February 3, 2015

Pullman at a Crossroads Art, real estate, and the future of a landmark neighborhood

NUEVO LEON, BLACK HISTORY MONTH, PARTICIPATORY BUDGETING & MORE INSIDE

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¬ FEBRUARY 3, 2016

IN CHICAGO

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 indepth 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.

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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

From 4th Ward to Room and Board 4th Ward Alderman Will Burns announced his resignation on Monday. Burns is heading to, of all places, Airbnb. He will become their senior advisor and director for Midwest policy after serving the 4th Ward for five years following former alderman Toni Preckwinkle’s election as Cook County Board President. As one of Mayor Emanuel’s biggest political supporters on the South Side, Burns’s departure comes at an interesting time, especially because Rahm has just proposed a 4.5 percent hotel tax and more regulations on Airbnb commerce. Since Burns resigned before October of this year, 4th Ward residents will be able to vote for a replacement alderman; had he waited, the new 4th Ward alderman would have been handpicked by the mayor and would have served until 2019. According to DNAinfo, this special election will be held on February 28, 2017 after Emanuel’s handpicked interim alderman serves for a year, with a prospective run-off scheduled for April 4, 2017. “Any resident of the ward will be able to apply [to run],” the mayor said.

New Year, New Scapegoat As January comes to a close with a total of fifty-one murders, compared to last January’s twenty-nine, Chicagoans are searching for an explanation. According to the Sun-Times, police are placing the blame on a newly coined phenomenon, the “ACLU effect.” While cops last year complained of the “Ferguson effect,” claiming that the activism spurred by the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri made the police overly cautious, this year’s term targets the pact between the police department and the ACLU, requiring the police to carefully document each citizen stop. The deal, in effect since the beginning of the year, requires two pages of documentation, an increase from the old one-page

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Fifth Business Most Illinois state representatives can only dream of a half-million-dollar check. For Chicago Democrat Ken Dunkin, however, that dream just became reality. A recent donation to Dunkin, whose 5th district stretches its gerrymandered limbs from the Near North Side down the eastern flank of the Dan Ryan and south into Grand Crossing, registered as one of the largest in the history of the state legislature.

The money also comes from an unexpected source: a free-spending conservative organization called the Illinois Opportunity Project, which, according to the Sun-Times, was cofounded by Dan Proft, a former Republican candidate for governor. The gift is an attempt to protect Dunkin, a frequent dissenter among Springfield Democrats, from a mounting attempt to oust him. But the sheer size of the donation also highlights a quirk in state campaign finance law: the donation came only after the $100,000 spending “ceiling” on the district race was blown by another monumental pledge, a $140,000 donation to Dunkin’s rival.

IN THIS ISSUE

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“contact cards” system, and this year seventy-nine percent fewer cards have been completed so far this year than during the same period last year. In interviews with the Sun-Times, police officers and sergeants expressed an unwillingness to make stops due to the increased workload and fear of punishment. From the ACLU’s perspective, however, the decline in traffic stops is a positive development, since they found last year that stops were often racially biased and had no acceptable justification. Karen Sheley, Director of Police Practices for the ACLU of Illinois, told the Sun-Times that other cities have been able to curb stops without spiking violence, implying that the police should find something else to blame for the violent month.

the more things change

The debate over the project, with its collision of old and new, reflects the tensions of Pullman as a whole. christian belanger...4 this is what democracy looks like

“What’s cool about PB is that before, we never knew how the money was spent.” anne li...7 "nuevo

leon will be back"

“It's what he loves to do, it's what I love to do.” sammie spector...10

a record of the scene

“That's really our goal, to be good documentarians of the whole thing.” austin brown...14

a nontraditional tenure

“We’re spending money that we don’t have.” sonia schlesinger...12

the world in our pocket

room music

“Nowadays, I just hide where I can hide.” christopher good...13

Danceable, synthesized, and even a little retro-futurist, but still human. austin brown...15 teaching self-love

“I would rather see them with a paintbrush than with a weapon in their hand.” as told to bess cohen...16

FEBRUARY 3, 2016 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 3

The More Things Change Amid new arts development, Pullman seeks to preserve its sense of history

BY CHRISTIAN BELANGER

O

n January 11, Tom McMahon stood up to call to order a public meeting at the Pullman National Monument Visitor Center, introducing himself by simultaneously disavowing and affirming the importance of his own place in Pullman’s community: “I’m the president of the Pullman Civic Organization. I’m also a board member of Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives. Tonight, I’m just the moderator, here to ask questions and address concerns raised during the last meeting.”

McMahon was moderating the third community meeting for Pullman Artspace Lofts, a proposed development at the western edge of Pullman, on the corner of 111th Street and Langley Avenue.

Artspace, a company headquartered in Minneapolis that teamed up with two local organizations to bring the development project to the neighborhood, has been building affordable housing with gallery and work space for artists across the country since the eighties. Now, after a process spanning half a decade, one of their buildings appears to be coming to Pullman: the current plans for the final complex would include thirty-eight units spread across three buildings. It would also restore a pair of the neighborhood’s historic structures.

But the proposal has divided the neighborhood; one recent letter to the SunTimes by resident Mark Cassello referred to the project as “Frankenstein’s monster— economic development run amok.” Critics have questioned the wisdom of bringing in renters who might not be fully committed to the neighborhood. They have also pointed out the potential loss of an opportunity to remember some of Pullman’s poorest past residents. And while the meetings were a forum for community members to ask questions and give feedback about the development, some allege that the progress and character of the development were, until recently, shrouded in secrecy; Bob Vroman, who lives across from the current site,

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said he felt “deceived” by the process. Now, in a surprising change, a concerted community effort may have shifted the original plans for the project from a single structure on Langley to a two-part development at opposite corners of the neighborhood.

Yet the Artspace development is only a small sign of what’s to come in Pullman, a neighborhood readying for change in the wake of its newly acquired National Monument status this past February. In many ways, the debate over the project, with its collision of old and new, reflects the tensions in Pullman as a whole: the neighborhood’s deep historical awareness, the intimate network that exists between its many longtime residents, and the sweeping plans that have been drawn up for the neighborhood’s future.

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ver the last couple of years, Pullman has quietly become a hub for many Chicago artists. Matthew Hoffman, who created of the “You Are Beautiful” sign on Lake Shore Drive, produced an installation of the words “Go For It” in Pullman’s Market Square. Local artist Ian Lantz paints murals in the neighborhood’s alleyways and recently opened Pullman Cafe, the only coffee shop in the neighborhood.

Conversations about how best to foster this artistic activity have increased along with the presence of the artists themselves. Chris Campagna, who makes his living as an artist, recalls that when he moved to Pullman in 2009, he heard that there were plans to create a workspace for Pullman’s artists.

Campagna, who opposes the Artspace development, claimed that he held one of the first meetings for what would later become PullmanArts, a nonprofit dedicated to growth of the arts in the neighborhood, in his house. When the group started out, though, it was a committee of the Pullman Civic Organization (PCO), an influential community group.

Ann Alspaugh, president of Pullma-

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF ARTSPACE

DEVELOPMENT

nArts, said the committee’s original plan was to find a workspace for artists from Pullman, but the group soon changed its focus to bringing more artists in from outside the community: “We heard there was a company called Artspace doing artists’ live/ work space, and we thought that they could probably do that here.”

After Artspace was contacted by the PCO in 2011, in 2012 it conducted a survey of nearly four hundred artists in the area. Upon finding that there was some demand for affordable artist live/work housing, Artspace agreed to work with the PCO committee, which incorporated as a nonprofit and renamed itself PullmanArts.

The two organizations paired up with local developer Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives (CNI), the developer that brought the Pullman Park Walmart and Method Soap Factory to the neighborhood. Eventually the three groups became Pullman Artspace, LLC. Together, Alspaugh says, members from the three organizations began to pick out a site, eventually settling on the block just south of the corner of 111th Street and Langley Avenue. The site spans three properties, two of which are currently occupied by vacant, almost identical tenement buildings, with an empty lot in the middle.

Like the rest of Pullman, the tenements were designed by the architect Solon Spencer Beman in the 1880s, when he was commissioned by railroad car magnate George Pullman to build a model town in an undeveloped area just south of the city of Chicago. But the hulking, three-story tenement buildings (also referred to as block houses) stand in contrast to most of the rest of Pullman’s houses, which tend to be a story shorter and a good deal more

compact. Historically, the block houses— originally ten, lettered from A to J—were also where the poorest laborers and their families lived, often in fairly cramped conditions. Block House B, which is now the empty lot, was demolished in the early twentieth century. The remaining ones to the south were also destroyed; a park with a playground and some newer, slightly sleeker three-story apartments now stand in their place.

The disappearance of the block houses is unusual for a neighborhood whose architecture has rarely ever changed, especially since much of Pullman’s permanence is by design. In 1960, Pullman was threatened by plans for industrial expansion that would have demolished the area from 111th to 115th Street; residents responded by founding the PCO. Most of the organization’s lobbying for the preservation of Pullman was on historical grounds, a tactic that proved successful: in 1971, the area of Pullman from 103rd to 115th St. was named a National Historic Landmark by the Department of the Interior, saving the neighborhood from destruction. A host of other historic designations arrived in the coming decades, culminating in President Obama declaring the Historic District a National Monument in February of 2015.

The protections that saved Pullman from demolition also required that it remain, in many respects, frozen in time.

According to the Pullman Homeowners’ Guide, residents are currently required by the Commission on Chicago Landmarks to maintain the historical elements of their homes.

