February 22, 2017 by South Side Weekly

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SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY The South Side Weekly is an independent nonprofit newsprint magazine written for and about neighborhoods on the South Side of Chicago. We publish in-depth coverage of the arts and issues of public interest alongside oral histories, poetry, fiction, interviews, and artwork from local photographers and illustrators. The South Side Weekly is dedicated to supporting cultural and civic engagement on the South Side and to providing educational opportunities for developing journalists, writers, and artists. Volume 4, Issue 20 Editor-in-Chief Jake Bittle Managing Editors Maha Ahmed, Christian Belanger Director of Staff Support Ellie Mejía Director of Writer Development Mari Cohen Deputy Editor Olivia Stovicek Senior Editors Emeline Posner, Julia Aizuss Education Editor Music Editor Stage & Screen Editor Visual Arts Editor

Hafsa Razi Austin Brown Nicole Bond Corinne Butta

Contributing Editors Maddie Anderson, Joe Andrews, Jonathan Hogeback, Andrew Koski, Adia Robinson, Carrie Smith, Margaret Tazioli, Yunhan Wen Video Editor Lucia Ahrensdorf Radio Producers Andrew Koski Daphne Maeglin Web Editor Camila Cuesta Social Media Editors Emily Lipstein, Bridget Newsham, Sam Stecklow Visuals Editor Ellen Hao Deputy Visuals Editor Jasmin Liang Layout Editors Baci Weiler, Sofia Wyetzner Staff Writers: Sara Cohen, Christopher Good, Rachel Kim, Michal Kranz, Anne Li, Zoe Makoul, Kylie Zane Fact Checkers: Eleanore Catolico, Sam Joyce, Rachel Kim, Adam Przybyl, Hafsa Razi, Carrie Smith, Tiffany Wang Staff Photographers: Denise Naim, Jason Schumer, Luke Sironski-White Staff Illustrators: Zelda Galewsky, Natalie Gonzalez, Courtney Kendrick, Turtel Onli, Raziel Puma, Lizzie Smith Data Visualization: Jasmine Mithani Webmasters

Sofia Wyetzner

Publisher

Harry Backlund

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

Cover illustration by Ellen Hao

IN CHICAGO

A week’s worth of developing stories, odd events, and signs of the times, culled from the desks, inboxes, and wandering eyes of the editors

Win Some, Lose Most Though this week's issue of the Weekly features an article exploring how the Illinois State Lottery exacerbates disparities in school funding in South and West Side neighborhoods, it is nevertheless a fact that sometimes people do win the lottery, and that sometimes those people are from the South Side of Chicago. As reported by DNAinfo, Nathaniel Dorsey of South Shore won $4 million off a scratch-off lottery ticket he purchased at Food Town in Chatham two weeks ago. While this victory does not, by itself, alleviate the drastic inequities in investment and funding among Chicago’s neighborhoods, we at the Weekly wish to congratulate Nathaniel on his winnings. Statistically speaking, a lottery ticket purchased at Food Town in Chatham is still just as unlikely to win you the lottery as a lottery ticket purchased anywhere else, but for the superstitiously minded, Food Town's address is 935 E. 79th Street. Clerks and Kickbacks This past Friday, the Sun-Times reported a new revelation in the ongoing corruption investigation into allegations of pay-to-play in Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown’s office. Court documents show that a senior-level employee gave a $10,000 loan to Brown’s husband’s company at the request of an unnamed “Individual A.” According to the Sun-Times, “Individual A is clearly Dorothy Brown,” based on details revealed in court documents and records. Brown denies any wrongdoing and has not yet been charged, and her attorney asserts that Brown’s husband’s company paid back the loan. Federal prosecutors allege that Brown herself requested the loan, but this was not the first time that one of Brown’s employees made a significant loan to her husband’s company, Goat Masters Corp. Sivasubramani Rajaram was hired in 2014 after loaning $15,000 to the company at the suggestion of an unnamed high-ranking employee. The late Narendra Patel, a longtime Brown campaign donor, also gave a North Lawndale building to Brown and her husband at no cost in June 2011—the couple eventually sold it for $100,000. These revelations only add to a long list of questionable monetary transactions between Brown and her employees, which includes accepting cash birthday gifts from her employees and charging them “$3 or more—cash only—for the right to wear jeans on ‘Jeans Day,’ ” according to the Sun-Times.

IN THIS ISSUE harlem in hyde park

Though the play is about AfricanAmerican history, it represents a thriving artistic present. neal jochmann..................................4 illinois lottery exacerbates inequities in chicago

“The pots of the lottery are getting huge, so where is the money going?” theo grant-funck............................6 fair and fowl

“We want to hold one of the baby chickens.” juan caicedo......................................8 a sonic kind of mind

“I think I stick out in my own right, so I don't feel like I'm competing with anyone.” juhi gupta........................................10 unapologetically doing it

The room was filled to the brim, a happy mess of bodies pushed against each other. thea smith......................................12 the stone soup dance

“ You can’t get the same amount of money forever and expect to be able to pay for increasing costs—it doesn’t work.” michael wasney...............................13

Out of the Classroom and Into the Streets Last Thursday, February 16, thousands of Chicagoans took to the streets as a part of a national “Day Without Immigrants.” While immigrants and undocumented people ON OUR WEBSITE showed up to the march, which ran from Union Park to Federal Plaza in the Loop, they S didn’t show up elsewhere, both at work and at school. At least thirty restaurants and SOUTHSIDEWEEKLY.COM businesses in Pilsen and Heart of Chicago shut their doors to customers in solidarity with the day of action, according to DNAinfo. Chicago Public Schools also reported SSW Radio that on the “Day Without Immigrants,” attendance dropped to a little more than eightysoundcloud.com/south-side-weekly-radio five percent, which means that about 50,000 students stayed home. On the same day in Email Edition 2016, attendance was almost ten percent higher, at ninety-four percent. Schools with southsideweekly.com/email predominantly Hispanic student populations saw an even lower attendance rate of seventysix percent, compared to ninety-five and ninety-four percent attendance rates on the two days preceding the day of action. Some classrooms at those majority-Hispanic schools were Support the Weekly southsideweekly.com/donate only half-full. CPS administrators anticipated this drop in attendance, sending out a memo to parents via email that maintained that absences related to the day of action would be counted as unexcused. It’s not possible to know how many CPS students are undocumented or come from families with undocumented members, because it’s against federal law for a school district to collect information on students’ documented status. In compliance with Chicago’s sanctuary city status, CPS has stated that it will not allow ICE or other federal immigration agents inside schools without warrants or court orders. But CPS employees who teach kids as young as elementary school have reported to DNAinfo that children whose families face the threat of deportation are often scared, worried, and distracted in the classroom even when they do attend school. FEBRUARY 22, 2017 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 3

