06.06.24

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 11, Issue 10

Editor-in-Chief Jacqueline Serrato

Managing Editor Adam Przybyl

Investigations Editor Jim Daley

Senior Editors Martha Bayne

Christopher Good

Olivia Stovicek

Sam Stecklow

Alma Campos

Politics Editor J. Patrick Patterson

Music Editor Jocelyn Martínez-Rosales

Immigration Editor Wendy Wei

Community Builder Chima Ikoro

Public Meetings Editor Scott Pemberton

Visuals Editor Kayla Bickham

Deputy Visuals Editor Shane Tolentino

Staff Illustrators Mell Montezuma Shane Tolentino

Staff Reporter Michael Liptrot

Director of

Fact Checking: Savannah Hugueley

Fact Checkers: Patrick Edwards Arieon Whittsey Christopher Good Mo Dunne

Layout Editor Tony Zralka

Interim

Executive Director Malik Jackson

Office Manager Mary Leonard

Advertising Manager Susan Malone

Webmaster Pat Sier

The Weekly publishes online weekly and in print every other Thursday. We seek contributions from all over the city.

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

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6100 S. Blackstone Ave. Chicago, IL 60637

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IN CHICAGO

Trump convicted

Donald Trump made history by becoming the first U.S. President, current or former, to be convicted of a felony. The guilty verdicts came on Thursday May 30, convicting Trump of thirty-four counts of falsifying business records relating to hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels, according to The New York Times. Of these charges, eleven are for falsified invoices, twelve are for falsified general ledger entries and eleven are for legal services by way of Michael Cohen.

In a statement immediately after exiting the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse, Trump said “the real verdict is going to be November 5th,” referring to his run for the presidency. The statement, captured by NBC News, continued to allege that the trial and verdict were political attacks from President Joe Biden. Local leaders reacted swiftly after the verdict. Mayor Brandon Johnson said on X that “Donald Trump is a con artist, a bigot, and an embarrassment of a former president.” Governor J.B. Pritzker chimed in on X also, saying “Donald Trump is a racist, a homophobe, a grifter, and a threat to this country. He can now add one more title to his list—a felon.”

Trump is scheduled to be sentenced in Manhattan on July 11.

Historic Mexican elections

Mexico made history Sunday night by electing its first woman president, Claudia Sheinbaum, with 58 to 60 percent of the vote, beating her conservative opponent, another woman, Xóchitl Galvez. Sheinbaum was the former mayor of Mexico City and is of Jewish descent. She had the endorsement of populist president Andrés Manuel López Obrador and she vowed to continue to build on his campaign agenda (Mexico’s constitution does not allow reelection), such as raising the minimum wage and guaranteed pensions for Mexican retirees.

This election was also historic by allowing Mexican nationals abroad to cast a vote both online and in person. In the United States, more than 157,000 Mexicans were registered to vote. More than 10,000 were registered to vote in Illinois—about 1,500 in Chicago. However, backlogs were reported in the four participating Mexican consulates in the country, including Chicago’s. Long lines stretched down Ashland and Ogden Ave. for hours on Sunday before consulate officials announced the polls would close at 7 p.m. and would not allow hundreds of people in line to vote. Frustrated would-be voters hoped this was not an omen of things to come.

University of Chicago denies diplomas to four pro-Palestinian students

IN THIS ISSUE

developer’s plans for st. adalbert remain vague

The city awarded federal tax credits to a proposal to build affordable housing for migrants despite questions about the project’s feasibility. emeline posner ....................................... 4

phalair finds his why

South Shore’s Phalair Carter about WHY—a mixtape-slash-“hero's journey with catchy bebop hooks and mysteriously soft breakbeats.”

imani joseph 6

how a university of chicago-trained doctor became the ‘pill mill killer’

A journalist tells the true crime story of a Chicago doctor currently serving four life sentences in prison for feeding the opioid epidemic.

evan f. moore ........................................... 8

mexican music draws thousands to sueños

The downtown festival lineup featured Xavi and Peso Pluma, who was canceled at the last minute. jacqueline serrato and mateo zapata ................................. 12

a program is helping migrant children acclimate to school and explore the arts

Rincón de Aprendizaje, or “learning corner,” fills gaps in CPS' response to the children of asylum seekers.

michael liptrot and leslie hurtado .............................. 14

un programa ayuda a los niños migrantes a adaptarse a sus nuevas escuelas

El Rincón de Aprendizaje busca remediar las insuficiencias de servicios de CPS para los niños inmigrantes que recientemente llegaron a Chicago. por michael liptrot y leslie hurtado traducido por alma campos ............... 15

Cover photos by Mateo Zapata, collage by Kayla Bickham

Dozens of students chanted and walked out of the University of Chicago graduation ceremony on Saturday, June 1 in protest of the university withholding diplomas from four students and the administration’s refusal to acknowledge and divest from the genocide in Gaza. The four students—Youssef Hasweh, Kelly Hui, Rayna Acha, and a fourth student who did not want to be named, according to Block Club Chicago—learned they would not be receiving their degrees about a week before graduation because of pending “disruptive conduct” complaints related to the Popular University for Gaza encampment that lasted for some eight days on campus before being cleared by UCPD in the early morning of May 7. Pressed for comment by Block Club, administrators did not say what specific acts the students were being accused of, only that students may be allowed to receive their diplomas if cleared of disciplinary charges at some point in the future. Students began the encampment to demand the university recognize genocide and scholasticide in Gaza, disclose its investments, divest from weapons manufacturers, and end its relationship with the Israel Institute. More than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October of last year, and hundreds of thousands more are facing famine, disease outbreaks, and continued bombardment by the Israeli military. Following encampments at other universities across the country, some universities have also refused to grant diplomas to students active in those protests.

pizza nova workers demand justice be served

Last week, employees from Pizza Nova held a press conference to demand better working conditions. jocelyn martinez-rosales 17

public meetings report

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

scott pemberton and documenters 18 the exchange

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

chima ikoro, makale moore ................ 20

q&a with ophelia chong, co-founder of asian americans for cannabis education

Diversifying the visual narrative of cannabis users, the role of Asian Americans in the industry and more.’ wendy wei ............................................... 22

Developer’s Plans for St. Adalbert Remain Vague

The city awarded federal tax credits to a proposal to build affordable housing for migrants despite questions about the project’s feasibility.

BY EMELINE POSNER

As former parishioners of St. Adalbert wrestled with the Chicago Archdiocese over the fate of the shuttered Pilsen church, a developer jumped into the picture with a new proposal—and earlier this year, the City gave that project a financial leg up.

Nonprofit developer Metropolitan Housing Development Corporation is proposing a mixed-use project on the western edge of St. Adalbert’s campus, which includes the basilica, rectory, school and parking lot at 16th and Ashland. The proposed development would provide housing and supportive services to seventyseven asylum seeker households. The first phase of the project is estimated to cost $28 million.

The project, Pilsen Migrant Continuum of Care Workforce Housing, was one of thirteen affordable housing developments that the Department of Housing (DOH) selected to receive federal tax credits in early March.

was open, it served mainly Polish and then Mexican parishioners.

“I am here defending the right of our community to landmark a building for generations to come, for immigrants, no matter where they come from, to celebrate their heritage,” Sigcho-Lopez said at the hearing.

A continuum of care for asylum seekers— but many details are “TBD”

Metropolitan Housing drew upon the church’s rich immigrant history in its proposal to provide a “continuum of care” to newly arrived asylum seekers in Chicago. The church campus “has long been an area that is accepting of immigrants dating back to the turn of the century,” the nonprofit developer wrote in its July 2023 application to DOH.

The majority of the proposed units would be studio or one-bedroom apartments in a new building, according to a copy of the funding application that the Weekly obtained through public records requests. Ten two-bedroom apartments would be built in the existing refectory.

In later phases, the developer would rehab the historic church and convent buildings to build out a “welcoming/ resource center” and a shelter site. Local social service providers said that the project, as described, could be a first of its kind and was “exciting” to hear about as an approach to expanding housing access.

“I’m very happy and glad to see our leaders thinking about developing housing to help [asylum seekers],” said Johannes Favi, deputy director of the Illinois Community for Displaced Immigrants.

But a review of the project narrative,

submitted in July 2023 as part of an application for low-income housing tax credits, raises questions about the developer’s ability to get the project off the ground. For one, the Archdiocese still owns the land, and has “no current agreement with any group,” a diocesean spokesperson told the Weekly by email.

Last August, one month after Metropolitan Housing submitted its application to the City for federal funding allocation, the Sun-Times reported that the land was under contract for sale to an outof-state company. That sale ultimately fell through.

Details pertaining to operating costs, sustainable design, supportive services, and community engagement efforts appear to be vague or contradictory. A spokesperson for the DOH, which awarded $1.2 million in tax credits for the project’s first phase, declined to respond to questions about the project and the developer’s pending letter of intent to buy the property.

“At this point in time, we are refraining from commenting on any one project in particular as they still need to undergo the stage II review process,” a DOH spokesperson said by email. Neither Metropolitan Housing nor two other groups affiliated with the project responded to requests for comment.

Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th Ward) said he is aware of the plan but has not yet received a copy of the full proposal. The development would first have to go through the ward’s established community engagement and review process to get his office’s support, he said.

The fate of the church, which the Archdiocese closed in 2019, citing low attendance, has been uncertain for years.