Over time, of course, a number of historic structures in Pullman have been damaged or destroyed. The Arcade Build-

ing, Pullman’s commercial center that also contained a one-thousand-seat theatre, was destroyed in 1927. Both the iconic clock tower and the Market Square that houses Hoffman’s “Go For It” installation were damaged by fires. The block houses, gradually demolished or vacated, were no exception.

D

uring the initial site selection process, Pullman Artspace found the lots on Langley to be ideal: the site is big enough for an extensive development that could incorporate gallery space along with affordable apartments, and there were willing sellers for each of the three lots.

Additionally, the restoration of the block houses could be financed in part by historic preservation tax credits from the City of Chicago.

Artspace selected VOA Associates, an international architecture firm, to design the building for the vacant lot where Block House B once stood. When it was presented to the Pullman public for feedback in early October, the design showed a building with a facade drastically different from the two historic tenements. In response to mixed community feedback, the firm

tweaked its plan slightly. The new design pushed the facade back so it flushed with the block houses and modeled it after the homes across the street.

Cassello, an assistant professor of English at Calumet College of St. Joseph, lives a few blocks south of the site. He thinks the choice to construct a new, architecturally distinct building instead of the original tenement would have meant the loss of an opportunity to remember the history of the block houses as the crowded, cramped homes of hundreds of Pullman’s poorest laborers. “Without [the block houses],” Cassello writes in a paper he gave to the Weekly, “a significant dimension of the Pullman story, and hence American history, cannot be told: namely, the story of Pullman’s poorest residents...[The Artspace] project does promise to enhance the two existing Block Houses; however, their new center complex would obliterate the site of Beman’s original building, erase the architectural harmony of the original three building complex, and potentially cause irrevocable damage to the archaeological remains of the original site.” His skepticism is further compounded by the fact that David Doig, the current president of CNI (the

Top: The three original tenement buildings that stood on the site of the proposed Artspace project. Middle: The Langley Avenue site in the current day.

The middle tenement was torn down, and the two tenements on either side are vacant. Bottom: VOA Associates' most recent rendering of the project.

FEBRUARY 3, 2016 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 5

developer component of Artspace), has a complicated track record with renovation.

In his role as CEO of the Chicago Parks District from 1999 to 2004, Doig oversaw a renovation of Soldier Field that caused it to lose its landmark status and its spot on the National Register of Historic Places.

Cassello would prefer that Artspace attempt to reconstruct the facade of the original building. Barring this, Cassello said that they should move the project to another location. He initially suggested a vacant lot on 113th and Cottage Grove (which Alspaugh says was rejected because it was too small), or some locations in Roseland, the less developed neighborhood immediately west of the Pullman Historic District.

While Cassello’s argument is more historical than legal, Melodie Bahan, Vice President of Communications at Artspace, pointed out that Artspace is simply adhering to the rules that apply to new constructions in Chicago’s historic areas. By the guidelines of the Department of Planning and Development, the City of Chicago requires only that “the design [of the building] respects the general historic and architectural characteristics associated with the property or district in general character, color or texture,” adding that “the intent is to encourage excellence in contemporary design that does not imitate, but rather complements.” A spokesman for the Department of Planning and Development confirmed that these would be the rules that applied to the Artspace project.

The space itself will consist of thirty-eight units, down from early estimates of up to forty-five. The first floor of the middle building will contain a gallery, studio, and community meeting space, but no commercial space, unlike other Artspace projects. Despite the reduction from early estimates, the number of units was another cause for concern among some at the community meeting. “Langley was always bashed as a place you don’t want to live,” said Pullman resident Georgia Vroman. “[It] already has the densest population in Pullman.” Along with her husband Bob, Vroman has lived on the street for the past forty-six years. “Whether this development is going to be thirty-eight instead of for6 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

ty-eight units means nothing to me,” she added.

Sarah White, the Director of Property Development at Artspace, acknowledged Vroman’s concern, but suggested the number was defensible.

“The density question is not easy to answer,” she said. “The number of units is consistent with what was there historically, actually even a little less.” In response to worries from other residents about parking, a traffic engineer noted that there would be a seventeen-car parking lot in the back, putting the development in compliance with city regulations.

Still, even if thirty-eight units is a feasible number, White’s response on this point seems slightly strange. It’s worth noting what pro-labor Reverend William Carwardine wrote in the 1890s about the buildings: “On Fulton Street [now Langley] are the great tenement blocks, lettered from A to J, three stories, where 300 to 500 persons live under one roof....They are comparatively clean, having air and light; but abundance of water they have not, there being but one faucet for each group of five families.” Because the institutional memory of Pullman is so deep—many residents have lived there for decades, and Campagna likes to boast that his sons will be fifth-generation Pullmanites—it’s likely that part of Langley’s poor reputation is tied to the image of those crowded, largely foreign tenements.

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t is hardly improbable that Langley’s reputation should stick in a place like Pullman, where the long tenure and memory of some residents has shown up in other ways for the Artspace project. While seventy-five to eighty percent of the financing for most Artspace developments comes from fifteen-year Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) given to affordable housing projects, White said, the rest is supplied by philanthropic donors and grant-giving foundations. One major financier of the Pullman Artspace project is the Donnelley Foundation, which gave Artspace a grant of $250,000 this past June. Arthur Pearson, the Chicago Program Director of the Foundation, was also Board President of PullmanArts from late 2011 until September 2014;

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he told the Weekly that he resigned because he had “too much on the work front.” His position at the Donnelley Foundation entails “directing the Foundation’s arts, and conservation and collections programs in the Chicago region.”

David Farren, executive director of the Donnelley Foundation, defended Pearson’s roles in both organizations. “The fact that Mr. Pearson lives in the Pullman community does not constitute a conflict of interest and we took steps to ensure that it would not influence the Foundation’s decision-making process,” he said.

It can be difficult not to find such overlaps in Pullman, though, where pride in the closeness of the community is everywhere. As Georgia Vroman, who serves as treasurer of the PCO but is not involved directly with the Pullman Artspace project, remarked to me, “There’s no such thing as a five-minute walk in Pullman.” Anyone who tries to get somewhere fast will inevitably be stopped at least three or four times by neighbors. At the meeting, one resident noted that when he moved in a couple of years ago, three or four people had knocked on his door within a couple of hours to welcome him to the neighborhood.

Inevitably, this closeness manifests itself in local politics. There is, for example, the case of Tom McMahon, who is both president of the PCO and a board member of CNI. While the PCO is no longer directly involved with the Artspace project (though PullmanArts did present reports at their monthly town hall meeting even after becoming independent), it does wield a good deal of clout in the neighborhood: it was a victory for the Pullman Park Walmart when the PCO supported it in 2010. While the PCO did not respond to request for comment, Doig brushed off any ideas of impropriety, noting that PCO presidents only serve for one year at a time.

There’s also a bit of overlap between PullmanArts and the Beman Committee of the PCO, which makes sure residents keep their homes in tune with Pullman’s historical heritage. According to John Christie, co-chair of the Beman Committee, the committee will vote “to support, not support, or ask for design alterations prior to Landmarks’ decision on the proj-

ect.” Christie said that while there are two members on the Committee who are also part of PullmanArts, they will recuse themselves from the vote.

C

urrently, Pullman Artspace has begun its application for approval from the Chicago Department of Planning and Development; the project will also probably have to go through a public hearing from the Commission on Chicago Landmarks. In the meantime, it will begin sending in tax credit applications (Artspace has never been rejected from the LIHTC program before, according to White), with hopes to set up most of its financing by January of 2017. After that, construction would begin, and applications for spots would open soon after. The first group of tenants would move in during March of 2018.

While most or all of the building’s residents will be artists, Artspace’s idea of an “artist” is loose. “We define artist very broadly,” said Penelope Bahan of Artspace.

“You’ll find traditional artists, but also performing artists, and designers.” It is also not necessary that an artist make a living off their art; for example, one resident at the meeting who said she was an art teacher would qualify under Artspace’s criteria.

Pullman residents can already observe a local test case in Artspace’s project in East Garfield Park, the Switching Station Artists Lofts. According to Campagna, the lack of development in the area surrounding the building suggests that Artspace exaggerates its ability to bring in commercial development and raise property values.

The Switching Station also doesn’t contain a community meeting space. Bahan cited this as a lesson learned: “It makes it a little more difficult for the building to be part of the neighborhood. It is fully leased up, but it’s not as engaged with the community as buildings that were developed after that.” She promised that Switching Station’s shortcomings would not be repeated in the case of the Pullman project. Bahan also pointed out that studies undertaken of several Artspace projects showed property values going up after the construction.

Some hope may still remain for those opposed to the Pullman project in its current incarnation. On January 13, a couple

POLITICS

of days after the McMahon-led community meeting, Cassello invited Bahan down to Pullman, where he pitched her an alternate vision for the project. His version would split the project into two parts. The restoration of the two block houses on the Langley site would go on as planned, but the lot between the buildings would remain vacant. And instead of artist housing, the block houses would serve a multitude of purposes: a tenement museum, community workspace for Pullman artists, and a sculpture garden. The residences would then move to some combination of available lots around Cottage Grove and 115th—Cassello is not sure which, though he has suggested a number of available properties— where a higher number of units could still be accommodated.

“The idea is that we’re uniting the northeast and southwest corner of Pullman, surrounding the community with the arts,” says Casello. “There’s also development that ties into Roseland—you can build along the 115th corridor—which diminishes the stigma that we only develop in a more diverse area.” He added that his plan is “just a synthesis of all the complaints people have had to the project.” I wanted to speak for the people who felt like they were marginalized,” he said.

According to Cassello, Bahan “loved” the plan, but said she had to bring it back to the Artspace development team before agreeing to revamp the entire project.

When the Weekly reached out to Bahan, she responded that she was expecting feedback from the development team soon, but did not comment further.