Harlem in Hyde Park COURTESY OF COURT THEATRE

With a festival and a new play, Court celebrates the legacy of the Harlem Renaissance BY NEAL JOCHMANN

n Blues for an Alabama Sky, the play produced this winter by Court Theatre, worlds collided: the Harlem Renaissance came to Hyde Park. According to Court’s executive director Stephen J. Albert “to explore and extend the African-American canon” is still Court’s long-term project. The theater’s appreciation of African-American art and culture are especially valuable to Court’s audience; he says Court’s audience “gets on its feet” to applaud “stories that speak to [its] own history.” Court sought to meet this demand this winter by producing Blues for an Alabama Sky, a story of the 4 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

lives of five neighbors in Harlem during the 1920s—and to go beyond just meeting it, they added a two-month-long festival as accompaniment. Like the festival that preceded it, 2016’s Satchmo Festival, which celebrated Louis Armstrong, The Harlem Renaissance Celebration in Hyde Park was organized after Court Theatre decided to produce Blues. In planning Court’s 2016-17 season, Blues for an Alabama Sky led the charge by simply being “the right play to put on,” Albert says. It was right not only because its subject matter—race, queer life, and a

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woman’s right to choose—remains relevant, but because it spans history. “It is not a historical play,” Albert says. “It is a play written in 1995 by a playwright who is imagining that time [the 1920s].” In this way, it encapsulates the spirit of bringing Harlem to Hyde Park: though the play is about African-American history, it represents a thriving artistic present. Once the play was decided, Albert says, Court broadened its view by asking, “What else can we do with this play? How can it speak to theatergoers around Chicagoland, and to the University [of

Chicago] community of which we are a part?” The result was Harlem in Hyde Park: a celebration of the Harlem Renaissance that spanned the months of January and February. Education was key. As Albert puts it, Court’s mission in planning the festival was primarily “to encourage people to learn more about the period.” To this end, collaboration—with the Beverly Arts Center (BAC), for instance—was quite natural. The BAC, with whom Court collaborated during the Satchmo Festival, provides many workshops and creative

STAGE & SCREEN

education opportunities to patrons of all ages in the neighborhood of Beverly. The BAC’s commitment to Beverly resembles Court’s commitment to its University of Chicago surroundings and its growing commitment to the neighborhoods around it it; it’s no wonder the institutions like working together. At the intersection of film and literature, the DuSable Museum of African-American History kicked off the festival January 3 by hosting a South Side Projections screening

students from South Side schools read original creative work before “Satchmo Saturdays” shows at the Promontory. Students at the Ancona School in Kenwood had the unique opportunity to attend table reads and technical rehearsals throughout Blues for an Alabama Sky’s production process. The play’s director, Ron OJ Parson, even visited the school before rehearsals began. In cooperation with the festival, Ancona incorporated the Harlem Renaissance in its history and

“What else can we do with this play? How can it speak to theatergoers around Chicagoland, and to the University community of which we are a part?” —Stephen J. Albert, executive director of Court Theatre

of Zora Neale Hurston: Jump at the Sun, which told the story of how Zora Neale Hurston’s life and work were alternatively accepted and rejected by the unjust world in which she lived. The film is narrated by the voices of Hurston’s closest associates and devoted historians, who use humorous anecdotes to convey Hurston’s energy and complexity. In key with the mission of Harlem in Hyde Park, the screening educated viewers about the past, but was connected to the artistic present of young artists on the South Side. Before the screening, a representative from Bronzeville’s King College Prep told the story of the school’s recent decision to produce several of Hurston’s one-act plays. These plays are rarely performed, so King College Prep’s plan was audacious, but they followed through with aplomb. The school was invited to compete in the Illinois High School Theater Festival, and attendees of the Jump at the Sun screening were invited to come see the play in advance of its competition. At Harlem in Hyde Park’s musical events, Chicago’s young artists shared the stage with historical greats. In collaboration with Young Chicago Authors and the slam poetry organization Louder Than A Bomb,

political science courses. Court’s mission is to diversify and widen theater audiences, and an important step in achieving this is the inclusion of young South Siders and students. Blues certainly succeeded in drawing an audience, as evidenced by the extension of the play’s run through February 19. The energy of Harlem Renaissance-era art, literature, and political thought pervades Blues. The play’s main characters are made human by the play’s brilliant cast; they swagger through the play’s vivid set and soundscape, convincing the audience that they have lived in these rooms for years. Characters refer to the period’s pop culture giants by their first names: “Josephine” is, of course, Josephine Baker, whose letters from Paris fuel the dreams of Guy, a selfproclaimed “notorious homosexual” who sends her costume designs in the hopes she will choose them for her performances. (How does he get her to accept? By being “realistic” and adding an inch to the waistline measurement.) Also, “Langston” is back in town after an absence the play’s characters feel was too long, fearing he’d forgotten his friends in Harlem. More than just a rich recreation of a

time and place, Blues for an Alabama Sky is a profound study of its characters’ varying philosophies. Every character in the play has a dream, but over the course of the play not all of these dreams can be realized. Though the Harlem Renaissance was hopeful, the play says, it was not perfectly happy. The play’s central conflict, between those who strive for a more complete freedom in and beyond Harlem and an outsider nicknamed “Alabama” whose ideas are incompatibly traditional, shows that the renaissance in Harlem, though welcoming, wasn’t always welcomed. Beverly Arts Center’s contribution to the festival, meanwhile, was found in its gallery, where works by contemporary Chicago artists were on display through February 19. Employing the techniques of mixed media and assemblage, the works juxtaposed legends with slices of AfricanAmerican life throughout history. One piece by the Chicago collage artist Candace Hunter, “La Jo,” puts representative and abstract portraits of Josephine Baker side by side, visually acknowledging how our understanding of historical icons changes over time as they themselves become subjects of art. The piece is composed of isolated boxes whose contents contrast; one holds a 1981 biography of Baker, and another contains a poem in white script, written ostensibly in Baker’s own voice. The parts of “La Jo” suggest a flattening of time. As Hunter reconsiders Baker now, she must consider past relics together with present attitudes; by assuming a contemporary voice, Baker’s image is warped as it is reconstituted. Elsewhere in the gallery, the portraiture of Patricia Stewart—in which all subjects pose identically, looking into the background from the edge of the frame— literally puts the artist in the place of her subject, the Harlem Renaissance artist Elizabeth Catlett. The BAC’s gallery was emblematic of Harlem in Hyde Park’s dual role: to serve as a portal to the past, and to showcase exemplary work by artists working now in Chicago, no matter their age. Is there another festival in the works to continue bridging these gaps between the established and contemporary AfricanAmerican canon? Albert can’t say yet, since the schedule for the 2017-18 season has not been finalized. But since Court will still desire to tell necessary and relevant stories, another celebration may soon be in the offing. ¬

