SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY The South Side Weekly is an independent nonprofit newsprint magazine written for and about neighborhoods on the South Side of Chicago. We publish in-depth coverage of the arts and issues of public interest alongside oral histories, poetry, fiction, interviews, and artwork from local photographers and illustrators. The South Side Weekly is dedicated to supporting cultural and civic engagement on the South Side and to providing educational opportunities for developing journalists, writers, and artists. Volume 6, Issue 3 Editor-in-Chief Adam Przybyl Managing Editors Emeline Posner, Sam Stecklow Senior Editors Julia Aizuss, Christian Belanger, Mari Cohen, Bridget Newsham, Hafsa Razi, Olivia Stovicek Politics Editor Ellen Mayer Education Editor Rachel Kim Music Editor Christopher Good Stage & Screen Editor Nicole Bond Visual Arts Editor Rod Sawyer Food & Land Editor Emeline Posner Contributing Editors Elaine Chen, Mira Chauhan, Ian Hodgson, Bea Malsky, Tatum McCormick, Amy Qin, Rachel Schastok Data Editor Jasmine Mithani Radio Exec. Producer Erisa Apantaku Radio Editor Sam Larsen Radio Hosts Olivia Obineme Social Media Editors Bridget Newsham, Sam Stecklow Visuals Editor Ellen Hao Deputy Visuals Editor Lizzie Smith Staff Writers: Leah von Essen, Ashvini Kartik-Narayan, Kiran Misra, Anne Li Staff Radio Producer: Bridget Vaughn Fact Checkers: Abigail Bazin, Sam Joyce, Bridget Newsham, Adam Przybyl, Hafsa Razi, Sam Stecklow, Tammy Xu Staff Photographers: milo bosh, Kiran Misra, Jason Schumer Staff Illustrators: Siena Fite, Natalie Gonzalez, Katherine Hill, Courtney Kendrick, Kamari Robertson Webmaster Operations Manager
Pat Sier Jason Schumer
The Weekly is produced by an all-volunteer editorial staff and seeks contributions from across the city. We distribute each Wednesday in the fall, winter, and spring. Over the summer we publish every other week. Send submissions, story ideas, comments, or questions to editor@southsideweekly.com or mail to: South Side Weekly 6100 S. Blackstone Ave. Chicago, IL 60637 For advertising inquiries, contact: (773) 234-5388 or advertising@southsideweekly.com
IN CHICAGO
A week’s worth of developing stories, odd events, and signs of the times, culled from the desks, inboxes, and wandering eyes of the editors
IN THIS ISSUE
An Appropriate Use of Resources Chicago Public Schools canceled weekend activities. Four thousand extra cops took up posts across the city. High up in their Loop office buildings, young professionals received emails with detailed security and evacuation plans. Court employees across the county were ordered to vacate facilities; even domestic violence victims hoping to file orders of protection were sent home. What was it all for? After the much-anticipated verdict in the trial of Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke was announced—guilty of second-degree murder; guilty of sixteen counts of aggravated battery with a firearm—the much-anticipated (by some) violent rioting did not materialize. Instead, as joyful activists marched peacefully in the streets, unneeded police officers hopped onto buses and sped out of downtown. And the question remains: why were city officials, business owners, and police officers so sure that violence would erupt? After all, there have been few incidents of violence from protesters during recent demonstrations in Chicago, even when the video of Van Dyke killing Laquan McDonald was first released, and organizers had called for protests to be peaceful, no matter the verdict. As numerous local activists have pointed out, the unnecessary riot preparation reeked of racism, painting the city’s Black residents as inevitably violent. It was as infuriating as it was unsurprising.
re-imagining community at the summer fefe
What’s The Asking Price for Knowledge and Wonder? Kerry James Marshall’s “Knowledge and Wonder,” a mural depicting Black children gazing at representations of knowledge, has hung inside the Chicago Public Library’s Legler Branch in West Garfield Park for twenty-three years—but that may soon come to an end. Rahm Emanuel has announced that the city of Chicago will auction off the artwork in New York next month, with some of the estimated $10-15 million in proceeds going to restoring the library branch to a regional center, and to a public art fund. The move has inspired widespread criticism, including a New York Times op-ed, and for good reason. On its face, the city is auctioning off invaluable work made specifically for Black youth on the West Side (who already get the shaft when it comes to city funding) for money that may or may not actually make its way back to the community the artwork was supposed to serve. But even that misses Marshall’s point, which was to inspire Black youth in ways beyond the dollar; he told ARTnews last week, “I am certain they could get more money if they sold the Picasso sculpture in Daley Plaza.… You could say the City of Big Shoulders has wrung every bit of value they could from the fruits of my labor.”
How do we get these gathering sites, many of which are tucked away from the main lakefront trail, on the radar of the people they were designed for? diana ramirez...................................8
Employment Agencies Mistreat Workers A lawsuit alleging "abusive and discriminatory treatment" of Latinx workers by Chinatown-based employment agencies is expected to be heard this week in federal court in Chicago. The federal suit, first filed by Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office in 2015, details how agencies deploy Latinx workers to restaurants across the Midwest, paying far less than the minimum hourly wage while poaching hundreds of dollars in administrative and travel fees from their paychecks. “Sometimes you don’t know where you are,” Beto, who like many other workers is undocumented, told Sun-Times and Wisconsin Center for Investigative Reporting reporters. “Sometimes they’ll tell you, ‘You’re going to Indianapolis,’ and...[then] take you to another place, like little towns.” A handful of workers have gained from the lawsuit; earlier settlements have resulted in agencies’ restaurant clients paying tens of thousands of dollars in fines and back wages to employees. But these concessions surely do not approach the amount owed to workers citywide—including Beto, who was recently fired by Xing Ying, the agency involved in this last settlement, for speaking to the press.
