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SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY The South Side Weekly is a 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. Started as a student paper at the University of Chicago, the South Side Weekly is now an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting cultural and civic engagement on the South Side, and to providing educational opportunities for developing journalists, writers, and artists.
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
Rahm (Sort of ) Defends Cops In a conversation with Attorney General Loretta Lynch last week, Rahm Emanuel described Chicago police officers as “fetal.” He later Editor-in-Chief Osita Nwanevu clarified this puzzling characterization, explaining that officers—in the Executive Editor Bess Cohen Managing Editor Olivia Stovicek wake of Baltimore, Ferguson, and similar incidents—fear losing their jobs, or worse, causing them to hesitate over previously easy decisions. Politics Editor Christian Belanger Presumably, Rahm’s statement was partially in reference to the recent Education Editor Mari Cohen Music Editor Maha Ahmed emergence of a number of video recordings, like the one released this Stage & Screen Julia Aizuss past June that showed Chicago police officer Marco Proano firing Editor Visual Arts Editor Emeline Posner multiple times into a car full of six black, unarmed teens. (Proano’s case Editors-at-Large Lucia Ahrensdorf, is still under investigation.) Fortunately, some police officers appear Jake Bittle, to be taking matters into their own hands: after seventeen-year-old Austin Brown, Sarah Claypoole, Laquan Mcdonald was shot sixteen times by a CPD patrolman, a Emily Lipstein group of officers allegedly deleted the footage of the shooting from a Contributing Editors Will Cabaniss, nearby security camera. Eleonora Edreva, Lewis Page, Hafsa Razi Social Media Editor Sam Stecklow Web Editor Andrew Koski Visuals Editor Ellie Mejia Layout Editors Adam Thorp, Baci Weiler, Sofia Wyetzner
Senior Writers: Patrick Leow, Jack Nuelle, Stephen Urchick Staff Writers: Olivia Adams, Amelia Dmowska, Maira Khwaja, Emiliano Burr di Mauro, Michal Kranz, Zoe Makoul, Sammie Spector, Zach Taylor Staff Photographers: Juliet Eldred, Finn Jubak, Alexander Pizzirani, Julie Wu Staff Illustrators: Javier Suarez, Addie Barron, Jean Cochrane, Lexi Drexelius, Wei Yi Ow, Amber Sollenberger, Teddy Watler, Julie Wu, Zelda Galewsky, Seonhyung Kim Editorial Intern
Clyde Schwab
Webmaster Publisher
Sofia Wyetzner Harry Backlund
The paper is produced by an all-volunteer editorial staff and seeks contributions from across the city. We distribute each Wednesday in the fall, winter, and spring, with breaks during April and December. Over the summer we publish monthly. Send submissions, story ideas, comments, or questions to editor@southsideweekly.com or mail to: South Side Weekly 1212 E. 59th Street Ida Noyes Hall #030 Chicago, IL 60637 For advertising inquiries, contact: (773)234-5388 or advertising@southsideweekly Read our stories online at southsideweekly.com
Cover photo by Eleonora Edreva.
Marrython Trade champagne for paper cups of Gatorade and a teary audience for hordes of sweaty, selfie-taking runners and you’ll be picturing Sunday’s most unconventional wedding. Lakeview residents and runners Stephanie Reinhart and Mark Jockel tied the knot at an under-fourminute ceremony at mile eight of the thirty-eighth annual Bank of America Chicago Marathon, surrounded by friends and family, before they got back on the course to complete the next eighteen miles. It’s a truly inspirational (and, let’s be real, maddening) tale for all the single and sedentary. While the Chicago Marathon brought matrimony to one couple and glory to the winners, Dickson Chumba and Florence Kiplagat of Kenya, it brought frustration to the non-marathoners attempting to navigate the city.
Jailbyrd? In keeping with the long tradition of corrupt Chicago politicians, former CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett was indicted last week for—among other things—taking hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gifts in exchange for giving a $20 million no-bid contract to her former employer, Supes Academy. Investigations into ByrdBennett’s scheme began after South Side resident and CatalystChicago reporter Sarah Karp called attention to the fishy no-bid contract. Byrd-Bennett, who resigned in May when district records were first subpoenaed, will plead guilty. Supes executives Gary Solomon and Thomas Vranas—who opened trust funds in the names of two of Byrd-Bennett’s relatives and promised jobs to the CEO’s friends and family—have also been charged with fraud, bribery, and conspiracy. Each of her twenty counts of fraud are punishable by up to twenty years in jail. The best part of the coverage of Byrd-Bennett’s unbelievable greed are the absurdly transparent emails including such incriminating gems as Byrd-Bennett writing that she had “tuition to pay and casinos to visit.” “Hello? Hello?” “The number you have dialed has been disconnected or is no longer in service.” That’s the message you get when you call someone who hasn’t been paying their phone bill, and the last message you would ever expect to hear upon dialing 9-1-1. However unlikely the latter scenario, it grows more likely with every day that Governor Rauner continues to squabble with the Democrats over the Illinois budget impasse, which is leaving 9-1-1 call centers short $32,000 per month, no small portion of their budgets. Sorry, Illinoisans, but it seems that Rauner values his game of political chess over the safety and well-being of his constituents.
IN THIS ISSUE back in the game the origins of ipra
Obrycka, Bond, and others were the victims of a CPD-wide code of silence. will cabaniss...4 when police are investigated, why do they hold on to the records?
The data IPRA has is kept by the very agency it’s investigating—the Chicago Police Department. christian belanger...5
Lewis has been undergoing treatment for a brain tumor diagnosed last October. She stated that she is now healthy, and that she is “not done” fighting. sonia schlesinger...6
education as liberation
The most important layer is that of dignity. lewis page...10 chicago rap unites for
“justice
or
paint the town
else”
Colors seen on her painted houses include Harold’s Chicken Shack Red, Newport Blue, and Pink Oil Moisturizer Pink.