FEBRUARY 22, 2017 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 5

Illinois Lottery Exacerbates Inequities in Chicago

Communities on the South and West Side buy disproportionately more lottery tickets but do not see returns to their schools BY THEO GRANT-FUNCK

very year, the Illinois State Lottery contributes hundreds of millions of dollars to help fund public education in Illinois, but areas with high lottery sales often also have school districts that remain severely underfunded. “We’ve lost too many schools and then we see [existing schools] fighting for more money from Springfield,” said Scotty McBryde, an eighteen-year Chatham resident and daily lottery player. “But the pots of the lottery are getting huge, so where is the money going?” Illinois has not had a budget for nineteen months, instead relying on stopgap spending to fund social services such as public education. Illinois also has one of the least equitable school funding formulas in the country. Earlier this month, a bipartisan commission created by Governor Bruce Rauner published a report highlighting the wide funding gaps between high- and lowincome school districts in Illinois. The use of Illinois lottery funds is especially important to McBryde and other South Side residents, who contribute a significant portion of the lottery’s total revenue. About seventy percent of Illinois’s lottery funds come from the Chicago Metropolitan Area, and spending within Chicago is concentrated in communities of color on the South and West Sides, according to new research by Kasey Henricks, a sociologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago. “Given that you have some communities on the South and West Sides that generate $20 million a year, compared to a couple million dollars a year in Lincoln Park, there’s no mystery in terms of who that money is

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coming from,” Henricks said in an interview. Since 1985, Illinois has directed its lottery proceeds into the Common School Fund, which distributes money to school districts across the state. The lottery annually contributes around $670 million towards K-12 education, or about ten percent of the state’s total K-12 spending. In its history, the lottery has provided over $19 billion

from another state revenue source comes out, explained Ralph Martire, Executive Director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability. “Many people believed...that the net revenue from the lottery, after paying winners and the administrative costs, was going to be an additional investment in the K-12 education system. It has never been

“Given that you have some communities on the South and West Sides that generate $20 million a year, compared to a couple million dollars a year in Lincoln Park, there’s no mystery in terms of who that money is coming from.” —Kasey Henricks, sociologist at University of Illinois at Chicago

to public education and millions to other causes, the Lottery said in an email. However, the lottery does not actually increase the amount of money that goes to schools: lottery funds replace existing funds rather than supplementing them. For every dollar from the lottery that goes into the Common School Fund, a dollar

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that,” said Martire. On a Saturday morning at Hollywood Food Market on the border of Chatham and Greater Grand Crossing, several lottery players only had a vague idea of how Illinois uses funds from the lottery. Although most knew the lottery has traditionally helped fund public education, they were not sure

whether this is still the case. “I thought it was for schools, but the way it sounds, it’s not anymore. I don’t know what happened,” Mable Benjamin, a lifelong Chatham resident and daily lottery player, said. While the lottery allows Illinois to spend less money from its General Fund on education, communities on the South and West Sides pick up the cost. Out of the nearly $2.2 billion of lottery sales in 2011, about $1.5 billion came from the Chicago Metropolitan Area, according to Henricks’s study. Moreover, much of the money generated in Chicago came from communities of color on the South and West Sides—Henricks found that each one-percent increase in a community’s white residents decreases lottery sales by $44,746. “[It challenges] this whole notion that Chicagoans are a public charge, especially working-class minority folks, that they’re taking from the system rather than giving to the system,” said Henricks. Neighborhoods in the zip code 60619—including Chatham, Avalon Park, and Greater Grand Crossing—purchased about $27 million of lottery tickets, the most in the Chicago Metro Area. The zip code 60628, which covers Pullman, Roseland, and Riverdale, bought about $21 million. In comparison, many suburban zip codes fell below $2 million in annual lottery sales. “Because marginalized communities are the primary source for lottery revenues, the [school funding] formula ends up circulating this money out of these communities and spreads it across all communities,” Henricks writes in his book, aptly named State Looteries: Historical

POLITICS

Continuity, Rearticulations of Racism, and American Taxation. In an email, the Lottery warned against solely examining gross sales per zip code, as such an analysis does not account for population density, sales per capita, and sales by customers who do not reside in the zip code in which they purchased their ticket. In his analysis, Henricks did account for population size and still found that communities of color disproportionately buy lottery tickets. Because of the scope of the state’s budget crisis, both Henricks and Martire said funds from the lottery still aren’t enough to sustain the system; Illinois needs to increase the total amount of funding devoted to education regardless. Martire estimates that the state would need an additional $3.8 billion dollars to fund a quality education for every child, well outside of the $670 million that the lottery is capable of generating. “What the state really needs to do is adjust its income and sales taxes to work in a modern economy,” said Martire. Though the lottery’s contribution to the

Common School Fund is likely to remain untouched in the near future, there are reforms that can make it more equitable. The Lottery described its recent efforts to appeal to a broader base of players, including launching Internet lottery sales, expanding its presence in major store chains, and searching for a private manager with the ability to attract higher-income players. Henricks also sees opportunities for the lottery to be reformed while continuing to generate revenue. His proposals include promoting games with larger jackpots— which tend to attract wealthier players— and distributing more lottery funds to communities that disproportionally contribute to the lottery. “Imagine, if we considered where [money from the lottery] is generated from, and then we pumped it right back into the community, whether it’s through improving schools in their local districts or providing small business grants. I mean there’s a variety of things you could do with that money that could really generate social mobility,” Henricks said. ¬

DATA VISUALIZATION BY JASMINE MITHANI SOURCES: CITY OF CHICAGO DATA PORTAL; DR. KASEY HENRICKS, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO

FEBRUARY 22, 2017 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 7

BENJAMIN UNGER

Fair and Fowl

Urban Livestock Expo shines a spotlight on Chicago’s backyard livestock BY JUAN CAICEDO

he animals at the fifth annual Urban Livestock Expo, unlike their wilder counterparts, are indifferent to the fact that it’s an unusually warm and sun-drenched winter day. They have been convened in the ventilated lobby of the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences (CHSAS) by local nonprofit Advocates for Urban Agriculture for an event intended to showcase the urban livestock community and to educate wouldbe urban farmers. Many of the presenters are 8 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

on double duty, discussing their livelihoods with attendees before dashing into classrooms to teach workshops. Home to Roost When Kristen Hollinden began raising chickens in 2012, she enlisted Jennifer Murtoff, a “chicken consultant” and owner of Home to Roost, to inspect her coop. Hollinden has a photo album on her table full of pictures of her children and the

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chickens interacting. “We have a family of five and we have three boys, and we wanted to have fresh eggs in our backyard and show our kids where our food source comes from,” she says. “So, having chickens, they see [that] eggs come from chickens and not just [from] on the shelf in the supermarket…. It’s given our family a greater connectedness with our food and our food source, and…a really good time with the chickens along the way.” As she speaks, her son comes up and

hugs her hip. “The chickens are just a funny set of animals and pets, so they’re full of character and full of drama. My kids love them. They love to play with them and hold them and dig for worms for the chickens.” Nature’s Little Recyclers Ed Hubbard introduces himself to an attendee as “the worm guy,” recognizing the unusual nature of his profession.

