Silver Room): It’s a beautiful thing to have been able to program and bring world-class talent to the streets of our city. That’s powerful. I don’t think you really realize how powerful that is. What it’s done is help to broaden our scope [and] set a bar for kids of excellence. I’m proud of that. But I think some of our hardest work is in front of us, too. It’s one thing to get there. It’s another thing to stay there. I’m going to keep going back to this. We really need your support, and we need people to be accountable for what they’re getting. Because, once again, free has been a problem. Free is not free. You have no idea what kind of stuff goes on behind the scenes [and] the arguments we’ve had. Eric is my brother. I love him. I’m, like, “Hey, man. How are we going to keep doing this?” So please, when you’re talking to people, and they see all this beautiful stuff going on, let them know [that] it’s a lot of hard work going on behind the scenes. ¬
LORRAINE BROCHU
Remembering Labor’s History
Commemorating the Pullman Strike on its 125th anniversary BY HELENA DUNCAN
This piece was originally published by The Triibe on May 17. Reprinted with permission. Visit www.thetriibe.com to read more stories like this. 10 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY
¬ MAY 29, 2019
O
n an overcast Saturday afternoon, more than thirty people gathered at the old Pullman Livery Stables on 112th and Cottage Grove and pinned small white ribbons to their raincoats. 125 years ago, Pullman residents—and people across the country—wore similar ribbons to show their support for the workers of the Pullman
Palace Car Company, who laid down their tools and walked off the job on May 11, 1894. To commemorate the anniversary of the Great Pullman Strike of 1894, the Pullman National Monument Preservation Society (PNMPS) hosted their first strikefocused tour of the neighborhood. The tour
aimed at providing a “short, broad-stroked history of the strike” from the perspective of the workers who lived and organized in Pullman, according to PNMPS member and lifelong Pullman resident Paul Petraitis, who led the tour alongside PNMPS President Mark Cassello. Those gathered for the tour included Pullman residents,
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“So the girls in Roseland tried to sneak into the laundry over there as scabs and some of the starving wives in Pullman caught ’em here,” Petraitis explained. The Pullman women were, to put it mildly, not pleased. LORRAINE BROCHU
teachers, students, and history buffs from across the South Side. The PNMPS is a group of self-described “watchdogs” that formed in 2015 to ensure that the National Parks Service’s stewardship of the Pullman National Monument— established by President Barack Obama the same year—lived up to its goal of preserving and authentically restoring what was once the Town of Pullman. From 1880 to 1907, this 4,000-acre “model town” was controlled by the Pullman Palace Car Company, which for most of its existence was synonymous with its president, George Pullman. At the turn of the twentieth century, Pullman’s luxury railcars led to his becoming the largest manufacturing company in the world. Most of the company’s workers lived in the town, paying rent and utilities to the company; there were no elections for town leaders, and even the schools were run by the company. This was Pullman’s paternalism: he provided his workers with good housing in an idyllic town, hoping that a happy laborer would also be a more productive one. In the wake of the panic of 1893, a recession that reduced demand for the luxury railcars the company manufactured, Pullman drastically cut his workers’ wages without reducing rent. Workers could no longer afford to feed their families. After failed attempts to negotiate with the company for higher wages or lower rents, and after several workers were fired for expressing their grievances despite being assured there would be no retaliation, Pullman workers
walked out. In the coming weeks they were joined by a quarter-million railway workers across the country. Workers overturned and burned boxcars and caused millions of dollars in property damage. The federal government obtained an injunction calling for an end to the strike, citing obstruction of mail and interstate commerce, and President Grover Cleveland deployed the National Guard to Pullman to enforce it.
