October 18, 2017 by South Side Weekly

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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 5, Issue 4 Editor-in-Chief Hafsa Razi Managing Editors Julia Aizuss, Andrew Koski Directors of Staff Support Baci Weiler Writer Development Sara Cohen Community Outreach Jasmin Liang Senior Editors Olivia Stovicek Emeline Posner Politics Editor Adia Robinson Stage & Screen Editor Nicole Bond Visual Arts Editor Rod Sawyer Editors-at-Large Christian Belanger, Mari Cohen Contributing Editors Maddie Anderson, Mira Chauhan, Bridget Newsham, Adam Przybyl, Sam Stecklow, Margaret Tazioli, Yunhan Wen Data Editor Jasmine Mithani Radio Editor Erisa Apantaku Radio Host Andrew Koski Social Media Editors Bridget Newsham, Sam Stecklow Visuals Editor Ellen Hao Deputy Visuals Editor Lizzie Smith Photography Editor Jason Schumer Layout Editor Baci Weiler Staff Writers: Elaine Chen, Rachel Kim, Ashvini Kartik-Narayan, Michael Wasney Fact Checkers: Abigail Bazin, Sam Joyce, Bridget Newsham, Adam Przybyl, Hafsa Razi, Sam Stecklow, Rebecca Stoner, Tiffany Wang Staff Photographers: Denise Naim, Jason Schumer, Luke Sironski-White Staff Illustrators: Zelda Galewsky, Natalie Gonzalez, Courtney Kendrick, Turtel Onli, Raziel Puma Webmaster

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Publisher

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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.

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

You Gotta Know When to Hold ’Em With October 19 being the deadline for bids for Amazon’s second headquarters location or HQ2, the illustrious Rahm Emanuel is showing his trump card. No, not that one—we mean the massive acreage along Bronzeville’s lakefront left vacant by Michael Reese Hospital since 2009. The open land can be built to include 8 million to 14 million square feet of tech-oriented commercial space. Chicago-based architects Skidmore, Owings and Merrill have provided a peek at what developers Draper and Kramer, Farpoint Development, Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives and others can expect, as reported by Cubed Chicago: renderings of high-rise towers, public plazas, fiber optic data connections, and landscaped bridges connecting the compound to Lake Shore Drive with dedicated traffic lanes. Fancy. It sounds like a centrally located dream come true for job seekers citywide. Nevertheless three memories resurface: the failed 2016 Olympic Village Bid, the long-overdue plans for a Level I trauma center to serve the South Side, and the scene from the movie The Color Purple where Celie tells Mister, “Until you do right by me, everything you even think about is gonna fail.” South Side Restaurants Exist (and Always Have) Like other South Siders, we at the Weekly have been a bit piqued by the ongoing removal of the few restaurants south of 31st Street in the Michelin Guide’s Bib Gourmand recommended list (not that we’re exactly loyal customers of La Petite Folie or A10, but at least it was something). We’re pleased, however, to see other publications joining in on our indignation, with DNAinfo declaring, “Yo, Michelin Guide, Chicago Goes Way Past 31st Street.” As veterans with five Best of the South Sides and two Food Issues under our belt, we just have a few things to add: the ability to score a “solid meal” on the south lakefront isn’t a recent development, and, to quote thesouthsideexists.tumblr.com, a blog that may or may not be authored by one of our contributors, “Hyde Park only sort of counts.” Latinx Neighborhoods Report Released Last week, two UIC-affiliated research groups—the Great Cities Institute and the Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy—released a report on the state of Latinx neighborhoods in Chicago. In their introduction, the authors point out the lack of attention paid to Chicago’s Latinx neighborhoods when crafting public policy—despite the fact that the Latinx population is the second largest ethnic group in the city, as of last year. The UIC study is a comprehensive attempt to provide the information that could help fill that gap. Most notably, it argues that one of the biggest issues facing Latinx communities is education: Just over thirty percent of the city’s Latinx population has a level of education lower than a high school diploma, compared to fifteen percent and five percent for the Black and white population, respectively. (The report points out that this is probably in some part due to the high number of foreign-born Latinx residents living in Chicago.) But that’s just one example of the long list of interesting, often worrying information and analysis buried in the 172-page document—go take a look for yourself. The full report can be found at bit.ly/latinoneighborhoodsreport

IN THIS ISSUE assembling the city

But is this utopian vision of exchanges and networks just that—utopian? lois biggs............................................4 lucha libre total hits off in cicero

Embracing the Mexican free-fighting tradition. heriberto quiroz.............................6 a mural of memories

“It’s commemorating but it’s not a documentary.” erisa apantaku & andrew koski.....8

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Cover photo by Lois Biggs OCTOBER 18, 2017 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 3

Assembling the City The Floating Museum imagines a new kind of institution BY LOIS BIGGS

etween Pilsen and Bridgeport, between the Eleanor Boathouse’s spiked rooftops and the factories lining Bubbly Creek, sits the Floating Museum’s latest project, a barge that aims to carry collaborative, site-specific art along the Chicago River. The soft rumble of nearby traffic and the shouts of high school rowing coaches fill the humid August air. The barge is open to the public during the boathouse’s hours, but construction is ongoing—Floating Museum board members and volunteers survey and readjust onboard installations while a handful of visitors meander through the site. Aside from a video screen and a large yellow bust of Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, most of these installations are housed in a pyramid of shipping containers. One contains sculpted busts, one is covered in a swirl of spray paint, while another renders a perennial question in black-and-white text: are we there yet? No answer is given. One week later, docked at the Riverwalk, the Floating Museum hosts a party. Artists from Pilsen gallery and artmaking space AMFM blast music and twirl around the barge’s now polished shipping containers. DJ Bonita Appleblunt, AMFM’s resident DJ, can do no wrong—every song she cues up draws cheers from a growing crowd. Among the partygoers is Beverly resident Maria Johnson, who grins and taps her toes to the beat. Johnson works around the corner at BatesCarey LLP and stumbled upon the event during her lunch break. “I love it, it brings everyone together,” she says. “Even the mayor was here. He wasn’t dancing, but he was here.” The Loop’s lunchtime rush ensures a steady stream of visitors. Some whiz in and out, others stay for a few minutes, while others yet stick around, enraptured. A cluster of businessmen with pressed suits and Chipotle bags peek at the spectacle over their sunglasses. Tourists, suitcases in hand, dance their way past the barge and draw cheers from onlookers. And directly in 4 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