If potential impediments (such as the renewed question of financing) are overcome, and the imagined alternative becomes reality, it would be a dramatic victory for opponents of the existing proposal.

Cassello is only cautiously hopeful, but he’s adamant that his idea is best for the neighborhood: “This development could be Pullman’s crown jewel. But if you go through with the other plan it’s going to be a black eye on the neighborhood.”

Of course, change will be coming to Pullman regardless of whether or how the Artspace project is completed. After the neighborhood was declared a National

Monument, the National Parks Conservation Association, an independent advocacy group for the National Parks System, and the Chicago chapter of the American Institute of Architects released an idea book called “Positioning Pullman” that outlined and suggested a number of projects for the neighborhood to take full advantage of its newly acquired status.

The book contained suggestions for the restoration of historical structures, like the Hotel Florence—built by George Pullman in honor of his favorite daughter—and Market Square, as well as a reinterpreted construction of the demolished Arcade Building. But there were also recommendations for other sorts of community development in the area, such as boutique hotels or an arts incubator.

Some preliminary work is already set to begin: Lynn McClure, Senior Regional Director at the National Parks Conservation Association, said that money for remediation of the Pullman Company’s factory grounds had been earmarked from last year’s state budget, avoiding this year’s deadlock, and that $7.5 million has been raised for construction of a new visitor’s center, about half the estimated cost. McClure also noted that public transit options to and from Pullman are set to expand as well, saying that the South Shore Line could soon stop at 111th Street.

Still, Artspace, if it succeeds, will be the first new construction in Pullman’s Historic District in fifty years, according to CNI’s Doig. It’s an important test, then, of how a neighborhood that has survived for so long simply on its history can pivot to a new strategy, welcoming the sort of development that will make Pullman more attractive to tourist while also ensuring that the long-standing ties of its residents remains intact.

On this subject, residents at the community meeting, even those skeptical of the Artspace development, were hopeful. “I don’t know what the outcome will be,” said John Cwenkala, who has lived in Pullman for thirty-two years. “I can’t envision what will happen. But the Pullman neighborhood is why they’re here.”

This Is What Democracy Looks Like

Participatory budgeting begins in Chicago for 2016

BY ANNE LI

O

n a blustery January evening, fifteen people trickle into the cafeteria of New Sullivan Elementary School in South Chicago, gathering around the gray folding tables while exchanging warm greetings and inquiries about each other’s families. But while it may seem like a casual meeting, these residents of Chicago’s 10th Ward are here to get things done. At stake is how the ward will spend this year’s “menu money,” the $1.3 million that each ward in Chicago receives annually for all of its routine and discretionary infrastructure works.

This particular meeting is an example of participatory budgeting (PB), a growing movement to allow community members to directly decide how to allocate parts of their community’s budget. The process is meant to foster ties within the community, as well as between residents and their government.

Participatory budgeting in Chicago began in 2009 in the 49th Ward, and is operating in seven wards during the 2015-2016 cycle, including the 10th.

“What’s cool about PB,” first-term Alderwoman Susan Garza says, “is that before, we never knew how the money was spent.”

This year, residents of the 10th Ward will work with her office to create project proposals. The year-long process will culminate in April with an exhibition and a vote on how to spend the money.

The five phases of the process are explained to the community members by Nicole Garcia, a staffer for the alderman’s office. First is the informational phase, in

which meetings held in each area of the ward explain what PB is. The second phase, idea collection, is what’s happening tonight: community members gather to brainstorm ideas for how to spend the menu money, and these ideas are collected by the alderman’s office. Once several brainstorming meetings have been held in different parts of the ward, the residents who came up with the ideas begin shaping them into project proposals. This phase involves finding data on previous problems and on the existing infrastructure, as well as taking into consideration upcoming projects by other departments of the city that may affect the proposed project. The residents and Garza’s office must therefore work together to create project proposals with cost estimates.

This work culminates in the fourth phase, the project expo, which will present each project proposal at different locations around the ward for community members to assess. Finally, in the fifth phase, community members are able to vote on which project proposals will be constructed. The project proposals that make it to the ballot are determined by the leadership committee, which is made up of people who want to be more involved in the process. The ballot phase of PB is special in that unlike for governmental elections, residents do not need to be registered voters to participate.

“Everyone who lives here, even if they’re undocumented or sixteen years old, has a way to participate that they haven’t before,” says Amalia NietoGomez, a resident at the

FEBRUARY 3, 2016 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 7

POLITICS meeting.

Following Garcia’s explanation of the PB process, the staffers break the meeting up into groups of five to brainstorm ideas.

The markers and huge sheets of paper that are brought out add to the sense of excited creativity as people bring out ideas that they have long wanted to see implemented. Many of the proposals are very specific, and residents bounce ideas off each other as they recognize the locations in question. A skate park is proposed for the intersection of Mackinaw and 91st Street, since many kids don’t have a safe place to play. Another resident suggests turning an old, now wooded railroad yard behind 8519 S. Brandon into a zip line rope park. Besides the creation of parks, the group’s other focus is finding ways to bring people into the neighborhood.

Proposals include gateway art by Lakeshore Drive or Commercial Avenue, along with signs marking historic local landmarks like St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church and the Chatham-Greater Grand Crossing Commercial District.

The groups then reconvene to share their ideas with everyone at the meeting.

Many of the proposals include parks and safe spaces, like changing a one-way road into a cul-de-sac to protect children who play there from cars. A mother suggests the creation of a baseball field using a series of vacant lots. The suggestions for gateway art and signage are popular, and a suggestion to place benches by the library gets enthusiastic nods all around.

Many of the suggestions, though, end up falling outside the reach of PB. Since PB in Chicago is currently used only for menu money, projects must be within the ward’s jurisdiction and fall under the designated infrastructure uses of menu money. The creation of parks is a popular proposal in many wards because it can be done via PB and provides the community with new and improved green spaces. The purchase of lots, however, needs to be done through the city, and placing benches by bus stations is the CTA’s responsibility. Additionally, all funds for traditional infrastructure repairs, like repaving roads and updating lights, must also come out of the same $1.3 million of menu money. Most of the menu money is usually allocated for these categories of maintenance.

The limited purpose of these funds led resident Karen Roothaan to point out that “it feels like we’re doing something the city would be doing.” Alderwoman Garza ex8 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

COURTESY OF NICOLE GARCIA

plained, however, that upon first taking office last year, there was only a short time frame to allocate the menu money before the city re-absorbed any that was unused. This raised the problem of relying on the staff members to spot problems, and asking residents to report things that need to be fixed. But some areas call in more than others, and the result was an uneven distribution of resources. Alderwoman Garza emphasized that “it’s up to us to say 87th and Mackinaw needs to get repaired,” or else it won’t be on the list of things to fix.

This need for people to report problems in their neighborhoods reflects the bottom-up drive behind PB, and the desire to flip the prevailing hierarchy. The hope is that the aldermen’s offices can work with residents to construct a budget that reflects both the ward’s infrastructure needs and the wants of the community members. This was summed up by Ishmael Cuevas, Alderwoman Garza’s Chief of Staff, who said that equity is distributing the money to suit the needs of the community. Cuevas added, “instead of having just one person deciding where to spend the money, we have you all deciding where to spend it.”

¬ FEBRUARY 3, 2016

The 10th Ward is taking part in a process that is gaining attention throughout the country. The Participatory Budgeting Project (PBP) has also set up PB in New York City; Vallejo, California; San Francisco; St. Louis; and Boston. At a recent meeting of the citywide steering committee of PBP staff, ward representatives and associated organizations, Maria Hadden, the PBP Project Manager for Chicago, said that the current goal of PB Chicago is to reach critical mass to obtain city resources, which could help with outreach and expansion.

All of the wards present described the difficulty in getting the manpower to do sufficient outreach, especially with more personal interactions like phone calls. Osvaldo Caraballo Jr., a staff member from the 17th Ward, said, “Nothing is going to work unless people get involved.” At many of the meetings, residents wanted to know why no one had told them about PB earlier, indicating that better outreach resources would likely be helpful in increasing turnout and representation. Beyond the resources needed for outreach, the development of project proposals also requires a lot of research by both the residents and the aldermanic staff, sometimes

resulting in fatigue on both sides. Insufficient technical support can result in project proposals that are difficult to implement, creating more problems down the line.

At the same time, great value is placed on ideas originating from the community.

“PB is designed to be a community process,” Hadden explained. “The reason PB Chicago exists is because of the people in this room [the steering committee], not because of the mayor. We’re in this really great start-up stage, where we can make PB Chicago what we want it to be.”

At both the 10th Ward meeting and the city-wide steering committee meeting, there was a clear sense of participatory budgeting as a work in progress, but also a sense of accomplishment and excitement about making ideas flow from the community members up to the alderman. In the committee meeting, Hadden emphasized the need to build diverse coalitions both of residents in the wards, and of organizations in the city, and said that, in spite of occasional roadblocks, “PB is a happy space because it’s a productive space. This is where we work on solving our problems.”

Above all, Nieto Gomez explained, “PB allows us to start fresh.”

“Nuevo Leon Will Be Back”

CAROLINA SANCHEZ

After fire, the Gutierrez family looks toward the future

BY SAMMIE SPECTOR

T

his December, the popular Pilsen eatery Nuevo Leon burned down in a tragic fire. The Gutierrez family and some of the restaurant’s forty employees—including now-jobless cooks and waiters—watched from midnight to until three in the morning as their neighborhood landmark, owned and operated by the family since 1962, fell to ash. As the fire burned, friends and neighbors came to offer their condolences.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), officers con10 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

cluded that the fire started in the crawl space between the kitchen and first floor apartments. Faulty electrical wires had ignited an accumulation of dust, pollen, and refuse from fifty-three years of business. The heat combustion within that space led to the fire that raged for three hours, causing the collapse of the iron beams that held up Nuevo Leon.

