February 10, 2022

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SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY The South Side Weekly is an independent non-profit newspaper by and for the South Side of Chicago. We provide high-quality, critical arts and public interest coverage, and equip and develop journalists, artists, photographers, and mediamakers of all backgrounds.

Volume 9, Issue 10 Editor-in-Chief Jacqueline Serrato Senior Editors Christopher Good Olivia Stovicek Sam Stecklow Martha Bayne Arts Editor Education Editor Housing Editor Community Organizing Editor Immigration Editor

Isabel Nieves Madeleine Parrish Malik Jackson Chima Ikoro Alma Campos

Contributing Editors Lucia Geng Matt Moore

Francisco Ramírez Pinedo Jocelyn Vega Scott Pemberton Staff Writers Kiran Misra Yiwen Lu Director of Fact Checking: Kate Gallagher Fact Checkers: Grace Del Vecchio, Hannah Farris, Savannah Hugueley, Caroline Kubzansky, Yiwen Lu, and Sky Patterson Interim Visuals Editor Jason Schumer Deputy Visuals Editors Shane Tolentino Mell Montezuma Staff Illustrators Mell Montezuma Shane Tolentino Layout Editors Haley Tweedell Colleen Hogan Shane Tolentino Tony Zralka Webmaster Pat Sier Managing Director Jason Schumer Director of Operations Brigid Maniates The Weekly is produced by a mostly all-volunteer editorial staff and seeks contributions from across the city. We publish online weekly and in print every other Thursday.

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Cover Illustration by Mell Montezuma

IN CHICAGO RIP the real blues brothers Chicago lost two legendary blues brothers this month. Not those Blues Brothers (from the cult classic), but the real ones—guitarists Jimmy Johnson and Syl Johnson, both of whom contributed to putting Chicago on the map as a city of blues in the 60s and 70s. Chicago blues came about during the Great Migration of African Americans to the north and was inspired by gospel and the Delta blues of Mississippi. It was developed on the streets, such as the Maxwell Street Market, and in blues bars in the South and West sides. Syl became one of the most sampled artists in hip-hop history, according to the American Blues Scene, his songs appearing on tracks by artists like Wu-Tang, Kanye West, Jay-Z, Public Enemy, and Kid Rock. In 2002, they both produced an album with the title Two Johnsons Are Better Than One. Up until recently, Jimmy still played regularly at Blues on Halsted. Sam Lay, the first Chicago blues drummer elected to the Blues Hall of Fame, also passed away.

Snow plow inequality After a recent snowstorm, Chicagoans noticed the City’s apparently biased plowing trends. Residents of South Side neighborhoods pointed out their streets were the last to be plowed, while trucks were busy clearing the streets downtown and parts of the North Side. Chicagoans took to Twitter to recall how swarms of snow plows are weaponized by the City during large protests and gatherings, as the Weekly reported last summer, but are seemingly nowhere to be found when it actually snows. In a viral video posted by actor Lisa Beasley on Instagram, she shared how the City’s snow plow tracker had a prominent gap in their routes, specifically in Black neighborhoods like Englewood, Auburn Gresham and Greater Grand Crossing. Streets next to Chicago Public Schools had also been notably missed by snow plow trucks, a CPS parent pointed out with data from the City. Over 300 schools–nearly half of CPS–were left unplowed on February 2, when kids were expected to show up to class. The next morning, there were 131 schools that still hadn’t been plowed. Many parents went to neighborhood Facebook groups to vent about the chaos outside and the way unplowed streets aggravated “dibs.”

Cook County spay/neuter rebate The Cook County Department of Animal and Rabies Control announced a new effort to spay and neuter pets at a discount during Spay and Neuter Awareness Month. More than 200 veterinary clinics throughout Cook County are participating in the program. Residents who want to take advantage of the discount should first confirm that their vet offers the discount before making an appointment. No coupon is required, but the pet owner must live in Cook County.

The County covers up to $40 off spaying and neutering per pet with a limit of two pets per household. During the pandemic, long wait lists in low-cost vet clinics had pet owners waiting almost a year to get their pets fixed.

IN THIS ISSUE public meetings report

A recap of select open meetings at the local, county, and state level. documenters, india daniels, scott pemberton...............................4 another child caught in the crossfire

La Villita tries to find solutions to the gang problem that has taken innocent lives. alma campos......................................5 a road trip to ‘fresniraq’

Chronicles of my visit from Chicago to Zacatecas, Mexico. ismael cuevas jr...............................8 the art doesn’t stop!

Chicago artists continue to practice their crafts amidst an ongoing pandemic. isabel nieves....................................11 the underpinnings of drill

An interview with the author of The Ballad of the Bullet. bobby vanecko..................................15 dimitri moore talks ‘uncertainties’

In conversation with the Chicago newcomer on R&B. lauren johnson................................20 calendar

Bulletin and events. south side weekly staff.................22

Public Meetings Report ILLUSTRATION BY HOLLEY APPOLD

Jan. 20 At its meeting, the Chicago Police Board learned that the Narcotics Arrest Diversion Program has expanded to all districts and deflected 830 individuals from jail and into treatment. The program is a collaborative effort between the police department, the University of Chicago Crime Lab, and recovery service provider Thresholds. Interim Chief Administrator Andrea Kersten reported that the Civilian Office of Police Accountability has launched a mediation program that offers civilians who have lodged a complaint against a police officer the opportunity to meet with the officer to discuss the interaction. The goal is for both parties to gain perspective. Unlike similar programs in other cities, police officers choose to participate.

Jan. 21 A revised version of the proposed civil asset forfeiture ordinance would narrow the definition of street gang membership and allow family members to petition to keep a vehicle. During an informational meeting of the City Council Committee on Public Safety, City officials argued that the Victims’ Justice Ordinance would bring Chicago in line with state legislation and expand the City’s powers for legal recourse against gang activity. The revision also provides for fines of up to $15,000 for a first violation.

Subsequent violations within twelve months would carry fines of up to $30,000, plus potential incarceration for up to 180 days. Some committee members questioned whether the revised ordinance would effectively address crime, violence, and inequality.

Jan. 24 The Encumbrance Ordinance, which aims to revitalize disinvested areas of Chicago by forgiving building-related City debt, was approved at a meeting of the City Council Committee on Finance. As part of its work on this proposal, the City’s Department of Housing conducted an analysis of the 7th Ward, identifying at least ninety-seven buildings whose debts to the City prevented renovation. The debts can be forgiven only when a building’s most recent owner has died or otherwise can’t be reached. The City overcame what Commissioner Marisa Novara and Assistant Commissioner Will Edwards described throughout their presentation as a major obstacle to affordable re-development: the city itself. Namely, the thousands of dollars of City fees and fines levied against owners of neglected and blighted residential properties who are unavailable for or unwilling to appear in court. Ordinance sponsor Ald. Greg Mitchell spoke enthusiastically about what he describes as a tool to finally take slumlords to task and for rescuing otherwise inaccessible houses from a quagmire of red tape.

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¬ FEBRUARY 10, 2022

A recap of select open meetings at the local, county, and state level for the February 10 issue.

BY DOCUMENTERS, INDIA DANIELS, SCOTT PEMBERTON Jan. 25 Have a lot of reading to do? Library cardholders will now be able to place a hold on up to twelve resources at a time, thanks to a vote by the Chicago Public Library Board of Directors (CPL) at its meeting to increase the previous limit of eight items. CPL staff also discussed the year’s planned renovations and upgrades to library branches in Brainerd, Brighton Park, Greater Grand Crossing, Jeffery Manor, and West Lawn.

CPL Commissioner Chris Brown noted that capital improvements could lead to an increase in the use of those locations for up to ten years. During public comment, two speakers urged CPL to make its programs more accessible–for example, by providing subtitles for live-streamed events.

Jan. 26 Alderpersons agreed at this meeting that the City Council would benefit from having dedicated legislative counsel but continued to clash on specifics. An ordinance proposed by member Anthony Beale (9th Ward) would empower the Council to contract with an independent advisor in parliamentary procedure, separate from the City’s corporation counsel, who works more closely with the mayor and administration.

But that proposal stalled. Residents from the Southwest Side urged the City to reject the renewal of Sims Metal’s permit, concerned by the effects of pollution which causes asthma, lung disease, and respiratory issues, confounded by the respiratory pandemic virus, and encouraged the City to have a town hall with residents. A resolution for the International Remembrance of the Holocaust passed.

Feb. 2 The Cook County Board of Commissioners Environmental Commission plans to discuss food waste composting with sports arenas and hotels, Cook County Board Commissioner Bridget Degnen (12th District) reported at the commission’s meeting.

Degnen noted that little local infrastructure exists for large-scale composting efforts.

The goal is to begin conversations with potential resources before drafting legislation.

The board also intends to explore tax incentives for composting companies, installation of larger anaerobic digesters at Stroger Hospital and Cook County Jail, and by-product uses. In 2022, the commission will focus on restoring Cook County’s tree canopy and exploring industrial composting programs.

Feb. 4 Saran Inc. intends to buy an abandoned Englewood property at 937 W. 59th St. from the Cook County Land Bank Authority (CCLBA) to create a mixed-use development and community space for his businesses and residential units. Entrepreneur Corey Gilkey is a Boxville Marketplace collaborator, the president of Chenille Factory, and CEO of Leaders 1354 and the Friistyle restaurant. At the CCLBA meeting, members of the Land Transactions Committee approved the sale for fifty thousand dollars.

The committee also approved the fifty-nine-thousand-dollar sale of a vacant lot in North Lawndale at 4532-36 W. Grenshaw St. for the expansion of Aries Charter, a bus company based in the neighborhood.

This information was collected in large part using reporting from City Bureau’s Documenters at documenters.org

Another Child Caught in the Crossfire

PHOTO BY MIRANDA PLOSS

Residents in La Villita try to find solutions to the gang problem that has taken innocent lives.

