October 12, 2016 by South Side Weekly

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THE PUBLIC NEWSROOM Once a week, the office shared by South Side Weekly and City Bureau will become an open space for journalists and the public. Join us for guest speakers, skills-based workshops, discussion of local issues, and equipment training and checkout. LAUNCH PARTY Thursday, October 20th, 6:30pm The Experimental Station 6100 S. Blackstone Ave

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SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY The South Side Weekly is an independent nonprofit newsprint magazine written for and about neighborhoods on the South Side of Chicago. We publish in-depth coverage of the arts and issues of public interest alongside oral histories, poetry, fiction, interviews, and artwork from local photographers and illustrators. The South Side Weekly is dedicated to supporting cultural and civic engagement on the South Side and to providing educational opportunities for developing journalists, writers, and artists. Volume 4, Issue 3 Editor-in-Chief Jake Bittle Managing Editors Maha Ahmed, Christian Belanger Director of Staff Support Ellie Mejía Director of Writer Development Mari Cohen Deputy Editor Olivia Stovicek Senior Editor Emeline Posner Education Editor Lit Editor Music Editor Stage & Screen Editor Visual Arts Editor

Hafsa Razi Sarah Claypoole Austin Brown Julia Aizuss Corinne Butta

Contributing Editors Joe Andrews, Ariella Carmell, Jonathan Hogeback, Andrew Koski, Carrie Smith, Kylie Zane Video Editor Lucia Ahrensdorf Radio Producer Maira Khwaja Web Editor Camila Cuesta Social Media Editors Sierra Cheatham, Emily Lipstein, Sam Stecklow Visuals Editor Ellen Hao Deputy Visuals Editor Jasmin Liang Layout Editors Baci Weiler, Sofia Wyetzner Staff Writers: Olivia Adams, Maddie Anderson, Sara Cohen, Bridget Gamble, Christopher Good, Michal Kranz, Anne Li, Zoe Makoul, Sonia Schlesinger Staff Photographers: Juliet Eldred, Kiran Misra, Luke Sironski-White Staff Illustrators: Javier Suarez, Addie Barron, Jean Cochrane, Lexi Drexelius, Wei Yi Ow, Amber Sollenberger, Teddy Watler, Julie Wu, Zelda Galewsky, Seonhyung Kim Social Media Intern

Ross Robinson

Webmasters Alex Mueller, Sofia Wyetzner Publisher

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. Over the summer we publish every other week. Send submissions, story ideas, comments, or questions to editor@southsideweekly.com or mail to: South Side Weekly 6100 S. Blackstone Ave. Chicago, IL 60637 For advertising inquiries, contact: (773) 234-5388 or advertising@southsideweekly.com

Cover art by Lizzie Smith

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

Crisis Averted As midnight struck and October 11 arrived, representatives from the CTU and the Chicago Public Schools Board of Education emerged from hours of down-to-the-wire negotiation to announce that they had reached a “tentative agreement” and would not strike. This agreement still has to be presented to the union’s house of delegates and voted on by the union membership, but CTU president Karen Lewis told reporters that the two parties had reached an agreement on class sizes and “pension pickup,” the process whereby CPS effectively pays for teacher pensions. Current teachers will still have the benefit of the pension pickup, Lewis said, but teachers hired after January 2017 will not, and will instead have to pay into their pensions. The union’s “tentative agreement” with CPS does not detail any information about funding sources, but at a City Hall press conference, a spokesperson for Mayor Rahm Emanuel said that $88 million of the city’s Tax Increment Funding (TIF) surplus will go toward funding Chicago Public Schools. The use of surplus TIF money to fund CPS was a flashpoint in the weeks of debate leading up to the strike deadline, as the CTU sought to secure $500 of funding per student in contract negotiations, which amounted to approximately $200 million in funding. Tensions rose throughout the evening as the CTU reviewed a last-minute proposal by the Board of Education, presented to the union negotiators around 8pm. Lewis said at a 10pm press conference that the proposal seemed to include “significantly more” resources to teachers than did the January contract presented to the union, which has now gone more than a year without a contract. Indeed, should this “tentative agreement” be ratified into a contract, that contract will already be one year through its four-year span, and will expire in 2019. “No teacher ever looks forward to a strike,” Chandra Garcia-Kitch, third grade teacher and CTU Representative for William H. Ray Elementary in Hyde Park, told the Weekly in the week leading up to the final negotiations. “I do not know a single educator that finds the idea of a strike appealing. Strikes are always the last resort and only used when the contract proposals do not address the needs of the students we teach and the continued livelihood of the profession with no movement to address those concerns being made in good faith.” Bagging It In his 2017 city budget proposal slated to be presented to City Council this week, Mayor Rahm Emanuel is expected to propose a seven-cent fee on paper and plastic bags in grocery stores. The fee serves both to encourage shoppers to bring their own bags and to help make up for a budget deficit of over $130 million. Instituting the fee would raise an estimated $13 million, of which the city would get about $9 million and grocery merchants the rest. The Tribune reported last week that a previous fee applied in 2014 to thin plastic bags caused some shoppers to turn to using reusable bags, but in some cases caused stores to carry thicker plastic bags, “partly thwarting its environmental goals.” According to a study by the United Kingdom Environmental Agency, the environmental impact of bringing a tote is itself pretty illusory: you have to use the average cotton tote bag 131 times for it to achieve a carbon-produced-per-use-ratio as low as that of the average plastic bag. The real kicker in this fee, then, is, as usual, the budget deficit. It remains to be seen whether aldermen will resist this proposed fee the way they resisted the 2014 fee, “for fear of being accused of further nickel-anddiming”—or, rather, seven-centing—“Chicagoans.”

IN THIS ISSUE breaking ground

For Moseley Braun, biodynamics is a way “to heal our bodies and our farmland.”

emeline posner.................................4 enter the cemita

Will Cemitas Puebla suffer the curse of Edwardo’s? joseph s. pete.....................................7 organized chaos

“We’re just speaking everything into existence.” isabelle lim.......................................8 radio silence

“I’m like, this is the radio station that half the time couldn’t keep the phones working.” lewis page........................................10 utter duress

“I don’t listen to mainstream music any more because all my friends are my heroes.” kylie zane........................................13 it’s all possible

How entrepreneurs can be agents of change for their communities, and for the world. anne li.............................................15

OUR WEBSITE S ON SOUTHSIDEWEEKLY.COM SSW Radio soundcloud.com/south-side-weekly-radio Email Edition southsideweekly.com/email

Last Week in Police Accountability In Chicago, all good things come in pairs: closely clustered CTA buses, machine mayors named Daley, and, now, police reform measures. Last Wednesday, City Council voted to pass legislation to create the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA), which will replace the much-maligned IPRA (though the old agency’s recently appointed head, Sharon Fairley, will remain in charge at COPA). The vote passed 38-8, with opposition aldermen and several activist groups claiming the resolution was too watered-down. For example, there is as yet no mechanism for creating the civilian oversight board that’s eventually supposed to pick the chief of COPA. On Friday, CPD released some proposed reforms of its own: most notably, the new rules would create stricter criteria regarding when officers can shoot at a fleeing suspect, and how often they can use a Taser on somebody. They hope to adopt the new policies by the spring. OCTOBER 12, 2016 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 3

Breaking Ground

Carol Moseley Braun on working the Senate and the soil BY EMELINE POSNER

arol Moseley Braun was the first African-American woman appointed to the Senate, representing Illinois as a Democrat from 1993 to 1999. After a thirty-year career in politics and public service, serving, among other positions, as the Ambassador to New Zealand, Moseley Braun turned to the private sector. She founded her own USDA-certified organic and biodynamic company called Good Food Organics in 2002 and under its umbrella sells Ambassador Organics, a line of food products which currently includes teas, coffee, cocoa, and olive oil. Biodynamics is a holistic agricultural approach that involves crop diversification, the maintenance of on-farm biodiversity preserves such as marshes and forests, and the avoidance of chemicals and off-farm products. For Moseley Braun, biodynamics is a way “to heal our bodies and our farmland.” She grew up between Bronzeville, Park Manor, and Chatham, and currently resides in Hyde Park. I sat down with Moseley Braun in her office one morning to talk about her company, biodynamic agriculture, and her work with agricultural policy in Illinois.