AGRICULTURE

Facing page: A trio of children inspect one of Lidia Andronic's chicks. This page: Kristen Hollinden's sons look in on a group of chicks huddling below a heat lamp.

BENJAMIN UNGER

“I hate honey. I can’t stand honey. I can’t stand it. And I’ma tell you why: if you worked in a slaughterhouse, you would not eat meat.” —Thad Smith, Westside Bee Boyz “When I was a kid, my dad said, ‘Get a job.’ There was no jobs around. So I got this book from the library, Selling Worms for Fun and Profit. I raised worms for two years, sold them from North Avenue Beach to Montrose Harbor.” Though he gave up selling worms in high school, when Hubbard left his job as a software CEO three years ago, he once again began selling worms, this time out of concern for the environment. His business’s

worms make compost from waste, which he sells as fertilizer. “I’m a big believer in Buckminster [Fuller]. [He] said [that] you cannot replace a system unless you build a better system. So certainly I can say landfills are terrible all day long. But if I don’t have something better? And then you’re like ‘Okay. Then what are you gonna do?’...So earthworms are much better.”

father, the “best salesman in the world.” “He liked what he did, he was passionate about what he did. Didn’t matter what he was selling. He sold appliances, so he sold that all his life. So it doesn’t matter what freaking appliance it was…. You know the appliance, and you can sell it. And that’s all it was. He knew his craft, and I know bees and honey and I know entrepreneurship.” Smith can talk at length about the different varieties of honey. But when I ask him if he has a favorite, he deadpans. “I hate honey,” he says seriously. “I can’t stand honey. I can’t stand it. And I’ma tell you why: if you worked in a slaughterhouse, you would not eat meat.” Fair enough.

Windy City Coop Tours

Belmont Feed and Seed

Jenny Addison’s coop is one of many stops along the annual Windy City Coop Tour. She’s seen a variety of people come through her yard: established coopowners who wanted to make connections, community gardeners who were considering buying a coop, elementary school teachers interested in getting coops for their classrooms, and families who wanted to explore the possibilities of urban livestock, as well as the merely curious. “And everybody was from all walks of life,” she says. “We had some more earthy, crunchy people; we had some millennials come through; we had an older couple that had chickens for twenty-eight years. So it’s various kinds of people coming through the yard.”

Lidia Andronic’s table is especially popular with children, likely because of the fifteen or so chicks meandering in the table’s glass tank, over which Andronic presides like a judge. She likes asking people if they want to hold the chicks: it’s the first thing she does as I approach her stand. “I grew up with chickens. And [my family owns] Belmont Feed and Seed of Chicago, so the store always carried some chicken supplies. We started bringing the chickens in years ago.” As we talk, one of Hollinden’s sons approaches demurely. “Excuse me,” he says. “We want to hold one of the baby chickens.” “Yeah? You want the small ones?” she says. “Mhm.” She removes the tank’s wire grid top, scoops a chicken up, and transfers it to the boy’s hands with careful instructions. She takes a picture of him cradling the chick, smiling. ¬

Westside Bee Boyz For Thad Smith, his business is more about sales and marketing then the bees themselves. In this way, he takes after his

FEBRUARY 22, 2017 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 9

A Very Sonic Kind of Mind

Jazz artist and soul singer Akenya explores her eclectic background BY JUHI GUPTA

kenya Seymour lounges on a couch in the back of the Dollop in South Loop wearing purple Converse sneakers and a matching purple crystal necklace. At home in her native Chicago, she smiles and takes a sip of water before setting her cup down as I take a seat next to her. Over the past few years, Akenya has slowly risen from obscurity, releasing music that traces a peculiar trajectory: a classically trained jazz performer, her vocals have found themselves featured on tracks by nowestablished names like Chance the Rapper, Noname, and Saba. Now, she’s building her own reputation in the Chicago scene, with music that straddles the lines of existing genres, while poking fun at the notion of categorization itself. Her playful, bouncy melodies are often paired with abstract lyrics that belie a subtle but insistent sense of darkness. Akenya’s background in both traditional and contemporary music leaves no limits for what she might try next.

“M

y mom was just very nomadic,” the twentyfour-year-old Chicagoan explains. Her family history reflects her own circuitous path. Currently, she resides in Rogers Park, but she spent the most time growing up in Edgewater. She attended the selective Chicago Academy for the Arts, a high school in River West, and studied jazz performance at Boston’s prestigious New England Conservatory. Her start in music came when she was a young child. Her natural affinity for the piano and her tendency to sing herself to sleep as a baby motivated her mother to enroll her in lessons. Around seventh grade, she joined the school choir—the beginning of her academic music career. “I just love sound,” Akenya professes. “I feel like I have a very sonic kind of mind and memory.” She identifies much of her repertoire as rhythmic and “groove-centric,” and cites inspirations like Ella Fitzgerald, Anita O’Day, and John Coltrane. 10 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

And yet, despite her affinity for music, Akenya makes clear that she was first captivated by the potential of language. “Language was my first love,” she insists. Her early childhood was characterized by an aptitude for grammar and spelling. At first she tried out for both the writing and music programs at Chicago Academy for the Arts, only afterward deciding to pursue music. In her own writing, Akenya once hesitated to be personal. But lately, she’s surmounted her fear of being vulnerable, especially in her recent work. Now, she’s building a discography that centers around issues of identity and self-perception, as well as how she believes the world will view her. She feels that her recent creative comfort has helped make it possible. “Coming into a more creative environment helped me kind of figure out who I was and my place in society in some ways,” she explains.

resident of the North Side, Akenya splits her time between making music and working at MetaMedia in Evanston—the spin-off of the formative YOUmedia program, which enabled her to meet local creatives such as Chance the Rapper and Noname. She gestures towards the Harold Washington Library down the street, where the now-hallowed YOUmedia program had its beginnings. YOUmedia bills itself as a “21st century teen learning space,” but for young artists like Akenya, the program meant so much more. “It was really popping for two to two and a half years,” she remembers. “In terms of literally housing a generation of artists.” Akenya didn’t start going to YOUmedia until she was a junior in high school, but the two years she spent there changed the course of her life. Participating in YOUmedia and related programs while in high school, such as Lyricist Loft, allowed her to meet likeminded, collaborative artists and develop lifelong relationships. On her first day at Lyricist Loft, a youth-oriented open mic

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NATALIE GONZALEZ

program, she met Fatima Warner, now a close friend of hers and better known as Chicago musician Noname. “[Lyricist Loft] just started growing and growing. It was 300 people coming, then 400 people, then it was being live-streamed,” Akenya recalls. “Then you had adults trying to get in to see kids perform.” After peaking during the two-year period that Akenya was there, YOUmedia’s regular production of artists seems to have decreased significantly. She remembers Saba and Pivot Gang as the last artists to take off from YOUmedia after she left. “I remember I left for college, Chance dropped 10 Day, he blew up, and YOUmedia kind of died out. It all happened in a fourmonth span of time.”

he speaks just as mystically of her time in high school, where she built deep, invested relationships with other young artists in Chicago that allowed Akenya to experiment more and develop creatively.