The whopping eight-minute track anticipated and was inspired by Saturday’s anniversary of the Farrakhan-organized Million Man March.
eleonora edreva...7
jon poilpre...12
OCTOBER 14, 2015 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 3
The Origins of IPRA How Chicago was pressured to establish an independent police review authority BY WILL CABANISS
T
he series of events that would eventually lead to an overhaul of the bodies that oversee the CPD started on February 21, 2007, when Officer Anthony Abbate, then a 12-year veteran of the force, physically assaulted a bartender named Karolina Obrycka. Only after Obrycka’s attorneys released security footage of the incident – nearly one month later – was Abbate arrested. Police officials said they had been “unable to locate” him in the intervening weeks, even though they had apprehended Abbate in the confines of his own home. That claim took five years to disprove, when a federal jury found the police guilty of brushing Abbate’s case under the rug. The Abbate case was not the only one on Chicago’s mind at the time. The city settled another high-profile dispute in December 2006, when it awarded $150,000 to a woman named Diane Bond. Bond had accused five CPD officers abusing both her physically and psychologically in and around her Stateway Gardens apartment. November of 2007 saw the release of a study led by Craig Futterman, a professor of law at the University of Chicago, which alleged that Obrycka, Bond, and others were the victims of a CPD-wide code of silence.
“The odds are two in a thousand,” the study found, “that a Chicago police officer will receive any meaningful discipline as a result of being charged with abusing a civilian.” Futterman and his team provided hard evidence that the department’s internal investigations were nearly meaningless. The evidence of cover-ups and inefficiencies within the Office for Professional Standards, the branch of the Chicago Police Department formerly responsible for investigating police misconduct, struck a particularly painful chord. But other broad swaths of the CPD were implicated in the report as well, from administrators down to officers. The Abbate scandal led to the ouster of Superintendent Philip J. Cline, the CPD’s top administrator, who resigned in April 2007. Headlines concerning police misconduct dominated Chicago media outlets for months following both events, forcing city leaders to act or face the political consequences. This environment set the foundations of the Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA). That summer, the city council voted to dissolve OPS and establish an independent agency to oversee police investigations, a proposal championed by Mayor
Richard M. Daley. The founding of IPRA was set to begin a new era of accountability and discipline with the CPD. Some praised the mayor, while others called the move a transparently political calculation. To lead the new organization, the mayor tapped Ilana Rosenzweig, an attorney who had kept an eye on the Los Angeles County Sheriff ’s Office at the city’s Office of Independent Review. The mayor also brought in a new police chief from outside the department, a former FBI agent named Jody Weis. Futterman said that at the time, he and his team were encouraged by the decision to establish an independent oversight committee and to bring someone from outside the CPD to lead it, but had reservations about the mayor’s motivations. “There was a real risk of federal intervention in Chicago,” Futterman said, referring to the period after Cline stepped down, “and one of the ways in which they very adeptly attempted to head that off was to bring in someone from federal law enforcement themselves.” The key to IPRA was built into its name – it would investigate cases independent of the police and city government officials, and that caseload would not be small.
The agency, as it is currently structured, intakes all claims of misconduct, investigating those that involve “excessive force, domestic violence, coercion through violence, or verbal bias-based abuse.” All other complaints are forwarded to the CPD’s Bureau of Internal Affairs (BIA). Disciplinary recommendations for officers found guilty of misconduct, if issued at all, range from simple reprimands to suspensions. “Separation,” IPRA’s harshest possible recommendation and one of the many institutional euphemisms the agency employs, is police-speak for being fired. IPRA then investigates complaints that involve “excessive force, domestic violence, coercion through violence, or verbal bias-based abuse,” its website says, and forwards all other cases to the Bureau of Internal Affairs (BIA). How much attention and money these reform efforts received, however, was ultimately dictated by public outrage. While the scandal initially dominated Chicago headlines, the shock soon waned. As a result, Futterman said, IPRA wasn’t given the funding or the resources it needed to conduct thorough investigations or even find more people capable of carrying them out. Just months after Rosenzweig’s ap-
February 21, 2007
March 2007
April 2, 2007
July 19, 2007
November 2007
Officer Anthony Abbate, a 12-year veteran of the force, physically assaults a bartender named Karolina Obrycka.
Obrycka’s attorneys release security footage of the incident; Abbate is subsequently arrested at his home.
CPD Superintendent Philip J. Cline resigns.
City Council unanimously votes to overhaul OPS, renaming it the Independent Police Review Authority. Daley appoints Los Angeles attorney Ilana Rosenzweig to lead the fledgling agency.
A study led by University of Chicago law professor Craig Futterman finds evidence that “the odds are two in a thousand that a Chicago police officer will receive any meaningful discipline as a result of being charged with abusing a civilian.”
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POLICING
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his fall, journalists with the Invisible Institute will publish an interactive online database of all allegations of police misconduct in Chicago between March 2011 and March 2015, as well as partial data from earlier years. These records, obtained by the Invisible Institute through years of Freedom of Information Act litigation, offer an unprecedented view into the City’s system of police accountability. This series, produced in partnership with City Bureau, is meant to provide context for the forthcoming database.
pointment, IPRA was already facing difficulties. The Tribune reported in December 2007 that the agency, “budgeted for 85 positions … is short 24 people.” Each investigator was taking on thirty cases at a time – triple the number Rosenzweig thought was appropriate. More important was the perception of critics that nothing had changed. Beyond the acronym swap, some initially saw few differences between OPS and IPRA. “(Rosenzweig) inherited the exact same staff (from OPS) that was inadequate and had a culture of protecting the police,” Futterman said. IPRA now has almost a decade of experience under its belt. It has a new leader, a former Drug Enforcement Administration officer named Scott Ando. (Rosenzweig abruptly left the agency in 2013 when her husband accepted a job in Singapore.) But whether it has succeeded in gaining Chicagoans’ trust is unclear. Questions about its efficiency and supposed impartiality remain unanswered, too. Eight years later, IPRA’s record shows few recommendations for punishments as severe as “separation.” At press time, the latest high-profile case of a police-involved shooting to pass through IPRA’s doors is that of Officer Dante Servin, who fatally
shot 22 year-old Rekia Boyd nearly three and a half years ago. Servin shot into a crowd while off duty in Lawndale, claiming that he saw a man in the group produce a gun. Boyd was caught in his line of fire. No weapon was ever recovered. On September 16, 2015, IPRA recommended to police chief Garry McCarthy that Servin be fired. It was only the second such verdict the agency had ever issued related to a police-involved shooting. (IPRA has also never found an on-duty shooting to be justified.) Before Servin’s case was that of Officer Francisco Perez, who fired 16 bullets at a car while off-duty. Perez was fired this past summer not for his actions, according to Supt. McCarthy, but for lying about them during the investigation. Yet the reality is that, even after this most recent decision, Servin’s career with the CPD is by no means over. In fact, should McCarthy reject IPRA’s recommendation, he would save Servin from the ignominy of facing the Police Board, a panel of nine private citizens who make the final call on allegations of misconduct. IPRA’s recommendations are still no more than that – recommendations. The case against Servin, should McCarthy want it to, would come to a standstill.
