October 28, 2015 by South Side Weekly

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IN CHICAGO

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.

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

Police, Protests, and Presidents Sixty-six protesters were arrested outside McCormick Place on Saturday after they chained themselves together and blocked Editor-in-Chief Osita Nwanevu traffic. The protest was a challenge to participants in the ongoing Executive Editor Bess Cohen Managing Editor Olivia Stovicek International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Conference taking place inside the convention center. They were from a crowd Politics Editor Christian Belanger of hundreds of other protesters representing various groups, Education Editor Mari Cohen Music Editor Maha Ahmed including We Charge Genocide and the Black Youth Project 100. Stage & Screen Julia Aizuss The groups gathered to call for an elected police accountability Editor Visual Arts Editor Emeline Posner board and to oppose Rahm Emanuel’s plan to increase police Editors-at-Large Lucia Ahrensdorf, funding and hire 300 additional officers, among other demands. Jake Bittle, At press time, President Obama had not yet made his planned Austin Brown, Sarah Claypoole, Tuesday speech to the conference, though last week he did defend Emily Lipstein protesters’ use of “Black Lives Matter” instead of “All Lives Matter” Contributing Editors Will Cabaniss, at a criminal justice forum. Eleonora Edreva, Lewis Page, Hafsa Razi Social Media Editor Sam Stecklow Web Editor Andrew Koski Visuals Editor Ellie Mejia Layout Editors Adam Thorp, Baci Weiler, Sofia Wyetzner

Senior Writers: Patrick Leow, Jack Nuelle, Stephen Urchick Staff Writers: Olivia Adams, Amelia Dmowska, Maira Khwaja, Emiliano Burr di Mauro, Michal Kranz, Zoe Makoul, Sammie Spector, Zach Taylor Staff Photographers: Juliet Eldred, Finn Jubak, Alexander Pizzirani, Julie Wu Staff Illustrators: Javier Suarez, Addie Barron, Jean Cochrane, Lexi Drexelius, Wei Yi Ow, Amber Sollenberger, Teddy Watler, Julie Wu, Zelda Galewsky, Seonhyung Kim Editorial Intern

Clyde Schwab

Webmaster Publisher

Sofia Wyetzner Harry Backlund

The paper is produced by an all-volunteer editorial staff and seeks contributions from across the city. We distribute each Wednesday in the fall, winter, and spring, with breaks during April and December. Over the summer we publish monthly. Send submissions, story ideas, comments, or questions to editor@southsideweekly.com or mail to: South Side Weekly 6100 S. Blackstone Ave. Chicago, IL 60637 For advertising inquiries, contact: (773)234-5388 or advertising@southsideweekly Read our stories online at southsideweekly.com

Cover illustration by Ellie Mejia

Spike Speaks On Thursday, Chicago Magazine had the honor of presenting Spike Lee’s first in-depth interview about his film Chi-Raq, to be released in December on Amazon. Lee opened up to reporter Bryan Smith about his clashes with the mayor over the movie’s theme (Chicago gun violence), his tight relationship with Father Michael Pfleger of St. Sabina, and some details about the film. Lee called Rahm Emanuel a “bully” for accusing Chi-Raq of bringing Chicago bad press and impairing tourism, when, Lee claims, tourism and economic development are doing just fine downtown, while the South Side is neglected. Lee also confirmed

that the film will be based on Aristophanes’ ancient Greek comedy Lysistrata, in which women withhold sex from men in order to convince them to end the Peloponnesian War. (The remaining two percent of people who weren’t already eagerly awaiting Chi-Raq’s release must now be anxiously anticipating how Lee will pull off this unlikely marriage of themes.) Overall, Lee says, his primary mission with the film is to “save lives” by highlighting the impact of violence. The movie will include Purpose Over Pain, a group of mothers who have lost their sons to gun violence. “Calm down,” says Lee to those concerned about the film’s plan to intertwine humor and death. He promises he will address the violence with its due gravity; otherwise, he says, “Father Pfleger would have… damned me to hell a long time ago.” Curse of the Byrd Today, Chicago Public Schools CEO Forrest Claypool is set to go in front of the Board of Education to propose opening two new charter schools in the city. During the same meeting, the CPS proposal will call for ten charter schools to be put on a warning list, which could result in a shutdown in the next few years. The numbers just aren’t in CPS’s favor this week—Emanuel’s proposed budget calls for $480 million in state funding for the city’s schools. There’s only one problem—the state budget isn’t likely to pass anytime soon. To cap it off, CPS enrollment decreased by 4,400 students this year, dropping below 400,000 for the first time in twenty years, most of it in district-run schools. Though charter school enrollment went up.

IN THIS ISSUE holy cross trauma center

seeing the invisible

hope in a hot shop

In the shadow of the announcement, one contingent has been almost completely silent on the subject. isaac stein...4

Only fourty-four cases out of all complaints resulted in a “repeat” officer being issued a major penalty. lewis page...8

“I wanted something with crazy, wild colors.” kristin lin...15

the potential of spaces

onwards and upwards

It wouldn’t make sense for us not to participate in the Biennial. cecilia resende-santos...6

"These guys are pros and they know what they are doing." stephen urchick...12

“this

is a conversation”

This was the kind of boldness he was hoping for. ariella carmel...7

political clay

I know I am in the right place when I see Donald Trump's face on a plate. ellen hao...14

god drops the gospel

Waka Flocka Flame has worn one of his shirts. christophor good...16 a space of her own

Honest pastries that do not convey any hint of pretension darren wan...17

OCTOBER 28, 2015 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 3

After Years of Protest, Red Tape Ahead for Holy Cross Trauma Center

ELLIE MEJIA

Proposal must pass regional hospital vote, lengthy public hearing BY ISAAC STEIN

he construction of an Adult Level I Trauma Center on the South Side, long a rallying point for local health equity activism, will likely be realized in the next few years at Holy Cross Hospital in Chicago Lawn. In September, the University of Chicago Medical Center (UCMC) and Sinai Health System, the private, nonprofit hospital group of which Holy Cross is a member, announced a proposal to build a trauma center at the hospital, which administrators of both organizations estimate will take at least two years. Significantly less certain is how the trauma center will be financed once it is constructed, and the timeline for the bureaucrat4 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

ic checkpoints that are required to bring the facility to fruition. And for the South Side activists who vocally applied public pressure to the UofC, the outcome—a trauma center some distance from Hyde Park—has left some with mixed feelings. Dr. Gary Merlotti, Chair of Sinai Health System’s Department of Surgery, said that all regional trauma center directors will vote on the proposal at a Region XI EMS meeting on December 17. Region XI EMS is a professional association of all emergency care-providing hospitals in Chicago, and it includes not only nonprofit private institutions like Sinai and UCMC, but also the John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook Coun-

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ty, which is public. Pending an affirmative vote, the proposal will travel to the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) for state approval. Last month, the UCMC announced in a statement that it would contribute capital to the project in order to “fund the facility improvements at Holy Cross Hospital, which are estimated to be in the range of $40 million,” and would also staff the trauma center with trauma-related subspecialists in its employ, including “general trauma, neurological, orthopedic and plastic surgeons, urologists, and other areas.” Merlotti said that the UCMC’s contribution of personnel will be critical for the facility to function and noted

previous instances of the two organizations sharing human resources. “We would expect that the majority of people at Holy Cross would be Sinai Health System people, but the UofC is going to be helping us with some of the higher-end people, if you will. In terms of the partnership, it is certainly not written in stone, but it is not a plan that they’re going to dump $40 million to build this building, and just walk away from this. We have had a long-term collaboration with the University of Chicago in many areas. Their residents rotate to our hospital at [Mount] Sinai for Trauma Education, believe it or not,” Merlotti said, in reference to the scale of UCMC’s human

HEALTHCARE resources and budget. “They are also obviously going to be involved in caring for patients at Holy Cross,” Merlotti added. “The $40 million number is not contractually agreed upon, and the cost of building the trauma center could be higher.” But he declined to comment on what, exactly, the UofC’s money will be spent on, how the UCMC and Sinai will share the costs of running the trauma center once it is constructed, or what would happen if the facility loses money. The UCMC is familiar with the last scenario; it occurred when it built an Adult Level I Trauma Center at its main location in Hyde Park in 1986. According to WBEZ, the facility lost $2 million per year until the UofC closed it in 1988. Currently, the UCMC operates a pediatric trauma center that admits patients as old as fifteen years of age. For Merlotti, a critical difference in the financial viability of a trauma center at the present time is that patients who were previously uninsured are covered by the Affordable Care Act. “The financial milieu for trauma at the present time is somewhat improved because of the Affordable Care Act, and the fact that the majority of people who in the past came to trauma centers in the state uninsured, now they almost always qualify for Medicaid managed care, and we can recoup some of the cost of providing care for them,” Merlotti said. “But this is not going to be a moneymaker, and this is not why we’re going into trying to make this into a trauma center. We’re trying to provide a service to a community around us that needs that service desperately.” That need, he said, is for high-quality adult trauma care at a hospital that people who live near Chicago Lawn tend to go to because of the inaccessibility of closer facilities, even if they have serious injuries that could warrant transport to an existing trauma center. However, Merlotti contests the suggestion that physical proximity to a trauma center is critical to preventing South Side trauma deaths. In 2013, Dr. Marie Crandall, an associate professor of Surgery and Preventative Medicine at Northwestern, and collaborators published “Trauma Deserts: Distance From a Trauma Center, Transport Times, and Mortality From Gunshot Wounds in Chicago” in the American Journal of Public Health, which argued that the absence of a trauma center within five miles of most South Side residents contributed to longer ambulatory transport times for trauma patients, and

therefore a higher likelihood of trauma death after transport, than for their North Side counterparts. “In all honesty, we’re still waiting to collect some data to provide a clear of analysis of this,” Merlotti said. He pointed out that “in the language of Crandall’s research, when this facility is constructed, the most at-risk patients that she identified in her study will be within five miles’ radius at Holy Cross.” He noted, however, that “Dr. Crandall’s ‘Trauma Deserts’ is also not a universally accepted document in the trauma care community; the study has never been replicated. In this type of care, mileage [in transport] is not the critical factor. If you had a supersonic train to get there, you’d be doing well. Time is the issue. Time on the scene, time on the ambulance, time that the hospital takes to intervene.”

vocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, although he believes that this is unlikely. If the proposal passes, it will then go to the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) for official approval, after which construction may begin. Sinai and UCMC are not required by law to submit their proposal to the IDPH by any particular date. Courtney Avery, the administrator for the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board, the nine-member arm of the IDPH that holds public hearings for new applications for in-state medical buildings and passes its recommendations to the main IDPH office in Springfield, said that a lengthy public hearing for the proposal is “very likely, as the project is affiliated with the University of Chicago.” Avery declined to clarify her statement, but sent the Weekly a fifty-page transcript

But he declined to comment on what, exactly, the University’s money will be spent on, how the UCMC and Sinai will share the costs of running the Trauma Center once it is constructed, or what would happen if the facility loses money. Merlotti’s emphasis on time to treatment is consistent with the “Golden Hour” theory, which asserts that a trauma victim’s survival odds decrease substantially after one hour has passed from the time of the incident. However, this viewpoint, like Crandall’s, is not academic consensus. One 2010 study of 3,656 trauma patients, titled “Emergency Medical Services Intervals and Survival in Trauma: Assessment of the ‘Golden Hour’ in a North American Prospective Cohort,” with first author Dr. Craig Newgard of Oregon Health & Science University, found “no significant association” between total time to treatment and mortality. According to Merlotti, Region XI EMS will consider various studies on the effect of transport times on trauma patient death rates when it meets on December 17 in closed session to discuss and vote on the joint UCMC/ Sinai proposal for the trauma center at Holy Cross. He added that the group will also assess the possibility that the plan could draw patients away from the trauma center at Ad-

of the proceedings of the last time that the IDPH received a UCMC proposal, in August 2014. The plan, which was approved, was to build a $66.9 million medical office building in Orland Park, which is due to be completed in 2018. In the minutes for the public hearing, Sharon O’Keefe, the CEO of UCMC, discussed UCMC’s role in South Side trauma care at length when prompted by Board Vice Chairman John Hayes. She emphasized the UCMC’s focus on pediatric trauma care, even though the subject was not directly relevant to the proposal. However, UCMC representatives declined to comment altogether about the planned facility at Holy Cross. But in the shadow of the trauma center announcement, one contingent has been almost completely silent on the subject: the activist groups that petitioned and protested the UCMC for years to build an Adult Level I Trauma Center at its Hyde Park facility. Students for Health Equity (SHE), Fearless Leading by the Youth (FLY), and Southside

Together Organizing for Power (STOP), under the banner of the Trauma Care Coalition (TCC), routinely brushed with the Chicago Police Department in efforts to make their demands heard; at a protest in June, nine participants were arrested. In a statement dated September 10, the same day that UCMC and Sinai announced the plan to build a trauma center at Holy Cross, the TCC released a statement that argued that the location of Holy Cross still leaves “large swaths of the South Side that will not be adequately served by the new trauma center,” as the boundaries of some South Side neighborhoods, such as South Shore, are more than five miles away from the hospital. While representatives for FLY and STOP declined to comment for this story, Anna Nathanson, a UofC student and member of SHE, said that the activists’ relative quiet is not a reflection of apathy, but rather is about taking time to assess a proposal that is really a public relations gambit. She added that the University’s plan to co-operate an Adult Level I Trauma Center at a facility other than the UCMC is consistent with its goal of “keeping young black people away from their campus.” “Some of this gets into theories of why social dislocation works. It’s embarrassing for [UofC] alumni to hear about their alma mater’s moral failures, so the proposal at Holy Cross is to make the appearance that the university is doing the right thing,” Nathanson said. She added that she disagrees that most potential trauma patients would be insured, including under Medicaid managed care. “This stays in line with the UCMC’s policy of keeping the hospital as profitable as possible,” she said. Nathanson said that SHE is currently soliciting “input” from residents who live near Holy Cross Hospital. She declined to comment on what questions SHE is asking Chicago Lawn residents in order to compile this input. While Merlotti said that he has not spoken with SHE, STOP, or FLY since the UCMC announced the Holy Cross proposal, he credited activist groups with convincing the University to follow through with the project. “I cannot say what they’re thinking now, outside of what I’ve read in the papers,” he said. “They just maintained a public awareness of the issue, and they made the University of Chicago believe that they did want to collaborate with us. I think community activism played a role in the University saying yes.”

OCTOBER 28, 2015 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 5

VISUAL ARTS

The Potential of Spaces The Arts Incubator helps to bring the Chicago Architectural Biennial to the South Side

SARA POOLEY

BY CECILIA RESENDE-SANTOS

t the opening event for “Forms of Imagination: Reveal and Action” at the Arts Incubator, patrons didn’t stay inside for very long. Instead, they filled the sidewalk in front of the Incubator, gathering around a reshaped and decorated street cart filled with goods. In a vacant lot across Prairie Avenue, under the eye-catching “BELIEVE” mural, a structure of blue PVC pipes, reminiscent of a playground, took form before the eyes of the amused crowd. The revamped street cart, called “Nomadic Habitat,” is a rickshaw redesigned by artist Carlos Rolón/Dzine and put to use by local street seller Garland Gantt. The blue pipes constituted the “Resonance Room,” a 6 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

percussion installation created by PORT Urbanism in partnership with musician Mikel Patrick Avery. Its “activation” was the night’s big event: as soon as the structure was ready, the audience was invited to enter it and watch South Side-based percussion group Bucket Boys give life to the pipe drums. This was the first event in a three-part series entitled “Forms of Imagination,” the Arts Incubator’s contribution to the Chicago Architecture Biennial. Co-curated by art historian and artist Tempestt Hazel, the Incubator’s arts program manager, and architect and urban designer Paola Aguirre, the Incubator’s research analyst, “Forms of Imagination” is a full exploration of the

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Incubator’s potentialities, responding to multiple aspects of the questions central to both the Biennial and the Arts Incubator. About a week after its opening, on October 22, the “Resonance Room” was still standing strong, but the rickshaw had been rolled inside and the Incubator’s doors were closed. Visitors were directed to the intersection of King Drive and Garfield Boulevard. There, an old auto shop had been turned into a temporary outdoor cinema, with a projector on the sidewalk directed at the shop’s wall, a semicircle of foldable chairs, and a table with hot chocolate, marshmallows, and graham crackers for the chilly night. The night’s event, “South Side Home Movies,” was a screening and

discussion of recordings from the archives of University of Chicago professor Jacqueline Stewart, who researches homemade films from the time of 8mm, Super 8mm, and 16mm cameras. As part of the Biennial, “Forms of Imagination” seeks to stimulate dialogue about design, architecture, and the built environment. For the co-curators, participation in the Biennial was a natural choice for the Arts Incubator, as those themes are an important component of their mission. “It wouldn’t make sense for us not to participate in the Biennial,” says Hazel. The Incubator tries, in Aguirre’s words, to “understand how design can contribute to many different things—if it’s to make

BOOKS

“This is a Conversation” something more fun, or more functional— and bring curiosity to the Washington Park community, just by putting out objects thought by designers.” Judging by the first two events, they have succeeded at sparking curiosity in students, architects, curious neighbors, and passers-by alike. (The final event in “Forms of Expression” will be excerpts from Barak adé Soleil’s performance “Triptych: Cycle” on November 12). Visitors’ engagement with the space before, during and after the presentation was remarkable during both:

urban design firm PORT with Hyde Park musician Mikel Patrick Avery. “It was an interesting flow of ideas,” Aguirre said of the collaboration. “Just having [PORT] actually come here, work, and spend their time here, eating in local restaurants and trying to understand how people use the space, is really positive.” The rickshaw was a partnership too, between Pilsen-based artist Carlos Rolón and Garland Gantt, better known as “Hustleman,” a street vendor who sells everything from snacks to bed sheets next to