“One thing that was cool about the Academy [compared to college] was that it was a performing arts high school, so there was theater, dance, writing, filmmaking, visual art,” Akenya explains. “My college was a conservatory, so it was strictly music [...] which was great in its own right, but I did miss being exposed to those other art forms, because in high school when we weren’t performing, we were going to a friend’s performance or gallery show or whatever.” These friendships are ones that Akenya has maintained, and they’ve proved to be the most beneficial professionally—she regularly collaborates with filmmakers, dancers, and more that she met at the Chicago Academy for the Arts or before, almost six years later. “It’s so strange that I’m twenty-four and still working with people I met when I was eight, and eleven, and in high school,” she reflects. In her recent video for “Disappear,” which was released in July of last year, she hired dancers—“the best dancers I know!”—

MUSIC and writers that she knew personally to help her make her vision a reality. “It was literally a family affair,” she says. However, she has mixed emotions about her time at the New England Conservatory. “I’ve worked with the heavyweights of the jazz community,” she says, referring to her collaborations with Esperanza Spalding and Vijay Iyer, among others, “and I’ve also worked with the up and coming hip-hop artists of Chicago.” But despite providing her with the opportunity to work with notable professionals in the field, her academic experience at the Conservatory was not

of Chicago. She has nothing but positive words for her musical contemporaries, who she more often refers to as her friends or as “weird-ass, slightly socially challenged, creative, quirky kids”—a label she also gladly assigns to herself. She specifically notes her relationships with fellow Chicago hip-hop musicians Chance the Rapper and Noname. In her eyes, Chance is making history by redefining the boundaries of what popular artists can achieve. And in a show of support for her close friend’s success, Akenya is working as Noname’s music director at the moment and preparing to go on tour for her

“If I can’t explain it in theory, I can play it. If I can’t show it to you, I can send it to you. Having a good ear is the most important thing, but it can only take you so far if you don’t understand the basics of harmony and form.” enough to satisfy her creatively. “I grew so much in conservatory, but it is not an environment for creativity,” the singersongwriter notes. “It is an environment to refine your skill set and work on your craft.” But her academic coursework in music definitely works to her advantage. Akenya knows more about music theory than the average singer, which makes her picky about who she plays with. If they make a mistake, she will notice, but she takes care to note that she isn’t mean—just stern. “I’m the only singer that’s going to bring a chart into rehearsal or the only singer who’s going to be like, ‘It’s like this,’ and get behind the piano to show them what I mean,” she explains. “If I can’t explain it in theory, I can play it. If I can’t show it to you, I can send it to you,” she says. “Having a good ear is the most important thing, but having a good ear can only take you so far if you don’t understand the basics of harmony and form.”

recent acclaimed album, Telefone. “It’s been awesome getting to work with [Noname] in that capacity and have these milestone experiences together and really watch her blow up,” she says, with a smile on her face. Somehow, Chicago feels devoid of unhealthy competition to Akenya. Part of it is simple idiosyncrasy: since her music occupies a relatively niche space, she feels that people don’t necessarily compare her with any of her peers. “I think I stick out in my own right, so I don’t feel like I’m competing with anyone,” she explains. She notes, though, that even within the hip-hop and rap circles of Chicago, there isn’t as much competition as she has seen in other environments she has been in or is familiar with—“[cough] Juilliard!” “It’s one giant community,” she says of Chicago.

espite her peculiar musical background, Akenya feels in no way distant from the musical world she’s rejoined in her childhood home

s we continue talking, it becomes clear that her complicated experiences at the conservatory, creatively limiting as they might have been,

did more than just show Akenya the ropes of music theory—they also helped her build a political self. During her time in Boston, Akenya built a reputation as not just a supporter but a leader for the conservatory’s marginalized population. Eventually, she became head of the Black Student Union at the school, where she spent her days building a space for students of color who felt ostracized or isolated. “I will definitely say I knew all the black people. All thirty of us,” Akenya laughs. “We were very aware that we were a minority.” And though her high school focused more on “contextualizing what [students] were learning” through school-wide jam sessions, musicals, benefit shows, and more, she felt that the conservatory did not offer enough opportunities for students to perform. “College was like, you sign up for the ensemble you want to be in, and whatever ensemble you’re in will be the amount of performances you have,” she says. This inevitably led to glaring inequalities in experience, so to combat the lack of performance opportunities, at one point Akenya took matters into her own hands and organized a benefit concert for herself and her peers. Her engagement went even further than the usual racial divides of the US—even within the conservatory’s community of color, the population was largely comprised of international students, with language and cultural barriers that prevented different groups from interacting. Another reason for the benefit concert, Akenya explained, was to foster collaboration and conversation between the different ethnic and social groups, as well as musical departments, at her school. “I wanted to bring the school together and just meet people who weren’t in my little Americanized bubble.” Despite building her political self at the conservatory, Akenya finds it difficult to be explicitly political in her lyrics without being unoriginal or trite—thus, she tends to embrace abstraction in her songwriting. “Sometimes as an artist, you feel a responsibility to reflect on what’s happening in the world,” she says. “It’s hard to come up with inventive, personal ways to express that.” Still, she feels dialogue is crucial. “Being able to engage in discussion and real discourse with people who share your beliefs or don’t share your beliefs,” she says. “That’s where real change has to start, at a conversation level.” Personally, Akenya has been fortunate

enough to mostly steer clear of explicit disrespect in her musical career thus far. However, she sees a struggle in making a name for herself as not only a singer-songwriter, but as a producer of her own music. “Jazz especially is so male dominated and white-male-centric, very heteronormative. It can feel kind of icky sometimes. Hip-hop can be like that too—a very male, patriarchal, hypermasculine environment,” she says. “I’ve been lucky to find myself in spaces with more out of the box, sensitive people.” She confides that she hopes her audience will see her as more than someone with a “beautiful voice”—as someone that is both talented and hard-working, and that creates holistic art from start to finish.

ow, Akenya looks to the next two or three years as a time she can really come into her own as a musician. She’s particularly aware of her place and image in the music industry, and hopes to capitalize on her current popularity by dropping her album sooner rather than later. “I’m on people’s radar right now,” she says. “I don’t want to fade into obscurity.” Since her last (and only) project Overcome was released almost seven years ago, Akenya has begun to experiment with production, vocal layering, and more meaningful and refined lyrics. Remembering Overcome, she laughs. “I was a child when I made that. I was seventeen,” she remembers. “God, that’s so long ago. “ Akenya hopes to release her new album, titled Moon in the Fourth, later this year. Its name is inspired by her astrological charts. She explains that “having a moon in the fourth house” makes her deeply emotional and sensitive. The album, therefore, deals with themes such as love, depression, and confusion, and struggles with aspects of identity, history, and ancestry. “I want to explore the depths of what I can observe and understand and materialize,” she explains, her restlessness and creative appetite seemingly omnivorous. But Akenya also never loses sight of the studiousness that’s brought her so far. When proffering advice for musicians, she emphasizes the need for passion and rigor to operate in tandem. “Study your craft,” she says. “Learn as much as you can about what you do.” “It’s fine to put out stuff that is an experiment, or trial and error,” she continues. “But I think people don’t spend enough time studying and contemplating [music].” ¬ Akenya will be performing alongside Noname on her Telefone tour on select dates this year in America and Europe.

