February 8, 2017 by South Side Weekly

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SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY The South Side Weekly is an independent nonprofit newsprint magazine written for and about neighborhoods on the South Side of Chicago. We publish in-depth coverage of the arts and issues of public interest alongside oral histories, poetry, fiction, interviews, and artwork from local photographers and illustrators. The South Side Weekly is dedicated to supporting cultural and civic engagement on the South Side and to providing educational opportunities for developing journalists, writers, and artists. Volume 4, Issue 18 Editor-in-Chief Jake Bittle Managing Editors Maha Ahmed, Christian Belanger Director of Staff Support Ellie Mejía Director of Writer Development Mari Cohen Deputy Editor Olivia Stovicek Senior Editors Emeline Posner, Julia Aizuss Education Editor Music Editor Stage & Screen Editor Visual Arts Editor

Hafsa Razi Austin Brown Nicole Bond Corinne Butta

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

Sofia Wyetzner

Publisher

Harry Backlund

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

IN CHICAGO

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

IN THIS ISSUE

Piglets! Mt. Greenwood resident—and five-year-old pig—Sugarbeet is due to give birth to a gaggle of piglets any day now. Students and staff at the neighborhood’s Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences have been caring for Sugarbeet throughout her gestation as a part of the curriculum for the school’s animal sciences program. As this editor sits glued to the livestream (as of press time, Sugarbeet is sleeping), it should be noted that for an older sow like Sugarbeet, gestation can be as long as 120 days. It’s unclear how many piglets are on their way, but livestream viewers are invited to vote in the piglet naming poll, where “Truffles,” “Pumbaa,” and “Waddles” are taking the lead. All we on the other side of the livestream can do is wait and dream that the piglets will get an Instagram, calmed by the knowledge that Sugarbeet is “doing fine and resting a lot” and has a good appetite. The livestream can be viewed at bit.ly/sugarbeetpig Goodbye, George’s? If you’re tuned in to the music news of Chicago, you may have noticed that classic Wicker Park venue Double Door finally shut its doors on Monday. But perhaps you weren’t aware of a similar situation happening at the nearly half-a-century-old George’s Music Room. Beginning as a record store on the West Side in the late sixties, George’s eventually moved its business to Midway Airport in the early 2000s, where it’s remained for the past decade and a half. After a concessions licensing shuffle this week, though, George’s has found itself absent from the list of approved leases, drawing the disapproval of many of the city’s longest-serving black aldermen and the confusion of owner George Daniels. The aforementioned aldermen, many of whom know Daniels personally, feel that his store brings a uniquely Chicago feel to the Midway Airport that won’t easily be replaced, according to the Sun-Times. Who knows, though: maybe what Midway really needs is more room near the food court to stick in another Potbelly.

who owns benton house?

Here We Go Again... In order to make up for $215 million of missing state funds, Chicago Public Schools on Monday announced a $51 million spending freeze. In December, Governor Bruce Rauner vetoed a bill that would have sent CPS the taxpayer money they were counting on to, you know, run the school district, citing statehouse Democrats’ failure to present him with a pension reform package as the reason for the veto. As the Sun-Times reported, the new $51 million spending freeze, which CPS CEO Forrest Claypool says could still be reversed if the district can still somehow secure state funding, will affect discretionary spending for things like textbooks and field trips. The district will freeze an additional $5 million in spending on teacher training and could potentially cut $18 million in funding to charter schools by April. The district also plans four unpaid furlough days to save another $35 million, and in the future could even cut days from the end of the school year to make up the rest of the deficit. In response to the latest budget crisis, state and local education leaders began another round of kicking the blame around, and didn’t mince words in doing so. Claypool accused Rauner of “adopting Donald Trump’s tactics” and “attacking vulnerable citizens,” while Rauner’s spokesperson shot back that Claypool was trying to “rewrite history” by evading blame for mismanagement of funds. Karen Lewis of the CTU, meanwhile, seemed to have no patience for either of them. The CTU continued to demand Claypool’s resignation, and in a statement Lewis said, “Rahm and Rauner are both to blame. There’s no separation between their intention to destroy publicly funded, public education in Chicago.” Meanwhile, as the “adults” amp up their name-calling, CPS kids will face the loss of field trips, materials, and potentially even full days of their education.

