November 9, 2016 by South Side Weekly

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SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY The South Side Weekly is an independent nonprofit newsprint magazine written for and about neighborhoods on the South Side of Chicago. We publish in-depth coverage of the arts and issues of public interest alongside oral histories, poetry, fiction, interviews, and artwork from local photographers and illustrators. The South Side Weekly is dedicated to supporting cultural and civic engagement on the South Side and to providing educational opportunities for developing journalists, writers, and artists. Volume 4, Issue 7 Editor-in-Chief Jake Bittle Managing Editors Maha Ahmed, Christian Belanger Director of Staff Support Ellie Mejía Director of Writer Development Mari Cohen Deputy Editor Olivia Stovicek Senior Editor Emeline Posner Education Editor Lit Editor Music Editor Stage & Screen Editor Visual Arts Editor

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

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IN CHICAGO IN THIS 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

Troncs But No Troncs Gannett Co., the publisher of USA Today, announced last week that it has dropped its plans to acquire "tronc," the company that publishes the Tribune and the Los Angeles Times and was formerly known as Tribune Publishing. "tronc," which stands for "Tribune online content” and whose existence is still too ridiculous for us not to put in scare quotes, saw a seventeen percent decrease in the value of its shares in the aftermath of the announcement. Earlier this year the head honcho of "tronc," renowned bad-idea-haver Michael Ferro, denied an earlier acquisition effort by Gannett outright. Chance the Rapper the Actor This is getting to be a lot, right? I think for me it was the Kit-Kat commercial. Not only is it kind of out of left field as a brand endorsement, the melody itself was really just kind of grating. But far be it from us to hinder Chicago’s favorite son from his dreams, even as they approach near-aggravating ubiquity: now Chance the Polymath is making another turn—this time, into movie stardom. Austin Vesely’s Slice “is centered around a mysterious city's impenetrable outlaw framed for a killing spree that targets pizza delivery boys,” according to the Tribune, and it stars Chance as a “werewolf who is a former Chinese food delivery driver” named Dax Lycander, according to RedEye. It’s sure to actually be pretty damn good—Vesely is one of SaveMoney’s secret weapons, directing stellar videos like “Sunday Candy” for Chance, and others for Vic Mensa and frequent collaborator Eryn Allen Kane. The downside, of course, is the extent to which the film will become just another part of the cultural vortex that is ChanceMania in 2016—not every piece of urban whimsy set in the Windy City really needs to have Chance’s admittedly cute face emblazoned on it. I’m (Sending Private Emails) With Her On Saturday, reports surfaced that Rahm Emanuel’s longstanding adoration of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton extends to emulation of her favorite pastime: using a personal email for communication with top government officials. His private account surfaced in a batch of hacked emails from Clinton’s campaign chairman that was released by WikiLeaks last month. Though Rahm never got around to setting up a private server, he did register a similar domain name: rahmemail.com, the perfect complement to Hillary’s equally creative clintonemail.com. Luckily, we don’t have to imagine Clinton’s excitement to have a friend to message online, as they used their totally twinning emails to coordinate hang outs. Rahm: “This year they would love for you and I to appear on opening night [of 2012 Chicago Ideas Week] and talk about the state of the union.” Hillary: “Checking to see whether I can do—supposed to be traveling. Will let you know asap. Thx” Hillary again: “Sorry, but I'm scheduled to be in the Balkans so would love a rain check for next time. All the best, Mayor” Rahm: “Thanks for the quick response. Good luck in the balkans.” Clearly, Rahm and Hillary know that communication is the key to a strong friendship. Unfortunately, they may have to move their conversations to a legit account; Rahm and his emails are the focus of an ongoing lawsuit launched by the Tribune last September under FOIA.

ISSUE lightning doesn't strike twice

“We've gotta stop always caring what they think.”

loren taylor.....................................4 fashion hits the road

“We want to be able to provide something for everyone in your family.” yarra elmasry...................................7 crossing boundaries

A paper fence, a beaded curtain, a feltand-foam barrier. michelle yang...................................8 extending the red line, at last

“We will make sure [the CTA] does the right thing by the community.” la risa lynch...................................10 here for the long run

But this time, the city has signed on as a partner. adeshina emmanuel.......................12

OUR WEBSITE S ON SOUTHSIDEWEEKLY.COM i was there

A reflection on invisibility loren taylor SSW Radio soundcloud.com/south-side-weekly-radio Email Edition southsideweekly.com/email

Cover photo by William Camargo

NOVEMBER 9, 2016 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 3

Lightning Doesn't Strike Twice One year after the Black Friday protests on Michigan Avenue BY LOREN TAYLOR

The following is a reflection on the first anniversary of last year’s Black Friday protests over the police killing of Laquan McDonald. During the protest, marchers shut down the Magnificent Mile portion of Michigan Avenue, costing stores between twenty-five and fifty percent of their Black Friday revenue according to a Tribune estimate. The author, Loren Taylor, was born and raised on the South Side. He spent over twenty years living and traveling in Europe as a singer-songwriter before returning to Chicago in 2010. He currently volunteers with community organizations, including the Community Peace Surge and the Chicago AntiEviction Campaign.

his is how last year’s Black Friday protest on Michigan Avenue started for me: I get there to find Rev. Jesse Jackson, Representative Bobby Rush, etc., standing in front of the Tribune Building, lining up their march. Father Michael Pfleger and what appear to be his bodyguards join them. 4 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

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Then the Red, Black, and Green Flag (in this narrative, my name for the contingent of grassroots organizers and protesters grouped around a flag with red, black, and green stripes, the familiar symbol of Black Unity and Power) makes its way through and around those already assembled, stopping in front of the banner that had been intended to lead the march. JR Fleming of the Chicago AntiEviction Campaign announces: “This is about Black people.” As The Flag marches off, I look up to see Pastor Jedidiah Brown, hands extended in a “Hold On” pose, admonishing me to wait. Let them go ahead, let them go… To my right The Flag is marching down Michigan Avenue. To my left is the Old Guard, watching The Flag move away. Maybe I imagined it, but I seem to remember Rev. Jackson looking me right in the eye. If it's melodramatic to describe that moment in the middle of Michigan Avenue as my living metaphor for the generation gap

wedging itself into Black Chicago's social justice movements, too bad. Close enough—a quick decision was needed here, no time to intellectualize. Either I was with the old or the new. I turn to my right and hurried to catch up to the The Flag. Whatever we were chanting, all I remember hearing was "Black Power!" and watching startled employees pour out of the smaller shops along Michigan Avenue, most with mouths wide open. As we marched down the middle of the street, I kept looking back, waiting for The Banner (my name for the aforementioned old guard of preachers and representatives) to start marching. No. Don't do this. Don't keep standing there. The unity part of The Flag's “Black Power, Black Unity” sentiment had a hard time getting its bearing that afternoon. It was obvious: The Banner was going to wait until The Flag reached Water Tower Place. Maybe TV would pretend The Flag wasn't there. Strangely, Channel 5 later made it look