There is a growing set of folks actively doing work to reimagine what safety and security looks like. trina reynolds-tyler......................4 midnight coltrane
The performances were like rest stops on a long highway: cold, cold, cold, jazz; cold, cold, cold, jazz. kyle oleksiuk....................................5 meet the challengers: david mihalyfy
“It’s important for communities to have moments of encounter.” sam stecklow....................................6 scavenging the south lakefront
facing fate
“We concentrated on living a lifestyle with integrity.” latoya cross....................................11
OUR WEBSITE S ON SOUTHSIDEWEEKLY.COM SSW Radio soundcloud.com/south-side-weekly-radio WHPK 88.5 FM Tuesdays, 3pm–4pm Email Edition southsideweekly.com/email
Support the Weekly southsideweekly.com/donate Join the Weekly southsideweekly.com/contribute
Cover photo by Luke White OCTOBER 10, 2018 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 3
OPINION
Re-imagining Community at the Summer Fefe
Uncomfortable experiences at a block party spark a deeper meditation on safety at street fests BY TRINA TRILL
I
don’t remember the first time I went to a Silver Room Block Party, but I remember how it made me feel. Imagine hundreds of Black people drinking in the daytime, walking in the street, and dancing to an array of house music and hip hop. It felt like my favorite memories of homecomings and family reunions. I’m sure to Hyde Park’s gentrifiers and purse-clutching white women, this would be terrifying, and their fingertips would dial 911 at the smell of a wood tip wine Black & Mild. But at the Silver Room Block Party, we get a little taste of what public Black joy looks like outside of our backyard BBQs. We just have a good time. Although I felt overwhelming joy at the Silver Room Block Party, there were elements of the crowd—as there are at almost all such events—that made me feel uncomfortable. The Silver Room Block Party is safe from the hyper-criminalization that comes with being Black—there are no CPD officers patrolling, like there are at many summer festivals in Chicago—but, like most parties, it is not necessarily safe for the bodies of Black women. Things can become dangerous when you combine liquor, hot weather, and men who may have been conditioned to touch without enthusiastic consent. I felt many hands brush my body and grab my waist, trying to coerce me to give them my number. The crowd was loud, so some men would get closer than necessary and press their bodies to mine. I felt their beards graze my shoulder. Another man grabbed my elbow to try to stop me. I communicated that I wasn’t interested and he drunkenly followed me. I think the most confusing tactic was when a Black security guard tried to shoot his shot. He said, “Come here bald head, I want your number.” I half-jokingly responded, “That line has 4 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY
¬ OCTOBER 10, 2018
been used so much tonight. You niggas have no creativity.” His response was, “How about give me your number or I’m gonna tase you.” I didn’t really know how to respond. I was shocked that he thought lightly threatening violence would make me laugh or give him my number. I gave an eye roll and moved through the crowd to escape his gaze. I went home pretty pissed. I know the intent wasn’t to make me feel frustrated or disrespected, but that was the impact. What they interpreted as harmless flirting was actually received as creepy men trying to wear down my patience until I just caved and gave them something. I wonder how other women and femmes felt. The questions I left with: Whose job is it to hold these folks accountable for this unwanted touch? Where can people who are too intoxicated to consent go to gather themselves? The Silver Room Block Party is clearly not alone in its shortfalls in addressing safety for women beyond having police or security presence. The culture of many public spaces has communicated that safety has a direct connection to policing and punishment, but doesn’t pay nearly as much attention to preventative procedures that can serve to intervene before anything even happens. However, there is a growing set of folks actively doing work to reimagine what safety and security looks like. Recently, groups like Party Noire, AMFM, and others like communications strategist and author Essence McDowell have started having conversations about what safety looks like in spaces where people—Black men and masculine folks in particular—can be held accountable without calling the police. The #MeToo movement has propelled conversation around sexual assault. But we haven’t had much of conversation about what accountability looks like outside of indictments and, most importantly, what prevention looks like.
COURTESY OF THE SILVER ROOM
From large festivals like Pitchfork to smaller community house parties, I have seldom seen a way to take a quick break without paying for an extra tent space. Usually people are at the mercy of other intoxicated people at the party. I can think of a billion things that can happen because of your phone dying, or because there’s no safe place to sit for someone who drank a little too much. As a prison abolitionist, I’ve tried to imagine what safe social spaces for all Black people could look like in practice. The first step is addressing that actually spaces we imagine to be safe must constantly evolve as we listen to what those in our community need. The Silver Room Block Party provides jump ropes for intergenerational double dutch, to build community and invite people to jump in. In the same way, we need to think about how we could intentionally provide tools for vulnerable people to feel safe. I spoke with Eric Williams, the founder of The Silver Room, and he mentioned that this is something he thinks about every year.
“When we first started it was a family type of event but as we got bigger we started to evolve and add more resources based on feedback we received.” As the Silver Room Block Party grew, organizers started adding things like free HIV and AIDS testing, mental wellness resources, and violence prevention guides. After hearing my critiques in this article he was saddened by my experience, but was glad to hear the feedback and was interested in finding innovative ways to address safety at the next block party and throughout the year. This is by no means an indictment of the Silver Room Block Party. In truth, The Silver Room is much more ahead of the game than most places that have made it their business to create safe spaces for Black bodies, and I was so glad to be able to witness free Black joy. This is simply another nudge to space curators to talk more about these issues. After speaking with Eric, I’m confident that he will use this feedback in the same way he has in the past and I’m glad that he is a part of the change in reimagining community spaces.
MUSIC
Lastly, shout out to Eric for winning the First Annual Economic Impact Award for the Silver Room Block Party from the Downtown Hyde Park SSA, which was just announced. They deserve it! It is my hope that they will continue to raise the bar about what Black joy and safety can look like in Chicago. ¬ Trina Trill, otherwise known as Trina Reynolds-Tyler, is an organizer with the Black Youth Project 100, is a Data Researcher at the Invisible Institute, and works part-time at the Silver Room. You can find them combating respectability politics, playing spades at the BBQ, or in the classroom at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy.
JACK B. SIEGEL
Midnight Coltrane
At Rockefeller Chapel, Ravi Coltrane leads a tribute to his mother’s musical meditations BY KYLE OLEKSIUK
R
avi Coltrane is laughing at me. Or maybe with me? I can’t say for sure. However he’s laughing, I don’t feel too bad about it. I’ve asked a stupid question. “How did you pick the band?” He looks around, at each of his bandmates: Brandee Younger, the electric harpist who wrote one of the pieces they performed (the rest were penned by Alice Coltrane); Johnathan Blake, the drummer famous for playing with Omer Avital; and Rashaan Carter, the bassist of Coltrane and Younger’s Alice Coltrane–centered group. You can imagine why he’s laughing. It’s been a long, cold day, and they’ve been working on this show for most of it. I first heard the sounds of the Coltrane ensemble on my way to the Midway Plaisance, the main location of the Hyde Park Jazz Festival. I was passing by Rockefeller Chapel, and decided to try the door and see if I could get in. No luck: it was locked. But through the cracks between the door and the frame, I could hear the muted sounds of a horn being played, and some kind of string instrument. Soundcheck. But, unable to hear much, I moved on to the Midway. The last weekend of September was cold: there were no squirrels on the ground, birds in the sky, or people on the sidewalk. Everyone was indoors, hiding from the first truly frigid day of the year—save for those attending the Hyde Park Jazz Fest, which took place on the Midway Plaisance between South Ellis and Woodlawn Avenues, in three churches, one bank, at a nonprofit design center, and in several University of Chicago buildings. The Midway was where most of the action happened.Two stages, placed opposite each other, gave the effect of literal back-to-