Junot Díaz discusses power and representation at UofC talk

“The South Side in particular is ready to have this conversation about the built environment.” they gathered in groups to discuss the event and approached the artists, and children ran and played nearby, creating an instantaneous feeling of community. Aguirre and Hazel explain that they explored themes related to time and space with the three events that comprise “Forms of Imagination.” The series experiments with different timescales, from the permanence of the “Resonance Room” installation to the mobility of the rickshaw in “Nomadic Habitat,” which might eventually travel to other places, to the ephemeral “South Side Home Movies,” which left no physical trace after its realization. Similarly, each works with a different range of sizes, from the movie screening on the dimensions of a building, to the “Resonance Room” on the scale of the vacant lot, to the small rickshaw, a mobile object. Aguirre and Hazel emphasize the importance of the diversity of backgrounds, perspectives, subjects, and media responsible for putting the exhibition together. This began with the different backgrounds they each brought to the work: Aguirre is trained in architecture and Hazel in art history and visual arts. They also tried to bring local artists together with those who work further afield. The “Resonance Room,” for example, came from the pairing of downtown-based

the Green Line station across the street from the Incubator. In placing Gantt’s work into the domain of the arts, the Arts Incubator harkens to its very foundation of thinking about neighborhoods, their economic development, and their relationship to arts and culture. Rolón, who introduces Gantt as his artistic partner, sees in the project a way of changing the way people view the street seller, and hopes the cart will travel to other communities. The Arts Incubator is one of the few participating venues in the Biennial that asks visitors to look beyond downtown. “The South Side in particular is ready to have this conversation about the built environment, thinking about vacant lots and the potential of those spaces,” Hazel said. “There’s so much possibility”—and architecture and design are “a launching pad” to think of how neighborhoods can use those spaces creatively or to address different needs. Hazel summarizes: “I think what we tried to do through the exhibition is to empower people to start thinking about how they can impact their environment.” Arts Incubator Gallery, 301 E. Garfield Blvd. Through January 8. Tuesday–Friday, 12pm– 6pm, Thursday 12pm–7pm. Free. (773) 7029724. arts.uchicago.edu

javier suárez

BY ARIELLA CARMELL

“H

ow did the women in your life react to <i>This is How You Lose Her</i>?” a student from Cristo Rey Jesuit High School asked Pulitzer Prize and MacArthur “Genius Grant”-winning author Junot Díaz. Díaz lurched his head back a little and grinned; this was the kind of boldness he was hoping for from the audience, but from its youngest members especially—the willingness, as he explained earlier, to engage with those perceived as more powerful. Power was a prominent theme on October 19, as Díaz spoke with the lively crowd during his sold-out talk held at the University of Chicago. Díaz was freeform in the topics he approached, answering audience-driven questions about his writing process and about the effects that living in a dominantly white culture have had on his writing. The experience of immigrating from the Dominican Republic to the United States at age six, he said, left an imprint on his psyche that resonates throughout all his

work. One of his main goals as a writer is to disentangle literature from the hegemony of the Western canon by promoting writers of color, commending authors such as Sandra Cisneros for their vivid depictions of the minutiae of life as a person of color. “No matter what we [people of color] do,” he said, “we’re automatically challenging structures.” “This is a conversation…let’s talk!” Diaz announced early on. His demeanor during the talk was loose and improvisational, perhaps meant to counteract the trope of the “aloof literary type.” He cussed casually and addressed the audience as “man,” strolling across the stage in worn jeans. Before he began reading excerpts from <i>This is How You Lose Her<i/>, his collection of short stories often criticized for the representation of its female characters, he asked a female audience member to hand him a copy. He thanked the woman for not throwing the book at him.

OCTOBER 28, 2015 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 7

Seeing the Invisible The story of how Jamie Kalven got the city to release all of its allegations of police misconduct from the last five years, and then turned that data into an online model for public access and empowerment. BY LEWIS PAGE

n the early nineties, Jamie Kalven had a crisis of conscience. “I didn’t want to be the sort of writer that just wrote eloquent essays urging action on other people in response to great social issues,” he recalls. For Kalven, the solution was to begin spending time in Stateway Gardens, the Chicago Housing Authority high-rise public housing facility that was demolished in 2007. High-rise public housing was a contentious topic in the media at the time, and Kalven hoped to gain a personal perspective on the community so close to his lifelong home in Hyde Park. “It was several years before I really became aware of consistent patterns of police abuse and police misconduct that weren’t the occasional aberration, but were really daily circumstances,” Kalven recounts. What Kalven saw led to a question. “What set of institutional conditions would have to exist for what I’m seeing every day to be the case? I knew it was the case because I was seeing it every day, I was testing it on my nerve endings, I knew it was real. But I didn’t understand what kind of a world it was happening in.” This question will eventually lead to the release of the Citizen Police Data Project on November 10, 2015. The database, an online tool for public use, presents an unprecedented amount of information about police misconduct, showing the minutest details of 54,581 complaints filed against 8,337 offi8 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

cers from 2001-2008 and from 2011-2015. This is the story of how Kalven, through almost a decade of legal battles, turned a question about police accountability into an interactive database for free public use, and why that matters. n April 13, 2003, Diane Bond, a resident of Stateway Gardens, was berated, physically threatened, verbally abused, and forced to expose herself by

about the setting and the situation that I believed Ms. Bond,” recalls Kalven. “But because I am not of that community, but move through other spheres, I also had access to lawyers and was able to convince them to take her case.” Craig Futterman, the lawyer that represented Bond, had been introduced to Kalven through a mutual friend. Futterman is a clinical professor of law at the University

“But because I am not of that community, but move through other spheres, I also had access to lawyers and was able to convince them to take her case.”

—Jamie Kalven

a group of police officers. This was the first in a series of incidents Kalven recounts in articles eventually collected under the title “Kicking the Pigeon”. “I was so embedded in the community, so much a part of the community, that I had sources, knew Ms. Bond, knew enough

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of Chicago Law School, where he heads the Civil Rights and Police Accountability Project at the Mandel Legal Aid Clinic. Futterman and his students had worked on a series of civil rights cases in Stateway by the time Bond’s case came around. It was this case, Bond v. Utreras, et al.,

that started the series of legal battles that would eventually lead to the release of the information presented in the Citizen Police Data Project. In this case, Kalven and Futterman crafted requests for background information on the five implicated police officers. Kalven saw this as an opportunity to learn even more about abuses from the city, and also requested a list of all officers who had received ten or more complaints in the last five years. “These requests were really designed to extract information from the city that could be analyzed to see—how does this system work and not work to allow guys that are so outrageously abusive to act with impunity,” Kalven said The city granted the request for the documents under a protective order—an agreement that the documents would not be released to the public. Kalven, represented pro bono by Jon Loevy of Loevy & Loevy, requested that the protective order be lifted and that the documents be made available to the public at large. “I don’t think we had high expectations for it succeeding,” Kalven recalls. But the request did succeed. Judge Joan Lefkow ruled that the documents had “a distinct public character, as it relates to the defendant officers’ performance of their official duties.” “Without such information,” Lefkow wrote, “the public would be unable to supervise the individuals and institutions it has

POLICING

destroyed after five years. “That’s the provision that’s been in the union’s contract for fifteen, twenty-some years,” says FOP attorney Pat Fioretto. “That’s what formed the basis of the underlying grievance.” “You need to weigh the transparency issues with the privacy issues that a public employee has—you don’t surrender your privacy rights just because you wear a badge,” Fioretto says. “And a lot of the time, these complaints made by someone were issues that were ‘unfounded’ or ‘not sustained’. Well, if they’re unfounded or not sustained, why do they need to remain in the employee personnel file for the rest of their career?” The FOP case is still ongoing, and an oral argument is expected sometime this fall. But although the release of older documents depends on the outcome of the FOP’s lawsuit, the last four years of complaints of misconduct—from March 2011 to March of 2015—are completely open to the public.

B KIRAN MISRA

entrusted with the extraordinary authority to arrest and detain persons against their will. With so much at stake, defendants simply cannot be permitted to operate in secrecy.” The city immediately issued a stay of her order pending appeal. Two years passed. Ultimately, Judge Lefkow’s decision was overruled. The defeat was disappointing for Kalven and his team, but one footnote in the ruling left some hope. The passage in question reads: “The protective order does not interfere with Kalven’s ability to try to obtain the documents he seeks directly from the City under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).” “We took them up on the invitation and drove a truck through that footnote,” Kalven later said in an interview with the Columbia Journalism Review.

Kalven, along with Futterman, Loevy, and Flint Taylor of the People’s Law Office, pushed forward litigation in hopes of making documents detailing registered complaints (CRs) and a list of officers with repeated complaints (RLs) available to the public. In March of 2014, Kalven v. City of Chicago was decided in favor of the Kalven camp. The decision reads: “In sum, neither the CRs or RLs are exempt from disclosure under FOIA.” Under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act, anyone can submit a request for documents from federal agencies that are not currently publicly available. If the description of the requested files is specific enough and the files are not exempt, the agency is obligated to release the documents.