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like The Banner went first, followed by the "young ones"—Mark Carter, JR Fleming, Jeffery Muhammad, The Flag, etc. Shows just how long Rev. Jackson, Rush, and the rest have been around when Carter and Fleming are the Young Ones (neither are very young so much as younger than...). Representative Danny Davis had to walk from the Trib Building to the Water Tower using a cane. There's a lot of talk about an Elders vs. Millennials rift within Black America, inviting the question: has anybody seen Generation X?

t is not silly to include medical science in any discussion of generational dynamics. The retirement age is sixty-five years-old because fifty years ago, most people dropped dead in their seventies. My father outlived his father by a decade. My eighty-three yearold mother will be around for a long time, possibly a good twenty years more than either of her parents. Many prominent elder Black leaders would be loath to admit their personal care takes up organizational resources, but the model of the charismatic figure who is "important to the movement" has allowed many leaders to simply continue on and on, with no real imperative to build for what happens after they're gone. Younger people around them seeking the experience needed to assume leadership roles are seen as ingrates and usurpers. This is certainly a blanket statement, but the overall effect is a void in Black leadership that casts serious doubt on where we'll be twenty or fifty years from now. This has nothing to do with particular individuals, their missions, organizations, or the endless discussions of whether Black leaders do enough for Black people. The simple fact is: although people live longer in the twenty-first century, they still won't live forever. Today's societies change so fast that the old model of "grooming" successors would likely produce inept leaders with outdated skillsets, unable to gain any real experience until time finally catches up with everadvancing technology that gives mentors the ability to retain control, as long as a pen can be lifted to sign a document or a voice raised to give a directive. These days, leaders have to groom themselves, and their predecessors have to sit back and wait for conditions—not connections or predetermined agendas—to decide who their successors will be. Yeah, you say, all heads of major (read: white) organizations do the same. Big whoop. But running a social justice organization you built (or helped build) is not the same as,

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say, running a large corporation. Not that it's easier, but lot of what of social justice leaders actually do is make personal appearances, much the same way a politician keeps his face among constituents. Most actual tasks get delegated to subordinates. Then think of them as politicians, you say. Again, different. Elected officials have a legal mandate with prescribed duties, confirmed by the voting process. Many Black leaders have the self-directed luxury of essentially being "popes in their own pulpits,” responsible most times to funders more than the people they intend to serve. Perhaps this could also be said for today's bought-and-sold politicians, but again, not the same. I have no right to tell those I've looked up to for years how and when to stop actively pursuing their life's work. But if I don't like what the governor or the mayor is doing, I'm compelled as a voter and citizen to tell them to sit down. There are certainly a lot of Black people in their forties and fifties doing outstanding work. But can you name any forty-five or fiftyyear-old Black leader who enjoys the same profile our elders did when they were middleaged? Our heroes from the Civil Rights days rose during a time when Black elders were often too weak or afraid to act. New Black leaders don't have the same vacuum to fill as their predecessors, but it won't help if they're expected to merely be Mini Me-copies

patiently parked in subordinate service to their mentors. Prince Charles doesn't really care if Queen Elizabeth lives to be 107—he'll never make a meaningful decision anyway. Transition of influence to a new generation of Black leaders is another thing altogether. I don't have time to wait for the twenty-five-year olds to find themselves. Most of our elders won't have to reach back that far to see who'll come next. The next generations (I use the plural, because it appears that millennials and the too-young-for-Vietnam-too-old-for-hiphop tribes will have to grow in tandem, as the last of the Baby Boomers have just started Social Security, and sixty-five is way young these days) of Black leaders have also have to quit looking for a reason to get mad at their elders before stepping up. I know it's popular to say numbers show Black people are worse off than ever, proof Black leaders of the past have failed us. I'll always know the reason I could confidently spend twenty years traveling the globe is because I grew up seeing Rev. Jackson taking care of business on the world stage. People half my age just seem a little stronger than most folks did when I was as old as today’s millennials are. Maybe I just want to think civil rights is part of a slow progression that gives all Black generations that follow more strength than we would have had otherwise.

t last year’s protest, my no-turningback feeling was compounded when the Old Guard attempted to hold court in front of the old Water Tower. Fleming rushed to the spot, bullhorn blasting. I went right behind him. I have no idea what we were yelling, but I was determined that, this time, permission was not required. We weren't going to make this painless. Not for The Magnificent Mile. Not for Rahm. Not even for the elders. Let's not get this twisted. The term "general public" is code for “white people.” Now, a question: Would the organizers of the Black Friday protest have ever considered, even for a moment, disrupting the most lucrative shopping day of the year if they were even a little bit concerned how the general public would react? It's interesting that über-right wing websites like breitbart.com probably published more photos of the protest than did corporate media. Most likely Breitbart thought showing waves of (mostly) Black protesters preventing shoppers from exercising their rights as free Americans to spend their hard-earned money was certain to provoke indignation. By now the reader might have gotten the impression that Fleming, Carter, The Flag (and although he was marching with the Old Guard, we can't forget Jedidiah Brown), NOVEMBER 9, 2016 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 5

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WILLIAM CAMARGO

and I were the only ones at the protest who weren’t old enough to qualify for Medicare. They might also think that marching with The Flag (instead of waiting behind The Banner) was reserved for street organizers too immature, unsophisticated, or merely too resentful to follow the established leadership. Nope. I don't remember if anyone was standing behind me when I picked up Fleming’s chant of "Indict Rahm!" blaring through the bullhorn. I'm sure it took more than two of us to push the preachers off those steps. When one of the preachers called for those assembled to bow their heads in prayer, I started wailing. "Oh, no,” I said. “No. Nooooo! Please stop. Not Every. Single. Time we come out to do this. I'm having a Me Moment, right here, right now, in front of the Water Tower. Hey, bruh, have you ever considered? Not every Black person is a Christian. I don't believe in God. For God’s sake. Just this once. Please." (So as to not misrepresent: this agnostic rant came solely from me. If you sweep the landscape of Black America, you'll find that, while not alone, I'm in a distinct minority with this non-believer stuff, even among Flag-types. The last Pew Research poll pegs Black believer-ship at around eighty-seven percent, well above the national average. Fleming invokes the Islamic/Judeo-Christian God frequently in his presentations.) "Noooooooooooo!" 6 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

I remember Rev. Jackson's eyes again, or maybe I was really trying to make eye contact with him. No backing out of this now. I give Rep. Danny Davis credit for staying with Black Lives Matter after Rev. Jackson and his crew walked away. Again, I look up and there's Jedidiah, this time with, “Hey, all the media gonna report is the disunity.” I replied, “We've gotta stop always caring what they think.” Later, watching TV, I saw another preacher derisively telling the reporter something about "saboteurs being a problem.” Like we were a group of wasps disturbing his Fourth of July picnic. I then went inside Water Tower Place for a few minutes. Hell, it was damn near December and I was cold. Journalist that I am, I also wanted to see first-hand what effect the blockades were having. The fact the protest had not reached the back entrance (opposite the Ritz Carlton hotel) may have confused the police. Frontline officers were still required to allow entry to those hearty souls still able to adhere to their gift-buying agendas , but had decided not to let anyone exit. Water Tower Place quickly transformed into a reality TV show set as most people—even those intending to shop—predictably became obsessed with how and when they could get out of the building. As a result, no one paid me much attention as I walked through the stores.