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front of the barge, a tightly packed crowd of Floating Museum board members and friends dances with no inhibitions. There’s a striking interplay between the sound of music and the sound of the Riverwalk. Rumbling bass lines mix with taxi honks, and breaks between songs are filled with stray commentary from megaphonewielding tour boat guides. As the set comes to a close a half hour later than planned, Johnson darts off to ask Appleblunt for the afternoon’s playlist. All the while, a yellow bust of JeanBaptiste Point du Sable watches over the festivities. Over the course of its stops in South Chicago, Bridgeport, and the Riverwalk throughout the month of August, the Floating Museum hosted similar community events ranging from collaborative art projects (Sticks + Tape) to song circles with co-director Avery R. Young to place-based, dialogue-centered “Breaking Bread” panels. After a Breaking Bread panel at the Riverwalk August 24, Floating Museum volunteers passed out leftover boxed sandwiches to passersby. Sitting on the River Theater steps, lanyard in hand, Floating Museum cofounder and former South Side Community Arts Center director Faheem Majeed corrected a common misconception—that the barge itself is the Floating Museum. “This is not the Floating Museum that we’re looking at,” he said, gesturing to the shipping containers, video screen, and bust. “This is the River Assembly, this is the exhibition the Floating Museum puts on. The Floating Museum is a network of people coming together to do something really fucking hard.” The Floating Museum’s website describes this network as “a collaborative arts organization that creates temporary, siteresponsive museum spaces to activate sites of cultural potential throughout Chicago’s neighborhoods.” The idea originated when Majeed and fellow UIC graduate student

Jeremiah Hulsebos-Spofford toured the DuSable Museum of African American History. The two sculptors were struck by how founder Margaret Burroughs placed equal value on pieces by well-known artists and pieces by unknown community members, and considered if this could be replicated on a broader scale. “We wondered what would happen if we floated, metaphorically or poetically, the museum from one side of town to downtown, to the Museum Campus, where all the resources are, where all the tourism is,” Majeed said. “What would happen to the community that it’s tethered to? What would happen to how the museum functions? What would happen to its history?” Majeed and Hulsebos-Spofford decided to test their speculations by floating a scale model of the DuSable down the Chicago River, recontextualizing the museum’s art in an examination of place and institutionality. But as they gathered materials and planned the project, the artists faced challenges in navigating, as Majeed put it, “the politics and the stakeholders of the river.” In 2014 they brought more artists on board—Hyde Park Art Center architect Andrew Schachman among them—and, with hopes of better navigating the river’s political landscape, began developing relationships with city officials, law firms, and neighborhood organizations. Meanwhile, Schachman’s influence and interest in transformative spaces led the Floating Museum team to reimagine their project. Instead of floating the DuSable down the river, they envisioned a conceptual space that could link Chicago neighborhoods and organizations. This speculative space, an art-filled barge accompanied by site-specific community events, is called the River Assembly. The name plays on the notion of assembly, framing the project as a gathering of people as well as an act of construction. A summer 2016 installation in Calumet Park and an exhibition at the DuSable

last winter and spring preceded the River Assembly, which opened in Southeast Chicago on August 2. Majeed described all of these events as “rehearsals.” “I’m very suspect of final definition,” he said. “We don’t talk about finishing anything, we call everything a rehearsal, everything’s a rehearsal for the next rehearsal. It’s all about rehearsing and learning.” And while the River Assembly shifted from a concrete space to an abstract one, the DuSable remained an important partner of and philosophical inspiration for the Floating Museum. Rather than carrying the museum itself down the Chicago River, the barge carried a fourteen-foot bust of its namesake. The bright yellow sculpture is tilted to the side as if fallen or broken. “We’ve got work to do to put his head back on right, so he can walk around with his head on his shoulders, proud and Haitian,” said Young at the Breaking Bread panel. Chicago artist and graffiti-writer Miguel Aguilar, who had a piece on the barge, praised the museum’s unconventional approach. “I think it’s important to have that sort of interruptive discourse where people are blurring lines purposefully, interrupting power dynamics and giving more people access to mobilization and autonomy,” he said. “I think it’s a great gesture [for the museum] to be called an institution and also challenge what the meaning of what an institution is.” The Floating Museum’s relationship with institutionality is subversive, but it also warrants critique. Majeed weaves a common theoretical language throughout his explanation of the project: he considers its mission in terms of assembly, speculation, partnership, flattening, and rehearsal. Within this worldview, the organization is more than a citywide collection of people and groups—it’s the city of Chicago itself. In imagining this approach, perhaps the Floating Museum is ahead of its time. But is this utopian vision of exchanges