At a May 10 hearing, Sigcho-Lopez and dozens of community members and former parishioners urged the City to grant landmark status to protect the church buildings and their cultural legacy. In the little more than a century that the church

The proposed complex would offer affordable housing and eventually some amount of supportive services, according to the application. Rents would range from $586 for a studio to $1,300 for a twobedroom. Any asylum seeker applying for a unit would have to be employed to qualify.

Some of the plan’s details about supportive housing, sustainability, costs, and site acquisition remain murky. The development is to have four permanent supportive housing units. The developer did not specify how services would differ between those four units and other households that would be built in the complex.

In one part of the application, Metropolitan Housing indicated that a local, yet-to-be-named nonprofit would provide twice-a-week assistance with navigating public benefits and local resources, education and employment assistance, childcare, and community building activities.

St. Adalbert campus in Pilsen.

Photo by Michael DiGioia

But later in the application, the developer wrote that daycare would not be provided and that it was too soon to say definitively what services would be provided. In response to several other questions about plans for supportive services, the developer wrote, simply, “TBD” or “n/a” (not applicable).

The developer also wrote that it planned to meet “a high standard of sustainability” and would strive for LEED silver certification, but did not provide any detail about how it would approach sustainable design. The building’s utilities will be all gas, according to the application.

To finance the project, Metropolitan Housing asked the City for $1.2 million in low-income housing tax credits (LIHTC). Those credits are expected to generate $11,622,672 in equity for the development over the next ten years, and will ensure the housing remains affordable for at least thirty years. The first phase of the project would also rely on funding from a private lender as well as other public sources, including a DOH loan and a grant from the Low-Income Trust Fund.

The annual cost of operating the housing campus would be low, the developer estimated. That sum, which includes insurance, maintenance, taxes, and other administrative costs, would be less than $5,000 per unit. That’s about half of the average cost for affordable housing in Cook County , which was $9,240 as of 2022, according to an analysis by Cohn Reznick. The developer did not explain in the application how the quoted costs would be feasible.

The church building has been on the market since 2019 and has received multiple offers in that time. Last August, the site was under contract to sell to a Florida-based company, which planned to turn the church into an event space. That sale fell through for undisclosed reasons.

The application stated that the developer had a letter of intent to purchase the property, and that it expected to spend $4 million for the purchase of the 2.15-acre parcel. A spokesperson for the Archdiocese said that while the developer did submit an LOI, “There are currently no plans to redevelop the former St. Adalbert Parish campus, and we have no current agreement with any group.”

A need for housing

With state rental funding significantly capped, it has become a challenge for asylum seekers to secure anything more than a month-to-month lease on the private market, said Maria Campos, director of community wellness and support services at Erie Neighborhood House, one of Chicago’s longest-running service agencies.

Owners of larger buildings have also been less likely to negotiate over leases without the assurance of half a year’s rent guaranteed, she said, so they’re working primarily with owners of small buildings, or with people who can rent out a room within an apartment.

Erie Neighborhood House is one of dozens of local organizations that provide wraparound support, which includes housing, legal, educational and early childhood development support.

Johannes Favi, the deputy director of Illinois Community for Displaced Immigrants, said that some amount of supportive services would be essential for any development that aims to house asylum seekers. But he also pointed out that asylum seekers would run up against red tape and restrictions in all types of housing, whether in the private market or subsidized.

Because it has an employment requirement, for example, the Pilsen Migrant Continuum of Care Workforce Housing would likely be limited to the pool of recent arrivals who’ve already received

“transitioning areas”—where displacement is ongoing—DOH specified a preference for projects that “follow an ongoing and active comprehensive housing initiative, plan, or effort.”

Sigcho-Lopez said that he expected Metropolitan Housing to present to his ward office’s zoning advisory board in the coming months. DOH did not respond to requests about community engagement meetings around this project.

Another four developers submitted applications for developments in transitioning areas, including a second Pilsen site. An eight-acre parcel just a mile east from St. Adalbert’s at 18th and Peoria was acquired by the City two years ago and is currently undergoing remediation.

their work permits. Without work permits, asylum seekers cannot legally work and wouldn’t meet the criteria for tenancy— even if they’re working under the table and can afford the cost of rent.

According to Favi, the Pilsen development could still be “impactful” if it included case management, pro bono legal assistance for tenants’ asylum cases, and a commitment to language access. “The case management is the biggest part of this work,” Favi said. “Because we all know that in the United States you have to pay your bills. You have to pay to eat. Our case managers … connect (our families) with partners that can fulfill those needs in a way that will make the family feel dignified.”

Campos, of Erie Neighborhood House, said that supportive services for asylum seekers should also be trauma informed or include a mental health care component, a change that her organization recently incorporated to better serve clients.

Other City-supported housing projects delayed

In its most recent funding cycle, the City prioritized site-specific developments in Woodlawn, East Garfield Park, and Pilsen. It also asked developers to show plans for energy efficiency, increased broadband infrastructure, encouragement of public transit use, and resources for permanent supportive housing.

For applicants with projects in

In 2023, the City approved a detailed, community-led framework that would create 432 units of housing, a majority of them affordable. That project, La 18 y Peoria Etapa Uno, led by Pilsen-based developer Resurrection Project, did not receive an award from LIHTC.

Altogether, developers submitted thirty-five projects for LIHTC funding. The city awarded thirteen of those projects $24 million each to fund new construction and renovation. The projects are estimated to cost $562 million altogether, using public and private funds. Other selected projects include an Invest/Southwest senior building in Chatham and a recapitalization of the Hilliard Homes.

Who’s behind the proposal?

Metropolitan Housing is one of three groups with ownership in the project, according to the application. The affordable housing nonprofit, founded in 1968, is one of the longest-running development groups in the Chicago area.

The name is well known among housing professionals for its ties to the Chicago Freedom Movement. The 1966 civil rights campaign, spearheaded by Martin Luther King Jr., pressed for an end to a segregated and discriminatory housing market that created unsafe and unaffordable housing to Black Chicagoans. One of the main organizations born of that campaign, the Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities, founded Metropolitan Housing in 1968 to

St. Adalbert as pictured in 2017.

Photo by Robert Harris

get started on the work of developing open, integrated, affordable housing.

That work was not without roadblocks. In 1972, the organization filed a lawsuit against Arlington Heights for blocking a zoning change that prevented the development of low-income, racially integrated multifamily housing. The case went up to the Supreme Court, and though Metropolitan Housing did not win, the case created a new framework for proving that a practice or action is discriminatory and disproportionately impacts a group. The Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities closed down in 2006, citing a difficult funding environment.

Metropolitan Housing is currently under the leadership of Richard Gonzalez, a retired police sergeant and two-time political candidate. Gonzalez, who could not be reached for comment, cited his involvement in housing and immigration issues when he ran for a seat in the 4th Congressional District in 2018; he also ran for alderman in the 41st Ward in 2011.

In recent years, the affordable housing nonprofit has developed two senior buildings on the North Side, Diversey Manor Apartments in Belmont Gardens and John Pennycuff Memorial Apartments, a building marketed to LGBTQ+ residents in Logan Square.

Most of its other projects have been located outside of Chicago, in Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Missouri, according to its website.

Also listed as part-owners in the Pilsen Migrant Continuum of Care project are the Jaffe Family Community Development Fund and Humboldt Park–based Betancourt Realty. Neither company responded to requests for comment.

What’s next?

The Council on Chicago Landmarks is expected to make a final decision about a landmark designation for the St. Adalbert site by June 6. If the landmarks commission decides to grant landmark status, it has the leeway to choose to do so for just the church building or all the buildings on the campus.

In either case, the requested landmark designation would only protect the facades, meaning that future owners would have

some flexibility to rehab or remodel the interiors of the buildings, but would not be permitted to demolish them.

The Archdiocese opposed the landmarking effort, saying it would pass on the cost of repairs to St. Paul Parish, which absorbed St. Adalbert’s remaining congregation and assets upon its closure in 2019.

In its closing statements, a lawyer for the Archdiocese asked that if the City were to award a landmark status, it do so only for the basilica, and not the refectory or other buildings on the church campus.

If the landmark designation is approved, the Landmarks Council will send its recommendation to the City Council’s Committee on Zoning, Landmarks and Building Standards for approval.

Ward Miller, executive director of Preservation Chicago, which has been involved in the years-long effort to protect the building from demolition and decay, said he was happy to see the landmark process progress to this point and that he hoped there would be robust community engagement in the next steps for the property.

“I think the one thing we can all agree on is that the buildings are landmark worthy,” Miller said. “They should be protected, they should be repaired, and honored and designated in perpetuity with that landmark designation. And what comes next is community discussion and stakeholder engagement.” ¬

Emeline Posner is an independent journalist. Their recent reporting can be found in the Weekly, the Investigative Project on Race and Equity, Illinois Answers Project, the Reader and elsewhere.

Phalair Finds His WHY

The South Shore rapper on being raised by an MC and performing at the Silver Room ahead of his album drop.

BY IMANI JOSEPH

In the late afternoon of March 28, it was typically lively in The Silver Room on 53rd Street. Bubbles and smoke hung in the air, obscuring cabinets of luxury jewelry and handbags. The boutique— which offers big, colorful art books, novels with Black people on the covers, and an eclectic wall of eyewear—has recently reinstated its monthly open mic series, where Black artists gather to build community and share art. Phalair Carter, the new host, made his rounds around the room, wearing a woven sweatshirt illustrated with the cover art for Richard Wright's memoir Black Boy.