C
assello and Petraitis led our group from the stables to our first stop: the once-bustling Hotel Florence, a stately brick building with green and red detailing. It was too expensive for the average worker to drink there, Petraitis said, and besides, Pullman didn’t want his workers getting drunk—in fact, he deliberately kept taverns and liquor stores out of Pullman Town. As we approached the hotel’s porch, we saw a woman gardening in a small plot on the hotel’s lawn, the same place where the National Guard had camped during their deployment. We took turns peering through a window into the building’s dusty, empty lobby—the hotel is now owned by the state and is undergoing a lengthy and pricy restoration—then filed down the steps and back onto the street. “We lost a bit of historic sidewalk here just last month,” Petraitis noted sadly as we left the hotel, explaining that the city had installed some new sidewalk that “we didn’t ask for.” “You gotta be ever-vigilant,” he warned. We crossed the street to the main gate
of the factory, which will become the home of the Pullman National Monument visitor information center next year. We were invited to stand and imagine what it would have been like to see workers streaming through the factory gates, the crowds growing larger as word of the strike spread. Through the chain-link fence that now surrounded the building, visitors could see the old factory building, as well as the yards where completed train cars were once lined up for viewing like a car showroom. Gripping pages of notes and lugging a speaker behind him, Petraitis apologized to the cars we held up as we crossed the street— “Excuse us please, we’re remembering history here. This is public education”—and made our way across quiet, leafy Pullman, heading toward the famous rowhouses that Pullman built for his workers. Rain began to fall as we stopped at our first house, 11302 S. Champlain Ave, once home to an unfortunate man named Buckley Wood. Wood was a factory watchman who made the mistake of asking a worker for his company pass. (Workers were required to present passes in order to remove their tools from the shops at the end of the workday.) The worker attacked Wood with a hatchet, leaving him debilitated. When he died the following year, his family could not pay rent. The Pullman Company attempted to evict them, though the family and the company eventually negotiated an agreement that allowed them to stay. Just a few houses down at 11310 S. Champlain was the home of Jennie Curtiss,
a seamstress and union leader. Cassello played an audio recording of an actor reading Curtiss’ testimony to the Strike Commission, in which she described the pay cuts and “tyrannical and abusive forewomen” in the sewing shops, where women toiled away creating mattresses, sheets, pillowcases, and other linens for the palace cars’ sleepers and dining rooms. After failing to negotiate higher pay or lower rent for her fellow workers, she joined the American Railway Union (ARU) and became president of the Girls Union, Pullman Local 269. The seamstress’ words filled the air as we faced the brick building where she had lived: “We struck at Mr. Pullman because we were without hope. We joined the ARU because it gave us a glimmer of hope.” Later, we gathered in a circular courtyard at the former site of the Market Hall, which burned down in 1973. We were standing at the site of a historic melee. Women who worked in the Pullman laundries, many the wives of striking workers, were on strike, too. When women in nearby Roseland tried to sneak into Pullman and replace them, the Pullman ladies had none of it. “So the girls in Roseland tried to sneak into the laundry over there as scabs and some of the starving wives in Pullman caught ’em here,” Petraitis explained. The Pullman women were, to put it mildly, not pleased; one of them instructed others to get out their knives and “spoil her beauty!”, as recounted in a hyperbolic Tribune article from the time. The Roseland women had to be escorted by police back along 111th MAY 29, 2019 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 11
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Street, “dodging missiles all the way”—rocks and pieces of brick thrown by the striking women. And a tour of Pullman wouldn’t be complete without a visit to “Poverty Row.” “George Pullman had enjoyed thirteen years of really great publicity in this model town, and then he had the benefit of the Columbian Exposition to promote it even more,” Cassello said. “But when the strike broke out, people had to make an argument that conditions in Pullman weren’t as nice as they’d been led to believe in the press accounts.” So journalists were taken to visit a different Pullman: the tenement housing on Langley Avenue, just one block from the charming rowhouses on Champlain. “These people over here were living five families to one faucet,” Cassello explained. Journalists saw squalid housing and starving infants. Today, though, we saw several squat buildings under construction, the future home of the Pullman Artspace Lofts, a thirty-eight-unit development that will also include classrooms and a gallery for local artists. (PNMPS is opposed to this development, with their website repeatedly claiming that “historic reviews of the Pullman Artspace Lofts were improperly conducted and potentially unlawful.” The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development recently ordered another review to ensure historic preservation guidelines were followed. With the review complete, the project is underway again.) The strike ended with the National Guard’s deployment. Violence broke out across the nation, and the National Guard was accused of firing indiscriminately into crowds; thirty people were killed, half of them in Chicago. Striking workers were allowed to return to work, but the Pullman Company forced them to sign “yellow-dog contracts” vowing they wouldn’t be part of a union. After Pullman died in 1897, his grave was reinforced with concrete and steel rails to protect against desecration by angry workers. The following year, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled the company had to divest its ownership in the town, and Pullman became part of the City of Chicago.
