October 21, 2015 by South Side Weekly

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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

Truth in Taxation The city held required “truth in taxation” public hearings on Monday, but this truth probably won’t be greeted enthusiastically by many Chicagoans. The Emanuel administration plans to raise the property tax levy this year by 37.7 percent—from $861 million to roughly Politics Editor Christian Belanger Education Editor Mari Cohen $1.2 billion. As DNAinfo reported, Alderman Edmund Burke Music Editor Maha Ahmed cited projections that the levy would continue to rise, reaching $1.4 Stage & Screen Julia Aizuss billion in 2018. According to the administration, these new taxes Editor Visual Arts Editor Emeline Posner are necessary for the city to cover its pension payments to police and Editors-at-Large Lucia Ahrensdorf, firefighters, as the city’s budget woes continue. Homeowners might Jake Bittle, be partially reprieved from the effects of this giant hike if a state bill Austin Brown, Sarah Claypoole, doubling the homeowner exemption on assessed value is passed— Emily Lipstein not a likely proposition. Contributing Editors Will Cabaniss, Editor-in-Chief Executive Editor Managing Editor

Osita Nwanevu Bess Cohen Olivia Stovicek

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 Writer: 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

Inspiration (Remix) What gets R. Kelly choked up? His high school music teacher, according to a Sun-Times video interview. Lena McLin, the first person to identify and encourage his musical talent, was close to losing her apartment at 69th and Oglesby, which is being converted into condos unaffordable on a teacher’s pension. A former student created a GoFundMe to help McLin out, and Kelly just performed

at a benefit concert October 14 to support her. But what really makes McLin “the greatest human being on the planet and the earth,” as Kelly dubs her? Well, “she don’t complain.” If you only listened to Kelly, you’d be forgiven for not knowing McLin is also famous in her own right: a composer of more than 400 works, one of which was performed at Carnegie Hall, and possessor of a healthily sized Wikipedia article to boot. As for McLin’s plight post-concert, Kelly said she now has the $147,000 needed to convert and purchase a condo—“he thinks.” Trash for Cash Rahm Emanuel’s most recent unpopular idea this budget season is to start charging Chicago residents for trash pickup. All possible garbage jokes have already been made—mostly by city aldermen— who are lining up to criticize the proposal. The idea hasn’t gone away, however, and its newest iteration is to charge residences by the volume of trash they throw away. Alderman Pat Dowell calls the move a “slippery slope” towards forcing Chicagoans to pay for other city services, and opponents far and wide fear Chicago’s streets will be lined with rubbish as residents start choosing to litter instead of adding to their garbage pickup bill.

IN THIS ISSUE the state budget crisis

this side of kingston

Something more along the lines of perseverance...no, persistence. emeline posner...4 who’s who in police accountability

The people responsible for keeping Chicago’s police in check. christian belanger & will cabaniss...6

All the cuts are affecting the South Side a different way. zoe makoul...7 resistance remembered

“I make art because I see the ways in which our histories of resistance get erased.”

varda on

60th

street

People love Agnès. They love her hair, her obsessions with potatoes and cats, the ineffable earnestness in everything she does. walker king...14 breaking into the darkness

jean cochrane...10

“We wrap the truth in darkness and believe it will just disappear, but it never does.”

olive harvey wins grant, expands offerings

“Students will be able to create games, design them, put it in there, and play it.”

jasmin liang...15

lianne blodgett...10 Cover illustration by Raziel Puma. OCTOBER 21, 2015 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 3

This Side of Kingston Bronzeville Jerk Shack, the first Bronzeville Cookin’ venue, opens.

sylvia wei

BY EMELINE POSNER “I’m not patient at all,” says Bernard Loyd, the man who has dedicated the last twelve years of his life to the commercial and culinary redevelopment of a three-block stretch of 51st Street. I met with him recently to talk about Bronzeville Cookin’, his company Urban Juncture’s project of transforming the area surrounding the 51st Street Green Line stop into a hub of black culture and cuisine, and the Bronzeville Jerk Shack, its first and most recently realized venue. Though patience be not one, Loyd’s other traits—“something more along the lines of perseverance…no, persistence”—have clearly been fundamental to the realization of the Jamaican roadhouse-inspired spot, which has 4 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

finally opened after years of talk. Originally slated for 2010, then 2014, the restaurant finally opened in September 2015. Given uncertain funds and a hard-hitting recession, the years-long delay certainly came as no surprise, least of all to Loyd and his team; but the wait, it seems, was well worth it. The Jerk Shack’s entrance is at 5055 S. Prairie Ave., one hundred feet or so north of 51st. So long as the restaurant is open and the weather pleasant, the storefront windows are drawn up, allowing the occasional breeze to float in along with voices from the street and the familiar ding of Green Line trains’ closing doors. Inside, the earth tones and exposed brick wall harmonize with the metallic and red highlights of the counters and win-

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dows. Several dark wooden chairs and tables, some mismatching, were salvaged from the Bronzeville Forum on 43rd Street, another of Loyd’s properties, and restored to gleaming glory. Shining on the wall is a mosaic of a loggerhead kingbird, a native Jamaican species, made and donated by acclaimed Bronzeville artist Carolyn Elaine. The menu, the Jerk Shack’s most important feature, isn’t extensive, but once you’ve tasted the jerk chicken dinner you really don’t mind. The meat has an unabashed, smoky, make-you-cry kick to it that only the combination of sweet sorrel juice, soft fried plantains, and a couple minutes’ time will soothe. Depending on your tolerance for spice, you may or may not wish to coat your plate with the extra container of jerk sauce

that comes with each order. The chicken is tender, though it doesn’t quite want to fall off the bone, and juicy enough that I couldn’t get through the meal without replenishing the napkin stack about halfway through. Included with the jerk plates, which are either chicken- or pork-based, is a tauntingly small portion of soft, sweet “Hellshire Beach” festival ( Jamaican cornbread fritters), as well as a slice of hard dough bread. Sides include saltfish fritters, sweet potato fries that have already gathered acclaim on Yelp, and fried plantains. Every day customers can also order a special item not on the official menu; I found a jerk shrimp plate on the specials chalk board one day, a jerk chicken wrap the next. Pierre Johnson, the Shack’s head chef