FEBRUARY 22, 2017 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 11

STAGE & SCREEN

Unapologetically Doing It Pilsen-set web series “Brown Girls” premieres at the Chicago Art Department BY THEA SMITH

ast Wednesday, a tall, wide-smiling usher opened the door, bringing me into the Chicago Art Department’s musky, glowing warmth. Nothing—the art, the lights, or the makeshift bar bustling with customers—was quite as compelling as the noise. It was loud. Not in an interruptive way, but I could hear laughter from across the room, and see and feel it bouncing from one group of people to the next. The tall ceiling, strung back and forth with yellow lights, only helped matters along, allowing notes of R&B music to fill the air. Couples’ heads were bent down, ears inches from mouths, while friends howled excited greetings at every new face that walked through the door. Hugs were given without discretion, and kisses planted in abundance. The February 15 Chicago release party of the crowd-funded web series, Brown Girls, couldn’t have started the night in a more beautiful atmosphere. Written by poet Fatimah Asghar and directed by filmmaker Sam Baily, both from Chicago, the show—which is filmed and set in Pilsen—revolves around the friendship of two women of color as they face the trials of young adulthood. Leading up to and since its release, a number of local and online outlets including the Tribune, the Reader, and Remezcla have sung the series’ praises. All of the press has commended the show for centering women of color, but nowhere else was the community that Brown Girls is for, about, and supported by more apparent, than at the release party. The venue quickly reached capacity, and was filled with a youthful, diverse crowd of expectant fans, draped in styles ranging from South Asian saris to studded leather jackets. Each face I spotted was overwhelmed by a smile. Groups and lone 12 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

partygoers alike were unguarded and open, willing to sit and spark a conversation or chat about a work of art. An accepting sense of community was palpable, perhaps simply because everyone was there for the same reason: to support and celebrate the stars and creators of the series—queer women of color. It is not a coincidence, then, that the event itself seemed to exude a gorgeous feminine energy that touched every piece of art and every performance of the night. The evening was divided into two parts: musical performances and a screening of the show’s first season. Burlesque performer and emcee Jeez Loueez took the stage first; her bright floral headpiece and translucent, shimmering dress captured the attention of even the rowdiest stragglers in the back of the room. She introduced the opener, Po’Chop, the striking burlesque alter ego of Jenn Freeman. Po’Chop split the crowd down the middle, forming a column of space to fill with her provocative blend of contemporary dance and speechless acting. The fierceness of her expression hushed the crowd, and the performance ended with shouts and whistles of support. The crowd decided to sit down to allow those in the back to see, turning the night into a summer camp–like experience, with a mass of young adults sitting cross-legged on the ground. Po’Chop was followed by Swati Tiwari and Nabila Hossain, one of the leads of Brown Girls, performing a bouncy Bollywood dance. The rest of the evening was filled with acts that ranged from a standup set by Sonia Denis, the other lead actress of the series, to a striptease by Jeez Loueez herself; in between, all I could hear were encouraging shouts from the audience. It was a night that overflowed with positive energy, with women supporting women and queer people

¬ FEBRUARY 22, 2017

THEA SMITH

Lisa Mishra performs at the launch party for Brown Girls, a new web series focusing on friendship between women of color. of color celebrating one another. The final two performers of the night were the writers and singers of the Brown Girls theme song, Lisa Mishra and Jamila Woods. Woods is Fatimah Asghar’s best friend, and Asghar used their friendship as inspiration for that of the lead characters, Leila and Patricia. Mishra and Woods’s performance blended their musical styles in a collaboration that reflects a central message of the series: that not only women of color, but also women of different colors, must help each other in learning to love themselves fully. Immediately after this last performance, the crowd came to its feet and made its way to the screening room to catch the first glimpse of the series itself. The room was filled to the brim, a happy mess of bodies pushed against each other, with people even spilling into the next room. The intimacy that was created, although slightly uncomfortable and most definitely too warm, was exactly what the premiere seemed to be about: Brown Girls is a series about friendship, and the connections we make with people that shake our lives in unexpected and unprecedented ways. After watching the first season, which consisted of seven episodes, people were dancing, laughing, and crying, already eager for the story to continue. There were moments during the screening when I could see the faces of the audience mimicking the faces

of the actors, as people saw themselves reflected in Asghar’s characters and their interactions. Although cheesy at times, the show ultimately made the audience relate to its characters and their circumstances, creating an unspoken sense of belonging amongst the crowd. The screening ended with shots of the main characters dancing, but the music was entirely drowned out by applause. Asghar edged to the front of the audience, humbled by the reception of her work, and closed the night with her thanks. Almost unable to speak as she began to tear up, Asghar thanked Woods especially for encouraging her to create and write Brown Girls. The night turned out to be so much more than just the premiere of a web series. It was about a community that brought itself together to celebrate groups of people who deserve yet rarely seem to receive support. It was for young queer people, for artists and creators, for brown and black women and the power of their friendship. Asghar seemed overcome with the beauty of it all. Her closing words served as the sendoff of the night: “You don’t know what you are capable of until you do it.” She and her friends had unapologetically done it, and undoubtedly succeeded. ¬

POLITICS

The Stone Soup Dance

JASON SCHUMER

Monica Neuland teaches a class at the Rose Center. Neuland manages large amounts of donations to cope in a chronically underfunded human services sector.