back performances, with the crowd moving between sets like marbles on a seesaw. As it got darker and colder, the crowd somehow got larger. During Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah’s set, there was hardly any standing room—and it felt as if the trees that lined the Midway were crowding in to listen. Visibility was low, so aside from the vague buildings in the distance and shuttle buses passing quietly along University Avenue, the only things to see were the bandstand and the people who made up the crowd. Meanwhile, the festival continued around Hyde Park, with groups of people making their way to performances that were like rest stops on a long highway: cold, cold, cold, jazz; cold, cold, cold, jazz. At the Logan Center for the Arts, Brandee Younger gave a talk on the life and art of Alice Coltrane. That night, between eleven and midnight, Younger, as the festival headliner, would play Alice Coltrane’s music with Coltrane’s son, Ravi. Held in the cavernous Rockefeller Chapel, the performance was an extension of an ongoing project of Coltrane’s dedicated to his mother’s music, called Universal Consciousness: Melodic Meditations of Alice Coltrane. For most of the day, events were scheduled at the same time: JoAnn Daugherty conflicted with Isaiah Collier, Gustavo Cortiñas with the Ernie Adams trio, Maggie Brown’s Vision Ensemble with Mike Reed’s “The City was Yellow: The Chicago Suite.” But nobody competed with the Coltrane show. A small crowd had gathered at Rockefeller by 10:30pm, but the outside doors of the chapel opened half an hour before the inner ones—leaving about fifty people rubbing their hands in the heated front room, making small talk to keep busy, occasionally peeking through the windows. Music could be heard here: the soundcheck was being performed with longer and longer stretches of solo and group music. A few visitors left: they decided that the wait was too long, or that the concert would end too late. But the rest got comfortable. Eventually, the crowd was let in. The front three aisles were reserved ahead of time (for those who had bought Jazz Passes—fair enough at a free festival), but everybody else got as close to the front as they could. After that, we had to wait another fifteen or twenty minutes, sitting in front of an empty stage. Tick, tock. Somebody behind me whispered: “They’re running on jazz time.” As if in reply, Kate Dumbleton, the festival’s artistic director, got up to the podium to announce that the show would be starting OCTOBER 10, 2018 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 5
immediately. As the band started to play, it became clear that even though you needed to pay to sit in the front, the sound carried just fine all the way to the back. Coltrane’s ensemble opened with “Journey in Satchidananda,” one of Alice Coltrane’s most famous songs—and they played it breathtakingly. There were more than a few transformative moments in the cathedral, where music echoed off every surface. Younger’s harp started to look like the mouth of a baleen whale; when she hit a certain note, it began to sound like a lute. Set beside Coltrane’s soprano sax, it seemed like a pair of angel wings. The music, too, transformed from genre to genre and sound to sound. In Coltrane’s saxophone, you could sometimes hear the romantic undertow of his father’s
“Coltrane for Lovers,” and, just as often, the netherworld honk of Albert Ayler. Johnathan Blake dragged the tip of his drumstick over the top of a cymbal to create a low-pitched (and somehow pleasing) screech, which felt like it resonated on your skin. At one point, Rashaan Carter took a bass solo so long and intense that Coltrane and Younger were able to step away from their instruments and have a whole conversation without fear of being overheard. Briefly, between two of the final songs, Coltrane took the mic to announce the songs they’d just played and what was coming up. But when he spoke, for the first time all night, you thought, That’s not his voice! It was like a well-known actor suddenly putting on an accent. You thought, The saxophone is his voice! Coltrane announced
that they’d just finished playing “Respected Destroyer” (Younger’s composition, and the only non-Alice tune played that night), and “Blue Nile” from his mother’s album Ptah, the El Daoud. Then, the band got back to business. As the show ended and the band bowed, just about every positive human vocalization could be heard from somewhere in the audience: wolf whistles, woo-wee’s, one huge “YEAAAAH.” It was midnight, and suddenly it was Sunday in Church. As people filed out of the chapel, it became apparent that a few were banking on this performance being not too different from most jazz concerts: that they could get up and talk to the band. I was one of the hopeful, but there was a line to speak with Coltrane, and every time someone stopped
Meet the Challengers: David Mihalyfy
Like the rest of Chicago, even though it’s diverse, the 11th Ward is segregated. How have you been approaching that as you campaign, and how would you tackle it as an alderman?
BY SAM STECKLOW COURTESY OF DAVID MIHALYFY
I
6 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY
¬ OCTOBER 10, 2018
of the opposition: he stressed throughout that he would be a consensus-minded alderman above all. (Perhaps this independence partially explains why he is, as of his latest filing with the state Board of Elections, his campaign’s only donor thus far.) It will likely be difficult for Mihalyfy to overcome the clout, name recognition, family loyalty (in some parts of the ward), and, above all, fundraising power of the one-term incumbent, Alderman Patrick Daley Thompson. But Thompson’s reelection is no sure thing; he was forced into a runoff last time around by John Kozlar, the mostly-unknown thenpresident of the Canaryville Little League now running for mayor—and if Mihalyfy can rally
Kyle Oleksiuk is a contributor to the Weekly and student at the University of Chicago. He last wrote about South Shore’s Back Alley Jazz Fest.
I've been here a number of years now and the important thing is that I've been working in low-wage, unstable jobs and like most everyone else in the ward, I've been directly affected by the wrongheaded values in City Hall where it seems year after year after year, the one percent and the fat cats are getting away with more murder than ever. And working families are getting squeezed harder because of the property tax increases, the garbage tax increases, ComEd, Peoples Gas. I get that, I've lived that, and I want to take that on.
The Weekly sits down with a candidate for alderman in the 11th Ward met with David Mihalyfy on a warm summer night in Bridgeport. We were originally supposed to conduct our interview at First Base, a now-closed sports bar, but realized soon after arriving it would be too loud to conduct an interview there. We relocated to some chairs outside Scoops Ice Cream on 31st Street and continued over a strawberry Italian ice (for me) and a chocolatecovered frozen banana (for him). What became clear over the course of the conversation was that Mihalyfy—a home healthcare aide, labor activist, and writer—is not a conventional, polished political candidate who will push a party line (the ward already has one of those), nor is he a firebrand member
talking to Brandee Younger, someone else appeared out of nowhere. I opted for the Coltrane line, because on the way there I could pass the drum kit and share a few words with Johnathan Blake. I asked him a stupid question, too: “How’s the view from up here?” Blake said: “It’s not so much the view... but of course it’s beautiful. It’s the crowd. That’s what we play off of, the warmth and spirit of the crowd. It’s a conversation.” “Well,” I said, “you held up your end.” ¬
the newer, younger constituents of Bridgeport, Armour Square, and Canaryville and parts of University Village, Pilsen, and Back of the Yards around his platforms of taxing the rich, youth empowerment, and solar energy, he might give Thompson another real race. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Are you from the 11th Ward? I've been in Chicago for twelve years, and moved to the ward as soon as my work allowed. My parents are both from Downriver Detroit. My dad's a Hungarian immigrant, came here at five. My ma's side of the family is Polish.
In general, it's very important for communities to have moments of encounter. Part of the mural projects for which I've been advocating, an important part of that is to create space for youth to come together even more than they already are. It comes from relationships, it's bottom-up, and that would create an arena for that. Part of my larger investment program for youth, besides the advocacy for the high school and the mural projects, is reopening the Ramova Theater as a nonprofit, which is very doable if we are careful with budgeting and I think that would be very, very wonderful and healthy for the community. It would be someplace where people could take their kids, second-run movies for date night. Also a place for local artists. You could also have films in Chinese and Spanish.