Over the course of the evening, various local rap artists performed everything from conscious to rock rap, with improvisation and backing from Josh Robertson & the Saints. Some were on stage for the first time. Others were veterans. I saw future pop icons and slam poetry about respectability politics.

Phalair introduced himself to the audience as a rapper, poet, and producer, before performing “Star n Sky.” He walked amongst the crowd, interacting with his community as it swayed back and forth, hands lifted high. The audience chuckled and whooped towards the end of the chorus, when Phalair repeated: “and these bitch niggas won’t get nothing.”

“Star n Sky” is the first single from Phalair’s mixtape WHY, which will be released everywhere June 9. From a bird's eye view, WHY is about a Black man

wrestling with the reality of success. It’s a hero’s journey with catchy bebop hooks and mysteriously soft breakbeats, grand yet hollow. As Phalair says in an intro track evocative of gospel, gracefully layered in autotune: “Just talk to me / We need to lock in / help me. I’ve fallen.”

Phalair opens the mixtape by welcoming the audience into the story and introducing himself. “Star n Sky” specifically shouts out South Shore, with the first verse describing a childhood memory of “watching the spider eat the mosquito.” In confrontational and nuanced verses, he takes offense to his peers rapping for clout or external validation, with phrases like “gatekeepers being jumped in like frat bros” rapped over a sample of “You Send Me” by the Ponderosa Twins Plus One.

“Promiseland” has a dreamy beat and bitingly historical bars, ending with: “I’ve been led astray again.” The next song, “Tired of Tiring,” is a poetic interlude. The instrumental is an electric hum. Art has become a clown suit. The American Dream is a weak idea.

But WHY gets personal, too. “Thing Called Love” explores masculinity, poverty, and familial responsibility over a sample of Dee Dee Bridgewater’s “When Love Comes (Knockin’),” while “1st Million” honors Black motherhood even as it focuses on money. Phalair’s mother, Ms. Robinson, graces the audience with voicemail, which works as a manifestation.

It’s a mother affirming to her son that no matter what happens he is loved, even in a song about dreams of materialism. The record ends with a soft piano solo fading into silence.

WHY ends with its protagonist welcomed home, and dedicated to staying for good. The first verse of “Welcome Home” dynamically details a drive downtown with the windows down on an autumn day. In “Home 4 Good,” Phalair expresses gratitude and paints his family tree over saxophone. A line of poetry stands out: “I become the blockade to sink the rival ship.”

Phalair is at once charismatic and pessimistic in WHY, a project that is both hopeful and marked by a looming concern about exploitation. It marks Phalair as part of Chicago’s latest generation of rappers— not for his youth, but for his expertise and cultural reverence.

Four years after speaking with him about his last mixtape, Blssd, the caught up with Phalair at Woodlawn's Robust Coffee to discuss WHY

What was it like for you growing up with hip-hop?

It was the back burner of my life. I didn’t realize how important it was in my life until I got older. I was always the little guy around my dad. He would do these open mics and showcases, and I would always be around it, but not really understanding.

What is it like to be raised by a fellow MC?

It’s challenging and very, very fun. Me and my dad have a very special relationship because he really gave me the blueprint to being my own artist. And it’s weird because now I’m in my own position with an expertise to help him and his artistry, but he has the wisdom to help me and mine so we have a really interesting synergy going on right now. It’s really fun and he raw as fuck.

Tell me about your training as a poet and producer.

I was in LTAB [Louder Than A Bomb] coming up. I only did it for one year cause

Also taught me how to promo shows and get my stage presence up. But what it really did teach me was the idea of how to build out my own show and how to work

what it takes to be one. So it’s kinda like the inverse of things that I had to sacrifice to become what I am now and the people that I lost, the dreams I gave up, and the

responsibility I have to be someone with influence.

How did you come to host The Silver Room’s open mic?

My homie Tyler Martin was the original host there. He was hosting it for a long time, and then I ended up working at the Silver Room. I was really excited to work with him and just kinda help in any way I could. He ended up not being with the space anymore, and then I ended up getting that position.

How do you think the open mic went?

That shit was awesome. Top ten, period. It was amazing, we had a live band, my dad came through, a lot of old Kenwood alums came through and blessed the microphone. It was almost like a reunion, almost. Everybody had fun, and I’m just really glad I got to perform my new song, “Star n Sky,” with the live band for the first time ever. That was really inspiring to me.

What can you share about your upcoming second project, samples, and collaborations?

I’m handling over half of the production on this one. I work with the same niggas. I’m working with Miles Gillespie, Abnormal. The type of samples—we got a lot of Jasper Harris; he’s a composer I really like. A lot of soul samples, but it’s done in a different way. We got some different arrangements of strings. I was kind of really into a lot of orchestral stuff because when I went to SAE Institute they taught me how to make sound differently. It’s gonna be my best work, for sure.

Phalair Carter will launch WHY with a performance at The Silver Room (1506 E. 53rd St.) on June 8, 6-9pm. Follow @_ phalair on Instagram for further updates. ¬

Imani Joseph is a cultural worker. She has a degree in creative writing and politics from Oberlin College and is currently attending Loyola University to get a masters in Library Science and Public History.

Alexis Lombre

Photo by @thirdeyeviews_

How a University of Chicago-Trained Doctor Became the ‘Pill Mill Killer’

A journalist tells the true crime story of a Chicago doctor currently serving four life sentences in prison for feeding the opioid epidemic.

BY EVAN F. MOORE

Doctors save lives. Doctors deliver our children. Doctors often have a thankless job, as we saw during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The advice they give has the power to alter the lives of their patients and the families who support them. And they’re aware of what prescription drugs mean to their patients, including people who often have difficulty affording them.

After all, people with medical insurance can end up in debt. Imagine what happens to folks who get hurt or sick and aren’t properly insured. Some end up finding unconventional ways to treat their problem, or pay out of pocket for prescription drugs.

Doctors also have a privileged status in society. We put an immense amount of trust in doctors to give us advice that enhances our lives, though history has shown that medical professionals have harmed marginalized communities. Think of a time when a doctor made a suggestion that turned out not to be in the best interest of you or someone you know.

Over time, Paul Volkman, a doctor trained at the University of Chicago’s medical school, developed a bedside manner that ended many lives. He allegedly prescribed and dispensed millions of dosages of various drugs, including hydrocodone, oxycodone, alprazolam, diazepam, and carisoprodol throughout his career, according to FBI evidence presented at his 2011 trial.

Volkman is currently serving four consecutive life terms in an Arizona

federal prison—the longest sentence handed down on any medical doctor during the country’s opiate epidemic. The crimes he committed are not lost on journalist Philip Eil, who authored Prescription for Pain: How a OncePromising Doctor Became the “Pill Mill Killer.”

When Volkman wasn’t working at Chicago hospitals, including Bronzeville’s Mercy Hospital (1977-1979) and Michael Reese Hospital (1979-1981; the hospital shuttered in 2009), he made trips to southern Ohio, where the opioid epidemic would ravage communities.

Volkman ran pain clinics where patients paid for drugs in cash while watched over by armed security guards. Thirteen of these people died by overdose on the drugs Volkman wrote scripts for. Investigators also explored his ties to more than thirty other deaths.

Eil’s book, which took twelve years to write, is a tough read. While the national conversation around prescription drugs has inspired a range of works such as Hulu’s 2021 miniseries Dopesick, Prescription for Pain gets into the weeds of what it all means—starting and ending with Volkman, who earned every bit of his “Pill Mill Killer” nickname.

Eil writes:

“Dale had the sense that her mother’s amputation was preventable. She felt that whatever had happened in the lead-up to her mother being sent home from the emergency room on the day she saw Volkman, the process seemed flawed. She recalled hearing that her mother was clearly in pain from the moment

she had come home from the ER, which, in Dale’s eyes, seemed to indicate a lack of proper care and attention from whoever had treated her at the hospital. She did not believe that the lawsuit was frivolous, as Volkman claimed.

Whatever the exact events that had preceded the amputation, she told me that the aftermath was devastating. Her mother was forced into an early retirement by the surgery and had to learn to live with one arm.”

At times, Prescription for Pain made me really angry. At some point, many of us—most notably, the elderly— have utilized prescription drugs for one ailment or another. It reminded me of a South Side neighborhood near the Skyway dubbed “Pill Hill,” whose name is derived from its status as an enclave for the scores of doctors who worked at the nearby South Chicago Community Hospital.

Eil, the former news editor of the shuttered alt-weekly The Providence Phoenix, sat down with the Weekly to discuss his personal connection with Volkman’s story, what he learned about his father (who was a classmate of Volkman twice over), the institutions that aided Volkman in his evasion of justice, and, notably, Volkman’s agreeing to be interviewed for the book.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Why did you decide to write this book? What piqued your interest in Paul Volkman’s story?