February 1, 2008
April 13, 2013
Former FBI agent Jody Weis is sworn in as CPD Superintendent.
Rosenzweig resigns, former DEA agent Scott Ando takes over IPRA.
When Police are Investigated, Why Do They Hold on to the Records? BY CHRISTIAN BELANGER
W
hen the Independent Police Review Authority was created in September 2007, a key term was “independent.” The organization was created following concerns that its predecessor had too many ties to the police department it was meant to oversee. IPRA was to be completely independent: staffed and overseen by civilians, not police officers. But what the organization didn’t openly reveal, and what it took an interested civilian advocate months to figure out, is that its data—the files on investigations and complaints—isn’t independently held. That’s because the data IPRA has is kept by the very agency it’s investigating— the Chicago Police Department. Tracy Siska, executive director of the Chicago Justice Project, discovered this potential conflict when he filed a Freedom of Information Act request (a petition for ac-
cess to public records) with IPRA asking for the agency’s police complaints from January 2013. “Over a series of phone calls, it got to a point where [Larry Merritt, IPRA’s Public Affairs Director] seemed to say that they couldn’t get the data out because it was in CLEAR,” recounts Tracy Siska, executive director of the CJP. The CLEAR (Citizen Law Enforcement and Reporting) database is maintained by the Chicago Police Department. Its primary purpose is to log and track crime incidents in Chicago, but it also stores the data for all Internal Affairs investigations. As Siska discovered, IPRA’s data is also contained within the system. “Finally, there was a phone call between me, Larry [Merritt], and a data guy at IPRA. I gave an ultimatum at the end of the conversation—can you get the data or not?—and the IT guy said they don’t have
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EDUCATION
administrative rights to the database.” According to Siska, the result was that data fields had to be pulled individually out of CLEAR, in what he called a “very complicated, very ridiculous process.” The data was finally released to the CJP, over half a year after the original FOIA request (for reference, a federal report found that most FOIA requests take about twenty business days to complete), but Siska still isn’t sure that he has all of the data. Merritt told the Weekly that while IPRA investigations are stored in the CPD database, there’s a clear separation between the two organizations. “They [the CPD] don’t have access to our files, we don’t have access to their files. If we need to find anything, our computer guy, he runs a report that accesses the CLEAR database, and we get all the information we need.” Crista Noel, a leader in the movement for a civilian police review board, said that she suspects the shared infrastructure is a holdover from IPRA’s predecessor, the Office of Professional Standards, which was a CPD agency: “The majority of people who worked at OPS went over to IPRA. They rewrote the ordinance a little bit, but they didn’t change much else. And I think the database probably went with them.” And while there is some dispute between Siska’s and Merritt’s claims about the level of access IPRA has to the data, experts say that the shared database is a problem either way. “It makes you wonder what other kind of compromises are made. It’s not quite clear what the limit between the two agencies is.” said Sam Walker, a professor of criminology at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and the author of several books on police accountability. Apart from the potential for serious conflicts of interest, though, Walker, simply said that keeping the databases separate amounts to common sense: “They’re an independent agency, they should have their own independent database. It’s not really a matter of law, just a matter of good policy.”
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Back in the Game CTU President Karen Lewis, known for outspoken criticism of the mayor’s education policy, seeks a third term BY SONIA SCHLESINGER
K
aren Lewis, president of the Chicago Teacher’s Union (CTU), recently announced that she will seek a third term in May 2016. Lewis has been undergoing treatment for a brain tumor diagnosed last October, but she stated in her announcement that she is now healthy, and that she is “not done” fighting for Chicago’s students and teachers. An outspoken critic of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Lewis considered opposing Emanuel in February’s city election, but, as a result of her diagnosis last year, decided not to run. Instead, she threw her support behind Cook Country Commissioner Chuy Garcia, whose candidacy forced a run-off election in April, despite what was supposed to have been an easy win for Emanuel. A South Side native, Lewis fought particularly hard against Emanuel’s decision to close fifty of Chicago’s lower-performing and lower-income public schools in 2013, many of which are on the South Side. Lewis herself attended Kenwood Academy High School in Hyde Park-Kenwood, and taught at King College Prep High School, a selective enrollment school in Kenwood. Lewis spoke at Mahaila Jackson Elementary School in Auburn Gresham after Emanuel announced the closings, deeming him the “murder mayor.” Her speech also linked the decision to race, stating that “88 percent of students affected by such CPS school actions are African-American. And that is by design.” In May 2014, a year after the Board of Education approved the school
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ellen hao
closings, Lewis accused the mayor of “failed policy” in a statement, explaining that when school communities asked for resources and support, Emanuel made the “easy, draconian choice” to close them instead. She has also continually voiced support for Dyett High School in Washington Park, where fifteen activists went on a hunger strike in an attempt to convince the school district to consider reopening the school. The school closings were far from the first time Lewis has clashed with Emanuel. In 2012 she led CTU on an eight-day teachers’ strike. Their demands included improved benefits and working conditions, a teacher evaluation system not based on student test scores, and protection for teachers who had been laid off due to school closings. They were successful in fighting for both new evaluations and teacher protections, and Lewis deemed the strike “a real victory.” More recently Lewis has been working with the school board to negotiate a new teachers’ contract to replace the most recent
one, which expired in June. The board and the CTU had almost settled on a one-year contract, in which CPS teachers would not receive pay raises, but CPS withdrew that offer in August. One particular point of tension was pension pick-up. Currently teachers pay only two percent into their pension, while the district covers seven percent of their nine percent contribution. The board aims to have teachers pay the full cost in hopes of rectifying CPS’ $1.1 billon deficit, and has already begun to eliminate pension contribution for central office and non-union employees. Lewis argues that the budget problems are structural, and that the removal of pension pick-up can’t fix them, as she told Chicago Tonight in August. She has said that removal of the seven percent pickup is, in effect, a pay-cut, and even called the elimination of pension pick-up “strike worthy” at an August news conference. As Lewis approaches a potential third term in office, pushing for policies that will benefit the many CPS schools on the South Side remains one of her top priorities. Following her announcement that she plans to run again, she stated that she and Emanuel are on good terms. Still, Emanuel will surely continue to face significant pressure from Lewis on a number of issues ranging from an elected school board (advocated for by Lewis and the CTU, opposed by Emanuel) to pensions, school closures and more.
