June 15, 2023

SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

The South Side Weekly is an independent non-profit newspaper by and for the South Side of Chicago. We provide high-quality, critical arts and public interest coverage, and equip and develop journalists, artists, photographers, and mediamakers of all backgrounds.

Volume 10, Issue 19

Editor-in-Chief Jacqueline Serrato

Managing Editor Adam Przybyl

Senior Editors

Martha Bayne

Christopher Good

Olivia Stovicek

Sam Stecklow

Alma Campos

IN CHICAGO

Judge sides with General Iron

IN THIS ISSUE

Section Editors

Sky Patterson

Wendy Wei

Jocelyn Martínez-Rosales

Community Builder Chima Ikoro

Public Meetings Editor Scott Pemberton

Contributing Editors Jocelyn Vega

Francisco Ramírez Pinedo

Visuals Editor Bridget Killian

Deputy Visuals Editor Shane Tolentino

Staff Illustrators

Director of

On June 1, Administrative Judge Mitchell Ex overruled the Chicago Department of Public Health’s (CDPH’s) decision to deny an operating permit requested by Reserve Management Group, the parent company of Southside Recycling (formerly General Iron). This decision comes after protests in previous years and a month-long hunger strike placed intense pressure on the company’s attempt to move a scrap metal recycling facility from Lincoln Park to the Southeast Side, an area already burdened by air pollution and industrial development. The new mayoral administration disagrees with the judges’s decision. “My administration stands firmly behind CDPH’s permit denial and the comprehensive review that led to it. We will immediately appeal the administrative judge’s ruling and continue our fight to uphold our authority under the law to make decisions that protect the environment, health, and quality-of-life for residents of the 10th ward and all environmental justice communities,” said Mayor Brandon Johnson in a statement.

Urban Grower’s Collective to host pop-up farmers markets

Mell Montezuma

Shane Tolentino

Fact Checking: Sky Patterson

Fact Checkers: Christopher Good

Kelli Jean Smith

Alani Oyola

Ellie Gilbeert-Bair

The Black- and women-led nonprofit farm, which is “working to build a more just and equitable local food system,” will be relaunching its traveling farmers market this month. The Fresh Moves Mobile Market, essentially a bus filled with produce from their farm in South Chicago, will make stops in different neighborhoods Monday through Friday, and accepts cash, debit and credit cards, and Link/SNAP. The Collective is also running a farm stand at their South Chicago farm, at 9001 S. Mackinaw Ave, Wednesdays and Thursdays 4-7pm, and Saturdays 9am-4pm. For a full list of locations, days, and times where the bus will be stopping, check out: urbangrowerscollective.org/fresh-moves-mobile-market

Migrants are moved to Daley College

Layout Editor

Special Projects Coordinator

Managing Director

Office Manager

Advertising Manager

Tony Zralka

Malik Jackson

Jason Schumer

Mary Leonard

Susan Malone

Webmaster Pat Sier

The Weekly is produced by a mostly all-volunteer editorial staff and seeks contributions from across the city. We publish online weekly and in print every other Thursday.

Send submissions, story ideas, comments, or questions to editor@southsideweekly.com or mail to:

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The City has moved forward with busing about 400 migrants from a shuttered YMCA on the North Side to Daley College at 76th and Pulaski, which started housing asylum seekers this month until the end of summer. The decision was postponed a couple of times due to a combination of public pushback and many migrants not feeling comfortable being moved across the city after they were becoming acquainted with the area. Local alderwoman Jeylú Gutierrez said the mayor’s office only shared minimal details with her, but welcomed the newcomers to the ward. The arrangement is meant to be a short-term solution, according to Johnson’s administration, with one of the immediate goals being to relieve pressure from police stations.

community mourns luis alberto aguilar peres, a resident of woodlawn’s migrant shelter

About thirty Wadsworth residents and Woodlawn neighbors attended the memorial. hannah faris, hyde park herald 4 la comunidad llora la muerte de luis alberto aguilar peres, residente de albergue para migrantes

Cuando su hermana lo invitó a irse a vivir con ella, Peres se negó porque “ya amaba la ciudad de Chicago”, ella dijo durante el servicio en el lado sur de Chicago. por hannah faris, hyde park herald traducido por alma campos, south side weekly 5 power to the people

A ComEd agreement that leads to municipalization and gives climate justice advocates more leverage will require significant political will.

Veney

matthew murphy ...................................

6 pilsen’s prolonged fight against tif amid gentrification

With property taxes at an all-time high, Pilsen residents push back against expanding TIF in their neighborhood.

savannah hugueley

op-ed: sheriff dart and sun-times board are wrong to advocate for ending essential movement of the electronically monitored Essential movement has improved thousands of people’s lives.

7

10 growing more than food

james kilgore and emmett sanders

“You don’t need a backyard to grow something.”

jasmine barnes

true star’s imprint on chicago youth and hip-hop

The organization has trained teenagers to report stories, interview celebrities, and develop their creative voices.

jasmine morales

11

13

a ride down memory lane with patric mccoy

The former photographer takes us on a journey through Chicago’s 80’s Black gay community.

luz magdaleno flores

public meetings report

A recap of select open meetings at the local, county, and state level.

16

scott pemberton and documenters .. 18 the exchange

The Weekly’s poetry corner offers our thoughts in exchange for yours.

chima ikoro and rin

calendar

Bulletin and events.

zoe pharo

20

Cover photo by Isiah ThoughtPoet

IMMIGRATION

Community Mourns Luis Alberto Aguilar Peres,

a Resident of Woodlawn’s

Migrant Shelter

About thirty Wadsworth residents and Woodlawn neighbors attended the memorial for the first publicly known death of an asylum seeker at a city-owned facility.

BY HANNAH FARIS, HYDE PARK HERALD

Originally published by the Hyde Park Herald. Reprinted with permission.

Luis Alberto Aguilar Peres, a twenty-six-year-old father who traveled from Venezuela to the United States in search of work, died suddenly in Woodlawn’s city-run migrant shelter earlier this month.

Peres had lived at the former Wadsworth Elementary building, 6420 S. University Ave., a shuttered school turned temporary migrant shelter, since immigrating to Chicago late last summer. A worker at nearby Jewel Osco, Peres was found unresponsive early Friday morning, June 2, where he was soon pronounced dead. Autopsy results are still pending.

At an emotional memorial service on Saturday, June 10, about thirty Wadsworth residents and Woodlawn neighbors, as well as Peres’s sister and friends, gathered to mourn a life “gone too soon.” The memorial was hosted at nearby Concord Missionary Baptist Church, 6319 S. Kimbark Ave., a church that has for months run supportive programming such as English as a Second Language classes and bilingual Saturday services for people living at Wadsworth.

“My brother was very humble, he was a hard worker and he loved to give generously,” said Yeniree Karelys Rodriguez, Peres’s younger sister, during the service. “He lived in the refugee (center) because everything he gained through his work, he sent it to help his family and friends in Venezuela.”

Rodriguez, who came to the United States from Venezuela last month,

attempted to immigrate to Chicago but was instead sent to Utah. When she invited Peres to come live with her, she said at the memorial, Peres refused because “he already loved the city of Chicago.”

Enrique Realpe, a fellow Wadsworth

resident, remembered Peres as “an excellent friend” who “helped everyone at the shelter.” Realpe has known Peres since arriving in Chicago six months ago.

Saturday’s music-filled bilingual service opened with a rendition of Israel Houghton’s “Friend of God,” sung by

Concord’s small chorus and co-pastors Rev. Kenneth D. Phelps and Yolanda Cruz. Throughout the memorial, Phelps (with Spanish translation by Cruz) lamented a young life taken too soon, while also urging attendees to “appreciate life more and not take each other for granted.”

Phelps also thanked longtime close friend Devan Graham, who paid for Saturday’s service. Concord church similarly covered Rodriguez’ travel expenses from Utah. The church continues to raise money for Peres’ family to help cover remaining funeral costs, and donations can be made online here: concordmbchurch.org/giving/.

“We didn’t know what we were getting into when we started this,” Phelps said near the end of the service. “This is the first memorial for the shelter and the first person to die in these shelters.”

Peres’s death is the first publicly known death at a city-owned facility since large numbers of refugees and asylum seekers started arriving in Chicago last summer. Since August of last year, more than 10,000 people have arrived in the city seeking shelter; most have been bussed to Chicago—and thousands more to other sanctuary cities—from border states like Texas in protest of federal immigration law.

“He came not only to realize his dreams of being here in the United States, but also to realize the dreams of others that are still in Venezuela,” his sister said after the service. “And he worked very hard doing that.” ¬

“He lived in the refugee (center) because everything he gained through his work, he sent it to help his family and friends in Venezuela.”

—Yeniree Karelys Rodriguez, Peres’s sister

(Left to right) Yeniree Karelys Rodriguez, sister of Luis Alberto Aguilar Peres (poster) mourns her brother's death with friends Enrique Realpe and Carlos Vargas at a memorial service at Concord Missionary Baptist Church, 6319 S. Kimbark Ave., on Saturday, June 10, 2023.

PHOTO BY MARC C. MONAGHAN

comunidad llora la

de Luis Alberto Aguilar Peres, residente de

para migrantes

Luis Alberto Aguilar Peres, un padre de 26 años que llegó a los Estados Unidos de Venezuela en busca de trabajo, murió repentinamente en el centro de migrantes de Woodlawn propiedad de la Municipalidad a principios de este mes.

Peres había vivido en el edificio de la antigua escuela Primaria Wadsworth, en el 6420 al sur de la avenida University, una escuela cerrada que se convirtió en albergue temporal para migrantes, desde que emigró a Chicago a finales del verano pasado. Peres, que trabajaba en una Jewel Osco cercana, fue hallado inconsciente el viernes 2 de junio por la mañana, y poco después fue declarado muerto. Los resultados de la autopsia aún están pendientes.

En un emotivo servicio conmemorativo el sábado 10 de junio, unos 30 residentes de Wadsworth y vecinos de Woodlawn, así como la hermana y amigos de Peres, se reunieron para lamentar que Peres “se fue demasiado pronto”. El funeral fue en la iglesia Concord Missionary Baptist Church, en el 6319 al sur de la avenida Kimbark, una congregación que durante meses ha ofrecido programas de apoyo, como clases de inglés y servicios bilingües los sábados, a los residentes de Wadsworth.