As soon as this decision made the documents publicly available under FOIA, the Tribune and the Sun-Times put in requests for all of the disciplinary records of every CPD officer dating back to 1967. Kalven and his cohort made a parallel request for all these records in order to be involved in the litigation. Surprisingly, the city agreed to release all of the files without litigation, allowing public access to documents whose contents might result in a good deal of criticism, outrage, and scrutiny. Immediately after the files were deemed public, however, Chicago’s police union, the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), filed a lawsuit seeking to bar the city from releasing the information. The union argued that their contract required disciplinary records to be

y the late nineties, Kalven was deeply embedded in the Stateway Gardens community. Technically squatting, he established an informal office in an empty residency on the first floor of one of the buildings. He served as an advisor to the resident council. He ran the Neighborhood Conservation Corps, an employment program of his own creation. In 2001, he started publishing articles online under the title The View from the Ground. The articles were published online, in the early days of web publishing, from his makeshift office on the first floor. As a joke about these low-budget circumstances, Kalven included a note that reads “published under the auspices of the Invisible Institute” in one of the early articles. The name stuck. Today, the Invisible Institute is a nonprofit with its own office and five employees. The Institute is a convenient way for Kalven to facilitate the kind of collaborations that he has always been a part of. Craig Futterman was one of Kalven’s first collaborators in the realm of police misconduct and is still one of his closest. Chaclyn Hunt, a current member of the Invisible Institute, was intro-

OCTOBER 28, 2015 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 9

duced to Kalven by Futterman when she was a law student. After a few years of working on legal projects with Kalven and Futterman, Hunt started a program called the Youth/Police Project, an initiative that started out with the goal of teaching teenagers about their rights. “Our way of going back to the ground, after we made all these big systemic arguments, was the idea that we should focus on the simplest atomic particle of these larger phenomena,” Kalven said. “Which I take to be an encounter between a police officer and a black teenager.” Hunt quickly found out that teaching a know-your-rights workshop to a class of teenagers who interact with the police on a sometimes daily basis was, in her words, “totally absurd.” “When you start with [the questions ‘what are your interactions with the police?’ and ‘how do they make you feel?’] and you get into that conversation with kids, and they’re having this grave personal conversation with you, and you say, ‘Well, let me teach you how to deal with that in the future,’ they tell you, ‘That’s bullshit! You’re lying, you’re crazy.’” In its current iteration, the Youth/Police Project (made up of Hunt and a group of interested lawyers, students, and academics) meets with a broadcast media class at Hyde Park Academy once a week. Hunt and the volunteers talk to the kids about their encounters with the police, and the kids use their broadcast media skills to record and edit their own interviews and roleplays. Rajiv Sinclair, a Canada native with a background in web development and media production, was visiting a friend in Chicago during the summer of 2014. He met Kalven, saw the work that the Invisible Institute and Youth/Police Project were doing, and never left. Sinclair started out helping the Youth/ Police Project with video production, but would soon take on a new role as the technology wizard and web development liaison primarily responsible for facilitating the creation of the Citizen Police Data Project. “What we’re trying to do going forward

10 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

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POLICING

is build a lean, agile, small, but adequate creative team that then works in a range of collaborative relationships with others,” says Kalven. The official Invisible Institute roster also includes two journalists, Darryl Holliday and Alison Flowers, and author Audrey Petty, best known for editing the book HighRise Stories: Voices from Chicago Public Housing, in which former residents recount their time spent in public housing.

lthough officially released to the public after the Kalven decision, the complaints of misconduct were a cumbersome collection of scanned government documents. In this form, Kalven’s team assumed that only the most intrepid investigative reporter or academic researcher would engage with the information. The Invisible Institute wanted the data to be readily accessible to anyone and everyone. “One way to think about this is that the knowledge exists, within the boundaries of a certain set of problems, to fix those problems. But that knowledge is sort of divided from itself and scattered and sort of atomized,” says Kalven. “Part of our challenge is to create the feedback loops, and the sense of possibility that the information you have could actually matter and be acted on. To begin to connect and weave together those different kinds of knowledge.” “There is a giant disconnect,” adds Hunt, “between people who live every day with police misconduct and the people who have the resources to do something about it. “Civil rights attorneys, academics, politicians are not living in conditions where there is police misconduct. And it’s difficult for them to access that information. Think about attorneys who are client hunting, who have an idea of what kind of reform they want to see happen and then they have to go hunt for a client.” “That process alone says that something is broken, that people aren’t matching up.” The Citizen Police Data Project, which Sinclair has been working to develop, is an attempt to accomplish these goals and to deploy all the information in a way that is

engaging and useful. The Project displays all the records of complaints on a map of Chicago. Users of the Project’s site can explore the records geographically—by neighborhood, police beat, even school ground. The site also allows users to filter and explore complaints by type, and a graph on the right side of the page displays the proportion of complaints that resulted in punishments for officers. Below the map, names of specific officers appear. If users click on one of these officers, all of their complaints will be displayed, along with all of the officers that have been accused of complaints alongside them. In digging into the complaints, Sinclair

Even when misconduct is proven, about eighty-five percent of disciplinary actions are suspensions of zero to five days. Only forty-four cases out of all the complaints documented in the Project resulted in a “repeat” officer being issued a major penalty—a suspension greater than thirty days or termination of their employment. When Diane Bond was abused in 2003, serious allegations of police misconduct were investigated by the Office of Professional Standards, an in-house office at the Chicago Police Department. In 2007, after charges of bias, the city replaced the department with the Independent Police Review Authority,

“There is a giant disconnect between people who live every day with police misconduct and the people who have the resources to do something about it.”

—Chaclyn Hunt

and Kalven have uncovered some alarming trends. Only nine percent of the overall complaints were “sustained,” meaning that some kind of punishment was doled out as a result. A surprisingly large number of the complaints concerned a small proportion of the total officers. Additionally, “repeat” officers— officers with ten or more complaints—comprised only ten percent of the officers in the CPD over the periods covered by the Project but account for thirty percent of all the complaints. These officers have 16.8 complaints on average, while the average CPD officer has only 4.5. Out of 27,154 complaints against “repeat” officers in the Project, only 1,059—about four percent—were sustained.

an organization which, as the name suggests, is supposed to operate independently of the police. In reality, a number of its investigators have been former police officers, some from the CPD. IPRA, for its part, cites major improvements in handing down punishments in recent years. Their rate of “sustained” findings has risen from 4.32 percent in 2009 to 20.13 percent in 2015. A finding of “sustained” is defined as a complaint where “the allegation was supported by sufficient evidence to justify disciplinary action.” Larry Merritt, IPRA’s Director of Community Outreach and Engagement, also emphasizes how the percentage of “sus-

tained” allegations is not the only metric of IPRA’s effectiveness. Merritt argues that cases where the officer is exonerated (defined as a complaint where alleged actions were found to have occurred but did not violate CPD policy) or when allegations are deemed unfounded are also what he calls “positive findings,” given that IPRA had enough information to make a definitive decision about those incidents incident. Merritt cites that the percentage of these “positive findings” has gone up from about thirty percent in 2009 to 52.83 percent in 2015. “Even if you compare twenty percent to police stations around the country,” Merritt says of the rate of sustained allegations, “you know, that’s not that low.” “But again,” he continues, “it’s not just the sustained rate that determines whether or not we are doing the investigation thoroughly, but instead about positive findings.” Kalven and the Institute do not believe that the information in the Project alone will bring about reform. But Kalven hopes that public engagement with newly transparent information will change the conversation about police misconduct. “To say ‘information is power’ is a bumper sticker,” Kalven says. “But what we’re trying to figure out is: what does it actually mean to redistribute power, to make adjustments in asymmetries of power by redistributing information?” Visit http://invisible.institute

Editor’s note: Darryl Holliday, a member of the board of South Side Weekly, and Harry Backlund, this paper’s Publisher, both work as paid consultants on the Invisible Institute’s Citizen’s Police Project. Neither was involved in the reporting or editing of this story.