COURTNEY KENDRICK

It might come as a surprise to someone that you have spent so many years working on agriculture policy and, now, in the food industry, given that you grew up right here in Chicago. Would you talk a little bit about where your passion for agriculture and nutrition comes from? There’s a picture over there that I’d like you to take a look at. My mother’s family were farmers. And we still in fact have a farm, it’s in Union Springs, Alabama. And as a girl, I worked the farm, ‘cause they put kids to work in those days, and so I worked the farm, and then I would walk through the––I called it the forest––with my great-grandmother, who’s in that picture, and so I developed a love of nature as a little girl. My folks would send us south every summer, every school break, whatever, and that’s where I spent my summers––I spent a great deal of time.

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FOOD

Fast forward to when I got to the Illinois legislature. Because I ran against the Chicago Machine, I had to look for friends wherever I could find them. And so I would end up going to people’s county fairs, and being involved with agriculture as a state legislator. And in fact one of the reasons I was able to pass––‘cause education has also been a passion of mine––and I passed the bill establishing the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences, and that was because in those days nobody wanted to give Chicago schools a dime, and I got the downstaters––I went and talked to my friends in the downstate caucus and one of them said, “Oh, can you put agriculture in this in any way? Our guys will vote for anything that says agriculture.” And I said, “how ’bout this, we’ll establish an agricultural high school.” So I did agriculture as a state legislator, and then when I got to the United States Senate, I was on the Finance Committee. And I was the first women in history to be on the Senate Finance Committee as a permanent member, and of course the Finance Committee, a lot of their work has to do with trade, which has a lot to do with agriculture, and price supports and all of that, so I got involved with agriculture again. And then of course after my Senate career was over, I went off to New Zealand as the Ambassador, and New Zealand has––the joke was always more sheep than people––and so once again, a lot of agriculture. So I’ve been connected to agriculture in one way or another all my life. So that was one of the things that got me started on this path. And then in a funny instance of serendipity, I was invited to a birthday party for a girl I thought I knew. It turned out to be a girl whom I knew, but less well, who had the same name as the person I thought I was going to the birthday party for. And this woman was involved with biodynamic agriculture, because it was the Michael Fields Institute, and Michael Fields is kind of a center for biodynamics. I met the people who were doing biodynamics there, and got interested in that, but so I got deeply involved

with biodynamics, again, as an outgrowth of my lifelong interest in agriculture. And so the biodynamics actually made absolute sense to me because it was kind of like how my great-grandmother used to farm. It had the same stuff, the same practices in many regards. She never used chemicals, or pesticides on any of her stuff, in fact if the soil was deficient in any way she would use a mixture of herbs to cure the soil, and that’s

around for a long time. How do you source your ingredients? And what makes the biodynamics industry different from the organics industry? It’s very difficult. And that’s what we’re confronting even as we speak: we make it a point––if it’s not organic, we don’t sell it, let me start with that. So everything is organ-

It really at the end of the day for the individual comes down to a choice between––you either pay for it now or pay for it later in terms of your own personal health. really what biodynamics is about. And so you now have an organic and biodynamic food company [Good Food Organics] that sells teas, coffee… And cocoa––beverages. The general content description is beverages. And we have tea, coffee, cocoa, and we also have olive oil now. It’s a lot of work. That’s the weeds I’m in today, we’re all in. Diane is here working on getting the paperwork straightened out, and Cynthia’s filling an order, and I’m, you know, putting out fires, so...It is a lot of work. A lot more than I think anyone really appreciates on the outside of the industry. ’Cause think about it––it’s a complex industry, it’s been

ic, but it’s more difficult to source organic products than it is conventional. But it’s even more difficult still to source biodynamic. So there’s [only] a handful of producers around the planet for this stuff. Do you see interest in biodynamics growing among consumers? I hope so. I mean, Whole Foods is placing a bet on biodynamics because they actually have some sections that offer biodynamics. I’m hoping that the public embrace of biodynamics grows because it’s simply the most sustainable––the thing about biodynamics is that it intersects with––it gets you at the intersection of sustainability and personal

health. And so it’s healthier than the products that have been sprayed with pesticides, but it’s also healthier for the planet. And so I’m confident––and that’s the bet we’ve placed with this little company––that the understanding of biodynamics will grow over time. We haven’t really seen it in terms of sales. One criticism of biodynamic––and also of organic––is that products are expensive, and so not accessible to the larger population. How would you persuade someone that purchasing biodynamic products is worth the extra cost? Well, it’s like, okay, so do you want to pay now, in the grocery store, or do you want to pay hospital bills? It really at the end of the day for the individual comes down to a choice between––you either pay for it now or pay for it later in terms of your own personal health. There is a corollary debate in terms of the sustainability issue, and that is, how badly do you want to screw up the planet, or do you want to talk about climate change? How badly do you want to contribute to mitigating the ill effects on the earth of using all these chemicals and pesticides? One of the reasons it’s more expensive, organic and biodynamic, is because of the way that our farm subsidies operate. We as taxpayers subsidize the chemical companies that make the pesticides, that make the chemicals––and we also subsidize the growers, frankly, in terms of industrial agriculture. So those subsidies are not available for products that are grown without chemicals, for products that are grown with just herbs, to cure the soil or with individual labor to address the condition of a given plant. Because of the way that the incentives line up, again, that’s the policy debate. That requires me putting my public policy hat back on [laughs], which it’s like, I’m focusing on “Can I get these products on a shelf in a grocery store?”

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Chicago Public Schools has in recent years been encouraging students to think more critically about food by gardening during school hours, and working with Aramark to source local foods. What do you think of this? Is it a turn in the right direction? Well, I think that schools are beginning to talk more about where their food comes from and what I’m seeing in young kids is that… they’re paying more attention to what they’re eating. And that is, I think, the most important thing that we can do in terms of both our public health issues and in terms of helping young people chart a path for their lives. And so I think it is very positive that Aramark and the whole notion of sourcing locally makes a big difference, not just in terms of support for the local growers, for the local agriculture, but also in terms of the energy savings. I mean, you’re not running trucks up and down the highway for such long distances, and that has impacts, positive impacts, I think, in terms of other issues like climate change. To move back a little further, back to your time in the Senate, what were your priorities in terms of agricultural and nutrition policy, and how are they different from your priorities today? I call myself a recovering politician [laughs], so I’ve recovered, sufficient to say I don’t have these [policy] conversations as much any more, but––back to how the incentives are structured––I was able to get the loan rates for soy beans changed so that they could be competitive and get the same consideration as the people who grow corn and wheat do. That, I thought, was a major deal. I worked with Tom Harkin on getting the bovine growth hormone out of milk. And as far as I was concerned, that was a huge issue. And what would your priorities be if you were in the Senate today? What do you think are the most pressing issues facing the country? Well, again, those are the kinds of things the Finance Committee would look at, and [we] did look at it. Again, I was never on Agriculture Committee, but I did a deep dive on some of the agriculture issues. And I’ll never forget, I went to one of the Finance Committee meetings, and I walk in, here’s this black girl walking into this room of old white men

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and they looked at me like, “What are you doing here?” and one in fact said, “What are you doing here?” and I said, “What are you talking about? I may not be a farmer,” I said,

and really have to have mentors and people who know the ground to work with you, and you don’t have––you’re right, there are all kinds of historical reasons why minorities got