BY ALMA CAMPOS

O

n a cold Saturday afternoon, eight-year-old Melissa Ortega and her mother, Araceli Leaños, left home walking to the bank and then to a McDonald’s.

Araceli wanted to keep her promise. She was going to get her girl a hamburger.

It was January 22, 2022.

Melissa: ¿Me compras una hamburguesa, mamá?

Mamá: Claro que sí, mami, ¿quieres ir ahora o después de ir al banco?

Melissa: Al rato, todavía no tengo hambre, pero ¿me prometes que me la compras?

Mamá: Claro que sí. Te lo prometo.

Melissa: Mom, can you buy me a hamburger?

Mom: Do you want to go now or after going to the bank?

Melissa: We can go later, I am not that hungry right now, but can you promise me you’ll buy me one?

Mom: Of course. I promise.

Sixteen-year-old Emilio Corripio stepped out from an alley, shooting at rival gang members. Caught in the crossfire where Areceli and her daughter Melissa were.

According to police, the mother and daughter ran towards the bank as Corripio shot one of his targets in the back, a twenty-six-year-old gang member. Inadvertently, the teenaged shooter had also shot Melissa in the head twice. She would collapse and die just a few hours later at Stroger Hospital.

It was eerily reminiscent of another tragedy just over two years prior. In 2019, on

Halloween night, a fifteen-year-old boy raised his gun to kill a rival gang member in La Villita. Shooting wildly, he missed him but hit seven-year-old Gisselle Zamago, in her Minnie Mouse costume, in the neck and chest. She was trick-or-treating with her dad. Miraculously, she survived.

I am reminded I was five years old when my family and I immigrated to the United States. On the night that we waited to cross from Tijuana to San Diego, I asked my mother to tell me what was on the other side. She responded that Mickey Mouse was there and she promised I’d meet him. Of course, I am aware now that she could have only kept this promise if we didn’t get arrested or died trying to cross into America for its promise of providing its children a bright and safe future.

Melissa immigrated with her mother from Tabasco, Zacatecas, to California.

Three months later they moved to Chicago, where most of their family lives. Melissa became a third grade student at Emiliano Zapata Academy. Pastor Matt DeMateo from New Life Ministries read her mother’s statement during a press conference: she dreamed of learning English, doing TikTok dances with friends, and seeing Chicago snow for the first time, which she was able to live out during a brief snowfall in late December.

Armed conflict, natural disasters, gender inequality, unemployment, corruption, and lack of access to healthcare and quality education are many of the reasons immigrants come to the U.S. La Villita has been a port of entry for many Mexican immigrant families looking for a better life, like Melissa and her family. And for decades, Mexican immigrants have created and sustained the second-highest tax revenue generating shopping district in the city with over 500 businesses, contributing $900 million per year to Chicago’s economy. While La Villita residents have generated whopping amounts to the local economy, it is unclear how much of this money comes back to the community.

Something desperately needed is additional investment in violence prevention.

While there was an increase in the City’s violence prevention spending for 2022, up from $85 million in comparison to the previous year’s $16.5 million, police spending soared to $1.9 billion–a $200 million increase from a year prior.

“We could do a lot more if we reallocated some of those [police] funds,” said Jesus Salazar, a field manager in crime prevention with Metropolitan Family FEBRUARY 10, 2022 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 5

COMMUNITY ORGANIZING Services (MFS). Salazar said a focus on street outreach is key to violence prevention which involves reaching out to gang-involved youth and providing them with access to resources.

Salazar was a “violence interrupter” with CeaseFire from 2011 to 2015. His responsibility was to mitigate and de-escalate violence on the ground. CeaseFire, originating in Chicago, was funded by the State of Illinois, and due to its positive impact, its model had spread nationally to other major cities. However, “Governor Rauner deemed the program non-essential, and he snatched away the funding,” Salazar said.

Even when operating, the organization was inconsistent, and outreach workers didn’t find it sustainable. “We would be off for six months, and then we would be off for another three months, and then [they’d] bring us on for another six months,” Salazar said. “It was hectic.”

As a field manager with MFS, Salazar now works with outreach workers who intervene in gang conflicts. This involves mediation, setting up non-aggression agreements and offering support to teens and adults affiliated in gangs in order to get them to put down the guns. “I don't think the police can do that,'' he said. “They don't have relationships… they're not from our community. We spent a lot of money on the police, and I don't think we've seen the results.”

Melissa’s tragic murder, along with many other killed children, has put a renewed pressure on officials demanding more funding and pointing to the shortcomings of the city and the state. Araceli Leaños, Melissa’s mother, expressed this sentiment in a written statement to the press. She even went on to say she “forgives” the gunman who killed her daughter, calling him a “victim, too.”

The sixteen-year-old who killed Melissa got back into a vehicle, which sped away, but was eventually tracked down through license-plate readers and surveillance footage. The teen faces felony counts of first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder, along with two counts of aggravated assault with a firearm. The driver, twentyseven-year-old Xavier Guzman, was also arrested and faces felony charges for first degree murder and attempted first degree murder. He is also charged with one count of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon.

Salazar thinks looking at the root of the problem can shed light on finding solutions to gun violence such as poverty, problems at home, and learning disabilities. However, he said, one of the biggest reasons young people turn to gangs is for support—because

PHOTO BY MIRANDA PLOSS

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¬ FEBRUARY 10, 2022

that support doesn’t exist anywhere in their lives. There aren’t enough positive role models to emulate as well, he added. And while there may be sports and activities teens can be a part of, “they still have to go home” and “back to the community” where, he said, they can get pulled back into crime.

PHOTO BY MIRANDA PLOSS

Growing up in La Villita, he said that he met a few positive role models, but he couldn’t relate to them. “How many young kids are looking up to a pastor, right?” he asked. “Young people aspire to be what they see on television: to be: ‘cool,’ ‘sexy,’ and ‘tough.’ There isn't a counternarrative to that, and it's disappointing,” he added.

Salazar thinks it’s also important to have outreach workers at schools because as soon as a child acts out, they get reprimanded by getting suspended or expelled. “But is that the right thing to do for one of these young brothers? Like, you need to stop a young brother from learning and getting an education?” he said.

Before doing outreach work, Salazar was affiliated with a gang in Little Village for decades. He calls this “fall[ing] into a rabbit hole for acting out.” He said it was a GED teacher who helped him push through learning challenges in math, and the teacher took the time to ask him, “What’s going on… why are you acting out?”

He thinks these types of interactions are important when children don’t have a support system and “don’t feel loved.” Getting that love from people in the community also helped him. He was able to get a job, and he received focused attention by a mentor. This kind of support wasn’t available to him in other places.

A lot more resources are needed to supplement existing programs, said Kaya Nuques, executive director at Enlace Chicago, a La Villita nonprofit that focuses on education, health, immigrant rights, and violence prevention. “There is an overwhelming number of youth and adults who need support, and there is limited capacity.”

The CeaseFire program, which Enlace ran, also used several strategies to target violence, including the provision of services such as GED programs, counseling, drug and/or alcohol treatment, and helping young people find jobs.

Salazar said that in order to get young boys to put their guns down, the guns

COMMUNITY ORGANIZING PHOTO BY MIRANDA PLOSS

must be replaced with something else, and said violence prevention is an effective approach to help unravel that loop. “I don't want the next generation of young people to continue to perpetrate this, this cycle of violence,” Salazar said. “Because, you know, their uncle was killed, their dad was killed, their little brother was killed, and they don't know how to grieve.”

According to Salazar, the state reallocated the funds for CeaseFire to organizations like MFS and Chicago CRED that do similar work. With a jump in funds for crime prevention in this year’s budget, he hopes street outreach will be a big priority.

The solution goes beyond street outreach, according to Dolores Castañeda.

Castañeda is a Little Village resident involved with Padres Angeles (Parent Angels), an organization that promotes peace in the community and helps families heal after they’ve lost loved ones due to gun violence.

Though she had worked in several factories in Chicago, Castañeda permanently immigrated to the U.S. about thirty years ago. The impetus was death threats from the president of her village of Salvatierra in Guanajuato, Mexico, when she began writing about and exposing corruption and abuse in local jails. Her mother had, many years ago, immigrated to the U.S. to find work as a street vendor to provide for Castañeda and her brothers back home. Her father had passed away, making it difficult for her mother to support all of the children. Growing up, she said, she became aware of the poverty in her pueblo. “I learned from a very young age [about the] barriers that I had in my village, where I was born, where people died because they didn't have food or medicine.”

Casteñada is now a mother of four. She was at her job when her then-twelveyear-old daughter got caught in a crossfire between rival gang members and was shot.

She survived, but the incident made her want to get involved in violence prevention.

She said more funding programming is needed in Little Village in addition to what is provided by the City, which she described as being directed more to funerals and helping families cope, rather than actual prevention.

She worries that often the blame in a situation like this is put on the parents– especially the mother. She said she knows many parents who have lost children that continue to blame themselves. “There is a situation of blaming the victim for the fact

that your child has been shot,'' she said. “That it's your fault.” This type of mentality doesn’t allow parents to properly heal, she said, and so the community and City officials don’t feel the pressure to step in.

Understanding why young people are picking up guns in the first place can provide a gateway to tackling violence. And while the police will take a gun away from the hands of these young boys, Salazar said that can be addressed through prevention programs in the community and outreach workers in schools. Castañeda thinks it’s important to support parents, not attack them, to quit blaming them and to make better use of City funds by investing in spaces for young people and families. “The money should really go to the community, not [just] to pay for funerals,” Castañeda added, referencing large organizations that decide where the money goes.