As funding for disability programming comes under threat, service providers get smarter BY MICHAEL WASNEY

he back room of Envision Unlimited’s Rose Center, in Back of the Yards, is piled to the proverbial ceiling with arts and crafts materials: boxes of old lace, a package of sequined hats, a children’s doll whose head had, at some point in its transport, become decapitated from its body. Sorting through it all is Monika Neuland, a social practice artist, educator, and consultant who works with agencies that provide services for those with physical and developmental disabilities. Envision Unlimited, the organization which owns

the Rose Center, is one of these. The arts supplies are a donation that will help sustain the various arts programs that Neuland leads around the Chicago area, including the mask-making workshop taking place here in the Rose Center. Neuland has made a career out of working with physically and developmentally disabled people. But quite a bit of her job is doing just this: coordinating the dropoff and distribution of donations, which are necessary supplements for the arts programming she runs. “Managing all the

donations and pickups is a challenge,” she says. “It’s a big part of what I do.” In the chronically underfunded human services sector, she tells me that “this is how I’ve stayed alive.” The vast majority of the supplemental enrichment arts programming that Neuland directs—like today’s mask-making workshop—are developmental training programs embedded in the Home- and Community-Based Services (HCBS) Medicaid Waiver, through which eligible service providers can bill the Illinois

Department of Health for their costs; in turn, the federal government allows states like Illinois to spend Medicaid funding on these services. One of the purported advantages of the HCBS Waiver is its open-ended status: the federal government is obligated to help states pay for home- and community-based services, as long as those services don’t cost more than institutional care (like a hospital or nursing home). This ostensibly eliminating the potential for triage decision-making on the part of the state. But that may change soon, as the new

FEBRUARY 22, 2017 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 13

VISUAL ARTS

BULLETIN presidential administration orients its healthcare policy in a different direction. Days after the inauguration, presidential advisor Kellyanne Conway announced the administration’s goal to “block grant” the Medicaid funding structure. It’s an idea that’s been largely embraced by conservative legislators, even before Trump’s administration. Block granting would essentially predetermine the amount of federal funding a state could receive annually, regardless of actual costs throughout the year.True to form, conservative lawmakers have highlighted the decision-making freedom such a reform would afford states. Neuland—whose programs are in large part underwritten by Medicaid Waiver funding—thinks about it differently: “It’s a tricky way to do a funding cut,” she says. “It’s a bait and switch.” And hers are not the only programs that rely on the Medicaid funding: Mark McHugh, CEO of Envision Unlimited, says that nearly all of Envision’s services are embedded within Illinois’s waiver system as well. But Neuland is unfazed. After over fifteen years of this work, she’s a veritable expert at making a lot out of a little—what she calls the “stone soup dance”—having consistently developed her programming in the context of constrained funding. After all, underfunding in the human service sector is no new beast: McHugh says that Illinois’s Medicaid funding has remained stagnant for a decade, despite rising costs across the board. So, service providers, whether individual or organizational, have turned to other means to ensure the ongoing quality of the programs they offer. Neuland, for one, has relied on donations of reused and recycled art materials, like the ones she’s sorting at the Rose Center. As a result, her art programs have flourished, even when the agencies with whom she works lack the means for all of the necessary supplies. Neuland and McHugh talk about other strategies that have worked for both of them: namely, space sharing and forming partnerships with other local organizations in order to pool resources. Even this is a break with how things were done just ten years ago. “In the past, people were very regimented about resource management and who goes with who,” Neuland says. But Neuland regards these newfound community connections as the silver lining of underfunding. “With the funding crisis especially, people now know that there are just these others ways that stuff can get done, 14 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

and will get done.” Both she and McHugh talk in particular about a partnership formed between ZeroLandfill, a volunteer-run organization that diverts materials found in landfills toward educators and community artists, and Envision Unlimited, resulting in a biannual giveaway of art supplies staffed in part by the physically and developmentally disabled clients of Envision. More than being coping mechanisms, strategies like these allow the organizations involved to achieve their missions to a degree never before possible. In the aforementioned partnership, ZeroLandfill is able to pursue the social and environmental dimensions of its mission, while clients of Envision are included in the community by volunteering in the biannual event. “We have people who are now integrated into the community in ways they never thought they had the opportunity to do,” McHugh says. So for both Neuland and McHugh, the ways in which they’ve dealt with underfunding in the context of the HCBS Waiver have actually improved the quality of the services that they provide to their clients. “This isn’t about, you know, we’re going to scrape by and give the minimum to the individuals who use our services,” McHugh says. “This is about thriving in a challenging environment.” Individual and organizational service providers like Neuland and Envision Unlimited have made important strides in helping their clients live integrated and selfdirected lives, all in the context of stagnant funding. Neuland spoke with optimism about the indelibility of the work that she’s doing. In reference to the mask-making workshop, which will culminate in a Mardi Gras celebration at the Rose Center near the end of February, Neuland spoke of the future: “If you do this job right, at a certain point, there are many situations that I should be able to exit left stage, and this festival will still be going on. Ten years from now, this Mardi Gras thing should just be established.” But McHugh emphasized that creative practices and collaboration can only do so much. “The funding challenges that exist right now still need a solution,” he says. “You can’t get the same amount of money forever and expect to be able to pay for increasing costs— it doesn’t work.” How the funding crisis will play out—especially with the possibility of a “block granted” Medicaid system—remains to be seen. ¬

¬ FEBRUARY 22, 2017

Forum on Immigration Policy with Rep. Bobby Rush Illinois Institute of Technology, 10 W. 35th St. Thursday, February 23, 5:30pm. Free. (773) 779-2400. rush.house.gov U.S. Representative Bobby Rush will host a forum on “Navigating Today’s U.S Immigration Policy,” a response to recent executive orders targeting immigrants and refugees. Join Rush in discussing the implications of these changes with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the American Civil Liberties Union, and other groups. (Hafsa Razi)

Free Food for Summer Youth Groups: Info Session Archdiocese of Chicago Food Service, 5343 W. Roscoe St. Thursday, February 23, 10am– 11am. RSVP required by phone or email. (800) 545-7892. ngreene@isbe.net The Illinois State Board of Education and the Archdiocese of Chicago combine forces to host the “FREE FOOD for Summer Youth Groups” information session. Lt. Governor Evelyn Sanguinetti and others will talk about the problem of youth hunger in the state, and how summer youth groups serving children eighteen years or younger can acquire free food and resources. (Michael Wasney)

The Interview Show: Benefit for the Voting Rights Project Lagunitas Brewing Chicago, 2607 W. 17th St. Tuesday, February 28, 6pm–9pm. $16.50. theinterviewshow.bpt.me WTTW’s Interview Show comes to Lagunitas to raise money for the Voting Rights Project, an effort by the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law to increase access to voting and civic participation in low-income communities of color. The show features representatives from Lagunitas and the Project, as well as writer and sociologist Eve Ewing. (Hafsa Razi)

Metro Planning Council Roundtable on Historic Pullman Metropolitan Planning Council, 140 S. Dearborn St., Ste. 1400. Wednesday, March 1, noon–1:30pm. $15 for MPC donors, $30 for

non-donors. RSVP required. (312) 863-6010. metroplanning.org At this roundtable, presenters will talk about Pullman’s recent resurgence, what lessons from this resurgence can be applied elsewhere in the city, and how the company town can fulfill the promise of its National Monument status under a new federal administration. Attendees will also discuss how to use Pullman’s growth to lift up surrounding South Side neighborhoods. ( Joseph S. Pete)