They screwed them out of money, just for years, decades, and actually drove a lot of people out of business. So our own government’s complicit in the fact that there’s lack of diversity in agriculture. “but I’ve worked a farm, and I grew up on a farm, and I’m probably the only person in this room who has fought behind a plow.” And it was like, “OK, maybe she does have a place at this table.” But the point is that I think there are so many different issues right now: prices are depressed, as you probably know, and the prices are depressed because the yields have been so good, and the yields are so high because they’re pumping the soil full of chemicals and whatnot, and so the nutrition is declining, so I think we have a crisis in agriculture. For me, the overarching issue right now is climate change. You were just talking about race dynamics in the Senate finance committee, but the agriculture industry is also a very white, male industry––and of course there are reasons for that. How do you think we can reverse that, and how do you think the industry would benefit? I have very strong feelings about this, about this question. I think that diversity can be increased in agriculture, and organics is a way to do it. The reason I make a point of this is that it would be impossible—well, nigh impossible, for minorities and women to catch up and to be competitive in industrial agriculture because it’s so capital-intensive. And not just so capital-intensive but because it’s so complicated, as it’s gotten over the years,

shut out of ag. Not the least of which was the activities of the Department of Agriculture. And in fact one of the guys who helped me on the board for this company, when we first

started, had been a Department of Agriculture employee, and he spent a good deal of his career working on the issue of how USDA had treated the black farmers. Because they screwed them out of money, just for years, decades, and actually drove a lot of people out of business. So our own government’s complicit in the fact that there’s lack of diversity in agriculture. So having said that, I think that our own government can be helpful in terms of increasing diversity in agriculture, and again, I see organics as being a way of doing that. Frankly, one of the reasons our little company is still here, is because we have the niche of organics to see us through the worst of the recession. If we had been in the conventional space as competitive as coffee and tea are, there’s no question in my mind that we would have been blown up. As it was, we were able to hold our own and hold on because there was growing demand for product that wasn’t polluted. So the niche has proved to be a positive and constructive one for us, but it is also positive and constructive for bringing minorities and women into agriculture. ¬

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FOOD

Enter the Cemita

Cemitas Puebla serves meaty sandwiches in Edwardo’s old spot

ERIC L. KIRKES

BY JOSEPH S. PETE

or more than thirty years prior to its departure, Edwardo’s served a lot of spinach and pesto deep dish pizzas in its spot on 57th Street. Then Packed: Dumplings Reimagined rolled in with much fanfare, but evaporated in less time than it takes to steam a dumpling stuffed with locally sourced, in-season produce and humanely raised proteins. Enter Cemitas Puebla, a small, familyowned chain that got its start in Humboldt Park and has since opened locations in the West Loop, Logan Square, and now Hyde Park. It specializes in the cemita, a sandwich from Puebla, Mexico that the LA Weekly has dubbed the “King of Mexican Sandwiches.”It’s a regal sandwich served

on a brioche-like roll made with egg and sesame seeds. The bread, baked on-site with a family recipe from the old country, is so fresh and so good you’d be hard-pressed not to pick off some pieces to savor its flavor in isolation. Cemitas Puebla also has more on the menu—guacamole, ceviche, chalupas, and various tacos—but the cemitas are the focus, star, and draw of the hip, fast-casual restaurant. The interior is contemporary and chic—a sleek, minimalist splash of wood and blank white walls. A sign with graphic-novel-worthy typography explains that it’s “a testament to the spirit of community that binds together those from Puebla.” Images of highly stylized Day of the Dead

skulls adorn its sign and door. You walk up to the counter to place your order—maybe a cemita with jamon, arabe, al pastor or milanesa. If you can’t choose between them, the Atomica is a good option that piles high ham, grilled pork loin, and breaded pork loin, offering a decent sampling of the various meats. The sandwiches come in oh-so-trendy metal baking pans with mild peppers standing in for pickles. They’re topped with avocado spread, papalo greens (seasonally), adobo chipotle sauce, and a thick blanket of melty Oaxaca cheese. Like the bread rolls, the cheese is so rapturous you might want to eat it by itself. Wash your meal down with a horcha-

ta iced coffee. Sit by the window and watch the parade of students and passersby on the 57th Street commercial corridor. Wonder if you should have ordered less food. Regret nothing. Will Cemitas Puebla suffer the curse of Edwardo’s, which caused the demise of the restaurants within a single year? Hard to say, but people have written articles with headlines like “How I Fell Hard for the Cemita in All Its Forms” and the restaurant is often—forgive me—packed. ¬ Cemitas Puebla, 1321 E. 57th St. Daily, 7am11pm. (773) 420-3631. cemitaspuebla.com

OCTOBER 12, 2016 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 7

Organized Chaos

Female artist collective Cliché on their explosive first year BY ISABELLE LIM

n the back room of a sneaker store in Wicker Park, four of the five founding members of Cliché, a Chicago-based female artist collective, are seated on stools hastily grabbed from between stocked shoeboxes. They’re electric when in conversation with each other, perched in a semi-circle and talking female empowerment, artistry, and speaking their ambitions into reality. It’s characteristic of the momentum that has colored the collective since its inception a year ago. In that time, the group has showcased at SXSW, begun an all-female DJ-performer series called Pussy Control, and most recently collaborated with Chance the Rapper’s new nonprofit organization, Social Works Inc., at his Magnificent Coloring Day music-activism-festival-fair-extravaganza held at US Cellular Field. Chanté Linwood, the woman responsible for orchestrating the first founders’ meeting, is a DJ. The other co-founders Olivia Goodman, Sahar Habibi, Shahrnaz Javid, and Lauren Fern, are stylist-designers, DJs, photographer-writers, or, as Habibi says, people who “handle shit.”

fter sharing grievances regarding gender-based discrimination in their respective artistic fields, Linwood pitched the idea to form an all-female collective: “I would see certain people supporting all these things that men were doing and then not supporting the other women who were doing great things. And then I would go to DJ at places or show up for work and they would assume that I was there with a man, instead of assuming that I was the person that was working or DJing,” Linwood says. It’s an experience that resonates with the other women in the room— the felt lack of support, or the humoring of their creative work. “Sometimes they’d come up to me and be like, ‘Oh you take pictures now? That’s cute,’ ” says Javid. On the other hand, she’s quick to point to signs of female solidarity: “Women had no problem liking each other’s pictures. They had no problem commenting on each other’s pictures, but as a matter of actually coming together and doing something, it was like, everyone’s still 8 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

kind of timid.” To address this lack, a meeting was held, and Cliché was born. It’s “an exclusively inclusive” female collective: a nebulous group of female artists collaborating with each other and putting up events that showcase, celebrate, and give a platform to women and their art. Regarding the origin of the collective’s name, Habibi has this to say: “We were bouncing ideas around and Olivia was like, ‘We’re all so cliché’, and we were like, ‘Oh, that’s kind of cute!’. And we just moved on from there.” The self-aware moniker stuck, and the tongue-in-cheek mood is now central to the collective’s branding. That includes attention-catching wordplay (their “Pussy Control” nights, music and art events with all-female lineups, have likely drawn a couple of confused individuals with expectations of racier fare), the women’s ability to throw humor into an otherwise weighty purpose—female solidarity—and, most importantly, the electricity of the group. The gung-ho spirit of the collective and its members has seen them through a variety of successful events, all put together in near-miraculous amounts of time. Fern and Linwood both point to their Bowie tribute party to show just how quickly Cliché could jump into action—from proposal to execution to police shutdown, it took only three days. Their proposal for the SXSW showcase, “Woman Crush Wednesday #WCW,” took only two days to be confirmed by House of Vans.

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rganized chaos is perhaps the best way to describe the collective’s working style. Between its shifting membership—the artists associated with the group are an ever-changing mix of women who, depending on their personal workloads, are more (or less) involved with the collective at various times—and the guerrilla rapidity of its events, the group eludes clear hierarchical structure and definition. But it works. That isn’t to say it’s been effortless. “A lot of it came down to time manage-

ment and budget. We didn’t have a ton of money. We still don’t have a ton of money to put into it,” said Goodman about some of their more ambitious (and eventually nixed) plans. Most of Cliché’s early events therefore, revolved around parties, their “Pussy Control” series held at the East Room, and other one-off events like their David Bowie tribute party held in January. The events had overwhelming success with attendees: the latter event had to be shut down prematurely, says Goodman, “because it was packed. But also, a fight broke out.” But the finances were still a challenge. “When we do any events or anything, anybody who pays for anything, any cost, those get paid first before anyone makes any money. So sometimes the events will be really cool and great, but you’ll walk home with little to nothing because there were so many costs involved, and so many people involved,” Linwood says. The independent collective has managed to work around their newness and limited promotional range with judicious sponsorship collaborations: their first all-women showcase at SXSW was a cross-promotion with House of Vans, and with almost 1500 RSVPs to the event and the work of 13 performers and artists, it came a mere four months after the collective was founded. But while Linwood says that brand collaborations are definitely still on Cliché’s horizon, the group wants to be discerning about who they work with. “I think we’re in a time where you can’t really use the excuse of not knowing something. It’s so easy to find out online now, so for me, it’s so important to research companies. Even if other people wouldn’t notice that, it’s important to stay true to what you believe. So I’d rather stick to working with women and women-centric companies that are empowering women, and are not on some bullshit,” she says.