22nd Ward Alderperson Michael Rodríguez said tackling gun violence is a collective issue and everyone needs to be in on it: “It's not about any one person. It's about all of us together. So I’ve made it a point,” mentioning his background as a former director of violence prevention and executive director at Enlace, a former employee at the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office, and a youth mentor during his college days. Over the years, Rodríguez said, “we've been able to increase the City's budget going towards violence prevention, intervention work, but it's not nearly enough.”

He agrees more resources towards prevention and intervention are effective and “economically sound.” He said, “It costs a lot more money to incarcerate people.” He said he will continue working on crime prevention with a lens on poverty reduction which he references as a root cause of gun violence.

Along with poverty reduction, Rodriguez said his focus will be working with Eddie Bocanegra, a Chicago violence-prevention leader from Little Village who was recently appointed as an advisor to the U.S. Justice Department.

A drawing of Melissa peaked above a crowd marching for peace down 26th Street a week after her death. In the drawing, Melissa is surrounded in white roses. She is wearing a white gown and a halo hangs above her head. Bright orange and black monarch butterfly wings are drawn on her. For undocumented immigrants living in the U.S., the monarch butterfly represents dignity and resilience, and the inherent right that all people have to move and travel freely. Dozens of children walked alongside parents holding pink and white balloons, as well as roses. Squad cars surrounded the marchers. The group then gathered at the corner of Pulaski Avenue where they placed the roses on the street corner next to candles and released balloons into the sky. Alma Campos is the Weekly’s immigration editor. She last wrote about Jesús “Chuy” Negrete, a Chicago folklorist, writer, and activist known for singing corridos who passed away in the Summer of 2021.

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FEBRUARY 10, 2022 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 7

IMMIGRATION

PHOTO BY ISMAEL CUEVAS JR.

A Road Trip to

BY ISMAEL CUEVAS JR.

I

‘Fresniraq’

am rushing back to my apartment in Pilsen, doing one last walk-through to make sure I didn’t forget my passport, wallet, or any other important documents. Like in Sandra Cisneros’ book Caramelo where Celaya “Lala” Reyes narrates her father and two uncles packing their cars to the brim as they embark on a journey from Chicago to Mexico City, my brother is double parked, rearranging our luggage to ensure his rear view visibility isn't blocked by all the encargos we are taking. I rush back downstairs and bump into my neighbor, who asks me if I’m okay, and I look at him, nodding. He says, “you look scared,” to which I respond, “well, I am driving to Zacatecas right now.”

“Ah, no manches, right now? Con razón, good luck and stay safe. They say the roads are rough down there,” he warns.

Originally, my brother Alberto and I were supposed to go on a road trip during the holiday break throughout the American Southwest, camping at various National Parks along the way. But a week before we leave, I get a phone call from my ninetytwo-year-old grandfather, who, in a sad and teary voice, asks if we are going to visit: 8 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

¬ FEBRUARY 10, 2022

“Melito, ¿sí va venir para Navidad? Ya sabe que los extrañamos y no sé cuánto más vaya a durar en esta tierra.” I tell my brother, and he immediately responds, “we need to go to Mexico.” Excited to be reunited again, our cousins in Mexico give us very specific instructions: drive only during daylight hours, stay on toll roads, and don’t drive a flashy car.

My mom pulls up right before we are about to depart on our thirty-hour drive to Zacatecas. She hands us more encargos and with a worried look on her face tells us to be safe: “mijos, cuidense mucho, ya saben cómo está la cosa allá.”

Driving to Mexico is no longer idyllic like in Cisneros’ Caramelo. The only things that remain the same are the landscape and the deadly vehicular accidents. Now paisanos have to deal with extortion, kidnappings, and cartel battles when driving back to their homelands. This, alongside a two-plus year global pandemic, in which the outcome is still uncertain.

IMMIGRATION

In July 2021, the U.S. Embassy in Mexico released a security alert rating Tamaulipas, the border state across from Laredo, Texas, as a “Level 4 – Do Not Travel” state due to the violence. It also included federal highway 85D between Nuevo Laredo and Monterrey due to an increase in criminal activity: the same road we would be on for three hours on our way to my birthplace of Fresnillo, Zacatecas.

PHOTO BY ISMAEL CUEVAS JR.

A

fter spending a night in Memphis with a cousin and a night in Austin with some friends, we depart early to ensure we arrive at the U.S.-Mexico checkpoint in Laredo by 9am. My brother and I are surprised to see hundreds of SUV’s and new trocas del año on I-35 pulling trailers overloaded with Christmas gifts and household items like refrigerators, stoves, and kitchen sets. Either they didn’t get the memo or it's part of the calculated risks that millions of mexicanos take when they drive across the border.

Right before we approach the bridge over the Rio Grande, we fill up the gas tank and I ask my brother to let me drive since I have crossed the inspection zone multiple times. Normally, there would be a traffic jam that lasted a few hours leading up the bridge, but after paying the $1.75 toll on the U.S. side of the Juárez–Lincoln International Bridge, we see “México” in big bright red letters. With our passports and COVID-19 vaccine cards in hand, I am expecting the Mexican customs agents to question us and inspect our vehicle. But we look around and there is no agent in sight.

The checkpoints are wide open and we slowly cross, merging onto a boulevard taking us to the CIITEV, a module to buy a temporary vehicle importation permit that’s required when crossing an American vehicle into the country.

Alberto and I look at each other and wonder if this is how weapons get smuggled.

Our suspicion stems from a tactic that was used by the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) which ran operations along the Arizona-Mexico border in the late 2000’s. They purposely allowed American-licensed firearm dealers to sell weapons illegally to straw buyers with the hopes that they could track the guns to Mexican drug cartels and make arrests.

Operation Fast and Furious, as it was dubbed, led to one of their weapons being found at the scene of the murder of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry and crime scenes where at least 150 Mexican civilians have been injured or killed. Over the course of the operation, over 2,000 firearms were bought by straw purchasers and have been found in thousands of homicide crime scenes across Mexico, a majority cartel-related.

“We catch up to other vehicles with American license plates, give each other a smiling nod in solidarity, and drive in a group of four cars all the way to Fresnillo. We race against the sunset.

No one wants to get stranded on this carretera.”

We pull up to a dirt parking lot where hundreds of American vehicles wait to receive their car permits. A makeshift taqueria stands in the center with Coca-Cola tarps providing shade from the intense borderland sun. Cumbias and corridos blast from the speakers as people order their tacos or huaraches de carne asada. Vehicles with license plates from Illinois and the Midwest and as far as Florida, Montana, and New York, line up along the Río as their passengers anxiously wait to depart so they could

continue their journey inland. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation data, over six million passenger vehicles crossed the Laredo border in 2021, down from its peak of eighteen million in 1998.

I see a dozen federal police, national guard, and Angeles Verdes (Mexico’s public roadside assistance entity) arrive at the parking lot. Over a loudspeaker, a police officer announces, "La caravana migrante va a salir a las once de la mañana.” Two days earlier, the Federación Orgullo Zacatecano organized a vehicular caravan of 2,000 migrants living in the U.S. who were crossing the border south to be escorted by Mexican government agencies across the 400-mile stretch between Nuevo Laredo and Zacatecas. Given the insecurity on the roads, migrant leaders in the U.S. demanded that government officials in Mexico guarantee their safety as they traversed the country to their destinations.

Through a program called Heroes Paisanos by Mexico’s immigration department, the Instituto Nacional de Migración, Mexican officials across forty agencies work to ensure a safe passage through Mexico during the holiday season. An hour later, my brother comes out of the module with our car and tourist permits. “Listo, vamonos!” he says with relief on his face.

We catch up with the caravan down the highway. Military and national guard trucks with soldiers atop, holding their assault rifles, were cruising at the speed limit as hundreds of American cars raced down the two-lane road. I tell my brother to stay alert as we are nearing the kilometro veintiseis. I am definitely hiding my anxiety from my brother but we both have a nervous and concentrated attitude to get through this stretch. In December, Todos Somos Uno, a collective of families searching for their loved ones, protested in front of the Nuevo Leon state capitol to demand investigations into mass disappearances. On the desolate desert section near the 26th kilometer point, over 185 people have been reported missing in 2021. Car jackings and harassment videos from delinquent groups have gone viral on social media.

I look at the weather app on my phone. Sunset is at 6:30pm. As long as we arrive in Zacatecas before the sun disappears we will be okay.

We meet with my friend Octavio at a rest stop outside Monterrey so we can ride together. After passing Saltillo, and the Bienvenidos a Zacatecas sign at around 4pm, we fill up for gas one last time in Concepción del Oro. By this time, the thousands of vehicles have trickled down to less than a hundred. We pass a road sign that warns drivers they are entering a no-cell-phone-service-within-a-hundred-miles zone. The last stretch of road before arriving at my paternal grandparents house looks like Forrest FEBRUARY 10, 2022 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 9

IMMIGRATION Gump’s final running scene on the long uninhabited road near Monument Valley, Arizona. We catch up to other vehicles with American license plates, give each other a smiling nod in solidarity, and drive in a group of four cars all the way to Fresnillo. We race against the sunset. No one wants to get stranded on this carretera.

A

lberto knocks on the front gate with his car keys, creating the familiar clinking sound of metal echoing through her patio that I have heard since my first visit to her house in third grade after finally becoming a legal resident. The streetlight casts our shadows over the entrance as my grandmother opens the door.

“Abuelita, ya llegamos!” we both excitedly announce as we embrace her. I hear my grandpa calling us from the kitchen. My grandma explains that he struggles to stand up and needs a walker, so we walk over to hug and kiss him. Within minutes, our three cousins who live next door walk in and tell us to get ready. They are going to take us to cenar since they don’t want my elderly abuelita to get tired by our arrival.

After dinner we go back to our grandma’s living room. My cousins Eli, Ceci, Eladio, and his girlfriend, update us on their lives. The conversation quickly turns into terrifying testimonies of their experience living in Fresniraq, a cartel warzone.