P
NMPS wasn’t the only group in Pullman on May 11 to commemorate the strike. Two members of the Illinois Labor History Society led their own, smaller tour, which our group ran into at a couple points throughout the afternoon. That morning, at the National Monument’s
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visitor information center, representatives from various history and preservation organizations had a panel discussion about the strike, its legacy, and its relevance today. In her remarks, Sue Bennett of the National Parks Service called George Pullman a Mark Zuckerberg of his time, drawing a parallel between Pullman’s railroad empire and the vast power of companies like Facebook. “[Zuckerberg’s] business partner has said that he has power that is unprecedented and un-American. Boy, have I heard people say that about George Pullman as well.” Guest speaker Allison Duerk, executive director of the Eugene Debs Foundation in Terre Haute, Indiana, grew emotional as she described how the Pullman Strike grew from “a dispute between 2,000 workers and one employer to a national standoff between 250,000 members and the combined interests of the railroads.” Guest speaker Sara Nelson, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, spoke about the relevance of the Pullman strike to the recent labor struggles of airline workers. As with the ARU, airline strikes are complicated by the complex, global nature of the economy. “Our jobs are connected. We can’t live without each other,” she explained. The PNMPS tour concluded at the Pullman Café, probably not so much for its historical import as its cozy atmosphere. Over slices of almond cake, which had been decorated in red icing with “Strike: 18942019,” I asked attendees what they thought of the tour. Two history teachers at HomewoodFlossmoor High School told me that they typically devote a whole lesson in their history curricula to the Pullman Strike due to the school’s location in the south suburbs, and that they were grateful for the chance to bring more detail and context to their lessons. Hazal Corak, an anthropology PhD student at the University of Chicago, said that she was most surprised to see signs for the future Artspace Lofts on what was was once called Poverty Row. “The fact that we’re not even really in the city and still somebody, an entrepreneur, has a vision about what this area can become, like artists’ lofts and such—it was very striking,” Corak said, pun not intended. Preservation was on everyone’s minds, from the tourists to the PNMPS members leading their crusade to save Pullman right down to its sidewalks. But preserving the memory of an event in history, and making
sure it’s still taught for generations to come, is a little different from preserving a physical place. The speakers, historians, and tour organizers hoped to commemorate an event that affected so many people: not only those who lived and toiled and suffered and lost their lives here on the South Side of Chicago, but those across the country who struck in what Duerk described as “an unprecedented act of solidarity,”a show of what can be accomplished when workers rise up, and the forces they face when they risk it all. Or as Nelson, the flight attendant union president, summed it up in her speech that morning: “We’re not taught labor history in this country, and there’s a reason for that. It’s too powerful.” ¬ Helena Duncan is a writer based in Hyde Park. She last wrote for the Weekly in March about designs for a public memorial to survivors of police torture.