COLOR
Paint the Town
courtesy of amanda williams
BY ELEONORA EDREVA
O
n a cold Saturday morning, fifty bundled-up people painted an abandoned house the color of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. Most of these people didn’t know each other before today: they’re risking cold fingers and paint-splattered clothing to help out Amanda Williams, a South Side-born, Cornell-trained architect who has been painting vacant and abandoned houses around the South Side as part of her most recent project, titled Color(ed) Theory. This Saturday marked her seventh and final house, and people from every
chapter of her life helped see her project to completion. Williams’s architecture students directed volunteers; her sister-in-law braved the perilously unstable porch and painted the front door; her high school classmates reconnected after finding themselves painting side-by-side. The event took place as part of the opening weekend of the inaugural Chicago Architectural Biennial, the largest international survey of contemporary architecture in North America. Almost no cultural institution in Chicago can escape the grip of architecture fever this fall, but Williams will be in the minority of Biennial participants
Amanda Williams explores the colors of the South Side
who are focusing on local issues. Color(ed) Theory was born out of Williams’s interest in thinking about the intersections of color, race, and space. A few years ago, she decided to stop actively practicing architecture and dedicate herself to painting, the art form she has always loved. She didn’t know what her place in the unpre-
dictable contemporary art world would be, unsure of any “conceptual underpinnings” in her work beyond her love for color. The struggle continued until a friend suggested a seemingly simple solution—“Why don’t you just paint on the scale of architecture?” This idea planted the seed for Color(ed) Theory, a project painting seven abandoned houses on the South Side in “culturally significant” colors of Chicago’s black community. Williams hopes that infusing bursts of color amongst the onslaught of abandonment and foreclosure will draw attention to the ubiquity of disregarded and undervalued black spaces within the city.
OCTOBER 14, 2015 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 7
courtesy of amanda williams
Amanda Williams’ work (top left, bottom middle) is inspired by Chicago’s naturally-occuring colors. She often spots locations that catch her eye on her “Sunday drives” around the South Side (top middle, right; bottom left, right).
The houses Williams painted were all slated for demolition—she did not intend the works to be permanent—but in a landscape where boarded-up homes are not rare, Williams had to think hard about which ones she felt were most important to showcase. “I thought about which ones stood really apart and isolated from the landscape, and I wanted to tell those stories,” Williams says. “I started to see them as people or characters, and think about what it would be like to be on a block where you’re isolated or abandoned or the only one left.” Choosing colors was a painstaking process as well, as color is one of Williams’s favorite things about the work she does. “Obsessed with color” since childhood, she’s upset to see how disregarded it currently is in the architectural world. “In a field dominated by minimalism, architecture that’s colorful is often dismissed and seen as col-
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loquial,” says Williams. “It’s commonly used in most non-Western architecture, though, and I’ve been trying to understand the politics of that.” She started thinking about memories from her South Side childhood that were tied to a specific color. The first color she chose for the project was the shade of yellow used in Currency Exchange buildings. “It was the kind of building that you would reference through the color and not so much the type or style of building,” she says. From there, she canvassed friends at barbecues and parties for their ideas, deliberating for a long time about the list before she was finally pushed by friends to start working. Colors seen on her painted houses include Harold’s Chicken Shack Red, Newport Blue, and Pink Oil Moisturizer Pink. She paints the entire surface area of each house, turning them into splotches of color within a muted urban landscape that
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are impossible to ignore. The eye-catching quality of the houses forces a reaction from viewers, turning the project into a love-orhate phenomenon. Neighbor reactions have ranged from appreciation to intense disapproval. She’s received praise for the beauty of the houses and complaints that they’ve become neighborhood eyesores. Williams isn’t upset about the negative feedback— she’s getting people talking, and that’s what’s important to her. The project was also controversial in the architectural world; Williams admits that there was talk about why a project only tangentially related to architecture was included in the Biennial. Her retort is simple: who gets to decide what is and isn’t included? According to Williams, “A lot of the stuff that goes into the Biennial has no relevance to the everyday person.” She sees her role as an architect to be showcasing the field as a
“part of the fabric of people’s everyday lives.” The Biennial organizers themselves were very supportive of the project, showing interest both in her work and in promoting the conversation that her work was engaging in. They were, however, less interested in spreading that conversation beyond her piece. Their official publications state their aim as being to “facilitate radical new thought about what the built environment should be in the 21st century,” but very little of this “radical new thought,” if the Biennial’s event schedule is to be believed, is being produced farther south than Roosevelt Road. On the South Side, much of the Biennial activity is centered around University of Chicago-related spaces and figures, with the biggest South Side player in the Biennial being the Stony Island Arts Bank—the brand new project of well-known local art-
COLOR
In a field dominated by minimalism, architecture that’s colorful is often dismissed and seen as colloquial. ist and UofC professor Theaster Gates. This space is the newest of his repurposed old buildings and has opened simultaneously with the Biennial. Williams acknowledges the limited South Side inclusion in the Biennial, but also hopes that by making her piece one of community participation, she can prod South Side residents to seek out cultural representation. “A lot of people say ‘Well, this isn’t for me, anyway,’ and think of cultural events like these as being something that stays downtown, she says, “but this Biennial is for all of Chicago, and there is a way you can engage.” Her feelings about this are strong, which is to be expected, given the deep relationship she has to her home. Born in Auburn Gresham, she recently moved back to the South Side after practicing architecture in the Bay Area for years. “After ten years of living there, I still didn’t feel like it was home,” Williams says. “I bought a condo there, and I was like, ‘It’s still not home.’” In order to prove to herself that she really wanted to come back to Chicago, she decided she needed to return in the winter, moving back in January. She now lives in Bronzeville, but owns her childhood home in Auburn Gresham, where her husband also grew up. She calls these two places her “bookends” and frequently travels between them to visit her family and friends scattered throughout the South Side.