Colloquially, Fresnillenses have referred to their 468 year old mining city as Fresniraq for its bloody clashes between the Mexican military or militarized law enforcement agencies and cartel groups. I couldn’t stop thinking about Kanye West’s “Black Skinhead” song where he popularized the term “Chiraq.” This nickname has since lost appeal, but it came about due to a statistic that indicated 4,265 people were killed in Chicago between 2003-2012 due to gun violence, roughly the same number of American soldiers who were killed in Iraq during that time period.

Fresnillo, the world’s largest silver producer and the largest city in Zacatecas with 143,000 people, has been strategically important to the drug and firearm trade route since it has highways connecting to eight states, linking the Pacific ports to the northern region by the U.S.-Mexico border. Over the last few years, the Cártel de Sinaloa and Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación have been fighting over the plaza or

10 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

¬ FEBRUARY 10, 2022

turf of towns within Fresnillo and other pueblos in the county.

In 2021, the state of Zacatecas recorded 1,464 homicides within a total state population of 1.6 million people. To put it in perspective, in 2021 Chicago had 836 homicides within 2.7 million city residents. The New York Times published a story last August calling Fresnillo the most terrified city after it sent a journalist and photographer to document daily life of zacatecanos who had lost loved ones to violence.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration released a joint intelligence report in May 2017 detailing the ways Mexican drug trafficking organizations are responsible for providing the majority of drugs to Chicago street gangs. The profits have enabled both cartels and gangs to operate in both countries and, as a result, influence the rates of violent crimes, the report said. Like Fresnillo, Chicago's extensive transportation networks and connections to other cities make it an ideal hub to move drugs and money from the border.

Abue takes us to my dad’s childhood room and indicates where the San Marcos blankets are located in case we get cold at night. After thirty hours of driving, physically and mentally exhausted, I stay up thinking about the way gun violence has been an everyday part of my life, whether on the South Side of Chicago or my hometown of Fresnillo. On this night the temperature drops to 27°F, the coldest this winter season.

Our family jokes the next morning that we brought the Chicago cold with us.

I

feel grounded being back in Zacatecas. In the mornings I open the window and take a big breath of fresh cold semi-arid air. Alberto and I spend the next week visiting our maternal grandparents, aunts and uncles on both my mother’s and father’s side and meeting the young children of our cousins. I am excited to be called a tio even though I am technically not their uncle. Aunts from Mexico City and Los Angeles are also in town, so our nochebuena dinner no longer fits in the kitchen.

We set up multiple foldable tables to accommodate the twenty-six members–three generations–of Reyes family. The other half can’t make it since they are in the U.S., but they aren’t far away as video calls are coming in and out throughout the festive Christmas Eve. Before we come back to Chicago, my paternal grandfather wants my brother and I to take him to Ermita de los Correa, an hour south of Fresnillo–the birthplace of my father and his parents. After spending a few hours asking him about our lineage, I compile a genealogical tree using Ancestry.com and find Cuevas’ in La Ermita going as far back as the 1700’s. My grandfather wants Alberto, my cousin Eladio, and I to find and locate his agricultural plots of land that he had purchased from his savings as a laborer in the American Bracero program. He tells us he wants us to navigate the rural backroads, since one day not too far from today he will no longer be on this earth.

As we all get ready that morning, there is tense silence that permeates the kitchen while my grandma cooks frijoles con huevo. During the last weeks of the summer in 2021, groups of armed men came into La Ermita and hung up narcomantas– handwritten narco banners–throughout the village demanding that residents leave or die. According to local and international media, approximately 350 residents were forcibly displaced as nonstop gun battles between opposing cartels raged on for days.

In rural areas, it is customary to wave at the occasional oncoming truck or at a tractor in the fields a few hundred feet in the distance. After all, the driver could be extended family.

But this time, it is as if we are invisible. People turn away from us. Maybe they don't recognize us or most likely they don't

PHOTO BY ISMAEL CUEVAS JR.

The Art Doesn’t Stop!

want to attract any attention in case we are the bad guys. We make a right turn on a road next to a permanent Virgen de Guadalupe altar on the embankment. La Ermita is mostly empty. Bullet holes are sprayed onto humble single-story adobe homes.

The Mexican Army sits in a temporary camp in the middle of the village observing everyone who comes through the town.

We stop to greet two sets of great uncles who weathered the battles in the village.

They corroborate what we have heard in the news. All the younger people with children left, the elderly folks without resources or who had "nothing to lose" stayed.

Many families sold their only assets: livestock or 110 lb. sacks of beans, soy, or animal feed. Much of our extended family ended up seeking refuge in nearby Jerez and some migrated to California.

“In 2021, the state of Zacatecas recorded 1,464 homicides within a total state population of 1.6 million people. To put it in perspective, in 2021 Chicago had 836 homicides within 2.7 million city residents.”

I

call my mother as soon as we cleared the U.S. Border Patrol crossing on New Years Eve. “Má, ya cruzamos, estamos en Texas,” my brother had her on speaker. Our 3,600-mile road trip is near its end. A barrage of conflicted feelings overwhelm me as we drive back. During our stay in Zacatecas there was an average of three or four homicides per day in the areas we visited. But the warmth and loving embraces from each one of my grandparents, aunts and uncles, my cousins and their little ones, remind me of why I go to Mexico when the opportunity arises.

It is no longer a hyperbole to state that the War on Drugs in the U.S. and Mexico has been a failure of epic proportions. Five decades have passed since U.S. President Richard Nixon declared drug abuse as “public enemy number one”. Since then, congressional legislation, prosecutorial practices, and law enforcement policies have resulted in disproportionate imprisonment of Black people. One in three AfricanAmerican men in their twenties are currently in the criminal justice system. Across the river, sixteen years since former Mexican President Felipe Calderon declared a war on cartels, 300,000 homicides have been recorded, many of the victims from the poorest sectors in society. From Black Lives Matter and #NiUnaMenos movements, communities of both sides of the border have organized in different ways to resist and protect people from these systemic attacks.

In the United States and Mexico, political parties across the spectrum continue to egregiously kick the can down the road to make any meaningful changes to immigration laws, the criminal justice system, and even the basic process of asylumseeking and permanent residency. For some of us, despite the risks of traveling to Mexico, we have the privilege of visiting our family and coming back to the U.S. Millions of people of Mexican descent worry about the fate of our loved ones even as they reassure us que todo está bien (everything is okay). Ismael Cuevas Jr. has written for the Weekly and has a forthcoming article on the history of Plaza Tenochtitlan in Public Books. He has a M.A. in Mexican American and Latina/o Studies from the University of Texas at Austin.

ILLUSTRATION BY EMILY HAMMERMEISTER

Artists from Chicago continued to practice their crafts amidst an ongoing pandemic, especially on the South Side.

BY ISABEL NIEVES

T

he ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has affected everyone differently.

Many people suffered huge losses, while some found new opportunities.

Although we are almost two years from the start of the pandemic, it’s clear that we can’t go back to the way things once were any time soon. Artists in particular have had to make a lot of changes, but the art never stopped. The way that artists have adapted to the ongoing pandemic has shown the resilience of the arts community in Chicago, especially on the South Side. They’ve found ways to continue practicing their art to survive on various levels.

f

emdot. is a rapper and founder of the non-profit Delacreme Scholars from Glenwood. He remembers getting ready for what he expected to be a breakout year right before the pandemic shut things down.

“I had just come off my first nationwide tour,” femdot. said. “I came back home, ready to get back on the road and was preparing for that … I was in and out of writing camps and sessions pretty consistently up until literally the week of the shutdown.”

He explained how during the first few weeks of the lockdown he was creating music nonstop, but as the pandemic persisted for months, femdot. put music-making on pause and focused on his community. “I wasn’t able to write as much, and, you know, figuring out how we should be helping people,” femdot. said. “‘Is there something else we could be doing right now?’”

During his pause on rapping, femdot. began focusing on grocery delivery initiatives with Delacreme Scholars. “So many other artists in the city were creating initiatives or just [being] outside trying to help people around that time,” he said.

FEBRUARY 10, 2022 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 11

ARTS

COURTESY OF FEMDOT

“That kind of became our community.” femdot. eased back into rapping by putting together Zoom sessions called “Sixteens,” where a rapper would write a verse in sixteen minutes and a producer would make a beat in sixteen minutes, and then combine their work.

“That felt like the first time, like some sort of community, or like I was back in the studio just with the homies making music,” he said. “I think those “Sixteens” [sessions] really allowed me to sharpen my craft, but also kind of have me looking [through] the music lens again.” femdot. started making music in the studio again near the end of the summer of 2020. He explained the new thoughts he had when he was in the studio getting ready to record. “‘Am I singing through the masks [or] getting my mask off, at least when I’m recording?’ The first couple of sessions were definitely kind of awkward and there was this underlying layer of paranoia of like, ‘does this person have COVID?’ You know, ‘if we’re all

COURTESY OF SHAQUILLE ROBERTS

12 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

in a closed space now, can we all get COVID?’” femdot. recalled.

“We had our first show back in May 2021, and it went beautifully,” he said.

“But, I know I was definitely thinking like, ‘damn, are [audience members] going to be super distanced? How would I get them to wave their hands? If they’re not in front of me, you know, can I do call and responses?’” femdot. said. But his anxiety about how the concerts would go eased up when he saw the show running normally, with the only change being masks.

Despite the success of his live performances during the pandemic, recent surges in COVID-19 cases have forced femdot. to postpone some shows.

The rapper released his latest album NOT FOR SALE in November, and was set to perform his new music live at his first headlining show in Chicago—his hometown—since January 2018. He recalled not wanting his event to be a super-spreader event and risking the

¬ FEBRUARY 10, 2022

COURTESY OF ANGEL HAROLD

health of his fans.

“We ended up having to push [the show to] the start of March,” femdot. said. “We were supposed to have the show the same week CPS was shut down, and the Grammys were being postponed, and we were like ‘okay, we need to push this back.’”