hese days, the collective has also pivoted towards building an active online space that puts female artists in touch with one another. Their website, featuring an extensive list of female artists

ranging from musicians to filmmakers, with categories like “chefs,” “activists,” and “performance artists,” forms a catalogue that Linwood hopes will lay the foundations for future woman-to-woman collaborations. “The type of women we include is just exponential. It goes on forever and ever. If you come to us and you’re like, ‘Hey I like what you do,’ or, ‘I wanna do my own thing and bring it to you guys’ We’re like come on! Hop on the train!” says Javid. To Linwood, Cliché’s mode of inclusivity “basically means that if anyone hits me up at all, if anyone contacts us or reaches out in any way, I’m never going to say no, unless I absolutely can’t for some reason.” It’s a congenial vision that seems almost too idealistic to be true, but according to Linwood, Cliché hasn’t needed to turn anyone away yet. However, Linwood herself admits that “right now it’s easy to manage because, although there’s a bunch of people who know about Cliché, it’s not so many people that we aren’t able to filter. At some point the guidelines will evolve and there will be a more...I don’t want to say selective because that kind of goes against what we’re about, but...slightly more selective maybe [guideline].” Some of this selectivity will likely come in the form of approaching individual artists instead of the current crowdsourcing method. It’s something that Javid has already been actively doing on a personal level. “I’m constantly trolling and commenting and DMing people who I have no idea who they are,” she says about getting in touch with other art-women. For now, though, they’re content with letting the collective grow organically.

or the core members of Cliché, the collective has adopted a slower pace, a natural slowdown after the initial rush of activity. Says Habibi, “We definitely don’t want to be overly-stressed with what we do, but we want to make sure that we’re all settled, happy and making sure and understanding that we each have individual things that

MUSIC

we’re trying to focus on.” And while this focus has been trained on their personal careers—Fern working in fashion, Goodman building up her menswear line, Javid photographing and writing, Habibi DJing, and Linwood DJing while also expecting her second child—the women are quick to point out that the collective spirit of Cliché hasn’t waned even in their individual endeavors. “We’re all really willing to help each other outside of Cliché with our personal brands. Like, Chanté and Sahar have both DJed my events, Shahr does majority, pretty damn near all of my photography. So we’re all bouncing off of each other within and outside of the collective which I think

strengthens our relationships,” says Goodman. In conversation, the women are unfailingly supportive of each other’s talent and achievements, punctuating their descriptions of each other (and themselves) with “beautiful,” “explosive,” and “talented.” The optimism and confidence seems second nature for the women of Cliché. “It’s the law of attraction,” says Javid, “we’re just speaking everything into existence. It’s like we’ve created a vision board in our head and we talk to each other every day about these ideas, and we say every day how much we want women of all places to work with us. We’re putting this out in the world, and then it’s coming back to us.” ¬

SHAHRNAZ JARVID

These photos were taken at We Are Cliché’s Woman Crush Wednesday event.

OCTOBER 12, 2016 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 9

Radio Silence

LILLIAN SELONICK

A bedbug invasion exposes tensions between the UofC and its community radio station BY LEWIS PAGE

n a Tuesday in late September, Tuyaa Montgomery, a twentyyear-old University of Chicago student, walked into the second-floor studio of WHPK, the college radio station based out of the campus’s Reynolds Club student center at 57th Street and University Avenue. She’d come to organize the heavy metal CD collection, frequently left in disarray on one of the highest shelves in the studio. She climbed a ladder, pulled down the CDs, spread them out on the floor, and started to sort. There, on one of the CDs, she saw something that horrified her: not the usual gruesome imagery of a metal CD, but what she was almost sure was a bed bug.

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“My heart dropped,” she later said. “I was like, oh god. Here it comes again.” That Tuesday was only the station’s second day of broadcasting this fall: WHPK had returned after a summer of intermittent dead air, a persistent bedbug problem, and constant political conflict. Many DJs have left, broadcasting hours have been shortened, and nothing will ever be quite the same. In future histories of WHPK, this summer will have its own tragic chapter. At night during the week, on the rock format, most of the DJs are UofC students. But during the day and on weekend nights, most of the DJs are not students or faculty—they are, in the parlance of the station,

“community DJs.” Programming on the station varies. There’s talk and soul, jazz and hip-hop. The level of expertise of the DJs also varies; new student DJs will cut their teeth in the early hours of the morning, while later that day a DJ who’s been around the station since 1980 will spin soul for loyal fans from the same few turntables and worn-down console. The influence of the station is storied; DJ J.P. Chill’s show, which started in 1986, is commonly said to have brought hip-hop to Chicago. James Earl Bonez, who inherited Chill’s hip-hop throne and timeslot (Friday at 10:30pm to Saturday at 3am) in the early 2000s, says that Chicagoans above a certain

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age all first encountered hip-hop through that show. Kanye West and Common are among that generation; the two once traded verses in the station’s studio. Common even shouts out the station on his album Resurrection. Things haven’t always been perfect at WHPK. Gary Tyson, a soul DJ who’s been around the station since 1980 (off and on in the early years, and then consistently since ’98), remembers a few incidents: “DJs have been passed out on air and the record’s still playing…there’s been graffiti, you know, on the station wall. There’s been records that have been stolen,” he said. The equipment presents its own problems: one of the CD players scratches CDs, and knobs are missing from the old analog soundboard. But despite technical difficulties and internal conflict, the station has persisted, always as a notably positive point of contact between the UofC and its surrounding community, both inside and outside the studio. Then, in March of 2016, the real trouble began. First, the UofC announced that all non-student, non-faculty DJs would have to undergo background checks. This decision, they claimed, wasn’t sparked by any specific incident and is unrelated to any other changes at the station. “As a matter of policy, UChicago regular staff employees undergo routine criminal background and registered sex offender checks at the time of hire,” reads the statement. “Such checks can help inform decisions about an applicant’s suitability for a position, though having a criminal conviction does not automatically preclude employment. In keeping with this practice, the University is requiring the same of volunteers whose work with RSOs [Registered Student Organizations] includes extensive interaction with students or work in University facilities.” “F.U.,” is how longtime DJ Mario Smith recalls his reaction to the news. Smith has hosted a talk radio show since 2001, hosting Public Enemy MC Chuck D, Talib Kweli, and the late Dr. Margaret Burroughs, among others. When not on air, he’s box office manager and occasional emcee at The Promontory: “To keep my voice sharp so I don’t sound crazy,” he says. “You have known someone for fifteen years. You let them live in your house for fifteen years and then one day inexplicably out of the blue you say I need to know a little bit more about you. But you’ve known me for fifteen years!” “When they first said they wanted to do

LILLIAN SELONICK

a background check and everything, it bothered a lot of people,” says Bonez, the hiphop DJ, who also works with the State Department of Children and Family Services. “But it didn’t bother me. I do background checks all the time. I understand you want to know who’s coming in and out, you want to know who’s in your building. That’s not an outrageous expectation.” The last day before the consent form for the background check was due, Smith reluctantly turned it in. “It was, ‘Sign a background check and continue to have my voice out there or don’t sign the background check and see what they do.’ Well, I signed it.” Then, on August 4, Smith received notice that bedbugs had been found in the studio, that the station would go off the air, and that he would have to get his house inspected before he could return. This wasn’t the first time bedbugs had been a problem for the station. As far back as 2014, stray bugs had been occasionally spotted. One metal DJ, Anneken, claims that he brought bedbugs home from the studio to his apartment three times. In late June, another metal DJ, Andrew Billingsley, spotted two bugs crawling out of the console during his show. In

early August, another bug was spotted, and the studio was shut down for inspection. No infestation was found, and it was therefore concluded that a DJ must have brought in the bugs. The university announced that each DJ would have to have their home inspected before they could return to the studio. When Smith heard the news, he regretted bending the knee to the university’s first request for background checks. “I wish I wouldn’t have now,” he said, “because who knew that they would come up with these invisible bedbugs with lasers on their heads to try to scare the hell out of us.” He announced his resignation. Tyson did the same; he sent his resignation the day after he received the email about bedbug inspections. “I just felt that that was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me.” Even Bonez was frustrated with the situation. “I’m like, that’s kind of strange, to want to come to my home to see if I have bedbugs,” he said. “But then on top of that, you want me to pay for the inspection when you don’t pay me in the first place!”