FOOD

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and manager, grew up in Bronzeville and developed a feel for the kitchen by trying to surprise his mother with dinner on days when she would return home late from work. The cooking fever took over during a culinary arts class at Dunbar Academy, and he later honed his craft in New York, at the Culinary Institute of America. How he ended up as the chef of the Bronzeville Jerk Shack reads like a work of fate. He spent several years of touring around the world as a chef for Live Nation, preparing meals for the massive tour groups accompanying the likes of Kanye West. Five years ago, stepping off the One Direction tour bus in his home city, just outside Soldier Field, Johnson snapped his ankle and returned home to rest up. “I heard of Bernard through a friend, and agreed to come over here for an interview,” Johnson told me. “Everything was in crumbles—there was only the exposed brick wall, no kitchen equipment, nothing. But everything ran smoothly during the last four months [of preparation], and I wouldn’t want to be working side-by-side with anyone other than Bernard.” Loyd was set on his idea of a Jamaican roadhouse-style spot, but allowed Johnson to make the Shack his own. So Johnson decid-

ed the menu, which needs work, he says—he didn’t grow up cooking Jamaican cuisine and is making adjustments as he goes. He does import the pimento leaves and wood over which the meat is grilled and hibiscus flowers for the sorrel juice directly from Jamaica. Johnson keeps the recipes for both the marinade and the sorrel juice a secret. But a tour of the rooftop farm, installed in May and from which flowers and vegetables are already sprouting, reveals that he currently employs some powerful ingredients that he hopes will come from the garden next season: Caribbean scotch bonnet peppers dwell among other breeds of pepper, garlic, cilantro, and onions; more mild produce like carrots, tomato, chard, kale, and hibiscus also stretch their roots deep into specialized layers of fleece and soil. Though the rooftop farm was installed too late to provide the Jerk Shack with its ingredients this year, Urban Juncture’s Director of Garden Initiatives Latrice Williams said that, after wintering the garlic and figuring out the rotation schedule, they could expect to have produce flowing from the roof into Chef Pierre’s kitchen by next season. Material will travel in the opposite direction, too; all leftover food and waste will be compost-

ed and sent back up to the roof, or to the Bronzeville Community Garden down the road, to fertilize the gardens and keep the system as close to zero-waste as possible. Urban Juncture, Loyd’s umbrella development company overseeing the Bronzeville Cookin’ project, professes to be a company with a focus on sustainability, and a tour of the facilities, those both up-and-running and in-the-works, seems to prove it. The Bronzeville Community Garden on 51st and Calumet, the first of Loyd’s projects on 51st, is now five years old. Between patches of tomatoes and lettuce, the only two vegetables still in season in early October, the garden plays host to neighborhood chess enthusiasts and lunch-eaters, gardeners and children, and every so often hosts a chef for healthy cooking demonstrations. “Food brings people together,” Loyd says. “If we can inject food, quality food, into the area, then we’ll be able to feed people quality food, encourage people to come back [to Bronzeville], and bring jobs into the area as well.” His priorities throughout redevelopment lie in the culinary arts, conservation, and culture, he told me. Bronzeville residents can expect to see far more in the future from Loyd and

his team. One produce market and three restaurants serving distinct African and African-American cuisine—one serving southern-style breakfast, one vegetarian fare, and one smokehouse and grill—will follow the Jerk Shack if all goes according to plan and people step forward as equity partners. Of course, not all does go as planned in the world of developing and in the city of Chicago. “We’ve learned that it’s better not to become too attached to timelines,” Loyd laughed. Applying for funds and business permits from the city is not always a timely process; even more trying is the $400,000 grant promised to Urban Juncture by the state of Illinois that was delayed due to the ongoing budget crisis. Nonetheless, the company’s partnership with the city, which has also sold two adjoining properties on 51st at a low rate to Loyd, has been invaluable. After the recession hit, Urban Junctures lost all of its financial partners but two: the city and the Chicago Community Loan Fund. Although the recession hit them hard, Loyd says that the concept of using a cultural platform for development in Bronzeville became even more powerful after 2009. The next, albeit less-publicized, venue of the 51st Street redevelopment project will be an incubator on the second floor of the building next to the Jerk Shack, which is expected to open in late November. Loyd envisions it as a space not only for growing local entrepreneurs and businesses, but also as a place where individuals can rent space that allows them to work in a professional setting without commuting to their offices. Looking at what Loyd has on his metaphorical plate—on top of the continuation of the 51st Street developments, Loyd has committed himself to restoring the deteriorating Bronzeville Forum, which he purchased four years ago—one would wonder whether his plans might be overly ambitious, if it weren’t for his easy, confident demeanor and the extensive architectural plans that neatly cover most of his office. Johnson hasn’t taken a day off since starting at the Jerk Shack, and Loyd hasn’t taken a paycheck for the last twelve years. Shared by the two and everyone employed by Urban Juncture is a passion for their work and their neighborhood, and a desire to do things right, even if it takes longer than originally planned. Bronzeville Jerk Shack, 5055 S. Prairie Ave. Open daily, 11am–9pm. Entrées from $4– $12, sides $3. (773) 548-5375. bronzevillejerkshack.com

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POLICING

Who’s Who W in Police Accountability

hen a complaint of misconduct is filed against a Chicago Police Officer, who reviews it? It’s the people who work for the Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA), the Chicago Police Board, and the Chicago Police Department’s Internal Affairs Division, the three organizations that oversee the city’s police force. Here, we help identify who leads these agencies—the people responsible for keeping Chicago’s police in check. But first, a quick explanation of the various roles these agencies play: when a complaint is filed with IPRA, the agency retains any case of “excessive or deadly force, domestic abuse, verbal abuse based on bias, or coercion.” (All other complaints are passed on to the Internal Affairs Division of the CPD, which investigates charges ranging from drug use to simple procedural violations by officers.) If IPRA investigators deem a complaint warranted, the case is “sustained.” From there, if investigators find the officer’s actions to be unjustified, the agency has the option of recommending disciplinary action to Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy. If the superintendent agrees with a recommendation that an officer be discharged from the force, the nine-member Police Board convenes to vote on the officer’s future with the force. After a case is decided, a written decision is posted online.

BY CHRISTIAN BELANGER & WILL CABANISS illustrations by jasmin liang

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.