EVENTS
BULLETIN Build Bronzeville Launch The Bronzeville Incubator, 300 E. 51st St. Friday, May 31, 2pm–8pm. Free. bit.ly/BuildBronzeville The latest initiative from Urban Juncture— the nonprofit behind Bronzeville Cookin’, the Bronzeville Incubator, Boxville, and the redevelopment of the Forum—Build Bronzeville is “a collaborative effort using cuisine and culture to revitalize commerce and rebuild community in our historic neighborhood.” Learn more at the launch. (Sam Stecklow)
Lunch & Learn: Illinois Does Not Have a Parole System Third Unitarian Church, 301 N. Mayfield Ave. Saturday, June 1, 12:30pm–3pm. Free with registration. uupmi.org Parole IL, a coalition of organizations working to bring a parole system to Illinois, hosts this education session on the lack of a parole system, and a screening of the Scrappers Film Group documentary Stateville Calling, showcasing one eightyfour-year-old activist’s fight to bring the issue to the attention of state lawmakers. (Sam Stecklow)
Segregation and Public Education: Separate and Not Equal in 20th Century Chicago Harold Washington Library Center, 400 S. State St. Saturday, June 1, 1pm–2:15pm; doors at 12:30pm. Free with registration. bit.ly/SegregationEducationPanel UIC professor and historian Elizabeth Todd-Breland will lead this conversation on how the “hardening” of segregation throughout the twentieth century, after the 1919 race riots, left a legacy on today’s de facto segregated CPS schools. The conversation will be followed by a screening of Kartemquin’s documentary ‘63 Boycott, about a mass student walkout protesting unequal conditions in CPS. Part of the Newberry Library’s yearlong examination of the legacy of the 1919 race riots. (Sam Stecklow)
CBA Assembly to Stop Displacement Hyde Park Academy, 6220 S. Stony Island Ave. Thursday, June 6, 5:30pm–7pm. Free. bit.ly/CBAAssembly Activist organizations Southside Together Organizing for Power and UChicago For a CBA will host this community meeting providing updates on the fight for a CBA ordinance for the Obama Presidential Center and how you can get involved. Newly-elected 20th Ward Alderman Jeanette Taylor will be in attendance. (Sam Stecklow)
Book Talk: Occupied Territory Harold Washington Library Center, 400 S. State St. Thursday, June 6, 6pm–7:30pm. Free. bit.ly/OccupiedTerritoryTalk Author and University of Iowa professor Simon Balto will discuss his new book, Occupied Territory, chronicling the history of the Chicago Police Department’s relationship with the Black residents of the city, tracing a timeline from the 1919 race riots to the Black Power movement. (Sam Stecklow)
VISUAL ARTS 1st Gen Student Meet-Up Back of the Yards Coffeehouse and Roastery, 2059 W. 47th St. Saturday, June 1, 1pm– 3pm. bit.ly/1GenMeetUp Join Gage Park Latinx Council for their monthly 1st Gen Student meet-up! This event is geared towards supporting first generation college students from Southwest side communities. There will be a variety of resources available including: scholarship information, college counselors, mentors, resources for DACA students, self-care tips, and much more. (Roderick Sawyer)
SSW Workshop: Approaches to Meaningful Visual Journalism Experimental Station, 6100 South Blackstone Avenue. Saturday, June 1, 1pm–3pm. Free with registration. workshops.southsideweekly.com
Hidalgo (an award-winning photojournalist and digital producer) and Pat Nabong (a Chicago-based visual journalist dedicated to challenging stereotypes and bridging gaps via visual storytelling) are both cohosts of The Visual Desk, a round table and support group for freelance visual journalists. Participants will learn a range of topics, such as: composing images, building visual narratives and ethical approaches to visual storytelling, and more. (Roderick Sawyer)
Speaking Truth With Power Free Spirit Media, 906 S. Homan Ave. Tuesday, June 4, 2pm–5pm. freespiritmedia.org Join Free Spirit Media for their first Racial Equity Data Forum. This forum will focus on bringing community members and service providers from the West Side together to discuss and brainstorm ways to critically use data to inform and influence systematic processes through a lens of racial equity. (Roderick Sawyer)
57th Street Art Festival S. 57th St. and E. Kimbark St. Saturday, June 1, 11am-6pm; Sunday, June 2, 10am-5pm. Free. 57thstreetartfair.org Come through to Hyde Park for a weekend of art and festivities. Check out public art installations or browse various vendors collections of glass, jewelry, leather, photography, printmaking, painting, sculpture, digital arts, wood, ceramics… the list goes on! Be sure to bring the whole family and enjoy the weekend. (Roderick Sawyer)