But Bonez stuck with the station. “I complied with the background checks, I complied with the inspection of my home for bedbugs. You know, even though people were like you’re crazy, I would never. Naw. I want the show. I want to be part of WHPK.” Initially, the inspection cost fifty dollars through the university-approved company Smithereen Pest Management. In an attempt to stem the outward flow of longtime DJs, WHPK station manager Zach Yost negotiated with the university to use funds from WHPK’s spring concert to pay for DJ home inspections. “I’m sure it’s been hellish for [Yost] to be caught up in this,” said Bonez. Yost, a thirdyear undergraduate at the UofC, became station manager in May. So far, it hasn’t been easy; he’s the wartime president of WHPK, faced with endless diplomacy. He’s the main liaison with the administrative representatives from the Center for Leadership and Involvement (CLI), the UofC department that oversees student organizations like WHPK. He’s tasked with ensuring the station complies with the FCC’s broadcasting requirements so that the 88.5 bandwidth doesn’t go up for sale. And, most of all, he’s

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tasked with communicating with all the DJs: he’s had the unenviable duty of writing every unpopular announcement email. After Yost was quoted in a DNAinfo article, he was told by the university that because of his stipend for the position, he was officially an employee and would have to consult with the UofC communications office before talking to members of the press. Andrew Fialkowski is the most senior administrator at WHPK who doesn’t get a stipend. Now a fourth-year undergraduate and the station’s music director, he started DJing in his first year and has filled various roles ever since. By his estimate, this makes him one of the two longest-standing student DJs. But his three years are peanuts compared to a DJ like Tyson, and, as he observes, this is a peculiar feature of the station: as a student organization, the leadership is always comprised of UofC students who come and go, their short reigns leaving the station unstable, while many community DJs have worked at the station for decades. Fialkowski was gone this summer, in California interning for a public radio station, but he’d heard tell of all the recent trials. On August 24 , he said, Yost sat down with Sarah Cunningham, the head of the Center for Leadership and Involvement. Yost was presented with a list of changes for the station. These changes included some much needed upgrades: a new coat of paint, new furniture and carpeting, and a brand new key card lock system, which would allow DJs to access the studio and music library more easily. But one new policy in particular stuck out from the rest: when the doors of Reynolds Club are closed, at night and during breaks, WHPK wouldn’t have access to its studio, where DJs have been broadcasting twenty-four hours a day since 1982. Of the decision, the university stated: “CLI did not reduce WHPK’s hours and they are not being forced to cut programming. On the contrary, the DJs have been informed that WHPK is aggressively working on solutions that include remote broadcasting capabilities and a possible satellite location. CLI is working in partnership with WHPK to work out the remote broadcasting logistics.” The university proposed some workarounds; DJs could broadcast off their laptops from home, or maybe the station could 12 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

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find a place to set up a satellite location where DJs could broadcast when the studio was inaccessible. Fialkowski describes that proposal as the most “kind of sci-fi, goofy part of the story.” Some DJs, he says, don’t have laptops, high-speed internet, the technological know-how, or the time to put up with the switch. Bonez was similarly skeptical: “I’m like, this is the radio station that half the time couldn’t keep the phones working,” he said. A radio station that “half the time couldn’t keep the phones working” could stand to get some upgrades. “You go to those places [like Northwestern] and you see their radio stations, it’s all digital, all high-tech. You go to WHPK, it’s like the first soundboard,” said Bonez. But what makes WHPK special, Bonez says, has historically been the lack of oversight that went along with a level of neglect. “As long as you don’t tell me what to play, I’ll use your board,” he described it. In the past, Bonez was always frustrated when the UofC did get around to putting a fresh coat of paint on the studio walls. “I’d be so pissed off,” he says, “because I would just be like, yeah I know you just look at it when you come in, but do you know how many people have signed this wall? Like, great artists?” “I don’t know if the university understands what it provides,” he says. “Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t care, I’m not sure, I’m not at the administrative level to hear those meetings, we just get emails of what’s been decided from Mount Olympus.” On September 24, four days after Montgomery found the lone bedbug that put the station temporarily off air once again, WHPK returned to the airwaves on a limited schedule. As it stands, the station broadcasts from seven in the morning to midnight on weekdays, eight to midnight Saturday, and nine to midnight Sunday. Student DJs on the rock format, which used to run throughout the night, have mostly been given shorter shifts in the morning. “WHPK is dead,” says Smith. “However the station is gong to sound when it comes back on, it isn’t going to sound like what it was when I was there.” The same goes for Tyson. Bonez, though, is still around, although his show, which used to go until 3am, now ends at midnight. ¬

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Utter Duress VINO TAYLOR

Mykele Deville drops his sophomore mixtape BY KYLIE ZANE

he first presidential debate was nearly inescapable. After making it through about forty minutes of back-and-forth between the candidates on September 26, I left a packed bar and walked to The Promontory for their Monday night series, the Corner, which just celebrated its one-year anniversary. Its intimate showcase of local talent is always excellent— best of all, though, no one was talking about the debate. On this particular night, Mykele Deville took the stage under blue and red lights to perform some of his newly-released mixtape, each one, teach one, which he dedicated to his little niece, Vaniya (she’s even featured on his track

“C’est La Vie”). Deville took a break between songs to say, “I know I talk about a lot of structures, but that’s the way the world is set up, and I want her to be set up to understand it.” Deville grew up on the West Side and cut his teeth writing poetry and acting, and this past year, he started rapping with a collective called Kid Made Modern. Also last year, he and others opened the doors of the Dojo, a DIY space in Pilsen that proved to be immensely popular in a matter of months, and is one of the few places you can see hip hop, folk, punk, visual art, and poetry united under the same roof. If that weren’t enough, he also released his first mixtape, Super Predator earlier this year. He’s prolific and has a

lot to say, with politics realer than either of the would-be presidential candidates’. He opened his set with a new poem, “Repetitive Appeal,” over freeform jazz drumming, the strains of violin, and bass. I hadn’t heard “Repetitive Appeal” until tonight. What’s behind that? Yeah, “Repetitive Appeal”...I wrote that poem like almost five days ago for a set with Sofar Sounds. And it’s just really a response to constantly seeing black and brown bodies slayed by the hands of police and watching this kind of song and dance which happens right after

that, which is a trial. And in these trials, these people go through the motions, getting paid leave, these families are grieving, the mothers are leaving the room. And we don’t really understand, we can’t even quantify the amount of grief and how this affects generations on down the line. When they see something that should be protecting them, the police, dissolve, right in front of them, and then the system backing up the people who are still alive [the police]. And then the trial kind of being turned to me, and saying that I can never really kind of escape this, we can’t really escape this. This is a part of our history now; it’s in the fabric of this country that police will al-

OCTOBER 12, 2016 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 13

MUSIC ways get off no matter what. They will always be protected, and you have no rights. A thin membrane of protection that only works for few (and also property) does not protect your body and does not protect your grief. And if I always have an opportunity to say that and to call that out, I will always do that, no matter who’s tired of it. I will always call that kind of process out because we know it, but a lot of people treat it as a very peripheral thing, like they’re not being exposed to this kind of grief as well. So, I think it’s timely, of course, but it will always be timely because this always happens. For me, it’s an endless, endless cycle and I want people to feel as exhausted as I feel, going through it and living it every day, grieving for people I don’t know. You mentioned in talking about this album that it was influenced by growing up on the West Side, and you also spent some time in Pilsen at DIY venues like the Dojo and ECO. How has growing up on the South and West Sides shaped you? The city treats the West Side and the South Side as peripheries...I think it’s affected me in a very, very positive way because I can’t escape my subject matter. I can’t escape the things that I grew up with and I had to quickly internalize: having constant culture shocks, having constant shocks of humanity, and understanding that the system isn’t for me, isn’t built for me, unless I speak out against it or speak out with it and point out the truth. I notice that in a space of complete and utter duress, the most beautiful kind of art kind of trickles off of the rock right there. And people, so many beautiful artists, so many great geniuses that are unheard on the South Side and the West Side and these places where the city has forgotten about them—I don’t ever want to forget about them. So the West Side has that and the South Side has that. That’s always affected me. Most striking about Deville’s method, showcased in his album, live performances, and physical spaces he inhabits, is the collaboration that makes it all run. You won’t see a show that doesn’t feature at least five different artists, from fellow rappers like Jovan Landry, Trigney Morgan, and Sid Supreme, to musicians like violinist Adero Knott and drummers Noah Jones and Nick McMillian. Recently, he’s even added visual artist Presley Joy Paget, who paints live on stage during the set. And of course, there’s always his DJ, Tony. The collaborations aren’t just a part of the show—they are the show. In your performances, there’s so much joy in collaboration, and you talk about family. 14 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