VISUAL ARTS

LOIS BIGGS

and networks just that—utopian? While the organization aims to showcase Chicago neighborhoods and transcend their boundaries, the destination of the River Assembly’s art and artists was here in the Loop, where the city’s wealth and power are concentrated. And while crews worked on the barge in Southeast Chicago and in Bridgeport, there’s no trace of that construction at the Riverwalk. The slick, polished shipping containers are neatly arranged, and Floating Museum board members give daily guided tours, an option only offered at this site. Majeed stated that this difference is purposeful. Unlike the prior sites, he said, here you don’t see the wizard behind the curtain. “It has to fit in, to a certain extent, fit in to how things are done [at the Riverwalk] as a way of building trust,” he said. “It’s not about guerilla warfare, it’s not about a takeover, it’s about understanding and respecting where we are.” The Floating Museum’s abstractions invite response on a similarly theoretical level. Public museums in any form play an important role in the creation of knowledge

and power, and like the Floating Museum, tend to be situated in metropolitan centers. Sociologist Tony Bennett examines this relationship in his 1995 book The Birth of the Museum, arguing that art exhibitions historically “[render] the whole world metonymically present, subordinated to the dominating gaze of the white, bourgeois, and (although this is another story) male eye of the metropolitan powers.” To passersby at the River Assembly, to Rahm Emanuel, to businessmen on lunch breaks, did the Floating Museum’s “institutional critique of how we can think about partnering and value” hit home? Is there a way for artists like Aguilar and organizations like Project Onward to gain visibility outside the gaze of Chicago’s metropolitan powers? Majeed acknowledges the situation’s complexity, explaining that although the project prioritizes communities it also needs to consider stakeholders. And while he recognizes that this won’t always be the case, he hopes that crowds of tourists and Chicago residents will follow the barge’s “breadcrumbs” and go on to learn more about the Floating Museum’s partner

organizations. Although the project’s abstract language and intentions intertwine it closely with the metropolitan gaze, its overall goal of connecting through art is admirable. As an institution that—in Aguilar’s words— challenges the meaning of institutions themselves, it blurs the lines between spectacle and insurrection. The barge contained multimedia works from well-known Chicago artists including Afrofuturist Hebru Brantley, Experimental Station founder Dan Peterman, and Obama Presidential Center design team member Amanda Williams, who currently has an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art. However, many of its cabinets held art sourced from neighborhood organizations— SkyART, a South Chicago community art center, and Project Onward, a nonprofit studio and gallery for artists with exceptional talents and challenges, are two prominent examples. The Floating Museum hired ten SkyART youth participants to spend the summer traveling to cultural sites around the city and curating their own crates on the barge. Project Onward participants also

created works for the barge, several of which focused on the history of and environmental threats to Bubbly Creek. The Floating Museum sees showcasing these organizations and making connections between them as a vital part of their mission. “Although a lot of our cultural investment is downtown, our neighborhoods are doing amazing things,” said Majeed. “Our goal is to make the city into the museum and the neighborhoods into galleries. Chicago is a very segregated space, so a lot of these organizations don’t connect because they’re very rooted in their galleries.” In response, the Floating Museum aims to produce a “flattening” in Chicago, a practice of dialogue and resource sharing between the city’s organizations. Majeed cited the relationship between Project Onward and the West Pullman Adult Special Needs Art Class, both of whom had work in the Museum’s DuSable exhibition, as an example. He described a scene of mutual inspiration and “poetic moments of making connections” as artists from both organizations met for the first time, and the Floating Museum’s website states that “the two groups have plans to work together in the future.” While Majeed discussed the Museum’s interactions with other organizations, he didn’t go into detail about what relationships between Museum-affiliated organizations and artists could look like beyond the context of the River Assembly. The Floating Museum also hoped to highlight Chicago’s “galleries” by sponsoring community events at community venues every Friday night. One of these partnered events took place August 11 at Pilsen’s Rootwork Gallery, a small exhibition space just off the Dan Ryan Expressway. Founded by Tracie D. Hall, the former deputy commissioner of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, Rootwork is a spiritual and artistic space focused on, in Hall’s words, “reconciliation, reparation, indigenous artwork and art OCTOBER 18, 2017 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 5

VISUAL ARTS

forms, and street art.” The evening’s gallery opening celebrated “Shoot yr Shot,” an exhibition focused on Chicago street art and curated by Aguilar, poet and writer Tara Mahadevan, and and Young Chicago Authors director Kevin Coval. While the Floating Museum provided the opening with financial support and publicity, it did not influence the exhibition’s programming or advertise itself at the event. As visitors trickled in and out of the gallery, glasses of homemade kale lemonade in hand, Hall discussed the importance of public art, whether in the form of graffiti or projects like the River Assembly. “Public art to me is fundamentally important because it breaks down any barriers that the public has in encountering art,” she said. “The art is found in spaces where people can encounter it and interpret it as they wish.” She also noted how Chicago neighborhoods, despite extreme segregation, are connected by rivers and lakes and, by extension, a common fate. “As [The Floating Museum] moves it accumulates talent and the energy and imagination of each neighborhood,” Hall said. “So for me, maybe that’s where the future of the museum itself is headed. I think that in some ways, maybe the Floating Museum is getting where we need to go first.” Despite his enthusiasm about the Floating Museum’s future, Majeed isn’t optimistic about it, at least not in a traditional sense. He recognizes that the organization sits not only amidst a network of connections but amidst a network of complications and challenges, and describes the Floating Museum’s tasks as crazy, imaginative, and impossible. One of these tasks, possibly the central task, is creating a “sustainable model” in which Chicago community members and organizations can enter a network, share resources, and be valued regardless of fame or budget. Through their project’s evolution, and however abstract their language or imperfect their execution, the Floating Museum’s co-directors never