Stripping funds from already suffering neighborhood schools will effectively kill public education. nathan petithomme......................13

“I wanted to bring the world to the neighborhood.” eleanore catolico............................4 in search of an artful solution

Despite the success of the program, major budget constraints for CPS have blunted its rollout. isaac tannenbaum.............................7 a musical voyage over coffee and lunch

“An intergenerational, inter-economic gathering space.” sylvia de boer...................................8 from gizzard to garden

The birds are more than just individual animals—they are flying gardens. cynthia mao....................................10 getting free and staying free

The huelgistas held out for nineteen days to force CPS to the negotiating table. anne li.............................................12 opinion: against devos

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Cover photo by Maya Iman

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Who Owns Benton House? Chicago’s last settlement house struggles to define its identity

BY ELEANORE CATOLICO

cold wind blew down South Gratten Street on a chilly November afternoon while Bridgeport residents outside stood in line for Benton House’s food pantry, donning jackets, scarves, gloves, and all. Seniors sat on plastic lawn chairs on the sidewalk with personal shopping carts in tow. Inside, toddlers bounced around the stairs while their mothers monitored them with hawklike vision. Benton House, the oldest social services organization in Bridgeport, comprises a couple of brick buildings next to a cul-desac, across the street from Bosley Park. Its food pantry is the only one of its kind in the neighborhood, serving food five days a week. According to Mey Lee, the former coordinator of the food pantry, over 134 households, primarily consisting of Latino and Chinese families, use the pantry in an average month; this roughly translates to over two thousand people. There has been consistent demand for the pantry’s services since it opened in 2009; a small, close-knit cadre of volunteers help move each day’s activities along. Founded in 1907, Benton House housed Japanese families during World War II, was a nursery for children during influenza epidemics, and was featured on a Ghost Hunters episode for its resident ghosts—namely, the founder’s daughter, “Ma Benton.” While a longtime staple in the neighborhood, Benton House has seen many transformations, changes in ownership, and organizational structures over the past century. Most recently, on June 30 of last year, Benton House dissolved its residency program. Its executive director, Mark Lennon, needed help to keep up with the organization’s programming and building needs over the last few years. Lennon decide to establish a board of directors to help resolve the space’s issues, which included a $250,000 financial debt, as well as to bring resources to the space to address its slew of infrastructure problems 4 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF BENTON HOUSE OFFICE

and building code violations. Most recently, Benton House has taken the form of a safe space for young and queer people of color; over the past few years the space has hosted art exhibitions supporting local talent, a radical film series, and female punk shows. It has also cultivated a community garden, housed a library shelved with manifestos on queer resistance and nonviolence, and facilitated a hunger walk in which hundreds of kids loaded onto school buses and walked along the concrete coast of Lake Shore Drive to raise money for the food pantry. All these programs and actions demonstrate the progressive spirit that has inhabited the space in recent years, but

it is precisely this spirit that many former residents feel is at risk due to the creation of the board of directors and the recent change in management style. This organizational restructuring led to a falling out between the former residents and the new board—before this transition, the residential staff oversaw the House’s delivery of social services, but now programming decisions are in the board’s control. Lennon expressed remorse over the abruptness of the change, realizing that several residential staff invested much personal time and energy into this most recent iteration of Benton House and its

place in the neighborhood. But he felt that a managerial approach to the space and its usage was necessary in order to address the organization’s infrastructure problems and debts. Despite the transition, which Lennon has referred to as a “period of flux,” Benton House has continued running the pantry five nights a week. The new board also plans to start after-school youth programs and oversee an expansion of its senior services this fall. Rifts like this one are not unusual for a nonprofit, wherein organizational clashes naturally tend to come up. After the announcement last June, some of the residential staff chose to stay on as volunteers,

COMMUNITY

while others decided to leave. Despite the clash, Lennon says Benton House remains devoted to its mission, as listed on its website, “to build a unified community that reflects the rich ethnic and socioeconomic diversity of the Bridgeport neighborhood, which can advocate for its needs, and works toward a vibrant, sustainable, and healthier community.” But while Benton House’s stated mission remains the same, different visions still compete to answer the question of how best to actualize it. With new management, those who established the progressive legacy of Benton House mourn the potential loss of a queer safe space and hub for grassroots efforts, especially in the current precarious and harassment-filled political climate for minorities and LGBTQ individuals.

