January 27, 2016 by South Side Weekly

South Side Weekly Call for Submissions for Weekly Lit The Weekly plans to begin publishing original poetry by South Side residents on a regular basis. Submit your work for consideration at lit@southsideweekly.com 2 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

ÂŹ JANUARY 27, 2016

SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY The South Side Weekly is an independent nonprofit newsprint magazine written for and about neighborhoods on the South Side of Chicago. We publish indepth coverage of the arts and issues of public interest alongside oral histories, poetry, fiction, interviews, and artwork from local photographers and illustrators. The South Side Weekly is dedicated to supporting cultural and civic engagement on the South Side and to providing educational opportunities for developing journalists, writers, and artists. Editor-in-Chief Osita Nwanevu Executive Editor Bess Cohen Managing Editors Jake Bittle, Olivia Stovicek Politics Editor Christian Belanger Education Editor Mari Cohen Music Editor Maha Ahmed Stage & Screen Julia Aizuss Editor Visual Arts Editor Emeline Posner Contributing Editors Lucia Ahrensdorf, Will Cabaniss, Sarah Claypoole, Eleonora Edreva, Lewis Page, Hafsa Razi, Sammie Spector Social Media Editors Austin Brown, Emily Lipstein, Sam Stecklow Web Editor Andrew Koski Visuals Editor Ellie Mejia Deputy Visuals Editors Ellen Hao, Thumy Phan Layout Editor Baci Weiler Senior Writer: Stephen Urchick Staff Writers: Olivia Adams, Sara Cohen, Christopher Good, Emiliano Burr di Mauro, Michal Kranz, Zoe Makoul, Sonia Schlesinger, Darren Wan Staff Photographers: Juliet Eldred, Finn Jubak, Alexander Pizzirani, Julie Wu Staff Illustrators: Javier Suarez, Addie Barron, Jean Cochrane, Lexi Drexelius, Wei Yi Ow, Amber Sollenberger, Teddy Watler, Julie Wu, Zelda Galewsky, Seonhyung Kim Editorial Interns

Gozie Nwachukwu, Kezie Nwachukwu, Bilal Othman

Webmaster Publisher

Sofia Wyetzner Harry Backlund

The paper is produced by an all-volunteer editorial staff and seeks contributions from across the city. We distribute each Wednesday in the fall, winter, and spring, with breaks during April and December. Over the summer we publish monthly.

IN CHICAGO A week’s worth of developing stories, odd events, and signs of the times, culled from the desks, inboxes, and wandering eyes of the editors Bruce’s Blame Game After social service programs such as Lutheran Social Services of Illinois and Children’s Home + Aid announced they will make massive cuts to their programs because of the state budget fiasco, Governor Bruce Rauner says there is “no good excuse” for those cuts. If Democrats in Illinois weren’t being so stalwart in their opposition to his proposed budget, he claims, the money would have come to these organizations—which he said he values and respects—on time. It’s a shame: Rauner just wants to pass a budget that will make everyone happy, and these fanatical Democrats keep holding him back. Never mind the fact that, as the Weekly reported last spring, the Rauner budget would gut effective social service organizations like LSSI and Ceasefire while implementing further corporate tax breaks. Homes for Cheap(er) Rahm is doing his best to bring the American dream of property ownership to the South Side. In a meeting with business leaders and members of the Chatham Business Association on Monday, Emanuel announced the Home Buyers Assistance Program. With this special offer, qualifying customers can receive up to five percent off of their loan amount for a brand new or used home! That’s right—that’s up to $12,000 off of the average home price of $250,000. Rahm is proud to say that not only lower-income, but middle-income families will reap the benefits; any household with an annual income of less than $121,000 will qualify. "We can’t have

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Cover art by Ellen Hao.

“…And It Tasted Like Chocolate” The backstories of many politicians are being explored this election season, including that of President Barack Obama: the biopic about his first date in 1989 with Michelle Obama, Southside With You, premiered at Sundance Film Festival this past weekend. Movie crews were present in various Chicago locations this summer, including Altgeld Gardens and Hyde Park, where the climactic icecream-and-kiss scene was filmed at Kimbark Plaza. In this way, Southside With You almost succeeds in being true-to-life: the actual kiss took place just down the street, at a spot commemorated by a plaque. Critics have given generally positive reviews of the film— MTV compared it to the popular Before Sunrise trilogy by Richard Linklater. But what does the First Couple think? "They're excited and they're also a little baffled by its existence," the film’s writer and director, Richard Tanne, told the Associated Press.

IN THIS ISSUE trouble in the clerk's office

Send submissions, story ideas, comments, or questions to editor@southsideweekly.com or mail to: South Side Weekly 6100 S. Blackstone Ave. Chicago, IL 60637

vibrant communities without strong vibrant homeownership," said Emanuel. What does vibrant homeownership entail? To find out, you just might have to take the homebuyer education class that is required for all applicants to the program, which will be introduced in an ordinance to City Council next months. In the meantime, the city will work with nonprofit partners and aldermen to spread the good news.

city releases chatman video

“The city’s about-face...seems to be part of a broader push.” michal kranz...4 remember who you're working for

“When we gonna change?” maddie anderson...5

“I can only say that there was never any intention to investigate it.” max bloom...6 when the gates swing open

“Otis represented all that was good about Chicago music...” christopher good...8 luminous beings

“ You can't bring in plywood, there. You can't bring a jigsaw!” stephen urchick...10

breathing in unison

“Black girls, where your magic at?” kanisha williams...12 performing negroland

“How do you improvise within that?” neal jochmann...13

JANUARY 27, 2016 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 3

POLICING

City Signals Transparency Shift With Chatman Video BY MICHAL KRANZ

n the morning of January 14, a downtown courtroom packed with reporters awaited the verdict from U.S. District Court Judge Robert Gettleman on the release of the now-infamous Cedrick Chatman video, which the city of Chicago had kept under wraps since 2013. The video came up as potential evidence in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Chatman’s family, and a probable release was thus imminent. Indeed, Judge Gettleman did lift the prohibitive order on the video after city lawyers decided to cease their opposition to releasing the video in the interest of transparency. Judge Gettleman, who was supposed to decide the case before the city intervened, criticized the city’s decision. "I went to a lot of trouble to decide this issue, and then I get this motion last night saying that this is the age of enlightenment with the city and we're going to be transparent," said Gettleman. "I think it's irresponsible." The city’s about-face on the issue of the Chatman video seems to be part of a broader push to repair its tarnished image following months of fallout from the release of the Laquan McDonald shooting tape by giving in to public demands for reform. “The city of Chicago is working to find the right balance between the public's interest in disclosure and the importance of protecting the integrity of investigations and the judicial process,” Chicago Corporation Counsel Stephen Patton wrote in a statement. Patton also wrote that the decision to release the Chatman video came about largely as a result of recommendations from the police accountability task force that had been appointed by Rahm Emanuel on December 1. Along with the sudden change in policy on the Chatman video, the mayor appointed Sharon Fairley