Hyde Park Community Art Fair 57th and Kimbark. Saturday, June 1, 11am6pm; Sunday, June 2, 10am–5pm. Free. hydeparkcommunityartfair.org As part of the 57th Street Art Festival, the Hyde Park Community Art Fair will include music, children’s activities, and will feature work by Project Onward. Come by for a fun family weekend. (Roderick Sawyer)
Join South Side Weekly for a workshop and presentation on meaningful approaches to visual journalism. Presenters Sebastián MAY 29, 2019 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 13
EVENTS
MUSIC Jay Electronica The Promontory, 5311 S. Lake Park Ave. Friday, May 31, 8:30pm. $28. 21+. (312) 801-2100. promontorychicago.com Roc Nation’s Jay Electronica—high on mystery, short on discography—will hit Hyde Park’s Promontory on his latest tour. It’s a rare opportunity to see one of the most idiosyncratic (and reclusive) living rappers. (Christopher Good)
Chicago Doomed and Stoned Festival Reggies Rock Club, 2109 S. State St. Friday, May 31, 6pm and Saturday, June 1, 3pm. 18+. $25 and $35 single day admission or $50 for the weekend. (312) 949-0120. reggieslive.com The Doomed and Stoned Festival does what it says on the tin: two (loud, full) nights of doom and stoner metal, headlined by Coven, Blood Ceremony, and Torche. With fifteen acts split across the two nights, there’s something for everyone— provided everyone is into sludge rock at punishing decibels. (Christopher Good)
Footwork Champs Friday, May 31, 9pm. Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western Ave. $5 in advance, $10 door. (773) 276-3600. emptybottle.com Teklife’s best and brightest—DJ Jalen, DJ Phil, DJ Tre, and DJ Manny—will celebrate their heritage with some 160 BPM bangs and works in Ukranian Village. Footwork dancers will battle throughout the evening for a cash prize. (Christopher Good)
34th Chicago Gospel Music Festival Friday, May 31, 12pm–9:30pm and Saturday, June 1, 11am–9pm. Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St. and Jay Pritzker Pavilion, 201 E. Randolph St. Free. (312) 742-1168. More information at chicagogospelmusicfestival.us The sounds of praise will fill the Loop this weekend as Chicago celebrates its deep-dyed gospel tradition. The two-day festival includes a wide range of local and international talent, panels, programming for kids, an awards ceremony, and “Amazing 14 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY
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Grace,” a cornerstone tribute to the late Aretha Franklin. (Christopher Good)
STAGE & SCREEN Agents of Change Stony Island Arts Bank, 6760 S. Stony Island Ave. Saturday, June 1. 4pm–6pm. Free. Limited seating. Please register at bit.ly/2VVq7t0 The first Sunday of every month, the Arts Bank Cinema proudly presents the BBP Ten Point Program Film Series, hosted in partnership with members of the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party. Each monthly screening and post-film discussion will focus on one point from the Party’s ten-point platform. This month examines point five: We Want Education For Our People That Exposes The True Nature Of This Decadent American Society. We Want Education That Teaches Us Our True History And Our Role In The Present-Day Society; and will include the short films: Saving Walter Dyett, which chronicles the fight for Bronzeville’s last neighborhood high school and Agents of Change, which details the struggle for a more relevant and meaningful education in the 1960s. Community Activists and Organizers involved with Black Student Unions including local institutions Dyett H.S and Malcolm X College will be present during the screening and post discussion. (Nicole Bond)
Black Panther Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park, 201 E. Randolph St. Tuesday, June 4. 6:30pm. Free and open to the public. In celebration of The Year of Chicago Theater, eta Creative Arts Foundation and the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events present a screening of Black Panther to acknowledge the work of Oscar Award Winning costume designer Ruth Carter. (Nicole Bond)
Brooks Day Chicago State University, Gwendolyn Brooks Library 4th Floor. 9501 S. King Drive. Friday, June 7. 3pm–8pm. Reception 5pm. Free admission. Onsite parking $5. Please attend the seventh annual celebration honoring the life and literary
legacy of Chicago’s own Gwendolyn Brooks. This year’s Brooks Day is a collaboration between The Guild Literary Complex, Brooks Permissions, and Third World Press Foundation, featuring reading of select Brooks works in the fourth floor atrium from 3pm–5pm, followed by a reception in the fourth floor solarium with birthday cake and appetizers from 5pm–6pm and ending with a program in honor of the legacy of Gwendolyn Brooks, presented by Chicago State’s Gwendolyn Brooks Center for Black Literature and Creative Writing, from 6pm–8pm in the atrium. (Nicole Bond)