Despite the uncertainty of the virus and its effect on everyone, femdot. is still pushing through with his creative plans.

“If there’s nothing that 2020 has shown us, it’s that anything can change at any moment,” he said. “So I try not to put too much faith in all the plans I have, but understand that things will be okay.”

A

ngel Harrold is a photographer and soap maker who was raised in Pilsen and Hyde Park, and now resides in Bridgeport. Toward the beginning of the pandemic, Harrold had a studio where she planned to practice her photography, but the studio became more than that.

“The pandemic didn't get any better, so I actually started making a lot of soap there,” Harrold said. “I also did portraits of people, like for music videos or like mixtape albums, and then I started approaching strangers and doing portraits of them as well.”

Harrold not only adapted as a photographer during the pandemic, but found a new passion that has become a small business for her. “I started making soaps early [in the] pandemic, and I always tell people I started because I was running out of soap and I was buying stuff I didn't really like that much. So while I was cooped up at home, that was kind of a really good way to make stuff for people. I also actually learned a lot about starting a very small business through making soap,” Harrold said. “That's been kind of a really cool thing to build on as I work on more projects.”

She still continued to do photography work, and Harrold explained the precautions she had to take while working

COURTESY OF NATALIE MURILLO

ARTS is and looks and interacts with another person virtually.”

Roberts feels optimistic about creating and shooting more productions in the future. “I don’t want to not tell stories,” Roberts said. “So my thing would just be to accommodate the situation we’re in now [rather] than to wait years and years to create, because I don’t think that’s realistic either.”

N

COURTESY OF CASERA HEINING

on a photoshoot during a pandemic. ​​ “I did one mixtape cover for Vic Mensa and that was at my studio with a group of people. We had temperature checks, we tried to keep people together for as few minutes as possible because it was still so early in the pandemic.

We were honest with and upfront with everyone about all the precautions we were taking and I think overall made sure that everyone was comfortable,” Harrold recalled. “I feel like that was all we could do.”

Harrold felt hopeful for the future of her artistic expression through photography and soapmaking. “I moved to Bridgeport because I saw this beautiful storefront and decided I was moving.

So that is kind of like a thing, where I could have control over that. Whether I open up this [soap] store that's in my head next month, two months from now, next year…I think I'm doing like the most with the control that I can have over a situation like a creative situation,” Harrold said.

S

haquille Roberts is a writer, director, and film producer from Englewood.

When looking back at the start of the pandemic, Roberts recalled finishing her short film “Let Go” and planning its premiere gathering. The premiere sold out and she even had to turn people away, but it got canceled at the last minute.

“There was a lot of excitement leading up to it, so having to cancel it was super unfortunate,” Roberts said. The film eventually premiered virtually in the summer 2020 South Side Film Festival.

Roberts said it was saddening to not be able to gauge the public’s reactions to her film as she would be able to at a live event.

At the end of 2020 Roberts produced her film “Lucky Number Seven”, which premiered in-person at Black Harvest Film Festival. Roberts recalled that the event required proof of vaccination to enter, even before it was a mandate in Illinois. Although there were fewer people than previous Black Harvest festivals, it felt good to be back in person at a premiere.

There were a lot of precautions Roberts had to take on the sets of her productions. She began to rethink her production budget, including money to accommodate COVID precautions for people on set, such as testing and PPE. “It’s hard being an independent [filmmaker] because you are already low on funds, and then need to pay for a COVID compliance person, [COVID-19] tests, and extra materials like masks and sanitizing,” Roberts explained. “Those things all add to your budget.”

Roberts found that the most challenging aspect of producing her films and TV pilot in the beginning of the pandemic was casting. “We did eight days of auditions virtually and it was horrible,” Roberts said. “It was great because we got great talent, but it was so hard to do virtual auditions because then we got on set and we actually saw these guys; some were shorter than we thought, some people were a little bit wider than we thought… so it was really hard to get a full picture of the way this person

atalie Murillo is a DJ, producer, and performer who lives in Back of the Yards. Murillo, also known by her stage name La Spacer, is cofounder of Trqpiteca, “an artist duo and production company creating spaces and opportunities for local and international artists who identify as queer, POC, and or allies.”

According to Murrillo, the music community was hit hard by the pandemic compared to other artists. “It's just like, we're not essential,” Murillo said.

With nowhere to DJ in person at the start of the pandemic, Murillo had to find sources of income elsewhere. “I was definitely applying for artist relief grants, emergency grants, and I was able to get some of those,” Murillo said.

During that time, Murillo said, she also honed her writing skills applying for grants. “I took a virtual grant writing class at the Hyde Park Art Center. So that was basically what I was doing. Like just sharpening my grant writing skills, which I don't like to write,” Murillo said. “It was like a big push for me to do that.”

She survived the beginning of the pandemic the way many music performing artists did: through grants and relief funds, producing music for other artists, and streaming DJ sets virtually.

Murillo remembers when she started getting booked for gigs again in the summer of 2020. “I showed up to that [first] event, I had a mask on, there was one of those barricades around the DJ booth to not allow anybody to get near.

So there were a lot of safety protocols,” Murillo said.

Murillo explained that once people were able to get vaccinated in 2021, although she still didn’t feel normal, she started to feel comfortable at the gigs.

D

J Ca$hEra or CaSera Heining is a DJ from Sauk Village who has had to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic as well. Heining recalls being at a high point in her DJ career, being consistently booked for multiple gigs, before the pandemic shut everything down. All of a sudden, CaSera’s gigs were being postponed and ultimately canceled.

“There was no insight as to what was going on, so then I started finding ways to DJ virtually,” Heining said. “I was just doing that different days of the week… just random sets.”

Dedicated to continuing her craft— even if it was virtually—Heining even turned a bedroom of her home into a studio that she could stream out of. There she streamed her DJ sets and practiced her art even more. “I also took the time to learn how to make my own DJ edits,” Heining said, and she did so through virtual classes at Hyde Park Art Center.

“Then I started working a lot more on my blends and things of that nature. So I definitely spent more time practicing and learning different things.”

Heining remembered when she was able to start booking more outdoor gigs a few months into the start of the pandemic in 2020, and how she then started to think about the conditions of the events.

“I was like, ‘what do I have to do to stay safe? What is the venue doing to make sure that everybody inside is going to be safe as well?’” Heining would ask herself. “‘What are we doing as a collective to make sure it’s okay for us to gather under these conditions?’”

Heining isn’t stressing anymore about where the pandemic will take her art. “I wouldn’t say I’m worried about this year at all. We gonna ride it out,” Heining said. “I guess my view on it is like, I’m not gonna stress about what hasn’t happened yet.”

Artists have had to adapt to the pandemic and continue to create and perform, and although it’s unclear what the future will look like, what is clear is the resilience of the South Side artistic community. Isabel Nieves is the arts editor for the Weekly.

FEBRUARY 10, 2022 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 13

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LIT

The Underpinnings of Drill An interview with the author of The Ballad of the Bullet.

BY BOBBY VANECKO

T

COURTESY OF FORREST STUART

he Ballad of the Bullet: Gangs, Drill Music, and the Power of Online Infamy

by Stanford University sociologist Forrest Stuart is an essential read for all Chicagoans–especially those who care about Chicago’s rap music scene and the City’s public health crisis of gun violence. The book details the complex cycles of poverty and trauma that produce much of the city’s interpersonal violence. However, contrary to what some City officials might say, drill music does not cause violence.

It is a description of violent conditions, as this book demonstrates. Responding by criminalizing rap music–as many police and prosecutors do–only makes the problem worse, further perpetuating violence by destabilizing communities and using up resources that could instead be used to address the root causes.

While it is imperative to transform these structural conditions that produce interpersonal violence, a required first step is understanding the problem as it exists today, which this book helps to do. Stuart follows a rap group named Corner Boys Entertainment, from the fictional South Side neighborhood of Jackson Park–not to be mistaken for the actual park–(the names of all the main characters and their rap group are anonymous). Stuart provides a detailed look into what drew them to rap music and why they believed it was their only way out of poverty. Stuart also details the production and videography techniques, social media use, and the promises and potentially deadly perils of living the life of a drill rapper. Although the most important parts of the book come when Stuart details the larger structures that produce such precarious lives.

Stuart agreed to a conversation with the Weekly to discuss some of these larger themes that he touches on in The Ballad of the Bullet.

Q: I figured we could start with why you decided to write this book about Chicago, and maybe situate some of the history in Chicago.

This book… actually started as a project about policing… My first book was about policing. It was about the kinds of spillover and everyday ways that policing seeps down into the social fabric of a neighborhood in some pretty damaging ways. And I focused mostly on Los Angeles. In LA, it's like I was mostly focusing on broken windows-style policing with homeless folks and street vendors. Kind of like public disorder type of policing. And so I wanted to see how a lot of those things transferred into a city where so much of the policing is more of this, like, jump out crew, gang suppression, that kind of stuff. I wanted to see how that stuff… permeated communities. A quick side note… a lot of my policing academic buddies are like, dude, we thought that you were like a police scholar and you're writing a book about policing. But I think you can see one of the reasons why I'm writing the book is because this stuff is getting policed so heavily, and there's so many misconceptions and myths that are circulating [about drill]. So I wanted to put a definitive, on the record, early on, of like, here's what's actually going on, so we can see just how misguided the police policies are.

I arrived in Chicago in 2012. Actually, speaking of South Side Weekly [earlier]– such a great forum–I started doing a lot of work with Invisible Institute… right there next door. And one of the things that we were doing, I brought some undergrads FEBRUARY 10, 2022 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 15

LIT

“What we're hearing in the songs and what we're seeing in music videos is just the manifestation of the ground-level conditions that are intergenerational, that are reflective of not just state neglect, but state injustices and state violence.” with me, and I was working in the Youth / Police Project… eliciting stories from young people about their experiences with policing. I was sitting down and I was interviewing all these students from Hyde Park Academy, and they were giving me a lot of these really horrendous stories about the police.