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Anything short of shoplifting would likely not have drawn any notice. All eyes were looking at the windows. If I had to explain it, I would say the protest made shopping (or serving shoppers) look a bit silly. No one was preventing the people who had made it inside the mall from doing what they had come to do—buy stuff—but they weren't. You could tell the few people browsing weren't buying. Cash registers remained silent. If my recollections of ear-hustled conversations between floor staff inside the department store are any indication, the primary concern of the merchants was the mob of vandals and looters they felt certain would ransack the mall if the protest reached the interior. I watched a trio of anxious-butresolute floor managers staring at the metal gates that had already dropped in front of the store's entrance. “They can't get through there. Can they?” The managers couldn't see the line of policemen on the other side of the metal gates likely to start beating the crap out of anyone who came too close to the doors. I thought: if any protesters come in thru the store's back entrance like I did, better they ditch the "Capitalism Kills!" signs before reaching the fragrance section. When I was warm enough to go back outside, I psyched myself up for reentry into the elements by sitting for a minute on a bench near the back entrance. A Black woman in her forties asked me for directions to State Street. She and her preteen daughter

were on an out-of-town shopping trip and wanted to window-shop. I explained it would be a long walk, longer still due to congestion caused by the protest. No problem, she said. Her daughter was curious to see what all the fuss was about. Once I made it back to the Michigan Avenue side of Water Tower Place, the protest seemed to have morphed into a mix of street festival and guerrilla theatre. It was much easier to see that the racial mix of protesters was predominantly but not exclusively Black, both in number and messages propounded. The two larger groups clustered around the The Flag and The Banner had broken up into smaller cells; some marched up and down Michigan, others blockaded the storefronts, scattered individuals banged on drums, waved flags, passed out leaflets. Police kept a watchful but careful distance, likely knowing the time they spent containing the handful of disruptors would be more worrisome than the protest itself. I felt compelled to give a report to someone. I found Maze Jackson—he had addressed The Flag group when we first assembled in front of Water Tower Place. He now stood in the middle of Michigan Avenue a block or so down from where the day had started, surveying the back-and-forth flow of protesters and observers. It was really too noisy to have a conversation, so I kept it brief, highlighting the fact that few shoppers were buying anything. He smiled. Both sides of the street were lined with out-of-towners watching the protest as if they were enjoying a parade. TV news must have dug hard to get those clips of irate holiday shoppers to broadcast that evening. Most bystanders sounded like they could relate. “The police shot that kid, what, sixteen times?” they'd say. My work was done here. Luckily when I got back to my "secret" underground parking spot, no ticket. I want to think the city missed some parking fine money because “Chicago's Finest” had their hands full that afternoon. Add to that the hundreds of thousands of dollars lost by the merchants on the Magnificent Mile. ¬ “I searched through hundreds of images, but I found only two confirming my attendance at the protest…”

For a postscript on photographs and the meaning of invisibility, visit bit.ly/blackfridaypostscript

FASHION

Fashion Hits the Road South Shore residents redefine the resale shopping experience BY YARRA ELMASRY

hen you think of shopping, you might think of visiting a traditional brick-and-mortar store, or maybe a website. But two women from South Shore have recently added a new venue to the mix with a mobile clothing boutique. Their food-truck-like boutique is replete with racks of clothing and accessories ranging from sweaters to pants to bags, as well as a changing room. Shop the Thrifty Fashionista, run by Joslyn Slaughter and her mother, Jera, has been mobile since the beginning of September. The owners are still finding the best locations to park their boutique and best ways to target their demographic: people who know branded merchandise and appreciate the value of the items. So far, the boutique has sold in the downtown Hyde Park area, on Clark Street between Monroe and Adams, and up north on Lincoln Avenue near Racine. The mother-daughter team started off selling clothing in a brick-and-mortar store in Bronzeville for four years, from 2006 to 2010. After closing their first store, the two decided to give retail one more chance. Joslyn landed on the idea of a mobile clothing store while watching a television

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special about fashion trucks in Los Angeles and New Orleans. Joslyn, who studied fashion at Chicago State University and Northern Illinois University, avidly follows trends and brands, and is in charge of collecting the merchandise. Shop the Thrifty Fashionista sells used designer items, which Joslyn finds by shopping at larger retailers, flea markets, and rummage sales. The company’s goal is to offer their customers the best merchandise possible at reasonable prices. “We are very particular about the condition that [our merchandise] is in,” Joslyn said. “If it isn’t something that I would carry or wouldn’t have in my own personal wardrobe, then I can’t sell it to my customer.” But publicising the boutique and getting people to fully understand what it is has been difficult. “Getting people to understand that it is a boutique on here and that you can actually shop on here [has been a challenge],” Joslyn said. Once people do step aboard the truck, however, she is able to explain how the truck works, as well as some of the advantages of resale. Joslyn hopes to counter people’s

preconceived notions that resale stores and used clothing are “grimy” by talking sustainability: she emphasizes how buying used clothing is, by nature, more ecofriendly than buying new clothing. In addition to being open for walkin retail, Shop the Thrifty Fashionista is available for private hire. “If somebody wants to host a girl’s night, we bring the truck to them and we cater what’s on the truck,” Joslyn said. “It gives them something new and different to do as far as getting your friends together, having a good time, and being able to shop.” Shop the Thrifty Fashionista is part of a larger parent company, J Fashion Enterprises, which Joslyn also started. In addition to women’s upscale resale, J Fashion Enterprises has a men’s upscale resale, and a girl’s upscale resale, Jordan’s Closets. They are also getting ready to launch a boy’s upscale resale. “We want everybody shopping J Fashion Enterprises brands and we want to be able to provide something for everyone in your family, so that’s our goal,” Joslyn said. “Our goal is to be able to turn this into a major business entity.” ¬ NOVEMBER 9, 2016 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 7