“Mi hermano era muy humilde, era muy trabajador y le encantaba dar generosamente”, dijo Yeniree Karelys Rodríguez, hermana menor de Peres, durante el servicio. “Vivía en el (centro) de refugiados porque todo lo que ganaba con su trabajo, lo enviaba para ayudar a su familia y amigos en Venezuela”.

Rodríguez, quien llegó a los Estados Unidos de Venezuela el mes pasado, intentó emigrar a Chicago, pero fue enviada a Utah.

Cuando invitó a Peres a irse a vivir con ella, Peres se negó porque “ya amaba la ciudad de Chicago”, ella dijo durante el servicio memorial.

Enrique Realpe, otro residente de Wadsworth, recordó a Peres como “un excelente amigo” que “ayudaba a todos en el refugio”. Realpe conocía a Peres desde que llegó a Chicago hace seis meses.

El servicio bilingüe del sábado, que estuvo repleto de música, comenzó con una interpretación de “Friend of God” (Amigo de Dios) de Israel Houghton, cantada por el pequeño coro de Concord y los pastores Rev. Kenneth D. Phelps y Yolanda Cruz.

A lo largo del acto conmemorativo, Phelps (con traducción al español de Cruz) lamentó que la vida de Peres le fue

arrebatada demasiado pronto. También animó a los asistentes a “apreciar más la vida y unos a otros”.

Phelps también le dio las gracias a su buen amigo Devan Graham, que pagó el servicio religioso del sábado. La iglesia de Concord cubrió igualmente los gastos de viaje de Rodríguez desde Utah. La iglesia sigue recaudando dinero para la familia de Peres para ayudar a cubrir los gastos funerarios restantes, y las donaciones se pueden hacer en línea en concordmbchurch. org/giving.

“No sabíamos en lo que nos metíamos cuando empezamos esto”, dijo Phelps al final del servicio. “Este es el primer servicio funerario del centro de refugio y de la primera persona que muere en estos

refugios”.

La muerte de Peres es la primera conocida públicamente en una instalación propiedad de la Municipalidad desde que un gran número de refugiados y solicitantes de asilo empezaron a llegar a Chicago el verano pasado.

Peres fue encontrado inconsciente alrededor de las 6:12 a.m. el 2 de junio y fue declarado muerto en el lugar, según la policía.

El Sun-Times reportó de que fue encontrado “echando espuma por la boca y sin responder”. La causa de la muerte no se determinó de inmediato, según la Oficina del Médico Forense del Condado de Cook.

Desde agosto, más de 10,000 personas han llegado a Chicago en busca de refugio. Abierto a principios de febrero de este año, Wadsworth es uno de los más de una docena de refugios y centros de descanso que la Municipalidad ha instalado en parques, escuelas cerradas, bibliotecas y otros edificios para albergar a los refugiados y solicitantes de asilo que van llegando. A medida que se agota el espacio disponible, cientos de recién llegados se han alojado las comisarías de la policía de la ciudad.

La oficina del alcalde no hizo comentarios de inmediato. Los detectives del Área Uno están investigando la muerte a la espera de los resultados de la autopsia.

“Vino no sólo para hacer realidad sus sueños de estar aquí en Estados Unidos, sino también para hacer realidad los sueños de otros que siguen en Venezuela”, dijo su hermana luego del funeral. “Y él trabajó muy duro haciendo eso” ¬

Alma Campos is a senior editor at the

POR HANNAH FARIS, HYDE PARK HERALD TRADUCIDO POR ALMA CAMPOS, SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

La

muerte

albergue

Cuando su hermana lo invitó a irse a vivir con ella, Peres se negó porque “ya amaba la ciudad de Chicago”, ella dijo durante el servicio en el lado sur de Chicago.

Yeniree Karelys Rodriguez, sister of Luis Alberto Aguilar Peres, embraces an attendee at the memorial service for her brother at Concord Missionary Baptist Church, 6319 S. Kimbark Ave., on Saturday, June 10, 2023.

PHOTO BY MARC C. MONAGHAN

Power to the People

BY MATTHEW MURPHY

For over a hundred years, Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) has delivered Chicago its electricity. The relationship is so old that the “Edison” in the name refers to Thomas Edison, who at one point owned the company.

Today, for only the second time since 1948, the contract governing that relationship, the franchise agreement, is due to be renegotiated. With ComEd making record profits even as it reels from a federal corruption investigation, the utility is facing calls for greater accountability and control by Chicago residents.

For the Brandon Johnson administration, negotiating a new agreement in line with these calls will require significant political will. This could include action in the state legislature or concrete steps toward municipalization—the public ownership of ComEd’s facilities. But whatever form it takes, the new franchise agreement will determine the course of a once-ina-generation opportunity to redefine the City's relationship with ComEd.

In December 2020, the previous ComEd franchise agreement signed by Mayor Richard M. Daley in 1992 expired. After two years of negotiations with Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration, in January 2023, Lightfoot announced a proposed agreement with the company that she heralded as the “strongest municipal utility franchise deal in the country.” Highlights included $520 million in community benefit projects, a new West Side clean energy training hub, and the training of more than 10,000 students for jobs in clean energy, over the course of a shorter, fifteen-year deal.

The proposal was quickly delayed

by a skeptical City Council concerned by its length, the proposed pause on municipalization, and perceived favorability to a company mired in scandal. A potential win for the mayor before the 2023 mayoral election became dead weight. By February, when Lightfoot failed to advance beyond the primary, the two remaining contenders were calling for a new deal negotiated by a new mayor.

Mayor-elect Johnson has not commented publicly on the specific changes he seeks from the previous administration’s deal. The mayor’s office did not respond to the Weekly’s request for comment.

But with Johnson’s powerful promises of a just green energy transition, city decarbonization by 2040, and the “exploration” of municipalization, a new deal would need to be significantly tougher on ComEd. Yet the City “does not have a lot of leverage,” especially given the state legislature’s outsize role in regulation, according to Abe Scarr, director at Illinois PIRG, a citizenfunded public interest group in Illinois.

As the largest electricity provider in the state and a subsidiary of the massive Exelon company, ComEd is a formidable bargaining partner. Its previous franchise agreements have lasted decades, giving the City little wiggle room to make changes or exact concessions.

Over the last ten years, ComEd has seen its profits rise exponentially, with a series of legislative victories in Springfield expanding its ability to set favorable rates and avoid regulatory oversight. According to Scarr, “ComEd got what they wanted at the legislature after the scandal. They made out like bandits.”

This has been exacerbated by inaction from lawmakers, despite ComEd’s recent history of corruption and bribery. In 2020, a federal investigation revealed an extensive bribery scheme in which former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and leadership at ComEd conspired to pass legislation beneficial to the company. At that time, ComEd paid a $200 million fine in a deferred prosecution agreement.

But other key players continue to be enmeshed in further litigation. The

“ComEd Four'' trial wrapped up this May with a guilty verdict for all defendants who were key leaders and powerful lobbyists for the utility, including former CEO Anne Pramaggiore, for conspiracy, bribery and falsification of records. A separate trial for Madigan is set to begin next year, in 2024.

Encapsulating both ComEd’s enduring power and the uphill battle the Johnson administration faces is the 2011 Energy Infrastructure Modernization Act (EIMA). Also known as the Smart Grid law, the EIMA upgraded Chicago’s dated energy grid. But it came to be one of the major pieces of legislation at the heart of the ComEd bribery scandal when it was revealed that the revamping of the rate system had significantly increased ComEd’s profits.

This legislation introduced the “formula rate-setting” system, which allowed ComEd to charge thirty-seven percent more for delivery service over ten years, adding $5 billion to its rate base, according to a 2020 report from IL PIRG. The bill passed despite opposition from numerous consumer groups, thengovernor Pat Quinn (whose veto was overridden), and Madigan’s daughter, then-Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan.

ComEd contends that the law brought real benefits for consumers, improving reliability and modernizing infrastructure. For Scarr, this is the bare minimum: “Anytime you spend $8 billion on the electric grid, customers are bound to see some benefits. But the question isn't whether there were benefits, it's whether it was worth the cost.”

Although these formula rates were done away with in the 2021 Climate

A ComEd agreement that leads to municipalization and gives climate justice advocates more leverage will require significant political will.

Light bills.

PHOTO BY JACKIE SERRATO

& Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA), the legislature will allow ComEd to profit from the old rules. Using a process known as reconciliation—a mechanism that will remain available in the new rate-setting rules—ComEd can hike electricity rates with little oversight. In April, Crain’s Chicago Business reported that ComEd had filed for a $250 million rate adjustment that will be added to bills in 2024.

With much of the regulatory power held in Springfield, the Johnson administration is limited in its ability to win concessions from ComEd. One proposed way for the city to gain leverage is through municipalization, the process by which a local government takes over utility facilities. In most cities across the country, private companies like ComEd provide this service. However, a growing number of cities and municipalities have opted for public power, which, in theory, reduces the profit incentive at the heart of private ownership.

For Matthew Cason, campaign coordinator for Democratize ComEd, a group that advocates for public power in Chicago, municipalization represents a paradigm shift in the community control of its power. Assuming the city took over the utility, “without changing anything at all, [the revenue] would be enough to run the utility and pay for all the debt to purchase it, and leave between $50 to $100 million for the city to use as it sees fit,” Cason said.

In the past few years, this idea has gained momentum in Chicago; advocates like Democratize ComEd and elected officials like Alderman Daniel La Spata have championed the idea in City Council. Johnson ran on a platform that included “exploring the idea of electricity municipalization.”

In the proposed Lightfoot deal, the city would have only been able to explore municipalization five years after signing. For Cason, this is evidence that ComEd takes the threat seriously, as “currently under Illinois law, all [cities] have the ability to municipalize their utility.” By implementing a five-year pause on municipalization, the provision “weakened the City's hand and weakened our authority.”

Skeptics point to the tremendous cost

of municipalization as a major problem. In 2020, the Lightfoot administration commissioned a study run by NewGen Strategies and Solutions, which according to Cason was the result of “[Democratize ComEd] advocacy.” It found the minimum cost of municipalization as approximately $4 billion, a number that the Lightfoot administration found unfeasible.

Cason rejects those findings, arguing that the study’s inherent flaw was its assumption that the cost of the purchase would be shifted to consumers via rate hikes. Instead, Cason posits that the City’s purchasing debt could be “paid out of ComEds existing profits.”

Still, for a city that has a long history of budget problems, municipalization would be a drastic move. Chicago already runs one utility, its water department, which has a mixed record. No American city of Chicago’s scale runs on public power.