hile Benton House has entered an uncertain moment in its trajectory, its century-long history has been nothing short of rich, aiding people from all walks of life. The House is a rare breed: it stands as the last settlement house in Chicago. Arising

out of the same movement as Jane Addam’s Hull House, Benton House was founded in 1907 by Janett Sturges, a well-known philanthropist at the time. Originally called Providence Day Nursery, it provided meals and healthcare for children whose mothers worked in the local factories during the day with help from St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Hyde Park. It also provided English classes and clinics on nutrition, hygiene, and housekeeping for the adults in the evenings. It typically cost five cents a day to use the services, and the majority of the families in Bridgeport at the time lived in poverty, but the nursery prided itself on never denying service to a child. At the time, the ethnic demographics of the neighborhood were changing: just under half of the clientele were Irish while the rest came from Polish, Italian, and Lithuanian families. In 1916, the building expanded to include a senior dining hall, which still exists today. In the 1930s, under the stewardship of Sturges’s daughter Kate “Ma Benton” Sturges Buckingham (who donated the Buckingham Fountain to the city in honor of her brother), the nursery expanded its

services and was later renamed Benton House. A 1969 Tribune article titled “Finances Cause Possible Closing of Benton House” reports that the house’s programs were funded by a city agency until 1967, after which funding was abruptly cut off, creating the need for trained and paid staff members for the formerly volunteerrun organization. In 1970, Benton House gained nonprofit status, but even back then a slew of infrastructure problems— leaky roofs, broken windows, and clogged toilets—plagued the space for the following decades. A combination of money came in from the local government and fundraisers were used to pay for these renovations. In a sense, the problems that Benton House has been dealing with over the past several months are not new—they, too, result from the neglect of social services at a governmental level. While residential involvement in providing the House’s services varied throughout the 1970s and the early 2000s, it wasn’t until 2008 that a formal residency program was started by Mark Lennon. Lennon, born and raised in Bridgeport, has fond memories of stepping into Benton House in 1975 as a teenager to play basketball. He’s had a relationship with Benton House for over thirty years, first as a patron, and then eventually serving as the organization’s executive director. Keeping up the space felt impossible, he said, as the buildings seemed to be falling apart and the bills kept piling up. The residency program thus killed two birds with one stone: it put the large amount of space Benton House had under its name to use, and also remedied the infrastructural problems by offering

residents rent-free living in exchange for helping with the space’s upkeep. Though it sounds ideal, being a part of the residency program at Benton House wasn’t always rosy. For Ben Noetzel, who oversaw the early days of the residency program, living at Benton House meant shared responsibility and accountability, which at times meant conflict and dissent. This was compounded by the fact that many residents’ economic situations were unstable. Still, the residents came together. “The partnerships and relationships at Benton House become part of our institutional memory,” Noetzel says. “Otherwise Benton House would have been closed a long time ago.”

y pure serendipity, the gift of more space gave a new crop of residents a chance to create a new community vision, but this time the new residents were primarily people of color and people who identified as LGBTQ. The public service character remained strong, and this new dynamic opened up new opportunities for interaction between different types of people. As a result of this change in residential makeup, Benton House underwent yet another change. In the early 2010s the residency program became a more formal, intentional living community, united by shared values and a common ethos of service. As a part of this change, residents had more liberty to run and organize their own events at Benton House as long as they were beneficial to the neighborhood and received staff approval. This community comprised artists, activists, and former AmeriCorps members, many

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of whom identified as LGBTQ and/or as people of color. As such, Benton House came to be seen as a radical, progressive space, both by residents of the house and of the neighborhood at large. The social services provided by Benton House remained unchanged, but there was a conscious effort among residents to create a platform for activism and political dialogue. Benton House acted as one of the few sanctuary spaces for queer people and people of color on the South Side, and the space’s reputation spread amongst young people in the city through word of mouth. “The act of care and service has always been radical, even in the early days of Benton House as a settlement house,” said Mey Lee as she reflected on this time in the House’s history, composed and low-key with rainbow-haired troll dolls dangling from her ears. She was one of the residents who helped transform Benton House into a more inclusive space for grassroots activism. She began volunteering at the House in 2014. “What changed was that queer people and black and brown people were made visible in the space,” she said. “It was really transformative.” According to Lennon, there was a deliberate effort in the early days of the residency program to diversify the staff of Benton House in order to expose longtime residents of Bridgeport, which is now only thirty percent white, to people who were different from themselves. Bridgeport’s cultural resistance to the civil rights movement of the 1960s still marks it as a neighborhood of racial tension. Benton House made an intentional effort to confront this past. “I wanted to bring the world to the neighborhood,” Lennon said.