4 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

as the new head of the Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA). She has since been outspoken about her commitment to transparency and independence from City Hall. An expansion of body camera and Taser use was also announced late last year. These policy changes could have some far-reaching consequences for what attorney Michael Oppenheimer called “a culture of covering up” in an interview with Newsweek. Oppenheimer is the lawyer for the family of Ronald Johnson, who was killed in a police shooting in October 2014. The video of his death was released on December 7, shortly after the McDonald video, after a year’s worth of city efforts to keep it shuttered. This was originally the approach taken by city officials with regard to the Chatman video as well. Chatman’s shooting was ruled unjustified by Lorenzo Davis, the supervising investigator in the case for IPRA, before Davis was fired and the ruling changed. IPRA accused Davis of being “the only supervisor at IPRA who resists making requested changes as directed by management in order to reflect the correct finding with respect to OIS [officer-involved-shootings].” According to WBEZ, since 2007, IPRA has investigated almost four hundred police shootings and found only one to be unjustified. For this reason, the changes to IPRA’s focus under Sharon Fairley, if implemented, could be an important step in changing the culture of Chicago’s police. However, something like the Chatman video would probably never have been released had there not been external pressures forcing the city’s hand. In the wake of the Laquan McDonald video release, a slew of reform-minded bills, specifically aimed at addressing the CPD’s shortcomings, were introduced in the state’s General Assembly. This legislation may have motivated the city to tackle some of the proposed

¬ JANUARY 27, 2016

THUMY PHAN

Since its creation in 2007, the Independent Police Review Authority has investigated almost four hundred police shootings. They found only one to be unjustified. transparency-related changes internally. For instance, a bill introduced by Arthur Turner would require that law enforcement agencies wishing to deny Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for police shooting videos prove that the videos qualify for FOIA exemptions. Legislation on body cameras and Taser use has also been proposed by both the city of Chicago and state lawmakers. Another motivator for the release of the video may have been the December 7 announcement by US Attorney General Loretta Lynch that the Department of Justice would open an investigation into CPD’s actions. However, Chicagoans had been on the streets well before any of these devel-

opments occurred since the release of the McDonald video in November. On November 27, Black Friday, Black Lives Matter protestors shut down Michigan Avenue on one of the busiest shopping days of the year, costing stores thousands of dollars in revenue. Just a few days later, on December 1st, Rahm Emanuel fired Superintendent Garry McCarthy. While activists in favor of police transparency, in conjunction with the American Civil Liberties Union, have been clamoring for reform for years, the public McDonald video may have convinced the city to shift from business as usual on police accountability. Whether deeper changes will result from the turn towards transparency remains to be seen.

EDUCATION

Remember Who You're Working For

CPS students discuss impact of education crisis on their lives BY MADDIE ANDERSON

ast Thursday evening at the Union League Club in downtown Chicago, a panel of six Chicago Public Schools students provided perspectives on Chicago’s education crisis before an audience of over fifty captivated educators, students and parents. Opening the event, the choir from Lindblom Math and Science Academy performed “When We Gonna Change,” a moving original composition with lyrics that reflected on how Chicago’s leaders seem to make decisions regarding schools without taking student opinions into consideration. Following their performance, moderator Becky Vevea, an education reporter for WBEZ, introduced the panel of CPS seniors from schools across the city. The panelists came from Whitney Young High School on the Near West Side, Wendell Phillips Academy in Bronzeville, Rauner College Prep in West Town, Amundsen High School in Ravenswood, Foreman High School in Belmont-Cragin, and Jones College Prep in downtown Chicago. The students began by commenting on the issues their respective schools are facing. Some students remarked on a lack of elective offerings, others on the fights that break out at school, the cuts to special education and college counseling, and the favoring of the advanced placement track over other students. But the most common thread among their responses was the unequal dispersion of resources between CPS schools. “In my drama class at Phillips, there are forty-nine people. There are people standing at the back of the room and lining the walls,” said one student. “I’m pretty sure that’s illegal.” Similarly, Foreman High School, currently on “intensive support” from the district, is struggling to reach Level 1 status

because of thinning resources. “Foreman got hit the hardest by CPS budget cuts,” said a Foreman student. “I’m captain of the track team and my team is using really old, ratty uniforms because the school can’t afford to buy new ones. On the floors in our building, there are a lot of tiles missing. The textbooks we use every day are falling apart. And, like Cameron said, there aren’t enough seats.” On the other hand, a Jones College Prep student commented that her school has not been significantly affected by the budget cuts. “You know we haven’t really had any issues that need addressing with regard to budget cuts,” she said matter-of-factly, citing the recent construction of a new school building. Similarly, a student from Whitney Young noted, “We just got new sports jerseys, new lockers and new laptops.” The students’ commentary shed light on what the CPS budget cuts look like to students on a school-to-school basis. Following-up on the students’ descriptions of unequal resourcing for CPS schools, Vevea asked the students what they would say if they could gather Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Governor Bruce Rauner, CPS CEO Forrest Claypool and Chicago Teachers Union president Karen Lewis all in one room to talk about the challenges facing CPS. “I would tell them to remember who they’re working for,” the student from Rauner College Prep said. “It’s really all about the students. Rauner, Emanuel, Claypool and Lewis can’t be in this tug of war without involving the students." The Foreman student’s advice focused more specifically on remedying unequal resourcing. “Students at college prep schools aren’t worth any more than students at neighbor-

CAM BAUCHNER

hood schools,” he said. “It’s just that neighborhood schools aren’t given the same resources as college prep schools. It doesn’t make sense to give money to the schools that already have a lot of money and give neighborhood schools nothing and expect neighborhood schools to perform better. They need to distribute money where it is needed.” After hearing students’ advice for Chicago’s elite actors, Vevea introduced a pair of CPS teachers representing the education policy advocacy group Teach Plus, who outlined a concrete plan for repairing the CPS budget crisis. In their proposition, they suggested that Chicago should declare a TIF surplus of $400 million and give fifty-three percent of the surplus to CPS (resolving nearly half of the $480 million CPS budget gap) and that Illinois should increase its individual income tax by a half percent and divide the resulting new revenue between the Chica-

go Teacher’s Pension Fund and the Teacher’s Retirement Fund. When the focus shifted back to the student panelists for a question and answer session, the students, many of whom aim to be policy makers, lawyers and aldermen later in life, spoke to the importance of civic engagement for high school students. They highlighted a range of ways for high school students to become civically involved: spreading information about social justice issues to cure peer apathy and ignorance, registering peers to vote, joining the Chicago Student Union, staging protests and boycotts, and establishing letter-writing campaigns. The closing comment of the event came from an audience member: “I just want to remind you that most of the most important social justice movements have historically started with young people. What you’re doing is exactly right.”