For Scarr, municipalization “certainly has some momentum…that said, I don't think ComEd sees it as a viable threat.” Regardless of whether the Johnson team takes this path, changing the status quo will require the marshaling of significant political leverage.

“We look forward to working with the new administration to negotiate an agreement that meets our shared goals for a cleaner, healthier energy future,” ComEd said in a statement.

Indeed, ComEd is under no pressure to work out a deal that is not on their terms. As long as there remains no new deal, the relationship is governed by default on the old agreement. With little appetite for change in Springfield, and with the city facing myriad challenges beyond its electric grid, Chicagoans will likely continue to face rising electricity bills unless more drastic action is taken.

Reimagining Chicago’s power will require serious political power, representing an early test of the new administration's ability to make good on its big promises. Until then, the city’s century-long relationship with ComEd continues. ¬

Matthew Murphy is a barback living the dream in Chicago. He previously wrote for the Weekly about CTA rapid transit.

Pilsen’s Prolonged Fight Against TIF Amid Gentrification

BY SAVANNAH HUGUELEY

On a warm Thursday night in May, a long line of people trickled into Benito Juárez Community Academy for a meeting on a proposed amendment to the Pilsen tax increment financing (TIF) district—a designated area in the neighborhood where revenue from property taxes is diverted to fund development projects.

Since the TIF district was first established in 1998 under former alderman Danny Solis, this was one of the few public forums ever offered to residents to discuss TIF and the implications it has for their community. While hundreds of residents waited in line, many people lamented that they had done something like this before, that this felt like déjà vu from when they organized against TIF decades earlier or when they were sidelined by a twelve-year extension of that same TIF last fall.

Chants of “No TIF” echoed in the large concrete courtyard as organizers from Coalición El Pueblo Manda, a group of community members and allies organizing against gentrification, particularly in Pilsen, walked up and down the line holding signs reading, “Developers Stay Out of Pilsen” and “TIF Equals Displacement.”

With Pilsen property taxes increasing much more rapidly than the city’s as

a whole, long-term property owners are unable to keep up with their tax payments (in addition to experiencing a general rise in the cost of living). Lifelong residents have had homes their families have owned for generations put on shortsale lists. Or their rent has skyrocketed, forcing them out of the neighborhood.

TIF has a long history of opposition throughout the city. Critics view these districts as tools used by developers and the City to deliberately redistribute public funds to wealthy areas and expedite gentrification in historically Black and Brown working-class neighborhoods by attracting private developments that lead to increased property tax and rental costs. While some residents and groups like El Pueblo Manda or the CivicLab are calling for the abolition of TIF, other Chicagoans and 25th Ward Alderman Byron SigchoLopez are more reform-minded, asking that the system change to empower neighborhood-led development.

Slowly everyone filtered into the high school: lifelong Pilsen residents, people who had lived in Pilsen for generations but had left or been pushed out of the neighborhood, and other Chicagoans interested in better understanding the new amendment. In front of the heavy auditorium doors,

With property taxes at an all-time high, Pilsen residents push back against expanding TIF in their neighborhood for fear it would displace more residents.

Sigcho Lopez’s office passed out voter cards asking attendees if they wanted the amendment to pass or not. They brought at least 250 cards—not enough for the large crowd.

Officials from the Department of Planning and Development (DPD) sat on stage as people settled into their seats, and organizers from El Pueblo Manda prompted the crowd to continue their chants of “No TIF” with intermittent exclamations: “No one invited you here!” “We love our neighborhood the way it is!”

With DPD and their Johnson Research Group consultants behind him, Sigcho Lopez began the meeting by acknowledging how difficult this time has been for Pilsen residents. “We know many of our families are right now at risk of losing their homes. Many people are strangled by property taxes.” He was met with affirmations from Lower West Side homeowners who on average experienced a sixty-three percent property-tax hike in a single year.

Dozens of attendees shared their personal experiences with increased property taxes, like one resident whose taxes rose by seventy percent, forcing her to use her son’s college fund to keep their home. Following the meeting, Sigcho Lopez shared that he had senior citizens crying in his office over the winter because they were unable to pay the additional thousands of dollars in taxes, forcing them to lose homes they had lived in for decades or even generations.

“Nevertheless, there are public dollars out there that must be accounted for, and that historically have not served to preserve communities but rather to gentrify them,” said Sigcho Lopez.

TIF is a strategy intended to promote redevelopment in what the state calls “blighted” areas, enticing developers to invest in the area and creating jobs through construction and new business in the area. According to the Illinois TIF Act, areas are considered “blighted” when they meet five out of thirteen standards (or two out of six in undeveloped areas considered “vacant”). These standards include things like deteriorated buildings, insufficient or dilapidated utilities, or hazardous waste.

TIF works by drawing a boundary line based on these “blight” factors established by the state. The city then

accounts for every single property inside that boundary line regardless of who owns it. Using the Cook County Assessor’s Office data from the previous year, the taxes assessed for all of these properties are then totaled. This is the base, an amount that is frozen for the twenty-three-year life of the TIF district. Taxes below this base continue to fund City services and infrastructure like public schools, libraries, and transit.

If property values increase above this base (the “increment”), the additional property tax revenues are funneled into TIF accounts. Public officials can then use these funds to subsidize public and private development and redevelopment projects.

Chicago is one of the most extensive users of TIF in the country, with more than a third of the city included in the program. At least 185 TIF districts have

ninety-six percent of those funds were used for either public uses or affordable housing. But when TIF has paid for these public projects, residents said it was not without a fight.

“All of these places that you know catch the eye of someone visiting Pilsen came through struggle,” said Vicky Romero, whose family has lived on the same block in Pilsen since the mid1950s. When a slide showed a public development funded by TIF, Romero could recall which community members fought for that project to happen.

The amendment in question at the meeting would almost double the footprint of the original Pilsen TIF District, according to experts. DPD claimed this expansion would support small businesses and affordable housing, like Casa Yucatan and 18th & Peoria plots.

don’t even look at you when you share the same sidewalk.” But these blocklevel changes are spurred by intentional, structural government decisions.

“Gentrification is very calculated,” said Romero, who was also the former board president at the non-profit Pilsen Alliance. Many people think gentrification is inevitable, but it’s not, she said. “We know of many ways that we can actually try to slow down, if not stop, the displacement of working-class people. But that takes effort, and it takes policy.”

“If you have no intention of leaving, like me,” said Romero, “increased property value does nothing but drive up your property taxes.” This sentiment is felt broadly among Pilsen residents, according to Sigcho Lopez, who said residents often tell him how tired they feel from the precarity of the change happening around them: “Why do we have to keep always fighting to just stay?”

been created since the first district was designated in Chicago under Mayor Harold Washington in 1984. Year by year, the share of property tax revenue that pours into TIF districts keeps growing, increasing by nine percent since just 2017, according to a report released earlier this year. In 2021, about forty percent of the nearly $3.02 billion in property tax revenue went to TIF.

Within the first three years of Solis’s tenure, four new TIF districts were created in the 25th Ward, chiefly the 907acre Pilsen Industrial Corridor TIF. Even then, residents knew they didn’t want a TIF created in their neighborhood out of concern that they would be misused. Mary Calderón, who lived in Pilsen for over sixty years before moving, said she remembers organizing against TIF in the late 1990s. “And now looking back twenty-three years later. We were correct,” she said.

Since 2011, a total of $122 million in TIF was allocated to projects in Pilsen. According to DPD’s presentation, over

Using these expanded funds, the city would update the land use plan and revise the redevelopment budget. But officials’ statements were punctuated by calls from community members explaining what DPD’s terms actually meant to them: When DPD said “development,” people yelled “displacement.” When they said “TIF,” people shouted “shadow budget” or “slush funds.”

DPD representatives repeated that TIF does not increase property taxes, reminding the crowd that it is a “tax diversion.” While it’s accurate that TIFs don’t operate by increasing taxes, studies have shown that subsidizing commercial development through TIF has contributed to increased property values and rent costs in Chicago.

Increased property taxes and rents have driven out long-term Pilsen residents.

Romero has seen her community slip away in the day-to-day interactions on her old block: “Hipsters don't say hello, they don’t say good morning…people

There is also ample evidence showing that TIF is misused. For one, districts are often created in areas that do not meet the definition of blighted. The TIF Illumination Project has claimed that this has led TIF to largely benefit more affluent areas in the city by siphoning money away from public services. And when used in areas that do fit the blight criteria, projects funded by TIF are often in areas being rapidly gentrified, like Pilsen. This has potentially contributed to the displacement of low-income families and individuals.

In 2019 alone, $2.3 billion in TIF went to two developments: The 78 and Lincoln Yards. The latter was funded by the Cortland and Chicago River TIF district created that same year. This move spurred protests by community members, newly elected alders, and the Chicago Teachers Union, who wanted community input and transparency around TIF. Lincoln Park is among the whitest and wealthiest (with a median income of over $115,000) neighborhoods in Chicago; opponents argued it would just funnel money that could have gone to public goods right back into the hands of the wealthy. Specifically, they wanted to see rising property taxes, especially in affluent areas, go to things like affordable housing, public transportation, and schools.

Represented by Chicago Lawyers’

“I've always described it as change happening to us instead of with us.”

—Vicky Romero, lifelong Pilsen resident

Committee for Civil Rights, community organizations Grassroots Collaborative and Raise Your Hand continued their fight to reform the City’s management of TIF by filing a lawsuit challenging the City’s $1.3 billion public subsidy of Lincoln Yards. Their lawsuit alleged that the designated area of Lincoln Park did not meet the state’s definition of blight and thus did not require public funding. This fits into a longer history of TIF dollars being allocated to private development and ultimately exacerbating racial and economic inequity in the city, they said.

Sigcho Lopez was one of twelve aldermen who voted against both deals. While he’s critical of the use of TIF funding, Sigcho Lopez supported the renewal of the Pilsen TIF district last fall. He has also said he lobbied City planning officials to expand the area covered under the current district so more properties can benefit. He has cited the Pilsen Food Pantry, which was formerly within the boundaries of the TIF district, as a property that would benefit from that expansion.

For him, this meeting was more about creating an avenue for community participation and mending a larger history of the City ignoring community input and making decisions in the shadows. “It is unfair for the City to continue to collect TIF dollars and taxes without representation and a clear process,” said Sigcho Lopez during his opening remarks.

Yet, Leonardo Quintero, a lifelong resident and cofounder of Peace in Pilsen, said he thinks residents are hesitant to trust a system that “already had no trust to begin with.” Although Sigcho Lopez has attempted to be more transparent, Quintero says what he and other residents see as a lack of accessibility continues to leave residents out of the conversation; and it feels like history repeating itself. “I've always described it as change happening to us instead of with us,” echoed Romero.