Scott Ando Chief Administrator, IPRA Scott Ando is the Chief Administrator of the Independent Police Review Authority, a position from which he oversees investigations into police misconduct and makes disciplinary recommendations to CPD Superintendent Garry McCarthy. Ando previously spent twenty-eight years working as a Special Agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration. His history in law enforcement has drawn raised eyebrows from a number of community activists, who question his ability to impartially conduct investigations. In particular, they point to accusations from Lorenzo Davis, a former IPRA investigator, that Ando forced him to reverse his findings. It’s true that Ando remains affiliated with police: he’s a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the Fraternal Order of Police, as well as the New Jersey state police union. Annual Salary: A hair under $162,000.

Lori Lightfoot President, Chicago Police Board This past June, Lori Lightfoot was appointed to the Chicago Police Board, which disciplines officers accused of misconduct. She took over from Demetrius Carney, a Richard M. Daley appointment, who had served on the board since 1996. Lightfoot is a former federal prosecutor and current partner at the powerful Chicago law firm Mayer Brown. More interestingly, she was Chief Administrator at the Office of Professional Standards, the now-defunct CPD agency that conducted investigations into police misconduct before the creation of IPRA in 2007. Lightfoot is also one of a series of new board members appointed by Emanuel over the past couple years; since 2013, five of the Board’s nine members have been replaced by newer ones. Annual Stipend: $25,000.

Ghian Foreman Vice President, Chicago Police Board Ghian Foreman, a real estate developer and native of Hyde Park/ Kenwood, serves as the Police Board’s vice president. Appointed by Mayor Richard M. Daley in 2010, he is a partner at the real estate firm Maktub Development LLC and the executive director of the Greater Southwest Development Corporation. As a seasoned businessman who’s also involved in community projects, Foreman is an emblem of Emanuel’s predilection for choosing white-collar professionals to fill spots on the Board. Foreman is an archetypal voter, too: according to the Chicago Justice Project, he has voted in agreement with the CPD’s disciplinary recommendations seventy-eight percent of the time, approximately the average of the board’s nine members. Annual Stipend: $15,000.

Lorenzo Davis former investigator, IPRA When Lorenzo Davis was fired from his job as a police investigator at IPRA this past July, he ignited a national furor over the agency’s internal procedures. While IPRA would not publicly divulge the exact reason for the termination, WBEZ Chicago obtained an evaluation of Davis from two weeks before he was laid off that described him as having “a clear bias against police” in investigations of officer-involved shootings. Davis, for his part, alleges that he was asked by Chief Administrator Scott Ando to change his recommendations in several cases where he found a police officer had committed an offense. Ando has denied the charge, and no state or federal investigation into the matter is being conducted. Before beginning work at IPRA, Davis was a CPD commander. Annual Salary at IPRA: About $93,000. 6 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

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Rita Fry Member, Chicago Police Board After twenty-three years at the Law Office of the Cook County Public Defender—and a number of those years at its helm—Rita Fry has worked within Chicago’s criminal justice system far longer than most others on the Police Board. As a public defender from 1980 to 2003, the number of coerced confessions to which she bore witness drove her to serve on the Illinois Commission on Capital Punishment, which contributed to the commuting of 167 death sentences. Fry reentered public service in 2009 when she was appointed to the Police Board by the younger Mayor Daley. She also serves as president & CEO of RAF Consulting, Inc., her own government relations consulting firm. Annual Stipend: $15,000.

BUDGET

The State Budget Crisis Budget freeze puts South Side services at risk BY ZOE MAKOUL

cross the state, parents are sending their kids to public schools, visiting state parks, and living life as usual. But Illinois is facing a severe budget crisis that is anything but usual. Governor Bruce Rauner and the Illinois General Assembly allowed the state’s temporary income tax to expire at the beginning of the year, creating an enormous gap in the budget that has yet to be resolved. The governor refuses to negotiate on a budget until state Democrats agree to several of his proposed reforms, including restrictions to collective bargaining rights. The governor also wants a freeze to property taxes. “Property tax relief is one of our most pressing challenges,” he said in a February press conference. “Our property tax burden is one of the biggest impediments to growth, and it hurts both businesses and middle-class families.” Although Rauner says he’s looking out for the middle class, House Speaker Michael Madigan and Democrats see his proposals as injurious to middle-class workers and families, and they have been uncooperative with the governor. Illinois has entered a fourth month of operating

“For folks on the South Side, the cuts to childcare, the cuts to senior care—these are all programs that working families rely on as basic economic supports to keep their jobs and to make sure that their kids and their parents are being well taken care of while they work to build a better future.”

without a budget, and the effects of the crisis are felt acutely in many communities, the South and West Sides of Chicago key among them. Kwame Raoul, Democratic State Senator from the 13th District, says that budget woes have disproportionally impacted the less fortunate. “We are actually funding a significant portion of the budget,” he says. “However, there are some areas that aren’t necessarily included in that, and that tends to be some of the social services that the everyday person doesn’t necessarily rely upon, but those with greater need rely upon.” This is reflected in an August report by Illinois Senate Democrats. According to the report, almost ninety percent of the state’s general funding is unaffected by the impasse due to court orders and other arrangements. But social services including youth programs, health initiatives, and care for children, seniors, and the disabled, are among the now underfunded portions of the budget. Democratic State Representative Christian Mitchell of the 26th District agrees with Raoul. “All the cuts are affecting the South Side a different way, just

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because you’ve got more low- and moderate-income people.” As an example, he mentioned that working mothers often rely on free childcare. With new eligibility rules in place, a working mother making over $664 a month no longer qualifies for childcare. In the past, single parents with one child could make over $2,400 and still qualify. As a result, Mitchell argues, “You’ve got entire ships of folks who can no longer go to work because they’ve got to take care of their kids.” Early in September, the Emanuel administration announced that it would set aside $9 million for Chicago children affected by the state’s cuts. Senior care programs are also being threatened. According to a report from Voices for Illinois Children’s Fiscal Policy Center, there are serious threats to services including senior centers, transportation, and housing. Funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which serves 60,000 low-income families across the state by keeping their houses cool in the summer and warm in the winter, has been stopped, and families on the program endured the heat of the summer’s last days without assistance. The services provided by LIHEAP are provided only for those living at or below 150 percent of the federal poverty line, and since much of the South and West Sides have poverty rates between forty and sixty percent, the fluctuation in temperature poses serious health and safety risks to locals. Mitchell questions the ability for people in his district to live “vibrant lives” when facing such severe restrictions on their time and health. “For folks on the South Side, the cuts to childcare, the cuts to senior care—these are all programs that