Every Sunday, her family drives to Auburn Gresham to visit her mother-in-law, continuing Williams’ years-long tradition of “Sunday drives,” where she drives around the South Side, looking at and studying the architecture found in its neighborhoods. A common critique of Color(ed) Theory is that it romanticizes poverty, but Williams says this landscape—and the questions it raises about beauty, urban space, and place making—is a large part of what inspired her to go to architecture school in the first place. “I didn’t grow up knowing a lot about the art world, but I knew that I found a lot of beauty in the spaces I grew up in,” she says. This project has recently received a lot of attention, and Williams says she’s starting to hear herself referred to as a “cultural force” on the South Side—a reputation that comes as a surprise to her. “I haven’t really done anything; I’ve painted and brought attention to things that everybody knows, but this is not about me,” she says. The completion of the Flamin’ Red Hots house marked the end of Color(ed) Theory, and she’s already looking forward to what’s next. When asked if this project has changed her relationship to the South Side, Williams answers that it’s changed her more than it’s changed her relationship to her home. “I’m obsessing a little bit more about vacant properties—I keep driving by vacant lots and being like, ‘Oh, that’s a good one!’ before I forget that this chapter is done.”
data journalism workshop series
The City Revealed: Finding + Exploring Public Data October 25, 2015, 3pm–5pm South Side Weekly Office at the Experimental Station, 6100 S. Blackstone Avenue Columbia Journalism Professor Jeff Kelly Lowenstein discusses his work in data journalism, and gives a lesson on finding datasets through public data portals and Freedom of Information Act requests. Part one of the Chicago Civic Journalism Project Data Journalism Series, presented by Chicago Studies, City Bureau, South Side Weekly, and University of Chicago Careers in Journalism, Arts, and Media. OCTOBER 14, 2015 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 9
Education as Liberation An interview with Juan Salgado, community leader and newly minted MacArthur Fellow
O
n Monday, September 28, Juan Salgado, president and CEO of Instituto del Progreso Latino, received a phone call. He was informed that he had been named a MacArthur Fellow and would receive $625,000. The MacArthur Fellows Program, often referred to as the “Genius Grant,” awards no-strings-attached fellowships in an attempt to celebrate and inspire the creative potential of exceptional individuals. Salgado received this honor in light of his visionary work: under his leadership, Instituto del Progreso Latino has developed a wide range of pre-professional education programs, providing the language and technical skills necessary for members of low-income, immigrant Latino communities on the Southwest Side to have access to higher paying jobs. The Weekly spoke to Salgado about the present, past, and future of his work.
BY LEWIS PAGE
teddy watler
What is the mission of Instituto, and how is it working to accomplish its goals?
did your own education inform your views about education as a form of liberation?
Our mission is to contribute to the fullest development of Latino immigrants and their families. Through education and workforce development, training, [and] employment, we aim to foster full participation in our society while preserving cultural dignity and identity. We operate on the core belief that there is immense power in education. There’s a power to provide for your family and ensure a better quality of life. So everything we do is kind of geared towards bringing the power of education to people who haven’t had a real opportunity to experience it.
Well, the “education as liberation” theme is one that has permeated our organization for the last thirty-eight years, and I was drawn to this organization because of it. From my personal vantage point, there are different layers of education. The first one is [what] you get from your parents, which are values that you live by. For me, preparing me for life, without that education in the home, I wouldn’t be prepared to make good life choices on my own. But the other vantage point is that the more you know, the more you are able to create the kind of world that you wish for yourself, for your family, for other families, for the community. And the more you are actually able to make an impact on it. So for me, “education as liberation” speaks to not only getting an education to advance yourself, but getting an education to advance a society. It’s not
The mission statement of the Instituto Justice and Leadership Academy states, “The Instituto Justice and Leadership Academy (IJLA) is dedicated to the principle that education is liberation.” How 10 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY
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EDUCATION INTERVIEW MUSIC
liberation for any individual; it’s about getting the kind of society that everyone feels free in and is able to contribute and able to grow in and be embraced by. You mentioned, when you were first talking about Instituto, that you work to preserve cultural values. How is that involved in the work you do? Well, there are different layers to culture. The most important layer is that of dignity. And you can’t get to dignity if you don’t have a good sense of who you are, no matter who you are. We try to operate as an organization in such a way that anyone who works with us will give us the respect we deserve because we have done the things we need to as an organization. So for us, dignity comes in every interaction that a teacher has with a student, every way that I interact with an institution in my community or outside of my community. And it comes in embracing who we are, as leaders. So, we call our organization Instituto de Progreso Latino. We use the Spanish name to identify ourselves. And we hope to set ourselves apart from a kind of colorful symbolism of who we are as a community and our indigenous roots...because we want those to be valued just as much as our present day society, which has evolved its values. We don’t necessarily want to go back to the past, because we’re future-oriented. We’ve got our eyes on getting people to a better place economically, but we are very much an organization that honors the past, because that is very much a part of cultural dignity and identity. Honoring our parents and our grandparents and their parents and their grandparents and on and on and on. Instituto has been praised for its national influence. Do you hope to do more on that national scale, or do you like engaging in more local projects? The way we refer to ourselves is that we are a laboratory of innovation. We take what’s not working in our city—we take these systems that are at place in our city, that are very much similar across the country. And if we can show a new way forward that actually works in our local geography, we can not only make our city and region a hell of a lot better, but we can be that proof point to spur on changes in other places. So I’m not sure if you’re going to see Insti-
tuto actually servicing other people in the country as much as we are going to be the folks that identify the failures in our current ways of working that are holding people in our communities back, and we are going to show what can be done. We are going to address those failures and push on those systems—not just in our city, but in our state, and in other states and other cities. We are going to push on those systems to effectively meet the needs of our local community. And we are going to find partners in other cities that can pick up on what we’re doing and make that kind of reality happen for people in their local communities. I’m sure you’ve got this question a lot lately, but where were you when you found out you received the MacArthur Genius grant, and what was your initial reaction? I was on the street; I was actually walking in the neighborhood about a couple blocks away from one of our really strong churches in the community, which was a great thing, by the way. I prefer to be on the street with my community when I get that kind of phone call, rather than sitting in my office. I do very little sitting in my office. I was kind of speechless, basically, and a little bewildered, because I didn’t realize this was even happening. So, it was like, wait a minute, how did this happen? So, the MacArthur “Genius Grant.” No strings attached. You simply receive that $625,000. Some people use this money to take greater risks than they otherwise might or sustain themselves as they take on those greater risks. Has your vision for Instituto and perhaps other projects and the future of your own work changed at all?
We are going to address those failures and push on those systems—not just in our city, but in our state, and in other states and other cities. We are going to push on those systems to effectively meet the needs of our local community.