TIF districts are originally designed to sunset after twenty-three years, but the City has repeatedly extended them quietly. In October 2022, just three months before it was planned to expire, the Pilsen TIF district (along with five other districts) was extended for twelve

additional years. Quintero said he and people he knows did not even hear about the extension until two weeks after it happened when people began sharing information about it on Facebook.

When the City does finally host meetings for community input, there is limited outreach, and the meetings are often inaccessible. During the public comment section of the TIF amendment meeting, attendees pointed out that the meeting was a weak attempt to involve community members on all levels. Despite most of the attendees speaking Spanish, the only audio transcription available was in English. Each time the translator spoke, yells of “No se oye” (“We can’t hear you”) could be heard from the crowd, and multiple residents stood up to say the translation was imprecise. Throughout the crowd, young people could be seen quietly translating the presentation to their neighbors and relatives.

As a 12th Police District Council representative, Quintero sees this regularly. He and other council members have been requesting translation services at their meetings, but the City just tells them the resources don’t exist for that. So they are having to figure it out on their own. And that’s assuming people can even find the meetings. According to Quintero, people are often sent to City websites without clear instructions on how to access public meetings.

Tom Tresser, vice president and CEO of CivicLab (which runs the TIF Illumination Project), said that’s

been typical when it comes to the City notifying community members about TIF districts and projects. His organization received a letter notifying them of this expansion only about two weeks before this community meeting. “I mean, by the time we hear about it, it’s a done deal,” said Tresser.

During the meeting, community members had to ask when the amendment would be presented at the Community Development Commission (CDC) introduction meeting as presenters did not share that information early in the presentation. That meeting was scheduled for May 9, just five days later. Once a TIF extension proposal is introduced at these meetings, it’s usually too late to stop it from barrelling forward. As Tresser explained, “In the history of Chicago, no TIF has ever been defeated by the commission.”

As it turned out, the amendment was ultimately taken off of the agenda the day before the meeting, most likely due to the community opposition. “It’s a huge victory for the organizers of the people of Pilsen,” affirmed Tresser.

Organizers with El Pueblo Manda, Tresser’s own TIF Illumination Project, Pilsen Alliance, and other community members and allies have been a huge part of this effort.

El Pueblo Manda began about seven months ago by a coalition of residents and allies that wanted to address needs in Little Village and Pilsen. They have held educational and community events

and protested the City and County. In February, they held a tax workshop in Little Village that over 200 people attended where they found that the assessor’s office was overlooking exemptions homeowners qualified for when provided one-on-one support, adding onto already exorbitant taxes. In collaboration with the TIF Illumination Project, they also coordinate TIF education meetings, helping people understand how the budget works and its impacts on their community.

Vicky Lugo, who was born and raised in Pilsen, has seen all of the issues that have affected her community in the last few decades alone, from school closings in 2013 to air pollution and fires caused by a scrap metal yard to skyrocketing property taxes last year. After seeing how property taxes affected her family and neighbors, she started to do research and found that some residents had refunds from years prior that they missed or exemptions they weren’t made aware of.

That’s why she started to get involved with El Pueblo Manda—to help her community on a broader scale. El Pueblo Manda is pushing for homes to be assessed through a graduated property income tax where the tax rate increases as income rises, said Lugo. They are also requesting that the County and City not penalize people who cannot pay their bills, said Calderón.

Although the amendment was removed as an agenda item in May, it can be reintroduced at any time. What happens will really depend on Mayor Johnson and who he appoints to the CDC. But Tresser is hopeful that Johnson’s grassroots organizing background and progressive alderpersons may help guide the commission in a new direction.

In the meantime, organizers and community members plan to continue educating their neighbors about TIF, resisting gentrification, and advocating for relief for increased property taxes. Housing organizers and other advocates will continue to demand fair home assessments, relief for homeowners drowning in taxes, and the democratization of decisions around the remaining $40 million in the Pilsen TIF and future funds. ¬

Savannah is a fact-checker and writer with the Weekly

May 4, Pilsen TIF district amendment public meeting, Benito Juárez Community Academy.

PHOTO BY SAVANNAH HUGUELEY

Op-Ed: Sheriff Dart and Sun-Times Board are Wrong to Advocate for Ending Essential Movement of the Electronically Monitored

BY JAMES KILGORE AND EMMETT SANDERS

As part of their attack on the Pretrial Fairness Act, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart and other law enforcement figures have called for rolling back the right that people under pretrial electronic monitoring (EM) have to essential movement. While the reforms included in the Pretrial Fairness Act don’t address all the harms caused by the Sheriff’s EM program, they have significantly improved thousands of people’s lives. Rolling them back would put the lives of people on EM and their loved ones at risk.

EM is increasingly used for people who have been charged with, but not yet convicted of, a crime. EM places them under near-constant surveillance and confines them to their homes for long periods of time. In regard to EM, the key reform of the Pretrial Fairness Act was “essential movement,” which guaranteed that people on pretrial electronic monitoring can complete essential tasks outside their homes at least twice a week, such as grocery shopping, doing laundry or seeing a doctor. Before this, Dart had prevented thousands of people on electronic monitoring from engaging in these most basic acts of survival.

This reform has been a great success. In the past sixteen months, fewer than 200 people out of over 4,000 who have been on electronic monitoring have been rearrested during their essential movement time. Fewer than twenty of those rearrests were for gun-related charges. In short, thousands of people have benefitted from this reform.

We have been researching electronic monitoring for several years and coauthored

a study on pretrial EM in jurisdictions across the country. Nearly every jurisdiction in the U.S. allows people extended periods of movement outside the house to complete basic survival activities. In this regard, Cook County has been an outlier—one of the few jurisdictions that implemented 24hour house arrest.

Sheriff Tom Dart wants to return to that system. Last month, he filed legislation to repeal this reform. His call to roll back the reforms was echoed by the Chicago Sun-Times’ Editorial Board, which focused its case on a small number of rearrests. These attempts to repeal are part of a larger pattern where opponents of pretrial reform push misinformation to reverse the wheels of progress and justice.

Dart’s argument boils down to the claim that people on pretrial EM are likely to commit other crimes when allowed time outside the home. This contradicts existing research—studies show that people on electronic monitoring are no more likely to commit crimes or fail to show up for court appearances than those who are not on EM. Between 2016 and 2020, there were about 18,229 people in Chicago on EM. Over ninety percent of them were not rearrested, and fewer than four percent were arrested on felony charges.

Dart notes that a person can get permission for essential activities by going to court. While this is technically true, courts routinely ignore or seriously delay such requests. Moreover, why do we want judges and lawyers to spend their time deciding whether someone should go shopping for two hours?

The situation concerning medical and family emergencies is more serious. In the absence of a court order, a person on the monitor must make a horrible choice: either respond to the emergency and risk going back to jail, or do not respond, leaving someone to suffer serious health consequences due to lack of medical care.

The intensive movement restrictions, coupled with staying on EM for months, deny Chicagoans their right to due process, sometimes forcing them to accept a plea bargain even when they are not guilty. The Sun-Times calls it a “dangerous gamble” to give people essential movement, but we argue the gamble is denying them the basic freedoms they need in order to carry on with their lives and ensure due process through the court system.

In the world of electronic monitoring, Cook County has become notorious not only for stringent house arrest regimes, but for harassment. That includes phone calls in the middle of the night to check if people are home, unannounced house searches, and thousands of false alerts from devices which have been shown time and time again to be inaccurate. And as the Cook County’s Public Defender, Sharone Mitchell, Jr., stresses, these practices disproportionately impact Black Chicagoans, who comprise seventy percent of those on EM. He says that the excessive number of EM violations directed at Black people contribute to the “destruction of communities.”

Even the Illinois Department of Corrections has seen the light. Several years ago, they had similar restrictions to Cook County for those on EM.

However, they changed their policy in 2019, giving everyone twelve hours per day of unrestricted movement. This has not resulted in any rash of violent crimes, but has instead provided individuals on EM with access to opportunities and the ability to carry out basic survival activities.

We urge Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and the Board of Supervisors to pressure Sheriff Dart to end his fearmongering and support for draconian policies that will reverse the great progress the Pretrial Fairness Act has made in reducing the harm caused by electronic monitoring. ¬

James Kilgore is a researcher and activist based in Urbana, Illinois where he has resided since paroling from prison in 2009. He is lead researcher in the Challenging E-Carceration project of MediaJustice. He has written five books, including the National Book Foundation award-winning Understanding Mass Incarceration. He has written widely on issues of mass incarceration and racial justice. In Urbana-Champaign he is the Director of Advocacy and Outreach for FirstFollowers Reentry Program.

Emmett Sanders is a critically impacted researcher, writer, and advocate. He has written widely on the issue of electronic monitoring both within and outside of his role as a researcher for MediaJustice's Unshackling Freedom and Challenging E-Carceration campaigns. He holds a Master of Public Affairs from the University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley.

Two days a week to do groceries and see doctors has improved thousands of people’s lives, but Dart wants twenty-four hour surveillance.

Growing More Than Food

BY JASMINE BARNES

On a warm and sunny Saturday in June, the sounds of soul music emanated from the corner of 71st and Crandon Street. With gates wide open, the Crandon Community Garden welcomed in South Shore community members stopping by for its opening weekend. Amidst the garden’s forty-three raised beds and shaded picnic tables, young children explored with curiosity and elders tended to thirsty plants.

On the South Side, these examples of urban agriculture and intergenerational community have become increasingly common.

In 2022 there were around 10,000 vacant city-owned lots in Chicago. Of those, the majority are located in disinvested neighborhoods on the South and West Sides. The empty, sprawling spaces are often eye sores, overrun by trash.

“It was nothing: just three empty lots,” said Crandon garden leader Anita Johnson, describing the desolate corner before its transformation into a community space in the summer of 2016. Johnson recalls that day fondly as the moment she became invested in the garden’s future. When the original 1,200-gallon water tank wasn’t working, she used her shopping cart to transport five-gallon buckets of water from her home a few blocks away just to keep the trees alive. “I grew up in Chicago but I did not have fruit trees when I was growing up,” said Johnson. “So when I saw a cherry tree and a plum tree . . . I couldn’t let those trees stop [growing].”

Like many of the garden members, Johnson is a resident of South Shore. The garden is protected and supported by NeighborSpace, a nonprofit urban land trust in Chicago, and serves as a solution to a growing need within the community for reliable fresh food.