One of the things that they were talking about was the ways that they had to act–or not act–while moving through the public. And one of the crazy things that they would share with me was that sometimes they would pretend–like if it was like a lone guy walking down the street and he saw a police car, he would go up to young women to kind of pretend like he was in a romantic relationship. Or people would have their sisters walk with them down the street. There was something about the protective factors that young women could provide young men, because the officers thought, oh if somebody's in a loving relationship, they're not the kind of gang member that we're after.

You have all these kinds of creative strategies that young people were using to navigate around police. But then there was this other thing that was going on that the kids really wanted to talk about, even more so than policing… They were like, “No, no, no… you don't understand how difficult this is. Not only do we have to navigate around police, where it's like in front of the officer I have to pretend like I'm not tough, I have to let my guard down, I have to pretend I'm vulnerable… at the same time, we got cops looking at us, and depending on where we are, we've got… the dudes who control that block looking at us [too]. And in their eyes–we don't want to be seen as vulnerable, we don't want to be seen as kids who won't stand up for ourselves.” And so they started really getting into this crazy set of performances and contradictory sets of performances they would have to do… And one of the things that they did, and I loved this strategy, you know when you hear something super interesting and it just gets in your mind and you can't let it go?

This was probably the genesis of the book, was [when] they started talking about how they would put their headphones in and not turn on their music. And what they would do, was essentially walk through neighborhoods, if they were in a neighborhood [where] they didn't necessarily know anybody, and they would listen to hear what drill songs people were playing in their phones, on their stoops, and in their cars, and they would listen to try to see, like, who is the drill rapper? Who are they talking about? …

And by doing that, they would be able to tell in real time like who the rivals were, who the allies were, of the particular faction's territory they were in. So they would know…

“Do I increase my pace and walk out if somebody walks up to me and asks me where I'm from? Do I lie? Do I tell them the truth?” They were deriving all this amazing intelligence about the status of the gang feuds around them by listening to [their] 16 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

¬ FEBRUARY 10, 2022

music, and it's just like, it totally blew my mind. When I was hearing young people talk about this strategy, immediately a light bulb went off in my head… I immediately was like… no academic I know was talking about this, the media is not talking about this, there's a way that there's this… phenomenon that's moving online and offline that really needs to be unearthed and revealed, that young people know really well, but nobody was talking to young people, so we just don't have a good handle on it.

As I probed them more, and what became obvious, like, why they're listening to music to figure out the gang affiliation of someone they're passing by on the street…

One of the things that they hipped me to is, they were like, “Gang colors are irrelevant nowadays.” The old days of like, I don't know, the Latin Kings wearing yellow or like the BDs wearing red… the young people were like, “That is out the window.

Everybody's wearing black, everybody's in a hoodie, everybody's got dreadlocks.” So instead of being able to look at what somebody's wearing to see what gang they’re in, [they’d] have to resort to some other creative strategies... And that is listen out for the music that they're listening to. The move away from colors and the move to everyone is dressed the same, is very much tied to the kind of splintering and fracturing and balkanization of those major super gangs, right?… The splintering… because of these larger structural factors that… are tied to the kind of emergence of this kind of new sonic way of identifying gang affiliation.

The main thing that I think is really important to stress… is that the drivers of this are so structural, even though people like to blame the violence on the music itself.

But… the music is really just a reaction to their reality… So could you maybe speak a little bit to that?

Some folks target the music itself, as though if we could just erase that music… if we could just lock up everybody making that music, the problems that are associated with it would just go away. Which I think is just so naive and so pollyannaish. But it almost feels like intentional ignorance because we have to remember that as you mentioned… what we're hearing in the songs and what we're seeing in music videos is just the manifestation of the ground-level conditions that are intergenerational, that are reflective of not just, like, state neglect, but state injustices and state violence that have been perpetrated on the communities that this [music] is coming out of, right?

And so I think it forces us to ask, why? Why would a sixteen-year-old young person want to engage in this artistic endeavor that could land them in jail, that could in a rare occasion, land them dead… or at minimum, cause some incredible difficulties in their life. Like, what conditions have to be present such that someone would go to these lengths to risk their freedom and their life to make some songs? I think that's really the question that we need to ask, and this is the question that I'm trying to answer in this book.

What we essentially have is a series of communities, across the South Side, but… obviously on the West Side, and we're seeing it nationally and internationally, of young people who are looking out at the prospects that they have in their lives, and they're realizing the deck has been so incredibly stacked against them, that suddenly making an art form that could get you killed or could get you locked up becomes the best option. That in their situation… This is quite a rational decision, right? So we have to remember… At the time when I was writing this book, I think the statistic is still true, it was something like only eight percent of CPS students… would ever go on to get a B.A…. We see the kind of unemployment rates that for folks working in the formal economy, there's not really a route there, right? So [higher] education… young people know, like, that's not gonna happen, right? “My schools are underfunded, teachers aren't necessarily empowered to do what they need to do. There's not the resources, certainly not resources in my community… I can go off and get a low wage labor service job, but I'm gonna drive for either Uber or for Doordash or… I'm gonna work the counter at a liquor store. I certainly can't make much ends meet on that.”

And then the problem was that… thanks to… partly mass incarceration, also thanks to our opioid epidemic–which has been in large part pushed by the pharmaceutical

LIT

PROVIDED BY FORREST STUART, COURTESY OF MACARTHUR FOUNDATION

industry–the former ways of doing this in the illegal economy have bottomed out…

Crack is no longer king on the streets of urban America. Opioids reign now… synthetic drugs now have come in. And so the kind of old school era of, like, you'll get a pack of drugs and a corner and become a corner boy and work your way up through, like, the crack gang structure, like that's not even there. So what they've done is they've kind of looked around, and they've seen how the kind of culture industries are changing, right?

How… young people are becoming influencers practically overnight. And then they're looking at that, and they're saying to themselves, “Wow, well… I don't necessarily have the resources to do half the stuff that young people are doing online, right? But what is at my disposal?”

It turns out the internet really, really loves stereotypical portrayals of the ghetto.

And it turns out the internet really loves conflict, and it turns out the internet really loves… stereotypical caricature-ized images of urban Black America. And these young people quite explicitly, like they tell me these things all the time, they say like, “I'm gonna go on there and I'm gonna give them exactly what they want… I'm going to give them that stereotype, like, hopped up on steroids… So those folks who aren't

from Chicago, who don't know this life, who want to slum and see what it's really like inside the ghetto, like I'm going to give them… a hit of exactly what they want.”

And so that's essentially what we've got: desperate young people looking for any way to improve their situations. And… they’re turning to drill and they're turning to… the associated practices.

Could you, on the one hand, maybe explain the rise of Keith Cozart/Chief Keef?…

But then also, on the other hand, you start the book with Joseph Coleman/Lil Jojo, who was killed.

For sure. The story of drill starts, of course, a long time ago. You can't actually tell the real story of drill without going into, like, the Great Migration and segregation and mass incarceration and those things. But… the first time drill kind of gets onto the radar in a way that really makes people beyond Chicago (and even really in Chicago, as in like the Chicago police) take notice, is… Keith Cozart/Chief Keef, a young man on the South Side, who, while he's on house arrest, posts a series of music videos, kind FEBRUARY 10, 2022 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 17

LIT

“For young people who have spent their lives demonized, I would argue demonized more than any other group in America, suddenly they are told–sometimes for the first time in their life–that they're special, they're worthy, that they're doing something that is unique and worth paying attention to.” of homemade music videos, with his buddies in his gang faction… bouncing around shirtless in the kitchen and living room of his grandmother's house. And through a number of the kind of hype machine dynamics that we see going on on the internet now, it kind of spirals out of control and gathers him all kinds of views and followers.

And in a pretty quick fashion, he is picked up by Interscope, and I believe he signed a $6 million record deal.

And they essentially take him and… some of his boys out of Chicago, out of the South Side, and fly them to LA. And he makes it, he becomes the first viral star in the drill world and the first success story that becomes the model that everyone afterward tries to emulate. And they try and emulate his formula. It's… describing what the hood is like, talking about his opps (rivals), talking about what he does to them, talking about his shooters, talking about dealing drugs, talking about doing drugs. And so this becomes a pretty formulaic way that young people start to do this. So, and I think Chief Keef is probably… like the most financially successful drill artist. There have been people since who I think have become richer than Chief Keef, but they've… in the process kind of distanced themselves from drill. Other folks have landed… there's a guy, Montana of 300, he landed himself a small part on the show Empire. Other folks have landed record deals, but those are really the super duper rare instances…

I want to draw an analogy, as dangerous as this analogy is, I think there's an important analogy of like… There are a very miniscule percentage of young people who are ever going to become a professional basketball player, professional football player, professional soccer player. But just that small percentage doesn't stop the millions of other young people coming from their same situations [of ] trying their damnedest to be a professional athlete as well, right? I think we see something similar with this…

People have often asked me, like, these kids don't really think they're going to get big and famous and rich, do they? And I responded, like, they know the odds are stacked against them, but one, what else are they going to do? And two, like, why not try? You know?