You know, that’s a great question. I think the answer is, absolutely yes. And I’m not sure exactly yet what the actual manifestations of that will be. But it’s got my head spinning about a lot of things that have to do with how we better our communities. And I don’t just mean Latino communities. I mean, I’m a kid from the South Side of Chicago. I grew up in a very diverse community that was not a majority Latino community. So my personal interest is that the kind of work that we’re doing can have impacts across the kind of diverse community that Chicago represents and that our country represents. OCTOBER 14, 2015 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 11
MUSIC
Chicago Rap Unites in Justice Or Else
The newly released mega-track addresses police brutality and community violence BY JON POILPRE
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ame all the way from the slave ships / 2015 it’s the same shit.” In a recording studio on the corner of 22nd and Wabash Avenue, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan sits quietly with his eyes closed, listening to these lyrics rapped by Roseland artist Pyro. Headphones on, hands clasped in front of his face, Farrakhan nods his head to the track “Justice or Else,” a collaboration between various South Side artists that speaks out against police brutality and institutionalized racism. This is what Pyro claims he saw when Farrakhan previewed the track a few days before its September 24 release on SoundCloud. “Justice or Else” features Farrakhan’s own booming voice in addition to a slew of other Chicago artists: Lil Herb, King Louie, Saba, Goalden Chyld, GLC, Teefa, Pyro, Katie Got Bandz, Chella H, Que Billah, Mic Terror, to name a few. Producer SickOne also collaborated with Xcel and Da Internz in the production of the song, which is filled with heavy orchestral strings and guitar. Local artist Antwone Muhummad organized the collaboration, helped produce the track, and brought Farrakhan on board. The track’s producers sampled some of Farrakhan’s past speeches, most notably a speech he made in
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June at the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington D.C. I had the chance to speak to Pyro and Goalden Chyld, brothers who traded bars in a verse on “Justice or Else.” Pyro was on the “L” when Antwone Muhammad, a friend and mentor of Pyro’s since the sixth grade, contacted him about an open spot on the track. “He sent me the beat, and I was on the train writing up the rap right there,” Pyro said. He described the importance of the track coming from Chicago artists, stating that the media often portrays Chicago as “the worst of the worst.” “The youth in particular, who are coming out of this violence, who grew up in it, are saying that this system is not right and we are not going to take it anymore,” he says. Both artists touched on the responsibility that musicians have to speak positively and to educate others. “Artists are leaders of the world,” Pyro said. The seven-minute track was inspired by and named after Saturday’s commemoration of the anniversary of Farrakhan’s original Million Man March. Twenty years ago, the Million Man March brought together hundreds of thousands of African-Ameri-
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can men with the hope of spreading a positive, nonviolent image of the black male that challenged stereotypes. The march doubled as a call for placing black Americans’ concerns back on the national political agenda. This year’s event again demanded justice for America’s black population, but also expanded its scope to include Native Americans, Mexicans and other Latinos, women, veterans, the poor, and the incarcerated, according to the event’s website. “Justice or Else” takes the concerns of the marchers seriously. Goalden Chyld questions the negative image of black Americans in one of his verses: “Where we get the guns and the drugs from? / ‘Cause come on, I know you know we’re not sitting around trying to make ‘em.” He and Pyro go on to express positivity and unity: “That’s word to
the Almighty! / But these devils they ain’t ready for God’s army!” A single, steady note on the piano punctuates the last few seconds of the track with no other instruments in the background. Even though the message is spoken by many, “Justice or Else” has a powerful resounding singularity that culminates in what Goalden Chyld called a “huge step towards mental, physical, and spiritual freedom.” Pyro’s single, “Arrogant” and an EP, Who Am I, are coming out soon. He also recently released “10,” a track inspired by the “Justice or Else” movement. Goalden Chyld just released an album called Stand For ( Justice or Else). Both “10” and Stand For ( Justice or Else) are available on SoundCloud.
CALENDAR
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Spread some warmth in the face of the looming cold weather! The Renaissance Collaborative is calling all kind people to volunteer and engage with the Bronzeville community by passing out kindness cards, information on job opportunities, and smiles. ( Jena Wang)
Access to Capital from A to Z Preparation
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ACROSS 1. Has 5. "Scat!" 9. Subject 14. Smell 15. "___ Flux" (Charlize Theron movie) 16. Quickly 17. Like some DVD extras 20. Part of a TV season 21. White Castle offerings 22. Prefix with byte or flop 24. @@@ 25. Slightly ill 30. ___ Donut on Cottage Grove 33. Where Noah landed his ark 34. Pep rally cry 35. Genie's offering 36. More levelheaded 37. It's sometimes glossed? 38. ___ blank (totally forgot) 39. City in Nevada 40. Jesse Jackson, for one: Abbr. 41. Only president of both the Screen Actor's Guild and the United States 42. Snake sound 43. Ruin a picture, maybe 45. Nov. follower 47. Shoulder muscle, informally 1 48. It makes the heart grow fonder 52. Trough 57. Starting over 59. Town ___ (early news announcer) 60. Election day: Abbr. 61. ___ fool (go nuts) 62. Impertinent 63. One and only 64. Word that can precede the starting words of 17-, 25-, 43-, and 57-Across DOWN 1. "Eat ___ eaten" 2. Cry
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Word Warrior by Sonja Williams
47th St. and King Dr. Wednesday, October 14, 5pm–6:30pm. Free. (773) 924-9270, ext. 25. trcwabash.org
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BULLETIN Acts of Kindness Day
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3. Classic pop brand 4. Cross-country ___ 5. Most melancholy 6. Not homo7. "___-la-la" 8. Singles 9. Unspoken 10. Newspaper opinions pieces 11. Window part 12. Froster 13. Word before pool or pit 18. Relatively near 19. / 23. Came 25. Desert havens 26. European/Asia border range 27. Armored vehicles 28. Cookie often dunked in milk 29. Faucet 30. Muralist Rivera 31. ___ expected (predictably) 32. Macbeth's title 35. Rolled sandwich 37. "My Name is Asher ___" 38. Showtime show with a serial killer cop 40. Boxer Marciano's given name 41. Catch and ___ 44. Gas up again 45. Hockey feints 46. Way in 48. Kindergarten basics 49. Theda of early films 50. Chem. and bio. 51. Ballpark figs. 53. Like many sign language users 54. ___ Raton, Fla. 55. Worldwide: Abbr. 56. Actress Patricia 58. Status ___