VISUAL ARTS

Toeing the Line

Three artists examine the threshold at Slow Gallery BY MICHELLE YANG

o enter means to cross a threshold, something that is at once a barrier to what we seek and yet, simultaneously, that which allows us to gain access to it. Enter Pilsen’s Slow Gallery, an “artistrun curatorial project with a deliberately unpolished gallery,” curated by Paul Melvin Hopkin and directed by Hopkin himself, alongside Jeffrey Grauel. The gallery often showcases two or three artists together, organizing the pieces on display around a central theme in order to prompt the viewer to think more deeply about the different artists’ practices and the common threads running through their work. The exhibition Every Link is a Separation, on view through November 26, explores the nature of boundaries and connections. “What links us to other people is very related to what separates us from [them],” explained Hopkin. “[The suggestion that ‘every link is a separation’] is actually a big idea...and all the artists are kind of dancing with that idea.” The first piece the viewer encounters upon entering the gallery is a fence by Fidencio Martinez, who was born in Mexico and raised in North Carolina. Two fences made of linked paper chains—one cut from what might be an Office of Coast Survey nautical chart, the other from a map of the U.S.—overlap. Looking at it from the side, you can discern the names of cities and the tangles of highways. Next to it is another piece by Martinez, a much larger paper chain-link fence also cut from a nautical chart. A net of winding roads, stretching interstates, and curving cul-de-sacs sweeps over the fence. Washing over the paper of both pieces is a blue-green net, evoking the image of the sea. “[Hopkin and I] think [my work] is about heartbreak, or, like, the loss of affection,” said Martinez. “Affection and heartbreak seem to be intertwined. I don’t

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know what that means right now, but for someone who grew up for a few years in Mexico and was smuggled across the border to the U.S., affection played a role in the culture I was brought up in.” In Martinez's work, these feelings and emotions surface tactilely through the cutting of paper to make the fences. The act of cutting, though seemingly an innocuous part of his practice, raises complex questions for Martinez. While it is considered skilled work—something Martinez can receive a visa for—the work of a cook cutting vegetables would be considered unskilled. Martinez hopes to highlight how arbitrary the distinction between skilled and unskilled labor is, and how much it depends on the government, the perception of others, and the context in which the work is done. Fences are barriers, but the ones Martinez constructs are made of paper; anyone could rip them apart. Some of the chain links on the larger piece even appear to be disintegrating, as if they have rusted away because of the sea, just as boundaries, despite their intentions, are always penetrable. When Martinez first started making the fences, he had been collecting maps in an attempt to find the route along which the smugglers had taken him and his mother to get to the United States. Cut into the shape of a fence, the maps come to resemble a barrier, but also become an affective entryway through which Martinez can connect to a past time and place. Turning away from Martinez’s work, you approach a doorway covered by a beaded curtain—Swan Song, a piece by Noël Morical. The curtain functions like a fence in the sense that it divides space, but is different in that it is intentionally permeable. Morical’s beaded curtain consists of taupe ceramic pieces with spherical indents hanging from small silver chain links. Pushing the chains to the side, you slide your body gingerly through the hole

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you’ve created. As you move through the opening that closes around you, the piece announces itself in a waterfall of musical clinking reminiscent of wind chimes. Swan Song was actually the conceptual seed of the exhibition. Morical and the curator, Hopkin, had worked together in a previous show where Morical had wanted to create a beaded curtain, but found it didn’t fit in that show. Her fascination with curtains stems from what she felt they could say about a home or a person—what does the curtain separate, and by being permeable, what does it simultaneously connect? Morical has two additional pieces in the exhibit, Wellygog and Temperance Diving Bell. The hanging pieces, made from ceramics and knotwork, resemble jewelry or baubles and are much smaller than the suspended macramé pieces she usually makes. Morical says that when Hopkin asked her for these pieces, she was taken aback at first because she usually does not create art on commission. She went forward with the smaller pieces anyway, hoping it could be “a

platform to explore some different modes of making, incorporate some elements that I had been playing around with [and play] off of what I usually do,” said Morical. “I’m glad to have had a chance to work on them...it’s embracing a new way of making.” Hopkin has a way of helping artists to make connections and further understand their own work, and it stems from his emphasis on knowing the artists he works with personally. “I keep track of artists,” Hopkin said. “I seek them out.” He frequents show openings, visits studios, and asks people he has worked with whom to pay attention to. He will often approach artists about what they’re making, and “generally then you have a really intense discussion [that] goes [in] a lot of different directions,” said Morical. “It’s nice to have that push to try something that you don’t usually try.” Once you’ve passed Swan Song, you can walk into the gallery’s backyard to see Valentina Zamfirescu’s massive single piece: a length of beige felt, at least twelve feet long, with foam underneath that stretches

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outwards and upwards to the other side of the yard. According to Hopkin, Zamfirescu’s work appeared more like a literal fence at the start. Though the piece’s current version looks more like a suspended pathway, it still functions as a fence in that it acts as a physical barrier and demarcates space. “A lot of my work recently has been dealing with how to make certain spaces accessible and others not,” said Zamfirescu. “How to control movement within a space, how one plans [for people to move around the art a certain way,] but then see how people defy that plan.” The work does not reveal much on its own, and it’s difficult to know what Zamfirescu intended by it. Perhaps it relates to her childhood memory, to the dramatic change she faced at age twelve when she moved to the US from Romania, ”though [that] shouldn’t really matter,” she noted. “It could be something different for...anyone who is looking at it. People come and look at it and bring whatever history they have.” A paper fence, a beaded curtain, a

felt-and-foam barrier. These are the points through which the artists in the exhibition, carrying their own histories and bringing their different attachments to this idea, explore the theme of connection and separation. As viewers, we see the outcome of each artist’s investigation and are, in a way, linked to them as we engage with their art. We are made aware of the fragility of fences by Martinez, we are called to push through the barrier that Morical creates, and we are reminded of where we stand physically and within our past by Zamfirescu. Though the artwork gives us some insight into the question of links and separation that the exhibit invited us in with, there is no clear answer, and you will likely leave with more questions and a more complex and nuanced consideration of the concept. The distinction between what links us and what separates us—from each other and from ourselves—is often unclear, but perhaps that is the nature of connection. ¬

THE PUBLIC NEWSROOM NOVEMBER SCHEDULE Thursday, November 10 2pm–8pm: Public Newsroom is open Thursday, November 17 2pm–8pm: Public Newsroom is open 6pm: Workshop on Freedom of Information Act led by Chaclyn Hunt of the Invisible Institute Thursday, November 24 Closed for Thanksiving CITYBUREAU.ORG/PUBLICNEWSROOM THE EXPERIMENTAL STATION 6100 S. BLACKSTONE AVE