The first time I heard of [Volkman] was when I was twenty-three years old. I had just started a career in journalism. And I learned that this guy who had once been a classmate of my dad’s at this prestigious University of Chicago MD/PhD program had been charged— he hadn’t gone to trial yet—with this massive prescription drug dealing scheme that, according to authorities, had gone on for nearly three years. It had made a lot of cash [and] had basically flooded an area of southern Ohio that was already struggling with addictions and overdose with massive amounts of opiates and other prescription drugs. And most horrifyingly, the government prosecutors said that this conduct had caused the deaths of over a dozen of Volkman’s patients. So my dad, who is a mild-mannered, nerdy, soft-spoken endocrinologist in my home state of Rhode Island and nearby Massachusetts, is not the kind of guy who knows a lot of people who are charged with these kinds of heinous crimes. And so I was immediately just struck by what happened to this guy who had once been so bright. He was a high school valedictorian, and the federal government had paid for his education at the University of Chicago … So what drew me in was the mystery of it. My dad had fallen out of touch with this guy after medical school, so he didn’t really have any answers. I also knew early on that Volkman had lived on Lake Shore Drive [now DuSable Lake Shore Drive]. In fact, he was arrested on Lake Shore Drive; his apartment [was]

on North Lake Shore Drive, right across from Belmont Harbor, when he was first indicted in 2007. Even before I knew a lot of the other details of the story, that image of law enforcement arresting a guy at his upscale Lake Shore Drive apartment kind of grabbed me from the jump.

Doctors have a certain amount of power over peoples’ lives. Do you think that played into Volkman’s psyche and why he was able to get away with his crimes for so long?

You know what, that is certainly one of the big questions. How did he do this for so long? And what I found in my reporting was that by the time that Paul Volkman started working down in Ohio in 2003, oddly enough, he never moved there completely. He was working down there during the week and commuting back up to Chicago for the weekends. By the time he started doing this kind of work in cash-only pain clinics that were not affiliated with local hospitals, he was a really desperate guy. He had tried a number of different medical specialties. He had started out in research. He had gone into pediatrics. Pediatrics wasn’t paying the bills. He had started working in emergency medicine in Chicago on the weekends. That wasn’t really paying the bills and [from when] he had started through a good chunk of his career, [he was] traveling around to various hospitals across the Midwest and taking temporary emergency room gigs for weeks or months at a time. And he was sued a number of times for cases stemming from his pediatric practice in Chicago, but also these emergency room gigs, and found himself uninsurable in the early 2000s. He’d basically try to find a job anywhere he could, and wound up finding this job at a pretty sketchy pain clinic down in Appalachian Ohio—a really poor part of the state—that was owned and operated by a woman who didn’t even have a college degree, that didn’t have any kind of medical training.

So to get into his head, I think there was certainly a power trip when he was down there. He was a guy who was taking care of patients who [were

in the clinic] either because they were financially desperate, or in a lot of pain, or maybe struggling with addiction, or maybe all of the above… And so he did have a lot of power in the room with them. But underlying that, I think the reason he was there was because he was backed into a corner professionally.

He had very few options left for him. And he took a job that a lot of doctors would have dismissed out of hand. He had bills to pay. His rent on Lake Shore Drive at that time was upwards of $4,000 a month. So it was a combination of things: financial desperation, but also his particular personality, which is arrogant.

Doesn’t really listen to other people. Doesn’t work well with other people. So it’s kind of a combination of factors.

You spoke with some of Volkman’s medical school classmates. One described him as the “foggiest, shadiest” character, while another said they wouldn’t have been surprised if he had won the Nobel Peace Prize. What was it like hearing like that?

Well, you know, one of the areas of my reporting that I started with [was] these medical school classmates because I had close access to one of them—my dad, you know. I could just call him up and interview him, which I did a number of times. And in a lot of senses, these folks were helpful in portraying the Volkman that they remember. They described him as smart, a little bit nerdy, a little bit socially awkward. The one you quoted was a roommate of his who thought he was so promising that he might open the paper one day and see that Volkman had been given the Nobel Prize in medicine. But the memories from these classmates were decades old. Nobody had really stayed in touch with this guy. They had all fallen out of touch with him pretty early on, and so in addition to whatever memories they had, they were pretty much unanimously just shocked and stunned at what had happened to this guy. It’s such an unusual thing to happen, for a guy with this kind of background and pedigree to find himself in this situation. So I used the portraits I collected from these University of Chicago classmates [and] included those in an early chapter in the book that describes his time there, but to get answers about what happened after that, I had to go digging in a lot of other places.

Investigative reporting is painstaking, but can also be expensive at times. Do you have any thoughts on how to show people that this kind of journalism is needed? It’s because of those reasons that we don’t see much of it.

I had a couple people along the way down in Ohio who accused me of being interested in this story out of greed

because I was in it for the money. I understand why people down there would be hesitant at this point to embrace people from out of town coming to cover the story, because the coverage of southern Ohio has been pretty negative at times. I definitely want to correct the record that writing any kind of nonfiction book—but particularly a true crime book, and especially a true crime book that took over fifteen years—is not a getrich-quick scheme, or even a get-rich scheme. I started this project when I was in my early twenties and didn’t have a lot of journalistic experience, and didn’t necessarily know all the costs that go into any deep-dive investigative story, but particularly a crime story. So there’s the cost of travel and lodging and gas and food. But there are also costs that are specific to this kind of reporting: namely, court records can be actually quite expensive to access. Whether you’re contacting the clerk’s office directly and having them sent to you, or whether you’re talking to a court reporter whose whose job it is to transcribe them—and they are used to selling these transcripts to lawyers who don’t really bat an eye at a $3 per page rate, but that’s certainly expensive for a journalist. I don’t say any of this as a plea for sympathy from readers, but I do think people have gotten the misunderstanding that this stuff is free to produce, especially in our era of online news, where so much of it comes for free. Fact-checked, slowmoving stories are really important.

Can you outline the institutions you discussed in the book and why you believe they may have failed people by enabling Volkman to get away with things for as long as he did?

I think when you look at the opioid epidemic in general, we see so many institutions that have failed people, whether that’s the FDA or Purdue Pharma or academic doctors who took up the cause of OxyContin and preached the gospel of OxyContin when they maybe should have known that there were reasons to be much more cautious. I think the Volkman story is more of a case of individual irresponsibility— namely Volkman’s, and the people who

owned his clinics, and the one pharmacist mainly who filled his scripts. There are a lot of individual bad actors here. But I don’t want to ignore the institutional part entirely. I don’t blame the University of Chicago for not knowing in the 1970s that this guy was going to wind up a criminal. I don’t think they really could have known that, although the book might be useful in medical schools for people to learn some of the early warning signs that they should keep an eye on a doctor.

Now, with that said, I do think it’s an open question why it took so long for authorities—local, state, national—to bring this guy down. He was practicing or committing these crimes for nearly three years, from April 2003 to February 2006. That’s a really long time. And a lot of people died along the way. So I do think it’s worth asking, why did it take so long?

But why haven’t other actors in the opioid epidemic, pharmaceutical companies, for instance, faced more criminal charges? There just seems to be a kind of glaring lack of criminal accountability with some of the people higher up in the chain above the doctors, whether those are pharmaceutical companies or medical distributors, or a lot of the people we’ve [only recently] seen being sued for their role. But we haven’t seen as much criminal prosecution.

What would you say that the book’s main takeaway should be?

Well, at this point, we are so many years into the opioid epidemic that I think a lot of folks have become numb to the statistics about the really staggering numbers of deaths that have resulted from this, whether those were earlier on via prescription drugs, or subsequently from heroin or fentanyl. I was compelled to tell the story of about a dozen people who went to this one doctor who was practicing in a down-and-out part of Ohio and commuting back to Chicago on the weekends. And with that story, I had a chance to really try to resensitize people to what it means to see these lives cut

short, people who were in their thirties or forties. People who had kids. Who had loving spouses. Who had loving parents, and who really were not treated well by a doctor who they ought to have been able to trust. To tell a story of a person who is no longer around to speak for themselves is one of the biggest challenges that journalists can face, one of the biggest responsibilities that journalists can face. That’s one of the reasons I took so long to work on the story—because it was a really heavy responsibility to tell those stories well. But that’s what I tried to do, to hopefully honor the lives of the folks who went to Volkman and later died.

You traveled to Chicago pretty frequently to do research, to talk to people and walk around the University of Chicago campus, researching and getting ready to write a book that’s pretty heavy in nature. What was that like?

Well it was interesting, because there were really two reasons why I was doing it. I was doing it to write the story of Paul Volkman. But I was also retracing my dad’s steps [because] I would have never known about this story, or had the interest in this story, had this guy not been a classmate of my dad’s and a friend for about ten years, first at the University of Rochester and then for six years at the University of Chicago. So when I was doing these things, going to libraries at the University of Chicago to track down Paul Volkman’s thesis or walking the halls of buildings to look for a photograph of their graduating class on the wall, I wasn’t just looking for Paul. I was looking for my dad, too. People who read the book will see some of those photos. Anytime a journalist works on a story for this long—I’m sure you can relate to this—there’s got to be some personal [and] emotional connection to it to keep you going. And for me, it was a few different things. It was the importance of the story and doing justice to the victims. But initially, at least, there was also this personal motivation of wanting to learn more about my dad. And I did do that during the process.

Well, what did you learn about your dad?

Well, for most of my life, he was not just a doctor who saw patients, but an endocrinologist, which is a specialist who sees patients day in and day out, mainly folks with diabetes. What I didn’t know was that he and Paul were trained, really, to be researchers. They weren’t really trained, or expected, to go into the everyday practice of clinical medicine. It turns out both of them did do that for quite different reasons. But I learned that my dad and Paul were really trained as medical scientists, which is to say, researchers: people who were expected to do research and publish that research and have an impact on public health in that way, as opposed to seeing patients everyday. So it really changed my view of what my dad had trained to do, and what he wound up doing.

You spoke with Volkman. What was it like interviewing him and hearing him still deny any wrongdoing? What was it like to see his face, his eyes, mannerisms and expressions, knowing that all these people passed away in his care and he continues to not take any responsibility?