The Adaptations of Augie March—Performance and Special Collections Exhibition Court Theater, 5535 S. Ellis Avenue. Through June 9. Wednesday through Sunday, 7:30pm; 2pm matinee, Saturday and Sunday. Tickets $50-$74. Call the box office at (773) 7534472 or visit courttheater.org See the brilliant coming-of-age story based on the novel by Saul Bellow, former University of Chicago faculty member and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Written by David Auburn and directed by Charles Newell, the production stars Patrick Mulvey, making his Court debut in the title role. Then, be sure to visit the free exhibition at the Special Collections Research Center Gallery, 1100 E. 57th Street, Monday through Friday 9am–4:45pm. Curated by Court Theatre Dramaturg Nora Titone, the exhibition showcases treasures like the early handwritten draft of Saul Bellow’s novel and materials from the theater artists’s work on the Court’s current production. (Nicole Bond)
directed by Sophiyaa Nayar, is a tense family drama that examines the American dream from the view of Ethiopian immigrants preparing to send their eldest son to college. (Nicole Bond)
Stand Up eta Creative Arts Foundation, 7558 S. South Chicago Avenue. June 8 through June 29. Saturday performances 3pm and 7pm, Sunday performance 3pm. General admission tickets $35, $25 seniors, $15 students. Call (773) 752-3955 or visit www.etacreativearts.org As part of their forty-eighth season, eta Creative Arts brings to life the book by Phyllis Curtwright and Kamesha Khan about Birmingham students who braved police brutality, water hoses, vicious dogs, racist taunts, and jail time, as they march to reignite a stalled Civil Rights Movement in the Birmingham Children's Crusade of 1963. Catch a snippet of a rehearsal on eta’s YouTube channel [bit.ly/2VEwqkz]. While you’re there, take a peek at their video photo story [bit.ly/2HrNkPs] produced in celebration of the theater’s forty-eight birthday. Among the youthful faces of founding members, keep an eye out for audience members like Maya Angelou and a very young Barack Obama. (Nicole Bond)
FOOD & LAND Farmers Markets
Victory Gardens, 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue. Through June 6. 8pm, Thursday–Saturday; 2:30pm matinee, Saturday and Sunday. Tickets $20-$25. Call (773) 871-3000 or visit victorygardens.org
Sundays: Maxwell Street Market, S. Desplaines St. & W. Taylor St. Sundays, 9am–3pm. bit.ly/ MaxwellStMarketChicago 95th Street Farmers Market, 1835 W. 95th St. Sundays, 8am–1pm, through November. c Pilsen Community Market, 1820 S. Blue Island Ave. Sundays, 9am–3pm, through October. facebook.com/pilsenmarket Wood Street Urban Farm Stand, 1757 W. 51st St. Sundays, 9am–noon, through November 24. McKinley Park Farmers Market, 3705 S. Archer Ave. Sundays, 10am–2pm. Through September 29. facebook.com/MPFM1
Definition Theatre Company, a member of Victory Garden Theater's Resident Theater Company program, recently recieved$1.6 million in funding from the City’s Neighborhood Opportunity fund to transform a former Woodlawn church into a new South Side theater. Their current production, written by Sam Kebede and
Wednesdays: Back of the Yards Community Market, S. 51st St. & W. Throop St. Wednesdays, 3pm–7pm, through September 25. Boxville, 320 E. 51st St. Wednesdays, 4pm–7pm, starting June 19. facebook.com/ Boxville51
ETHIOPIANAMERICA
EVENTS
Thursdays: City Market at Daley Plaza, 50 W. Washington St. Thursdays, 7am–2pm, through October 24. bit.ly/DaleyPlazaMarket South Loop Farmers Market, 1936 S. Michigan Ave. Thursdays, 4pm–8pm, through September 26. southloopfarmersmarket.com Hyde Park Farmers Market, 5300 S. Harper Ct. Thursdays, 7am–1pm, through October. downtownhydeparkchicago.com
(along with the 57th Street Art Fair four blocks south) serves as an unofficial summer kickoff of sorts for Hyde Park, bringing food, beer, and live music to 53rd Street all weekend. (Sam Stecklow)
Saturdays: 61st Street Farmers Market, 6100 S. Blackstone Ave. Saturdays, 9am–2pm, through October 27. experimentalstation.org/market The Plant Farmers Market, 1400 W. 46th St. The first Saturday of each month, 11am– 3pm. plantchicago.org/farmers-market Eden Place Farmers Market, 4911 S. Shields Ave. Saturdays, 8am–2pm, through October 12. edenplacefarms.org Printers Row City Market, 700 S. Dearborn St. Saturdays, 7am–1pm, June 15 through October 26.