After the fire, Pilsen residents came together to support the revitalization efforts.

Third-generation owner Daniel Gutierrez Jr. immediately felt the compassion of the

¬ FEBRUARY 3, 2016

neighborhood. “I was overwhelmed and touched by the outreach, not only by the community and neighboring restaurants, but also the politicians,” he says. “I got a call from Rahm Emanuel; I told him he had his hands full—why is he spending time on us little guys?”

“I was so thankful for everyone’s help,” he continued. “It was incredible during the holiday season, to watch us make some light of the darkness.”

Jorge Valdivia, a long-time patron of Nuevo Leon, recounted the sheer bewilder-

ment and mourning the neighborhood felt for the restaurant and its family roots. After supporting the business for eighteen years, Valdivia took it upon himself to meet with the family and to help begin the process of reviving Nuevo Leon and cheering up the staff. “The community wanted to help out,” he says. “I noticed comments on social media from people who wanted to help but didn't quite know how to go about it.

I decided to create a page to centralize the information and efforts being made. I also wanted to throw a Christmas party for the employees and their families.”

“Suddenly, community organizations like the National Museum of Mexican Art, Latinos Progresando and Pilsen Alliance wanted to help,” he continued, “followed by businesses and community members eager to help the employees and their families celebrate the holidays and provide them with bare necessities. Before we knew it, we were able to collect food for the party, non-perishable food for the families, gifts cards to grocery and drug stories, and toys for the children. It was incredible. Aside from all of this, the Eighteenth Street Development Corporation set-up a GoFundMe page to collect funds for the employees.”

As the neighborhood helping hands poured in to pull Nuevo Leon back up, some Pilsen restaurant owners welcomed Nuevo Leon’s employees onto their own staffs to keep them employed during the holiday season. Valdivia saw around forty employees lose their jobs, a tragic loss, as they were treated as family, he says. “Everyone wanted to help. Fortunately, some businesses offered to hire to some of the Nuevo Leon Restaurant employees. I think they felt bad not just because of the fire but also because it happened right before the holidays.”

Close to Nuevo Leon’s heart, the owners understand the significance and delicate balance of family-owned businesses. In his own youth, Gutierrez could be found running around the storefront that his grandparents founded in 1962. “My dad actually worked fifty-three years at the restaurant,” he says. ”I went in after high school, so since 1989. I’m the third generation, but I grew up in this restaurant. I started from the bottom up too; I’ve done everything except the dish washer.”

His grandmother’s recipes are still used today, and numerous customers can trace back generations of patronage. The homestyle cooking and workers inside are just as colorful and welcoming as the mural that decorates Nuevo Leon’s façade. Customers

FOOD feel comfortably at home—as Valdivia noted, the owners always remembered a face.

When the fire began, Gutierrez was inside the building, dozing off in the back office. Waking up to the smell of smoke, he was able to safely leave the building, and receive care from neighbors as the fire raged on. Gutierrez has said he is thankful most of all for his good health and that he is able to be with his family.

In the fire’s aftermath, the entire family was more shocked than depressed, as Valdivia recounts. “The week following the fire was a shock for many of the longtime customers,” he says. “I can't speak for the family. What I can tell you is that when I met with Marissa Gutierrez, I noticed that she seemed to still be in shock over everything. Her father, Daniel Gutierrez, Sr., was there for another meeting and he looked like he was trying to keep his spirits high, but I couldn't help but think about how challenging this was for him.”

Just as the tragedy came and went in mere hours, so the Gutierrez family has been struck and is already back on their feet, equally as fast and ablaze in their work and determined mindset. Not only are they reviving, but they are now also birthing an entirely new family business, Canton Regio, just across the street. The younger Gutierrez says that his father’s sense of loss, after working in Nuevo Leon for half a century, was a key motivation behind Regio. “I see the lost look in [my father’s] face, not knowing what to do for the past month and a half,” he says “That’s why I had to open this new restaurant. Not just for myself, but for him.”

“Now that we’ve opened Canton Regio, he’s been working with me seven days a week, just like we used to at Nuevo Leon,” he continues. “It’s what he loves to do, it’s what I love to do.”

Gutierrez had been sitting on the plans for Canton Regio for about eight years.

“Canton Regio was more of a hobby,” he says. “I ventured through Mexico, and wanted to bring this northern cuisine and ambience back. It was a long journey coming, but I fell in love with being a father. I wasn’t a dad until the age of forty. I told myself that if I opened up another restaurant, I definitely wouldn’t have the time, as I was already too busy with Nuevo Leon. I kept the space across the street for private parties, and kept the idea. But now with the devastation, I pushed to open it.”

Canton Regio opened a few weeks ago, boasting authentic Northern Mexican cui-

sine and a sleek, yet rustic ambience. The meats are cooked on traditional mesquite wood. You won’t find filling favorites like refried beans here, only frijoles churros, a larger but less cardiac arrest-inducing side dish. “I try to keep things more traditional, the honest way of cooking, and people are catching on,” Gutierrez says. “It takes them a little while though. They come here demanding the same food as Nuevo Leon.

It might look a little fancier here, but the concept is about family and sharing, still.

I kept in mind the sharing amongst family and friends concept. When you walk in, you can smell Mexico; it’s a very different ambiance.”

Although Regio could be a success, the Gutierrez family vows to rebuild and restore the home of Pilsen’s go-to Mexican family joint, although the new Nuevo Leon might take on a different form. Due to the damage, officials from the Department of Buildings are asking them to tear the entire building down. While the heart of the restaurant, the recipes and welcoming family, would transcend the wreckage, Pilsen would be losing a beloved building with a lot of sentimental value. Gutierrez recalls Nuevo Leon’s beloved mural, featuring beautifully designed, lush landscapes in bright green and magenta hues and lovely figures representing the Nuevo Leon region of Mexico. “It means a lot to us, it’s very historical for us to keep,” he says. “We’re fighting now to see if we can salvage some of this façade, that beautiful mural. There’s been a trial for us; we have our final structural engineer inspection this week, which will determine if we can keep it or if it must be demolished. Then, we’ll know how we can move forward.”

“Nuevo Leon will be back,” he vows.

He doesn’t know exactly what it will look like, or if he can even manage rebuilding the old Pilsen mainstay while supporting his new business and being a father. But he says his family will persevere. Valdivia, too, is hopeful.

“The good thing about moments of tragedy,” he says, “is that they can also serve as an opportunity for something beautiful and positive to emerge.”

For a short documentary and more photos of Nuevo Leon, visit southsideweekly.com

Mr. Cordova Mr. Cordova is a family friend of the Gutierrezes who grew up visiting Nuevo Leon. His brother financially assisted the Gutierrez family in the sixties to found the first incarnation of Nuevo Leon, a taqueria on 18th Street.

We used to go to church, and then we would go to Nuevo Leon. As soon as you walk in the place, it was so welcoming. I was about eight or nine, when I’d run around with my cousins and family. It was a family atmosphere, and everyone knew everyone. The food was always fresh, I remember, and then we’d all want to go shopping. All the Hispanics would come do their shopping there, on 18th Street, so everyone, a very diverse crowd, used to come to Nuevo Leon, even when I was a kid. Now it’s getting even more popular. It’s been a staple in the neighborhood for forever.

One of my brothers, Jarocho, helped finance the place. The Gutierrez family had just been talking about opening a restaurant, and my brother gave them what money he could. Our families knew each other well, and were known in the neighborhood—it was tradition. Five generations have evolved now. He even said, after he heard the sad news, that if they needed anything he’s still here to help: family is family.

Caridad Franco Franco has worked at Nuevo Leon for twenty years.

I worked for Nuevo Leon for more than twenty years. It was a wonderful experience to work there. I had good experiences, and bad ones, but I only talk about the good ones because I lived a great part of my life there. I started working there on December 13 of 1990. My daughter had just been born, my youngest one, and she was fifteen days old, and I started to work the night shift that was from seven at night to seven in the morning, and I worked very hard.

That job was very important for us. For us, Nuevo Leon gave us what we have now: a house, a car, our kids’ studies, and now that this tragedy has happened, many things declined. Most of all, my heart is still raw. What happened really hurt me.

Margarita Hernandez Hernandez has worked at Nuevo Leon for twenty-six years.

I worked almost twenty-seven years in Nuevo Leon. For me, more than anything, working there was a familial experience. The owners made us feel like we were a part of the family. Mr. Daniel Gutierrez is very humane, he was always with us, supporting us, giving us work when we most needed it. Because actually, when I came, I didn’t have anything. I give thanks that he gave me the opportunity to work with him.

Left: the late Emeterio Gutierrez Landin and his wife, the late Maria Gutierrez. Right: "Grandma Maria," founder of Nuevo Leon, in 1962.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF MARISSA GUTIERREZ

FEBRUARY 3, 2016 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 11

EDUCATION

A Nontraditional Tenure

Student leader Paris Griffin on the state budget crisis and Chicago State University

BY SONIA SCHLESINGER

P

aris Griffin, 24, transferred from Southern Illinois University to Chicago State University in 2014 when her daughter was born. Now President of the Student Government Association, she’s speaking up for her school, which will have to close or declare bankruptcy if the state cannot pass a budget by March.

Griffin is also a Thurgood Marshall Scholar and a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, and lives in Chicago with her family. The Weekly spoke with Paris recently about her plans for the future, her term as president, and her activism.

What did your path to CSU look like?