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forgot Margaret Burroughs’s DuSable, never gave up on trying to bring one institution’s model of equity to an entire city. And they don’t plan on giving up anytime soon. Majeed considered the story of Sisyphus, a Greek king sentenced by Zeus to roll a boulder up a hill for all eternity. “It’s a morbid one of someone pushing the motor uphill, constantly doing the same thing and getting the same results,” he said. “But then you think about that boulder. What if there are twenty people lifting that boulder? Then forty? Then fifty? The boulder’s still going to roll down the hill, maybe it won’t, but along the way you start having exchanges that end up being, in the long run, more important.” The River Assembly’s time at the Riverwalk ended with a performance of art.i.fact, an “intersection of art and history” written and coordinated by Avery R. Young. Currently, the organization is part of the DuSable’s Palais de Tokyo exhibition, run concurrently with the Chicago Architecture Biennial—this Saturday, October 21, Young will perform the multidisciplinary performance piece parable of a maroon-moon ritual & a southern tree (part 1 &2) at the DuSable’s Roundhouse. The Palais de Tokyo exhibition and performance present an opportunity to see how Floating Museum principles will play out within the context of a broader institution rather than a self-directed project. And as far as self-directed projects go, the organization plans to focus their efforts in Austin next summer, an endeavor that will receive, in Majeed’s words, “the same amount of commitment and infrastructure” as the River Assembly. “Next summer we’re talking about going back to land,” Majeed said. “We ain’t going to be in the water next summer, we’re not the people who float down water.” On land or in water, in neighborhoods or downtown, is the Floating Museum there yet? Maybe not, but it’s ready for the next rehearsal. ¬

¬ OCTOBER 18, 2017

Lucha Libre Total Hits Off in Cicero PHOTO ESSAY BY HERIBERTO QUIROZ

ast month, just outside of Little Village and Lawndale, the Cicero Stadium held a spectacular Lucha Libre Total celebration. The event featured the performance of iconic Mexican wrestlers El Hijo Del Santo, Discovery, Yakuza, and Dr. Cerebro, as well as former WWE wrestler Super Crazy. But in the main and final attraction of the night, attendees young and old only cared to catch a glimpse of legendary WWE champion Rey Mysterio. With its high-flying and dangerous stunts, Lucha Libre Total embraced the Mexican free-fighting tradition.

Mexican wrestler Mosco-X Fly pins Huracan Ramirez Jr. as the referee awaits a tap out from Ramirez.

WRESTLING

Hijo Del Santo grabs an angry referee, upset over an illegal move by Yakuza and Super Crazy against Rey Mysterio.

Rey Mysterio and Hijo Del Santo ram a steel chair into the stomach of Super Crazy.

Rey Mysterio enters the ring wearing his signature clothing, and greets young fans along the side of the ring. He told fans he would like to return to perform in Chicago again soon.

Super Crazy pins Rey Mysterio against the steel pole, leaving him in agonizing pain.

OCTOBER 18, 2017 ÂŹ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 7

A Mural of Memories

Open Mike Eagle on commemoration, the Robert Taylor Homes, and how to keep going BY ERISA APANTAKU & ANDREW KOSKI

pen Mike Eagle, born and raised in Chicago, moved to Los Angeles after college, and for the most part, he didn’t look back. He joined the hip hop collective Project Blowed, formed the trio Thirsty Fish with Dumbfoundead and Psychosiz, released his first solo album Unapologetic Art Rap in 2010, and has a forthcoming stand-up and music show, The New Negroes, on Comedy Central that he will co-host with comedian Baron Vaughn.But on his most recent album, Brick Body Kids Still Daydream—a hazy, dark, powerful, and sometimes sweet recollection of the Robert Taylor Homes and their demolition, he comes home. The album reimagines the story of the Robert Taylor Homes, imbuing it with equal parts childhood fantasies, fuzzy memories, and the real-world darkness of a city that isolated, ignored, and then forcibly displaced thousands of its most vulnerable residents. This mix is perfectly encapsulated by the video for “Brick Body Complex”: Eagle plays Iron Hood, a superhero trying to warn residents that their building is coming down, fight back against gentrification, and stop the city’s demolition; in the end, at the moment when it seems Iron Hood has stopped the demolition, the cops show up to haul him off to jail. Eagle spoke with the hosts of the South Side Weekly Radio Hour to talk about his process, his feelings behind the album, and why he came home. Catch the full-length interview on 88.5 WHPK next Tuesday from 3pm–4pm and online at soundcloud.com/south-side-weekly-radio. Andrew Koski: What inspired you to revisit Chicago as the subject matter for the album after being in L.A. for more than a decade? It was literally just having the train of thought of “What happened to the Robert Taylors?” and actually looking into it and being kind of horrified and in many ways disturbed by what I found. It just made me want to kind of connect to the mind state I was in when I was growing up...it made me want to look into my own past to try to find some material to write from. AK: So what was it like actually coming back then and seeing what’s become of the space and the lack of progress in replacing this housing? It was hard and weird. It was really weird seeing that—those big empty fields and trying to mentally put together how it was when all those buildings stood. So the first initial impression is just being in awe and intimidated by this big empty space. And then when I looked around there this first time when I went back, somebody had painted on a wall, under maybe a viaduct or train tracks—they had painted 3919 on 8 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

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the wall. And that was where that building stood. And that was a bittersweet feeling too, because you know, one of the big, bad feelings of being there is experiencing that erasure if you did have some experience with those buildings. But then to see that somebody took the steps to commemorate it somehow made me feel a little better. I also found out last time I went that they do a reunion there every year, the people who lived there. I ended up talking to some people who were hanging out around the park there who used to live there, and apparently they do a reunion, and that was really nice to hear too. That the people there, you know, they’re doing their best to hold onto the community. Erisa Apantaku: Did you come back at all during the crafting of the album? What sorts of inspirations—both musically or visually or written—or memories did you incorporate into the album? I did come back once and took a bunch of photos and decided to take it all in. I just [went] by myself and tried to have a moment there on the land and understand what it all meant to me. Inspiration-wise, actually, one of the bigger inspirations was

LIZZIE SMITH

this videogame series called Dark Souls that I’ve also been playing a lot of. And its means of storytelling is very indirect—a lot of it is based on clues and a lot of it is adventuring through ruins. And in that way I kind of wanted to mythologize the Robert Taylor Homes too. Like, to try to treat it like there’s some lore there, or there’s some stories that may have been like oral traditions or legacies or just local myths and try to play those up.