enton House is part of Bridgeport’s political and social history, from its settlement house roots to its newfound progressive legacy. It’s still running the food pantry five nights a week, which is now a community staple, and plans to expand its youth and senior programming are moving forward. At this moment, the residency program is in a period of flux; another program may be created in the future. Jose Corcoles, local filmmaker and former resident of Benton House, remembers the tensions that surrounded the attempt to

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make Benton House into a safe space for queer people and people of color. “We got a lot of backlash from our neighbors. It was hard to build bridges,” Corcoles said. “Every day we got closer and closer to what kind of community we wanted, but it got torn apart when Benton House [temporarily] closed and changed management,” referring to last year’s announcement of the new board of directors. Many former residents feel, as Corcoles does, that the new way of managing the space won’t necessarily give voice to all community concerns. Other invested parties, though, feel that without the financial security and resolution of its debts, it is untenable for the space to continue on without falling apart or shutting down. The process of building community is central to Benton House’s origin story, and has remained constant throughout its history. As the space stays open, it will no doubt continue to create community as it provides services to Bridgeport, but uncertainties linger about what kind of community that will be. ¬

PHOTOS COURTESY OF BENTON HOUSE OFFICE

EDUCATION

In Search of an Artful Solution

Funding cuts have hampered impactful CPS arts programs—what's the answer?

BY ISAAC TANNENBAUM

arely does the American public school system treat the arts with as much respect as it treats the “core” subjects of math, English, social studies, and science. When it comes time to slash budgets—something that seems like a regular occurrence nowadays—the arts programs are usually the first ones to go. The Chicago public school system has not been immune from these financial constraints, and the notion that the arts are dispensable has informed much fiscal policy. However, thanks to landmark legislation in 2012, the CPS board incorporated the arts as a core subject in schools, thereby cementing its importance to the Chicago public school system. First approved by the school board in 2012, the city’s Arts Education Program was a comprehensive overhaul of the visual, theatrical, and musical arts in public schools (including magnet schools). The AEP’s main component consists of increasing the amount of weekly arts instruction to 120 minutes for all students. Other aspects of the plan include more types of art classes being made available, greater graduation requirements for art courses, and minimum staffing ratios of one art teacher to 350 or fewer students. The Chicago public schools’ new education strategy also involves the unique Arts Liaison program, in which an individual is charged with creating and sourcing opportunities for students to become more involved with local artists and reaching out to the school community to ensure that the students’ needs are best met. The art liaisons also communicate with other public schools to come up with the best division of resources. Not only do

the liaisons benefit the schools in which they work, but also the greater Chicago community. The program gives local artists exposure to a wider audience, and potentially allows them to inspire more kids in ways that would be otherwise impossible. One organization deeply involved with the Arts Liaison aspect of the program is Chicago Arts Partnership in Education, which matches local teaching artists with teachers from public schools around the city. The group provides upwards of thirty hours of education instruction for the pairs on how to best incorporate the arts into the day-to-day life of students. Recognizing the existence of negative attitudes towards some art classes, CAPE classrooms marry “traditional” courses with creative and artistic projects. Mayor Rahm Emanuel praised this ingenuity in a 2013 letter that opens the CPS Art Education Plan’s publication, affirming that “[arts] education also contributes to essential twenty-first century skills like innovation, creativity, and critical thinking that will prepare them for life long learning.” Over ninety schools across the city are involved with CAPE, including Southside Occupational High, Pasteur Elementary, and over thirty more on the South Side. For instance, artist Ronnie Malley has partnered with teacher Casey Fuess at Lindblom Math and Science Academy to intertwine music with the high schoolers’ Arabic and social studies courses. This organization also conducts research on the efficacy of its programs to make sure that is has the best possible impact on the Chicago public school district. Recent nationwide studies, conducted by the National Assembly of State Arts

KATIA PEREZ

Despite the success of the program, major budget constraints for CPS have blunted its rollout. Agencies, on the effects of art education for everyone have proven such programs extremely beneficial. Sufficient art instruction not only fosters a better school community, but also yields higher rates of student attendance and graduation. The NASAA also found that average verbal and mathematics SAT scores are higher for students with more years of arts classes. Lessons in the arts and creative expression can also provide students with outlets for frustration and self-exploration. Despite the success of the program, major budget constraints for the school district have blunted its rollout and undercut its potential as a beneficial plan for the Chicago public schools. Ingenuity, a data analytics organization exploring the arts in Chicago schools, reported that in the year following the CPS board’s approval of this plan, under twenty-five percent of schools met the required 120 minutes of education; just over half of Chicago schools met the faculty-to-student ratio for arts classes.