Well, I started college at Southern Illinois University. I transferred in 2014 to Chicago State once I had my daughter because this is where my support system was. It’s been great for me; I’ve found great support here. I’m the president of the Student Government Association, part of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority and am a Thurgood Marshall Scholar. I live in Chicago with my family.

How does the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship work? What will you be doing with yours?

CSU is a Thurgood Marshall College Fund member school. There are only fifty-three of those in the U.S., so what it means is that I’m able to apply for different scholarships that other schools do not have the opportunity to apply for. So I applied for a scholarship [offered by] Apple [to] HBCUs (historically black colleges and universities). I received a $25,000 scholarship for my last year of school this year and an internship with Apple in Cupertino, California this summer. I don’t yet know what that work will include.

I’m studying public relations. I would just like to work as a PR person for whatever company I’m definitely able to secure employment with. If I would be able to work with Apple I’d love to work with their PR department.

[Attending university as a parent] is definitely harder than going to school without a child, but at the same time it definitely pushes you harder to compete, to achieve, to have something for your child when they’re growing up—to let them know that you’re able to excel even though you have a child. That’s 12 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

very important, and many of the parents at Chicago State think the same way about how they’re going to provide a better life for their children. The University is very supportive.

Class times are flexible, we have online classes and family support at our university, and it’s just really helpful for non-traditional students as well as traditional students.

My term [as President of the Student Government Association] started in July so we’ve been dealing a lot with the budget. We also want to make sure students get more involved because our students are non-traditional students, mostly. You know, most of them have children and work jobs. We do have some traditional students, but because we have more non-traditional students we really work on making sure people get involved in things on campus. We make sure they’re aware of what’s available. We went to Springfield last semester to talk with legislators about the budget, to pretty much inform people about what’s going on, talk about current events, and really engage with the students.

The state budget is in crisis and CSU may not be able to pay its faculty in March. How is that playing out at CSU? How have you been involved?

We don’t really know what’s going to happen. All we can do is inform people about what’s going on with Chicago State specifically, because if teachers aren’t paid that puts them in a bad position. If programs are cut it puts students in a bad position, and all we can do is continue to fight for our university and inform people so they know. We’re spending money that we don’t have. There are less scholarships available, less funds that the school has to provide for students because

¬ FEBRUARY 3, 2016

ZELDA GALEWSKY

they haven’t received the money they need. If our doors close, our students have nowhere else to go. For example, we have a big nursing population and those credits don’t transfer.

I’m in my senior year and there’s nowhere I can transfer after my senior year with those credits so there’s nowhere else that we can go. This is our lifestyle and we’re fighting real hard to make sure everyone knows how important our university is for us, for our education in Chicago. Our community has invested a lot of time for us, our administrators have invested, and you can’t just pick up and go somewhere else after that. You’ll never be able to find another relationship, home, or family like the one we have at CSU. Everybody’s just doing everything we can to make sure that we speak out, to make sure that we’re letting Governor Rauner know how important our education is for us.

We’re making sure that we’re continuously doing things that keep the students aware of what’s going on so that no one gives up what we deserve, which is our education.

What’s the best case scenario? How likely is it?

A budget would be passed—that’s the only option we have. If it’s not, programs could be cut, teachers could be cut, our doors could close, and that’s this semester. We don't even know about next year, so that’s really all that can be done. I haven’t thought about the odds, it’s just about pushing to make sure we have done all we can to make sure our voices are heard.

I’m not the only student leader on campus that has taken on this act [against the state] to make sure people are informed about what’s going on. We have the president from our National Panhellenic Council, Teaching and Educating Men of Black Origin and many other student leaders on campus that have decided to come together and make sure the students know exactly what’s going on. We’ve received a lot of support from our faculty, staff, and administrators, a lot of encouragement, and we want our voices to be heard, because at the end of the day, the university is for our students. If they don’t speak up about it, it doesn’t matter for the students. So we work together to make sure everyone knows this is important.

MUSIC

Room Music yyu on fire alarms, artistic independence, and the letter 'y'

BY CHRISTOPHER GOOD

I

meet yyu in a coffee shop in Pilsen on a rainy Friday afternoon. Standing about six feet tall with braided blonde hair, they’re waiting by the window in an oversized green parka. It takes me a moment to realize this is the artist I’ve been speaking with online for weeks: like the vast majority of their audience, I’ve never seen their face before.

For the last five years, the musician known as yyu has been quietly releasing albums and playing shows around the country.

In the few photos of them that exist, they’re either shrouded in a sheet or hidden from view, like a shy fifth-grader dressed up as a ghost on Halloween. It’s a predilection for anonymity that bleeds over into the hazy, blurry architecture of their music. On any given track, acoustic guitars and click tracks stutter up and down, their falsetto vocals sometimes slowed to a baritone or pitched up to a helium whine.

For all of its warmth, it’s the sort of music that’s almost impossible to pinpoint to a place, a time, or even a person. There’s a fundamental sense of mystery to yyu’s soundscapes, something agoraphobic about the empty spaces that their choruses reverberate through.

Since moving to Pilsen in early 2015, yyu has continued to juggle a variety of different projects. When not editing videos or performing in venues like the Jacket Contemporary art gallery, they’re involved with the operation of 90.5 KGHI Terry Radio, an online radio station named after a former neighbor, or developing a footwork side project inspired by the death of their pet rat.

Yet it’s the music they record that takes priority.

After a string of self-released recordings, yyu made their full-length debut with 2012’s TIMETIMETIME&TIME, released on cassette tape through Beer on the Rug records. TTT&T brought yyu some media attention, with a glowing review from

Tiny Mix Tapes and a nod from Stereogum.

Two years later, they returned with Room Music.

Although born in California, yyu was raised in Wichita, Kansas (a place they describe as “desolately Soviet”). Some years later, they moved to Missouri, where they spent most of their adolescence making music and listening to Now That’s What I Call Music compilations. (The photograph on the cover of Room Music, they tell me, was taken in Kansas City’s Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.) As we drink coffee, I ask yyu about their stage name. “I was like eighteen when I made it, and I was fascinated by the letter ‘y’,” they say. “I just love the geometry of it… and ‘y’ is also important because of gender identity, extremely important.”

They also prefer for it to be spelled in lowercase: “When the first ‘y’ is capitalized, it looks like an elementary school handwriting exam.” It’s just as well, since a Turkish university that goes by the same acronym has been competing with them for legitimacy on Facebook, they say.

The minimalism of yyu’s work, however, goes beyond their name. “I like the simplest lyrics,” they say. “I think lyrics get too complicated [in] tracks where you have to spell something out or hold someone’s hand to explain something.”

At one point, they mention their love for Chicago’s footwork and juke scene— particularly the practice of naming a song after its vocal samples. “Why would you call that track something else, right?” they ask.

“If I’m channeling a bathtub, I’ll name the song ‘Bathtub.’ ” It’s thanks to this straightforward honesty that yyu’s music seems to have a sense of humor at first glance—after all, it’s a discography that includes an EP called ghost toast and a song named “toastaoven.” But in spite of the disarming titles that they attach to it, yyu’s oeuvre can be heartbreakingly

JULIET ELDRED

sentimental. With little more than guitar and vocals, they’re almost overwhelmingly vulnerable on songs like “BREAKFASTSANDWICH” from HAWAIIBREAKFAST. (For what it’s worth, yyu says they’ve never been to Hawaii).

As we talk, I ask yyu whether their music is lo-fi by choice or by necessity. “I would want to say one hundred percent [it’s] deliberate, but there are so many elements I like working with that are unpredictable,” says yyu. “In Room Music, when I was living in this apartment, the fire alarm was going off all the time. I was like, ‘I can’t stop this fire alarm, and I need to record, so a lot of the tracks on Room Music have this beeping sound.’ ” “Also, any cats or dogs that I live with end up finding themselves on the records, and I love that,” they note.

During the recording of 2011’s MILKMILKMILKMILKMILKMILK, they say they used an old keyboard to record drum sounds; since then, they’ve used everything from silverware to guitar tapping as a substitute for traditional percussion. Nonetheless, yyu is resistant to pigeonholing. “A lot of my early stuff was just tapping of the strings, and now I just want to get more and more stupid,” they say.

A self-proclaimed homebody, yyu is at ease recording music, but the process of releasing it is another matter, especially after RAMP, the UK label that released their last 12” single, broke off communication without

sending them any artist copies. Nonetheless, they plan to release two separate collections of music in the near future. One, consisting of what they call “nutty” experimental music, is set to be distributed through Chicago-based Lilerne Tapes later this year. The other, which they describe as an “intimate, acoustic record,” will be self-released. On January 26, they quietly uploaded memos v.1 to their bandcamp page, consisting of nine remarkably soft acoustic songs.

When I ask if they’d ever consider signing with a major label, yyu shrugs. “It’s hard to be anonymous if you’re going to be big.

Anonymity means freedom. It means that you don’t have to be judged or considered.

You are completely your own.” And so, at one point, I ask yyu why they perform in such secrecy.

“Looking at someone doing something is nice, but when you’re listening to music, you don’t see someone doing what they do.

When you’re watching someone perform, seeing just the essence of that person moving, or just amassing energy in one place is different from seeing their face or their hands.”

“The sheet, though, just got too hot,” they joke. “Nowadays, I just hide where I can hide.” yyu will be performing as Wiggle Room at the Southside Hub of Production on Sunday, February 7 at 7pm. Their music can be found online on yyumoo.bandcamp.com, beerontherug.bandcamp.com, or soundcloud.com/yyu.