I did with the album was kind of create an audio version of a mural. And in that way it’s commemorating but it’s not a documentary. It’s more like an impressionistic kind of painting of these different scenes of things that may or may not have happened there.

EA: I was reading an interview you did with Chicago Magazine that you feel like there should be something commemorating the Robert Taylor Homes, like a plaque. In Brick Body Kids Still Daydream, were you trying to create a space for future generations to kind of understand the space?

That’s possible, but from my position inside the work, it’s hard for me to think of it that way. I set intentions to just make whatever kind of song should be made, based on where my mind is headed at the moment. There’s definitely songs on this album that are bigger—more expressive, outwardly, than some of my older stuff, but I also don’t know if that could just be a function of where I am in songwriting.

Maybe not intentionally. I think I was just mining feelings and then through my own lens of my experience of that place, I think that it ends up sounding like that. When I was going through this last time it occurred to me that what I did, maybe not what I was intending to do, but what

AK: Do you think this is more of a public album, compared to some of your more introspective feelings on past albums?

EA: Which tracks do you think are more expressive? “Brick Body Complex” is a big outwardbased song. “No Selling” is a big song, even

MUSIC

a song like “Daydreaming In The Projects,” where my delivery is more melodic, I still think there’s an expressive quality to the emotions of the song...I think maybe this album is just a little bit more emotional, outwardly emotional, than my past work, because I tend to shy away from even consuming entertainment that’s too emotionally available for some reason, and this effort is probably like the most overtly emotional I’ve been.

know? I want to talk to people about which building was there, so I don’t have to put that stuff together so much from my memory.

EA: Do you wish you could have played at a South Side venue when you came through?

I think I have to take it based on legitimately whatever I’m feeling, because there’s stress in this album that isn’t from the buildings. There’s stress in this album that is from the political situation, and I think that me being grounded in a sort of stressed-out emotional state right now is what led to that subject matter being the thing that I found most interesting to create from. It felt like I was processing kind of dark, heavy feelings, some of which didn’t have anything to do with the Robert Taylors, but I was able to use that as a vehicle to get some things out and figure out what to say about other stuff.

I mean, my ultimate fantasy is to set up a stage, like right there on the space where the buildings were, and just do a show there. That’s the dream scenario. But the reality of it is that I’m also pursuing a weird career, and I have to pay attention to what factors make the most business sense too, so I tend to want to be where people are used to going for live music, and people might not be used to going to an empty field to do that. There is a place that I played on the South Side once—the Shrine, I think? And look, that’s part of what I found out when I talked to the people who were around the park that day—they have music out there when they do the reunion. So there’s ways to fit that all together. That would be really amazing. EA: Do you plan to come back, for a reunion? I would love to. I absolutely would love to. I had just missed it apparently. They say it’s typically in early September. So if I were able to get that information in a timely manner, I would love to come. That would be...like, this one guy I talked to, he has an address sign and some bricks from his building. He said his family was the second family to move into his building, and he said he brings the sign and the bricks out during the reunion. That’s the kind of stuff that I want to see—I want to touch that stuff, you

AK: So it seems to me that this album took a step by having a more central focus and it felt more serious, because it’s a monument to these buildings. Is that something you want to continue doing, to get more specific or have a more serious focus like this album?

EA: What do you do day to day to keep going? I know that’s a really bleak question, but I think a lot of people ask that question. I just try to find the words to process my feelings best I can. I won’t say substantial, but I have a social media platform presence; I have a music career that on paper doesn’t even make sense—that’s stuff to feel fortunate for. I say that I have tools, where if I feel like I have a good idea, I have a means of spreading it. And I use a lot of mental resources to try to figure out what to do and what to say—but also, I have to honor my emotions, too, and sometimes I do feel dark and I do feel bleak and I do say dark and bleak things, because I think even overall...one of my values is that it’s very important to me that people get to honor their real individual feelings. We live in a society that doesn’t always allow for that,

especially in minority or oppressed groups, you don’t often feel license to feel certain ways or to express certain things, and so I’d always want to reinforce and be an example of a person who feels like he can say what he means to say. So it’s tough right now, it’s tough, and I’m trying to figure out a way through it, but I think a lot of it is try to figure out the things to say to people. And when I correctly say those things, and watch that affect people on social media or here, or a song or a line people relate to, then that helps me go forward.

of danger, and a lot of pain and loss. And a lot of it can be transformative, and maybe a general thing to say is...don’t be afraid to try to process your scars and your negative experiences. Have a person to talk to.

EA: The “95 Radios” video was gorgeous, just want to put that out there.