For last week’s answers, visit southsideweekly.com/crosswords
Chicago Urban League, 4510 S. Michigan Ave. Wednesday, October 14, 5pm–7pm; Thursday, October, 15, 10am-12pm. Free. (773) 285-5800. meetup.com
Carruthers Center for Inner City Studies, 700 E. Oakwood Blvd. Thursday, October 15, 3pm–5pm. (312) 428-8033. bronzevillehistoricalsociety.wordpress.com Richard Durham’s Destination Freedom radio series helped sculpt a heroic narrative of the civil rights movement as it was in its infancy; he’d go on to be the editor for the Nation of Islam’s official newspaper, the co-author of Muhammad Ali’s autobiography, and a speechwriter for Harold Washington. Come to this book signing to learn about this pioneering journalist. (Adam Thorp)
Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin
Prep for the Speed Lending portion of “Access to Capital from A to Z” at the Chicago Urban League this Wednesday. Small business owners are welcome to get guidance on the ins and outs of the financing application process. (Rachel He)
Hate Crimes in the Heartland Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture, 5733 S. University Ave. Thursday, October 15, 4pm-6:30pm. Free, RSVP required. (773) 702-8063. csrpc.uchicago.edu
Ida Noyes Hall, 3rd Floor Theater, 1212 E. 59th St. Thursday, October 15, 10am-11am. Free, RSVP required. (773) 834-4671. politics.uchicago.edu Few politicians persevere on a single issue with as much drive and tenacity as Peter Shumlin has shown in taking on heroin abuse. Hear the governor speak at the UofC about his efforts to stop the drug’s advance through the verdant mountains of his home state and his ideas about treating drug abuse as a public health issue. (Will Cabaniss)
What happens when a string of racially motivated shootings stirs up old tensions in a quiet Midwest city? Filmmaker Rachel Lyon will screen and discuss her film about two Tulsa, Oklahoma hate crimes separated by ninety years. (Will Cabaniss)
March for Black Girls
Becoming an Antiracist Social Worker: Consultation Group
March with the group A Long Walk Home to take a stand against violence faced by African-American girls and women both in and out of the home. This march will conclude at the site where twenty-twoyear-old Rekia Boyd was fatally shot by a police officer. (Yunhan Wen)
First Unitarian Church of Chicago, 5650 S. Woodlawn Ave. Thursday, October 15, 6pm–7:30pm. $20. eventbrite.com Masters-level social workers and counselors can RSVP to join the consultation group held by SydneyMalcome LLC. Respond to the urgent call for action to undo racism in the current practices at the clinical and organizational levels. Case studies will be the major form of discussion. (Yunhan Wen)
North Lawndale College Prep High School, 1615 S. Christiana Ave. Saturday, October 17, 10am-12:30pm. (877) 571-1751. alongwalkhome.org
I Shocked the Sheriff CPD Headquarters, 3510 S. Michigan Ave. Saturday, October 24, 1pm. ishockedthesheriff. org
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On October 24, I Shocked the Sheriff will respond to the injustice of extrajudicial killings and discriminatory police action by taking to the streets to confront the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Conference. They will march for those whose lives have been lost to discrimination—and to support those who continue to fight it. (May Huang)
VISUAL ARTS City of Big Dreams Fest Zhou B Art Center, 1029 W. 35th St. Friday, October 16, 7pm–10pm. Free. (773) 5230200. chicagoartistsmonth.org On Friday, the five stories of the Zhou B Art Center will be filled, top to bottom, with a vibrant selection of local artists, dancers, musicians, drones and poets. The aim of the evening is to both celebrate and draw attention to local youth arts programs—and with performances ranging from the Bryant Youth Professionals’ blend of hip-hop and ballet to The Simple Good’s musical tributes to the Windy City, that should be no trouble at all. (Christopher Good)
Manifold Gardens Mana Contemporary, 5th floor, 2233 S. Throop St. October 16–18. Friday,5:30pm–8:30pm. Saturday–Sunday, 12pm–4pm. Free. (312) 850-8301. thevisualist.org William Chyr brings us his newest cutting-edge exploit: Manifold Gardens. This mind-boggling video game immerses the user into a puzzling environment in which the laws of physics no longer apply, like that of the movie Inception, where walls are floors and floors are walls. This preview lasts only two days, but Manifold Gardens will be released for PS4, PC, Mac, and Linux in 2016. (Abe Friedman)
Color(ed) Theory Workshop with Amanda Williams Glass Curtain Gallery, 1st floor, 1104 S. Wabash Ave. Saturday, October 17, 2–4pm. Free. RSVP required. (312) 369-6643. chicagoartistsmonth.org
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Architect and artist Amanda Williams has painted abandoned houses across the South Side as a way of exploring how we imagine urban fixtures and trends. Williams will guide participants in this class and workshop through her series of projects. (Adam Thorp)
Beverly Arts Center Competition’s Call for Submissions Beverly Arts Center, 2407 W. 111th St. Application deadline Sunday, October 18. $30 entry fee. (773) 445-3838. beverlyartcenter. org Beauty is in the eye of the Beverly Arts Center, which is offering awards ranging from $100 to $1500 for art in diverse categories such as non-representational, figurative, 3-D, and photographic/digital. Competition entries can be either 2-D art or sculpture. (Elizabeth Xiong)
On the Island Mana Contemporary, 2233 S. Throop St. Sunday, October 18, 2pm–4pm. Free. (312) 850-0555. manacontemporarychicago.com Artist Nyugen E. Smith, a Trinidad native, and art historian Faye Gleisser will give a lecture designed to show how one’s memory can obscure historical accuracy. By comparing art history to the historical events themselves, Smith and Gleisser will touch on issues of race, gender, revolution, and colonialism. (Abe Friedman)
Stories of Art and Activism in Chicago’s Latino Community Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center, 4046 W. Armitage Ave. Monday, October 19, 6pm–8 pm. Free. RSVP required. (312) 4225580. ilhumanities.org Explore the rich and engaging history of Latinos in the United States with a showing of “Peril & Promise,” the civic engagement themed episode of PBS documentary series Latino Americans. Afterwards there will be a panel discussion with local leaders, authors Ada López and José Ángel Navajos, and civic activist José “Cha Cha” Jiménez. (Elizabeth Xiong)