“We have tried to teach people to be self-sustainable. We tell ‘em, you don’t need a

are fighting food

the pandemic. “People were isolating and sheltering in place. A lot of seniors didn’t have access to food and people who were reliant on different services weren’t able to get food,” they said.

“So a lot of our initial programming was around doing pop up food distributions,” Brown said. “We’d partner with local pantries and pick up cases and cases of food and set up either in front of a school or a park, or like a parking lot, and just distribute the food to the community.” They also packed bags and took them to nursing homes and senior facilities.

backyard to grow something,” said Johnson. That urge toward self-sustainability was a grassroots response to the lack of an accessible grocery store in the South Shore community for over six years, until the opening of a Local Market in 2019.

Within the last year, several major grocery stores have closed down on the South Side: the Whole Foods in Englewood, the Aldi in Auburn Gresham, and the recent Walmart closures impacting the Kenwood and Chatham neighborhoods. These closures continue to reinforce the

the South Side has resulted in social and political resistance, including a renaissance of community gardens and farms.

The inequities of the food system were startlingly clear during the harrowing first months of the COVID-19 pandemic. With so many South Siders confined to their homes, and many of them out of work, the urban agriculture community stepped up to address the area’s urgent need for locally grown, free and low-cost food.

Such emergency response efforts didn’t end in 2020. The Breathing Room Gardens, a project of the #LetUsBreathe Collective located in Back of the Yards, continues to sustain the organization’s #EverybodyEats food justice program, which offers free produce and community meals under the leadership of Chef Kwamena Jackson.

“It’s a desert, but it’s not,” said Brown. They shared how food access is “shifting because of grassroots work and organizations like [Brown People Foundation and #LetUsBreathe Collective] really coming together” under a politics of “sovereignty and self-actualization.”

state of food apartheid in South Side communities, with some residents needing to take two or three buses to the nearest grocery store, resulting in hours-long commutes to gain access to fresh food.

But this active, ongoing disinvestment on

Jah Brown, co-founder of Brown People Foundation and program facilitator with #LetUsBreathe Collective’s Breathing Room Gardens, remembers the comprehensive response of these organizations to support food distribution during the early days of

The looming economic recession facing the country, unreliable food supply chains, and rapidly rising food prices have made growing local food even more appealing for many citizens. Further east in Woodlawn, Quory Watkins, a farmer and urban agriculture educator of over a decade, understands the importance of growing local foods. His work with the Experimental Station and its 61st St Farmers Market, The Urban Canopy and the First Presbyterian Church community gardens provides him with a multifaceted understanding of the state of urban agriculture on the South Side.

We met at the First Presbyterian

From Bronzeville to Woodlawn and Back of the Yards, South Side gardeners

insecurity while building relationships with each other and the land.

The Breathing Room Gardens.

PHOTO BY JASMINE BARNES

“There’s more to it than just putting the seeds in the ground…You have to be able to draw people to want to come and support you, to volunteer.” —Rosalyn Owens

Church where Watkins leads a free seed starting program for members of the church’s two gardens, Kumunda and 65th & Woodlawn. In our interview, Watkins reflected on how more people in the neighborhood are seeing the value of growing their own food as groceries become more expensive.

While there have always been devoted growers and farmers who, as Watkins said, “are always gonna be there and always gonna come back because they understand the importance of growing their own food in their neighborhood,” a growing number of newcomers are stewarding plots less as a hobby and more as both an essential investment to lower grocery bills and a way to connect with their neighbors.

When describing the First Presbyterian Church community gardens he’s supported the last few years, Watkins observed how many people stay committed to growing there for relational reasons. “You know some of the people that garden next to you. You have a relationship with those people and you know that you can trade [food] throughout the year.”

He believes many people keep returning for “a community vibe—having that community space where everyone feels accepted.” Whether sharing heirloom tomato seeds, exchanging cabbage for kale, or trading the best techniques to keep weeds under control, relational connection influences every part of community gardening.

Harrison Alexander Baker Jr. is one of those individuals. An assistant principal at a local high school, Baker spends his spare time raising his two children alongside his wife and contributing as a community leader at the Kumunda community garden. He identified the garden as a major draw for him and his wife when relocating to a home right next to the growing space. From Baker’s perspective, the community garden became the epicenter of social life and community connection at the height of the pandemic and continues to serve a similar purpose.

At the Bronzeville Neighborhood Farm, the desire to create safe spaces, build relationships, and learn in community honors the intentions of the farm’s late founder, Johnnie L. Owens Jr, who was killed in a home invasion in 2021.

“It’s a legacy,” said Rosalyn Owens, the

current farm leader and Owens’s widow. “[In the days surrounding] his funeral, I just said, I’m gonna take over the farm. Did I know what I was signing up for? No . . . [but] the conviction in me is so strong that this has to continue.”

The farm’s white hoop house stands out amongst the single family and threestory homes of Bronzeville. The farming structure allows seeds to start germinating and growing in a protected space before the last frost. This and other resources acquired through grants and community support allowed the garden to thrive for over five years in its current location before Rosalyn

the Auburn-Gresham neighborhood, and offers volunteer opportunities for students to meet their community service hours. While Owens described the opportunity for young people to work on an urban farm as a chance for them to develop a stronger work ethic and sense of social responsibility, she also acknowledged that the growth and learning goes both ways.

“I like being around young people, you know, cuz you can learn. I’m sure I teach them something, but I like learning from them too,” said Owens. The intergenerational relationships the farm cultivates help instill values of care,

ancestral veneration and connection is also central to the growing experience. There’s an altar in the Breathing Room community center and the gardens to intentionally create, as Jah Brown said, “a space where people can honor those that came before them.” Images of deceased relatives, community icons, and leaders as well as incense and offerings grace these places of remembrance.

With a growing number of Black folks and other people of color embracing farming and gardening, many of these spaces have become sites of healing through land stewardship and ancestral reconnection. In their simplest sense, community gardens and farms on the South Side serve as spaces to reactivate and reintroduce core human values and practices. As common community resources and social services become less reliable in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the call toward hyperlocal community care continues to gain power.

Iwould love to see the garden just full of people all day, every day during the summertime,” said Anita Johnson. “I tell people all the time, you don’t have to work just because you come in here!” As the first day of the Crandon Community Garden’s opening weekend comes to a close, the lingering laughter of garden members shows that the message has been received.

Owens took over two years ago.

“There’s more to it than just putting the seeds in the ground,” she said. “You have to be able to draw people to want to come and support you, to volunteer . . . [Johnny believed] you had to build a relationship. You gotta have face-to-face conversations.” As their website says: “We not only grow crops, we grow community. Bringing people together for the common good.”

With the closing of CPS schools in 2013 and the dwindling number of reliable after school programs, the Bronzeville Neighborhood Farm serves as what Tyia Morgan, the farm’s digital communications manager, described as a “third space” to support youth in the unaccounted for time between the structure of school and home life. “If you drive around . . . a lot of the times you don't see kids playing at parks anymore. . . .You gotta have spaces like [the farm] that are monitored, that are gated, that are supervised.”

The farm currently works closely with students from Leo High School in

collaboration, and trust in communities that have been heavily impacted by violence and separation.

Beyond the immediate benefits of food access, socialization, and youth engagement, many people identify a deeper ancestral or even spiritual connection occuring in the process of growing their own food.

“When I first stepped into the garden and I started planting there was like internal knowledge that I didn't know that I had,” Harrison Baker said. “My father's from South Carolina, my mom's from Virginia. . . . I see that I come from a long line of farmers. There is something ancestral . . . innate about it.”

For Rosalyn Owens, a beautiful photo wall of famous South Side Chicagoans and community organizers, including her beloved late husband, serves as a reminder of the people that continue to inspire the work of the Bronzeville Neighborhood Farm.

At the Breathing Room Gardens,

As the South Side continues to heal and recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges it has exacerbated, community gardens and farms serve as beacons of hope for a different way to relate and connect. Looking out over the Crandon Community Garden at the smiling faces engaged in conversation, it’s clear that more than plants are being nurtured.

“I'm looking forward to seeing some rejuvenation over here,” said Johnson, in reference to her South Shore community of over two decades. “Hopefully the garden can be a part of that.” ¬

For more information about joining your local community garden or how to support urban farms this summer, visit the Chicago Urban Agriculture Mapping Project’s website.

Jasmine is a writer and space maker based in Woodlawn with a deep commitment to relational healing and creative self expression. As a self-identified “disciple of joy,” she brings a deep curiosity to all aspects of her life.

Anita Johnson with family and volunteers at Bronzeville Neighborhood Farm. PHOTO BY JASMINE BARNES

True Star’s Imprint on Chicago Youth and Hip-Hop

For two decades, the organization has trained teens to report stories, interview musicians, and develop their creative voices.

BY JASMINE MORALES

When you walk into the True Star Foundation’s office you might think you’re walking into just another after school program for teenagers. As you get closer, you’ll hear the teens laughing, talking amongst themselves, and may think this is pretty standard for an after school program. But True Star is no ordinary after school program, or non-profit, for Chicago youth.

In its nearly twenty years of operation, it’s become a media blueprint for the youth voice and culture of Chicago. From the blogs and print articles to its photography, True Star’s contribution as a multimedia organization gives Chicago teens hands-on media experience.

Although they have earned respect as a media outlet, True Star, much like their earlier days, is still fighting to remain sustainable. Most recently, the organization had to find a new home, after their office building was sold. In two weeks they will have moved to 4655 S. King Dr. in Bronzeville.

Greeted by founders DeAnna McLeary-Sherman and Na-Tae’ Thompson, I stood in a full circle moment. Fourteen years ago, I walked into the True Star office doors as an aspiring writer and broadcaster. I had practically no guidance, contacts or networking skills. All I had was a dream that they not only nurtured, but helped me and so many others achieve.

As they geared up for their “19 years of Connecting Young Creators”

fundraiser in May, they carved out some time to sit down with South Side Weekly and reflect on all they’ve accomplished.

Shaping the lives of teenagers across the city, True Star Foundation gives teens a platform to not only build foundational skills as journalists but also gives them a safe space to voice their wants, needs, and opinions as young

people.

True Star was conceived in 2004, shortly after Thompson quit her job in advertising at Chancellor Marketing Group. “I was at the John Hancock building, I had the salary, the parking

True Star founders Na-Tae’ Thompson and DeAnna McLeary-Sherman with magazine covers featuring rappers Twista, Kanye West, and Common, and basketball players Derrick Rose and Jahlil Okafor

PHOTO BY ISIAH THOUGHTPOET VENEY

space, the benefits, the this and that, but I wasn’t happy,” said Thompson.