For the majority of people, I would say their continued quest for drill world stardom… on a day to day basis, are actually driven by something very different than the kinds of financial rewards that they saw Chief Keef get. Because I think on a day to day basis… participation in drill… like the daily rewards are pretty amazing, particularly for young people living in crushing poverty. So monetarily, you know, there's… one of the ways that you build your own popularity is linking up with someone who has a little bit more popularity than you do, right? … You're doing some music video with them that, like, when somebody searches in Google for them, there's a likelihood that it will pull up a video that both of you are in. And once they watch the video with both of you, they now know your name and they're gonna go looking for your videos. So doing collaborations with people who are slightly more popular is a great way to grow your own popularity, but this comes at a cost. So you can charge people… money, to do what's called a feature with them… the young people I was shadowing for these 18 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

¬ FEBRUARY 10, 2022

few years charged anywhere from like $50 to like $600 a feature. And so… for a young person, unemployed seventeen-year-old who doesn't know… how they're going to pay for their next meal, a sudden hit of $700 does a lot for you, you know? Sometimes I've seen folks do things for in-kind compensation, sometimes things as mundane as food, gift cards, cellphones, computers, cameras… in some cases guns, drugs, right? Like getting a discount or getting free weed that you can then sell, or you can then smoke, like that matters on a day to day basis.

So there's that kind of compensation. But one of the things I really want to draw people's attention to in the book, which I actually think is the main driver for why people continue to do what is essentially a quite risky endeavor, are the emotional and social benefits that you get. And I don't think we can overstate this, that's how important it is. So, for young people who have spent their lives demonized, I would argue demonized more than any other group in America, suddenly they are told– sometimes for the first time in their life–that they're special, they're worthy, that they're doing something that is unique and worth paying attention to, right? These are young people that… They’re put up against a wall every day by cops who tell them that they're menaces to society, that they shouldn't have been born, that society is worse with them in it. But yet, once they start making real music, once they start getting on the internet, once they start… putting out social media content, people start contacting them saying, like, “You inspire me, you're amazing. Like, here's some artwork that I did of you. I went on your Instagram and I grabbed some photos. I'm an artist… I just painted like an album cover… Can you use this for your next album? Can we talk on the phone? Let me send you some money.”… It's just this, seeing the ways that young men finally feel like they're human, that they're seeing that they're special, is something that I think we don't often think about. And I think that's something that we forget about, particularly when we're thinking about policies or policing around this stuff.

But there's a way that adults marginalize how important it is that folks get recognition and popularity… Like I've heard the police chief and the mayor and other folks throughout multiple administrations say… These guys are going on social media and flashing guns so that people will like their tweets… Or people are going on talking trash about each other so that they could get popular. I think that's like such a dismissive and ignorant statement to make. Like it's true, it's absolutely true that they're… doing this stuff to get popularity. But I think what they miss is why that popularity matters so much… I think when you have other things to rest your sense of self, or your sense of self worth on, like a job, like a degree from college, like, many family members who are supporting you in great ways, a pet, a house, an apartment, all these kind of trappings of success, like, when you don't have that, that popularity means a whole lot more to you.

And then I'll transition to Joseph Coleman, but what's so interesting about social media is that … It incubates and it puts on steroids this phenomenon where people

LIT are looking for recognition of their self worth, because we literally quantified one’s self worth and degree of specialness and worthiness, right, by like, you can see how many views you have, you can see how many likes you have. I can see that like, “Oh… the last thing I did online, which wasn't very violent, it had no guns in that music video, it only got like 30,000 views. But this one, I called out my opps and I put a gun in the video, it got a million views. And so it's very clear like, oh, people will respond to me more and better and more intensely–which is exactly what I want–if I do a certain set of practices…” Which… in this case with drill, is like, the more violent you may get, the more aggressive you make it, the more people are gonna tune in.

So I'd say that's like the big reward. But yeah, the costs are extreme, which… speaks to just the incredible level of, I don't even know what to call it. It's not absurdity, it's a tragedy… It just goes to show how tragic it is that we put these young people in this situation where one of the only ways they can be made to feel special is that they engage in these practices. And then we roll out things like policing and prosecution that use those practices as ways to investigate them, arrest them, get warrants for them, prosecute them, indict them, and sentence them at an even more aggressive and intense pace and level. So that's one of the very steep costs that's happening now. Like, any of the stuff that these young people put up online… whether it's a fake gun, whether you're bragging about killing someone that doesn't actually even exist, whether you have fake lean in a cup or you got fake drugs in a prescription bottle. All that stuff… is taken hook line and sinker as if it were real by the criminal legal system. It is used to… lock young people up.

I am actually currently doing a project where I've been interviewing public defenders from around the country to ask them about how social media is coming into court and fueling the kind of mass incarceration machine that we have here in America… One of the cases that I've been following: there's a young man who was convicted of possessing a single firearm. The police came up to him… they gave chase, they found a gun on him… There's the federal sentencing guidelines for firearms.

There's an enhancement if you're caught with three guns on you. Well, the prosecution found pictures of two different guns on his Instagram account and were able to get him sentenced as though he had three guns on him, rather than a single gun that he was actually found with… So like, because this young man who was doing these practices that I just described in the hopes of gaining some attention, he's now spending even longer behind bars because he had… pictures of guns on his Instagram. It was never asked if the guns were real, it was never asked whether the guns were his. The content was just seen as evidence of his offline behavior, right?

That's a massive cost, and then… the kind of Joseph Coleman story… Joseph Coleman, an aspiring drill rapper, calls out Chief Keef and Chief Keef 's gang. This is another way to build your popularity. If you can't collaborate with a more popular driller, then you insult a more popular driller. And this is exactly the tactic that he tried… He talked enough trash, and gave up his exact location and dared someone to come and shoot him… And a few hours later, he was dead. I mean, that's a far more rare example... So it's important to recognize that it is rare that… there is a kind of retaliation that's like that immediate and that connected to a feud online. But nevertheless… I'm not naive enough or pollyannaish enough to say that like these things don't stoke some fires that are already raging… These things can help propel feuds that might have simmered out if there were no social media, if folks weren't participating in drill. It certainly creates these permanent records of the things that people say about each other that are hard to erase, that are hard to squash, even in a truce.

That's the other difficult consequence… Even if people aren't in… mortal danger because of the things that they put online, it could certainly make them feel like they're in mortal danger… It can make them, say, not want to go to school. It can make them not want to walk down the street. It can make them not want to go to work. I had a young man who I write about in my book, who kind of distanced himself from drill, distanced himself from his gang, and he started driving for Lyft. And one of the problems he ran into was that sometimes he would get a Lyft call that was in the gang

territory of young men who he used to diss online, and he had to start declining those rides. And so over time, we know what happens if you're a Lyft driver and you start declining rides… Lyft kicks you off… This is a clear example of a way in which this young man was trying to find some formal employment in like the low wage service economy, and the things that he had posted like five years ago got in the way of it. And he ended up not being able to drive for Lyft anymore, and had to go look for work elsewhere… and for young men who are as precariously employed as many young people on the South Side… that's a pretty big hit to your monthly income, to your chances of monetary financial survival.

Exactly. And with the caveat that like… That [the music is] just the reaction to their reality.

Absolutely. Just one quick last point… This speaks to some of the issues in the beginning. You want these people, you want these young men to stop making songs waving around guns and dissing their rivals, well then give them something different to make songs about. You know what I'm saying? Like it's not as though they have many other options. And so my thing is like, oh, you're tired of this kind of music, you're tired of this kind of art form, well then… give them something else to rap about and compensate them for it. And I guarantee you they're gonna stop rapping about that stuff, definitely. Forrest Stuart,The Ballad of the Bullet: Gangs, Drill Music, and the Power of Online Infamy. $27.95. Princeton University Press. 288 pages.

Bobby Vanecko is a contributor to the Weekly. He last wrote about Meaghan Garvey’s short story collection ‘Nowhere Fast.’

FEBRUARY 10, 2022 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 19

MUSIC

PHOTO BY JULIEN CARR, COURTESY OF DIMITRI MOORE

“In my head, if the music is right, everything else will come.”

Dimitri Moore Talks 'Uncertainties'

BY LAUREN JOHNSON

D

imitri Moore considers himself a newcomer to the Chicago music scene—but his future here is looking bright. Next Wednesday, he will perform his first set of 2022 at Sleeping Village in Avondale, alongside rappers Qari and Myquale.

Moore originally hails from Prince George’s County, Maryland, where he grew up listening to go-go music and Chuck Brown. He played the drums at his church, participated in a children’s choir, and later learned how to play the guitar. Though his father was a great singer, Moore never took singing too seriously during his childhood, as he did not picture it as a career with a future.

Things changed when Moore moved to Chicago in 2014 to attend Columbia College Chicago, where he received his degree in arts management in 2018.

Friends, other artists, and Chicago music groups like Iris Temple all impacted his decision to pursue singing. “Just by being 20 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

in sessions with [friends], where everyone in the room is an artist and makes music, it was like—I’m gonna give it a shot,” he told the Weekly. “So I started writing songs and just being around other people who are already doing it. Them telling you that you can do it [is] pretty validating. So I think that’s how I figured out I would be doing music one way or another, like I would probably be just playing guitar for somebody or something like that.”

When describing his music, Moore noted the influence of R&B on his style, and expressed his admiration for artists like Prince, Marvin Gaye, Pharrell, Little Beaver, and Brittany Howard, to name a few. He also is aware of his lo-fi sound, which fans have praised. “My writing style and approach to recording is pretty freeform,” he added. “I want to be a genre-bending type of person. I listen to a lot of music, so I want to make other music, too.”

¬ FEBRUARY 10, 2022

Moore released his first EP, “Uncertainties,” in November 2021 with the help of producer Blake Wright, who mixed and mastered every track. Since Wright lives in Maryland and Moore was in Chicago, the creative process lasted for a couple years. Sometimes they would send each other beats and vocals, and when Moore was visiting family in Maryland, they would bounce ideas off each other and collaborate in the same place. “Honestly, if it were up to me, I would still be working on that project,” Moore said. “But I had to get my hands off of it and just release it, because I was trying to perfect something that there was nothing wrong with.”

The EP contains seven tracks: “Come Around,” “Checkmate,” “Wss (Interlude),” “2Nite,” “You Got Me,” “Sangria,” and “See it (outro).” Moore shared that writing the songs—which deal with love, fear, and relationships— was challenging because they came from

a vulnerable place. Although the songs explore timeless and universal themes, the EP sets itself apart through its unique production, enchanting delivery and carefully arranged instrumentation.