POLITICS
What do you think you can agree with Alderman Thompson on? You know, he comes from a family with a long history of public service. That's the mayors and it's also Maggie Daly. She did wonderful stuff with After School Matters, which is a gift that kept on giving to the city and has uplifted youth. I thank Alderman Daley Thompson myself [for] the viaduct lighting. That's great. But in general I think we could be doing more. Bridgeport and much of the 11th Ward hasn’t yet seen many large-scale residential developments the way neighboring areas like Pilsen have, and home prices are still relatively low compared to other parts of the city. How would you approach housing as alderman? Right now, the city's course as a whole is unsustainable. The families that are well-off are getting so much more extremely welloff, and everyone else is getting screwed, and it's just getting worse year after year after year. It's the ComEd stuff, it's the Peoples Gas, it's the property tax, it's the garbage tax. We need to worry about families first and then development. When we have good jobs, they’ll take care of everything else. This is a multipronged approach. There is no clear answer. First off, you need to honor our pension obligations by taxing big banks and luxury goods and not just automatically going to property tax and garbage tax, like our current alderman chose to do in 2015, although options like luxury tax were on the table. That will help with the problems of housing affordability right there. There's also more we can do in terms of municipal labor ordinances. There's also things we can do to bring down housing costs, like the home solar program, which is also one of my centerpieces. This is like they're already doing in Cleveland. Effectively we would help folks install home solar. It pays for itself in time. It lowers their energy bills. Interestingly too, there's been a lot of cool stuff happening since Pope Francis wrote his environmental encyclical Laudato Si’, which has incurred motion on this. People get this viscerally really in all corners of the ward. These are very delicate questions. We would need to do surveys with folks, impacts of parking and other things. We could probably pick up the density a little bit, especially around your CTA stops. And
this isn't like, you know, huge twelve-story buildings. This is more like the missing middle of three- to five-flats and that would help overall by increasing the tax base more. That would be more people here and more economic activity which would help with business. I would also love to explore more creative options for local storefronts. Some of the things that you advocate for, like home solar panels and municipal labor ordinances, might face some opposition. How would you go about pushing this larger legislation through? It's going to be very likely that there will be more City Council members advocating for these types of common sense policy initiatives that help out everyday people. So in terms of practicability, I think there's going to be a lot more possibilities in 2019 than there is this year. At all times I will be collegial; however there are some makeor-break issues. And right now that is cost of living for people here. And it is simply unsustainable. That includes holding other aldermen accountable if they make the wrong decision and sell out to wealthy interests. Let's say another property tax increase goes through. I wonder, could we make sure to have a publicity effort where every single voter in their ward gets mailed their concrete decision on their wrongheaded vote. I would not do that for every issue, but this is such an important make-or-break issue. I would try to hold the other alderman accountable with their voters on a future property tax increase.
Then the properties end up in the hands of big banks, and they're not even taking care of them, which brings down everyone's property values. We should basically move forward with plans to tax property like that, because that would then either get revenue or they would have to put it back into the rental housing market. You know, I'm not money. I don't come from money. I get that working people are getting a raw deal because I've lived that. During this time, I've been part of two immunization campaigns on my own time because it's the right thing to do. I've also done freelance writing on the student debt crisis and the role of self-enriching administrators lining their pockets while they're leaving a generation saddled with debt. I've worked in teaching. I work in elder care. I live to do good, I do good, and I think people can appreciate that. I think they can appreciate the effort I've been making, trying to get out there, to talk more about how we can have fairer public revenue systems and how we can do more investing in youth. These are wide consensus issues that really cross constituencies on every corner of the ward.
Are there processes that you’d put in place, or things you’d otherwise do to ensure you stay accountable to the people of the ward? This is something that comes up a lot because people see that aldermen tend to sell out to wealthy interests. I'm accepting campaign contributions from individuals, progressive political action committees, and labor unions. I am not accepting contributions from businesses so that I can remain fair and impartial if there are zoning issues, as with the heliport decision, because any contributions from businesses muddy the waters too much, and you tend to end up with zoning decisions that affect the community. I would also like to point out that, even though for years I've been working short-term in low-wage jobs, I've stuck by my values. I've fought for unionization, I've had employers retaliate. People can always change, but I have a track record of integrity and I do hope people realize that I am always happy to speak with any constituent about issues, including disagreements, if we can discuss in a respectful, productive manner. ¬ Sam Stecklow is a managing editor of the Weekly. He lives in Bridgeport.
What do you view the job of alderman to currently be, and what do you think it should be? The job of the alderman usually is to serve as the direct face of city services for constituents and being highly organized to make sure that people are hooked up with city services. In general, it’s to have a little bit more vision in terms of city legislation and larger programs. So, for example, using part of our menu money to fund the larger scale mural projects. It would also be, instead of rubber stamping Mayor Emanuel's desire to raise property taxes, to actually dig and figure out viable ways to tax luxury goods and big banks. There are wonderful ideas to tax the big banks’ vacant foreclosed properties. These banks were engaging in financial speculation; working people paid the price. OCTOBER 10, 2018 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 7
Scavenging the South Lakefront
A former Roots & Routes intern writes about the gathering spaces in the Burnham Wildlife Corridor—and the new programming that’s being built around them BY DIANA RAMIREZ
O
n the south lakefront, a series of art installations has transformed open park space into gathering spaces. Through this initiative, Roots and Routes (R&R)—a network of major institutions and South Side community organizations working to break down barriers and connect people, especially communities of color, to local green spaces—hope to open up an opportunity for residents to explore a new form of urban green space. Along with community organizations in Bronzeville, Chinatown, Little Village, and Pilsen, the Chicago Park District and the Field Museum worked with local artists to co-curate art installations depicting the ecological and cultural significances of their communities. The sites for the gathering spaces that resulted were placed strategically along the wood chip paths that weave in and out of the newly restored natural areas of the Burnham Wildlife Corridor (BWC). These gathering spaces are intended to help residents engage communities with the new natural areas by inviting them to participate in the decision-making and implementation processes of the project, and encouraging cross-cultural community engagement through a series of events and ecological