VISUAL ARTS Buried Alive: The Art of James C. Harrison Elephant Room Gallery, 704 S. Wabash Ave. Closing reception Friday, February 24, 6pm–8:30pm. Through Saturday, February 25. Wednesday and Thursday, 1pm–5pm; Saturday, 11am-5pm. Free. (312) 361-0281. elephantroomgallery.com Buried Alive is a retrospective of the dark, revelatory paintings of the late Brooklynbased painter James C. Harrison, who worked from 1950 to 1990. The show exhibits “paint-drawings” that, inspired by Jungian psychology and jazz improvisation, echo the chaotic style of Harrison’s betterknown contemporaries Cy Twombly and Robert Rauschenberg. (Sam Clapp)

Your Hyperbole Could Be A Screensaver Randy Alexander Gallery, 1926 S. Wabash Ave. Closing reception Saturday, February 25, 6pm-8pm. Free. (347) 233-1528. randyalexandergallery.com Chicago artist and Northwestern grad Erin Hayden has incorporated everything from text to emoji to giant ants in her multidisciplinary works. She made a striking first impression in the Intention to Know exhibit at Stony Island Arts Bank. Her new solo show, which closes Saturday, features new paintings, installation, and video. ( Joseph S. Pete)

Heather Mekkelson: In Absentia Luci 4th Ward Project Space, 5338 S. Kimbark Ave. Opening Sunday, February 26, 4pm7pm. Through Sunday, March 16. Saturday, 1pm-5pm. Free. 4wps.org

EVENTS Where will you be on Sunday the 26th if not here? In her new show in Hyde Park gallery 4th Ward Project Space, Heather Mekkelson examines the fundamental constructs of time, space, and number that guide us in discovering our place in the universe through her own sculptural constructions and assemblages. (Corinne Butta)

Chicago on My Mind Garfield Park Arts Incubator, 301 E. Garfield Blvd. Opening Friday February 24, 6pm8pm. Through Sunday, February 26. MondayFriday, 10am-6pm. Free. (773) 702-9724. Referencing the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 1969 exhibition Harlem on My Mind, curatorial residents Sadie Woods and La Keisha Leek revise the concept to apply to Chicago. They bring together works that unite a vision of Chicago cultural and social practice. (Corinne Butta)

MUSIC Lee Fields & The Expressions Thalia Hall, 1807 S. Allport St. Tuesday, February 28, doors 7:30pm, show 9:30pm. $20 standing room, $25 seats. 17+. (312) 526-3851. thaliahallchicago.com Seasoned soul and funk artist Lee Fields is stopping by Pilsen’s Thalia Hall in support of his latest album with The Expressions, Special Night. One of the hardest working soul artists around with a forty-three-year career, Fields is a sure tonic for classic soul aficionados of every age. (Efrain Dorado)

Black & Brown Babes Vol. 3 The Dojo, address available through FB page. Saturday, February 25, gallery 8pm, music 9pm. $5 donation. 18+. facebook.com/ thedojochi The Black & Brown Babes Collective is holding their third showcase at Pilsen DIY space The Dojo featuring numerous local artists and musicians. Among the stacked lineup is rapper/singer Milly Mango, Latin funk band Súbele, dreamy hip-hop group Oracle, soulful singer Bernie Levv, and beatmaker DJ Abel. Complementing the performances is an installation by art collective And Then There Was Black. (Efrain Dorado)

The Beat Era Brent House, 5540 S. Woodlawn Ave. Friday, February 24, doors 6pm, show 7pm and 8:30pm. $35 general admission, $15 students or under 21. $5 more on all tickets purchased at door. (773) 947-8744. brenthouse.org Party like a beatnik in a celebration of counterculture music and poetry from the 1950s to early 1960s. Saxophonist Dudley Owens and his trio will play jazz that Kerouac, Ginsburg, and Burroughs could have snapped their fingers to. Attendees are encouraged to dress for the period and can partake of light refreshments and participate in a silent auction. ( Joseph S. Pete)

The Dred Scott Decision: Oscar Brown, Jr.’s 3/5 Myth Stony Island Arts Bank, 6760 S. Stony Island Ave. Saturday, February 25, 3pm-4:30pm. Free. (312) 857-5561. rebuild-foundation.org Rebuild Foundation musician-in-residence (and recent Weekly featuree) Maggie Brown will recite sonnets about the Dred Scott decision and “other issues related to the peculiar institution of slavery.” The poetry will be set to music from the catalog of Maggie’s father, the jazz legend and singer/poet/civil rights activist Oscar Brown, Jr. ( Joseph S. Pete)

eta's new production, written by Ntsako Mkhabela, follows the story of TK, the only girl arrested in a famous series of protests led by black South African schoolchildren in 1976. The children took to the streets of Soweto, a town outside of Johannesburg, to protest the introduction of Afrikaans as the official language of schooling. They were met with a brutal response from the police. ( Jake Bittle)

Blacks in Green Presents: The Suitcase King Branch, Chicago Public Library, 3436 S. King Drive. Saturday, February 25, 1pm– 2pm. Free. (312) 747-7543. chipublib.bibliocommons.com/events Naomi Davis, the founder of Blacks in Green and the granddaughter of black sharecroppers, will give a lecture tracing her family’s journey from Mississippi to Chicago in the Great Migration of the early twentieth century. Davis will explore the hopes and fears that drove the exodus, as well as the culture her grandparents brought with them. (Sam Clapp)

The Violet Hour: the Life of Leontyne Price

South Shore Cultural Center, Robeson Theater, 7059 South Shore Drive. Sunday, February 26, 4pm. Free, donations welcome. (773) 6670241. southshoreopera.org Joelle Lamarre performs her own work exploring the life and career of internationally acclaimed soprano Leontyne Price, from her rise to prominence during segregation to her final performance at the Metropolitan Opera House in 1985. (Nicole Bond)

Various Artists Independent Film Festival (Call for Submissions) Submissions close Friday, February 27. For full submission guidelines, visit variousartuststv.net/vaiff The second round of submissions for this independent film festival welcomes contributions that are “100 years old or 100 days old,” and of all genres, as long as they’re under forty-five minutes. As with last fall’s round, the festival promises cash prizes and celebrity judges who will review all submissions. ( Jake Bittle)

STAGE & SCREEN Intersectional Women's Issues at Applied Words Hosted by Guild Literary Complex, location TBA. Tuesday, March 14, 7pm. Free. (877) 394-5061. guildcomplex.org March’s installation of the “Applied Words” series of critical conversations, hosted by Guild Literary Complex, will focus on the representation of women in media and the impact these representations have on young women. Dr. Nicole Spigner, a professor of African-American literature at Columbia College, will moderate the discussion. ( Jake Bittle)

By the Apricot Trees eta Creative Arts, 7558 S. South Chicago Ave. Fridays at 8pm, Saturdays at 8pm, and Sundays at 3pm through Sunday, April 2. See website for prices. (773) 752-3955. etacreaiivearts.org FEBRUARY 22, 2017 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 15