JANUARY 27, 2016 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 5

Trouble in the Clerk's Office The Clerk of the Cook County Circuit Court is being investigated. What are the stakes for Chicago? BY MAX BLOOM

n October 23, 2015, the Cook County Democratic Party withdrew its endorsement of Dorothy Brown, the incumbent Clerk of the Cook County Circuit Court. Instead they endorsed 8th Ward Alderman Michelle Harris for the Democratic primary on March 15. Brown’s office, which has raised controversy for years due to rumors of inefficiency and patronage, has now come under FBI investigation. Now the heated primary race has featured allegations of job-selling and cronyism. As the turmoil within the Democratic Party deepens, it wouldn’t be surprising if Chicagoland voters are asking themselves: what exactly is going on with the Clerk’s Office? And why does it matter? To understand the importance of the Clerk of the Cook County Circuit Court, as well as its complex relationship with the Chicago political system, one would do well to examine the case of Gwendolyn Chubb, a Chicagoland resident who filed a complaint against the Clerk’s office in 2013. Chubb had filed for divorce against her husband, Steve Shavers, alleging that she had been a victim of domestic abuse. In the ensuing court case, Shavers filed an Emergency Order of Protection, an order intended to protect victims of domestic abuse. Judge Edward A. Arce denied Shavers’s request on June 4, 2008, but in subsequent testimony, someone in the Clerk’s office had altered the records so that they said the request had been approved. The divorce case eventually became a custody battle over Chubb and Shavers’ children, and the approval of an emergency order of protection was important in the custody case. Chubb claims that the “that fraudulent document was used against me in the court”; according to a post Chubb wrote on Facebook, she did lose custody of her children, though not necessarily because of that emergency order of protection. After Chubb complained to the Clerk’s Office, the record was changed back to reflect that the order had initially been denied 6 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

but, frustrated by the sequence of events, Chubb filed a subsequent complaint with Mary Melchor, the Inspector General of the Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court. She sent Melchor a number of documents: The case information summary from December 17, 2008 showed that the order of protection had been denied (1). But in the case information summary from January 13, 2011, the word “denied” had been crossed out (2). Finally, the electronic docket from November 30, 2011, after Chubb had initially complained to the Clerk’s Office, recorded that the emergency order of protection had been both allowed and denied, although only the order marking it “denied” had a valid record number, DR 100052119, instead of the invalid DR 100000000 (3).

complaints of fraud, waste, mismanagement, abuse, and misconduct by employees of the Clerk’s office.” But it was the Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown herself who appointed Melchor in 2005, and campaign contribution records show that Melchor gave a total of $750 to the Dorothy Brown reelection campaign in 2002-2003. In 2014, Brown’s political action committee Friends of Dorothy Brown gave $500 to Melchor’s unsuccessful campaign for the Cook County Circuit Court Judge. (Melchor, who is running again this year, claims she did not know about the donation when it occurred.) “If I had to take a guess,” says Chubb of her complaints against the Clerk’s office, “I can only say that there was never any in-

When asked about the withdrawal of her endorsement in the wake of the FBI investigation, Brown suggested that it was motivated largely by political concerns. In the subsequent months, as Chubb tells it, she spoke with Mary Melchor in person and on telephone, receiving responses such as, “I’ll get back to you,” “I thought someone had taken care of it,” and “I’ll call you back.” Chubb believes it would be trivial to check the record logs and determine who in the Clerk’s Office tampered with the file, but the case was never resolved, and Chubb found it impossible to get further updates from the Inspector General’s Office. Chubb speculates that the dense web of political connections between Cook County officials ensured that any wrongdoing in the Clerk’s Office would be covered up. Mary Melchor’s office, according to its website, is responsible for “investigat[ing]

¬ JANUARY 27, 2016

tention to investigate it and they know that unless there was any media attention, even if I were to report them to a higher authority, there still wouldn’t be any consequences.” The Weekly contacted Melchor about the case, and she said she would look into it, but as of press time she had not responded. Now (and for reasons other the Chubb incident), Brown has become a controversial figure in Chicago politics. A four-term incumbent who’s won reelection by consistently overwhelming margins, she had the reliable support of the Cook County Democratic Party for over a decade, ever since her first election to the position in 2000. That all changed this year, when the FBI began an investigation of Benton Cook III,

Brown’s husband. In 2011, Cook received a North Lawndale property for free from the late Narendra Patel, who donated over $86,000 to Brown’s reelection campaigns. Cook transferred the property to Sankofa Group LLC, a firm established by Brown, and a year later, the property was sold for $100,000 to a developer. Last October the FBI seized Brown’s cellphone as part of an investigation that initially sought to examine whether the deal violated campaign financing disclosure requirements. A separate grand jury investigation has been probing hiring and promotion decisions allegedly made by Brown’s office in exchange for personal loans. The Democratic Party withdrew their support amid the FBI investigation, but Brown refused to drop out, setting up a race for the Clerk position between a long-term incumbent and Harris, the party’s chosen candidate. Meister, an attorney who is also running for the Clerk position, argues that the Clerk’s office is so technologically outdated that it cannot perform the basic tasks of justice. “You have on a daily basis folks in the county jail who should be released but the paperwork is wrong, the paperwork is delayed,” said Meister. “The sheriff ’s department holds that person because the most recent order is to put them in here—people literally for months who are in jail when they should be out.” Meister argues that these problems stemmed from a basic failure to move the Circuit Court records systems off paper. “The Clerk’s Office has been scanning files as they come in for approximately the last four years,” he said. “That information isn’t available—there’s a computer terminal or two at the clerk’s office where you can see the scanned documents, but that system isn’t publically available... their office still operates on their mainframe with tape backups from the mid-1990s.” For Meister, the technological issues

POLITICS

are inseparable from the ethical issues that lost Brown her Party’s endorsement. “It’s becoming fairly clear,” he said, “that there’s a likelihood that she has been selling jobs. That’s something that was a very poorly kept secret…I’ve heard stories of it going back a decade. You have functionally illiterate people who have been brought into the Clerk’s office who have no knowledge or background in the court system, who lack the fundamental skills to do the jobs that they need to do. And there are very good people in that office, and to the extent that the court system continues to move it along, they’re the ones that keep it going.” None of Meister’s allegations could be verified. Brown spoke to the Weekly at her Chatham campaign office, only a ten-minute walk from opponent Michelle Harris’ ward headquarters. When asked about Meister’s criticisms, she responded dismissively. “Poor Mr. Meister,” she said. “He doesn’t have anything else to run on but to say what we haven’t done...We are one of the largest court systems in the world with electronic filing; we were one of the first to have that in the state of Illinois. And Mr. Meister, he doesn’t even use it.” Brown argued that she had done a great deal to modernize her office, and to make the circuit court process less byzantine to her constituents. “We are not lagging behind—we are a cut above,” said Brown. “For me to come from inheriting an office where two of the primary divisions were still handwriting in large docket books… we automated all the divisions one hundred percent.” Among a number of electronic systems—for citizens to expunge records, find surpluses owed to them from the bank after mortgage foreclosures, and prepare orders of protection—Brown remarked in particular on her establishment of an electronic filing system, which she said allowed everyday citizens to file their cases, as well as an imaging and document management

system, which she claimed allowed paper files to be shared between offices and with judges on the circuit court—a sharp departure from Meister’s allegations that judges and the public were unable to access the electronic services set up by the Clerk’s office. When asked about the withdrawal of her endorsement, Brown suggested that it was motivated largely by political concerns. “You have people sitting there who have grand juries all of them—excuse me, some of them have been reviewed by grand juries, because anybody can call the US Attorney’s Office and make accusations against you. I imagine some of them probably had some investigations going on when they were endorsed. But mine was more political. That’s why mine became public. Because obviously it had to be political.” At press time, Michelle Harris’s office had not responded to requests for comment. It’s too early to say how the race will turn out. Brown was recently endorsed by a slew of mayors from the western suburbs of Chicago, as well as Congressman Danny Davis. Michelle Harris has the support of the Cook County Democratic Party, and Jacob Meister said he expects to win a large portion of the vote from voters disillusioned with Brown and skeptical of a new establishment candidate. It is clear from the sight of an established political figure such as Dorothy Brown running against a Party-endorsed alderman that the FBI investigation has thrown Cook County politics into some disarray. But however much turmoil there may be in the Democratic Party, some things haven’t changed. When Gwendolyn Chubb heard of the FBI investigation into the Clerk’s office, she says she contacted the Inspector General’s office again about her own complaint. She was put in touch with Mary Melchor, only to hear yet again that Melchor “thought that had all been taken care of.”