8 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY
¬ OCTOBER 10, 2018
stewardship programming. Last year, to see how well the Roots & Routes Initiative was meeting its goals, and to what extent nearby residents were engaging with these new meeting spaces, I collected data with a social science team through the Urban Ecology Field Lab (UEFL) program, a partnership between the Chicago Park District and the Field Museum’s Science Action Center that allows students to conduct their own research projects. To get a better sense of who was using the BWC, and for what reasons, we conducted surveys to assess the accessibility of these spaces, and people’s motivations for using them. Our data revealed that a large number of people who visited the BWC were completely unaware of the existence of the gathering spaces; however almost all of those surveyed expressed an interest and willingness (and in some cases, even eagerness) to visit after being told about the project and shown pictures of each site. Descriptors such as “serenity,” “tranquility,” and “relaxation” came up frequently in our analysis of approximately sixty surveys. This helped my research team understand that residents often turn to parks and being in the outdoors as an opportunity to unwind
and get away from the stressful bustle of city life. Which led us to the question: how do we get these gathering sites, many of which are tucked away from the main lakefront trail, on the radar of the people they were designed for? Aasia Mohammad Castañeda, the Community Environmental Engagement Coordinator of the Field Museum’s Science Action Center, found that presenting a user guide map for the gathering spaces as a scavenger hunt elicited a more positive response and greater interest from people, especially those with children. These encounters, as well as my own experience observing the Morton Arboretum’s “Troll Hunt,” which also uses a scavenger hunt format, led us to believe that a scavenger hunt would be the most approachable format. A scavenger hunt opens up the opportunity for kids to explore urban nature through an unstructured, sensory activity; to help foster a positive relationship with nature; and to develop survival skills like map-reading—as well as for adults interested in channeling their inner Indiana Jones. We designed a user guide for the gathering spaces with a scavenger hunt
in mind. Of course, no scavenger hunt is complete without a map. The newly developed BWC user guide contains sections explaining the Roots & Routes initiative, and ideas for how users can explore during their visit to the BWC. Further unfolding of the guide reveals a BWC Map, which indicates the locations not only of the gathering sSpaces, but also of ADAaccessible, wood chip, and bike trails, and amenities such as parking lots, playgrounds, and Divvy bike stations. As an extension of my research with UEFL in 2017, I returned as the R&R’s intern this past summer to help test how well the user guide works as a tool for navigation and engagement for park users exploring the BWC. In order to do this, I conducted a focus group with participants from the UIC FAST South King Community Service Center, to see if our approach would, in fact, be more interactive and fun for park users, and whether it would ultimately work to recruit new and returning BWC park users to engage with the Gathering Spaces. We asked questions to get a sense of how accurately the map reflected the actual landscape, how the existing signage assisted in navigating the BWC, and what
LAND
wayfinding improvements can be made to enhance the user’s experience. This focus group revealed a number of unexpected findings. For instance, one participant who had her two young children accompany her on the hunt, said she would be more interested in seeing additional signage for on-the-ground wayfinding as well as interactive signage about the ecology of the BWC and stories of the gathering spaces. It was also brought to our attention that the “In Progress...” signs located along the the BWC might communicate to visitors, especially those unfamiliar with the new natural areas, that this area is restricted— either off-limits to the public or not yet ready for people to enter. This led us to believe that the issue with connecting people to the gathering spaces through the natural areas was not just a lack of signage, but also the type of signage. Our participants suggested that we make the language more inviting. R&R will use this feedback as it plans for future signage.. With its prairie restoration projects, the Burnham Wildlife Corridor is helping to break down the long-standing notion of nature as a fenced-off, non-social, protected destination. The gathering spaces present an opportunity for residents to engage with this new form of urban nature coming to existence in our city, but we need research from the UEFL and the Field Museum’s Science Action Center to understand how these initiatives are being received by the public. Transforming Chicago's south lakefront into an urban green space with ecological conservation and community engagement through art can provide residents with a sense of belonging and empowerment. Now, with research and active community programming to bring communities together at these sanctuary sites in the BWC, R&R’s initiative is working to make this vision become a reality. ¬ Diana recently graduated from Roosevelt University (RU) with a double-major in sustainability studies and sociology, and in the time since has worked on projects ranging from stewarding RU’s rooftop gardens, completing an environmental science research fellowship), running logistics for One Earth Film Festival, and volunteering with The Field Museum’s TFM’s Youth Conservation Action field trips. She is committed to directing her passions for environmental and social justice toward building resilient initiatives in her home community of Berwyn. CHICAGO PARK DISTRICT
OCTOBER 10, 2018 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 9
STAGE & SCREEN
Facing Fate
COURTESY OF SCRAPPERS FILM GROUP
The Area is a complex, issue-driven documentary analyzing the erasure of a neighborhood, and shining a light on the meaning of community BY LATOYA CROSS
T
he phrase ‘Fix it Up, Don’t Tear it Down’—also the title of a painting by Chicago artist Nikko Washington— entered my mind as I watched The Area. Just as Washington’s visual protest paid homage to the now-demolished and gentrified Cabrini-Green homes, reflecting the emotion of its residents, the conversation around erasure of neighborhoods and displacement of families in Chicago is very much at the core of The Area, a complicated documentary that unfolds a story of economic revitalization, commercial interest, and community rights. Directed by David Schalliol, a sociologist and photographer whose work the Weekly has published, the film is a self-described “five-year odyssey...[of ] 400
African-American Englewood families who are being displaced by a multi-billiondollar freight company.” The teardowns are inevitable, but the residents don’t give up easily and continue to fight for environmental safety, job opportunities, and respect while their side of the tracks is still considered home. A few minutes into the film, a young girl asks, “Why are they going to knock that house down?”, as she points to the home she was born in—one her family has owned for more than twenty years. Her voice is innocent and filled with curiosity. The moment leaves an unsettling feeling in the pit of your stomach, made even more unsettling by the juxtaposition of the scene’s final shot: two houses, footsteps apart—one
in healthy standing, and the other vacant, boarded up, and in the beginning stages of crumbling down.