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“So you don’t have various groups competing for the attention of young people,” he continues. “You don’t have the positive groups, and the negative ones tend to win out.” Without state-funded summer programs, youth were left without activities for months. Higher education programs have also been threatened. “If you’re a kid who’s done everything right in high school and is academically qualified to go to college,” Mitchell explains, “the state helps pay for it because better education is really good for the state. That program [the Monetary Award Program (MAP) Grant program] has been cut.” Healthcare, care for children and the

BUDGET

elderly, and student support services are not the only areas that have felt the brunt of the budget crisis. Like many social services in the state, Mujeres Latinas en Acción, a Pilsen-based agency providing critical services including aid to those affected by domestic violence in Chicago’s Latina community, is struggling desperately to continue as many of their programs as possible. Despite being forced to suffer the loss of twenty percent of their workforce, Mujeres is currently running their services without their expected allocation of $65,000. As the state continues to operate without a budget, it is organizations like Mujeres—offering services such as childcare, youth programs, domestic violence support, and Latina empowerment programs—that are hurting. According to Adriana Viteri, Associate Director of Development and Public Affairs at Mujeres, the agency has been hit hard. Until funding resumes, their Latina Leadership program, a twenty-week program facilitating leadership and community involvement for women, will not be offered. There are no longer designated staff to provide public benefit case management and emergency economic assistance funds for survivors of gender violence. The agency has shut down their domestic violence police training, again due to a staff shortage, along with all of their community education efforts. Even the programs within Mujeres that have managed to remain in operation feel the burden of the budget impasse. The lack of staff has increased the waitlist for domestic violence support service to 130 people, and Mujeres is not turning anyone away. Additionally, Viteri has noticed an increase in clients scheduling appointments but not showing up. This could stem

from the scheduling delay, but there are other factors as well. “Mujeres used to help families who are very low income with transportation costs so that they could travel to make their appointments,” Viteri says. “We no longer have the funds to do this, and without bus fare, many clients are no longer able to come for services. This, coupled with the lack of childcare, makes transportation to our center an insurmountable hurdle for many of our clients.” The disruption to childcare funding has affected other aspects of the agency’s services as well—participation in Mujeres’s afterschool youth programs has dropped, Viteri says, as older children are being asked to babysit for their younger siblings. Another obstacle that has emerged is a rumor that Mujeres has closed their doors. “This is a dangerous rumor, as many individuals facing abuse may not want to leave their situation due to the fact that they believe they have nowhere else to get help,” Viteri says. Though Mujeres is referring all individuals to other organizations, Viteri says that the lack of culturally relevant services provided by other organizations as compared to Mujeres makes some of their clients reluctant to go. Finding a solution to the state’s budget woes won’t be easy. Raoul and Mitchell are both adamant that the only way to resolve the budget crisis is for Governor Rauner and the rest of the legislature to come to a reasonable agreement. “Until that happens, we will not see a solution to this problem,” Mitchell says. The price of the budget crisis is far greater than a temporary shutdown of social services. Even if the impasse is resolved and funding is resumed, at least in part, many agencies will not fully recover.

“The sad part of the story,” Raoul explains, “is the extent of the social service agencies who will have to close their doors or lay off people. It’s not easy for a lot of those agencies to flip the switch and change directions. In most cases there is no reopening. If you lose your top people, you’ve really been decimated.” “These aren’t rich people who are just volunteering their time, they’re working people who are devoting their lives to helping other families like them,” Mitchell says. “They can’t just wait it out and go back to their job.” Mujeres Latinas en Acción has plans to overcome the loss of funding in the short term, but if the state crisis continues, it expects to terminate five to ten additional staff members and keep all remaining staff furloughed three days a week—a best-case scenario. In the worst case, Mujeres will have to shut down until payments for services rendered in the past three months are received. If the state cannot provide these funds, Mujeres may not reopen. Like many legislators in districts that are suffering the most, Mitchell is eager for the crisis to be resolved. “I am ready and willing to work with the governor,” he says, “but until that moment happens, this will continue to have a deep and abiding and disproportionate impact on the South Side.” Social service programs operating on shoestring budgets, state legislators fighting to protect their districts, and state advocacy groups are all clamoring for a resolution that remains a long way away. For the people of Chicago’s South Side, the situation will remain dire until that resolution comes. For them, the budget impasse isn’t just a political stalemate. Their health, their money, and their lives are on the line.

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COMICS

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COMICS

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EDUCATION

Olive-Harvey Wins Grant, Expands Offerings

BY LIANNE BLODGETT

n a quiet Friday afternoon at Olive-Harvey City College in Pullman, a handful of students hurry through the halls to class. One woman carries a baby basket in one hand and holds onto a young boy with the other. Ameshia Cross, Director of Public Relations for City Colleges of Chicago, explains that this woman is probably on her way to the nursery on the first floor. The Far Southeast Side college offers free daycare to all students as part of a larger effort to eliminate obstacles to students’ learning and success. In addition to the nursery, the two-year college hosts high school outreach programs, remediation

struction, and the robotics team. “One of the things that I’m excited about is the simulators that we are hoping to get,” Hicks says. “One is for gaming and aviation, and students will be able to create games, design them, put it in there, and play it.” Hicks also says that a large part of the PBI grant will go to expanding Olive-Harvey’s outreach programs with local high schools in order to increase awareness of STEM, especially among minorities. In addition, the PBI grant will also fund two new English boot camp courses to improve and shorten the remediation period for students starting at Olive-Harvey and fund a peer

In October, Olive-Harvey was awarded a grant for $600,000 a year for five years from the Predominantly Black Institutions Program (PBI) of the U.S. Department of Education. boot camps, a wellness center, and interactive math tutoring computer programs. It also offers technical certificates. In October, Olive-Harvey—where in 2014 sixty-two percent of students were African-American—was awarded a grant for $600,000 a year for five years from the Predominantly Black Institutions Program (PBI) of the U.S. Department of Education. This is the second PBI grant Olive-Harvey has received in the last five years. The first grant, from 2011 to 2015, laid the infrastructure for an improved science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) program, including a Center for Teaching and Learning to provide professional development for the faculty. Theater professor Robin Hicks, a writer of the recent PBI grant and dean at Olive-Harvey, says that part of the grant will go toward building a new STEM center, a space for study groups, supplemental in-

mentoring program to help students make the psychological transition to college. Though the majority of students pursue associate degrees, Olive-Harvey is also currently building a $45 million facility to enhance its technical training, as well as adding two new programs and improved equipment. Each of the seven City Colleges has a different focus when it comes to occupational programs, and the industry of focus at Olive-Harvey is transportation, distribution, and logistics. The program includes training to drive a limousine or a taxi, operate a forklift, and obtain a commercial driver license. The new facility will enable an automotive technology program and a diesel technology program. Angelia Millender, President of Olive-Harvey, sees technical training as another option for students in a “guided pathway” as they figure out what they want to do, be it transfer to a four-year college or enter the workforce.