NOVEMBER 9, 2016 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 9

Extending the Red Line, at Last A long-awaited project aims to improve transit and development on the Far South Side BY LA RISA LYNCH

or years, talk of extending the Red Line to Chicago’s southern-most limits was an urban legend. Longtime African-American residents of the South Side discussed it, but nothing has happened since the public train line, which runs along the city’s north-south racial divide, began operating in 1969. Until now. This month, the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) took a major step toward securing federal funds for the Red Line extension when it completed a preliminary environmental impact study proposing two options for placement of the line and identifying the properties that may have to be acquired for the project. On Nov. 1, the public will comment on the study for one of the most costly and potentially transformative public infrastructure projects in decades on the predominantly black South Side. At an estimated $2.3 billion and affecting 128,000 people, from middle-class homeowners to public housing residents, the extension could mitigate the effect of transportation policies that experts say historically have supported racial segregation and economic disenfranchisement. The project could create more than 6,000 construction jobs and dozens of businesses at four new proposed train stations along the extended route from 95th to 130th Street by the time it is completed in 2026, according to the transit authority. And it promises easy access to public transportation for residents of the isolated and impoverished pockets on Chicago’s southern border. “If the City of Chicago and the region are serious about equity, equity for all of its citizens, then the Red Line extension is the major project to bring that about,” says Lou Turner, who helped lead a grass-roots effort years ago to revive a dormant plan to extend the Red Line, the city’s busiest “L” with 79 million riders in 2015.

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KATIE BART

The Red Line was born of transportation policies that enforced the color lines between black and white neighborhoods, says Turner, who worked with the defunct Developing Communities Project, where President Barack Obama got his start as a community organizer in the 1980s. The line ends abruptly five miles from the city’s southern limits, choking off thousands of poor black Chicagoans on the Far South Side from jobs in the city by limiting their access to steady public transportation. When the Red Line was launched

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nearly fifty years ago, the story was different. The opening of the Dan Ryan Expressway in 1961 expedited white flight from the South Side, Turner said. The train stopped at 95th St to keep blacks in their place, literally. “[It] wasn’t going to be some means for black people to follow white people out of the city,” he said. This unofficial role of the Red Line has changed over time. “Initially it was to protect and secure white flight,” said Turner, now a professor of African-American studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. “But over

the years the demographics [of the Far South Side] changed and now you have black suburbs.” The history of the Red Line When longtime South Siders talk about the extension of the Red Line, they share the same story. Nearly fifty years ago, they say, then-Mayor Richard J. Daley told residents of the far South Side neighborhood of Roseland that he would extend the train line past 95th St. But he didn’t. News reports at the time say it was

TRANSPORTATION

because of a lack of money. The CTA’s 1958 master plan, New Horizons for Chicago Metropolitan Area, outlined the extension of the South Side Rapid Transit, now the Red Line, well past 95th St. In 1976, there was more talk of extending the line. Instead, transit officials prioritized the extension of what is now the Blue Line north to O’Hare International Airport. In 2002, Turner worked for the Roseland-based Developing Communities Project, which sought to extend the Red Line. In 2004, the group helped pass a nonbinding ballot referendum in favor of the extension. Jacky Grimshaw, a former member of the city’s transit board, says money may have impeded the extension. “When building major projects you have to get federal money, and you can only go as far as federal money will take you,” said Grimshaw, who is vice president of the Center for Neighborhood Technology, a public policy advocacy group. Other new lines and expansions have occurred over the years. The Orange Line opened in 1993. The Pink Line became a separate branch from the Blue Line in 2006. (The southwest-bound Blue Line diverged to Forest Park or Cicero.) And the Blue Line was extended to O’Hare in 1984. Today, transit officials say the Red Line extension is a priority for Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration, which has already funded some improvements to the line. “What’s important is that we are moving forward now,” said Tammy Chase, a spokesperson for the CTA. “It is really important to the whole Red Line vision that the mayor and [CTA president] Dorval Carter Jr. have. Now this administration is taking the project very seriously, along with a number of Red Line projects, and we are moving forward.” A long escape route Noni Arnold starts her day well before dawn. She operates a licensed day care for residents of Altgeld Gardens, a public housing development in Riverdale, where the Red Line extension will end at 130th St. She started the business because

residents were having a hard time getting to work on time. Many of her clients could lose their housing if they lose their jobs. Arnold said it takes about forty minutes on the bus to get from Altgeld to 95th Street, the nearest rapid-transit hub. On a good day, the wait for the lone bus serving Riverdale is fifteen to twenty minutes. “The parents I do child care for, most of them don’t have cars,” said Arnold, a block representative on the Chicago Housing Authority’s Local Advisory Council. “The commute is very hectic out here.” For residents of Riverdale, the extension has few downsides. The neighborhood has the city’s highest unemployment rate at forty-one percent—five times the citywide average, according to the 2014 Census. “In places—particularly communities of color—that are disinvested still to this day, transit is literally a lifeline to get to the grocery store,” said Anita Cozart, senior director of PolicyLink, a national economic development research institute. “They need transit to get out of their communities until reinvestment comes to those communities.” Cozart cites Oakland, California, as an example of how transit improvements can aid poor communities. The city is building a nine-mile bus rapid transit line through several low-income minority communities to better connect them to jobs and grocery stores in the city’s central business district. Like most major cities, Chicago’s transit history is shaped in part by changes in federal transportation policies. The construction of the nation’s highway system diverted spending from public transit, a main mode of mobility in black communities, to highways, Cozart said. Poor communities of color were designated as blighted to justify razing them and replacing them with highways and expressways, she said. Meanwhile, the disinvestment in public transit, she said, left many minority communities isolated and cut off from economic development and jobs. “That is part of the transportation system’s legacy.” Progress could have pitfalls In Riverdale, faster and efficient transit is not the only thing residents seek. They

also want business development along the Red Line, said Deloris Lucas, president of the Golden Gate Homeowners Association, one of four subdivisions, including Altgeld, that make up Riverdale. “There has been no development in this area, period, and the Red Line [extension] would really spark development,” said Lucas, who wants a full-line grocery store, a pharmacy, currency exchange, a library, a dry cleaner and a community center. Advocates, however, caution that any investment in transit must be intentional and comprehensive, especially in communities like Riverdale that are the product of generations of disinvestment. “When you disinvest in a lot of different areas, you’ve got to reinvest in all of those areas,” said Cozart, including preserving affordable housing so people living near the extension are not priced out of the area. Turner and others recognize that the extension of the train line could also trigger displacement of residents with deep roots in the community; 248 properties could be affected based on the line’s placement. While benefiting the community, he warns that the project runs the risk of “unleashing gentrification forces.” “The Greater Roseland area has the largest stock of affordable housing in the city of Chicago,” Turner said. “The three most important things in real estate are location, location, location. You put a transportation system through there, suddenly that housing stock becomes very, very valuable [to outsiders] because of its location near accessible transportation.” Taking land for highways historically has had a negative effect on property values and communities, says Kate Lowe, assistant professor of urban planning and policy at the University of Illinois Chicago, but that could be the opposite with transit. “Obviously the legacy of eminent domain for highways has been really detrimental to the black community, but there is potentially some difference with the Red Line, as the Red Line will deliver a lot more benefit for the predominantly black communities on the South Side,” Lowe said. “Highways, on the other hand, facilitated cars moving right through the neighborhoods, not doing anything for the neighborhood.”