F
rom the first scene, audiences are met with basketballs making their way down a makeshift basket, a game of chess being played outside, youth riding bikes, folks on the grill, and a family enjoying a hot day in a backyard swimming pool. Faces wear smiles, laughter fills the clear sky, and for the time being, everything seems to be alright. But this part of Englewood, in the immediate area of 57th Street and Normal Boulevard, is actually also facing the fact that what they call “home” will soon be dust particles and memories of what once was as
the houses are torn down to create parking space for a $1.1 billion project proposed by Norfolk Southern Railway and given the green light by political leaders, including 20th Ward Alderman Willie Cochran, and the city of Chicago. Instead of setting up shop in a more affluent part of the city, the railroad company decided to expand their 47th Street terminal and claim ten square blocks of Englewood, a neighborhood that has faced population declines and high rates of home foreclosures. Given the dark framing of the neighborhood by most media outlets, it would be irresponsible for The Area to shy away from the raw truths of poverty and crime that surround Englewood narratives. So it doesn’t. However, exploitation has no
OCTOBER 10, 2018 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 11
role in the intimate storytelling that unfolds. Instead, Schalliol is intentional in using his camera to make us feel the community. His inquisitive lens goes beyond the headlines to pose questions and investigate the root causes of blight without explicitly giving answers. “I think it’s important to do that for a lot of reasons,” he told the Weekly. “In part, to combat the stereotypes and often prejudices. It’s important to be talking about Chicago violence, but the most important thing is to be talking about what produces that violence. And what produces that violence [are] the processes we see in the film. That’s the way we can get to addressing those headlines, by getting far beneath them.” He added, “Also, so much of what was happening was being framed by the train company and the city as ‘this is a community that is vacant; this is a community that is blighted; this is a community where no one lives.’ It was really important to be able to demonstrate the way the freight company in conjunction with the city helped produce an environment that looked increasingly like their description of the place.” At its core, the film demonstrates how systemic racial and political inequalities play an active role in the devastation of communities. With assistance from the Chicago City Council, aldermen, and other business interests, Norfolk Southern acquired eighty acres of Englewood, dipping right into the heart of the area in its quest for expansion. The company’s process included going door-to-door and asking homeowners to sell their homes for the fair market value. Whether they willingly sold or not—a decision also explored in the film— it was already determined they wouldn’t be living there for much longer. We hear from community members about their feelings of disrespect, the sense that their concerns are being dismissed. We’re visually invited into a closed City Council meeting that paints a false picture of resident satisfaction, suggesting that the housing sales and transitions were smooth. We witness the relationship Cochran, who is currently reportedly negotiating a guilty plea to bribery charges with federal prosecutors, has with the community. “It’s a relationship predicated on a lack of responsiveness. It’s of saying one thing while doing the other,” Schalliol said. As a viewer, you’re invested in and connected to those moments of frustration. The complaints of environmental hazards 12 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY
such as gas leaks, flying dust, broken tree limbs, vandalized and abandoned houses— along with the lack of support to fix any of these problems—aggravates every nerve. The healing thread, however, is the community we come to learn about in the process. By following Deborah Payne, an “Englewoodian,” homeowner, community activist, and co-producer of the documentary, we see the investment that people have in their homes, neighbors, and community, and the pain it causes them to have that wrenched away by big business and the political elite. We also meet the Row-Row Boys, a crew of teens reluctant to start a new life across gang lines. Both Payne and the RowRow Boys give us access to a side of the neighborhood rarely explored by traditional media accounts: its longtime residents. The Row-Row boys were essential voices in the film’s fabric. “They were part of my community. They were a part of the passion that I have in my life,” Payne told the Weekly. “They had the struggles. They had the heartfelt stories. They mattered to me before talk started about demolishing the housing units. I was always involved with those children, regardless of what they might have done, all of them were not bad.” “They aldermen sold us out,” Payne says in the film. "They allowed people to buy all this property until it was blighted and there was nothing we could do but be invited to a meeting where they said, ‘Sorry, somebody should have done something.’ But we can’t stop living. What was done to us, was already done. But, as long as we lived there, you are going to respect us. That was our biggest thing.” And it’s Payne, who lived in her Englewood home since 1980, that continues the fight for respect. “It’s so embedded into me, the pride in community and being a good neighbor and my faith that we have to stand up. We have to believe. We have to be committed,” she expresses. “I’m so glad that I was just involved in living while I was there. My focus was on the ground, in the booths. We concentrated on living a lifestyle with integrity until we made a good decision that we were ready to go.” Payne’s devotion to sustaining a quality of life among her neighbors until the last house is knocked down carries an energy throughout the film that illuminates the meaning of ‘“home”—it’s an admirable show of resilience, evidence of the power that comes with cultivating a neighborhood
¬ OCTOBER 10, 2018
full of personality, courage, and heart. “Though it was a fight, we became more of a family,” she told the Weekly We became stronger during those hard times because we began to depend on each other a whole lot more. We embraced each other’s needs. We became as one.”
T
oday, the area is deserted and Payne is a Bronzeville resident. Still, the conversation surrounding the issue is ever-evolving, as the film continues to screen domestically and globally, challenging mindsets along the way. “When we showed the film in France, people were asking about the relationship between state authority, guiding decisions and policies; and the relationship between community,” said Schalliol. “I think every time the film screens, there’s an opportunity for people to think about how it connects with their own experiences. One of the major objectives of the film is that we have conversations that lead to action.” For Payne, her footprints are forever embedded in Englewood. “The film [has influenced the fact] that we need to find out more about our city planning, get people out of the houses to know that we have the resources here,” she said. “I think that, [people of the community] are not walking around empty minded because now they realize 991 people are gone. What has that done to community? It has educated them.” ¬ The Area will screen next at the University of Chicago Film Studies Center, 5811 S. Ellis Ave. on November 8 at 7pm, including a panel conversation with Payne, Schalliol, Scrappers Film Group’s Brian Ashby, and UofC Department of Cinema and Media Studies professor Judy Hoffman. theareafilm.com LaToya Cross is a contributor to the Weekly. She is a freelancer with a love for arts, culture, poetry, and entertainment. She last contributed a review of a new short documentary about Gwendolyn Brooks in June.