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What We Don’t Know Heaven Gallery, 2nd floor, 1550 N. Milwaukee Ave. Friday, October 23, 7pm–11pm. Free. (773) 342-4597. chicagoevents.us “Everyone knows and everyone knows that everyone knows and everyone knows that everyone knows […] and so on.” So begins the introduction to “What We Don’t Know,” a new exhibition by Chicago artists Anaïs Daly and Andrew Barco, which aspires to obfuscate, disorientate and generally bewilder the audience. (Take for instance the “droning drone,” inspired by the linguistic overlap between hurdy-gurdies and Predator drones). (Christopher Good)
STAGE AND SCREEN Forms of Imagination: South Side Home Movies Arts Incubator, 301 E. Garfield Blvd. Thursday, October 22, 7pm-9pm. Free. (312) 857-5561. arts.uchicago.edu Come see the South Side from the perspective of a legion of handheld home video recorders. Film historian and scholar Jacqueline Stewart, in collaboration with Black Cinema House, presents a collection of home movies that promise to provide a glimpse into the gloriously mundane imagery of everyday history. (Lewis Page)
Screening of The Curators of Dixon School South Shore Cultural Center, 7059 S. Shore Dr. Sunday, October 18, 2pm–4pm. (773) 256-0149. chicagoartistsmonth.org The Curators of Dixon School follows an attempt to inject art into the halls of Dixon Elementary School as funding for arts education retreats across the Chicago Public Schools. (Adam Thorp)
Creative Cypher Presents #CYPHERLIVE BLUE 1647, 1647 Blue Island Ave. Saturday, October 17, 7pm-10pm. $10 suggested donation. (773) 842-2553. chicagoartistsmonth.org
Creative Cypher offers a night of spoken word, poetry, comedy, film, and a musical performance this Saturday as they launch their second #CYPHERLIVE event of the year. Nobody describes it better than they do: “Think late night meets The Late Night Show meets Def Comedy/Poetry Jam!” (May Huang)
“The Voodoo of Hell’s HalfAcre:” The Travelin’ Genius of Richard Wright from Natchez to Chicago: A Blues Opera Transition East Studio, 2548 E. 83rd St. Saturday, October 17, 24 and November 14, 7:30pm-9:30pm. $10. (312) 282-7590. voodoo-blues.squarespace.com This “operatic dialogue” concerns the life of the writer Richard Wright and the two places that influenced his work. History and art—ranging from spoken word to live painting—join forces as the opera traces Wright’s journey from Natchez, Mississippi, to the vibrant city of Chicago. (May Huang)
The Cronus Land The Shoreland Ballroom, 5454 S. Shore Dr. October 16-November 13. $10-250. (312) 646-9548. khecari.org Experience a stimulating contemporary dance performance at the site of Hyde Park’s legendary Shoreland Hotel. Dance company Khecari will engage the audience with interactive performance, involving set design and ample refreshments. Explore their dancer-filled labyrinth if you dare. (Sara Cohen)
Collected Voices: Chicago Ethnographic Film Festival Community Film Workshop, 6200 S. Drexel Ave. Through October 31. Free, $5 suggested donation. (773) 606-7741. chicagoartistsmonth.org Collected Voices showcases local films on the multitude of stories that make up Chicago: race and gender, the past and the future, hate and love. Come for this week’s theme of “Education, Art and Spirituality,” and make your own contribution in the discussion afterwards. Don’t forget to vote for your favorites! (Anne Li)
CALENDAR
Architects on Film: Voices of Cabrini Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St. Wednesday, October 21, 6pm-8:30pm. Free. RSVP required. (312) 744-6630. chicagoarchitecturalbiennial.org Ronit Bezalel will screen Voices of Cabrini, her 1999 film documenting the demolition of the Cabrini-Green housing projects. In the wake of last month’s settlement between the CHA and Cabrini-Green representatives to build public housing on the near north side, Voices is more relevant than ever. (Christopher Good)
Theori Weekend 2015 Harold Washington Cultural Center, 4701 S. King Dr. October 16-18. Friday and Saturday, 7pm; Sunday, 6pm. $10-20. (773) 373-1900. chicagoartistsmonth.org Theori Stages commemorates its tenth anniversary with a three-day celebration of local music and storytelling. The event kicks off on Friday night with a performance of the original hip-hop musical, “I Still Love H.E.R.,” and will be followed on Saturday and Sunday with “Slow Jams: From Loss to Love” and “Made in Chicago.” (Christopher Good)
MUSIC
Chicago Jazz: A Photographer’s View Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E. 60th St. Through October 25. Free. (773) 702-2787. arts.uchicago.edu The Logan Center is currently exhibiting a series of photographs that document Chicago’s jazz scene and the musicians who have cultivated it over the past decades. Including original photographs of local and national legends, the exhibit captures seminal moments in the Chicago-born genre. (May Huang)
Glamour Hotline EP Release ECO Rooftop Garden, 2042 W. 21st St. Friday, October 16, doors 8pm. $5 suggested donation.
RETAIL
The rocking women of “the busiest phone line of the century” are set to release their brand new EP this Friday! Dress up, toss on some glitter, and get excited for a night out in Pilsen featuring appearances from The Malskys, Daymaker, La Cosa, and Pink Bathroom, all performing before the glamorous headliners themselves. (Rachel He)
Audley Reid The Quarry 75 Event Center, 2423 E. 75th St. Friday, October 16, 7pm-11:30pm. 21+. (773) 741-6254. mobetterjazzchicago.us The classic Mo Better exhortation of its guests to “support The Rebirth of Jazz in South Shore” might just be turned on its head in this sure-to-impress performance. For starters, if Audley Reid’s twenty-fiveyear career and virtuosic saxophone talent are any indication, Chicago jazz was never really dead in the first place. (Lewis Page)
This Ain’t No Mouse Music Film Row Cinema, 1104 S. Wabash Ave. Saturday, October 17, 11:30am. $8 or free with Columbia ID. hothouse.net Join Hot House and Columbia College for a day of music, film, and discussion with leading ethnomusicologist Juan Dies. The event features the premiere of the documentary This Ain’t No Mouse Music, in which the audience travels back to explore the recording of American Roots music in the mid-20th century. (Rachel He)
KRS-One The Shrine, 2109 S. Wabash Ave. Sunday, November 29, doors 10pm. $22.50 early bird, $32.50 general admission. 21+. (312) 7535700. theshrinechicago.com As one of the most politically active and critically acclaimed MCs of the 1990s, KRS-One blazed the trail for socially conscious rap with landmark albums such as Criminal Minded and Return of the Boom Bap. Now, he’s touring the nation, and stopping in Chicago along the way. The self-proclaimed “Most Respected Name in Hip Hop Kulture” has plenty left to say. (Christopher Good)
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