Lowe said the extension could provide benefits like economic activity, redevelopment and access to jobs. “It’s a little tricky because planned transit investment is associated with property increases, and property value increases can come with the risk of displacement,” she added. “Anticipation of taking [land] historically hurt communities, but that was for highways. It is unclear if it will do the same for transit.” Giving local residents a voice is crucial Community organizing is key to ensuring transparency and accountability, including monitoring hiring practices and the project’s progression, for the transit agency and elected officials, said Cozart, who encourages residents to develop a community benefits agreement. With 6,000 jobs on the line, local residents should have first-hire priority, and they should be given apprenticeship opportunities in the transportation industry, where African Americans are vastly underrepresented, she said. And local entrepreneurs should have dibs on retail spaces at train stations so they can take advantage of transit-oriented development. Alderman Anthony Beale (9th), one of three aldermen whose ward will be directly affected by the extension, says there’s no need for a community benefits agreement. He said the project has advanced because he and his colleagues pressured the CTA to make it “a priority for the entire system.” The extension also runs through the wards of aldermen Howard Brookins Jr. (21st) and Carrie Austin (34th), who chairs the city’s budget committee. Beale, who chairs the city’s transportation committee, said the CTA spent billions of dollars on other projects while the Red Line sat on the back burner. “I think between the two of us,” Beale said, referring to Austin, “we have enough leeway that we will make sure [the transit authority] does the right thing by the community.” “This story was reprinted with the permission of The Chicago Reporter, a nonprofit investigative news organization that focuses on race, poverty and income inequality.” ¬

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BUSINESS

Here for the Long Run

$50 million initiative distills hopes for more equitable neighborhood investment BY ADESHINA EMMANUEL COURTESY OF THE LOCAL INITIATIVES SUPPORT CORPORATION

he neighborhoods of Chicago affected most by crime and violence tend to be some of the most economically depressed parts of the city, where jobs, commerce, and investment lag. Community leaders working on the ground to reverse this economic depression say their efforts have often lacked the coordinated planning, resources, and commitment from the city to sustain progress. But now, some of them see positive signs in a fledgling economic development program targeting South Side neighborhoods, as well as in other community finance tools emerging in Chicago. On Thursday, a trio of South Side community development organizations and the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) announced the launch of the Southwest Corridor Collaborative, a new revitalization effort targeting Englewood, Auburn Gresham, and Chicago Lawn. This effort comes on the heels of the Greater Chatham Initiative, which is focused on spurring economic revival in Chatham and nearby neighborhoods. LISC is working with the Greater Auburn-Gresham Development Corporation, the Chicago Lawn-based Southwest Organizing Project (SOP), and Teamwork Englewood to bring $50 million into the Southwest Side over the next decade via real estate investments and small business lending. But this time, the city has signed on as a planning partner, promising to work with community groups to outline the vision and investment framework needed to make the collaborative work. 12 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

LISC executive director Megan Harte said she anticipates that leveraging city funds will be a significant part of the process. “In the past, the city has often either had a program they tried to implement citywide, or they had specific investments or projects they support,” Harte said. “But this is the city with LISC saying, ‘We are going to do a broader planning process across neighborhoods that focus on economic development and we’re going to drive resources to those initiatives.’ ” Jeff Bartow, executive director of SOP, said that many an economic development initiative has claimed to be a new engine for growth in South and West Side communities, but most have fallen short of expectations. “I think when they don’t work, usually it’s because there’s not…enough relational depth,” he said. “What I mean by that is a real, deliberate weave that crosses a lot of sectors, in terms of a shared understanding of what’s being done and a broad base of people being behind it.” Bartow said SWOP hopes to attract new businesses to 63rd Street in Chicago Lawn, where successful businesses currently operate among a host of vacant storefronts. “This may be an opportunity to bring a coffee shop, bring a bakery, bring additional restaurants and other businesses,” he said. Perry Gunn, executive director of Teamwork Englewood, said his organization intends to focus on creating manufacturing jobs in Englewood. Teamwork Englewood seeks to replace some of Englewood’s vacant land with factories or manufacturing

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facilities of some kind, especially around the new Whole Foods. Gunn also mentioned another focus: preparing people with criminal records for the workforce. “That population needs to be prepared to go back to work; we can’t leave them out there hoping they find something,” he said. “They won’t without the right kind of support.” He added that investment in Englewood still has to address public safety issues—real and imagined—that might deter business growth. Carlos Nelson, executive director of the Greater Auburn-Gresham Development Corporation, said his organization’s community planning process indicates the need for access to good health services and jobs. He revealed plans to buy and redevelop a 55,000-square-foot building that would be reborn as “the Auburn Gresham Healthy Lifestyle Building” and provide 150 to 200 living wage jobs, according to Nelson. Nelson said the acquisition and redevelopment for the Healthy Lifestyle Building, whose address he said he wouldn’t disclose before the purchase of the building is completed, will cost about $8-$9 million. Construction would begin in mid-2017 and end in late 2018. Nelson said three prominent health care providers, including “a big hospital in the city,” are vying for an anchoring role in the project. The building could also contain a sit-down restaurant, a customer service call center for a yet-to-benamed company, and more, Nelson said. A press release from the mayor’s office touted the Southwest Corridor Collaborative as an “unprecedented partnership between

government, community organizations, and businesses,” which sounds familiar. In June, a mayor’s office release described the Greater Chatham Initiative, another economic revitalization effort on the South Side, as a “first-of-its-kind collaborative effort” between “community leaders and partners from the private and public sectors.” In May, a New York Times poll found Emanuel had a sixty-two percent disapproval rating among Chicagoans—and a seventy percent disapproval rating among the city’s black residents. The mayor attributed the numbers to Chicago’s legacy of neglecting South and West Side neighborhoods. “Look. Over forty years, there has been a deinvestment in the South Side and the West Side of the city,” Emanuel responded at the time, pledging to do his best to reverse the trend. To be fair, the city’s disenchantment with its mayor is about more than financial neglect. His administration did close dozens of schools in 2013 and more recently exacerbated tensions between police and minority communities with its handling of the Laquan McDonald shooting. But Emanuel has gotten some praise recently for what looks like an increased focus on economic development in communities of color on the South and West Sides. On November 3, Emanuel joined LISC and its Southwest Corridor Collaborative partners for a press conference announcing the initiative outside an old firehouse in Englewood, not far from a new Whole Foods store that marks the upscale grocer’s first venture into a Chicago neighborhood that