She hadn’t married or had children and decided it was time to follow her passion. “I went back to the Park District and jumped double dutch and played basketball. I was really passionate about working with young people. It just came easy to me. It didn’t feel like work and that was kind of what I strive for, I didn’t want to feel like I was at work while at work,” Thompson said.

During her time working at the Chicago Park District as a program specialist, Thompson noticed many teens lacked basic writing skills, inspiring her to create an after school program for teens. The idea came to life shortly after Thompson and McLeary-Sherman met.

The two met backstage at a Teen Summit where McLeary-Sherman was in attendance to support her childhood friend, rapper Kanye West, perform. “Na-Tae’ was doing a teen summit with Common and Kanye and she was running everything and I was like, ‘who is this?

She is so cool!’” McLeary-Sherman said

“When I met her it was the same vibe, just cool, easy to talk to, but also hard working… As things progressed, I was like, ’yeah, this could be something’ because [here] were two people who get things done.”

With Thomson’s work experience in marketing at Vibe Magazine and Chancellor Marketing Group and McLeary-Sherman’s MA in business and experience working at Essence Magazine, the women applied for a grant through After School Matters. They proposed a ten-week program centered around sharpening teen writing skills while having fun.

“There were juniors and seniors who couldn’t put together a paragraph, we were like, ‘how are y’all going to go to college and make it as an adult if you can’t do these simple things?’,” said Thompson. “That was really the idea, put the pill in the dog food so that they can learn—and not feel like they were in school.”

Alongside their seventeen students,

the ladies used their connections in the music industry to curate a four-page newsletter. The first newsletter featured broadcast journalist Tamron Hall and Chicago rapper Common, with whom the students had the opportunity to do a phone interview.

The experience would allow for the duo to build trust with their students, inspiring them to come back for another year. As the program grew in numbers, so did the newsletter.

With the experience they gained, the students went on to create a magazine which featured Chicago’s own rapper Twista on the first cover. In 2006, True Star Magazine was born as a print publication, becoming one of the first media entities in Chicago produced by teenagers.

“We were giving the young people the actual experience to sit down with Twista or Common or whoever, and no one was really doing it at that time,” Thompson said.

In 2006, the foundation officially

became a 501(c)(3) organization. Considering their students’ request to learn the in’s and out’s of curating a magazine, McLeary-Sherman and Thompson put their heads together and created a plan that would take True Star to the next level. After funding kicked in, they found a home at 1130 S. Wabash, a central location for teenagers to get to and from.

Young people ages fourteen to twenty-four were able to choose a cohort that taught them specific aspects of their desired field: editorial, photography, marketing, and street teams whose job was to spread awareness of the program. They were taught by industry professionals such as freelance writer and author Jack Silverstein and photographer Deshaun “Trig” Adams.

As the non-profit grew, the teens stepped into the realm of radio broadcasting. Acquiring a brokered slot on Power 92.3 FM, True Star Radio took over Chicago’s air waves. With the help of radio broadcasting vet Bionce Foxx, the teens honed their broadcasting and production skills. From radio show production to the music played, True Star students were completely in charge.

In 2012, True Star carried the torch for the Chicago music blog era by creating Lyrical Lab, a hip-hop based website that focused on Chicago music and helped launch local rappers. With the help of Brihana Gatlin of Swank Publishing and True Star staff like Ms Joi, a former True Star instructor who had a marketing and music industry background, True Star was able to gain access to celebrities.

It was McLeary-Sherman who connected a young eighteen-year-old girl like me to her favorite writer, Scoop Jackson. That connection led me to New York City where I interned at Slam Magazine, a dream of mine since I was a child. Na-Tae’ Thompson pushed me to keep going when I felt like giving up and coming back home.

True Star provides youth, including at risk youth, access to a world that most adults will never get to experience. At work stations teenagers are editing videos, writing blog posts,

True Star is moving to Bronzeville from their original location this month.

PHOTO BY ISIAH THOUGHTPOET VENEY

and planning their next creative rollouts. Their stories, their voices are delivered on their own terms.

They give young people the opportunity to work in the same spaces as college-educated media professionals before graduating high school. They’ve taken on interviews with legendary artists, while also paving the way for a newer generation of Chicago artists like Tink and Chance The Rapper.

True Star has engaged two generations of media makers, Millennial and Gen Z. The publication went digital in April 2018, as they continue to adapt to what the teens gravitate to. “What Gen Z wanted was very instantaneous; they didn’t wanna work on something for two months and then wait another month for it to come out. They wanted to work on it and see it the next day and there was no way to do that with print,” said McLeary-Sherman.

“There was no amount of money we had that we would be able to turn something around that fast, so [the choice] was almost [either] going digital or not being connected to young people,” she added.

True Star’s alumni include educators, TV and radio broadcasters, entrepreneurs, authors, publicists, photographers, musicians and more. The majority excel in their respective fields.

Journalists like Shannon Smith, morning anchor at Cleveland 19 News, author and South Side Weekly freelance writer Kia Smith, as well as writer, Weekly photographer, and creative director of Unsocial Aesthetics, Isiah Thoughtpoet Veney—among many many more artists and creatives—trace the beginning of their careers back to True Star

McLeary-Sherman and Thompson’s partnership was a divine intervention for the youth of Chicago, creating a safe haven for kids across the inner city and allowing them to come together to express themselves and build community. McLeary-Sherman and Thompson adhered to a call many of us would run from: How do you take thousands of at-risk youth from Chicago, keep them alive, teach them life lessons, provide jobs, achieve academic success, connect college

graduates to their dream jobs, provide a sense of family, and love and fight for them?

For many of us, True Star was the beginning of the rest of our lives. As I sat in the office with ThoughtPoet,

nineteen years, the one thing they are most proud of is what their students have achieved.

“With Na-Tae’ and I having the audacity to do what we did, we gave other people our age, the youth, we gave

alum] Subria Whitaker starting her organization or we see that with you guys and what you’re doing in your careers,” McLeary-Sherman said. “Funders will never ever give us credit for it, but young people leave True Star believing in themselves.”

Alumni are finding it imperative for all True Star readers and contributors, and the city of Chicago, to shine light on the organization who paved the way for many of Chicago’s wave makers, young influencers and musical geniuses. ¬ To donate go to truestarmedia.org

Jasmine Morales is a South Side native, writer and graduate from Illinois Media School. She is a contributing editor for hiphop-based media platforms like What’s The Word. This is her first piece for the Weekly

McLeary-Sherman and Thompson, I was able to give my mentors their laurels.

As the two took time to reflect on all they’ve accomplished over the past

them that push to have that audacity, too: ‘I believe in something, I wanna do something, guess what? I’m gonna do it’ and we see that with [True Star

Current students at True Star.

PHOTO BY ISIAH THOUGHTPOET VENEY

“We were giving the young people the actual experience to sit down with Twista or Common or whoever, and no one was really doing it at that time.”

—Na-Tae’ Thompson

A Ride Down Memory Lane With Patric McCoy

The former photographer takes us on a journey through Chicago’s 80’s Black gay community ahead of his forthcoming book, 38 Special

BY LUZ MAGDALENO FLORES

Patric McCoy has spent much of his life riding his bike around Chicago—you might even spot him riding through the South Side to this day. After messing around with point and shoot cameras for years, McCoy got a proper 35mm camera in the 80s. On his 38th birthday, he made a commitment to himself that he’d take a photo everyday. He brought the camera with him on rides throughout the city, capturing those who would let him take their picture.

McCoy frequented the Rialto Tap, a haven for the Black gay men and drag queens in the 80s, until it closed to make way for Pritzker Park. He recalled the lively atmosphere of people smoking weed and drinking sixty-cent pitchers of beer—a short-lived moment in the history of the Loop, but captured through McCoy’s photography. Women would rarely let him take their picture, McCoy said, so he mostly took photos of Black gay men. He developed the images and gifted the photos to the people he encountered again, tossing the negatives in a box.

McCoy said he put his camera away at the end of the 80s because he was no longer able to ride freely without getting robbed. He moved on from photography but continued his passion for art by collecting artwork by Black artists and displaying them in his North Kenwood home. Years later, after five of his old portraits were positively received at a World AIDS Day exhibit at Alphawood Gallery, he and friend John Neff began collaborating on a book that featured dozens of his photos from the 80s. The

forthcoming book is titled ode to the commitment he made on his 38th birthday.

On a sunny evening in early May, Wrightwood 659 gallery in Lincoln Park stayed open late to welcome longtime friends and excited attendees who had come to hear from McCoy and see Take

, his first solo show. The exhibit was also a way of building momentum for the book. McCoy shared memories and his process for taking the photos—many of the men featured in the exhibit had simply shouted, “Hey take my picture!” when they saw him riding his bike. Some fifty black-and-white and color portraits

are on display at Wrightwood 659 until July 15, featuring Black gay men from across the South Side.

I was grateful to have a conversation with McCoy, who generously allowed me to take his picture. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Congratulations on your first show, how are you feeling? And please tell me, how did you go about realizing this show?

I am exhilarated by the fact that people are paying attention and are pleased to see these works. I am getting comments from people that they want to see more. It’s exhilarating, but it is also daunting, in that I wasn’t expecting that!

I didn’t go into this activity expecting praise and so forth—I was more interested in trying to get a situation where I could start to get the book realized. This [exhibit] was just a stepping stone to that, a very good one too! I fell into it with John Neff, who is the co-author of the book we are trying to put together, 38 Special. We were asking everyone for assistance to get the backbone of the book accomplished so we could pitch it to publishers. The Alphawood Foundation said they couldn’t do any direct funding, but they could give us a show. So that is how this came about.

Are you interested in having more shows before or after the book is released?

Oh, yeah! In fact, we have a show scheduled for Blanc Gallery in October. Around when Wrightwood 659 offered

Patric McCoy at the Wrightwood 659 exhibit.

PHOTO BY LUZ MAGDALENO FLORES

[me] the show, Blanc Gallery said they would also like to have a show of my work to highlight the things that I’ve done in addition to photography, with art collecting and so forth. I would do some more [shows] too! I’ve also gotten requests from the Hyde Park Historical Society to have some of my photographs up this summer.

Are your photos for sale?

The photos at the Wrightwood 659 show are not for sale at this time. After the show is over there will be photographs for sale.