OCTOBER 28, 2015 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 11

Onward and Upward

stephen urchick

Project Onward showcases its creative community of artists with disabilities

BY STEPHEN URCHICK

lthough Project Onward had already opened their studio doors for a public celebration and viewing, many of the artists present were still hard at work. The evening reception was the second part of a four-day, multi-artist exhibit, “When I Paint My Masterpiece,” which highlighted the creations and techniques of artists with disabilities from across Chicago. One artist, Adam Hines, put down his 12 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

pencil, and held out a passing fist bump to Project Onward’s photographer for the evening, Mike Pocius. “It’s time to rock and roll for the second time,” Hines said with relish, swiveling back around in his chair before absorbing himself in a new sketch. Pocius volunteered to show me around the building and introduce me to a few of its more than fifty artists. A nonprofit, community-engaged space on the fourth

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floor of the Bridgeport Art Center, Project Onward unites workstations and private ateliers under the same roof with an adjacent white-cube gallery for displays and art sales; its physical layout makes possible a joint showcase of artists’ creative processes and their finished products. Project Onward has only been in the building for the past three years. I had a chance to talk to one of its newer artists,

Sheila Smith, about her paintings. Smith came to Project Onward in 2014 and had high praise for the relationships that sprung up between the artists. “It’s a very friendly and safe atmosphere. A person just comes over and is like: ‘Sheila, I like your painting!’ ” Two of Smith’s canvasses—“Black and White Gears” and “Out of the Box”—were hung across from each other, almost as com-

VISUAL ARTS

parative pendant pieces. Smith said that the monochrome “Gears” was an experiment she’d undertaken at a previous suggestion; she normally prefers the bright, vibrant colors on display in “Box.” Both of the works are meticulously slick and smooth. Smith leverages the plasticky properties of the acrylic paint, obliterating facture and other traces of brushwork—creating uniform, geometric bodies or seamlessly melted confluences of color. In the case of “Gears,” the handling is so smooth that the paint reveals the weave and nap of the canvas. Her black and white painting confuses figure and background in a way that her colored works do not. Their vibrant hues clearly indicate what she’s added to the canvas as a painter and that legibility is swallowed up when she takes the colors away, working outside her preferred mode. The sheer dedication of the artists strikes you when you first walk in. The different desks and easels stretch deep into the open floor plan. Flat file storage for works on paper line the back partitions. More work happens behind the closed doors. Finished canvasses hang salon-style wherever there’s space on the walls. Hines, for example, joked that he’d completed over 10,000 drawings since joining the group; the immense portfolio he had out that night suggested that he wasn’t altogether kidding. When I asked Pocius how often the artists came in, he turned to one artist packing up for the night: Four days a week, if doctors’ appointments didn’t throw him off. The next artist, Motesem Mansur, admitted to working 11am to 5pm every Friday. He was currently finishing up an exacting study of the iconic Chicago Theatre sign, at least fifteen or twenty in number, at varying angles and sizes. Mansur was recruited after a stretch of time at the downtown Chicago Cultural Center, designing greeting cards and architectural sketches popular with tourists. He credited a lot of help and inspiration to another Project Onward artist, Andrew Hall. When Mansur came in, most of his figural experience was from working on copy paper, in ballpoint pen. “Andrew encouraged me to use professional materials, encouraged me to look at perspective and look at colors the right way.”

Mansur was especially appreciative of the creative community he had grown over time. His praise extended to Project Onward’s many volunteers. He’d come to work in the morning and find a volunteer had already laid out a soda for him from the kitchenette—a simple but helpful and heartfelt gesture. Talking with different artists, collectivity turned out to be a big theme, an essential influence on their creative strategies. Each person I met could instantly hook their thumb in the direction of a friend’s chair or single out a specific head in the crowd. Project Onward’s executive director, Rob Lentz, chalked up the formation of this professional society as one of the organization’s big successes. “Our space is a communal studio,” Lentz underscored. “Socially, it’s a huge benefit. Most of these guys are self-taught, which means they’ve done this alone.” In bringing these artists together, the space remedies a key challenge for adults with disabilities—isolation. Lentz explained that the robust support systems offered by elementary and high schools don’t always extend later into life. The trope of the lone bohemian painter is, in this case, worsened by shortcomings in larger social structures. Project Onward thus provides the framework and—as much as funding permits—the materials for great art to happen. Advocates more than educators, Lenz argued that Project Onward only really attends to the logistical side of creativity. “These guys are pros and they know what they are doing,” said Lenz. “The best thing we can do is get out of their way.” It’s tempting to read the exhibition’s title, “When I Paint My Masterpiece,” as an open-ended statement. Project Onward’s ethos defers the definitive magnum opus that would cap an artist’s career. The willingness of its artists to actively experiment and abundantly create flows from the community-building that the nonprofit enables. The togetherness they cultivate drives a kind of aesthetic fearlessness—a spirit confirmed in the fantastic number and variety of objects the studio’s artists make. Project Onward lets artists cultivate a vital, evolving practice, enhancing the daily lives of artists with disabilities while encouraging them to create ever greater work.

data journalism workshop series

The City Revealed: Analyzing + Interpreting Public Data Sunday, November 1, 2015, 1pm–3pm South Side Weekly Office at the Experimental Station, 6100 S. Blackstone Avenue Chicago Tribune Investigative Reporter Angela Caputo will demonstrate techniques for extracting meaning from raw data, and discuss the steps that go into her own public interest reporting. Part two 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 28, 2015 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 13

Political Clay Chicago Ceramic Center’s inaugural exhibition BY ELLEN HAO

hen I first arrive on the fifth floor of the Bridgeport Art Center, I think I am lost. All I see are mannequins and draped fabrics, studios in the Fashion Design Center––decidedly not clay. It’s not until I exit through the other side of the elevator and turn two corners that the exposed brick walls and raw concrete edges give way to an entrance at the far end of the hallway: a white wall with “Chicago Ceramic Center” written in thin grey sans-serif. The Chicago Ceramic Center began construction only seven months ago, but Jay Strommen, director of the Center, says its origins go back to 2007. Placed on the back burner after the economic downturn, the center finally started to look more like a reality a year ago, when additional funding was allocated for the project. It’s a large space, with smaller rooms delineated by “floating” white walls, seemingly unconnected from floor or ceiling. Upon entering the exhibit, I see two plates, rust-brown with black glaze reminiscent of Ancient Greek pottery, each with a painted Donald Trump at the center pointing aggressively towards the viewer. To the right, a small square tile composed of nine sections features images of an Abu Ghraib prisoner, bombs, sperm, and scenes from Picasso’s “Guernica.” The piece is Richard Notkin’s “Bound for Glory: Abu Ghraib.” Aptly titled, the Chicago Ceramic Center’s inaugural exhibition is called “Political Clay.” “Political Clay” brings together the work of ten artists and thirteen pieces total. Touching upon topics including race, religion, and technology, the works vary in their directness of political message. One piece is bluntly titled “The GOP,” and is made up of a herd of thirteen or fourteen small white elephants, no taller than two feet. 14 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

ellen hao

The artist, Derek Walter, points me to the definitions pasted onto the backs of a few of the elephants, reading, “white elephant, n. 1. A possession unwanted by the owner but difficult to dispose of. 2. A possession entailing great expense out of proportion to its value for the owner.” It’s a frank simile come to life, one that is satirical and biting, but also fanciful in its manifestation. “They’re all named. ‘Hello, I’m Jeb Bush.’” Walter explains, gesturing towards one elephant. “And he’s got his head up his butt ’cause he’s the one that threw the election for his brother George.” Some elephants are embellished with chains; others have coin slots at the top. Upon the back of one elephant armed with cannons and guns lies a small cherubic child. A red, white, and blue ribbon loops around the entire spectacle, from elephant to weapons to cherub. To top the sculpture off is a bald eagle, wings outstretched, perched on top of its trunk.

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As Walter told a small audience, he originally arranged the elephants in a march, but later on placed them into disarray to reflect the current state of disorder within the Republican Party. “It’s kind of a protest,” he says. And then there are the more subtle works. Catherine Schwalbe’s piece, “Lake Michigan,” is made up of two major components. On the wall, five white porcelain shapes are covered in writing, some of it legible, some not. I read “ice cover” and “decade.” On a shelf below sit five canisters of water. It isn’t until I ask her about her work that I finally understand that each shape represents one of the Great Lakes; each canister holds ice collected from each lake during the Polar Vortex of 2014. It’s a clever play on negative space, highlighting the shape of the lakes instead of using the outlines of the states that we are so used to seeing. “I want people to lean in a little bit and try to figure it out,” Schwalbe

says. “And I don’t want to exasperate people necessarily, but I also want people to step back and sort of enjoy it visually, in addition to what the piece is about.” In an exhibition titled “Political Clay,” it seems odd that the political message isn’t at the forefront of the artist’s goal. Yet looking around, none of the works come with the usual informational plaque; each has only a number at its side. As much as some pieces fall under the category of art activism, some seem to reflect more on energy and momentum than any critique of current affairs. I am getting ready to leave when the next wave of people arrives. From one corner of the room, I hear laughter and mentions of Trump, Carson, and poll numbers. I don’t recall seeing any works with a more conservative viewpoint and wonder if pointed political art must always take the form of critique and warning. My mind goes back to the splatters of ink, a painting in a room of clay. On the future of the Chicago Ceramic Center, Strommen tells me, “We’re going to bring curators from different parts of the community. The gallery is going to have an identity that’s not just traditional clay.” So far, the Center has quarterly exhibitions planned, one of which will be a food and ceramics show in collaboration with chefs. He mentions plans to transition the Center into a nonprofit, and the possibility of an outreach program; it already offers classes in “Beginning Wheel Throwing” in a classroom that borders the exhibition space. For now, the Center is mostly empty space, wood floors, and white walls, but as far as beginnings go, it’s not a bad way to start. Bridgeport Art Center, 5th floor, 1200 W. 35th St. Through January 8, Monday– Saturday 8am–6pm. Free. (773) 247-3000. chicagoceramiccenter.com