FEBRUARY 3, 2016 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 13

A Record of the Scene 119 Productions finds its place in Chicago’s music scene

BY AUSTIN BROWN

1

19 Productions doesn’t let itself get pinned down. While its origins are in hiphop groups organized among Chicago high schoolers, the collective has since expanded into videography, blogging, and freelance video work. They’ve worked with Chicago icons like Mick Jenkins, Savemoney member Dally Auston, and Via Rosa on videos and features, even collaborating with New York rappers Benny Nice and Chelsea Reject. 119 recently oversaw the production of World of Mojek, an EP from producer Mojek that has been covered in the Reader and on hip hop blog Fake Shore Drive. The Weekly recently spoke with Jackson Duncan, 119’s primary blogger, to talk about the collective and its development.

So this started when you joined up with some of your friends who were doing videography?

We had been doing 119 for three years prior to that—I think it started in 2008? We were basically a big artist collective, and we’d release our own music, from hip-hop groups we’d been in before, since even 2002. I went to college for film in New York at The New School, and worked at The Source Magazine for a while. So when I came back to Chicago around 2013, I had friends who were in 119 from high school who I got together with.

We started doing freelance video, but we were also doing hip-hop music videos, stuff like that, 'cause other friends from school were now in a rap group and taking it more seriously. One of the guys is Mick Jenkins’ DJ, Green Slime.

You guys put together an event for him recently, right?

We just did our second “Damn Slime” recently, with DJ Damnage, who’s Saba’s DJ, and DJ Green Slime, and we’ve known Zach [Green Slime] for years. We’ve been collaborating on different projects for years.

You’re most well-known for your videography work, though. How have you started expanding into these other areas?

We put out music a lot first, and in New York we met a bunch of new people but were also establishing contacts with each other, since we’d all split off. 119 was a place to put out 14 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

our own mixtapes, just among friends. It could be one by Zach, who’s also a rapper, Ben [Benny Nice], who just moved to New York but was our longtime producer, me, or even my friend in Brooklyn, Trevor the Trashman, who’s gaining a following there.

We even worked with a producer friend of ours who’s now the percussionist in Wet. We always had a video angle in mind, so eventually we decided to focus in on that as our main moneymaker. That’s when we became freelance videographers. 119’s worn many hats, but in the last three years we’ve honed in to be a sort of music video clique, while still doing this blog to give everything a context, both for what we do and also the scene that we cover.

How has it been moving from videography work to operating what I guess you could call a record label?

Well, we’re more like a vanity label since we’re not a “real label,” but it is a different experience. We’d made a lot of connections through music videos and events, but working on the music we just wanted to give everyone a platform and make it easy to work.

The CSS mixtape was some self-brand promotion, but with the Artist Series and World of Mojek, we just really wanted to let Mojek run the show. We gave him suggestions of artists to work with, but we wanted to let [119] be a platform for his project.

Something called “Friday Loosies” came out about a week ago on 119. What was that?

¬ FEBRUARY 3, 2016

COURTESY OF JACKSON DUNCAN

One of our guys in New York has been putting together an every-other-Friday mix series, so that was mostly different things he likes. We’ve got a base here that we’re familiar with, and we’re trying to get more familiar with people out there. This past year I did a video with Chelsea Reject. She’s going to be on our next big tape, which will drop in June. We want to be able to try to represent everybody. If we could extend across the world that’d be great, but right now we’re just extending nationally, trying to get things set up in New York, since I think we have the base to do it.

You also have a pretty large digital footprint. Are you trying to extend yourselves through things like the blog too?

I get pretty intense with the blog, just trying to keep it up during my day job, and that can be kind of a fickle game—who knows what makes for a successful blog? But we just try to keep posting. And whether or not it’s reaching everybody, I think it’s reaching the right audiences, because they seem to really take to it and share it. It’s fun. At the end of the day, the blog is maybe ninety percent everybody else and ten percent stuff that we do, but when all is said and done, people can look back at that blog and just see what we were a part of. It’s sort of a record of the scene. That’s really our goal, to be good documentarians of the whole thing.

Do you feel like that “scene” gets enough coverage from other people, or does it still

feel limited?

That question has a lot of layers to it. A lot of people, as far as mainstream sites, are just coming on to the fact that Chicago has this intricate music scene, and you know, we all listen to trap and drill music, and there are layers to that. But I don’t have the biggest connections to dudes like that on the far West Side, and that was where the main focus was for such a long time. Just like in the news, Chicago is seen as this one thing when it comes to music.

But with people like Chance, Saba, Mick getting big now, it’s letting people know that there is a bigger scene. Ric Wilson, who I just heard on the radio and who’s on the Mojek project—and who is probably going to blow up—has a huge and diverse style. So yeah, I’d say Chicago is just getting discovered.

Do you feel like the other networks— Twitter, SoundCloud, the blog—have all come together in the right way for this to be a viable model?

Yeah, I mean, we’ve had good reach so far, and we’ve just been working to get it further.

Right now we’re all about World Of Mojek, so we’re just doing anything we can to let people know about it and get them to listen to it. We’ve got other ventures going, but right now we’re just really focusing on promoting the album. And SoundCloud has been great, we get a lot of listens through that—we were in the Reader the other day. It’s been really surprising—really cool to see where we pop

MUSIC

The World in Our Pocket

A review of Mojek's World of Mojek

BY AUSTIN BROWN

I up: a lot of local love, but also a few things just around on the internet. And of course, we have our base in New York, trying to get it out through those guys too.

How did you get your name?

There’s a lot of different geneses of the 119 name—it began as an address when some of our homies were living in Oakland— but when we were in New York we’d start to joke that it was like the reverse energy of 9/11. I once questioned the name, since in Jamaica, where I end up a lot, that’s how you dial the police—which we’re not trying to go around endorsing police activity here.

But I like to stick with that explanation— that it’s the reverse of 9/11. It’s nice. I feel like that’s some good karma.

And what about 119 is better than working with a traditional label?

I’ve seen shit get so messy and complicated when you’re dealing with a massive label or record company, and we wanted to just give artists like Mojek a platform. We’re only a small part of it. It’s been a blast, having the ability to give input on it and all that, but really the purpose is to put the spotlight on the artists.

We would never want to have any pettiness, not just as an outer, superficial thing, but also on a person-to-person basis. Having someone have the trust in us to release their music? That’s enough weight to want to do it right.

t’s somewhat indicative of the hyperconnected state of the Chicago music scene that the best tapes and albums to come out of the city in the lasWt few years have been collaborative in nature. Projects like Acid Rap, Surf, Towkio’s .Wav Theory, and Mick Jenkins The Water[s] were not just bold statements from emerging Chicago artists, but also keys to unlocking the networks of local talent. Key features from Noname Gypsy, Saba, Jean Deaux, and others helped to make those albums feel dynamic and unpredictable, even as the guest artists received underlying direction from the artist heading the projects. World of Mojek, the newest tape from rising DJ and producer Mojek, released through Chicago collective 119 Productions, follows in this pattern, albeit on a less grand scale. Mojek brings together some of the most underrated local talents for a seven-track tape that expands and highlights his talent as an arranger and collaborator.

As a producer and not a rapper, Mojek leaves a lighter footprint on his project than a Chance or a Mick Jenkins might. Rather than express his worldview outright, he lets the sounds of the tape do the work for him, creating a space that’s danceable, synthesized, and even a little retro-futurist, but still human. Much of the action takes place in the rhythm section: for every straightforward hip-hop beat, there’s a stop-andstart stutter rhythm like the one on “Dally’s Break.”

The beat splits the difference with the snakelike melody, giving Savemoney upand-comer Dally Auston a challenge for his flow. Jean Deaux makes an appearance in “Pop the Gun,” letting her signature drawl run over the song’s bass line. The best of these hip-hop showcases, though, is Angelenah (formerly Angel Davanport) on “Push the Limit.” She obliterates the cloud of synthesizers in the production with her self-aware, self-deprecating, and most of all self-empowering verses. As always, Angelenah plays the split between songstress and

rapper well, keeping both her singing and her rapping casual, even offhand, but never lacking forcefulness. Mojek mostly keeps his hands off these hip-hop tracks, setting the stage for his collaborators and giving them an environment in which to thrive.

But Mojek’s collaborative spirit doesn’t keep him from making the project undeniably his. In songs like “Jheri Curl” and his single with Ric Wilson, “The World,” the producer’s dance bona fides emerge, showing someone who knows where the crowd is going and wants to guide them there. On “The World” especially, Mojek takes what mostly seems like detritus at first glance—a tiny sampled voice here, a Daft Punk-derived bassline there, the auto-tuned Wilson threaded throughout—and assembles it into an irresistible house tune with a slight futurist bent. The best songs on the tape take that smoothness and run with it: “Jheri Curl” throws in just enough of an R&B sample to keep listeners satisfied, even as the beat gets more and more frantic beneath. If there’s one thing that unifies these songs, it’s their ability to distract you from just how smartly arranged they are.

World of Mojek is a departure from Mojek’s previous work, which had its roots in footwork, but this new tape still pays its dues to that original sound. Mojek has opened for Teklife DJs on multiple occasions, but as this project makes clear, he’s more comfortable blazing his own path.

“I just don’t really like to ride coattails, you know?” he said in an interview with the Weekly. “I’d rather do my own thing.”

Besides, the fit isn’t quite there. While a lot of footwork makes its name off of musically intimidating beats and a hip image, associated with all-black streetwear and the like, Mojek comes to his audience with open arms, aiming to please but also to serve as a guide. It’s an attitude that’s becoming increasingly valid in hip-hop and dance—a guarded positivity that hopes for the best even when things don’t always work out.

“The World” especially feels mantra-like,

insistent in its repetition of “Baby can’t nobody stop us/ We’ve got the world in our pocket.” Mojek isn’t aiming for the cheap seats, to be sure, but he keeps in mind the breadth of people he wants to hear his music.