BULLETIN Chicago Architecture Center’s Open House Chicago Citywide. Saturday, October 13 and Sunday, October 14. See website for locations and hours. (312) 922-3432. openhousechicago.org Everyone’s favorite citywide architecture tour returns for another year, allowing Chicagoans free access to some of the city’s industrial wonders, historic homes, and ornate churches. For one weekend, you can stroll right into any number of South Side gems from Beverly’s Givins Castle to Bridgeport’s Ling Shen Ching Tze Buddhist Temple and Englewood’s African Roman Catholic Church. There’s so much to see, you might want to jump in a car (or on a bike) and make a day of it. (Ellen Mayer)
Book Reading with Sandra Cisneros National Museum of Mexican Art, 1852 W. 19th Street. Sunday, October 14, 6pm–8pm. Free. (312) 738-1503. nationalmuseumofmexicanart.org Literary hometown hero Sandra Cisneros returns to Chicago to read from her new chapbook Puro Amor. The book contains a single short story about a woman’s love for rescued animals, and it features Cisneros’ own drawings, which have never been published before. The reading will include an audience Q&A and book signing. (Ellen Mayer)
Ghosts In The Schoolyard by Eve Ewing — Official Launch Party Chicago Teachers Union Hall, 1901 W. Carroll Ave. Thursday, October 18. 5pm-7:30pm. Free admission or $25 for a copy of the book. RSVP. bit.ly/GhostsInTheSchoolyard Eve Ewing may be Chicago’s most prominent (and productive) public intellectual. Just a year ago, she published her first book Electric Arches, a collection of poetry, visual art, and narrative prose. Now Ewing is back with book number two. Reviewed in the Weekly’s Lit Issue, Ghosts In The Schoolyard tracks the emotional cost and educational consequence of Chicago’s school closings in 2015. The book is both academic—an extension of Ewing’s doctoral dissertation—and personal, highlighting the voices of students, parents,
EVENTS
and activists (including the author) who fought to keep schools open. Ewing will be reading from and discussing her new book at the Chicago Teachers Union hall. She’s got a lot of fans so we recommend you get there early. (Ellen Mayer)
EAT Launch Event The Silver Room, 1506 E. 53rd St. Friday, October 19, 7pm–10pm. Free. bit.ly/ EATLaunch Equity And Transformation (E.A.T) is a new community organizing initiative whose goal is to harness the people power of those working in Chicago’s informal economy. Founded by Richard Wallace, a longtime organizer and former member of the hip hop group Bin Laden Blowin’ Up, E.A.T.’s launch event and fundraiser will feature performances by Drea The Vibe Dealer, the Chicago Bucket Boys, and more. Admission is free but E.A.T. will be accepting donations. (Ellen Mayer)
I Still Believe In Dumb Things, I Think Build Coffee, 6100 S. Blackstone Ave. Saturday, October 20, 6pm–8pm. Free. buildcoffee.org For the past two months, Dan Rowell’s comics and watercolor illustrations have been adorning the walls at Build Coffee, telling stories from a thirty-year life as an intersex person. You might also recognize Dan’s art from the pages of the Weekly. Join the artist for the culminating event of their exhibit at Build, which is “a space for memory, storytelling, and tenderness.” Dan will read from their new book Another Dumb Thing and invite you to share your own stories about what you wanted to mean when you were seventeen. (Ellen Mayer)
VISUAL ARTS Afrofuturism Symposium–Day 2 Gray Center Lab, 929 E. 60th St. Wednesday, October 10, 6pm–8pm. Free. graycenter. uchicago.edu Moderated and organized by AfroFuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture author Ytasha Womack, the Afrofuturism Symposium will be open for the final part of a two-day event. The
symposium aims to create and continue a conversation around the ideas that connect Afrofuturism to science and will include panel presentations by professor and artist D. Denenge Akpem, Dr. Stanford Carpenter, Dr. Bruce Williams, and more. Learn about everything from the formation of Nubian and Egyptian identity to time travel as a mode of liberation. (Roderick Sawyer)
Brown—daughters of singer, playwright and activist Oscar Brown Jr.—have been studying their father’s work as artistsin-residence at the Logan Center. Now, over the course of a six-month residency, they’ll be performing a series of five staged readings of his musicals. First up is “Journey Through Forever,” a parable that equates aging with interstellar travel. (Christopher Good)
Pan-African Festival of Algiers (NR)
South Rhodes Records Pop-Up Shop
Stony Island Arts Bank, 6760 S. Stony Island Ave. Friday, October 12, 7pm–10pm. Free. (872) 244-8604. bit.ly/FestivalOfAlgiers
Build Coffee, 6100 S. Blackstone Ave. Saturday, October 13, 10am–2pm. southrhodesrecords.com
Graphic artist and photographer William Klein’s documentary “Pan-African Festival of Algiers” will be screened at the Stony Island Arts Bank. Klein’s film exposed Africa’s culture and art scene internationally in 1969 while also documenting the liberation of African nations from colonial control. Come by and absorb the rich historical context of an important movement that changed the way the world saw Africa. (Roderick Sawyer)
When Grant Crusor was unable to find a LP of Solange’s A Seat at the Table on the South Side, he took matters into his own hands. The result: South Rhodes, which promises to “[curate] your record collection one gem at a time.” With choice wax from Whitney Houston to Wayne Shorter, it’s all the fun of crate-digging with none of the filler. (Christopher Good)
If I can't call it mezcal, what do I call it? National Museum of Mexican Art, 1852 W. 19th St. Wednesday, October 10, 6pm–8pm. $25 general admission. (312) 738-1503. Register at bit.ly/CallItMezcal Which agave spirits are mezcal and which aren’t? What is mezcal even? Come find out during this mezcal tasting, featuring conversation between distiller Eduardo Belaunzarán, activist Lou Bank, and journalist Max Garrone. Make sure to bring your questions and your taste buds for certified mezcals from Wahaka Mezcal’s fifth-generation mezcalero as well as “uncertified” agave spirits. (Roderick Sawyer)
MUSIC Staged Reading: “Journey Through Forever” Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E. 60th St. Wednesday, October 10, doors 7:30pm, reading begins 8pm. Free. (773) 702-2787. arts. uchicago.edu Since this summer, Maggie and Africa
jazz. (Christopher Good)
STAGE & SCREEN (In)Justice For All International Film Festival Various locations: Trinity United Church of Christ, 400 W. 95th St.; Sanctuary Café, 5655 S. University Ave.; South Shore Cultural Center, 7059 S. South Shore Dr.; and more. October 4–13. Free. Registration and RSVP required. injusticeforallff.com
Feeling Good: a M.A.D.D. Tribute to Nina Simone Harold Washington Cultural Center, 4701 S. King Dr. Saturday, October 13, doors 7:30pm, show 8pm. General admission $40, VIP $75. (773) 604-1899. maddrhythms.com This weekend, M.A.D.D. Rhythms will celebrate tap dance with the Chicago Tap Summit. The conference will include everything from classes and panel discussions to a “tap jam,” but the centerpiece of the weekend is sure to be this celebration of Nina Simone, featuring live music from the likes of Maggie Brown and Dee Alexander in support of live dancing. (Christopher Good)
A consortium of faith-based organizations, social justice groups, and universities will screen nearly sixty films in twenty-six locations around the city focusing on three themes: the criminal justice system, racism and white supremacy, and human rights. Now in its fifth year, the festival also includes workshops, panel discussions, and forums, ending with an award ceremony on October 13. (Nicole Bond)
Magnitude and Bond: Three Generations of Gwendolyn Brooks’s Legacy Stony Island Arts Bank, 6760 S. Stony Island Ave. Thursday, October 11, 7pm–9pm. Free. rebuild-foundation.org Three generations of Chicago women writers, Angela Jackson, Dr. Tara Betts, and Ciara Miller, will share their work and reflections on the life and legacy of the incomparable Gwendolyn Brooks. The event is named for Brooks’s quote: “We are each other’s harvest; we are each other’s business; we are each other’s magnitude and bond.” Guild Literary Complex and the Rebuild Foundation will host. (Nicole Bond)
2018 Africa Forum and Film Series: Fatal Assistance
Sun Ra Arkestra
Carruthers Center of Inner City Studies, 700 E. Oakwood Blvd. Friday, October 12. 6pm–9pm. Free. bit.ly/AfricaForumFilm