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 21, 2015 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 13

Varda on 60th Street

A colossus of world cinema comes to Hyde Park

BY WALKER KING

n October 8, a very short woman dressed in red velour enters the café at the Logan Center for the Arts accompanied by a small entourage, speaking French to a tall, spiky-haired woman next to her. No one else in the café freaks out. I run out to the curb to catch a friend of mine and tell her the amazing news: Agnès Varda is in Café Logan eating a salad. Varda herself is an unassuming figure, so it’s hard to be too angry with Logan’s other, unfazed patrons. She is very short and dresses in very comfortable, swooshy jewel tones. Were it not for her distinctive haircut—the same bowl-cut she’s had since the forties, dyed red and white—she’d be easily confused with any other aged continental patron of the arts. But Varda is that and something more. Now, she’s at the University of Chicago for a retrospective that encompasses her sixty-five-year working history as a photographer, director, and installation artist. Not many people saw her first film, La Pointe Courte, when it debuted in 1955, but some of those who did, then merely

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young movie buffs, became some of the most influential directors ever. Because it presaged the titanic shocks the film world would experience five years later, the movie earned Varda the vaguely patronizing title “Grandmother of the French New Wave,” and Varda and two close friends soon became the biggest lights of a movement called “Left Bank” cinema. In 1961, working with a producer who liked New Wave directors because they worked cheap, Varda made Cléo from 5 to 7, an international hit that would vault her into the top echelon of directors. A fantastic selection of her films from the last sixty years was on display at the Logan Center, with two other essentials shown elsewhere. The Music Box Theatre in Wrigleyville was offered their pick and chose the epochal Cléo, and Black Cinema House hosted Varda’s 2000 documentary The Gleaners and I. UofC Cinema and Media Studies lecturer Dominique Bluher, who has been working to program the festival for two years, says that Black Cinema House was a natural choice for a screening. Varda had a “wonderful” meeting with Theaster Gates,

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who renovated the theater, and toured the Stony Island Arts Bank. Bluher calls the pairing of Gleaners and BCH “obvious.” Gleaners is about people who scavenge for food and belongings that the rest of society leaves behind, who exist on the margins, who must create things out of whatever they find. The film has thematic resonance with the reclaimed and renovated space that houses BCH, as well as with Gates’s project of recycling crumbling South Side artifacts into arts spaces. At the Logan Center, festivities kicked off October 8 with the Chicago premiere of a television series Varda made in 2011 about her travels around the world, Agnès Varda: From Here to There. The next day, there was a reception in the gallery displaying her photography and installation works. The keynote installation features ten pounds of potatoes spread out at the feet of a triptych of screens displaying slideshows of potatoes. It’s called Patatutopia. The next day screenings get going in earnest, divided into four thematically related blocks, with 1985’s Vagabond as an untethered treat on Saturday night. One

courtesy of the reva and david logan center for the arts

may notice as they watch Varda’s films, if they pay attention, that nearly all of them are about women, their relationships with each other, and their interior lives. You’d be forgiven for not noticing, though, because Varda is never pushy or didactic about her feminism. She says during a Q&A that One Sings, the Other Doesn’t, which addresses the fight for legal abortion, is a musical because “whenever you start talking about feminism people start yawning. I didn’t want to bore these people.” This by no means implies that the feminist underpinnings of her work are less deeply felt or conveyed. She has made some of the most sensitive, nuanced films about women in the history of cinema, and she does it so consistently you’d never know that the history of film is as male-dominated as it is. The timeless relevance of feminist film is one explanation for Varda’s appeal and for the relevance of her residency at the UofC, but it’s not necessarily the best one. At the gallery reception on October 9, the crowd has diverse reasons for attending. But the most common one is simple: Varda herself. People love Agnès. They love her hair,

STAGE & SCREEN

Seeing Agnès Varda speak about her films and share gossip from the old days is a way of defying the transition of the midcentury movie scene from memory to history. her obsessions with potatoes and cats, the ineffable earnestness in everything she does. There’s a perception that she’s earned everything she has, doubly so because she’s one of the few women to have reached such heights. But part of her aura is her legend and status as a remnant of a different era in the history of the movies. Consider: most of her New Wave and Left Bank compatriots are dead, and most of the non-French directors that defined that period—the peak of American cinephilia—are gone now too. Truffaut, Bergman, Kurosawa, Fellini and a dozen others have all passed on, many in the last couple decades. Seeing Agnès Varda speak about her films and share gossip from the old days is a way of defying the transition of the midcentury movie scene from memory to history. Varda, though, would push back against her apotheosization. At a master class with the UofC Cinema and Media Studies majors working on creative BA theses, Varda shows a sharper side. Presented with three projects that look at the past, histories of never-met family members and disappearing UNESCO world

heritage sites, the director is puzzled. “You are so much into the past, you don’t want to take a look at people living now?” she asks pointedly. She wonders why they think they’ll learn more about themselves by looking at things found in storage or museums. In this light it’s easier to see the organizing principle that made the residency program such a wonderful summation of not only Varda’s work, but her philosophy. Bluher, who has been Varda’s friend for the past fifteen years, succeeded in separating Varda’s astounding film and photographic work from their historical freight, letting them speak as the striking artistic statements that they are. Shunting Cléo off to Wrigleyville kept the lesser seen works here on the South Side, and gave South Side residents the real advantage in understanding Varda, instead of only understanding the French New Wave. Encompassing yet focused retrospectives like this one allow Agnès Varda to continue to be, in Bluher’s words, “inspiring to every generation.”