It was wild, Evan. I reached out to him just a few months after hearing about his case. And though if he had checked with his defense attorney—he was awaiting trial at that time—I’m sure they would have told him, “Don’t speak to this young journalist.” But he didn’t do that, and he agreed to speak with me. So I first drove out to Chicago in December 2009 and interviewed him over the course of two days for about ten hours in his apartment. And what an unusual and odd experience that was. I was listening to him, but also looking at him and asking the same questions that you indicated, looking at a guy and wondering: is there something about a person? Do they look different if they’re charged or have committed these crimes? Are there tells, so to speak, that indicate a person is capable of such horrifying stuff? He didn’t completely convince me of his innocence by any means. People who read the book will see that. But he’s a very persuasive and

compelling guy who’s very smart, very qualified, and very forceful in his answers. And he had an answer for just about everything.

I talked in the book about how I met a number of people who knew Volkman in Chicago who did believe his account of what happened down there, and believed he was an innocent guy. But when you go down to southern Ohio, to this part of the country that has been so hard hit by unscrupulous doctors and sketchy pain clinics and addiction and overdoses, those doubts I had really disappeared almost immediately. Because if you go down there like I did—and I went down to this part of Ohio ten times—people down there just don’t have any belief that these doctors were doing the right thing. They look at these local pain clinics that were cash-only, prescribing high amounts of opiates and other medications, as just a flat out criminal operation. So I’m glad that I got to talk to Volkman and hear his side of the story, and I include that side

of the story in the book. But I’m equally glad—more glad, even—that I went down to the scene of the crimes, and spent a lot of time down there hearing the stories of the people there.

And they will tell you a very, very different story from the one you get from Paul Volkman.

CHICAGO PARK DISTRICT

Mexican Music Draws Thousands to Sueños

The downtown festival lineup featured Xavi and Peso Pluma, who was canceled at the last minute.

BY JACQUELINE SERRATO AND MATEO ZAPATA

The third annual two-day Sueños Music Festival saw people flying in from different parts of the country for a lineup of highly popular Latin American artists that would perform at Grant Park over Memorial Day weekend. Sueños organizers estimated around 65,000 people attended.

While Saturday was filled with anticipation as the gates opened to long and disorganized lines of fans who were there for Xavi—the nineteen-year-old Mexican American whose music is hovering at or above Peso Pluma in international music charts—the warm buzz turned to cold frustration as Sunday’s headliner, Peso Pluma himself, was not allowed to perform due to a forecasted thunderstorm that turned out to be a brief shower. This was the third time his show was canceled in Chicago, the first two times over alleged public safety concerns.

Maluma’s performance was cut short on Sunday evening as the projector screens turned red, instructing everyone to evacuate the park against boos and cursing from the crowd. People in cute western

and street wear outfits went home muddy, soaked, and disillusioned.

Before the chaos, reggaeton fans were able to indulge in energetic shows by Rauw Alejandro, Jowell y Randy, Alexis y Fido, Alvaro Díaz and Young Miko. Other Mexican American acts that remained in the lineup after delays and reconfigurations were Gabito Ballesteros (with surprise guest Chinito Pacas) and Ivan Cornejo. Dani Flow, who was starting his first U.S. tour in Chicago, also canceled due to setbacks with his visa.

A Sueños spokesperson said they were working with the Office of Emergency Management and Communications. On Monday, Sueños announced that ticket holders would automatically receive a 25 percent refund.

South Side Weekly photographer Mateo Zapata captured some of this year’s highlights. ¬

Jacqueline Serrato is South Side Weekly’s editor-in-chief. Mateo Zapata is a freelance photographer at the Weekly

Photos by Mateo Zapata

A Program is Helping Migrant Children Acclimate to School and Explore the Arts

Rincón de Aprendizaje, or “learning corner,” fills gaps in CPS' response to the children of asylum seekers.

BY MICHAEL LIPTROT AND LESLIE HURTADO

Wendy Benitez arrived in Chicago from Venezuela in May 2023. She and her three children were bussed from the Texas border to meet her husband, who had already been in a Pilsen shelter for nine months. Within a month of her arrival, the family was able to move into an apartment through the city’s temporary rental assistance program.

Unable to immediately find work, Benitez looked after her three children, aged fifteen, thirteen and two. As she worked to enroll her two oldest children in school, she received information about a new learning program named Rincón de Aprendizaje, a ten-week education support program geared towards helping migrant students.

“It was to help the children with homework. If we were interested, we could register them, and I did,” Benitez said in Spanish. “Santiago, the [oldest] student, they helped him with his homework. And Owen, he’s a freshman in high school,

On Saturday, October 15, 2022, around 4:15 P.M. this couple was driving westbound on Archer Avenue. There was a driver going eastbound at a reckless speed, well above the speed limit, in a Jeep Cherokee that T-boned this couple’s Nissan Murano at the intersection of Poplar Street & Archer Avenue. The wife was in the passenger seat and died instantly at impact. The husband died in the ambulance en route to the hospital. It took the fire department over 45 minutes to pull the wife’s body out of their vehicle. They were married 65 years. Their family and friends are seeking justice through the court system with the help of a witness or video

[he needed] help with math and physics. They helped him catch up with his grade level. They like the activities.”

Rincón de Aprendizaje, which translates as “learning corner” in English, was born from organizers Jesus Hidalgo and Diego Garcia noticing gaps in CPS’ response to the migrant crisis. “We were very much aware of the issues that came to be, the shortfalls that happened when some of the needs of newcomers weren’t being addressed,” Hidalgo said. “We decided to create the program in order to address those needs and restructure some things.”

To date, over 42,000 migrants have arrived in Chicago since the humanitarian crisis began in August 2022, according to the city’s new arrival dashboard. This crisis was reinforced by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott bussing individuals seeking asylum from the Texas border to sanctuary cities across the country, especially Chicago and New York City. The city has described the situation as “an unprecedented increase

If you witnessed the crash on that day please call this number:

If you know of anyone who witnessed the crash, please encourage them to call the number above.

[in the] frequency of buses” since the announcement that Chicago would host the Democratic National Convention.

Chalkbeat Chicago reports that nearly 9,000 migrant students are enrolled in Chicago Public Schools.

Garcia and Hidalgo say something missing from CPS’ approach to migrants is trauma-informed teaching that accounts both for what migrant children have gone through in their journey to the United States, and the adversity they face once in the city.

“As a collective of young Mexicans from the South Side of Chicago, we hear a lot of xenophobic comments that are made not only in the media, but also within our immediate community,” Hidalgo said. “It was important for us to directly interrupt that by greeting these young people and treating them with love and care and overall just dignity.”

The latest ten-week session operated from February to April out of 18th Street

Casa de Cultura in Pilsen at 2057 West 18th St. “We’re community centered. We realize that a lot of these young people, if you wanted to access educational programs outside of school, they had to leave the neighborhood. So we met them where they were at, which was in Pilsen,” Hidalgo said.

The migrant shelter at 2241 S. Halsted St. in Pilsen, established in September 2023, has been at the center of controversy since December, when fiveyear-old Jean Carlos Martinez Rivero died from a combination of sepsis and other infections. The 40th Ward New Arrival Dashboard states the shelter housed 545 people as of May 24.

A large aspect of Rincón de Aprendizaje is providing opportunities for students to experience their community and new home in Chicago. Visits to places such as Harrison Park, the Rudy Lozano Library and even field trips to the Museum of Science and Industry

Photo by Diego García

allow new arrivals to see the city beyond a shelter. “When they had free time, they could take their [sports gear] to go out to the park,” Benitez said of her sons.

Wendy Rondon spent weeks traveling with her two children from Venezuela before arriving in the U.S. in April 2023. After being flown from Texas to Chicago through a San Antonio migrant resource center, she stayed in a Pilsen shelter. It was here where she met Garcia. “Diego was a volunteer at the shelter,” she said. “He always had the task of taking the children to play games, do sports, go for walks, paint benches, plant bushes.”

As Rondon and Garcia built their relationship, Garcia shared with Rondon his plans to launch Rincón de Aprendizaje.

“There are several of us from the shelter that have children who were attending and started the [program]. And they attended every Saturday,” Rondon said. “[The program was] very important, because they live [in the house] locked up. Most of us live in the south and the children are afraid to go out. So they are always cooped up, they are not doing any sports, other than going home from school. [Program leaders] help [my kids] with their homework.”

Rondon’s children are ages twelve and thirteen, both attending Perez Elementary School in Pilsen. She praises what they’re learning at Rincón de Aprendizaje. “I think that the program reinforces what they are taught at school,” she said. “It is very good, because at school they can't give them English lessons, they only have half an hour [to study], which doesn’t help them, because it’s hard for them. So you would have to put him in private English classes, and an English course is a bit expensive. And if you are arriving in the [U.S.], you don’t have the means to pay for a course.”

Rincón de Aprendizaje is offered as an initiative of Florecer, a queer grassroots violence prevention organization that provides youth and families on the Southwest Side opportunities to reimagine their communities through the arts, mutual aid and community building. The organization’s efforts began in 2020 during the demonstrations following the

death of George Floyd.

“We mobilized students for educational equity, racial justice and organized different mutual aid distributions from parks, shelters and other community hubs,” Hidalgo said of that time. “In response to the recent influx of migrants in Chicago, we ended up pivoting our work by organizing different art programs at shelters, purchasing essential supplies for families staying at police stations and at the Todo Para Todos shelter, a mutual aid respite center that was operating in Pilsen from May to August of last year.” The volunteer-run shelter closed in September 2023 amidst a lack of funding and mounting logistical difficulties in running the warehouse location.