EVENTS

isn’t predominately white or well-to-do. The city pitched in $10.7 million to prepare the site of the store, which opened in September. Emanuel said at the announcement that the store “gives us the unique opportunity to double down on historic progress we are making in an area and build on it to revitalize entire neighborhoods.” So far, the mayor’s office has committed to a $4.7 million streetscape and a $12 million library renovation in Chatham as part of the Greater Chatham Initiative, which was spurred by U.S. Representative Bobby Rush after a stray bullet on 79th Street killed a Chatham teacher and real estate agent. Nelson also sits on the board of that revitalization effort. The executive director of the initiative, Nedra Fears, said that she is developing several programs with partners that will be announced by the end of the year, including the Greater Chatham Workforce Center and other projects hoping

affluent white areas with public subsidies for private developers. TIFs, funded by a portion of property tax revenues in designated districts, are supposed to be used in so-called “blighted” areas that would not see private development without TIF assistance, which usually comes in the form of public subsidies. Because the TIF program is dependent on property tax dollars, it leaves low-income black communities at a structural disadvantage. And even when these communities have TIF dollars to use, the city has a record of transferring these funds out of these districts or leaving them in the districts unused. Loyola University Chicago political science professor Twyla Blackmond Larnell said the city’s TIF program is a spiritual successor of government-funded “urban renewal” efforts that took off after World War II and spanned into the 1970s. While there are differences between the two

If Fund 77 and the Neighborhood Opportunity Fund are used as advertised, it would represent a major change in how the city invests in economic development in underserved communities. to grow and attract businesses and plans to give makeovers to major commercial strips. But unlike the Greater Chatham Initiative, the Southwest Corridor Collaborative has thus far been willing to disclose how much money is fueling its efforts and a timeline for investing those dollars.

n recent decades, economic decline in many black neighborhoods and the closure of many of the city’s manufacturing facilities has coincided with the concentration of public finance tools and urban planning efforts in and around downtown and white neighborhoods on the North Side, aggravating economic disparities between the city’s neighborhoods. The city’s favorite economic development tool, Tax Increment Financing (TIF), has a history of supporting already

programs, Larnell says they have worked to the same effect: widening economic inequality between neighborhoods while picking winners and losers in the community development game. Critics of urban renewal “claimed that the city’s pattern for redevelopment consolidated wealth,” according to the records of the Chicago Department of Urban Renewal. Similar complaints have been made recently about the city’s TIF program. Like TIF, urban renewal efforts used government dollars to revitalize parts of the city that officials deemed blighted by displacing people and businesses, using eminent domain to seize buildings, and then selling those buildings to private developers with a public subsidy or discount. These public-private redevelopment projects helped transform various areas that today are affluent, like the central business district

in the Loop and other areas near downtown. However, the (mostly black) people swept from these areas typically reaped meager benefits: many were relegated to dense highrise public housing projects and restricted by segregation. “Tax increment financing is kind of just this new form of [urban renewal], in which we’ve seen policies being passed under the guise of improving communities but then essentially being co-opted by wealthier individuals and used for their own interest,” said Larnell, whose research focuses on urban politics and public policy. She argues for a more community-based, inclusive, and transparent approach to economic development in Chicago that reverses the pattern of disinvestment in the communities that need the most help. Harte said part of the timing behind the launch of the collaborative was motivated by the emergence of new potential community development financial tools in Chicago that she said will complement her organization’s plans—tools that may fulfill Larnell’s vision of a more equitable development strategy. These tools include the Neighborhood Opportunity Fund, a mayoral initiative that expanded the downtown zoning designation. This allows developers to skirt constraints on the density and height of new developments for a fee, and funnels their dollars toward neighborhoods struggling to attract market investment. Another tool is the Chicago Community Catalyst Fund, also known as Fund 77, a program that city treasurer Kurt Summers pitched to a receptive Rahm Emanuel; it would invest $100 million in city funds over three years and use the returns to help finance local entrepreneurs and lure investors to Chicago neighborhoods lacking resources. If Fund 77 and the Neighborhood Opportunity Fund are used as advertised, it would represent a major change in how the city invests in economic development in underserved communities. But wherever the money comes from to revitalize underserved South Side neighborhoods, Nelson said that for community organizations, “It’s important that we are equity partners in these projects, even if that means building a strip mall.” This is “so that we have more of a control over the fact that we want local folks to be hired, and [so that] we have more of an opportunity to sustain our work,” he said. “Our organizations are here for the long run. Sometimes developers swoop in, do a nice project, and they’re done.” ¬

BULLETIN Walter H. Dyett High School for the Arts' Open House Walter H. Dyett High School for the Arts, 555 E. 51st St. Wednesday, November 16, 6pm–7:30pm. Free. Students, families, and community members welcome. (773) 535-1825. newdyett.org Dyett High School went from the brink of closure, through a hunger strike, to an open-enrollment school in Washington Park focused on arts education. Now, it’s hosting its first open house. Visitors can learn about the school's missions, interact with faculty, and explore the newly renovated school grounds. (Rachel Kim)

Small Business Funding Seminar Greenline Coffee, 501 E. 61st St. Thursday, November 10, 11:30am–1pm. Free. (312) 5777587. bit.ly/2eH7bM5 Aspiring entrepreneurs can learn how to get a start-up loan for their business at this seminar, hosted by VEDC Chicagoland Business Opportunity Fund (CBOF). Over 100,000 small businesses have gotten funding from the CBOF, with loans ranging from $35,000 to $500,000. (Hafsa Razi)

Riot. Strike. Riot: The New Era of Uprisings Seminary Co-op, 5751 S. Woodlawn Ave. Thursday, November 10, 6pm. Free. (773) 7524381. semcoop.com According to award-winning poet Joshua Clover, the vehicle for anti-capitalist struggle has evolved from riot to strike and now back to riot (hence the book’s title). Clover will be joined in conversation by William Sewell as they discuss the theoretical and historical reasoning behind this “new era of uprisings.” ( Joe Andrews)

Dark Girls Documentary Screening Culture Connection 360, 400 W. 71st St. Saturday, November 12, 3pm–6pm. $6.12. Buy tickets online at bit.ly/2fitKF8. (773) 527-6015. kwanzaaroundtable.wixsite.com/community Revolutionary Motherhood hosts this screening of the documentary Dark Girls,

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EVENTS an exploration of colorism in African communities, both on the continent and in the diaspora. Come to learn and discuss your experiences. (Hafsa Razi)

VISUAL ARTS Glass Lantern Slide Night: Planning for a Disaster Stony Island Arts Bank, 6760 S. Stony Island Ave. Friday, November 18, 6pm–7pm. Free. (312) 857-5561. rebuild-foundation.org Diving into the archive of the Rebuild Foundation’s glass slide collection, art historian Adam Levine discusses the role of archival photography in preemptively preserving the past and creating archives of the present. (Corinne Butta)