(1) The initial case summary shows that the order of protection had been denied.

(2) The edited case summary, with "DENIED" crossed out.

(3) The edited docket shows both "ALLOWED" and "DENIED".

COURTESY OF GWENDOLYN CHUBB

JANUARY 27, 2016 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 7

When the Gates Swing Open

Looking back at the life of Otis Clay BY CHRISTOPHER GOOD

n January 16, Liberty Baptist Church was packed shoulder-to-shoulder. Under the stained-glass windows, churchgoers swayed back and forth, singing along to “When the Gates Swing Open”—but with one notable absence. Otis Clay, who for decades had sung the very same song from the pulpit, was now in a casket. The legendary South Side musician passed away on January 8 at the age of seventy-three. Hundreds of families came to Liberty to celebrate his life, leaving bouquets of flowers and sharing fond memories. Among the mourners were the children of Tyrone Davis, a friend of Clay’s and fellow soul singer best known for the 1970 hit “Turn Back the Hands of Time.” When Davis died in 2005, Clay sang at his funeral. Clay’s former manager, Miki Mulvehill, recalled that Clay “would sometimes sing at multiple funerals in one Saturday,” not just for dear friends, but also for complete strangers. “Otis was the guy who used to ease our 8 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

COURTESY OF BERNADETTE POLLARD

sorrow at funerals,” said blues harmonica player and singer Billy Branch. “There’s a huge void here.” Throughout his career, Clay was a rare talent: someone as well-respected in blues and soul as in funk and R&B. But gospel music and love of God were his most pronounced musical influences. When one listens to his performances of songs like “When the Gates Swing Open” at funerals, it’s clear that this is more than just a song: it’s a twentieth-century hymn, informed by a childhood spent singing gospel and a lifetime filled with faith.

tis Clay was born in Waxhaw, Mississippi in 1942. When he was only four years old, he began singing in a family gospel band. The Great Migration brought Otis to Indiana, where he stayed briefly after the death of his mother before moving in 1957 to Chicago, where he would spend the rest of his life. Here, after getting his start in a group called the Golden Jubilaires, Otis landed his first professional gig

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with the Blue Jay Singers when he was only seventeen years old. “Here we are singing a cappella, and we’re singing in elementary schools, high schools, hotels and colleges and things like that,” Clay said in an interview for the biography posted on his website. “We were known as variety singers, or we were billed as (performing) ‘Old Negro Spirituals and Plantation Melodies’.” Clay worked with several other gospel and a capella groups throughout the early sixties, but it was in 1965, with the release of his first single, “Flame in Your Heart” on One-derful Records, that his career truly began to take off. From 1965 to 1968, Clay released his music on One-derful, the same label that recorded the Jackson 5’s first demos in 1967. When One-derful Records closed up shop in 1968, Clay moved to Hi Records, where he released the classic Trying to Live My Life Without You and earned himself a performance on the television show Soul Train in 1972. Over the years, Clay man-

aged his own Echo Records imprint and recorded some career-defining live performances in Japan. Even in his earliest work for One-derful, Otis showed an impressive musical range. On tender, bittersweet ballads like “I’m Satisfied” and “That’s How It Is (When You’re in Love)”, he crooned about love over crisp drumming and gospel organ, and managed to turn heartache into something you can’t help but tap your foot to. But at the drop of a hat, Clay could howl with the best of them, as on horn-driven funk triumphs like “It’s Easier Said, Than Done.” Throughout his life, Clay demonstrated a commitment to service that, like his music, was rooted in his faith. Deacon Emiel Hamberlin, who helps run Liberty Baptist’s music program and has been attending the church since 1964, knew Clay for about thirty years. “I remember him as dedicated and outstanding,” Hamberlin says. “He didn’t go into music to upstage anyone.” According to Hamberlin, Clay would

MUSIC

Otis Clay's Music Career February 11, 1942 1946

1957 – 1964 1957

Born in Waxhaw, Mississippi Sings in family band, "Christian Travelers," at four years old Joins and performs with various groups Moves to Chicago permanently Sings with Golden Jubilaires

1960

Joins & tours with Blue Jay Singers

1962

Unreleased studio recordings with Columbia Records

1963 1964

Sensational Nightingales Work with Gospel Songbirds

constantly volunteer his time to the church’s music program and sing in the pews—even going as far as to perform with the church’s choir at Millennium Park on one occasion. For several years, Clay sat on the board of People for New Direction, a nonprofit consisting of, as Clay described in his biography, “West Side businessmen and women, doctors, ministers and others who believe strongly in giving something back to the community where they live and work.” Late in life, he was also a chair for Tobacco Road, Inc., the nonprofit that manages Bronzeville’s Harold Washington Cultural Center. Clay received a number of accolades late in his career: in 2008, his album Walk a Mile in my Shoes was nominated for a Grammy, and in 2013, he was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame. But through all of Clay’s musical success, Hamberlin mused, “He never left the church.” That divine influence followed him into his music. “He was great, focused… just inspirational in the studio,” said soul

1965 Signs with One-derful Records

1972

Releases debut single, "Flame in Your Heart," on One-derful Records...

1975

...Follows up with "Tired of Fallin In (And Out Of) Love" 1966 – 1967 Series of popular singles: "I'm Satisfied," "It's Easier Said, Than Done," and "That's How It Is (When You're in Love)"

Releases "Trying to Live My Life Without You" LP on Hi Records Performs on Soul Train

mid-2000s Becomes chairman for Harold Washington Cultural Center 2008 “Walk a Mile in My Shoes” is nominated for a Grammy for Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance

Creates and runs his own Echo Records imprint Releases other material on Elka Records

1977

1968 One-derful goes defunct

Releases material on Kayvette Records

1978

1968 – 1970 Signs with Cotillion Records (Atlantic)

Tours Japan for the first time

1985

Releases second live album, “Soul Man: Live in Japan”

1970 – Signs with mid-1970s Hi Records singer Billy Price, who also sang at Clay’s funeral. Price had been a friend and fan for years before recording a collaborative album with Clay in 2015. “I performed in ways I didn’t know I was capable of, just being in his presence,” Price said. As Clay’s daughter Ronda Tankson noted, Clay believed deeply in supporting those around him. Tankson, who teaches in special education, talked about the numerous times Clay visited her classroom to perform for her students. “If I asked, he would never say no,” Tankson said. “That’s just the type of person he was.” Once, she recalls, she invited Clay to perform for a class of kindergartners at the Southbrook School, only for him to find that more parents than students had shown up. “These are some big kindergartners,” Clay joked. But Clay’s commitment to charity went beyond impromptu classroom concerts. Tankson remembers getting a call from her father in April 2015 after Governor Bruce Rauner announced a plan to cut

early 1990s Two new albums on Bullseye Blues

2013 Inducted into Blues Hall of Fame in Memphis 2015 Records collaborative album with Billy Price, “This Time for Real” January Passed away in 8, 2016 Chicago, Illinois

state funding for the Autism Project during World Autism Month. “My dad called me and said, ‘Is this true?’” she said. “Something needed to be done, [and] he just wanted to do something to help.” According to Mulvehill, Clay had hoped to create a foundation for autism in the black community, something that she and Tankson both hope to follow through on.