Hope in a Hot Shop

VISUAL ARTS

Project FIRE displays glassblowing and celebrates new family ties, despite uncertain future BY KRISTIN LIN

wenty-four hours before the Project FIRE showcase on October 21, psychologist Brad Stolbach, the project’s co-founder, felt excited. His day was peppered with last-minute tasks for the next day’s festivities: reminding himself to buy party plates after work, confirming that all of the glass art would survive the journey to the Hyde Park Art Center, and arranging transportation for the four participants of Project FIRE, a pilot program that gives young survivors of gun violence a space to heal through glassblowing sessions and mentorship. Despite his excitement, Stolbach said a tinge of sadness loomed over the upcoming celebration: after the showcase, Project FIRE would be over for the foreseeable future. The program, which ran for eight weeks in the summer, created a community in which participants could learn a new art form while having loosely structured conversations about how gun violence has affected their lives. The program—along with the research about its impact—is currently being funded through a year-long faculty fellowship from the University of Chicago’s Urban Health Initiative. Part of these funds went toward paying participants for their work in the glass shop, a component of Project FIRE that is intended to empower participants. But Stolbach and his co-founder, glassblowing artist Pearl Dick, have yet to secure funding for upcoming years. The two are currently working on building a donor base, as well as applying to grants. “It’s hard not to be able to tell [the participants] for sure what opportunities there will be in the future,” said Stolbach. But on the Wednesday evening of the program’s final showcase, few seemed to be dwelling on the uncertainty of the future. Family, friends, doctors from Comer Children’s Hospital, and artists gathered at the Hyde Park Art Center to celebrate the work that the FIREwalkers (as Stolbach refers to them) and their mentors and

teachers undertook over the summer. Decorations around the room allowed the community to reminisce—photos of the group’s glassblowing escapades at Ignite Glass Studios were projected onto a white wall, and a small coffin on display served as the resting place for the pieces of glass art that did not survive months of wear and tear. The event was also an opportunity for supporters to buy some of the pieces that participants had labored over: the dozens of vases, glasses, plates, and figurines that lined the walls and tables were all available for sale, with all proceeds going back to the artists behind the work. Money from collaborative pieces benefited Project FIRE. Most of the pieces were sold within the first half hour of the event, according to Dick. She had to start asking buyers to leave the pieces behind so that latecomers could still get a chance to see the FIREwalkers’ works. Tawan Langston Jr., one of the FIREwalkers, said he was feeling good about the showcase. His mother, Alicia Burns, bought a small droplet-shaped sculpture that Langston named Goblin Lava. “It came out the way I pictured,” said Langston of his piece. “I wanted something with crazy, wild colors.” Working in a glassblowing studio, sometimes known as a hot shop, builds trust and collaboration, many involved with Project FIRE observed. “With glassblowing, you develop a certain level of bond because of the danger inherent and the level of communication it requires,” said Dick. “You’re never working with just one person.” Stolbach believes the medium is particularly compelling for people who have experienced trauma because the imminent danger of a 2000-degree furnace forces glassblowers to focus on the present. Despite the therapeutic qualities of glassblowing, the practice is not intended to replace therapy. Instead, Project FIRE frames its programming more as an opportunity for

the FIREwalkers to have a job and learn a skill while receiving mentoring and support. After a few hours of mingling, Dick and Stolbach quieted the room. The crowd turned to face the program staff: mentors N’Kosi Barber and Andrew Neswick and caseworker Artesha Williams stood shoulder to shoulder as Stolbach honored each FIREwalker with a certificate of completion. Project FIRE “really shows you how much people care about you,” said Langston. “We came together like a family. We just started working together, helping each other.” Barber echoed these sentiments, saying that even after the program ended, he still checks in with his mentees by phone or Facebook. “They’re like my little brothers,” said Barber. Both co-founders discovered the social bonds in Project FIRE to be an unexpectedly significant part of the experience. “I knew that some important things would happen in this program, but I’m surprised by how close we’ve all become,” said Dick. Both she and Stolbach think that they will adjust the sessions in the future to allow more time for

FIREwalkers to socialize without structured activities. As guests trickled out, FIREwalkers helped the program staff take down tables and pack the remaining pieces of work in bubble wrap. Langston danced around the room to celebrate his final sale: a vase for fifty-five dollars. Stolbach’s fellowship does not end until March 2016. Though the groups will no longer meet for four-hour glassblowing and psychoeducation sessions, Stolbach still plans to interview the FIREwalkers— once shortly after the showcase, and then again in a few months—to determine what impact the program has had on these young survivors of gun violence. Interviews and conclusions aside, loved ones have already felt the program’s effects. Langston’s mother, Alicia Burns, observed how the program had changed her son. “The kids, even though they went through their experiences, this was an outlet to help them release anger, some stress,” said Burns. “I wasn’t sure if he would be that comfortable opening up. But I found that he was able to open up more with the program than he would with me.”

anton zilinski

OCTOBER 28, 2015 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 15

God Drops The Gospel

The up-and-coming Englewood rapper’s new mixtape is pure fun

A Space of Her Own

Fabiana’s Bakery combines a simple, home-made style with skillful flavors and an eclectic atmosphere

BY CHRISTOPHER GOOD

BY DARREN WAN

ible, Torah, Koran or otherwise, religion has always given mankind plenty to talk about. But as he asserts on “Block Shit,” Englewood rapper God doesn’t talk: he just drops shit. It’s a work ethic that shines through on his new mixtape, The Gospel: 3000 B.C. (Before Crack)—and while it falls short of a religious experience, it’s a rewarding and entertaining listen from a rapper with his eyes set on the throne. From crisp artwork to skillfully directed music videos, God has always brought a sense of professionalism to his work. He’s got a wide lyrical range and a knack for wordplay—in the past, he’s paid tribute to everyone from College Dropout-era Kanye (“Trunk full of coke, rental car from Avis/ Momma tried to tell me that my rhymes could save us”) to America’s most infamous toupee-wearer (“I had a dream that I robbed Donald Trump/Tied him up, threw his ass in the trunk”). But above all, he’s a workaholic: he released two full-length mixtapes in 2014 (The Bible and After the Bible) and put out a music video for almost every track on them, all while spearheading his Money Block Entertainment crew. (As The Gospel’s introduction states: “he hungry, he grind hard, he take care of his family…”) Through Money Block, God has collaborated with and promoted the work of Englewood rappers such as Wu Allah and MB Jesus. More notably, God has performed with Juicy J and posted photographs of himself hanging out with DJ Khaled and Wiz Khalifa; he’s garnered tens of thousands of views on WorldStarHipHop; Waka Flocka Flame has worn one of his shirts. And yet, he’s basically unknown beyond the South Side. It’s tempting to compare God to the likes of Lil Durk and Chief Keef and ask: could The Gospel be that breakthrough, God’s Finally Rich? It’s hard to say, but The Gospel is a hell of a lot of fun to listen to. Appropriately enough, the album’s opener, “Gospel”, begins with chapelfloorboard stomps and a wailing hymnal sample. After a few measures, a snare roll clatters in, and then God takes the mic. Like 16 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

“T any good rapper, God doesn’t ever sound like he’s trying too hard, so the fact that he manages to shift up his delivery so frequently across The Gospel is impressive. He’s got a tip-toe cadence on “Stick to the Code” and the sing-song “Rope,” but he sounds just as comfortable rapping double-time on “Street Sweeper.” On the whole, The Gospel is less grim than God’s earlier works—and it’s to his benefit. In terms of production, it’s decidedly polished and surprisingly ambitious. Each beat is crisp and punchy, and although plenty of trap tropes are on display (808 kicks and gunshots aplenty), there’s a strong Memphis undercurrent on tracks like “Broke Remix,” which is propelled by a gorgeous saxophone melody and a Juicy J verse. Elsewhere, “Block So Hot” features what sounds like a distorted blues sample and bitcrushed, rearview mirror-rattling bass. That’s not to say that The Gospel is without flaws. Not all of the choruses land, and the mixtape loses some steam over the course of its second half. God’s whispery delivery on “Prada” doesn’t play to his strengths, and even with its siren-like synths, the 808 Mafia-produced “I’m King” isn’t particularly impressive. But at twelve tracks, The Gospel is lean. After The Gospel’s release, God tweeted “Thanks for all the love on The Gospel...the hate is appreciated as well!” It hasn’t been an entirely smooth path—God continues to catch some flak from Twitter users for his name—but as he raps on “Stick to the Code,” he “ain’t worried ‘bout nothing.” The Gospel might not be a revelation, but if God keeps coming out with material like this, he has nothing to worry about. Listen to The Gospel: 3000 B.C. (Before Crack) at www.soundcloud.com/youaintgod