Art Institute of Chicago, 111 S. Michigan Ave. Thursday, October 18, 7:30pm–9pm. $10 for members and $20 for non-members. (312) 443-3566. artic.edu Sun Ra, the force that put interstellar Afrofuturism on the musical map, is no longer with us—but his Arkestra, a constantly shifting cohort of musicians and collaborators, continues to make the future audible. Stop by the Art Institute’s Rubloff Auditorium for the be-all, end-all in cosmic
The Kemetic Institute invites you to the next screening in their 2018 Africa Forum and Film Series. This month’s documentary Fatal Assistance delves into the failed efforts to rebuild Haiti after the devastating 2010 earthquake. A discussion with Journal of Haitian Studies contributing author William Leslie Balan-Gaubert immediately follows the film. (Nicole Bond)
OCTOBER 10, 2018 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 13
EVENTS
Nancy Wilson Salute Studebaker Theater, 410 S. Michigan Ave. Saturday, October 13, 7:30pm–9:30pm. $35–$45. chicagojazzorchestra.org The Chicago Jazz Orchestra kicks off its fortieth anniversary season with a salute to the renowned song stylist Nancy Wilson. Wilson’s distinct vocal agility has contributed to more than seventy albums and won three Grammy Awards, earning her the moniker The Girl with the Honey Coated Voice. The evening will feature guest vocalists Roberta Gambarini, Bobbi Wilsyn, and Sarah Marie Young along with an expanded forty-piece orchestra in celebration of this most soulful jazz icon. (Nicole Bond)
Made in Vietnam Chinese American Museum of Chicago, 238 W. 23rd St. Saturday, October 27, 2pm–4pm. $5 suggested donation. bit.ly/MadeInVietnam In 2013, Canadian-Vietnamese filmmaker Thi Vo traveled to Vietnam to connect with his biological father, armed with only a picture and the name and address of an old family friend. He wound up finding more than forty family members across the country. Was one of them his dad? You’ll have to attend this screening to find out. (Christian Belanger)
Tricontinental ‘66 And Other Acts of Liberation Stony Island Arts Bank, 6760 S. Stony Island Ave. Through January. Thursday, noon–8pm; Friday–Sunday, noon–6pm. Free. (872) 2448604. bit.ly/Tricontinental66 The Rebuild Foundation’s latest exhibition is a multi-disciplinary project produced by HotHouse with support from Rebuild, Chicago Filmmakers, and CASA O.S.P.A.A.A.L (Organización de Solidaridad con los Pueblos de Asia, África y América Latina). The project examines revolutionary liberation movements through creations from today and the “revolutionary era” of the 1960s and 1970s, using creative expression of film, music, discussion, and graphic arts. (Nicole Bond)
Chatham Family Fall Fest Studio Movie Grill, 210 W. 87th St. Saturday, October 27, noon–8pm. $5, $60 for limited VIP tickets; children’s area tickets 14 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY
and discounted movie screening available for children. (773) 301-9371. bit.ly/ ChathamFallFest Chicago Women Empowerment Group and Black Chicago Eats will host a family fun event offering something for everyone. Think food, games, music, and a children’s film screening, plus a host of local vendors as people gather to celebrate the pride and history of Chatham. Some vendor opportunities are still available; call for information. (Nicole Bond)
King of the Policy Harold Washington Cultural Center, 4701 S. King Dr. Friday, October 26, and Saturday, October 27, 7pm; Sunday, October 28, 5pm; Tuesday, October 30, 10am. $10–$60. (773) 373-1900. bit.ly/KingofthePolicy This musical depicts the 1940s postprohibition era, when many Black communities in large cities amassed wealth by “running numbers,” which was street jargon for illegal policy games that were the inspiration for today’s state-sanctioned lottery games. The show, written by Jimalita Tillman, is directed by Boaz McGee and stars Arthur Barnes, Jr. (Nicole Bond)
The Burghers of Calais NEIU Carruthers Center for Inner City Studies, 700 E. Oakwood Blvd. Monday, November 5, 6:30pm. Free. Limited seating. General admission tickets available at the Court Theatre box office now. (773) 7534472. courttheatre.org This staged reading is the next installment in Court Theatre’s Spotlight Reading Series, which showcases plays written by authors of color that are often overlooked and underproduced. The Burghers of Calais, a farce written by Edgar White and directed by Ron OJ Parson, draws parallels between the Scottsboro Boys of 1930s Alabama and a nineteenth-century sculpture by Rodin. (Nicole Bond)
FOOD & LAND Fresh Beats and Eats Farmer’s Market Inner-City Muslim Action Network, 2744 W. 63rd St. Fridays through end of October, 2pm–6pm. Free. imancentral.org Every Friday afternoon for the rest of the
¬ OCTOBER 10, 2018
month, join IMAN at their Chicago Lawn farmer’s market—recently named the Best Musical Farmers Market by the Weekly— for fresh produce, affordable meals, a drum circle class, cooking demos, and arts and crafts for kids. As always, LINK purchases will be matched up to twenty-five dollars. (Emeline Posner)
Cross Community Meeting on Environmental Justice / Reunión Entre Comunidades Sobre La Justicia Ambiental Rauner Family YMCA, 2700 S. Western Ave. Thursday, October 11, 6pm–8pm. bit.ly/ LVEJOMeeting
host an “exchange station,” where visitors can come to write down their fears, attach them to an allium bulb, and take home a spider plantlet as “proof of release.” The fear-allium hybrids will be planted in artist William Hill’s nearby sculpture garden (named Best Corridor Gateway by the Weekly), in hopes that they’ll bloom the following spring. (Christian Belanger)
Patric McCoy in Conversation with Kahari Black Experimental Station, 6100 S. Blackstone Ave. Thursday, October 18, 6pm–8pm. Free. (773) 241-6044. bit.ly/PatricMcCoy
Members of environmental justice groups Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, Neighbors for Environmental Justice (McKinley Park), Southeast Side Coalition to Ban Petcoke, and Pilsen Alliance are hosting an open meeting this Thursday to share experiences fighting against pollution in their neighborhoods and share strategies looking forward. All are welcome. Spanish translation services will be available (interpretación en español). (Emeline Posner)
Join Patric McCoy, art collector and former EPA environmental scientist, and Kahari Black, artist and Invisible Institute staff member (and the Weekly’s beloved visuals editor), for an open conversation about Woodlawn’s history and changing landscape, support for Black art, and the environment—and all the intersections between these points of interest and concern. Free and open to the public, this conversation is part of the Experimental Station’s Environmental Concerns project, which runs through the middle of November. (Emeline Posner)
Public Newsroom: Let’s Take a Soundwalk around Woodlawn
19th Annual Calumet Heritage Conference
Experimental Station, 6100 S. Blackstone Ave. Thursday, October 11, 5:30pm–8pm. Free. bit.ly/SouthSideSoundwalk
Lost Marsh Golf Course, 1001 129th St., Hammond, Indiana. Saturday, October 20, 8:30am–4:30pm. $30, $20 for seniors and students. Registration includes lunch and Wolf Lake canoe trip. (219) 464-6874. calumetheritage.org
South Side sound artist Norman Long has previously explored the intersection of noise and landscape, crafting interactive installations at Lake Michigan, Big Marsh Park, and the Lincoln Park Conservatory. Now, at this free Public Newsroom, he’ll lead participants on a “soundwalk” around Woodlawn, and discuss the connections between his own practice and journalism. If you can’t make this, Long will be leading another “soundwalk” on October 6, leaving from the Experimental Station at 6pm. (Christian Belanger)
Plant Your Fears Experimental Station, 6100 S. Blackstone Ave. Saturday, October 13, 11am–1pm. Free. bit.ly/FearGarden At the 61st Street Farmers Market, floraenthusiastic art collective Cream Co. will
Join the Calumet Heritage Initiative for its annual conference exploring questions of nature, industry, and culture in northwest Indiana and on the city’s Southeast Side. This year, Brenda Barrett—not of General Hospital fame, but the editor of environmental website Living Landscape Observer—will deliver the keynote. The one-day affair will conclude with a canoe paddle around Wolf Lake. (Christian Belanger)