courtesy of eta creative arts foundation

Breaking into the Darkness Sins of the Father at eta Creative Arts Foundation BY JASMIN LIANG

uscles stiff, face hidden in the shadows, a man turns around to realize that his father is pointing a gun at him. This is the opening scene of eta Creative Arts Foundation’s production of <i>Sins of the Father</i>, a play about secrets, confessions, and clemency among three generations of men. To his father, this man is a stranger, buried in the darkness along with the family’s untouchable history. The story revolves around three generations of African-American men who struggle to confess and redeem their past wrongdoings. Caleb Hamilton, a world-renowned blues musician, returns home after nine years of estrangement from his only son Joshua and his aged father George. It turns out that he has sought reconciliation only as death looms on the horizon––Caleb has just

been diagnosed with leukemia. This realization forces the three men to gradually break down the barriers between them and confront the secrets of their past. “Like lies, secrets are just coverings for what really happened,” writes playwright Synthia Williams in her letter to the audience. “We wrap the truth in darkness and believe it will just disappear, but it never does.” As the son steps into the spotlight, each character takes on his own burden of revelation: for George, it means confessing the cause of Caleb’s mother’s suicide and his true relationship to Caleb; for Caleb, it means admitting his failure as a father and taking responsibility for his negligent past; for Joshua, the youngest, it means learning to think critically about his upcoming marriage so that he will not repeat his father’s

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STAGE & SCREEN

courtesy of eta creative arts foundation

mistakes. At the heart of the play lies the idea of parenthood. Mistakes made by parents, if never acknowledged, echo into their children’s futures. “God punishes the children for the sins of the father,” George says, for he knows that he is the first to have sinned. Had George and Caleb never repented for their sins, whose roots can be traced back to problematic relationships with their wives, young Joshua might have fallen into a similar life path, stranded in an unhappy marriage, and the cycle of sins would have continued. Women, although absent from the play, are essentially what tie the men together. Synthia Williams highlights the idea that romantic struggles can foster camaraderie among men in a scene where George, Caleb, and T-Bone, an old friend of George, sit and drink together, each recounting his own romantic history. As they exchange stories, they empathize with one another, understanding that in the face of love, each has become Cupid’s captive. In sharing this powerless position they gain trust from one another. Through the male-exclusive envi-

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ronment, Williams is able to glimpse into men’s unique ways of building friendship and communicating emotions. Williams’s dialogue is filled with wry humor and sculpts the stolid, masculine protagonists, especially the old father, George. He is stiff and bilious, yet underneath his hardened shell is the heart of an earnest father and caring husband. The play keenly observes a common demand of masculinity: men should never display their emotions. Each exchange of feelings becomes a tug of war; each character shields his vulnerabilities with hard liquor, curses, and jokes about women. Yet often within lighthearted discourse, a line will suddenly fracture a character’s fortress and call forth stirring revelations of the past. At times, the play’s devotion to a particular portrait of masculinity can be costly. When a character interrupts a heartfelt conversation with a joke before the emotional climax, Williams’s story briefly loses its power. Humor within a grim story of murder, sins, and redemption requires cautious handling; when introduced too early, the char-

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“Like lies, secrets are just coverings for what really happened,” wrote Synthia Williams, the playwright of Sins of The Father, in her letter to the audience. “We wrap the truth in darkness and believe it will just disappear, but it never does.”

acters appear somewhat indifferent toward their own suffering. Though such callousness may simply be intended to reinforce this problematic image of masculinity, the humor reduces the emotional weight of the men’s secrets and alienates the audience. However, Sins of the Father by no means lacks moments of brilliance. Williams’s use of silence to interrupt violent confrontation brings the dramatic tension to the brink. Another gripping moment occurs when, at the finale, with all conflict resolved and a happy ending seeming to draw close, tragedy befalls the family, dramatically changing the previously comic tone of the story. The play toes the fine line between drama and reality, and in the process is able to reveal the uncomfortable truth that fate often catches us off guard. The challenges of the family in Sins of the Father mirror those that eta faces at the moment––the challenge of bridging the gap between the old and the young. Sins of the Father is eta’s second production after a full year of renovation. Theater construction will not be completed until January; currently all

productions are being staged in the gallery space, which was eta’s original stage in the seventies. In the seventies, eta was founded to provide an alternative stage for the African-American community when opportunities for them in mainstream theater were limited. As more opportunities become available, the demands of the new generation have evolved from those of the past. Facing these new demands, eta strives to maintain its social relevance and readjust its role in the community. “We are at a stage where we are trying to introduce younger voices into our leadership and guide them to make independent decisions,” said Mark Durham, chairman of the eta Board of Directors. He believes that eta, like young Joshua in Sins of the Father, is taking its first step into adulthood. eta Creative Arts Foundation, 7558 S. Chicago Ave. September 18–October 25. Friday–Saturday, 8pm; Sunday, 3pm. $30; $25 for seniors, $15 for students. (773) 752-3955. etacreativearts.org

CALENDAR

CROSSWORD

B-Minus 1

BY JOE LOTHAN 4

24 30

Chicago Elected School Board Town Hall: Southside

55 61

Anat Nir, an LGBT cultural figure from Tel Aviv, will speak about the role that Arisa—an Israeli company that hosts controversial gay-themed parties—plays in challenging Israel on LGBT issues. (Yunhan Wen)

54 62

ACROSS 1. Ambulance personnel, for short 5. Wash hard 10. Constellation part 14. Wander 15. “There ___ free lunches” 16. Frat party garment 17. Parcel out parcels 19. Beijing’s breathtaking feature? 20. Not mono 21. Bygone TV hookup 23. 35, as a minimum to be U.S. president 24. Wolf the warmth 28. 100 pounds: Abbr. 31. Big name in plastic wrap 32. Let’s say, informally 35. “Now I get it” 37. “In ___ We Trust” 38. Prejudiced 39. Exposed to oxygen 41. Graduates-to-be 42. Carpenters’ tools 43. Big lender in Chicago?: Abbr. 44. Plucked instrument 45. Inscribed pillar 46. Milky gems 48. Friend 49. Bolt cutters, maybe 52. Cyber-chuckle 54. Sombrero. e.g. 55. Seer 59. Footnote abbr. 61. Cleaned by a shower? 64. Ice cream, geometrically 65. Finely chop 66. Tree with needles 67. Actor Dullea of “2001 A Space Odyssey” 68. Dual conjunction 69. Bridge

DOWN 1. Historical periods

41 43

( Jena Yang)

BULLETIN

University of Chicago Hillel, 5715 S. Woodlawn Ave. Wednesday, October 21, noon. chicago.everyblock.com

23 27

AWB Presents: Arisa vs the World

31 36

19 21

2. Shed 3. Tall story 4. Campfire treat 5. Intentionally incapacitates 6. ___-Magnon 7. Tyrannosaurus ___ 8. Not level 9. Painter of “The Garden of Earthly Delights” 10. Aves. and blvds. 11. Grilled cheese partner 12. Awestruck 13. Fury 18. Oolong and green 22. 66-Across exudation 25. Stepped (on) 26. Possessed 27. “.. to fetch ___ of water” 28. Fire remnants 29. Toast choice 30. Stuffed, folled pasta 33. Mattress brand 34. ‘50s Ford failure 36. Artist Frida ___ 38. Carillon locale 40. Instruct 41. Baths 43. Component where a computer computes 46. Acquire 47. Word sung twice after “Que” 50. Fate 51. Talks with a sore throat 52. Delighted dog’s doing 53. Double-reed woodwind 56. Chocolate-___ 57. Dunham of “Girls” 58. Biblical garden 60. ___ Spiegel (German weekly) 62. Ill. neighbor 63. Sgt., e.g.