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his is the strangest location for a bakery I’ve ever seen,” says a customer as he walks into Fabiana’s Bakery, beaming at his fortuitous find. The Hyde Park bakery, which opened in September, is located within the restful recesses of University Church, and occupies a space that Fabiana Carter has made her own. “Our carpenter is an artist,” Carter says with pride. “I wanted it to look like we grabbed things from the trash and put it together, and that’s how we refurbished the chairs.” There’s something about the eclectic combination of timeworn tables and cheese grater lamps that lends the bakery an air of conviviality. Likewise, it’s hard not to be won over by Carter’s own warmth and generosity, as she patiently describes every pastry on display to regulars and the uninitiated alike. The menu changes every day, but the most basic and popular pastries frequently appear. “I try to make croissants and pains au chocolat three times a week,” she says, “but once I look for someone to come and help me, I want to start making them every day.” Carter’s baking style is measured and avoids excess, allowing her to produce honest pastries that do not convey any hint of pretension. The bakery’s roasted vegetable bread, a small, unassuming roll, is packed with a generous layer of butternut squash, orange peppers, caramelized onions, walnuts, feta cheese and pesto, topped with lightly toasted pine nuts. Her flair for artfully counterposing textures and flavors extends to her desserts: her chocolate mousse and blackberry cream tart and her strawberry mascarpone tart are prime examples. She prepares a handful of savory dishes as well—her sweet potato and broccoli soup, served with fresh sourdough bread, provides hearty sustenance for a chilly autumn morning. Carter traces her love for food to her roots and her childhood. Growing up in an Italian family in Brazil, she would always help her grandmother in the kitchen. “If you go to Brazil and you visit people, they’re going to have food on the table and you’re going to sit down and eat,” she says. “I used

to live with my grandmother, and there were nine of us at home. Meals were always plenty of food, and she made everything from scratch.” Occasionally, Carter sells classic Brazilian treats, particularly Brazilian bread. For a crucial part of the kneading, when the dough is repeatedly tossed and hit, she gets her son Daniel involved. “Sometimes I ask my son to punch the bread for me,” she laughs. “My son told me that he wants to carry on the legacy of the bakery, so that’s really sweet.” As a Hyde Park resident, Carter sees her bakery as a way of engaging the community to which she belongs. Fabiana’s is already integrating into the local culinary scene, and Carter herself was recently invited to judge at the upcoming South Side Pie Challenge. Her love for Hyde Park is palpable. “I want my children to grow in a community where they make friends from all over the place,” she says. “Hyde Park is so cosmopolitan!” Carter is also an active member of University Church—that’s how she noticed that the space was available from Mondays to Saturdays. As she transitions from baking custom-made pastries at home to opening a space she can call her own, Carter intends to forge deep connections with other community members in order to foster a vibrant ecosystem for small business owners. “The idea is that we help each other grow. If you want to buy this chair, you can buy it. The carpenter can make it for you! I also want to meet a painter whose pictures I can put on my walls.” But underneath this desire to connect with neighbors, what ultimately drives her work is her deeply ingrained love for food and dedication to communal living. “I think people like to have great food and great conversation,” Carter says, “so with a lot of things that I do, I try to put a Brazilian spin on it.” As unexpected as a Brazilian-inspired bakery operating out of a church may seem, it does not disappoint. Fabiana’s Bakery, 5655 S. University Ave. Monday-Saturday, 8am-6pm. (773) 6589842. fabianasbakery.com

CROSSWORD

Boo!

BULLETIN BY JOE LOTHAN 3

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48 51

DOWN 1. Scotch ___

Human Rights Crisis in Syria at the UofC

Damage Goods details the journey of faith, relationships, and self-discovery that followed Elizabeth Rivera’s breast cancer diagnosis. As a survivor, she hopes her book and signing event will educate and empower other women of color affected by the disease. (Sara Cohen)

ACROSS 1. Old Russian ruler 5. City south of Kiev 10. Sledding spot 14. Sheltered from the wind 15. Goes limp, as a flower 16. Actress Falco 17. Scary schooner 19. ___ mater 20. Historical period 21. Small island on the Thames 22. A deadly sin 23. Lukas of “Witness” 25. Schmooze 27. Hosts 30. Scary potion 35. Vogue rival 37. Neighbor of Fr. 38. Big name in small swimwear 39. Is imminent 41. CD-___ 43. Sleek fabric 44. Smartly dressed 46. “This means ___!” 48. Clock sound 49. Scary lock opener 52. Pilot’s prediction, for short 53. Crude group? 54. Fencing blade 56. Knocks dead 59. Sigma’s follower 61. Clued in 65. Peel 66. Scary mammal 68. Zenith 69. “You’re ___ talk!” 70. Decomposes 71. Meal in the military 72. An inert gas 73. Influence

38 41

Damage Goods Book Signing Norman’s Bistro, 1001 E. 43rd St. Wednesday, October 28, 6:30pm–9pm. Free. (773) 9665821. damagegoods3ds.com

19 21

CALENDAR

2. Freudian mistake 3. Prefix with dynamic 4. Get to 5. Part of I.O.U. 6. Fiasco 7. Grades 1-12 8. Sew 9. Nile snake 10. Indicator of life 11. Not working 12. Sprite flavor 13. Pb, in chemistry 18. Melt 22. Shocked reactions 24. Bailed-out insurance co. 26. “For ___ a jolly good fellow” 27. Fuses 28. Dagger’s partner 29. Incline 31. King topper 32. Fix, as a shoelace 33. Decree 34. Willy with a chocolate factory 36. Staff 40. Oozes 42. Repay 45. Hwy. 47. Member of the House, for short 50. Fuel rating 51. 2015, e.g. 55. Pitchers 56. Unwanted emails 57. Doily material 58. Venus de Milo knock-offs? 60. Famous last word 62. Take ___ (acknowledge applause) 63. Pro ___ (in proportion) 64. Crafty site 66. ___ populi 67. Charged particle

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

Ida Noyes Hall, West Lounge, 1212 E. 59th St. Thursday, October 29, noon–1:15pm. Free. eventbrite.com Interested in hot button issues in the world of international politics? Join Karen AbuZayd, a member of the U.N. Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, for a discussion on Europe’s response to the Syrian refugee crisis. AbuZayd has over thirty years of career experience dealing with refugee relief and is sure to bring fresh thoughts on a major global issue. (Rachel He)

Owner Workshop: Pest Control Charles A. Hayes Family Investment Center, 4859 S. Wabash Ave. Thursday, October 29, 2pm–4pm. Free. thecha.org At this installment of a series of workshops by the Chicago Housing Authority aimed at educating participants in its Housing Choice Voucher program, owners and property managers can learn how to correctly deal with unwelcome and unhealthy pest invasions, from bed bugs to rodents. (Mari Cohen)

Bernie Sanders and Black Lives Matter: Class and Race in America

Interested in talking about racial issues? Supporter of Bernie Sanders and “Black Lives Matter”? Join Professor Charles Mills of Northwestern to engage in relevant and compelling social and political dialogues with other interested participants in the first of the Co-op’s “Literary Public Sphere” series. (Lily Zhou)

Big Money in Politics Harper Memorial Library, 1116 E. 59th St., Room 140. Thursday, October 29, 7pm– 8:30pm. Free. naomi@illinoispirg.org Show up and speak out to stop the influence of “dark money” in American politics. Hear what panelists have to say about the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court decision that unleashed SuperPACs. (Anne Li)

Change Chat: Trans Visibility in Pop Culture Hyde Park Art Center, 5020 S. Cornell Ave. Thursday, October 29, 6pm–8pm. Free. creatingchange.org The latest installment of the “Change Chat” series—educating and uniting community members on LGBTQ issues—will offer wine, light refreshments, and casual discussion about the representation of trans individuals in pop culture. (Sara Cohen)

Community Meeting: S. Michigan Ave. Development East-West University, 816 S. Michigan Ave. October 29, 2015, 6pm–8pm. (312) 9871980. thenspb.com Two new apartment towers—one designed by Chicago-based starchitect Helmut Jahn—are crowding into the fertile real estate of the South Loop. Learn about these plans at this community meeting with 4th Ward Alderman Will Burns. (Adam Thorp)

Marx After Marx: History and Time in the Expansion of Capitalism

Seminary Co-op, 5751 S. Woodlawn Ave. Thursday, October 29, 6pm. Free. (773) 7524381. semcoop.com

Seminary Co-op, 5751 S. Woodlawn Ave. Friday, October 30, 6pm–8pm. Free. (773) 752-4381. semcoop.com

OCTOBER 28, 2015 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 17

Looking at relevant historical texts by Lenin, Luxemburg, and other theorists, Harry Harootunian will present on his book about Western Marxism and Marx’s views on capitalism’s origin and evolution. Come here for a deeper understanding of capitalism and Marxism, with a reception to follow. (Lily Zhou)

Manhood 101 Mentoring Sessions Chicago State University, Douglas Hall, 9500 S. King Dr. Saturday, October 31, 9:30am– 2pm. Free. Ages 8-18. First 100 to arrive will be entered into raffle for sports tickets and gift cards. (773) 932-9426. manhood10115. eventbrite.com Learning to tie a tie is just the tip of the iceberg at this event helping young men ages eight to eighteen navigate coming of age. Attendees can join college-educated mentors in these sessions to learn more about a host of important topics, including college and career readiness, single-mother households, handling interactions with police, and more. (Mari Cohen)