You seem surprised by the positive feedback you are getting. You never had a moment where you said to yourself, “Damn, my photos are good?”

I did not start there. I was tackling this as an amateur in the 80s. I don’t know photography, and in order to learn it, I tried by doing it. There are some good photographs in the bunch, but I never really had a big head in thinking these were great. They’re good, but I’ve seen some much better photographs. These are good in that they capture a time period and a culture that not many people were capturing. To me, they are bigger than their quality as art photographs.

Talk to me about your relationship to Chicago and your favorite parts of the South Side.

I have lived on the South Side all of my life. I spent a few years with my grandmother in Michigan, but my home base was still Chicago. I am an avid cyclist, I have been riding my bike forever. I commuted to work for thirty-something years, and I am still riding my bike at seventy-six years old. I have spent a lot of time riding my bike and going through the parks on the South Side: Washington Park, Jackson Park, all the way to Calumet Park. I like being at the parks. I like going to the museums too, but now they have all jumped up admission prices to the point where it’s a major activity to go to, whereas when I was growing up, they were all free. To go to them was a normal activity. To go downtown and be like, “Let me stop at the Art Institute, go in and see some paintings,

and walk out.” It wasn’t a big thing. I would go to the Museum of Science of Industry all the time. It is a different world today. I tend to go to galleries when there is a show by somebody that I am interested in, or when the gallerist has invited me to come. But as a regular to gallery-hop, I don’t do that. I like riding my bike and exploring.

What’s your favorite bike?

The one I have! [Laughs] I have a Trek, it's a ten-speed aluminum, but I’ve had it for four years now. The one I had prior to this one I had for twenty-something years. I don’t just flip and flop and get new ones just because I want something new. The bike becomes like a part of me.

What camera were you using to shoot?

right now that I’m going to take to get framed. I am also going to talk to an artist and pay him for a piece that I want to have, and I have commissioned three pieces at the Hyde Park Art Center that I will have made. My passion is buying art.

Are you still actively collecting art for your home collection?

Yes. I regularly invite people to come and see it everyday. I host Sunday brunches where people come around and sit and laugh and talk and eat. I have created a trust and I am going to leave the collection to my organization, Diasporal Rhythms, so it remains in the public domain. The collection will be put up in some future spot and it will look exactly how it looks in my house right now.

all the time. What is closest to you tends to be what you’re attracted to and what you can pay attention to and acquire. My process as an art collector is to actually engage and interact with artists so they become friends and associates. They introduce you to other artists, and the circle just keeps on growing.

Is there a memory while taking a photo that stands out?

In the 1980s I was shooting on a Nikon FM and Nikon FM2, and in the early 1980s the very first 35mm camera I used was a Minolta SR-T 101, or something like that. I learned the basics, and around 1984 when I made the commitment, I got the Nikon. And from then on, I used the Nikon.

Was processing film expensive then?

Oh no. Everything was much cheaper. I was able to buy black-and-white film in bulk, I would get fifty feet of film! I would roll the film canisters and process the film in the dark myself. My father built a darkroom for me, and my friend gave me an enlarger. The chemicals were cheap, so it was not expensive at all.

Do you have other hobbies?

Art collecting. That was my major focus and still is today. I’m looking at a piece

Is there a South Side artist that you are currently a fan of? And are there any artists that remind you of the art you made in the '80s?

None. The work I did was street portraiture—photojournalism, basically. I haven’t seen many who have been doing that. I do like some photographers’ works, like Tony Smith’s. I have over 500 different artists in my collection, so there is no one person that stands out. It’s impossible. I see so many great artists all the time that I don’t have a concept of favorite. There are so many really good artists out there.

This concept that our society makes of “Ten Best” or “Thirty Best” is just crap. There are so, so many artists out there that are so good. Most of the art I have collected is from Chicagoans and from the African Diaspora. That is what I am closest to.

There are so many artists around us

Too many. All the fifty-two images in the show have a story behind them. But if I were to look over my collection of photographs—and I have thousands and thousands of them—I could tell you, there is one. It’s called “On State,” and I took it while I was on a lunch break from my job.I walked over to get lunch and there was a big crowd on Jackson and State. A man had been hit by a bus—at the time, the city was experimenting with buses going the opposite direction to help with traffic. All these people were standing around and looking at this man with his head busted open. I didn’t want to look, so I crossed the street and took a photo of all the different people and all the different reactions they had looking at him. The reactions spanned the spectrum. That picture shows all the ways in which human beings deal with a very horrific moment. It's not in the show but it will most likely be in the book.

If you were to pick up the camera again, what would you shoot?

Nothing. I found people interesting, but people don’t allow you to take their picture anymore. So I will not be doing anything. ¬

Take My Picture runs through July 15th at Wrightwood 659. Stay tuned for McCoy’s debut photo book, 38 Special

Luz Magdaleno Flores is a Chicana editor, art curator, poet, textile artist, and fotógrafa based in Pilsen by way of Oxnard, California, also known as DJ Light of Your Vida. Her words and photographs have been featured in the South Side Weekly, Chicago Reader, Canada’s Broken Pencil Magazine, Xicanation.com, and Reverb LP and she currently sits as the Bilingual Editor for Sixty Inches From Center

“These are good in that they capture a time period and a culture that not many people were capturing. To me, they are bigger than their quality as art photographs.”

—Patric McCoy

Public Meetings Report

ILLUSTRATION BY HOLLEY APPOLD/SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

A recap of select open meetings at the local, county, and state level.

BY DOCUMENTERS AND SCOTT PEMBERTON

May 24

At its first meeting since being established on January 1, the Missing and Murdered Women Task Force began to review its responsibilities and establish its work processes. The task force is required to meet once each quarter and deliver a report at the end of the year. It advises the director of the state police and the CPD superintendent, recommends ways to reduce and end violence against Chicago women and girls, and acts as a liaison between related government agencies and non-governmental organizations. Among its many designated tasks are to examine and report on the systematic causes behind violence against Chicago women and girls; ways to track and collect data about that violence; policies and institutions that affect such violence, including the investigation and prosecutions of crimes of gender-related violence; and measures to address and reduce violence as well as to help victims, their families, and their communities prevent and heal. The Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority (ICJIA) will be a resource for the task force. Although much of the discussion revolved around Black women and girls, members voiced the need to include other vulnerable groups, especially Latinx and immigrant communities. The task force plans to reach out to other states with similar task forces, such as Montana, Minnesota, Washington, and Wisconsin.

The meeting of the Chicago Board of Education recognized teachers, staff, and a student for their achievements in the past school year, including national honors. A report by Chicago Teachers Union vice president Jackson Podder noted an historic reset in labor relations between the Board and CTU, citing joint advocacy for CPS by CPS CEO Pedro Martinez and CTU President Stacy Davis Gates during a trip to the state legislature in Springfield. Podder also called attention to a new process of open meetings allowing the public to review board agendas before decisions are made. There were no committee reports, but Martinez updated the board on the three-year move to needs-based budgeting from student-based budgeting. The 2023-2024 budget is increasing by over $215 million from the originally planned $150 million increase. CPS Chief Education Officer Bogdana Chkoumbova recognized four teachers who won Golden Apple Awards for excellence and a principal who won for leadership. Five of the 534 CPS school nurses were recognized for extraordinary service that demonstrated “health-related issues are not a barrier to student education.” Other staff honored included the district’s bus aides who, Chkoumbova noted, are “rarely in the spotlight” and counseling teams at six schools honored by the American School Counselor Association. Vanessa Rios, a student at Edwards Elementary, is scheduled to represent Illinois at the National History Day Contest in Maryland and to display her exhibit at the Smithsonian’s American History Museum.

May 25

The Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability (CCPSA) at its meeting covered much ground, including changes to CPD’s proposed revisions to a policy prohibiting police involvement with “criminal organizations” and an update on the Commission’s review of pretextual traffic stops, which enable speculative criminal investigations unrelated to the traffic stop. In connection with a court-ordered CPD consent decree, the CCPSA is charged both with appointing the chief of the Civilian

Office for Police Accountability (COPA) and members of the Police Board as well as creating processes to make the appointments. Drafts of those documents are available on its website for public review and comment, including comments at its June 29 meeting. The Commission is also asking for feedback on its recommendations for police superintendent through a ten-minute survey and e-mails sent to the Commission’s office. The survey and the two consent-decree drafts are available on the CCPSA’s home page at three separate links. Among the consent decree’s goals are to implement “reforms that govern police training and policies and provide officers the support they need” to do their jobs effectively, according to the Illinois’ Office of the Attorney General’s website. The Commission heard that meetings of the twenty-two new police district councils are under way. The councils are designed to provide residents with a say in improving relations between the communities and the police.

June 1

At a City Colleges of Chicago Committee on Academic Affairs and Student Services & Board of Trustees meeting, trustees approved eight million dollars in grants to reduce the cost of tuition and to provide additional resources for students. Temporary housing for migrants at Daley College through part of December was approved. Eight faculty or executive staff appointments were confirmed, including the reelection of CCC provost Mark Potter. Payment of an additional $1.65 million to seventeen key vendors was considered in order to adjust underpayments due in part to urgent issues caused by the pandemic. A number of allocations for vendors were authorized, including, for example, four separate expenditures for IT services totaling $438,000; fitness equipment ($126,000); a scoreboard and shot clock ($30,000); marketing and communications staffing ($500,000); five years of adult education testing ($300,000), and lab equipment for online biology students ($300,000).

At its meeting the Board of Commissioners of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD) noted that MWRD could extend its Stormwater Partnership Program to communities outside the district’s service area for a fee.The program helps fund drainage and flooding infrastructure projects. Commissioner Cameron Davis, who chairs the Stormwater Committee, said he was encouraged that the results of a survey of several communities indicate interest in potential extensions. The Board recognized June as Pride Month by raising the Pride flag at its headquarters and seven other MWRD facilities. In 2019, the MWRD became one of the first government agencies in Illinois to take that step. Commissioner Marcelino Garcia reminded the Board that Puerto Ricans celebrate their culture and heritage in June. The appointment of MWRD President Kari K. Steele to the Public Building Commission of Chicago was approved.