As is often the case with governmental projects, budget cuts have seriously blunted its rollout. In 2014, Emanuel announced that around $38 million would need to be raised in order to fund the Arts Education Program; thanks to private donors, just over one fourth of the goal was met. Officials announced that they hoped that the arts program could be implemented in full in the 2018-19 school year with an operating budget of $15 million. But Ingenuity’s report showed that the school district was making progress toward the goals set by the plan, albeit at a slower pace. The CPS arts department has been announcing, over the past few years, that more steps of the plan have been set in motion, and in the 2013-2014 school year, the program received over $10 million in TIF (tax increment financing) investment from the City of Chicago.”It might have been slow and rife with setbacks, but hopes are high for the future of the arts in CPS. ¬

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A Musical Voyage Over Coffee and Lunch A new series at Englewood’s Kusanya spotlights local musicians BY SYLVIA DE BOER

MAYA IMAN

t’s just after noon in Englewood, and light throws itself in bars across the floor of Kusanya Cafe as the door swings open and shut. Seated at the front window of the restaurant among light chatter and the clatter of plates, South Side local Shawnee Dez brushes her hair back from her face and goes into performance mode. “I’m gonna sing without a mic because I just messed mine up,” she says to her audience, a small and attentive group composed of family, friends, café staff and community members. They laugh, and Shawnee lifts her chin, launching into her opening number. 8 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

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Shawnee is performing at the second Sound Voyage, a music series at Kusanya featuring free lunchtime shows every second and fourth Wednesday through May. The series features artists from a multitude of genres including R&B, jazz, Afro-Latin, Brazilian, and reggae. Today, Shawnee graces us with a dreamy, melodic series of covers and originals—a sound grown from her roots. After plugging her Soundcloud EP, Day Child, Shawnee thanks her mom for teaching her. Perched on a stool nearby, Sound Voyage’s curator Erik Jones listens intently,

smiling as he watches Shawnee’s act unfold. The series was born as a podcast by Jones’s production company, the Blue Sapphire Experience. From the beginning, Jones has aimed to expose listeners to sounds they wouldn’t usually hear by combing genres familiar and foreign. “When you’re hearing the lyrics in a language that you don’t understand, it’s something soothing…it’s a different relationship,” he said. “A lot of times people don’t get to hear reggae, or get to hear Brazilian, so it’s to help give it a more global feel.” Through this live music

series in Englewood, Jones said he saw the opportunity to unite local talent and community. “I would say that Englewood wants to have a musical community,” he said. Discussing what he sees as a neighborhood in the process of change, Jones said: “We’ve got such great organizations… you have the violence, you have some of the poverty, but there are still cells of buildings, there are people rehabbing,” he said. “I think Englewood always knows what it wants to be,” said Jones. “I think it’s the outside that wants to invest and wants to understand how they can pull in and help, I think they’re…starting to see how they can help [the community’s] vision take shape.” He said he sees the manifestation and showcasing of local talent as a vital element of this growth, and highlighted the connections he’s been able to help facilitate. “I’ve had some people come and say to me: ‘Hey, I know some people who could do some things.’ They sing or they play jazz, but they haven’t had a great platform or they had to go outside of their community.” When asked why he chose Kusanya Cafe to showcase local artists, Jones praised it as an outlier in the neighborhood. “It’s brought about a change in people having the ability to come just as they are, sit, talk, do their work, have a wi-fi connection,” he said. As for the intersection between space and music, he said the series was helping bring people into the social networks that Kusanya enables. “They can enjoy the food there, they can see what’s going on there, and even some people, from the first show, have had some interest in wanting to do their own events, whether it be gatherings or meetings or whatever.” Kusanya itself is a nonprofit organization that aims to strengthen the community rather than provide a service or good. The goal of the café was always to create “intergenerational, inter-economic gathering space,” as Englewood resident and Kusanya Cafe’s executive director Phil Sipka put it. “Our mission is to be a place of empowerment and encouragement to the Englewood community, and we really thought that there’s such a wide diversity of different types of people that live in the neighborhood…in terms of economics, education, social capital,” said Sipka. “So what could we do to get the people that have a lot of resources in the neighborhood, who could be an inspiration to a lot of other people on the block... how could we get those people together in an organic way?” That vision was expressed in 2009,