Arts and music organization AMFM returns with its second summer of FEAST food and music events, held throughout the summer. The first, SEEDS, is centered around community gardens and markets, and organizations and institutions that promote food justice. Set to live music and featuring food vendors, learn how you can get involved with organizations in your neighborhood working to provide people with healthy, affordable food. (Sam Stecklow)
Multiple Days: UHSC Farm Stand, 1809 W. 51st St. Mondays–Fridays, 9am–1pm, through November 25. Gary Comer Youth Center Farmers Market, 7200 S. Ingleside Ave. Tuesdays & Fridays, 3pm–6pm, June 18 to October 29. garycomeryouthcenter.org/produce Farm on Ogden Food Stand, 3555 W. Ogden Ave. Tuesdays & Thursdays, 11am– 7pm; Wednesdays, Fridays, & Saturdays, 10am–6pm. chicagobotanic.org Summertime in Chicago means many things; one of those things is the return of farmers markets and with them, fresh produce to our lives. Some troopers toughed it out indoors over the winter, but is it truly a farmers market if you can’t take your winnings, bike to the lake or your nearest park, and eat them quicker than you could’ve imagined in one sitting? If the list above looks sparse to you, it is—it only includes the markets that are currently or soon-to-be open. Many more around the South Side will open in the next two months. (Sam Stecklow)
Hyde Park Brew Fest
AMFM Presents SEEDS Austin Town Hall Park, 5610 W. Lake St. Saturday, June 1, noon–4pm. Free. bit.ly/AMFMSeeds
Chicago Grows Green Week Kickoff event: Ivanhoe Park, 14401 S. Stewart Ave., Riverdale. Saturday, June 1, 11am–1pm. Free. bit.ly/CGGweek19 Join Midwest Goes Green for Chicago Goes Green Week, an opportunity to learn more about sustainable landscaping and how to make your yard pesticide-free. The week will start in Riverdale, where the Riverdale Park District has successfully managed pesticide-free parks for several years, but events will occur throughout the region. (Sam Joyce)
The 61st Street Farmers Market is a program of the Experimental Station, with the support of:
Chapin May Foundation
THE BUILDERS INITIATIVE
Wooded Isle Bird Walk Meet at Museum of Science and Industry, South Parking,. Saturday, June 1, 8am–11am. Free. bit.ly/WoodedIslandBirds Bring your binoculars and field guides to the Chicago Audubon Society’s weekly bird walk through Jackson Park’s Wooded Isle. The lush vegetation of Wooded Isle is rare along Chicago’s lakefront, making it a great place to spot migrating birds. You do not need to be a Chicago Audubon member to participate. (Sam Joyce)
E. 53rd Street & S. Harper Ct. Saturday, June 1 and Sunday, June 2, noon–9pm. Free entry, $25-$40 for sampling tickets. hpbrewfest.com The 6th annual Hyde Park Brew Fest MAY 29, 2019 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 15
Weston Game Lab Dedication Wed, May 29, 2019 / 4–7pm Media Arts, Data, & Design Center John Crerar Library, 1st Floor Featuring an artist talk with Patrick LeMieux and Stephanie Boluk, authors of Metagaming: Playing, Competing, Spectating, Cheating, Trading, Making, and Breaking Videogames
FREE. westongamelab.uchicago.edu