“T

his was going to be a big year for Otis,” Mulvehill told me, citing a planned European tour and a number of concerts lined up at the time of Clay’s death. She had also reached out to concert venues in Thailand, with hopes of booking Otis a show in the country. Mulvehill heard back from one concert hall, which responded two days after his death that Otis would be a “perfect” fit for the venue. Clay was buried in Oak Woods Cemetery alongside blues pioneers like Little Brother Montgomery and Thomas A. Dors-

ey. But Clay’s grave is also near the grave of Harold Washington, a lifelong civil rights advocate and the namesake of one of Clay’s many civic initiatives. It’s hard to imagine a more fitting resting place for a man defined as much by his charity as his music. Even in death, Clay is a unifying force: his friends and family are now coming together to plan a tribute concert. Otis was the last of his generation, in more ways than one. As the youngest child in his family, he is survived only by his children and his more distant relatives. As one of the last champions of old-school Chicago soul and R&B, he also leaves behind a musical history that’s at risk of fading into the past. But the greatest loss was human: the loss of a mustachioed man with a sense of humor and an infectious grin. “Otis represented all that was good about Chicago music,” said Branch. “He was one of those guys where no one ever had anything bad to say about him…and in this genre, that’s rare. Otis commanded that kind of respect.”

JANUARY 27, 2016 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 9

VISUAL ARTS

Luminous Beings

"The Weight of Rage" showcases the artistic life of men in Stateville prison

BY STEPHEN URCHICK

he artists of “The Weight of Rage” were still present at the Hyde Park Art Center on the evening of January 16th, even though they were really some forty miles away, in Joliet’s Stateville Correctional Center. Their heroic self-portraits, their autobiographical screen prints, their voices all reciting poetry on pre-recorded audio loops gave them a virtual, even spiritual presence at the exhibit’s families and communities event. “The Weight of Rage” showcases work realized through the Prison + Neighborhood Arts Project, also known as PNAP, which brings artists and academics together from around Chicago to program and teach humanities classes for Stateville’s incarcerated men. The art of “Weight” is centered around a guiding question: “How does the state identify you?” The artists’ answer is that the state must have an inadequate and blurry picture of them. In collaboration with PNAP’s faculty, “Weight’s” artists built out the shape and depth of their dynamic personalities. Characteristics leveled by inmate numbers and lost in stereotypes were restored, for example, by science-fictional sketches that communicated the artists’ hopes and fears for the future. Two tables— strewn with bound pamphlets of scholarly work submitted to PNAP’s classes—offered visitors a glimpse into Stateville’s vibrant intellectual life. Large banners, printed with the artists’ current reading lists, similarly described the kind of mental muscle squeezed into the show’s poetry, paintings, prints, animations, and drawings. “Weight’s” series of self-portraits, done in acrylic paints on canvas, were powerful double-snapshots of their makers. Most self-portraits were abstract compositions painted on surfaces cut in the shape of each artist’s head. Hung at eye-level and about four to five feet tall, black contour lines usually marked the real facial features of the subject, contrasting against the riot of colors and shapes playing out over the remaining canvas. Devon Daniels’ self-portrait shows how the canvasses talk about both physical 10 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

STEPHEN URCHICK

people, behind the wall at Stateville, and vibrant, luminous beings. Daniels coordinates his painting around a center, third eye. The eye is a convex mirror that reflects a city by sunset, and radiates huge pinwheels of yellow, blue, red, and orange, down to Daniels’ beard and through his hairline. The beholder staring back at Daniels isn’t mirrored in his eyes. Daniels has a lucid, distant perspective of civilization. He instead coolly sees something that we can describe but can’t name. (Is it Chicago? Is it a fantasy?) He

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sees it with insight: past and through the point where we’d appear as a shadow over his vision and obstruct his outlook. The self-portraits make conscious, artistic statements the very stuff of each man’s flesh. The artists include intricate patterns—visualized ideas—as a part of their recognizable features. The abstractions surrounding the faces announce the mystery of a mind, without offering us complete access to it: books that can’t entirely be read by their covers, but have to be learned to be

known. The painters collapse two personas onto one surface, defying a prison system that recognizes their literal ID photos but can’t account for their imaginations. The acrylic paint, worked thinly and without much brushwork, penetrates evenly into the canvasses. It emphasizes the seamlessness of mind and body. Free thought is an emphatic part of who these people are. It’s worth pointing out that the conventions of easel painting and portraiture have been made to fit the artists, and not

the other way around. With the rejection of the rectangular painting, the canvas’s supporting wood meets the subject directly and assumes his figure. It breaks him out of the box. Matthew Davis keeps up this play on systems in his painting. The gridlike perspectival scheme he lays out behind his face puns on bars and chain-link fence meshing. Yet, on the other hand, Davis makes this perspective system—inflexible, Western, and not altogether truthful about how things really are—work for his own expressive purposes. It’s a deep moment of push and pull. ‘Push and pull’ might just characterize PNAP’s relationship to Stateville, a maximum-security facility with a population of over 1,600. When I spoke to Sarah Ross, program coordinator for PNAP and a professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, making art in prisons seemed a delicate, effortful undertaking. “It’s a negotiation with every warden and IDOC administration,” she said, referencing the acronym for the Illinois Department of Corrections. “Depending on whether they privilege certain programs.” Ross emphasized how each art project that came from Stateville had multiple makers. “When we have permission from the state or warden, we can take out the artwork.” Screen prints had to be executed from several preparatory diagrams made by inmates; the large acrylic self-portrait canvasses were conceived behind the wall, but had to be completed beyond the wall. “You can't bring in plywood, there! You can't bring in a jigsaw! So, in this way, we continue to shape the work—with agreements from artists in the class—outside the class.” PNAP provides important artistic and academic training to Stateville’s men. Yet, they equally serve as a logistical go-between: finishing the objects, locating podiums from which their ideas can speak. The organization is a pipeline for the style and sensibilities of folks at Stateville. “The work that we do has to have a public presence,” said Ross, “because other-

wise these voices would stay isolated.” The families and communities event hosted by the Hyde Park Art Center brought that public together under one roof, the exhibit’s gallery on a Friday night. Ross and several PNAP board members addressed the urgency of providing high-quality education to Stateville’s men. Just being able to wake up and go to classes, or go to work on a painting, strengthens a man. People in prison want to do more. Their art makes potential energy kinetic. After the event, Ross mentioned how PNAP’s partnership comes at a crucial historical moment. Higher education programs in prisons were shuttered under the Clinton administration. Volunteer initiatives like PNAP—as well as a recent push from President Barack Obama to make folks in prison eligible for Pell grants—seek to once again bring learning back behind the wall. Spoken-word poet Lasana Kazembe performed before the families and friends in the gallery. He read work submitted by PNAP students from his poetry classes. Kazembe had to narrow down his three selections from nearly 150 pages of original writing. Each of the poets traversed big questions like: “What is beauty?” “Is there truth?” and “Who am I?” Kazembe mentioned that for one man, writing a love poem to his lady was a struggle. Giving form to his feelings was as humbling as it was technically challenging. Kazembe’s presentation seemed to give the lie to “The Weight of Rage.” If anything, the show demonstrated how men in prison can transform the system’s heavy oppression into a whetstone for sharpening creative and scholarly minds. Rage might weigh on PNAP and its partners at Stateville, but—as the rooms full of art suggest—it does not keep them down. The show is more optimistic than the name lets on. “Weight’s” artists enlisted their talent and energy to stretch out from Stateville, affirming that they, too, share the same human craving towards fulfilling activity and deep meaning in life. JANUARY 27, 2016 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 11