For last week’s answers, visit southsideweekly.com/crosswords

Grant Memorial AME Church, 4017 S. Drexel Blvd. Wednesday, October 21, 6pm. facebook.com

Fighting the Flood: Disaster Capitalism and Black Reconstruction Grace Place, 637 S. Dearborn St. Monday, October 26, 6pm. Free. (312) 427-0510. thegrassrootscollaborative.org Join the Grassroots Collaborative and the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice for a dialogue and strategy session on the social and economic struggles, including school closures and unemployment, that have emerged in black communities in Chicago and New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina. (Lily Li)

Drug War Capitalism

Budget cuts, financial mismanagement, school closings, and over-testing continue to exasperate South Siders. Join CODE Chicago for a town hall meeting to share your concerns, listen to the status quo, and fight for an elected school board in Chicago. (Yunhan Wen)

Rachad Bouhlal: Ambassador of Morocco to the United States Quadrangle Club Library, 1155 E. 57th St. Wednesday, October 21, 6pm. Free. (773) 834-4671. politics.uchicago.edu His Excellency Rachad Bouhlal, the Ambassador of Morocco to the United States, will be on location to discuss the challenges and opportunities of energy reform in his home country. The presentation will be followed by a discussion and Q&A session. (Christopher Good)

Fall Community Electronic Waste Dropoff Day IIT Main Campus, 3241 S. Wabash Ave. Saturday, October 24, 10am–3pm. Free. Did you know you might end up drinking the acidic remnants of your broken TV? Prevent water contamination and drop off your electronic waste to be properly disposed of or repurposed. Please make sure to remove any personal identification.

The Orphanage, 683 W. 31st St. Thursday, October 31, 5:30pm–8:30pm. Free. semillasautonomas.org Who is the drug war really against? Join journalist and author Dawn Paley to discuss her book Drug War Capitalism and explore the relationships among race, poverty, power, and terror in the United States’ crackdown on narcotics. Food and childcare will be provided during the presentation and discussion. (Anne Li)

South Side Pie Challenge Hyde Park Neighborhood Club, 5480 S. Kenwood Ave. Saturday, November 7. Pie submissions at 11am, open to public at 2pm. Free entry, $25 to enter a pie. Register at southsidepie.com Nothing’s as American as apple pie, and nothing’s as characteristic of South Side as the official Pie Challenge, which will raise money for Hyde Park & Kenwood Hunger Programs. Aspiring pastry chefs can submit a pie in any of four categories—fruit, nut, pumpkin, and crème—and the general public can stop by for pie, live music and coffee. Easy as... (Christopher Good)

VISUAL ARTS John Knight Museotypes Art Institute of Chicago, 111 S. Michigan

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Ave. October 23–November 29. 10:30am– 5pm daily, Thursday 10:30am–8pm. $20 for Chicago residents; discounts available for students and seniors. (312) 443-3600. artic.edu In 1983, Hyde Park’s Renaissance Society exhibited John Knight’s Museotypes, which consists of different museums’ architectural floor plans presented on sixty bone-china dinner plates. It is currently presented in the Art Institute’s Modern Wing in celebration of the Institute’s work with the Renaissance Society. (Sonia Schlesinger)

Annual East Garfield Park Art Walk The Switching Station, 15 S. Homan Ave. Apt. 212. October 24–25, 12pm–6pm. Free. (312) 945-2994. chicagoartistsmonth.org Over the weekend, East Garfield Park will overflow with creativity as it celebrates art through open studios and live performances. All are welcome, from fans and collectors to designers and artists. (Christopher Good)

Cartoons with a Conscience Carlos & Dominguez Fine Arts Gallery, 1538 W. Cullerton St. Saturday, October 24, 12:15pm through Sunday, October 25, 7:15pm. Free. (773) 580-8053. Look between the lines at this exhibition, “Cartoons with a Conscience,” curated by well-known political cartoonist and Chicagoan Eric J. Garcia. The exhibit examines the cartoon as a satiric tool for making a social or political critique. (Elizabeth Xiong)

Cut-Outs at Mana Contemporary Mana Contemporary Chicago, 2233 S. Throop St. October 24–November 8. Monday–Friday, 9am–5pm; Saturday, 12pm–5pm. (312) 8500555. manacontemporarychicago.com A Southern Californian born to immigrant parents, Ramiro Gomez expands upon the 1960s works of David Hockney. Using his own experiences in this innovative exhibit, Gomez fuses painting, sculpture, and cutout techniques to form an enthralling tribute to the hardworking SoCal laborers of that era. (Sara Cohen)

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Gramsci Monument Discussion Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E. 60th St. Tuesday, October 27, 7pm. Free. (773) 7022787. arts.uchicago.edu The Gramsci Monument, a “living sculpture” built by the residents of the Forest Houses project in South Bronx, graced the Forest Houses courtyard for the summer of 2013. Artist Thomas Hirschhorn and curator Yasmil Raymond, both participants in the project, will discuss the extensive outdoor structure at Logan next Tuesday. (Sonia Schlesinger)

(re)Working Architecture Co-Prosperity Sphere, 3219-21 S. Morgan St. October 30–November 1. Opening reception Friday, October 30, 6pm–11pm. Free. (773) 655-6769. coprosperity.org Chicago’s Architecture Biennial is in full swing, and on October 30, the Co-Prosperity Sphere will unofficially join in the festivities by unveiling an art installation by the Architecture Lobby that aims to reflect the “absurdities of architectural practice/ labor/work.” Through critique and commentary, the role of the architect will be reconsidered from the ground up. (Christopher Good)

Día de los Muertos at the National Museum of Mexican Art National Museum of Mexican Art, 1852 W. 19th St. Sunday, November 1, 4pm–9pm. Free. (312) 738-1503. nationalmuseumofmexicanart.org This year’s Day of the Dead celebration will be far-reaching and all-inclusive. Visit chicagodayofthedead.org to honor deceased loved ones before stopping by the museum, which will feature artwork depicting the holiday’s backstory. Venture to Harrison Park afterwards for delicious pan de muerto and more festivities. (Sara Cohen)

MUSIC Cécile McLorin Salvant Logan Center for the Arts, Performance Hall, 915 E. 60th St. Friday, October 23, 7:30pm.