June 2

Activists, survivors of police violence, police district council members, and others supported reforms required by a court-ordered consent decree during one of two CPD Consent Decree Independent Monitor Hearing meetings. At one meeting some nineteen speakers told of CPD interactions, almost all involving negative experiences, including bias, brutality, and corruption. One incident occurred sixty years ago. Independent Monitor Maggie Hickey, an attorney responsible for keeping tabs on CPD’s progress in fulfilling the consent decree’s mandates, scheduled two hearings to collect community comments, in part on police traffic stops. A recent report, “A New Vehicle for Stop and Frisk,” found an increase in pretextual traffic stops in Chicago, in which police stop vehicles for a traffic violation and then search for evidence of unrelated criminal activity. Most speakers related personal experiences, including a woman who said that in 1963 police ransacked her family’s home looking for her brother. Another speaker from a community organization said police had handcuffed him together with others and threw them on the hoods of hot cars. Also speaking was Fred Hampton, Jr., whose father, Chairman Fred Hampton, a nationally known leader of the Black Panthers, was killed in a law enforcement raid in 1969. Joe Ferguson, formerly the inspector general for Chicago, said he supports CPD compliance with the consent decree and that the cyclical turnover in city government hampers reform efforts.

This information was collected and curated by the Weekly in large part using reporting from City Bureau’s Documenters at documenters.org

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Our thoughts in exchange for yours.

The Exchange is the Weekly’s poetry corner, where a poem or piece of writing is presented with a prompt. Readers are welcome to respond to the prompt with original poems, and pieces may be featured in the next issue of the Weekly.

by chima “naira” ikoro

what is there left?

if not forests, if not coral reefs, or sumatran orangutans if not glaciers, if not walls and floors free from stickers telling us where to stand cause y’all can’t listen and people dying by the hundreds of thousands because y’all can’t listen what is there left?

not the ability to sleep outside since y’all won’t give me a house. not seasons that are distinct. not 35 cent chips.

not gas for under three dollars. not student loan forgiveness.

not safety for kids in schools or people in churches, or at the store or anywhere really…at all…ever

what is left?

definitely not a revolution, cause y’all not tired enough yet. for some reason y’all must love it here.

Chima Ikoro is the Weekly’s Community Builder.

THIS WEEK'S PROMPT: “WHAT DO YOU WANT TO INVOKE THAT HAS BECOME EXTINCT AROUND YOU?”

This prompt was provided by E’mon Lauren. This could be a poem, journal entry, or a stream-of-consciousness piece. Submissions could be new or formerly written pieces. Submissions can be sent to bit.ly/ssw-exchange or via email to chima.ikoro@southsideweekly.com.

we like it here

Our thoughts in exchange for yours.

what is queer

by rin

What is queer?

When corrupt brutality

Becomes your reality

And you’re left on the side of the road To have lived through it all That is queer

Your Black isn’t white If it costs you your life And you’re thrown through a system That’ll eat you alive

Your mother won’t tell you How hard it might get To be 21

At the edge of regret

And the heartbreak you’ll face, As everyone knows, Will come deep inside you And tremble your bones

You won’t learn that “No” Doesn’t mean Daddy stop Till your body is bruised

Beaten, battered, and dropped

You’ll often think why You can’t be alone

This body you’ll grow in You’ve never called home

It’s 2.99

For a bottle of wine

When you have nothing else To keep you alive

The going gets rough It never feels over Till your faced with a lover And can’t fuck them sober

Your father won’t tell you How hard it might get To be 24

Past the edge of regret

The heartbreak you’ve faced, As everyone knows, Will start to feel numb And shrivel your bones

So what is queer?

A chokehold fear?

A deadend silence

Turned to violence

A blow to the head

That might leave you dead

Unwanted attention

That begs them to question

“Who are you? And why are you here?”

You have lived through it all That. Is. Queer.

BULLETIN

EcoFest Block Party

Southeast Environmental Task Force, 13300 S. Baltimore Ave. Saturday, June 17, 11am–5pm. Free. bit.ly/ecofestblockparty

Enjoy art, music, eco-friendly treats and other activities including murals and a healing house at this block party hosted by the Southeast Youth Alliance and Southeast Environmental Task Force.

(Zoe Pharo)

Open House at Sanctuary Health

1843 S. Racine Ave., 1843 S. Racine Ave. Saturday, June 17, 11:30am–7pm. Free. bit.ly/sanctuaryhealth

Sanctuary Health, a community holistic clinic in Pilsen, is hosting an open house and five year anniversary party with a raffle, music and free pants. Free yoga will also take place at 10:30am and 11:30am, and acupuncture and massage is available by appointment, open to the public. Sign up for classes and treatments online at sanctuaryhealthpilsen.com.

(Zoe Pharo)

Father’s March 2023

Ogden Park, 6500 S. Racine Ave. Saturday, June 17, 1pm–5pm. Free.

bit.ly/fathersmarch

The 5th annual Father’s March will take place at Ogden Park in Englewood, and will feature games, prizes, face painters, bouncy houses, live music and entertainment, a raffle and food. The event aims to promote peace and unity, and draw attention to the importance of father’s involvement in their children’s lives. (Zoe Pharo)

Reporting Radical Show

Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center, 4046 W. Armitage Ave. Saturday, June 17, 7:30pm. Free. bit.ly/ReportingRadicalShow

The Hoodoisie, a radical live news show podcast, is hosting a live show featuring Puerto Rican journalists Biance Graulau and Camille Padilla Dalmau, who will bring their latest on independent reporting and decolonial journalism. Free show and drinks, live DJ and more. (Zoe Pharo)

Juneteenth Village Fest

Douglass Park, 1401 S. Sacramento Dr. Sunday, June 18, 1pm–9pm. Free. bit.ly/Juneteenthvillagefest

It Takes a Village Family of Schools presents Juneteenth Village Fest at Douglass Park featuring musical

performances by Angie Stone, Marsha Ambrosius, Talid Kweli, BJ The Chicago Kid and Kindred the Family Soul. Attendees can also enjoy food vendors, take advantage of community-based organizations and resources, carnival rides and activities for all ages. (Zoe Pharo)

Annual Speed & Action Rodeo Horse Show

South Shore Cultural Center, 7059 S. Shore Dr. Sunday, June 18, 2pm. Suggested donation of $15 for adults and $10 for children and seniors. bit.ly/speeandaction

The Broken Arrow Horseback Riding Club is hosting its annual Speed and Action Rodeo Horse Show. Rain or shine, the show will go on, with relay races, tricks, barrel races and more. Bring a chair, snacks and any family members or friends. Since its founding in 1989, Broken Arrow has served as a place for riders of all ethnicities and teaches the history of Black cowboys to youth. To register, volunteer, donate or participate, contact Murdock at 773-814-0545 or murdock47@att.net. Registration for riders closes at 1pm. Doors open at 1pm, show starts at 2pm.

Reset on the Road with Sasha AnnSimons will also be at the show for a live taping to talk with rodeo organizers, riders and other country connoisseurs

about the history, the urban cowboy and cowgirl experience, lessons learned and Chicago’s riding roots. 2pm to 4pm. (Zoe Pharo)

Reset on the Road: Broken Arrow Rodeo

South Shore Cultural Center, 7059 S. South Shore Dr. Sunday, June 18, 3pm–5pm. Free. bit.ly/WBEZBrokenArrow

WBEZ Reset with Sasha-Ann Simons will talk with rodeo organizers, riders and other country connoisseurs at this event about Chicago’s Broken Arrow Horseback Riding Club, which for three decades has held its annual flagship events, the Speed and Action Rodeo and Horse Show. The South Shore riding club puts a spotlight on the city’s cowboy scene and the often-overlooked contributions of Black cowboys. (Zoe Pharo)

Juneteenth Community Barbeque at the DuSable

The DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center, 740 E. 56th Pl. Monday, June 19, 11am–9pm. Free. bit.ly/Juneteenthbarbeque

The DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center is hosting its third annual Juneteenth community barbecue. The event will feature family-friendly activities, music performances, inflatables,

a petting zoo, horseback riding, a drum village and more. The event also features a special tribute to the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, with a conversation with hip-hop legend Kool Moe Dee. (Zoe Pharo)

Community Benefits Agreement Summit

South Shore United Methodist Church, 7350 S, Jeffrey Blvd. Saturday, June 24, 1pm–4pm. Free. bit.ly/CBASummit

With the Obama Presidential Center’s construction underway in Jackson Park, organizers from Not Me We, the Community Benefits Agreement Coalition and community members will meet to discuss housing and displacement. Join to hear about the impact of displacement on neighbors, hear Ald. Desmon Yancy (5th) recommit to introducing a South Shore community benefits agreement ordinance within his first 100 days in City Council.

(Zoe Pharo)

ARTS

Candlelight Concerts at South Shore Cultural Center

The Robeson Theater, South Shore Cultural Center, 7059 S. Shore Dr. Thursday, June 15, 7:30pm–9:45pm. Free. bit.ly/candlelightjazz

Candlelight concerts will bring a multi-

sensory experience of jazz, soul and blues under the glow of candles. The program will feature music inspired by Black American from artists like Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Al Green, Ella Fitzgerald and more. (Zoe Pharo)

Rearview Mirror Sessions with Duane Powell: Rick James Green Line Performing Arts Center, 329 E. Garfield Blvd. Sunday, June 25, 7:30pm–10:30pm. Free. bit.ly/RearViewTheIsleyBrothers

Music historian and DJ Duane Powell is featuring four artists as part of this year’s Rear View listening sessions and lecture series. Each session takes a journey through the lives of musical legends and heroes, ending with a live performance by a surprise musical guest in tribute to the month’s featured artist: Rick James. Presented by the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture at the University of Chicago and Soundrotation in conjunction with BrainTrust Management. (Zoe Pharo)

Grant Park Music Festival in South Shore

South Shore Cultural Center, 7059 S. Shore Dr. Friday, June 30, 7:30pm. Free. bit.ly/grantparkfest

Guest conductor Valentina Peleggi makes

her Grant Park Music Festival debut with Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 and Valerie Coleman’s Umoja. Named for the swahili word for unity, “Umoja” is celebrated as one of the top 101 great American works by Chamber Music America. The

Grant Park Orchestra will also welcome pianist Stewart Goodyear for music by Saint Saëns. Grant Park Music Festival is Chicago’s annual free, outdoor ten-week classical music concert series. (Zoe Pharo)

SUMMER MUSIC SERIES

ribute to Ramsey Lewis: A Gentleman of Jazz ormances by Orber t Davis, Tukes Trio, Monty Alexander Trio and more June 22 @ 6:30pm ates open at 5pm)

The University of Chicago Medicine has proudly o ered expert obstetric and gynecological care on the city’s South Side. From helping grow families, to managing health issues such as fibroids and providing support through menopause, UChicago Medicine has been there for you every step of the way and that will never change.