“Through that program, we were able to create connections with the children and, when it’s bigger than just the children, their family,” he continued. “We have sustained those connections long enough to now run the Rincón de Aprendizaje program this year.”

The program is funded by the Crossroads Solidarity Fund and, while other forms of funding are available, Hidalgo says the organization is wary of being associated with political entities.

“While we were funded by the Solidarity Fund, it really made me reflect on the ways in which I personally feel like the city has mismanaged funds,” Hidalgo said.

“This program really proved the power that comes with providing people on the ground with funds and the support to do this type of work…To see people on the ground come together and provide something so beautiful for young people, just really goes to show the power of funding communities and people on grants and mutual aid efforts.”

More information on Rincón de Aprendizaje and Florecer is available on the organization’s Instagram: @florecer_chi and Facebook. ¬

Michael Liptrot is a staff reporter at South Side Weekly and the Hyde Park Herald. Leslie Hurtado is a freelance writer and interpreter at South Side Weekly

Un programa ayuda a los niños migrantes a adaptarse a sus nuevas escuelas

El Rincón de Aprendizaje busca remediar las insuficiencias de servicios de CPS para los niños migrantes que recientemente llegaron a Chicago.

POR MICHAEL LIPTROT Y LESLIE HURTADO TRADUCIDO POR ALMA CAMPOS

Wendy Benítez llegó a Chicago desde Venezuela en mayo de 2023. Ella y sus tres hijos fueron transportados en autobús desde la frontera de Texas para reunirse con su esposo, que ya llevaba nueve meses en un refugio en Pilsen. Un mes después de su llegada, la familia pudo mudarse a un apartamento a través del programa temporal de asistencia de la renta de la Municipalidad.

Al no poder encontrar trabajo inmediatamente, Benítez cuidó de sus tres hijos, de quince, trece y dos años. Mientras intentaba inscribir a sus dos hijos mayores en la escuela, supo de un nuevo programa de aprendizaje llamado el Rincón de Aprendizaje, un programa de apoyo educativo de diez semanas orientado a ayudar a los estudiantes migrantes.

El Rincón de Aprendizaje es un programa de apoyo educativo de diez semanas de duración para estudiantes migrantes. El programa es en inglés y surgió cuando los organizadores Jesús Hidalgo y Diego García se dieron cuenta de la falta de atención por parte de CPS a la situación. “Estábamos muy conscientes de los problemas que surgían, de las carencias que habían cuando no se atendían algunas de las necesidades de los recién llegados”, explica Hidalgo. “Decidimos crear el programa para atender esas necesidades y reestructurar algunas cosas”.

Hasta la fecha, más de 42,000 migrantes han llegado a Chicago desde agosto de 2022, según la Municipalidad. Esta crisis se vio reforzada por el hecho

“Era para ayudar a los niños con las tareas escolares. Nos dijeron que si nos interesaba, podíamos inscribirlos, y lo hice”, dijo Benítez. “A Santiago, el estudiante [mayor], le ayudaron con sus tareas. Y Owen, que está en primer año de secundaria, [necesitaba] ayuda con matemáticas y física. Le ayudaron a alcanzar a los de su grado. Les gustan las actividades”.

de que el gobernador de Texas, Greg Abbott, enviara en autobús a personas que buscaban asilo en la frontera de Texas a ciudades santuario de todo el país, especialmente Chicago y Nueva York. Chicago ha descrito la situación como “un aumento sin precedentes en la frecuencia de autobuses” desde el anuncio de que sería la sede de la Convención Nacional Demócrata (DNC por sus siglas en inglés).

Según Chalkbeat Chicago, casi 9,000 estudiantes migrantes están inscritos en las Escuelas Públicas de Chicago (CPS por sus siglas en inglés).

García e Hidalgo dicen que algo que falta en el enfoque de CPS hacia los migrantes es una atención al trauma de los niños migrantes por lo que han pasado en su viaje a los Estados Unidos, y la adversidad a la que se enfrentan una vez en Chicago.

“Como colectivo de jóvenes mexicanos del sur de Chicago, escuchamos muchos comentarios xenófobos que se hacen, no sólo en los medios de comunicación, sino

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también dentro de nuestra comunidad”, dijo Hidalgo. “Era importante para nosotros interrumpir directamente eso al recibir a estos jóvenes y tratarlos con amor, atención y simplemente con dignidad”.

La última sesión, de diez semanas de duración, funcionó de febrero a abril en la 18th Street Casa de Cultura en Pilsen situada en la 2057 al oeste de la calle 18th. “Nuestro trabajo se centra en la comunidad. Nos dimos cuenta de que muchos de estos jóvenes, si querían acceder a programas educativos fuera de la escuela, tenían que salir del barrio. Así que nos reunimos con ellos donde estaban, que era en Pilsen”, dijo Hidalgo.

El refugio de migrantes en Pilsen se creó en septiembre de 2023 y ha sido objeto de controversia desde principios de este año, cuando Jean Carlos Martínez Rivero, de cinco años, murió por una combinación de sepsis y otras infecciones. El refugio albergaba a 545 personas el 24 de mayo.

Un aspecto importante del Rincón

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de Aprendizaje es que ofrece a los estudiantes la oportunidad de conocer su comunidad y su nuevo hogar en Chicago. Visitas a lugares como el Parque Harrison, la Biblioteca Rudy Lozano e incluso excursiones al Museo de Ciencia e Industria los permiten conocer más allá del refugio.

Wendy Rondon pasó semanas viajando con sus dos hijos desde Venezuela antes de llegar a los Estados Unidos en abril del 2023. Tras ser transportada en avión de Texas a Chicago a través de un centro de recursos para migrantes de San Antonio, se alojó en un refugio de Pilsen. Fue aquí donde conoció a García. “Diego era voluntario en el refugio”, dijo. “Siempre se encargaba de llevar a los niños a jugar, hacer deporte, caminar, pintar bancas, plantar arbustos”.

A medida que Rondon y García se conocían, García compartió con Rondon sus planes de empezar el Rincón de Aprendizaje.

“Somos varios los del refugio que tenemos hijos que asistían y empezaron el [programa]. Y asistían todos los sábados”, dijo Rondon. “[El programa fue] muy importante porque viven encerrados. La mayoría de nosotros vivimos en el sur de la ciudad y los niños tienen miedo de salir. Así que siempre están encerrados, no hacen ningún deporte, aparte de volver a casa de la escuela. Los [líderes del programa] ayudan [a mis hijos] con sus tareas”.

Los hijos de Rondon tienen doce y trece años, y ambos van a la Escuela Primaria Pérez de Pilsen. Ella valora lo que están aprendiendo en el Rincón de Aprendizaje. “Creo que el programa refuerza lo que se les enseña en la escuela”, dijo. “Está muy bien, porque en la escuela no les pueden dar clases de inglés, sólo tienen media hora [para estudiar], lo que no les ayuda porque se les hace difícil. Así que habría que meterlo en clases privadas de inglés y es un poco caro. Y si estás llegando a [los Estados Unidos], no tienes medios para pagar un curso”.

El Rincón de Aprendizaje se ofrece como iniciativa de Florecer, una organización LGBTQ de prevención de la violencia que ofrece a los jóvenes y las familias en el lado suroeste oportunidades a través de las artes, la ayuda mutua y la convivencia. Los esfuerzos de la

organización comenzaron en 2020 durante las manifestaciones que siguieron a la muerte de George Floyd.

“Movilizamos a los estudiantes en favor de la equidad educativa, la justicia racial y organizamos diferentes distribuciones de ayuda mutua en parques, refugios y otros centros comunitarios”, explicó Hidalgo sobre sus comienzos. “En respuesta a la reciente llegada de migrantes a Chicago, terminamos orientando nuestro trabajo a diferentes programas de arte en refugios, comprando suministros esenciales para familias alojadas en las comisarías y en el refugio Todo Para Todos, un centro de ayuda mutua que operó en Pilsen de mayo a agosto del año pasado.” El refugio gestionado por voluntarios cerró en septiembre de 2023 debido a la falta de financiación y a las crecientes dificultades logísticas para mantener el centro.

“A través de ese programa, establecimos conexiones con los niños y familias y hemos mantenido esas conexiones el tiempo suficiente para dirigir ahora el programa Rincón de Aprendizaje este año”.

El programa Rincón de Aprendizaje está financiado por Crossroads Solidarity Fund. Aunque existen otras formas de financiación, Hidalgo afirma que la organización es cautelosa a la hora de asociarse con entidades políticas.

“Aunque nos financió Crossroads Solidarity Fund, esto me hizo reflexionar sobre las formas en las que personalmente siento que la Municipalidad ha gestionado mal los fondos”, dijo Hidalgo.

“Este programa realmente demostró el poder que conlleva brindar ayuda a las personas de la comunidad con fondos y apoyo para hacer este tipo de trabajo. Ver cómo las personas se unen es realmente hermoso y demuestra el poder de financiar a las comunidades y a las personas con donaciones y esfuerzos de ayuda mutua”.

Más información sobre el Rincón de Aprendizaje y Florecer está disponible en el Instagram de la organización @florecer_chi y en Facebook. ¬

Michael Liptrot es reportero del South Side Weekly y el Hyde Park Herald Leslie Hurtado es escritora e intérprete freelance del Weekly.