You know, there has been some force, some thrust in my work as long as I can remember, where I’ve had this question in my head creatively on what the value of memory is, because I remember a lot of really weird stuff, even pop culture-wise, the things that have impressed themselves upon my memory indelibly are sometimes really silly, or a commercial jingle, or the opening to certain television shows. When you’re a kid...especially in terms of marketing, things present themselves like they’re the most important thing ever and that they’re always going to be that way all through time. I remember hearing songs on the radio, or videos being played over and over again, where if you were eleven or twelve, you were gonna go, “This song is going to be a part of pop culture canon forever,” but now it’s just something that you don’t remember at all! There’s always been this question in my head, of what is that worth, what is the function of a memory like that, and I found in this project this complete license to mine and use every memory I could come up with. And since it was a mural it didn’t have to be factual, it could just be me painting pictures of things that I remember. That was just incredibly gratifying for me because I have this existential question about what memories are worth. So to be able to use them in a way that seemed more important than just me doing that felt really good. ¬

You know, for these videos, I had this dark comic television concept, and I connected with these really talented directors and they all had the license to take each concept and put their own spin on it, and I think, man, they all did a really good job. We have more videos coming. AK: That one especially, it comes across that you’re trying to give a voice or a platform to these kids growing up in the projects—that’s also in the lyrics on “Daydreaming In The Projects”—so what would you say to a kid who’s now growing up in that situation, not in the Robert Taylor Homes, but somewhere in Chicago, where they’re dealing with the aftermath of the demolition of these buildings? It’s hard to know one thing to say, because there’re so many situations that a kid could find himself in...If the kid was like me, I would say, “Keep looking for alternatives, and embrace those and don’t be afraid of them.” I often didn’t feel comfortable being able to express liking the types of music or television that I liked because of social pressure that wasn’t really real—and ultimately connecting to those things really kind of saved my life. There’s a lot of lives that can be lived in that kind of situation, and there’s a lot

AK: What is the process like to make an album that’s so specifically about one place when you’re in a totally different place? You’re in LA, but you’re making this album, pulling from memories, but also trying to imagine this space that couldn’t be more different geographically.

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BULLETIN Forms & Features: Celebrating the Poetry of June Jordan DuSable Museum of African American History, 740 E. 56th Pl. Thursday, October 19, 7pm– 9pm. Free. RSVP at bit.ly/FormsFeatures Poetry Foundation Library Coordinator Maggie Queeney will lead a discussion and creative writing workshop to celebrate the work of June Jordan, the poet and activist known as “the Poet of the People.” You will pen—or type, if that’s your preference—your own poems in response to her work. (Yunhan Wen)

Laquan Day 2017 CPD Headquarters, 3510 S. Michigan Ave. Thursday, October 19, 7pm for the community rally. Progressive Baptist Church, 3658 S. Wentworth Ave. Friday, October 20, 7pm for the town hall discussion. Two-day event. Free. bit.ly/LaquanDay2017 Three years ago, video of the tragic death of Laquan McDonald shook the entire nation. In commemoration, a group of community activists—William Calloway, Charles Preston, and Matthew Ross—is organizing a rally in front of the headquarters of CPD and a town hall discussion on the following day. (Yunhan Wen)

Cristina Rivera Garza, “The Iliac Crest” Book Release The University of Chicago Center for Identity + Inclusion, 5710 S. Woodlawn Ave. Friday, October 20, noon–1:30pm. Free. (773) 5527440. litluz.org In its fourth year, the annual Lit & Luz Festival of Language, Literature, and Art is once again offering a platform for cultural exchange between Mexico City and Chicago. This year, Cristina Rivera Garza, the renowned Mexican author, will read from her recently-translated novel, The Iliac Crest. (Yunhan Wen)

Renew 71st Street Kickoff 2226 E. 71st St. Saturday, October 21, 5pm– 8pm. Free. bit.ly/Renew71st The 71st Street Advisory Committee, the residents’ group created by Ald. Leslie Hairston (5th) after backlash to her proposal 10 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

to downzone the portion 71st Street in her ward, convenes for its first public meeting this Saturday night. There’s little public information on the event, but we’re putting good money on the Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill urban design team hired by Hairston showing some of its plans and renderings. (Sam Stecklow)

2017 Harvest Festival El Paseo Community Garden, 944 W. 21st St. Saturday, October 21, noon–8pm. $5 suggested donation. (773) 234-6168. elpaseogarden.org The last greens of the growing season, a performance by La Danza Ballet Folklórico Maravilla, a dog costume competition: all this, and more, is in store at El Paseo Community Garden’s Harvest Festival. Don’t miss the 4:30pm dedication and discussion of the new, punchy mural overlooking the garden; the artists will be there to discuss the imagery and their community-driven process. (Emeline Posner)

Harvest Gathering Day OTIS Fresh Farm, 2616 S. Calumet Ave. Sunday, October 22, 11am–3pm. (773) 7471761. RSVP online. otisfreshfarm.org Celebrate the year’s vegetal growth this Sunday by helping with the harvest at OTIS Fresh Farm. Garden experts and newcomers alike are welcomed—the day will begin with a tour of the Bronzeville farm by founder Steve Hughes and end with a “hang-out,” and throughout the day there will be opportunities to learn about recycling, worms, and rainwater. (Emeline Posner)

Annual Halloween Festival and Haunted House Gary Comer Youth Center, 7200 S. Ingleside Ave. Saturday, October 28, 1pm–5pm. Free admission and all ages for the festival. For the haunted house: 8+. $3 adults, $2 youth. (773) 358-4100. garycomeryouthcenter.org It’s that time of the year gain—the Gary Comer Youth Center will host its annual Halloween Festival featuring carnival games, live performances by the Jesse White Tumbling Team, and magic performed by Benjamin Barnes. For more spooks and ghouls, the door to the Haunted House is ajar and awaiting. (Yunhan Wen)

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Filmmaker Haile Gerima’s “Sankofa”: Resistance Then & Now Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E. 60th St. Saturday, October 28, 3pm–7pm. Free. More information and RSVP at bit.ly/HaileGerima Haile Gerima, renowned filmmaker and a leading member of the L.A. Rebellion movement, will introduce his best-known film Sankofa (1993), a story about slavery across the globe. The discussion will touch upon issues such as racism, identity, and culture. This event is part of Inherit Chicago. (Yunhan Wen)