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I don’t think I’ve ever seen an artist as collaborative as you. I mean, there’s always at least five people on stage with you. What’s the importance of collaboration for you? It’s everything. It’s all of what we do. And that means you’ve got to be patient, you’ve got to listen. Your style has to meld with somebody else’s. It’s like going to one of those concerts and you see your favorite person play, and they bring their hero out on stage and you get to see why they sound the way that they do. I want to do that every day. I don’t listen to mainstream music anymore because all my friends are my heroes. I’ll always want to give them platforms, before even myself, because they’re great, you know? Is there anything you want to say about the Dojo? The Dojo’s my baby, it’s my home. I love the Dojo. That’s the space that is necessary for teaching and healing, and artist therapy. Chicago doesn’t need another business, Chicago needs a place where artists can come and price their work if they want to, or say, “No, I don’t want to price it. I just want to show it.” And it can be in the living room, it doesn’t need to be in the MoMa or in the Museum of Contemporary Art. Those spaces are very important, that’s where I came from, so I will always look for those spaces, and the Dojo’s doing that kind of work. And the Corner, too. And the Corner as well, the Corner has done that work in an amazing amount of time. And I’m so proud that they brought me on. I’m happy, and my friends are the best! All my friends are the best. Feels good when your friends are the best. And you love them! And they are doing great things, and you’re trying to do great things! From constant commotion on stage, to a freedom of style that integrates poetry, raps, and freeform jazz, the sound of his performance is one best described by Deville himself: “It’s loud. It has elements of punk, liberation rap, whatever the people I’m collaborating with bring to the table…So my sound is the sound of Chicago, the sound of the scene, the sound of bubbling hope.” ¬ Buy or listen to Deville’s new mixtape online at mykeledeville.bandcamp.com

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

It’s All Possible

COURTESY OF SOUTH SIDE PITCH

South Side Pitch showcases ideas from local entrepreneurs BY ANNE LI

y the time the third annual South Side Pitch started at 7pm, more than 150 people had arrived at the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, where celebratory blue-and-white balloons adorned the outside of the new Hyde Park startup incubator. Here, aspiring entrepreneurs from the South Side would make their case in pursuit of advertising, event space, and other business resources. The competition, run by the Institute for Justice’s Clinic on Entrepreneurship, offered prizes for the top three businesses selected from the six finalists presenting at the event. The Institute for Justice (IJ) is dedicated to the motto, “Fighting for simpler laws, and less red tape,” which was was

displayed alongside the lectern in support of breaking down regulatory barriers to entrepreneurship. The audience contained plenty of other entrepreneurs, all of whom were absorbed in networking and socializing. Grace Lewis, the CEO of janitorial and maintenance supply company G.T. Lewis and Associates, Inc., has been coming to South Side Pitch since its inaugural year. “I just love to see what new ideas are out here,” she said. Elizabeth Logan, who was there for the first time, had heard about South Side Pitch from another pitching event. Many audience members had come to support friends who were presenting projects. UofC Booth School alumnus Galen

Williams kicked off the event with his keynote speech on entrepreneurship, in which he described his journey from making his first pitch to running a booming business, Green Delta Ventures. Williams led everyone in giving a practice “elevator pitch” after a third of the audience said they had an idea they wanted to develop. Then the six finalists’ pitches were on. First up was Justice of the Pies, presented by founder and owner Maya-Camille Broussard. Broussard founded her pie shop in tribute to her father, who was a criminal defense attorney as well as a dedicated baker. “Justice” comes from the business’s recruiting practices, which are targeted towards those who have difficulty getting employ-

ment. As Broussard put it, “Our goal is to empower those who work with us.” Equally mouthwatering was the next pitch, by OooH Wee Sweet Tea. Mark Walker manages nineteen beehives across the city, and uses his local honey to sweeten his tea. Inspired by Walker’s distaste for Red Bull and other processed drinks, OooH Wee is focused on using natural ingredients to produce sweet tea on Walker’s native South Side, with booming sales at the Harold’s Chicken locations on 53rd Street and on the corner of 87th Street and Lafayette Avenue. The company currently has fourteen employees. 3Dime Design, the next company, is still a one-man operation. Keyante Aytch was born and raised in Auburn Gresham. He now prints custom magnetic bowties with the 3D printer at DePaul University, where he is currently enrolled. Aytch is focused on growing his business; he says, “The calendar tells us what year we’re in, fashion tells us the times we’re in, and it’s time for 3Dime bowties.” Directly inspired by the times is Excuse Me Officer, or XMO. Channing Harris, co-founder and CEO, explained how his experiences coming from a family of police officers and the experiences his loved ones have had with violent and aggressive officers inspired him to create an app that coordinates reviews and recordings of interactions with police officers. Harris hopes that XMO will have an important role in both protecting citizens and protecting good police officers. Linking people together is also at the center of DashPorter, an app that provides porters when people send their cars to dealerships. Bryan Glenn previously started a restaurant in Bronzeville and is currently operating DashPorter on the web. His nearterm goals are to move coding in-house and start operating the app on mobile devices. Rumi Spice, the last of the finalists, was presented by two U.S. military veterans who co-founded the company with two other people after serving in Afghanistan. Emily Miller and Kimberly Jung connect Afghani saffron farmers to foodies and restaurants in the U.S.; they currently work with more than ninety farmers and employ 300 women during the harvest.

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ENTREPENEURSHIP

The judges and audience alike were left to cast their votes as the event organizers looked on. Meanwhile, I sat down with Beth Kregor, the director of the Clinic on Entrepreneurship.

ow does your legal background intersect with your experience in entrepreneurship, and what relationship is there between these two aspects of the IJ Clinic’s work? We are primarily a legal service provider, so we help [entrepeneurs] figure out how to set things up, draft contracts, review contracts, and figure out the web of laws that they often find themselves caught in. All of that gives us the opportunity to help us identify what kind of problems there are in the laws that are holding entrepreneurs back, so we can agitate to change those laws. So we are very, very much grounded in our role as lawyers and advocates for entrepreneurs, and growing out of that we wanted to give this platform to showcase the kinds of entrepreneurs we were running into in our work. How did South Side Pitch begin? Can you describe any challenges you faced in getting the competition started? Well, South Side Pitch was a great idea from the get-go, so I can’t say it’s changed a lot! It’s part of our mission to showcase how entrepreneurs can be change agents for their communities, and for the world. We seek to show how powerful entrepreneurs can be when the laws leave them the space to innovate and develop these businesses, and that’s where this idea came from. We noticed that too often, the South Side is defined narrowly by people who aren’t familiar with it. Too often innovation, or entrepreneurship, is assumed to be all about tech and apps, and not about all of the amazing things happening here on the South Side. What are some of the major challenges for entrepreneurs on the South Side? What we lamentably see is that the law is too often stuck in the past, or even designed by the old-fashioned busi-

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nesses that want everything to stay the same forever. Or sometimes, it’s just short-sighted. So it’s too often difficult for an innovator to break through. It’s even difficult for an old-fashioned business to break through. The process just to put up a sign in front of your store is convoluted and lengthy and crazy, but we want to work on improving the landscape in Chicago for entrepreneurs of every kind. Have you seen any changes in the landscape for businesses on the South Side in the past few years? There have been some changes; the city and the major’s office have certainly moved to push forward some reforms and open up some forums and resources for entrepreneurs, which is terrific. We’ve managed to change some laws, including the fact that now it’s legal to have a food cart in Chicago. But there are also changes such as the building where we’re sitting [the Polsky Center], which are new hubs and incubators that are focused on supporting entrepreneurs. And there are new ways for entrepreneurs to meet investors and to meet each other to create that kind of climate of creativity. What is your vision for the next several years going forward, both for the organization, and for the South Side? We seek to continue what we have always done, which is giving fantastic quality legal services for entrepreneurs in our city [and] providing an excellent education for law students who are practicing law for the first time. But beyond that, and more ambitiously, we hope to be a force for change, and a force for inspiration. So we are working harder and harder to change the code of Chicago, the laws of Illinois, to open them up for entrepreneurs, and we hope to crack open some new opportunities in the near and far future. And we hope to have more impact like South Side Pitch has, so that we can inspire people with understanding how important entrepreneurship is, how important the freedom is for someone to explore new ideas, and how important it is for communities to welcome entrepreneurs in every part of the city, state, and country.