Pizza Nova Workers Demand Justice Be Served

Pizza Nova workers from Little Village are standing up for better working conditions, reinstatement of unlawfully fired workers, and an end to company fear tactics.

BY JOCELYN MARTINEZ-ROSALES

On Thursday, May 30, workers from the South Side pizza chain, Pizza Nova, held a press conference on 26th Street in Little Village to express grievances and workplace injustice alongside worker rights’ organization, Arise-Chicago. Workers demanded the company reinstate three employees who they claim were illegally fired for organizing in 2023.

“We are asking for justice for us as workers and as human beings,” said Martha Rodriguez, in Spanish, at the event. Rodriguez has been a delivery driver for the pizzeria since August of 2020, and was one of the three workers speaking out after being unlawfully terminated for organizing.

Employees at Pizza Nova began organizing in October citing workplace bullying, wage and hour violations, and lack of safety due to robberies at the location.

Workers claim the company retaliated against them in an attempt to discourage organizing by requiring workers to sign a new code of conduct and increasing their workload. Despite this, the workers continued organizing and sought support from Arise in early 2024. Since then, workers have submitted multiple collective letters requesting a meeting with management. They still have not received any response.

The National Labor Relations Board is currently investigating two separate complaints for using intimidation tactics against employees at Pizza Nova such as threatening workers and surveilling employees to stop them from organizing.

The restaurant chain is also being investigated by the city’s Office of Labor Standards, which did not respond to a request for comment from South Side Weekly by press time.

Rodriguez said that delivery drivers at the chain are required to use their own vehicles but are not properly insured under Pizza Nova. Rodriguez was involved in a car accident while on the job and was not compensated for damages to her vehicle that resulted in a total loss. Workers have written letters and tried to contact owners Tony Parente and Hector Coronado but have yet to receive a response.

“We believe that when workers win, we all win,” Arise workplace justice campaigns organizer Jose Uribe said.

“When workers at Pizza Nova approached us saying that they were being subjected to these deplorable working conditions, that they were being robbed of their hard earned wages, and that they were being threatened and intimidated in the effort of stopping them from fighting for workplace improvements. We had to step in.”

Pizza Nova currently has five locations across the South Side in Pilsen, Little Village, Canaryville, West Elsdon, and Ashburn—neighborhoods that are largely made up of people of color. Their employees are a reflection of the community they

serve.

“It sends the message that the only way to get ahead is by exploiting your community and exploiting your people,” Uribe said.

Among the employees speaking out was Laurencio Romero who began working at Pizza Nova in 1999 and was let go this past March.

“They abused the worker, they abused me,” Laurencio Romero said in Spanish while choking back tears.

In similar fashion to Rodriguez, Romero was let go after an accident while completing delivery orders. He detailed years of abuse that included being made to perform duties outside his role.

His wife, who was never employed by the company, was asked by management to accompany Romero on his delivery route for added safety. On several occasions, Romero’s wife was also tasked with errands to run for the pizzeria without ever receiving compensation.

Pizza Nova previously faced a lawsuit in 2003. Four former employees filed against Pizza Nova alleging “that they were

paid less than minimum wage and that they were not properly compensated for working overtime in excess of forty hours per week.” The motion was ultimately denied because the former employees were not able to produce adequate evidence to back their claims.

Overall, workers are asking that the company provide all employees with information about their rights surrounding paid sick leave, allowing workers a day off according to the Illinois One Day Rest in Seven Act, giving lunch breaks at reasonable times, providing proper training and ending accusations of theft without evidence.

Delivery workers are demanding that transactions be completed via credit card after dark, ending deliveries to high crime areas after dark, reimbursements for using personal automobiles and cell phones, and for a reliable time keeping system.

For kitchen staff, workers are asking for proper equipment and training in hygiene practices.

Pizza Nova did not respond to a request for comment from the Weekly The event concluded with a call and response.

“What do we want?”

“Justice”

“When?”

“Now!”

For now, the three employees and Arise will continue to organize and try to not only be reinstated to their former jobs, but to obtain better working conditions for all at Pizza Nova. ¬

Jocelyn Martinez-Rosales is a Mexican American journalist from Belmont Cragin and the Weekly’s music editor.

Exterior of Pizza Nova location at 3704 W 26th Street in the Little Village neighborhood.

Photo Jesus J. Montero

Public Meetings Report

centers offer medical care, coaching, and other resources. Federal COVID-19 relief money is to be used for a center in Chicago but no partner organization has stepped forward. In connection with the Treatment Not Trauma campaign, the committee was looking forward to a working group report due at the end of May to address substance abuse and mental health crises without involving police.

illustration by Holley Appold/South Side Weekly

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

BY SCOTT PEMBERTON AND DOCUMENTERS

May 13

At its meeting, the City Council Committee on Finance learned about the Water Leak Relief Pilot (LRP) program, which is set to run for two years (2025-2026) and to compensate property owners retroactive to January 1, 2023. City water-line leaks have cost some property owners thousands of dollars. City Comptroller Chasse Rehwinkel explained that upon request, city inspectors will examine water lines, repair leaks, and replace lead service lines if necessary. The program’s cost is expected to be about $2.3 million or just under 0.1 percent of the water department’s budget. The Department of Housing asked for $25 million in housing revenue from tax-exempt bonds to apply toward affordable multifamily housing in the 27th Ward. The housing would consist of one-to-three bedroom units designed to house twenty-nine families. The Committee approved the request. The department estimates the project’s total cost eventually to reach $40 million. The Committee also authorized city attorneys to settle four cases in connection with police conduct. The cases involved multiple civilian injuries and one death. The attorneys advised that fighting the settlements in court would probably lead to higher costs. The authorization does not prevent settlements being rejected and the cases decided in court. Funds to expand distributions from the Small Business Improvement Fund (SBIF) were approved. Covering twenty-two wards, the funds can be available in July. Some 150 applications for the SBIF program are awaiting approval. Three individuals spoke during the public comments section of the meeting. Some council members were criticized by name.

May 15

At its meeting, the City Council Committee on Health and Human Relations heard from the city’s public health commissioner, Olusimbo Ige, MD, that opioid use is increasing and that the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) is addressing the problem in several ways. The department has identified overdose “hot spots,” formed an overdose rapid response team, and is making Narcan Nasal Spray, fentanyl test strips, and harm reduction training available through its Office of Substance Use and Recovery Services. Narcan is an over-the-counter commercial brand that uses naloxone, an FDAapproved medication, to rapidly reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. Naloxone can also reverse and block the effects of heroin, morphine, and oxycodone. Appointed by the mayor last November, Commissioner Ige reported that the gap in life expectancy between Black and non-Black Chicagoans is twice that of the national average, or 11.4 years as of 2022. Other data analysis, she reported, showed that Black Chicagoans seem to experience less loneliness, serious psychological distress, and youth depression than other populations but a greater sense of belonging in their neighborhoods. They also self-reported higher rates of unemployment, poverty, unmet mental health issues, youth suicide attempts, and misuse of prescription opioids. Plans to delay the opening of a “sobering center” for intoxicated individuals were protested by several attendees. Such

At the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) Pilsen Public Meeting: Sims Metal Large Recycling Facility Permit, the department fielded a request from community members to shut down Sims Metal Management Facility at 2500 South Paulina Street. Alleged dangerous pollutants and a fire just over a year ago are among the reasons cited to justify the recycling plant’s shutdown. The community has previously asked for an environmental cleanup or shutdown several times. Public Health Commissioner Dr. Olusimbo Ige pointed out that the Chicago Municipal Code restricts the department’s ability to deny the company’s permit, explaining that an amendment to the code would be required. When the facility’s permit renewal came up more than two years ago, Pilsen Environmental Rights and Reform Organization (PERRO) volunteer and former aldermanic candidate Troy Hernandez said, “If Sims can clean up, we would like them to clean up. If they can’t, we would like them to shut down.” Sims was sued by the Illinois Attorney General’s Office in 2021 for violating air pollution standards. In December, 2022, however, the EPA cleared Sims of wrongdoing: “Monitoring data from October and November shows no pollutant concentrations that would cause human health effects from short-term exposure to the air in the area around the facility.” Community members want to see an amendment to give the CDPH the ability to shut down certain environmentally hazardous operations.

May 16

How should misconduct allegations involving “serious” discipline against Chicago police officers be investigated? The Chicago Police Board again heard both sides at its meeting. The city has argued for hearings to be public and conducted by the Police Board. Police union representatives say the hearings should use private arbitration done by a civilian mediator. Serious discipline actions are a year’s suspension or dismissal. The Police Board is responsible for deciding cases when the police superintendent files charges that could result in a dismissal and when the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) and the superintendent disagree on appropriate discipline, according to the Police Board’s website. A judge’s ruling in April that apparently applies to the officers involved in a lawsuit challenge said officers should be given a choice to use arbitration but that arbitration proceedings must be publicly conducted and that officers awaiting discipline be suspended without pay. A police union, the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7, is appealing the ruling. A Police Board concern is that arbitrators aren’t accountable to the public in the same way as the Police Board is and may be more lenient in disciplining officers. Sixteen officers with cases before the Police Board have requested an arbitrator.