Stories of Displacement Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture, 6500 S. Pulaski Ave. Saturday, October 28, noon– 2pm. (773) 582-6500. balzekasmuseum.org As part of its roving programming before it officially launches, the National Public Housing Museum is hosting a pop-up exhibit at the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture on the Southwest Side. Focusing on stories of displaced people, in Chicago and around the world, the exhibit is interactive and encourages patrons to participate. (Sam Stecklow)

Learn to be an African Heritage Cooking Superstar! St. Ailbe Church, 9047 S. Harper Ave. Saturday, November 11, noon–3pm. Free. (773) 3742345. RSVP at bit.ly/ATOAHTraining Loved last year’s Weekly article “Tradition in the Kitchen” and want to get involved in more A Taste of Heritage cooking classes? Join the Ridgeland Block Club Association in the kitchen at St. Ailbe Church to learn how to teach your own A Taste of African Heritage class. “Get equipped with the skills, knowledge, and recipes to bring ‘Health through Heritage’ back to the community at your Church, Mosque or Community Group.” (Andrew Koski)

VISUAL ARTS “I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter” Book Release National Museum of Mexican Art, 1852 W. 19th St. Friday, October 20, 6pm–8:30pm. Free. (312) 738-1503. bit.ly/ErikaSanchezBookRelease

Erika L. Sánchez, a second-generation Mexican American and Princeton professor, has come back to her native Chicago to read excerpts of her debut novel I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter. Sánchez, who also published the poetry chapbook Letters on Expulsion earlier this year, will talk about how she wrote her first novel around a pair of sisters, parental expectations, and an unexpected tragedy. ( Joseph S. Pete)

Open Practice Committee: Amalia Pica Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E. 60th St. Thursday, October 19, 12:30pm–1:30pm. Free. Contact (773) 753-4821 or dova@uchicago.edu for more info. arts.uchicago.edu Come out Thursday to listen to this public talk with Amalia Pica, presented by the Lit & Luz Festival and UofC Department of Visual Arts. Born in Neuquén, Argentina, Amalia now lives and works in London and Mexico City. Her work often focuses on the process, effectiveness, and performative nature of thought and speech. (Roderick Sawyer)

18th Street Pilsen Open Studios Various locations around 18th Street (see map online). Kick-off Friday, October 20, 8pm– midnight; open studios Saturday, October 21, noon–8pm and Sunday, October 22, noon–6pm. (773) 830-4800. pilsenopenstudios.net It’s the fifteenth year of this annual art walk, organized by mainly Latinx local artists and volunteers, and for its quinceañera, Pilsen Open Studios programming includes tours of various studios around 18th Street, public art tours, a family art workshop, and, this year, programming honoring Casa Aztlan, from a teach-in about resisting gentrification to community art projects and performances. ( Julia Aizuss)

Mountains, Lakes, Places I Feel Safe Archer Beach Haus, 3012 S. Archer Ave. Friday, October 20, 8pm–midnight. facebook.com/archerbeachhaus Artists Megan Eskoff, Mariana Rockwell, and Natalie González come together this Friday for a “lush” exhibition of landscape and interior painting. They’ll be dealing with interiority, too—how these spaces provide “conflicting but comfortable emotional safety.” ( Julia Aizuss)

EVENTS

Sarah Schulman: “Conflict is Not Abuse” UofC Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality (Community Room), 5733 S. University Ave. Monday, October 23, 5pm– 6:30pm. Free. (773) 702-9936. gendersexuality.uchicago.edu Writer/activist/general figure of interest Sarah Schulman comes to the UofC to discuss her latest, award-winning book, Conflict Is Not Abuse, which explores how accusations of harm are used to avoid accountability and to manipulate fear. ( Julia Aizuss)

Boo HaHa: Neon Nights Co-Prosperity Sphere, 3219 S. Morgan St. Friday, October 27, 7pm–11pm. $30. Buy tickets online at bit.ly/BooHaHaNeonNights. (773) 837-0145. coprosperity.org Lumpen Radio, or WLPN 105.5 FM, will again bring home brewers on the verge of going pro together for an underground summit with some of Chicagoland’s top breweries, such as Goose Island, Aleman, Soma Ale Werks, Middle Brow, and 18th Street Brewery. Oh, yeah, and it’s a costume party with black lights, neon lights and “amazing DJs.” ( Joseph S. Pete)

MUSIC Selena Tribute Night Punch House, 1227 W. 18th St. Wednesday, October 18, 9pm–2am. Free. (312) 526-3851. bit.ly/SelenaTribute Dance the night away to the music of Selena, one of the biggest stars in Tejano and Latin pop ever, spun by DJ’s Alive Girl and Ariel Zet. (Sam Stecklow)

Cousin Stizz Reggies, 2105 S. State St. Thursday, October 19, 7pm doors. $20. 18+. (312) 949-0120. reggieslive.com There’s a case to be made that Boston’s best-known rappers are Benzino (forever known for being on the losing end of a feud with 8 Mile–era Eminem), Sammy Adams, and Mark Wahlberg; it’s a relief, then, to see Dorchester rapper Cousin Stizz gaining some traction, including a feature from Offset on his major-label debut, One Night Only. He’ll be playing at Reggies with fellow Bostonian Big Leano. (Christian Belanger)