COURTESY OF SOUTH SIDE PITCH

“It’s part of our mission to showcase how entrepreneurs can be change agents for their communities, and for the world.” —Beth Kregor, director of the Clinic on Entrepeneurship The excited buzzing during the voting break was soon quieted for announcement of the winners. Justice of the Pies placed third, OooH Wee Sweet Tea second, and XMO first. The room erupted in cheers for each winner, and those affiliated with XMO ran to congratulate each other. Mark Walker of OooH Wee Sweet Tea said that he was thrilled to have placed second, and just to have been part of the competition. “Second place to me is first place,” he said. “This year, it just tells us that there’s more room for us to grow, definitely, so it’s encouragement for me. The key thing is just trying to employ more people, and to get our product and our brand out there even more.” Mike Shaw, one of XMO’s three co-founders, and Raven Lee, in charge of XMO’s community outreach, were both proud of the progress their project had made. “It started as this little grassroots organization,” said Lee. “We just launched in late August; we’re pretty new to the start-up world. “This is kind of the breakthrough,” said Shaw. “You know, we can’t get too high, get too low, we just have to keep going, and build

the best product for the people. So whatever we can do to help the community, help the people, that’s what we’re about.” “I felt that Chicago, as well as the South Side, needed this,” said Harris, the CEO of XMO. “One of the things that many businesses focus in on is the actual monetary [profits], and I focus in on how for-profit companies can help with social change. That’s what I’ve taught multiple youngsters about, so I wanted to show them that in real life, you can make the biggest change out here, the biggest change Chicago’s asking for.” At the end of the competition, the three businesses that received awards weren’t the only ones who felt like winners. Stacy Massey, the IJ employee who heads South Side Pitch, explained that all the teams had worked to foster a sense of collaboration throughout the process. In the weeks leading up to the competition, the six finalists had served as each other’s critics and supporters, providing feedback and bouncing ideas off each other: how does creating a porter app that tracks driver-police interactions sound? Saffron pie with saffron tea, anyone? It’s all possible. ¬

EVENTS

BULLETIN Doing Harm? When Health Care Providers Report Mothers to the Authorities Billings Hospital, 860 E. 59th St. Wednesday, October 12, noon–1:30pm. Free. Register at bit.ly/2elez0C. (773) 702-1453. macleanethics.uchicago.edu Should doctors be held responsible for the consequences of sending new and expecting mothers into legal custody? Jeanne Flavin, professor of sociology at Fordham University and current board president for the National Advocates for Pregnant Women, presents a lecture about a contentious area of crossover for criminal and reproductive justice. (Sara Cohen)

Latinos and the 2016 Elections UIC Student Center East, 750 S. Halsted St., Cardinal Room. Wednesday, October 12, 2pm–4pm. Free. Register at bit.ly/2dXrGBH. (312) 996-2445. lals.uic.edu Sylvia Puente of the Latino Policy Forum, 35th Ward Alderman Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, Oscar Chacón of Alianza Americas, and a host of experts from UIC and Northwestern engage in a conference on the projected role of the Latino vote in forthcoming congressional, state, and presidential elections. The Latin American and Latino Studies Program at UIC presents this forum of professors, politicians, and activists. (Sara Cohen)

Share ideas and contacts at this workshop on how to get started with cooperative living. And in the spirit of cooperation, bring a dish to share! Workshops will cover fair housing compliance, marketing tools, financial statements, conflict resolution, and whatever topics you bring to the table. (Anne Li)

Englewood Art Fair Hamilton Park Cultural Center, 513 W. 72nd St. Saturday, October 15, noon–5pm. englewoodartfair.weebly.com Celebrate, admire, and support the artists of Englewood at this local extravaganza. Find a pretty print for your home, or grab some artisanal soap for your sink. Pick up an idea and a business card! (Anne Li)

Count Me In: Screening Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St. Saturday, October 15, 2pm–4:30pm. Free. (773) 509-5330. wttw.com A local documentary about participatory budgeting, screened for free and followed by an interactive panel with the filmmaker herself ? Count me in! Chicago Tonight correspondent Paris Schutz moderates conversation between documentarian Ines Sommer and other experts and officials involved with the process. (Sara Cohen)

VISUAL ARTS

Día de los Muertos

11th Annual Folk Art Festival

Garfield Park Conservatory, 300 N. Central Park Ave. Wednesday, October 12, 6pm–7pm. Free. Register at bit.ly/2d3GLow. (312) 7381503. nationalmuseumofmexicanart.org

National Museum of Mexican Art, 1852 W. 19th St. Friday, October 14, 10am–8pm; Saturday–Thursday, October 15–20, 10am–4pm; Friday, October 21, 10am–8pm; Saturday and Sunday, October 22–23, 10am–4pm. Free. (312) 758-1503. nationalmuseumofmexicanart.org

Immerse yourself in the Mexican traditions of the upcoming Day of the Dead at this presentation by staff from the National Museum of Mexican Art (NMMA). Learn the stories behind flowers and skulls. Then go check out the NMMA’s Día de los Muertos exhibition! (Anne Li)

Housing Co-op Workshop and Potluck Urban Juncture, 300 E. 51st St. Saturday, October 15, 10am–2pm. Free. Register at bit. ly/2dXpD0J. (312) 252-0442. cclfchicago.org

Artists from all corners of Mexico come to the NMMA to occupy its own corners for a week-long celebration of their folk traditions and artistic craft. A range of materials and techniques are featured, from Talavera pottery from Puebla to foot-pedal loom weaving from Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca. (Corinne Butta)

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The Election Uri-Eichen Gallery, 2101 S. Halsted St. Opening reception Friday, October 14, 6pm– 10pm. Saturday, October 22, noon–10pm; Sunday, October 23, noon–6pm. Through November 4, by appointment. Free. (312) 852-7717. uri-eichen.com Several artists’ monoprints reflecting on the 2016 election will hang in Uri-Eichen’s Pilsen gallery. Their focus ranges from gender issues surrounding Clinton to the implications of Trump’s popularity. Rick Perlstein, a historian of the conservative movement, will give a talk and Q&A on opening night. ( Juan Caicedo)

The Red Art: Propaganda Posters from the Cultural Revolution Co-Prosperity Sphere, 3219 S. Morgan St. and The Research House for Asian Art, 3217 S. Morgan St. Opening reception at Co-Prosperity Sphere on Friday, October 14, 6pm–9pm. Through October 30. Free. (312) 361-3208. researchhouseforasianart.org Workers of the world, unite: the Co-Prosperity Sphere and Research House for Asian Art have joined forces to curate a collection of little-seen posters from China’s Cultural Revolution. Zhang Pingjie, one of the artists responsible for the agitprop, will be in attendance at the opening reception. (Christopher Good)

The Water Lily Pond of Life Zhou B Art Center, 1029 W. 35th St. October 16, 2016–September 16, 2017. Monday–Saturday, 10am–5pm. Free. (773) 523-0200. zhoubartcenter.com Forty-two years after their first series, Water Lily, the Zhou Brothers’ latest work aims to reflect on their lives. This new series brings viewers back to the years when the artists were shaping their styles, and walks them through the development of the brothers’ skills and philosophy towards art and life. (Sicely Li)