MUSIC Wild Child Thalia Hall, 1807 S. Allport St. Friday, October 30, doors 7pm, show 8pm. $17.50 in advance, $20 at door. (312) 526-3851. thaliahallchicago.com Indie-folk band Wild Child will be strumming, clapping and stomping in a live performance Friday at Thalia Hall. The band’s tour comes hot on the heels of Fools, a breakup album “about letting go of expectations [and] just playing the fool.” Their performance is sure to be in equal measure heartfelt and heart-wrenching. (Christopher Good)

Michael Ross The Quarry Event Center, 2423 E. 75th St. Friday, October 30, 7pm–11:30pm. $10. (773) 741-6254. mobetterjazzchicago.us Jazz guitarist, composer, and Chicago native Michael Ross has toured across the United States and Europe. His latest album, A Special Thing, takes the listener on an “adventure through a secret door of mystery, with a groove”—adventure through 18 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

his not-so-secret door this Friday at South Shore’s beloved Mo Better Jazz. ( Jonathan Poilpre)

OG Maco, ShowYouSuck, and Big Homie Reggies Chicago, 2109 S. State St. Friday, October 30, 9pm. $20 in advance, $25 at the door. 18+. (312) 949-0120. reggieslive.com There is perhaps no better way to start your Halloween weekend than by going to what is sure to be the event of the season: Hustlepalooza Trap Rave, featuring post-ironic Atlanta trap-hollerer OG Maco, straightedge west suburban "alt" rapper ShowYouSuck, and minor drill figure Big Homie (most notably King Louie's manager). Happy Halloween! (Sam Stecklow)

Gory Halloween Party featuring Biz Markie The Promontory, 5311 S. Lake Park Ave. Saturday, October 31, doors 10pm. $20 general admission. 21+. (312) 801-2100. promontorychicago.com Alternatively, kick off Halloween with spooky rock and hip-hop vibes brought to you by the “Diabolical Clown Prince of Hip Hop,” DJ Biz Markie. Come for the special holiday set, stay for the special drinks and cash prize costume contest, and party as the Promontory becomes a Haunted House of Rock. (Rachel He)

VISUAL ARTS Harlem Fall Arts Show The Merchandise Mart, 222 W. Merchandise Mart Plz. Thursday-Sunday, October 29-November 1. Opening reception Friday, October 31, 6pm-10pm. See website for additional times. $15-$20. (800) 376-2860. hfas.org America’s largest traveling African Diasporic art show is coming to the Merchandise Mart this weekend. The Harlem-Renaissance-inspired show celebrates diasporic art and provides American artists with the chance to sell their work; events include an opening reception, an expo, and a Masquerade Bash on Halloween night. (Sonia Schlesinger)

¬ OCTOBER 28, 2015

The Final Recognition

Founder’s Day

MAD Center Gallery, 1500 S. Western Ave. October 30-January 30. Hours by appointment. Opening reception Friday, October 30, 6pm–10pm. Free. (424) 262-3278. midlandartanddesigncenter.com

The DuSable Museum, 740 E. 56th Pl. Sunday, November 1, 1pm. Free. (773) 9470600. dusablemuseum.org

In “The Final Recognition,” Herman Aguirre depicts horrific violence in Mexican organized crime scenes and bemoans the deaths of thousands of innocent victims. Through a powerful fauvist style, Aguirre attempts to confront viewers with the fragility of human lives and calls for an immediate awareness of violence in Mexico. ( Jasmin Liang)

(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 The Chicago 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)

Work, Working, Worked: Live on WLPN 105.5 Co-Prosperity Sphere, 3219 S. Morgan Ave. Sunday, November 1, 2pm–6pm. Free. (773) 655-6769. chicagoartistsmonth.org Experience the past and present culture of Bridgeport through an interactive audio tour guided by radio, maps, and navigation devices. Part of Chicago Artists Month and sponsored by WLPN 105.5, the expedition will feature architecture from John Flizikowski and Henry Englebert, the writings of Upton Sinclair and Mike Royko, and stops at art spaces including Learning Machine and Bubbly Dynamic. (Clyde Schwab)

The DuSable Museum commemorates its founders this Sunday with a talk by Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun and a performance by the Whitney M. Young High School Concert Choir. In honor of founder Margaret Burroughs, the afternoon will include excerpts of What Shall I Tell My Children, a play written in her honor, as well as the awarding of the 2015 Margaret Burroughs Scholarship. (Sonia Schlesinger)

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)

STAGE & SCREEN Eileen Myles Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E. 60th St., Seminar Terrace 801. Thursday, October 29, 6pm. Free. (773) 702-2787. arts.uchicago.edu Catch prolific poet Eileen Myles’s tour stop in Chicago to celebrate a new book of poems, I Must Be Living Twice, and the re-release of her 1994 cult classic, Chelsea Girls. Myles will also be reading unreleased material, so this is not to be missed. (Christopher Good)

Gel Set Scores Epstein’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” Southside Hub of Production, 1448 E. 57th St. Friday, October 30, 8pm. $8; $5 with a costume. southsideprojections.org If you like feeling sad while trembling in fear, you know Edgar Allan Poe. If you’re a cinema devotee, you may have experienced

CALENDAR the excitement of a silent film with a new score, played live. If you’d like to feel sad, scared, and culturally superior, you’ve found your Friday night. (CJ Fraley)

Night Out with Nosferatu Trinity United Methodist Church, 9848 S. Winchester Ave. Friday, October 30, 6pm. Suggested donation of $5 for individuals, $10 for families. (773) 445-5300. chicagotrinityumc.org Trinity United Methodist Church is rolling out the red carpet and dimming the lights for a spooky family screening (or screaming) of Nosferatu with live organ accompaniment. Also present will be a pumpkin decoration station and, for the particularly bold, an insect petting zoo. Haunting, but not daunting. (Christopher Good)

Hot Time at the Speakeasy Power Circle Center, 9350 S. Chicago Ave. Friday, October 30, 6pm–10pm. $30. (773) 768-1221. southchicagochamber.org Showcasing the work of local artists Myron Mills Project Band, Mz. Flo Fiyah Co., Red Hot Annie, Tango Che, and Bill Jackson, this 1920s-themed Murder Mystery Dinner will be “to die for.” (Sara Cohen)

Seeds of Disunion: Classics in Black Stereotypy Film Series: The Jazz Singer Black House Cinema, 7200 S. Kimbark Ave. Friday, October 30, 7pm–9pm. Free. (312) 857-5561. rebuild-foundation.squarespace. com Enter an alternate world of black cinematic history with UofC professor Jacqueline Stewart and Northwestern professor Miriam Petty as they screen and discuss The Jazz Singer, a landmark “talkie” film also known for its use of blackface. (Sarah Liu)

The Night Market: Where Art and Spirit Dance Hyde Park Art Center/ The Muller Room, 5020 S. Cornell Ave. Saturday, October 31, 1pm–5pm. Free. (773) 324-5520. hydeparkart.org

Looking for a chance to paint your face, dance to music, and meet “Gedes” who can connect you to the Spirit folk? Welcome to the Night Market, featuring the Yoruba culture and Western African tradition. Bring your own costume and creative minds, and as the Yoruba say, make the world your marketplace. (Lily Zhou)

Boneshaker Redmoon Theater, 2120 S. Jefferson St. Saturday, October 31, 9pm–2am. $100, 21+. (312) 850-8440. redmoon.org Redmoon’s annual Halloween party returns for a sixth year, featuring bumper cars, classic arcade games, and plenty of drinks. A DJ, strange machines, and other surprises will fill Redmoon’s massive Pilsen warehouse, transforming it to an “otherworldly playground” that will support the theater’s free programming. (Clyde Schwab)

My Soul is a Witness Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E. 60 St., Performance Hall. Sunday, November 1, 5:30pm. $20, $10 for students. (773) 702-2787. arts. uchicago.edu Val Gray Ward returns to Chicago for this new one-woman, seventeen-character show. Ward, herself a pioneer of the Black Arts Movement, will pay tribute to literary legends such as Mari Evans, Langston Hughes, James Weldon Johnson, and Richard Wright in a performance that’s sure to be memorable. (Sara Cohen)

KINOSONIK #5 with Walter Kitundu & Katherine Young Black Cinema House, 7200 S. Kimbark Ave. Sunday, November 1, 4pm–6pm. Free. (312) 857-5561. rebuild-foundation.squarespace. com The fifth installment of KINOSONIK pairs curated, archival films with live scores performed and composed by Walter Kitundu and Katherine Young. Examining the relationship between design and nature, the performance is a collaboration between Experimental Sound Studio, The Nightingale, and Chicago Film Archives. (Clyde Schwab)

OCTOBER 28, 2015 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 19

NOW AT THE MCA

The Freedom Principle

Theater, Dance & Music at MCA Stage Edlis Neeson Theater 2015–16 Season

BUY TICKETS mcachicago.org/stage 312-397-4010

MCA Family Day Nov 14

Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago mcachicago.org/now #mcachicago

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP RIGHT Nick Cave Speak Louder, 2011 Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York Photo: James Prinz Photography

MCA Family Day Photo: Joshua Longbrake © MCA Chicago Kyle Abraham/ Abraham.In.Motion When the Wolves Came In Sam Pratt, Catherine Ellis Kirk Photo: Tim Barden