VISUAL ARTS

Breathing in Unison

The #LetUsBreathe collective launches the Lawndale Breathing Room BY KANISHA WILLIAMS

“W

e don’t need no cops, we don’t, we don’t need no cops.” The most memorable aspect of the Breathing Room’s launch party last Monday, January 18, was the chanting. Damon Williams, co-leader of the #LetUsBreathe Collective, would suddenly break into a chant, a song, a rhyme, and everyone in the room would say the phrase back with matching rhythm. I knew exactly which words to say, even when Damon didn’t say them first, and while one could attribute that to the predictable structure of the chants themselves, it felt more like there was a shared energy humming within everyone in the room. The Breathing Room, a new community space on Cermak Avenue, is the latest project of the #LetUsBreathe collective, an organization that considers itself an incubator for innovative activism and social change. Born out of a 2014 fundraising drive for gas masks and other medical supplies for Ferguson protestors, the collective grew when co-leaders and siblings Kristiana Colón and Williams decided to concentrate their organizing efforts on Chicago. The Breathing Room was established primarily as an interdisciplinary art space where local artists can combine art with activism, but it is also meant to serve as a communal safe space for residents of North Lawndale and beyond. Xavier Paul, a member of the #LetUsBreathe Vision Team, described the Breathing Room as the manifestation of a desire to become part of the communities and local organizations that they work with. The collective settled on North Lawndale as the location for the space due to their extensive protesting of the acquittal of Dante Servin. Servin is a CPD officer who faced charges for the off-duty shooting at Rekia Boyd, an unarmed twenty-two-year-old who was killed in North Lawndale’s Douglas Park. They also attribute their decision to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s time living and fighting for fair housing in the neighborhood.

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“Racist hands around my throat / and I can’t breathe.” I snapped and whooped during the performances as each performer struck a chord with everyone in the room. I felt mobilized, I felt like a part of the collective, I felt I was breathing when everyone else breathed and chanting when everyone else chanted. When I first arrived at the Breathing Room, I found a homemade sign that read “Breathing Room!” posted on the wall. Additional signs in the building stairway encouraged me up the four flights to the Breathing Room, where I found a space filled with makeshift items. Pillows and rugs peppered the floor, forming a seating area right in front of the stage, and a hanging curtain separated a lounge area from the performance area. Throughout the Breathing Room were works of art that reflected the core mission of the collective and the space: there was a communal painting to which everyone added an image over the course of the night; a tie-dyed cloth on which women of color in attendance were instructed to write the name of a woman of color who had been murdered; a wooden board with images of Martin Luther King, Jr.; and documents from King's time in North Lawndale shortly before his death, including the list of demands he posted to the door of Chicago’s City Hall. The talks and performances of the night reflected #LetUsBreathe’s dedication to cultivating accessible activism through art and community roots. Among the performers was a representative from Assata’s Daughters, an organization that provides guidance and inspiration to young black girls through art. She spoke passionately and eloquently about the danger of regarding King as a saint, and of minimizing the roles of women and children in protests. Tweak RBG (Radical Black Girl) later performed a poignant rap about the lack of attention paid to black communities in Chicago and the frustration of marginalization. “Black girls, where your magic at?”

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KANISHA WILLIAMS

The Breathing Room is the culmination of the collective’s efforts to make activism accessible through art and to create a space to organize, protest and, most importantly, breathe. At first I felt like I had walked into someone else’s home. It may have been

the potluck spread, my relation to the performances, or the fact that everyone was constantly rearranging and diving into new conversations with new people, but when I walked out at the end of the night, it was my own.

BOOKS

Performing Negroland

Margo Jefferson and Jamie Kalven in conversation at the Sem Co-op BY NEAL JOCHMANN

wo Thursdays ago, the Seminary Co-op was filled to almost standing capacity as a large, enthusiastic crowd waited for Margo Jefferson, and Jamie Kalven to begin discussing Jefferson's latest book, Negroland: A Memoir, which explores the history of Chicago’s black elite and the way her life has been informed by her upbringing within it. Kalven, a human-rights activist and journalist known for his work with the Invisible Institute, joked that he was witnessing for the first time an event with its own “underground economy of chairs.” People were milling about to trade places, moving distractedly, unable to take their eyes from their copies of Jefferson’s book, which were often opened to the book’s final chapters and full of penciled annotations and underlined passages. Though the packed house created a sizable logistical mess, Jefferson kept cool. She is renowned for her theater criticism, so the stage-like scene was likely quite familiar to her; Kalven and Jefferson stood with their bodies angled out toward the audience, projecting their resonant voices. When Kalven began by asking about the “path” to the writing of Negroland, Jefferson's tumbling hand gestures, overdone to comic effect, could be read all the way in the back row. Public appearances are performances by default, and Negroland is largely about performance: Jefferson has been performing her whole life, both professionally and personally, whether by her own will or by soci-

etal necessity. As a Pulitzer Prize-winning critic, she has studied performance from all possible angles; as a professor, she has been onstage before audiences of students. Her most prolonged and arduous performance, however, has been that demanded of her by Negroland itself, simply by virtue of her residence there. Growing up in Negroland, which Jefferson defines on the first page of the book as “a small region of Negro America where residents were sheltered by a certain amount of privilege and plenty,” Jefferson was expected to perform within the bounds of taste instilled in her; these bounds were often contradictory and confusing. She was taught “not to show off ” but was also told to “excel,” to somehow aspire to both distinction and normality. An audience member shared her experience of being pressured by her Negroland residency to switch neighborhoods and attend a specific kind of private school. Jefferson shook her head and nodded it at the same time, in a gesture of solidarity (she graduated from the UofC Lab School, one year before Kalven did). “The question then is,” she said, “‘How do you improvise within that?’” How, for instance, do you improvise when you become depressed despite having been coached for years never to show emotional excess? “In the late 1970s,” Jefferson writes, “I began to actively cultivate a desire to kill myself.” At the same time, deeply embedded admonishments repeated in her

head, telling her: “Your despair is self-indulgent.” How can these thoughts possibly be reconciled, so that the show may go on? Despite its title, Negroland is a lot more than just A Memoir. The construction, loosely, consists of case studies culled from American history from the 1700s to the present day, followed by memoir which emphasizes her childhood education and ends with tales of Jefferson's more recent professional life, finished with more family history. Historiographical qualms bracket the book, and period-appropriate media studies of magazine trends and African American poetry are sprinkled throughout. Negroland is full of historical and autobiographical anecdotes, giving its reader many examples of how residents of Negroland had to improvise in a world of contradictory expectations. The tone of the writing varies between examples because Jefferson is so completely a master at modulation. Family history is told intimately and concisely; one example is the life of Lily McLendon Armstrong, Jefferson’s maternal grandmother. Her story is drawn in scrupulously fine detail (her name; her third husband; her insistence that “it’s never too hot for fur”) over the course of only two pages. The 41 words dedicated to one of Armstrong’s arrests (she was one of Chicago’s first African-American policewomen) are poetic and powerfully suggestive. Negroland is also concerned with pronouns––how “I” may be switched for “we,”