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$35, $5 with UofC ID. (773) 702-8484. arts. uchicago.edu Born in America, Cécile McLorin Salvant moved to France in 2007 to study both law and voice. In 2010, she won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition, and in 2014, was nominated for a Grammy for her album WomanChild. Heralded as a virtuoso and likened to Ella Fitzgerald, Cécile always ends on the right note. (Lauren Poulson)

Carolyn Fitzhugh Quarry 75 Event Center, 2423 E. 75th St. Friday, October 23, 7pm. $10 suggested donation. (773) 741-6254. mobetterjazzchicago.us This Friday, Mo Better Jazz will host a performance by Carolyn Fitzhugh, the town’s “Best-Kept Secret.” Fitzhugh, a gifted singer and pianist with a wide repertoire of soulful jazz standards, is sure not to disappoint. (Christopher Good)

Howard Hewett The Promontory, 5311 S. Lake Park Ave. Saturday, October 24, doors 6pm. $40-$75. (312) 801-2100. promontorychicago.com According to his Twitter handle, Howard Hewett is @justavocalist. But for a singer whose smooth voice has heralded hits in the R&B group Shalamar, as well as surprise gospel chart-toppers, being “just a vocalist” may be more than enough. (Hafsa Razi)

Amigo the Devil Reggies Chicago, 2105 S. State St. Sunday, October 25, 8pm. $7. 21+. (312) 949-0120. reggieslive.com Orlando natives Amigo the Devil might be standard-sounding folk-punk at a glance, despite those “dark metal” tags on their Bandcamp. But when you pick apart the songwriting, it’s not hard to notice these songs are a little bloodier than your average “Blister In The Sun.” Make a pre-Halloween trip out of it this weekend—they call it “murderfolk,” after all. (Austin Brown)

Jeezy

Thalia Hall, 1807 S. Allport St. Tuesday,

November 17. Doors 8pm, show 9pm. $48 standing room, $58 seats. 21+. (312) 5263851. thaliahallchicago.com Atlanta trap juggernaut Jeezy—aka Pastor Young—will be stopping at Thalia Hall to deliver a “one-of-a-kind experience” in support of his upcoming album, Church in These Streets. Street disciples should expect powerful sermons propelled by equally powerful beats. (Christopher Good)

STAGE & SCREEN Story Club South Side: Turning Co-Prosperity Sphere, 3219-21 S. Morgan St. Tuesday, October 20, 8pm. Free. (773) 8370145. storyclubchicago.com Twist and turn with storytellers Elizabeth Gomez, Kevin Gladish, and Maura Clement as they take you on the imaginary adventures of a lifetime. Show up at 7:30pm to spin your own yarns, participate in an open mic night, or, if you’re feeling less bold, kick back with a slice of pie. (Sarah Liu)

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)

7 Stories: Mouthful The Orphanage, 643 W. 31st St. Friday, October 23, 9pm–11pm. $10 or pay what you can. (269) 808-2430. thegroupproject.wordpress. com Feeling hunger in both belly and mind? The Group Project invites you to a comfort meal of soul food stories as your entreé, live music and amuse-bouche as your sides, plus the most guilt-free and gratifying dessert—

CALENDAR three minutes of open mic to share your own food story. ( Jasmin Liang)

Black N Tan The Silver Room, 1506 E. 53rd St. Saturday, October 24, 7pm. Donations suggested. (773) 947-0024. chicagoartistsmonth.org Is Black N Tan the new black? This Saturday, Sadie Woods and Ricardo Gamboa will make a strong case, through a onenight celebration of black and Latino artistry and culture. From old-school R&B to Latin funk, music will be spinning all night—don’t miss out. (Christopher Good)

“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 24 and Saturday, November 14, 7:30pm-9:30pm. $10. (312) 2827590. 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)

Horror and Suspense in the Old-Time Radio Tradition Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hyde Park, 5500 S. Woodlawn Ave. October 24, 8pm. $10 in advance; $12 at the door. hydeparkcommunityplayers.org Join the Hyde Park Community Players for this now venerable combination of classic horror stories and scintillating sound effects from the golden age of broadcasting, just as Halloween begins its menacing approach. (Adam Thorp)

South Shore Opera: Composers Unmasked South Shore Opera Company of Chicago, 7059 S. Lake Shore Dr. Sunday, October 25, 4:30pm. $100. (773) 677-9790. southshoreopera.org

RETAIL

Immerse your ears in aural black excellence as the South Shore Opera presents work from black composers ranging from the eighteenth century to today. The event showcases arias and duets from Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Harry Lawrence Freeman, and Nkeiru Okoye, and includes a reception and dinner. (Elizabeth Xiong)

Son of BEWARE or Be Square Co-Prosperity Sphere, 3219-21 S. Morgan St. Sunday, October 25, doors at 5:30pm. $12 suggested donation. (773) 837-0145. coprosperity.org If you’ve ever wanted to experience an old-fashioned scary radio play without dealing with the hassle of listening from the comfort of your home, come to a live re-enactment of some of the genre’s best moments at this benefit for Lumpen Radio, or just listen in on lumpenradio.com. (CJ Fraley)

Tele-novela HIGHLIGHTS Watching Party Mana Contemporary Chicago, 5th floor, 2233 S. Throop St. October 25, 2pm–4pm. Free. (312) 850-0555. acretv.org ACRE TV has been screening Robyn Farrell’s curation of experimental film and video inspired by telenovelas for the past two months, but those more efficient with their time can watch a selection of work by several dozen artists all at once. ( Julia Aizuss)

The Cronus Land The Shoreland Ballroom, 5454 S. Shore Dr. Through November 13. $10-250. (312) 6469548. 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)

OCTOBER 21, 2015 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 19