David Archuleta The Promontory, 5311 S. Lake Park Ave. Monday, October 30, 7pm doors, 8pm show. $17–$150. (312) 801-2100. promontorychicago.com David Archuleta “doesn’t like attention, but deserves yours,” proclaims the description of Archuleta’s upcoming show on the Promontory’s website, which goes on to outline a career that remarkably makes no mention of his attention-bringing stint on American Idol. You will be able to give him even more attention if you pay for the $125 VIP experience of the concert; either way, fans will be able to head to the Promontory, where he’ll be singing “about the struggle of finding your own voice.” ( Julia Aizuss)

Ariel Pink at Thalia Hall Thalia Hall, 1807 S. Allport St. Saturday, October 28, 8:30pm, 7:30pm doors. $27 advance, $37 doors. 17+. (312) 526-3851. thaliahallchicago.com Weird rock institution Ariel Pink comes to Thalia Hall in support of his latest album, Dedicated to Bobby Jameson, in memory of a one-time rock star who languished and died in relative obscurity. (Think a more tragic version of Searching for Sugarman). Ariel Pink himself has seen his commercial fame wane a bit in the last few years, not that he seems to care; come see him ply his trade, aptly described by his label as “earnest genre drag.” (Christian Belanger)

$5 Fridays: Color Card, Easy Habits, Skip Trace Co-Prosperity Sphere, 3219 S. Morgan Ave. Friday, November 3, 7pm doors, 8pm–11pm show. $5, free for Lumpen Radio members. Buy tickets online. (773) 837-0145. bit.ly/CoProFridays Lumpen Radio debuts $5 Fridays with three local bands at the Co-Pro; they promise “bleary rock music and lasers.” Color Card, Easy Habits, and Skip Trace will no doubt provide the bleary rock music; it’s unclear whether they or the Lumpen team are responsible for the lasers. ( Julia Aizuss)

I Got Life – The Music of Nina Simone The Promontory, 5311 S. Lake Park Ave. West. Friday, November 3, 7pm doors, 8pm show. 21+. $17–$45. (312) 801-2100. promontorychicago.com

Singer Jaguar Wright and bassist Gerald Veasley, both jazz and soul artists hailing from Philadelphia, front an ensemble whose presentation and re-imagination of Nina Simone’s oeuvre will, The Promontory promises, result in “more than a concert.” ( Julia Aizuss)

Spotlight Reading Series: “Trouble in Mind” South Shore Cultural Center, 7059 S. Shore Drive. Saturday, November 11, 3pm. 5535 S. Ellis Ave. Free, but reservation required. (773) 753-4472. courttheatre.org Alice Childress’s Trouble in Mind offers a satirical take on racism in American commercial theater, spoofing a “progressive” Broadway play about race that’s anything but. The staged reading will reviv`e a play as part of Court’s Spotlight Reading Series, which aims to bring the works of people of color to the fore. ( Joseph S. Pete)

STAGE & SCREEN ‘63 Boycott 54th Anniversary Screening Rainbow PUSH Coalition, 930 E. 50th St. Saturday, October 21, 1pm–3pm. Free. (773) 373-3366. bit.ly/63Boycott

The Revolution Will Not Be Improvised

This Saturday sees the world premiere of ’63 Boycott, Kartemquin Films’ short documentary on the 1963 CPS student boycott, which saw hundreds of thousands students taking to the streets to protest the racist policies and practices of the school board. The screening, co-hosted by Black Cinema House and the UofC’s Center for Race, Politics, and Culture with Rainbow PUSH and Kartemquin, will be followed by a discussion with both the filmmakers and some of the subjects. (Sam Stecklow)

The Revival, 1160 E. 55th St. Every Saturday through November 11, 7:30pm. $5–$15. the-revival.com Ever since Gil Scott-Heron, people have speculated on what the revolution will not be. The Revival’s Fall South Side Sketch Comedy Review adds to that conversation and wrings needed laughs out of the current sociopolitical climate. Max Thomas, Elias Rios, Jared Chapman, Lexi Alioto, Sara Savusa, and Mo Phillips-Spotts blend improv humor and music under the direction of Molly Todd Madison. ( Joseph S. Pete)

Rebuilding a Sanctuary Monastery of the Holy Cross, 3111 S. Aberdeen St. Saturday October 28, 6pm. Free; RSVP at bit.ly/RebuildingtheSanctuary. chicagomonk.org The Monastic Community of the Holy Cross will screen the documentary short Rebuilding the Sanctuary, featuring iconic altarpieces viewers can see in the sanctuary prior to the screening by attending 5:15pm Vespers—short evening prayers of Psalms and chanting of hymns by Benedictine monks. A conversation and light refreshments will follow. You can see the film trailer on the monastery’s Facebook page. (Nicole Bond)

The Belle of Amherst Court Theatre, 5535 S. Ellis Ave. Thursday, November 2–Sunday, December 3. $35–$68, discounts available for seniors, students, faculty, and groups. (773) 753-4472. courttheatre.org Emily Dickinson could not stop for death, but you should stop by the UofC’s Court Theatre to see William Luce’s play about the revered poet’s reclusive life in Massachusetts. Kate Fry stars as the prolific Dickinson who “dwells in possibility” and famously characterized hope as a “feathered thing that perches in the soul.” ( Joseph S. Pete)

eta Family Theatre Initiative: “The Tiger Who Wore White Gloves” eta Creative Arts, 7558 S. South Chicago Ave. Friday, October 20–Saturday, December 23. $40, discounts available for seniors and students. (773) 752-3955. etacreativearts.org Nora Brooks Blakely’s musical adaptation of a book by her mother Gwendolyn Brooks was already a fitting choice, in the year of the Brooks centennial, to start off eta’s 2017–18 season. Even more fitting, given Brooks’s dedication to youth poetry, is that the musical will launch eta’s partnership with the Chicago Teachers Union Foundation. The initiative will encourage Chicago students to read the book and then to see the musical. ( Julia Aizuss)

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