6pm–9:30pm. Gallery open Wednesday–Saturday, 11am–5pm. Free. (773) 940-2992. projectonward.org Up and coming talents from around Chicago are swapping out canvas for corrugated paper products—the Cardboard Show is back. It’s both a great time and a fundraiser for Bridgeport’s Project Onward, a nonprofit studio and gallery that supports artists with mental and developmental disabilities. (Christopher Good)

MUSIC Rhye with Cigarettes After Sex Thalia Hall, 1807 S. Allport St. Thursday, October 13, 8pm. $30 advance, $36 at the door. 17+. (312) 526-3851. thaliahallchicago.com The duo of Milosh and Robin Hannibal made their name producing intimate, satin-sheeted jams on their first album as Rhye, Woman, and now they’re aiming to replicate that bedroom privacy onstage at Thalia Hall. Cigarettes After Sex, a similarly romantic (if a little janglier) altpop group with their share of online buzz behind them, opens. (Isabelle Lim)

Jóhann Jóhannson Thalia Hall, 1807 S. Allport St. Sunday, October 16, doors 7pm, show 8pm. $24. All ages. (312) 526-3851. thaliahallchicago.com It’s not often that a musician fits comfortably on both indie royalty 4AD and German classical label Deutsche Grammophon—but Jóhann Jóhannson, a post-classicalist with modern sensibilities, isn’t your average composer. In recent years, he’s scored films like Sicario and The Theory of Everything—but his newest project, a score for a reboot of sci-fi classic Blade Runner, is building real hype. (Christopher Good)

Annual Cardboard Show

The Dojo & ESO Theater Present: The Badazz Sounds of Saints

Project Onward, 1200 W. 35th St., 4th floor. Opening reception Friday, October 21,

ESO Theater, 5401-5403 W. Madison St. Saturday, October 15, 9pm–1am. $10 ad-

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vance, $15 at the door. 21+. (312) 487-6861. esochicagotheater.org Electric-funk-soul-afrobeat explosion Tamarie T. and the Elektra Kumpany (whose performances are notable for their shirtless antics and back-up dancers, in addition to the groovy beats) headlines a night of psychedelic rhythms. They’ll be joined by psychedelic blues rockers After Hours Radio and Forgotten Tropics. (Kylie Zane)

Greg Hill’s The Delfonics Revue The Promontory, 5311 S. Lake Park Ave. Thursday, October 13, doors 7pm, show 8pm. $15-$35. (312) 801-2100. promontorychicago.com Beloved sixties and seventies R&B/soul stars The Delfonics are well known for their crooner hits “La-La (Means I Love You)” and “Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time).” Sing along as they perform their greatest songs at the Promontory, led by former front man Greg Hill. (Kylie Zane)

Steve Coleman and Five Elements

New Orleans songwriter-by-night Samantha Montgomery (“Princess Shaw”) attempts to rise up out of musical obscurity by harnessing the power of the internet in a feel-good documentary for the digital age. If you’re aspiring YouTube royalty or if you just have a thing for soulful belting, don’t miss this story of a big break in the twenty-first century. (Emma Boczek)

SEEN by ALEXA GRÆ High Concept Labs, 2233 S Throop St. Friday, October 14, 7:30 pm. $10. (312) 850-0555. highconceptlaboratories.org Prepare for your conceptions of art and gender identity to be challenged during ALEXA GRÆ’s SEEN, a multidisciplinary song cycle that synthesizes opera, electronic orchestrations, video projections, and movement. SEEN explores how vulnerability can become empowering and asks whether you are seen in society as you would like to be. (Theo Grant-Funck)

The Mobile Speakers’ Podium for Citizens and Non-Citizens

Dorchester Arts + Housing Collaborative, 1456 E. 70th St. Thursday, October 13. 7:30pm. Free. (312) 857-5561. arts.uchicago.edu

The Muffler Shop, 359 E. Garfield Blvd. Friday, October 14, 6pm–7pm. Free. (773) 702-9724. arts.uchicago.edu

Alto saxophone virtuoso Steve Coleman and his band return to the South Side for a two-week residency. Unchained from traditional time signatures and structures of Western music, Coleman composes through the lens of M-base, a mode of creating music focused on conceptual growth and improvisation. Expect unreal tempos and tight grooves. (Kylie Zane)

Inspired by a coalition of immigrants and citizens in Crete, Illinois that blocked the construction of a local private detention center, artist Jenny Polak’s dual podium—resembling both a prison fence and a suburban house—will support a series of diverse speakers as they address issues concerning immigrant detention, prison, and citizenship. ( Juan Caicedo)

Black Lives Matter and The Power of Media

STAGE & SCREEN Presenting Princess Shaw Beverly Arts Center, 2407 W. 111th St. Wednesday, October 12, 7:30pm. $7.50 for members, $9.50 for non-members. (773) 4453838. beverlyartcenter.org

Stony Island Arts Bank, 6760 S. Stony Island Ave. Sunday, October 16, 4pm–6pm. (312) 857-5561. rebuild-foundation.org What role does the media play in interpreting the message of Black Lives Matter? The Arts Bank, along with the Chicago International Film Festival and the Chicago Media Project, is hosting a panel of activists

and filmmakers to shed light on how they intend and attempt to capture this generation-defining social movement. (Marielle Ingram)

brews should stave off gridlock. (Christopher Good)

Moving Images, Making Cities Film Series: Lord Thing

Court Theatre, 5535 S. Ellis Ave. Through October 16, 8pm. $38; discounts available for students, seniors, and groups. (773) 7534472. courttheatre.org

Arts Incubator, 301 E. Garfield Blvd. Tuesday, October 18, 7pm–9pm. (773) 702-9724. bit.ly/2e9Ra3c Black Cinema House, Place Lab, and Chicago Film Archives team up to present the 1971 documentary Lord Thing for the Ethical Redevelopment film series. After the screening, there will be a conversation between UofC professor Jacqueline Stewart, the co-founder of National Alliance for the Empowerment of the Formerly Incarcerated—Benny Lee, and representatives from Place Lab and the Rebuild Foundation. (Yarra Elmasry)

Alternative Histories of Labor: El Teatro Campesino La Catrina Cafe, 1011 W. 18th St. Wednesday, October 19, 7pm. Free. (312) 473-0038. southsideprojections.org Part of the Alternative History of Labor series, the documentary tells the story of El Teatro Campesino, the United Farm Workers’ theater troupe, through its first five years. A discussion will be held after the screening with Jacqueline Lazú of DePaul University, Marcopolo Soto of Aguijón Theater and Contratiempo, and Martin Unzueta of Chicago Community & Workers’ Rights. (Michelle Yang)

Drive-In Happening University of Chicago Campus North Parking Garage, 5525 S. Ellis Ave. Friday, October 14, 6pm. Free. (773) 702-2787. arts.uchicago.edu To celebrate the return of Wolf Vostell’s 1970 artwork “Concrete Traffic” to Chicago, the Fluxus mainstay artist’s films will be projected upon the walls of a parking garage. Even if you’re unimpressed by car culture (or Cadillacs encased in cement), the German food and Vostell-inspired

Man in the Ring

The true story of legendary boxer Emile Griffith, brought to life through the writing of Pulitzer-Prize-winning playwright Michael Cristofer and the direction of Charles Newell, is a story about fighting, both for boxing titles and the ability to define oneself. (CJ Fraley)

The Colored Museum eta creative arts, 7558 S. South Chicago Ave. Through Sunday, October 23. Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm; Sundays at 3pm. $35; $25 seniors; $15 students. (773) 752-3955. etacreativearts.org In eleven “exhibits,” George C. Wolfe’s satirical play, staged by Pulse Theatre Company, examines stereotypes and identity in the black experience from a “celebrity slave-ship” to an imagined dinner party where “Aunt Jemima and Angela Davis was in the kitchen sharing a plate of greens and just goin’ off about South Africa.” (Adam Thorp)

Explore the city. Deliver papers. DRIVERS WANTED South Side Weekly is hiring delivery drivers for Tuesday & Wednesday routes Must have: Own vehicle | Valid driver’s license | Insurance To apply, email drivers@southsideweekly.com OCTOBER 12, 2016 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 19