MUSIC

MAYA IMAN

which was the beginning of a four-year search for a viable space. “The city has demolished most of the commercial thoroughfares in the neighborhood. It’s mostly vacant land, it’s very few buildings to begin with,” said Sipka. “Most building owners, if they had space available, did not believe that [commerce] worked in the neighborhood, or that our vision of doing something like this would ever work.” Sipka tied these initial challenges to a greater economic problem facing entrepreneurs and investors in neighborhoods like Englewood. “Once you start doing something [like this]

in a neighborhood like Englewood, you start peeling back the layers of injustice.” Finally, a board member bought the recently rehabbed space at 825 69th Street, and in 2013 Kusanya Cafe opened. Today, it’s a non-profit striving towards selfsustainability and a bustling community establishment that brims with energy. “Things are more organically happening now,” said Sipka. “We have more and more Englewood residents getting involved in doing our events, and that’s what we wanted from the beginning…we have a lot of different people and organizations this third

year coming out of the woodwork in a really good way.” As Shawnee lets her voice trail off on the final note of “Happy Spell,” an original song from Day Child, her audience sits enraptured. Impact hangs like smoke in the air, and the audience rises to meet it with a generous round of applause, which Shawnee accepts gracefully, dipping her head a little in deference. Visible through the window behind her, a bus rolls by, and people come and go. Surrounded by pieces of a community that’s constantly in motion, Shawnee clears her throat to introduce the next song. ¬ FEBRUARY 8, 2017 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 9

From Gizzard to Garden

Andrew Yang creates art with seeds from birds that meet an untimely fate BY CYNTHIA MAO

he Pheidole morrisi is a species of ant whose existence in New York’s Long Island tends to be confined to the area under power lines. The limitation of this animal life to fragments of land that happen to be spared death-by-concrete struck Andrew Yang, an associate professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), as quite poignant. In urban environments, we now look for and find wildness only in spaces that have been specifically designated for nonhuman purposes. The disruption of the existing animal life in urban landscapes became an area of interest for Yang when he was a Ph.D. student studying biology at Duke University. His study on the response of P. morrisi to seasonal fluctuations in food availability brought him to the insects’ disturbed habitats. The effect of human activity on these ants is an example of a greater trend: human interference with nature has led some scientists to propose a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene, in which there no longer exists any nature 10 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

untouched by humanity’s influence. Yang, a scientist and an artist, whose work in both fields has focused on issues of urban ecology, thinks we might be in this epoch now.

ack in 2010, Claire Pentecost, one of Yang’s colleagues, was reading Charles Darwin. A photography professor at SAIC, she came across a passage where Darwin claimed that he scraped mud off the foot of a seabird, and from that mud was able to grow seventy different types of plants. Pentecost told Yang about Darwin’s discovery. “I thought that was such an intriguing story,” Yang said. “But I found it actually kind of unbelievable—seventy different kinds of [plants] coming from the mud of this one bird.” How do birds and seeds typically interact? Flowering plants and their seed-y fruits attract hungry birds who eat them and transport the seeds as they pass through the birds’ bodies. The locale for the interaction of

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birds and seeds would therefore be the birds’ stomachs. Yang, also a Research Associate at the Field Museum of Natural History since 2009, was familiar with the museum’s bird lab, where the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors (CBCM) brings dead, migratory birds—and their stomachs. Chicago was built in the middle of an avian flyway, a network of routes by which birds migrate. The skyline presents birds with a navigational challenge. During the day, they take the transparency of the glass windows on skyscrapers to indicate open space. Or, they mistake the reflection of a tree in the glass for the real thing. At night, birds are drawn to the light inside these buildings. “Birds have evolved over millions of years to pay attention to lights at night as navigational aid,” Yang said, and the illuminated buildings create what he calls a “false celestial beacon.” The CBCM volunteers wake up at dawn and scour the city in search of birds that have flown into the mirrored glass buildings that