Exploring Symbolism Through Portraiture Project Onward Studio, 1200 W. 35th St., 4th floor. Opening reception Friday, November 18, 6pm–9:30pm. Free. (773) 940-2992. projectonward.org Artist Julius DC Bautista is a Chicago-based Filipino-American whose artwork for this exhibition, including new pieces, highlights the tension between balance and disharmony through wonderfully colorful portraits that pay homage to abstract expressionism and contemporary illustration. Bautista will be on hand to discuss the complexities and messages of his artwork. (Troy Ordonez)

Inspired by Social Issues: Male Artists of Color Reflect on Today’s Urban Experience Bridgeport Art Center, 1200 W. 35th St. Opening reception Friday, November 18, 7pm–10pm. Through January 6, 2017, Monday–Saturday, 8am–6pm; Sundays 8am– 12pm. Free. (773) 843-9000. bridgeportart. com This exhibition features artwork from a collective of male artists of color, addressing and detailing the problems facing our society today. Topics like homelessness, unemployment, and youth incarceration will be covered in this expansive gallery filled with artworks including works on paper, oil portraits, watercolor, mixed media, and views of the urban landscape. (Troy Ordonez) 14 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

MUSIC Thelma & Gobbinjr 2040. Monday, November 14th, 7pm–1am. Message on day of show for address. facebook.com/events/299696413733836/ Each scaling a different route up the dream pop mountain, New York City’s femmefronted crooner Thelma and the more bedroom-pop Gobbinjr will grace Pilsen’s 2040, as should you, once you ask for the address. Show up for an intimate evening of spacious, groovy whispers. (Michal Kranz)

Glamour Hotline Reggies Record Breakers, 2105 S. State St. Wednesday, November 9, 7pm. Free. All ages. (312) 949-0120. reggieslive.com

In The Circle: Chicago Footwork The Hokin Project, 623 S. Wabash Ave. Thursday, November 10, 5pm-8pm. Free. All Ages. students.colum.edu/deps/hokin-gallery Weekly (and Reader) features and footwork ambassadors The Era went big this year, debuting their In The Wurkz mixtape and a stage show to go along with it that’s made them the center of attention for those who are watching the Chicago scene closely. Now they’re taking on the world of contemporary art with “In The Circle,” a partnership with Columbia College. Come to the reception, and check out Teklife mainstays Phil and Manny on the boards. (Austin Brown)

STAGE & SCREEN

The most recent breakout punks from Chicago’s always-bubbling DIY community, Glamour Hotline will be serving up their crunchy riot grrl nuggets to Reggies this Thursday, for the Columbia College Chicago takeover of the always-reliable space. (Austin Brown)

Electra

G Herbo & Tink

What can you expect from family drama? In the case of the third and final chapter of Court’s Greek Cycle, a story in which “even justice can bring destruction.” In Sophocles’ play, Nicholas Rudall’s translation, and under Seret Scott’s direction, Electra and her brother Orestes scheme to avenge their father Agamemnon’s murder. (Daniel Mays)

The Promontory, 5311 S. Lake Park Ave. West. Thursday, November 10, 8pm. Tickets in WGCI raffle. 21+. (312) 801-2100. promontorychicago. com Herbo and Tink come off each of their solid 2016s to bring their respective drill and R&B talents on the mic to The Promontory this Thursday for a #HOMETURF show. The only catch? The tickets are being offered through a WGCI raffle—check the venue’s website for more info. (Austin Brown)

DIIV Thalia Hall, 1807 S. Allport St. Thursday, November 10, 7:30pm doors, 8:30pm show. $20 online, $22, $25 at door. 17+. (312) 526-3851. thaliahallchicago.com DIIV never got as much attention for their second album, this year’s Dopamine, as they did for their 2012 breakout LP Oshin, but the record added more than a dozen new songs to the group’s dreamy repertoire, bolstering an already formidable live act and promising a blissful show at Thalia Hall this Thursday. (Austin Brown)

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Court Theatre, 5535 S. Ellis Ave. Thursday, November 10–Sunday, December 11. $38 for previews, $58 after opening, discounts available for seniors, faculty, and students. (773) 7534472. courttheatre.org

Copyright Criminals at Kembrew’s Critique Boutique Uri-Eichen Gallery, 2101 S. Halsted St. Opening Friday, November 11, 6pm–10pm, with screening and artist discussion at 7:30pm. By appointment through December 2. Free. (312) 852-7717. uri-eichen.com Dancing “RoboProfessor” Kembrew McLeod does it all. The multimedia artist, scholar, and prankster has sold his soul, trademarked “Freedom of Expression,” and threatened to sue AT&T for using the well-worn phrase. He’ll screen and discuss his 2009 documentary, Copyright Criminals, at the opening of this exhibition displaying his work. ( Joseph S. Pete)

Third Cinema? III: Terra Em Transe Filmfront, 1740 W. 18th St. Friday, November 11, 8pm. Free. filmfront.org

Brazilian filmmaker Glauber Rocha’s Terra Em Transe, or Entranced Earth, is the latest installment in Filmfront’s Tercer Cine series. The Pilsen cine-club is showing a scathing political critique that was initially banned in its native Brazil but won the FIPRESCI Award at the Cannes Film Festival. ( Joseph S. Pete)

In De’ Beginnin’ eta Creative Arts, 7558 S. South Chicago Ave. Friday, November 11 through Saturday, December 24. $40, discounts for students and seniors. (773) 752-3955. etacreativearts.org Oscar Brown, Jr.’s funky musical, based on the Book of Genesis, is eta Creative Arts’ holiday entertainment offering for families. Brown was a multitalented artist, civil rights activist, and humanitarian; his daughter Maggie Brown will take on musical direction for this production, which eta calls a “tribute” to one of “Chicago’s greatest artists.” ( Joseph S. Pete)

Alternative Histories of Labor: Union Maids and The Willmar 8 Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E. 60th St. Sunday, November 13, 3pm. Free. southsideprojections.org Brush up on your knowledge of female labor organizers with a double feature showcasing Union Maids, an Oscar-nominated 1976 documentary about three Chicago women who were working-class organizers in the 1930s, and The Willmar 8, about eight female bank employees who started the longest bank strike in American history. Afterwards, Julia Reichert, a director, and Sara Joy Liles, a union member and trustee of the Illinois Labor History Society, will lead a discussion. (Bridget Gamble)

Be Alarmed: The Black Americana Epic: Tiona McClodden with Cauleen Smith Stony Island Arts Bank, 6760 S. Stony Island Ave. Sunday, November 13, 4pm–6pm. $5. (312) 857-5561. rebuild-foundation.org Tiona McClodden’s epic film/exhibit puts to the test Audre Lorde’s concept of biomythography—the practice of “toeing the line” of myth, history, and biography in the narrative form. Be Alarmed is comprised of scenes, images and physical artifacts that aim to reconstruct “the Black American fairy tale.” (Bridget Gamble)

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