“you,” “one,” and so on. To a large extent, this pronoun-play is Jefferson’s response to the way pronouns are used in the works of James Baldwin and James Weldon Johnson (one of this book’s surest pleasures is Jefferson’s reading of these works). When Baldwin uses “one” in place of “we,” Jefferson says he has “coupled and merged us in syntactical miscegenation.” She exacts similar scrutiny upon her own pronouns: You is “the singular made uncannily plural;” narrating her own childhood in the third person provides an “illusion of control,” both intellectual and emotional. Jefferson's pronoun-switching is not simply evidence of a first-time effort at memoir; it is symbolic of how Jefferson has been successful, in life and in art. As she insisted on Thursday, she “is not The Race,” nor does she have a special dispensation to speak for it. But by improvising within the expansive, adapting forms of Negroland, she ends up incorporating more voices than her own, catching glimpses of the universal by being faithful to her own impressions of life, whatever pronoun usage that mission necessitates. Margo Jefferson’s palpable determination and delight in art (“You should never say, ‘It’s finished’”) are infectious. While some are stumped by convention and say, “But the form doesn’t allow it!” Jefferson laughs at the pettiness of the complaint, and the audience can’t help but laugh with her.

JANUARY 27, 2016 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 13

BULLETIN Discussion with Donna More Institute of Politics, 5707 S. Woodlawn Ave. Wednesday, January 27, noon–1pm. Free. Register for the event at eventbrite.com. (773) 834-4671. politics.uchicago.edu The significance of the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office, currently held by embattled incumbent Anita Alvarez, has become much greater after the turmoil surrounding Alvarez’s handling of the Laquan McDonald case. Come see Donna More, a candidate for the position, discuss her platform for improving Chicago’s criminal justice system. (Ada Alozie)

Chicagoland politicians—including Cook County State’s Attorney candidate Kim Foxx and former mayoral candidate Chuy Garcia on behalf of Bernie Sanders—before voting on who to endorse in March’s elections. (Adam Thorp)

State of Affairs: Washington Park Community Gorham United Methodist Church, 5600 S. Indiana Ave. Saturday, January 30, noon– 2pm. thewashingtonparkcc.org

After the American Century

If the Obama Presidential Library lands in Washington Park, its impact will be felt in the neighborhood that shares the park’s name. This town hall will discuss that developing situation and longer-standing community concerns. (Adam Thorp)

The Seminary Co-op Bookstore, 5751 S. Woodlawn Ave. Wednesday, January 27, 6pm. semcoop.com

State of African-American Same Gender Loving Black LGBTQ Chicago Address

Learn how Egyptian cyberpunk and Iranian versions of Shrek contribute to what Brian T. Edwards describes as an accelerated cultural exchange in the Middle East. He and UofC English associate professor Deborah Nelson discuss his new book, After the American Century: The Ends of U.S. Culture in the Middle East. (Christine Schmidt)

Carter G. Woodson Regional Library, 9525 S. Halsted St. Sunday, January 31, 2pm–4pm. (773) 340-3751.

Chicago Real Estate 2016 Bronze Lounge, 4455 S. King Dr. Thursday, January 28, 5:30pm–9:30pm. $20 in advance, $25 at the door. chicagorealtist.com For seventy-five years the Dearborn Realtist Board has advocated for equal housing access for all Chicagoans. At their Thursday event, subtitled “Action*Execution*Solutions,” the brokers, agents, and investors behind the scenes will exchange real estate contacts and strategies. Newcomers welcome. (Neal Jochmann)

Twelfth Ward IPO Endorsement Centro Cultural Zacatecano, 4145 S. Kedzie Ave. Saturday, January 30, 2:30pm–5pm. This Southwest Chicago political organization will weigh presentations by several

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In a networking event hosted by the Coalition for Justice and Respect, African-American LGBTQ attendees will attempt to bridge the gap between the community’s needs and their resources. Several speakers, including public and elected officials, will be addressing politics, faith, health, equality, and marriage. (Zoe Makoul)

“Making #BlackLivesMatter” Closing Reception In These Times, 2040 N. Milwaukee Ave. Sunday, January 31, 2:30pm–4:30pm. Not wheelchair accessible, food and drink to share encouraged. Visit the newsroom of this government watchdog publication to see the final day of the “Making #Black Lives Matter: Demonizing and Distorting Blackness through Racist Postcards and Imagery" exhibit. Stay for a panel discussion featuring leaders from key organizations in the movement for black lives, including BYP 100, We Charge Genocide, Assata’s Daughters, and FLY. (Christine Schmidt)

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VISUAL ARTS Southern Roots Renaissance Court, Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St. January 28 through March 31. Monday–Thursday, 9am–7pm; Friday–Saturday, 9am–6pm; Sunday, 10am–6pm. Free. sandrabridges.com The spotlight is on Chicago-raised artist Sandra Bridges at the Chicago Cultural Center. Inspired by her love of her heritage, Bridges’ solo show “Southern Roots,” examines the historical relevance and influence of African-American ancestry on modern society. (Bilal Othman)

Kitchen Sink Presents: A Pop Up Museum Cornell Florist, 1645 E. 55th St. Friday, January 29. 7pm–11pm. Free. Most days after Cornell Florist closes, the flowers spend a long night by themselves. This Friday, come join the lonely flowers for a free cup of tea or Mindy’s hot chocolate and a one-night-only museum of art centered around mental health. (Lewis Page)

57th Street Flea Market SHoP, 1448 E. 57th St. Saturday, January 30, 9am–4pm. facebook.com/SouthsideHub Run by local arts-based cooperative, SHoP, the 57th Street Flea Market will be making its second-ever appearance next weekend. A place to find local antiques, collectibles, and original artwork, 57th Street Flea Market exhibits the richness of Hyde Park's cultural history. (Sam Royall)

Give + Get Good PR at the Silver Room The Silver Room, 1506 E. 53rd St. Saturday, January 30, 1pm. Free. Sign up on eventbrite. com. tinyurl.com/j6tc6lo This installment in a series of quarterly how-to workshops presented by Internet maven @DigitalSheila will show you how to get exposure for your product, business, or concept both in print and online. Come prepared with a brief description of the product you want to boost. ( Jake Bittle)

Bridging Generations: “Strong Men Getting Stronger” South Side Community Art Center, 3831 S. Michigan Ave. Saturday, January 30 2pm–5pm. Through April 9. Wednesday–Friday, 2pm–5pm; Saturday, 9am–5pm; Sunday, 1pm–5 pm. Free. (773) 373-1026. sscartcenter.org Three Men. Different Generations. All artists. Join the South Side Community Art Center for its first exhibit of 2016, “Bridging Generations,” a display of the works of Keith Conner, Oscar Lester, B. Ra-El Ali, three artists from different and unique backgrounds. (Bilal Othman)