At its meeting, the Chicago Plan Commission deferred a vote on a contentious development in North Lawndale after community members spoke in opposition. Protests also came at an earlier community meeting of the city’s public health department on the matter. “If nobody stands up, we can continue to be railroaded and run over,” said resident Norvetta Landon, who has filed a lawsuit to stop the project. Council Member Michael Rodriguez (22nd) has also voiced opposition to the distribution facility if it means area trucking will increase excessively. Instead, he would like to see manufacturing that creates “higher-paid career-oriented jobs, more unionization and less trucking for a community already dealing with an overburdened trucking environment,” as quoted in the Chicago Sun-Times. The proposed 250,000 square-foot logistics hub would occupy fifteen acres of West Ogden Avenue between Pulaski Road and Keeler Avenue. The proposal comes from real estate developer IDI Logistics, which serves the greater Chicago market and has built logistics centers in ten other states as well. In supply chain management, a hub is a central location that facilitates physical distribution of goods to various destinations. To make way for the facility, IDI plans to call for the demolition of several manufacturing buildings, some of historic interest. Residents object to potential health effects due to demolition and increased pollution from truck traffic. The city has referred to the project as an “environmentally complex demolition.”

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

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

“Unexpected” by chima “naira” ikoro

Note: The story of an “unlikely” hero is often a misnomer for the intersection of Blackness and odds defying odds. Likeliness does not negate worthiness, and does not suggest ability.

The idea of a hero being “unexpected” depends on who dares to expect what.

A house painter and a laundress once raised up a boy from dreams and brush strokes, to stages a man like him hadn’t ever crossed before. I heard that he could see the history he’d soon make from his childhood homes front porch— said “university,” meant “mountain top for my flag.”

Stayed on that porch even as he journeyed to class daily, said “no one would be my roommate” meant “I am ready, but they are not.”

Still, as the story follows our “unlikely” but more than exceptional hero, we watch as he gathers good graces and connections like puzzle pieces, crafting a legacy that cannot be fathomed if you can’t see the full picture.

Look beyond the corner and the porch, see our hero collecting more puzzle pieces as far as France, Italy, the School of Rome.

Said “I don’t need a roommate, I will make this art my home.”

A Black man magnificent/Hercules, the distance he knew he could go.

A house painter and a laundress once raised up a boy from brilliance to brilliance, who sat in classes where students read from books that set a blue tint over the Blackness he refused to hold shame for.

A boy who looked those books directly in their spine and said “this is as far as you go.”

A boy who bridged the gap that whiteness washed between the sand of our skin and the shores of our talent.

“Unlikely” is not a qualifier used for anyone else’s legacies except for ours, but who is daring to expect? And what exactly were they expecting?

THIS WEEK'S PROMPT:

“WRITE

A PIECE ABOUT DEFYING THE ODDS.”

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

Chima Ikoro is the Weekly’s Community Builder.

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

FEATURED BELOW IS A RESPONSE TO A PREVIOUS PROMPT FROM A READER. THE LAST POEM AND PROMPT CAN BE FOUND ONLINE.

The Institution of Dreamin

by makale moore

Tribute to Cameron Awkward Rich

Has short walls to it, it doesn’t hold us captive, allowing us to flow freely in-n-out, like young ones playing with Granny’s good air. Every wall is painted with artistic expressions the teachers are fellow “derelicts” & “mischiefs”, and the only form of standardized testing is based on imagination. What will we change with our mind?

When class starts the lesson of the day is possibility, I sleep through it, because I’m dreamin of places I’ll go. There’s power in believing, I’m meant for places beyond walls Normality doesn’t bully our indifferences here.

The only thing that makes us run home is when the music plays over the intercoms, instead of bells of institution to exhibit the magic we created.

Hoping one day, the world will value it, as much as we value 4.0s, because it’s more than enough. Here, the mission statement is to teach, our ingenuity equals merit.

Chima Ikoro is the Weekly’s Community Builder. THIS WEEK'S PROMPT: “WRITE A PIECE ABOUT DEFYING THE ODDS.”

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

Q&A with Ophelia Chong, Co-Founder of Asian Americans for Cannabis Education

Diversifying the visual narrative of cannabis users, the role of Asian Americans in the industry, and more.

BY WENDY WEI

Ophelia Chong, who describes herself as a “consultant, cannabis and psychedelics advocate, and cultivation mycologist,” launched Stock Pot Images in 2015 after noticing the negative and narrow stereotypes of cannabis users. The collection of images, which has since been sold to Adobe, was the largest library of stock images of cannabis aimed at diversifying the visual narrative of what a “stoner” looks like.

Originally from Canada, Chong moved down to Los Angeles to attend the ArtCenter College of Design. As a photographer and creative director, her career spans working with magazines, film festivals, music labels, and more. Since 2015, Chong has merged her visual design skills with a new mission: reimagining the narratives that shape negative associations about psychedelics, including designing Double Blind Mag’s Mushroom 101 Class. The Weekly spoke with Chong about the role of Asian Americans in developing and furthering the cannabis industry in the United States and beyond.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

I love talking to people with many hats on.

I’ve had ten careers.

So let’s start from 2015. I wasn’t interested in cannabis at all until my relative came to Los Angeles from a country that prohibits the use of cannabis. And I had to educate myself very quickly by getting a medical card and entering my first dispensary and this is…before Prop 64 which made it state legal for recreational adult use. And so in 2015, it was still kind of sketchy. The dispensaries were a hodgepodge of cheap-ass furniture they

got from bankruptcies. Always a guy with a gun. There were cameras everywhere. They were basically shark cages. It was pretty nasty. That’s what I walked into.

After that I went online. I went to get images and looked, [thinking] “well how do they see my relative?” So I typed in “stoner” and up came a whole page of images. I clicked on one, and it was a Black man. What it had for keywords were “addict,” “criminal,” “drug dealer.” Every derogatory word you’re going to find. And I thought, “this is how they view my relative.”

So I created Stock Pot Images and launched it three months after that. It was hard at the beginning because, again, it was still in the illegal trade. So I had to do a lot of politicking and networking just to get my photographers on the farm. Within three years, I had the largest library of distinct strains. There were 3,000 of them all shot [from] above on a black backdrop. Plus, I had the largest library of modelreleased images of people smoking weed, everything from moms to grandmothers to Black men, brown, yellow, white, LGBTQ, trans. Every one of these models signed a release that said, in red, “I acknowledge that I am holding a Schedule 1 drug, and I allow Stock Pot images to license my image. So can you imagine ten years ago someone allowing that thing? Oh, yeah, you can allow my industry to use an editorial or business and I’m smoking weed. That, even now, is still a taboo among some people.

In 2015, since I was the only Asian American that was in cannabis that was talking, what I needed was to find more to help educate Asian Americans. So that’s when I created Asian Americans for Cannabis Education [with co-founders Tiffany Wu and Monica Lo] and rolled that out. Oh, because of psilocybin, I became an expert mycologist. I learned everything I

know now on Reddit and YouTube. And from one book from Dr. K. Mandrake on how to grow mushrooms. From there I taught 5,000 people through Double Blind Mag [a magazine focused on psychedelics] and also I’m an adviser on the board. And I’m featured in NatGeo as a mycologist growing functional mushrooms, in print and online. So that’s my story up to now.

That’s interesting. I recently learned that the first person to bring psilocybin or mushrooms to America was a Mexican woman.

Yes, Maria Sabina. It was May of 1957. In Life magazine, there’s a whole article on her in Mexico, the first photographs of her. [The media] were all for it.

Running parallel to Maria, in Chinese traditional medicine, we’ve been using the quote unquote, giggly mushroom for over 1,000 years. So it’s not only indigenous to [Latin] America, it’s indigenous across the world. And if you look into Chinese culture, the way we use mushrooms in general—reishi, cordyceps, lion’s mane— they’re heavily used in Chinese medicine. The fact that we had psychedelics taken from us is also a tragedy.

Can you expand on what you mean by “the psychedelics taken from us”?

China had to adopt the UN resolution on Schedule 1 drugs to enter the EU, and that was MDMA, LSD, cannabis, and mushrooms. Cannabis and mushrooms are in our traditional Chinese medicine cabinet. That had to be excised. An entirely new generation have all been indoctrinated against both. What you notice here is how the Christian Chinese from China have landed in the space and joined Judicial

Watch, which is a group [that Southern Poverty Law Center has] called out as a racist white empowerment group. Asians joined [Judicial Watch] to fight cannabis in San Francisco and El Monte. Most of them are Christian evangelists. And that is how it created this whole anti-mushroom and anti-cannabis [sentiment] in China and in Chinese immigrants.

Was there a political reason for founding Asian Americans for Cannabis Education? Are you looking to build support for allies?

Oh, no, it was more…It’s about helping people understand what cannabis is through the eyes of people who look like you. Right? Because you can. I mean, there’s, of course, Sanjay Gupta and CNN and other people. Martha Stewart. I mean, there’s all those people talking about cannabis. But they don’t speak to a middle-aged Asian dad, right? It’s like, “Oh, that guy’s just like me. And he went to Columbia and Harvard and Oh, wow. He’s in cannabis?” Right? “Oh, that person went to Dartmouth, or that one went to Duke. And they left Altria [tobacco industry leader] to become the Senior VP of sales at Eaze [a weed delivery service]? Holy cow.” That’s what I want people to see. We’re not all stoners, that we actually have jobs. Some of us went to Ivy League schools, have a family, are attorneys and doctors. And it’s not what you think it is. You’ve been fed a lot of misinformation. ¬

Wendy Wei is the Weekly’s immigration editor.

Top: Edson Barbosa and ensemble. Photo by Cheryl Mann. Bottom: Photo by Katie Miller