Knowing that, maybe the most telling association isn’t Mojek’s ties to footwork, but instead his growing interest in world music. Mojek holds a lot of ties to the world at large, and he’s never too far from keeping that in mind: his family has ties to the family of Fela Kuti, and he’s always keeping an eye on electronic music derived from African rhythms, like South African kwaito and Portuguese kuduro/techno group Buraka Som Sistema. Even while talking about popular Chicago club The Shrine, Mojek points out a lesser-known fact: The Shrine’s namesake is the New Africa Shrine, in Lagos, Nigeria, a venue Mojek hopes to play one day.

Thinking about Mojek in those broader contexts help everything—the collaborative spirit, the polyrhythms, the upbeat attitude—fall into place. It’s not hard to think of the “world of Mojek” being Chicago—the rap scene, the footwork, the collectives—but if Mojek keeps making the music he’s making with the ambitions he has, that world just might turn out to be a lot larger than any of us imagined.

FEBRUARY 3, 2016 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 15

Teaching Self-Love

South Side Community Art Center is strong and getting stronger AS TOLD TO BESS COHEN

M

TONY SMITH

aséqua Myers first walked into the South Side Community Art Center at the age of sixteen. It was in this Bronzeville brownstone that she first took African dance classes, in addition to literary and poetry workshops.

Myers went on to become an actress and director, performing in Chicago venues like the Victory Gardens Theatre and the Goodman Theatre from the late sixties through 1982. She also served as one of the first teaching artists to work in Chicago Public Schools through Urban Gateways. She and her husband took a twenty-five year break from Chicago to direct, produce, and perform in Phoenix, Arizona and then Los Angeles before family responsibilities called them home to the South Side. Late in 2014, Myers was asked to become the new Executive Director of the SSCAC. The Weekly spoke to Myers on the Art Center’s third floor and production space, just two days after the opening of their first exhibit of 2016, titled “Bridging Generations: Strong Men Getting Stronger.”

I

came to the South Side Community Art Center as a sixteen-year-old. I met people who are now so renowned in Chicago, like Haki Madhubuti—formerly known as Don L. Lee—and Gwendolyn Brooks. Gwendolyn taught classes downstairs, and she would sit at that piano that's down there and get inspired by the environment to write. It’s wonderful to feel the spirit of this place because there were no other places that African Americans could experience what they experience here, because of racism.

There were no galleries that allowed African Americans to hang their artwork, and so it was founded for a need to have a place to create, to develop, and to share artistically. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) Federal Arts Project was very helpful in making this happen. What the WPA initiative did was to hire instructors, so they were paid salaries. As a result of that we were able to offer classes free,

16 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

and the community was able to come in and enjoy the expertise of renowned artists without having to pay. That was quite a service to the community, and we attempt to do that still. We make classes very affordable, if it's not a free experience, and that's part of our history as well. We have never closed our door in seventy-five years, so we're very proud of that.

I came here to continue this legacy.

No, it’s not a career advancement, but it’s a calling. It’s a mission. I want this place to survive another seventy-five years of existence, because it’s quite motivational, inspirational—especially for those who say they’re going to be artists for a living, be artists for a career. And to be able to reaffirm that that’s okay, that that can happen, makes all the difference in a young person's life. They get focused, they understand that “If I work really hard, if I educate myself very well, if I sell, if I seek new experiences that give me a well-rounded persona and

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base to create from, then I have a lot of potential and a lot of opportunity.” That motivation comes from places like the South Side Community Art Center, and since I was inspired that way, I want it to be the same for any other person that comes in these doors.

I believe in this mission. It’s really important to have a creative outlet in the community for so many reasons. One of the major reasons for me is because young people, especially now, don't have many places to go that are creative and constructive. I would rather see them with a paintbrush than with a weapon in their hand. And if they can get introduced to an environment that pushes that, that’s what happens. I was affected like that as a teen.

Just yesterday I had a fifteen-yearold, come up to the door, take pictures of the public hours signs outside the door. I found out she lived right across the street and she’s an aspiring artist. She had been wanting to come in but she wasn’t sure if she should, so I went out and talked to her.

She was inspired. She wanted to know if, indeed, one day if she could have her art on the wall. And I said, “That's why we’re here.

We’re here for you.”

T

he South Side Community Art Center’s mission is to preserve, conserve, and promote the legacy and the future of African-American artists while educating the community of the importance of art and culture. And our first exhibition of the 2016 season, I believe speaks so well to that. The name of the exhibition is “Bridging Generations: Strong

Men Getting Stronger.” “Strong Men” is a poem written by Sterling Brown in 1931, and that was one of his poems that was motivational for me to curate this show.

We’re in a time, presently, where we are talking more about the violence towards black and African-American males: violence towards them by each other and violence towards them by society, and particularly law enforcement. I wanted to be able to stimulate dialogue about the importance of having inner strength and focus to do the right thing. I wanted to give focus to the need to understand that there should be a connectedness with the generations.

It’s an African tradition, and it’s an African-American tradition that I don't believe we should lose sight of.

With these three artists, we have Millennials, Generation X, and then the Baby Boomers, so we’re showing three generations that connect through the art because they draw images that are similar in concept, maybe not in style, but in concept. These three artists understand the importance of knowing your history, where you come from, what your African heritage is; then they know the importance of our American experience, and combining those two helps us to project ourselves into a wholesome future. Not knowing one or another leaves an emptiness, leads to a possibility of not understanding your total importance and worth.

“Strong Men Getting Stronger” will be on display at the South Side Community Art Center through April 9.

BLACK HISTORY MONTH

Eldzier Cortor - Dance Competition (1990) - Etching In honor of Black History Month, Myers has curated a small series of images from the Art Center’s collection to celebrate African-American history, African-American art, and the South Side Community Art Center’s role in preserving that legacy.

I

’ve put the two longest-living founding artists together. Eldzier Cortor is the most recently deceased founding artist of the SSCAC; he was the last living founding artist. So he’s what I call our ancestor. He drew realism, abstractions—he was quite diverse. He was a Guggenheim awardee, and that award took him to places like Cuba, Mexico, Haiti. People were just in awe of his ability to capture the environment he saw. He graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1936, around which time he saw an exhibition at the Field Museum of West African art, and

TONY SMITH

loved it. He wound up combining the West African art with European Impressionism; with that he created a different image of the black woman. As you can see in this particular painting, he created an image of grace, of dignity, and of strength. And he did that by elongating the neck and the limbs, giving a graceful, beautiful, dignified persona to the African-American female.

I

chose “Black Venus” because of how important women have been to the founding and the continuation of the South Side Community Art Center, and how important the female is to the grounding of family and to spreading love, nurturing.

We often set the moral guidelines of a society, we set moral guidelines in our families, and so in this piece, she’s holding the child up, because we are the teachers of the next generation. We are the first teachers of life,

Margaret Burroughs - Black Venus (1957) - Woodcut

to our younger generation, to those that we bear, so that’s why I chose that.

Dr. [Margaret Taylor Goss] Burroughs was always a serious person, even as a young person. She was the youngest to ever sit on the Board of Directors of the South Side Community Art Center at twenty-three years of age; she gave seventy years of her life to the continuation of the South Side Community Art Center. She wanted to raise the quality of life for African Americans because she was born in 1917, a difficult time for the representation of African-American people. When she travelled outside of the country, to places like Africa, she was so uplifted by the difference in the beauty standard outside of America. She wanted to come back and show people just how proud they can be of themselves, how beautiful they can be, and even though she

TONY SMITH

wanted to teach self-love to black folk, she wanted everyone to understand the beauty of African heritage.

Dr. Burroughs was my Humanities 101 instructor at KennedyKing College, so I have a long history with her. I met her when I was about sixteen and started taking classes; I began dramatically reading her poetry all over the city. One of the poems was “What Shall I Tell My Children Who Are Black?” It’s a lovely poem, and Burroughs talks about all of the negative ways the color black is used for before writing, “I will tell them about their history and how much they can be proud of.” What she taught me was that you didn’t have to hate anybody else to love yourself; in fact, you have to really love yourself before you can really love someone else and appreciate someone else.

She taught self-love without self-hate.

FEBRUARY 3, 2016 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 17

BULLETIN

When The Numbers Don’t Add Up

Identity and Alienation: The Story of an Undocumented Immigrant Center for Identity and Inclusion, 5710 S. Woodlawn Ave. Wednesday, February 3, noon–1:15pm.

(773) 834-4671. politics.uchicago.edu Writer and journalist Lawrence Hill will present and discuss his thoughts on immigration, race and identity. Hill will also sign copies of his newest novel The Illegal, which was released in January of this year. Lunch will be provided.

(Anne Li) Leif Wenar on Blood Oil International House, 1414 E. 59th St. Wednesday, February 3, 6pm. (773) 752-4381. semcoop.com Because the sale of oil and other natural resources funds dictators and militants, author Leif Wenar will argue at this event, the consumers at the other end of those transactions cannot ignore their complicity in the crimes of the “most merciless men on earth.” (Adam Thorp) Teaching and Learning on the Verge 57th Street Books, 1301 E. 57th St. Thursday, February 4, 6pm. (773) 684-1300. semcoop.com.