Present Standard Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St. Opening reception Saturday, January 30, 2pm–4pm. Through April 24. Open Monday–Thursday, 9am–7pm; Friday–Saturday, 9am–6pm; Sunday, 10am–6pm. Free. (312) 744-6630. chicagoculturalcenter.org Curators Edra Soto and Josué Pellot join forces to introduce a dialogue around language itself: twenty-five contemporary, US-based Latino artists play with the double meanings of both "present" and "standard." Exhibition accompanied by Pablo Helguera's traveling Spanish-language bookstore. (Corinne Butta)

Residual Lives at HPAC Hyde Park Arts Center, 5020 S. Cornell Ave., Gallery 5. January 31 through April 24. Mon–Thurs, 9am–8pm; Fri–Sat, 9am–5pm; Sun, noon–5pm. (773) 324-5520. hydeparkart.org This diverse exhibition—sculptures, collages, photographs, and video installations will all be on display—seeks to explore the effects of mass incarceration on individual lives and society as a whole. These works will complement those by incarcerated artists that make up the center's other ongoing show, “Weight of Rage.” ( Jake Bittle)

EVENTS

MUSIC Stalley The Promontory, 5311 S. Lake Park Ave. Thursday, January 28, 9pm. $15-$20. 17+. (312) 801-2100. promontorychicago.com Right now, Ohio is known for football, Cudi, and Kasich, but with bearded MC (and Maybach Music signee) Stalley on the top of his game, the state might soon have another claim to fame. Stalley’s touring in support of his 2015 “Laughing Introvert” mixtape, but introvert or not, he’s sure to have the Promontory booming. (Christopher Good)

The Poetory The Promontory, 5311 S. Lake Park Ave. Monday, February 1, doors 7pm, show 8pm. $5. (312) 801-2100. promontorychicago.com Spend an evening enjoying food and poetic performances at The Poetory, where spoken word artists and poets from across the city come together to weave vivid stories and messages. Breaking all possible boundaries, the poets make the audience a partner rather than an observer in an original, intimate experience. (Kezie Nwachukwu)

So Pretty Reggies, 2105 S. State St. Wednesday, February 3, 8pm. $5. 21+. (312) 949-0120. reggieslive.com Looking to be saved? So Pretty will be screeching sweet salvation over even sweeter guitar melodies at Reggies, turning the venue into a church of DIY punk. Take a listen to their album Savior Girl to learn the hymns just in time for service. (Kanisha Williams)

Avery*Sunshine The Promontory, 5311 S. Lake Park Ave. Thursday, February 4, doors 7pm, show 8pm. $20-$40. (312) 801-2100. promontorychicago.com Avery*Sunshine prides herself on creating

a true, human-to-human connection with her audience. Her upcoming performance at The Promontory is the perfect opportunity to ditch the winter wind howling in your ears in exchange for an intimate listening experience of her warm and soulful music. (Alexandra Epstein)

The Renaldo Domino Experience Reggies Music Joint, 2105 S. State St. Thursday, February 4, 8pm. $10. 21+ (312) 949-0120. reggieslive.com Indefatigable tenor Renaldo Domino has spent a lifetime crooning soul and R&B, and his six-piece Experience band has been helping him fill rooms since 2008. Opening for Domino are the Get Up With The Get Downs, whose punk-funk covers have included Domino’s songs in the past. (Neal Jochmann)

Bruce Henry The Quarry, 2423 E. 75th St. Friday, February 5, 7pm–11:30pm. (773) 741-6254. mobetterjazzchicago.us Local Chicago vocalist Bruce Henry will drop by Mo Better Jazz; experience a performance by “A Man of Great Musical Imagination" as he takes the audience on an elastic journey with a vocal range few can match. (Bilal Othman)

Konshens and Trina The Shrine, 2109 S. Wabash Ave. Friday, February 5, doors 10pm. $30. 21+. (312) 753-5700. theshrinechicago.com Dancehall/reggae artist Konshens is on tour and coming to Chicago. The wellknown rapper Trina, whose sixth album is set to drop this year, will be performing as well. Fans can look forward to a mix of riddims and raw verses, including the classic “Look Back at Me.” ( Jennifer Hwang)

Pete Rock & Rich Medina The Shrine, 2109 S. Wabash Ave. Friday, February 12, doors 10pm. $30 standing room.

21+. (312) 753-5700. theshrinechicago.com Hip-hop legends and DJ innovators Pete Rock and Rich Medina team up again to take listeners on a ride down musical memory lane. With over fifty years of experience between them and skilled ears for mingling music old and new, hip-hop will be displayed in its highest form. (Kezie Nwachukwu)

Music for String Percussion Electronics High Concept Labs at Mana Contemporary, 2233 S. Throop St. Friday, January 29, 4pm–10pm. $10. (312) 850-0555. highconceptlaboratories.org. An evening of sensory euphoria, this production begins with three hours of Doug Farrand’s composition, exploring the media of light and video with curator Ryan Packard’s percussion and electronics. At 8pm, six musicians will come together to perform a set of five evocative songs composed by Farrand, Packard, and Jessie Downs. (Sara Cohen)

The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution Black Cinema House, 7200 S. Kimbark Ave. Friday, January 29, 7pm–9:30pm. Free. (312) 857-5561. rebuild-foundation.org Black Cinema House’s pitch for this 2015 documentary history of the Black Panthers links the radicals of the sixties and seventies with the contemporary demands of the Black Lives Matter movement. A panel after the screening, presented with activist organization BYP100, will flesh out the connections. (Adam Thorp)

Co-Prosperity Sphere, 3219 S. Morgan St. Friday, January 29, 7pm–10pm. $7–$10. (773) 655-6769. coprosperity.org Although we are still months away from

What the Fuck Are These Red Squares Kartemquin Films. January 29–February 4. Free. (773) 472-4366. watch.kartemquin.com

STAGE & SCREEN

As Above So Below

this year's Chicago Underground Film Festival, this weekend the organization behind the festival will showcase five independent, locally-made favorites from last year's festivities. The screening will be followed by a moderated discussion with the short films' directors. (Sam Royall)

To celebrate its fiftieth anniversary, Chicago documentary studio Kartemquin is offering free, week-long online streams of its classic pictures. In this 1970 doc, students of the Vietnam War era organize at SAIC to consider how they can provide, within their capitalist industry, the art demanded by a world at war. (Neal Jochmann)

Carlos Bunga featuring the Black Monks of Mississippi Stony Island Arts Bank, 6760 S. Stony Island Ave. Wednesday, January 27, 5pm–8pm. (312) 857-5561. rebuild-foundation.org Why visit an art installation when you can visit its deinstallation instead? With the help of experimental music group the Black Monks of Mississippi, Portuguese artist Carlo Bunga will turn the removal of his exhibition “Under the Skin” into a performance—a fitting move for an artist concerned with the process and passage of time. ( Julia Aizuss)

Satchmo at the Waldorf Court Theatre, 5535 S Ellis Ave. Through February 14. $38, discounts available for seniors, faculty, and students. (773) 753-4472. courttheatre.org Satchmo at the Waldorf, which is getting its Midwest premiere at the Court Theatre, is a single-actor play that deals with the emotions, legacy, friendships, and fate of Louis Armstrong, set after his last show in 1971. As the highlight of Chicago’s Louis Armstrong Festival, this jazzy journey is not one to miss. (Margaret Mary Glazier)

JANUARY 27, 2016 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 15