There’s a tranquility to Moore’s music, a freeform style that makes his songs easy to listen to over and over again.

Moore is deeply excited to perform at Sleeping Village on February 16. “I care a lot about how my music sounds live,” he said. “[People] can expect a performance with care. I took my time and I prepared, and I’m going to make it the best I can make it.”

As for what’s next? “My focus right now is getting my sound the best it can be,” Moore explained. “In my head, if the music is right, everything else will come.” Lauren Johnson is a recent college graduate currently living in Chicago. She recently interviewed Myquale for the Weekly.

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ILLUSTRATION BY THUMY PHAN

BULLETIN

Community Engagement Session for Southside Recycling

Wooded Island Bird Walk

Online, Tuesday, February 15, 5:30pm– 7:00pm. Free. bit.ly/3GsLaKB

The Chicago Audubon Society hosts its weekly bird walk (weather permitting) at Wooded Island in Jackson Park. The walk will cover two miles across Wooded Island, the Bobolink Meadow, and the lakefront. Meet on the west side of the Columbia Basin (north lagoon). Parking is available on Stony Island Ave. near 59th St. Bring binoculars and a field guide if you have them, and dress for the weather. ( Jim Daley)

The Chicago Department of Public Health holds its third and final community engagement session as part of its Health Impact Assessment related to RMG/Southside Recycling's application for a permit to operate a recycling facility on the Southeast Side. CDPH representatives and their environmental impact consultants will present an analysis of environmental and health risks posed by the proposed relocation of the General Iron operations to the South Deering neighborhood. This Zoom presentation will be followed by a question and answer session. Register online to attend. (Martha Bayne)

Wooded Island, Jackson Park, 59th St. and Cornell Dr., Saturday, February 12, 8:00am–10:00:00am.

Free. chicagoaudubon.org/newevents/2022/01/15-wooded-islandbirdwalk

Lunar New Year Celebration

Chinatown, W. Cermak Rd. and S. Wentworth Ave., Sunday, February 13, 1:00pm. Free.

Chinatown's thirty-eighth annual Lunar New Year celebration welcomes the Year of the Tiger with a parace featuring dragon and lion dancing, colorful floats, and marching bands. It starts at W. 24th St. and S. Wentworth Ave. and heads north to the viewing stand at Cermak and Wentworth. Free, all ages, and rain or shine. (Martha Bayne)

22 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

FOOD & LAND Super Bowl Tamale Benefit

St. Paul & the Redeemer, 4945 S. Dorchester Ave., Thursday, February 10.

Free.

The Midwest Workers Association is looking for volunteers to help with their Super Bowl Tamale Benefit, a fundraiser for the group's Winter Survival Campaign, which advocates to help low-wage workers pay utility bills and prevent shutoffs, and distributes food, blankets, and winter clothing.

Tamale making takes place through Friday, February 11 at St. Paul and the Redeemer Church in Hyde Park. Call

¬ FEBRUARY 10, 2022

MWA at (773) 285-0485 to sign up to cook, volunteer to deliver tamales, a nd find out about how else you can help. (Martha Bayne)

61St St. Farmers Market

Experimental Station, 6100 S. Blackstone Ave., Saturday, February, 9:00am–12:00pm. Free to attend. experimentalstation.org/market It may be winter but that doesn't mean you can't still get your hands on farmfresh vegetables, seedlings, and other products from local farmers and creators.

The 61st St. Farmers Market is back with a monthly hybrid indoor-outdoor market at the Experimental Station.

As ever, the market accepts LINK and Senior Farmers Market Coupons, and will match LINK purchases up to $25 per customer per market day, as long as funding holds out. Customers must wear masks while inside the building. Look for more winter markets on March 12 and April 9. (Martha Bayne)

Plant Drop and Swap

Plant Chicago, 4459 S. Marshfield Ave., Saturday, February 19, 11:00am–3:00pm.

Donation suggested. plantchicago.org Plant Chicago hosts a pay-what-youcan plant swap. BYO seedlings to share or find new ideas for your garden by picking from an array of communitydonated clippings, propagations, and potted plants. It all happens as part of the day's Plant Chicago Farmers Market, and at 1 pm artist Haerim Lee also hosts a community mural workshop.

(Martha Bayne)

ARTS Pilsen Vendor Market

Pilsen Art House , 1756 W. 19th St., Every Sunday, 12:00pm–5:00pm. Free. bit. ly/3m9yMID This family-friendly weekly market invites artists and vendors to sell their wares such as candles, jewelry, woodwork, apparel, handmade goods, and more. There are both indoor and outdoors space, and masks are required throughout the event. (Alma Campos)

Art and Race Matters: The Career of Robert Colescott

Chicago Cultural Center, Exhibit Hall, Fourth Floor, 78 E. Washington St., Through May 29, Free. chicago.gov/city/en/ depts/dca/supp_info/colescott.html A comprehensive retrospective exhibit of the work of Robert Colescott, a Black twentieth-century artist and satirist who took aim at race, class, and gender in America, will be on display through May 29. DCASE Director of Visual Arts Daniel Schulman will lead a gallery talk on February 16. ( Jim Daley)

Young Chicago Authors Wordplay Open Mic

Instagram Live, Every Tuesday, 6:00pm–7:30pm. Free. instagram.com/ youngchicagoauthors One of the longest-running youth open mics, Worldplay, is back every Tuesday on Instagram Live. The virtual open mic is hosted by DJ Ca$hera and showcases

music, spoken-word performances, and a featured artist. (Chima Ikoro)

Map-O-Rama

The Storyfront, 4346 S. Ashland Ave., Thursday, February 10. Free. freestreet.org/ show/map-o-rama-back-of-the-yards/ The first gallery exhibition at Free Street's Storyfront Theater, MapO-Rama presents the results of the company's cultural asset mapping project documenting performing arts and culture in Back of the Yards, Brighton Park, Englewood, Gage Park, and McKinley Park. Local artists are invited to add themselves and their work to the map, which can be found at fstculturemakersmap.com. The show runs through February 13, 6-9pm on Thursday and 12-4pm on Saturday and Sunday. (Martha Bayne)

A History of African American Poetry Online, Tuesday, February 15, 6:00pm– 7:00pm. Free. semcoop.com/event/laurischeyer-history-african-american-poetrytyrone-williams

Lauri Scheyer discusses her new History of African American Poetry with Xavier University scholar and poet Tyrone Williams.

Qari, Myquale, and Dmitri Moore

Sleeping Village, 3734 W. Belmont Ave., Wednesday, February 16, 8:30pm. $5. sleeping-village.com/events/qari-myqualedimitri-moore/ Milwaukee-born rapper and producer Myquale, profiled in the Weekly last month, appears on a bill with R&B/ soul musician Dmitri Moore (see story in this issue) and Chicago rapper Qari.

Says Lauren Johnson of Myquale's recent "Never or Now," "The track has a calming pace. Myquale takes advantage of his uniquely enchanting raspy tone, and his production choices and tempo changes are subtle yet powerful. " 21+.

(Martha Bayne)

Ayana Contreras Black History Month Book Talk Loyola University Chicago and online, Information Commons, fourth floor, 6501 N. Kenmore Ave., Thursday, February 17, 4:00pm. Free. ayanacontreras.com/energynever-dies/ Vocalo producer and "Reclaimed Soul" host Ayana Contreras discusses her new book Energy Never Dies: Afro-Optimism and Creativity in Chicago. Praised by the Tribune as "the cultural biography of Black Chicago," the book looks at the role cultural touchstones from Soul Train to Afro-Sheen have uplifted and affirmed Black joy. Event is both in-person and on Zoom at luc.zoom. us/j/89171192165. (Martha Bayne)

Black Excellence: A Story of a Resilient Culture Malcolm X College, 1900 W. Jackson St., Friday, February 18, 6:30pm–8:30pm.

Free.

Malcolm X College celebrates Black History Month with an evening of performances by Najwa Dance Corps, Dee Alexander and the A Team, Armen Rah, Ugochi, and the Muntu Dance Theatre. The event also features a marketplace with work by local artisans; a drum call kicks everything off at 6:30 pm. (Martha Bayne)

Relax and Revitalize at

Sheila Heti and Elif Bautman Online, Friday, February 18, 8:00pm– 9:00pm. Free. semcoop.com/event/sheilaheti-pure-colour

Sheila Heti's latest novel, Pure Color, is described as "a contemporary bible, an atlas of feeling, and an absurdly funny guide to the great (and terrible) things about being alive." Heti, the acclaimed author of Motherhood and How Should a Person Be?, discusses her newest book with New Yorker staff writer Elif Bautman, author of The Idiot, at this event hosted by the Seminary Co-op Bookstore. (Martha Bayne)

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FEBRUARY 10, 2022 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 23

CALL FOR PROPOSALS Lakeside Alliance, Builder of the Obama Presidential Center, seeks proposals from qualified Minority Business Enterprise (MBE), Women Business Enterprise (WBE), and Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) firms, as well as veteran- and LGBTQ-led firms in support of the following trades: • Roofing • Finish flooring including resilient, wood, carpeting and ceramic tile • Site work including landscaping, site furnishing, final site earthwork, geofoam, unit pavers and others • Finish trades including painting, wall covering, Division 10 and others • Miscellaneous trades including loading dock, demountable partitions, lockers and food service Additional packages will be released in the coming weeks. Contractors who desire to submit a bid for all available packages may learn more about the bidding process at: lakesidealliance.com/opportunities/ potential-bidders.

Email: Info@LakesideAlliance.com Follow us for updates: Facebook - @LakesideAlliance1750  Instagram - @lakesidealliance  LinkedIn & YouTube - Lakeside Alliance