Shanti Elliot will present innovative suggestions for teaching students about democracy as a participatory activity. Elliot’s recent book Teaching and Learning on the Verge draws on her twenty years of classroom experience, and explores ways to build students’ awareness of social issues as individuals and in society. (Anne Li) Organizational Meeting for Summer Anti-Violence Action Hyde Park Neighborhood Club, 5480 S. Kenwood Ave. Sunday, February 7, 1pm–3pm. (312) 9620322. getbehindthemask.org To MASK (Mothers Against Senseless Killing), gun violence is America’s “domestic war,” which recently has escalated: January 2016 was Chicago’s worst month for gun deaths since at least 2000. MASK volunteers, including founder Tamar Manasseh, respond by discussing strategies for summer peace. (Neal Jochmann)

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The Experimental Station, 6100 S. Blackstone Ave. Sunday, February 7, 1pm–3pm. southsideweekly. com Award-winning journalist and Chicago native Sarah Karp has historically seized on storytelling opportunity to stirring effect: recent pieces on CPS have led to crucial data rectification and CEO indictments. Come hear her speak with the Weekly about her past work and present process. (Neal Jochmann) The Space Within: Inside Great Chicago Buildings Glessner House Museum, 1800 S. Prairie Ave. Tuesday, February 9, 7pm–9pm. $10 per person, $8 for members. (312) 326-1480. glessnerhouse.org In the wake of 2015’s Chicago Architecture Biennial, photographer James Caulfield and author Patrick F. Cannon will host a lecture and signing for their new book. With painstaking photography and extensive research, it’s a work perfectly suited for discussion at the Glessner House, itself an architectural landmark. (Christopher Good) VISUAL ARTS Martin Puryear and Theaster Gates

specifically on discrimination against black and brown people. The title image, “a black space bisected by a blue line,” symbolizes the fragility of the social order established by police presence. ( Jake Bittle)

MUSIC

Prairieland Seed Shop Slow Pony Project, 1745 W. 18th St. Saturday, February 6, 6pm–9pm. Free. (815) 575-2023. facebook.com/slowponyproject In coordination with 2nd Floor Rear’s “We Are Here” festival, the Slow Pony Project—a gallery located in a former butcher shop—will host a pop-up shop for indigenous seeds.

The curators are concerned by the vanishing Midwestern plains, but hope that “the prairie can thrive on in our yards, roofs, and alleys.”

(Christopher Good)

French Quarter Style The Promontory, 5311 S. Lake Park Ave. Tuesday, February 9, doors 6:30pm, show 7pm. $15–$30.

All ages. (312) 801-2100. promontorychicago.com Tovi Khali, Storie Devereaux, Sam Fullerton and Nem will be stopping by The Promontory to deliver a mix of rhythm & blues, jazz, and funk wrapped in elements of poetry and high emotion. These performers will carry you to Ole Orleans for the night. (Maddie Anderson) Pete Rock & Rich Medina

Here in Space The Dojo, 2304 S. Blue Island Ave. Sunday, February 7, 3pm–5pm. Free. (312) 631-8139. facebook.com/thedojochi If the proliferation of new media—likes, clickbait, touchscreens, and FOMO—interests you, make sure to stop by the Dojo in Pilsen for a heartfelt (and art-filled) look into “how we see ourselves in the physical world and online,” including works by Alex Palma, Daniel Kyri, and Rachel Bell. (Christopher Good)

Art Institute of Chicago, 111 S. Michigan Ave. Thursday, February 4, 7pm–8:30pm. Free with museum admission, but currently full. Go online to join waitlist. (312) 443-3600. artic.edu

Barter For Knowledge

Acclaimed sculptor Martin Puryear (whose work is on display at the Art Institute) and arts activism octopus Theaster Gates will discuss the materials (wood, ceramic) in their work, the way they go about the creative process, and their commitments to the art world. ( Jake Bittle)

Join Gabriela Ibarra and Gilberto Sandoval in a day of “alternate” teaching where the roles of students and instructors fluidly switch and shift. Workshops on yoga, drawing, and more form a space for individuals to learn in a fun, non-traditional manner. (Kezie Nwachukwu)

Barret Park, 2022 W. Cermak Rd. Sunday, February 7, noon–6pm. Free. 2ndfloorrear.org

A Thin Blue Line

The DuSable Masterworks Collection Series I: Paintings

Chicago Artists Coalition, 217 N. Carpenter St. February 5 –February 25. Opening reception Friday, February 5, 6pm–9pm. Monday–Friday, 9am–5pm, Saturday, 12pm–6pm. (312) 491-8888. chicagoartistscoalition.org

DuSable Museum, 740 E. 56th Pl, February 9. Through December 23. Tuesday–Saturday, 10am.–5pm. Sunday, noon–5pm. Adults $10, students $7 w/ID. (773) 947-0600. dusablemuseum.org

This multimedia solo exhibition by David Alekhuogie investigates the interactions between police and the public, focusing

Drop by the DuSable Museum to take in an engaging exhibit showcasing paintings by some of the most prolific African-American

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artists. These pieces of art flow together to compose an eclectic gallery, the first in a series drawn from DuSable’s art collection. (Bilal Othman)

The Shrine, 2109 S. Wabash Ave. Friday, February 12, doors 10pm. $20 early bird, $30 general admission. 21+. (312) 753-5700. theshrinechicago.com Hip-hop legends and DJ innovators Pete Rock and Rich Medina team up again to take listeners on a ride down a musical memory lane.

With over fifty years of experience between them and skilled ears for mingling music old and new, hip-hop will be displayed in its highest form. (Kezie Nwachukwu) Lynn Hilton The Quarry, 2423 E. 75th St. Friday, February 26, 7pm–11:30pm. (773) 741-6254. mobetterjazzchicago.us Internationally renowned vocalist Lynn Hilton will drop by Mo Better Jazz later this month.

Having performed around the world, she returns to her native city of Chicago to share her multifaceted abilities. (Bilal Othman) Wayne Wonder and Mýa The Shrine, 2109 S. Wabash Ave. Saturday, February 27, doors 10pm, show 12:30am. $30 early bird, $40 general admission. 21+. (312) 753-5700. theshrinechicago.com If the slush and sunshine of the warmest winter ever has you in a tropical mood, celebrate by seeing Jamaican dub and dancehall all-star Wayne Wonder. Wayne will be joined by R&B starlet (and one-time Dancing with the Stars contestant) Mýa, best known for her collaboration on the Moulin Rouge! version of “Lady Marmalade.” (Christopher Good)

EVENTS Busta Rhymes The Shrine, 2109 S. Wabash Ave. Saturday, March 26, doors 10pm. $37.50. 21+. (312) 753-5700. theshrinechicago.com Fresh off his Christmas return-to-form mixtape The Return of the Dragon (featuring Chance the Rapper and BJ the Chicago Kid), Busta comes to The Shrine for a mysterious show. “Finally… The Shrine & The Conglomerate present Busta Rhymes,” the event page reads, offering little more information but leaving us with the feeling that we’ve been waiting for this without knowing it. Expect a show. (Sam Stecklow) STAGE & SCREEN BlaxploItalian University of Chicago, Kent Hall, 5801 S Ellis Ave. Wednesday, February 3, 5pm. Free. (733) 702-8481. arts.uchicago.edu Black actors in Italian film are a topic that isn’t usually discussed, which filmmaker Fred Kuwornu hopes to change. In the screening and discussion of his documentary BlaxploItalian, Kuwornu reflects on the classic struggles of Afro-Italians and the parallels to modern black actors now struggling to succeed on the Italian screen. (Margaret Glazier) A Raisin in the Sun Staged Reading Augustana Lutheran Church, 5500 S. Woodlawn Ave. February 5. 8pm. $5. hydeparkcommunityplayers.org There’s no better way to start Black History Month than with the Hyde Park Community Players as they stay local with a staged reading of A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansbury’s classic play about a black Chicago family in the Woodlawn area struggling to improve their living situation. Snacks and a moderated discussion will follow. (Ada Alozie) Global Girls Black Cinema House, 7200 S. Kimbark Ave. February 5, 7pm–9pm. Free. (312) 857-5561. rebuild-foundation.org

Dance the night away and watch female-centric films at the send-off party for some members of Global Girls, the day before they travel to Grenada and Kenya. Celebrate with the founder of the organization, Marvinetta Woodley-Penn, who created this South Shore group to teach arts and communication to empower young girls. (Ada Alozie) Slaughter’s Big Rip-Off Black Cinema House, 7200 S. Kimbark Ave. Sunday, Feb. 7, 4-6pm. (312) 857-5561. rebuild-foundation.org Slaughter’s Big Rip-Off, a classic of the blaxploitation genre, is a rip-roaring revenge story with a bloody denouement. A discussion after the screening with film writer Sergio Mims and film history scholar Gerald Butters will discuss the black audiences movies like Rip-Off historically attracted to movie theaters in the Loop.

(Adam Thorp) Group 312 Films Screening Chicago Art Department, 1932 S. Halsted St. Sunday, February 7. 7pm - 10pm. Free. chicagoartdepartment.org Seeking to create a friendly environment for local creative types, Group 312 Films makes monthly shorts of varied genres and themes.

Hosted by local artist Chuck Przybyl, the screening is whatever you make of it: socialize, watch the two-to-ten-minute films, or make your mark by voting on next month’s topic.

(Sam Royall) The Set Speaks Propeller Fund Studios, 2233 S. Throop St., fourth floor. February 8–March 31. Open Monday–Friday, 9am-5pm; Saturday, 12pm-5pm. Free. (312) 850-0555. acretv.org For ACRE TV’s new programming block, seven groups of artists will take turns broadcasting a nonstop camera feed from their studio. Falling halfway between the schlock of Big Brother and the avant-garde stylings of Hito Steyerl, the exhibition—which will also be livestreamed online—promises to deliver everything from a #newglobalmatriarchy to soap operas for two months straight. (Christopher Good)

Call for Weekly Lit Submissions The Weekly plans to begin publishing original poetry

by South Side residents on a regular basis.

Submit your work for consideration at lit@southsideweekly.com

FEBRUARY 3, 2016 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 19