"Two Vehicles" by Andrew Yang (2016) populate the Chicago skyline. Those found alive are brought to wildlife rehabilitation centers. The not-so-lucky ones are brought to the Field Museum, where they are catalogued and dissected, their skeletons and skins put into the museum’s collection. Before Yang became involved, the birds’ stomachs and guts were thrown away. “It’s kind of a tragedy,” Yang said, “because in some sense the birds are recouped as these museum specimens, but these seeds are lost to the garbage.” David Willard, collections manager emeritus at the Field Museum, was in charge of cataloguing and identifying the birds. Per Yang’s request, he began to save the stomachs for Yang to dissect. The project that developed, “Flying Gardens of Maybe,” was the connection of the two strands of Yang’s experience: his background as a scientist and his work as an artist.

BIRDS

“The artistic opportunity is to orchestrate images, objects, and circumstances that can draw us into greater awareness of the ways we take our daily experiences for granted.” —Andrew Yang, artist

ang’s parents, both scientists, kept a lot of animals—cows, horses, chickens, goats, cats, and dogs. At a large pond near his home in rural Massachusetts, he spent time interacting with fish, frogs, snakes, and insects, the animals to which he eventually dedicated much of his academic work. “We spent a lot of time fishing in that pond, spent a lot of time keeping animals near us as pets,” Yang said. “Everything from tadpoles to snapping turtles.” His interest in the arts evolved concurrently. “My mother would bring my brother and [me] to art classes at the local art museum,” Yang said. “They had classes for children, I think as early as five years of age, and that left a really big impression on me.” In college, Yang studied biology and chemistry while making visual art on the side. Perhaps counterintuitively, the opportunity for creative work seemed greater in the biochemistry department than in the arts department. After his freshman year, Yang spent the summer doing research. “They invited me to stay the whole summer and pursue my own biochemistry projects in their lab, and they paid me a stipend to do it,” Yang said. “I was like, ‘Wow. This is the best art studio I could ever have.’” Art and science had always struck Yang as more similar than different. The two seemed to complement one another; they had a unified form of inquiry. “[Biochemistry research] wasn’t dissimilar from the way I think about art in terms of experimentation and form and the use of techniques to try to discover something new,” he said.

ow, as a scientist and associate professor at SAIC, Yang is a bit of an outlier. “I came to SAIC with a particular interest as someone who makes art,” Yang said. “Other people have come with an appreciation of or interest in art, but not necessarily with the goal to also produce

artwork.” In a piece written for City Creatures, an anthology of creative and critical pieces focusing on urban wildlife, Yang describes the virtues of artistry and ecology in collecting urban insects. He writes, “Today, many artists are less interested in traditional notions of ‘beauty’ regarding the work they make and more concerned with the possibility of creating situations that challenge typical expectations. The artistic opportunity is to orchestrate images, objects, and circumstances that can draw us into greater awareness of the ways we take our daily experiences for granted.”

ince 2012, Yang has been collecting the seeds from these fallen birds’ stomachs, cleaning them, and cataloging them. He has one box for the seeds taken from each individual bird. The collection of these containers forms a seed archive. There are two routes for the seeds at the moment. Some seeds are mixed in with commercial bird feed and put in bird feeders, in hopes that they might be eaten again and returned to the landscape as a restoration of the disrupted botanical reproductive cycle. Other seeds are replanted in ceramic pots made by Yang. The pots are a new vessel for the seeds, glazed in a form that evokes the feathery pattern of the bird from which the seeds came. Seeds retrieved from a cedar waxwing are replanted in a pot glazed with yellow and tan swatches. Seeds retrieved from a white-throated sparrow are replanted in a pot with dark brown streaks, intermingled with whites and grays. And seeds retrieved from a Swainson’s thrush are replanted in a pot with a caramel-colored upper half and a gray-and-white lower half that mimics the bird’s spotted underbelly. About fifty percent of the seeds that are planted will sprout. In addition to the feeders and the replanted seeds, “Flying Gardens of Maybe”

also features postcards and photographs of symmetric arrangements of seeds in the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century French naturalist style. The distribution of the postcards beyond the exhibit is another representation of the seeds flying again. There are also photographs of fallen birds that Yang himself has encountered while walking around the city. The birds, to Yang, are more than just individual animals—they are the flying gardens. “When we think of the bird, we think of it as its own autonomous creature, but the bird is also a flying garden because [it] is carrying plants within its body,” Yang said. “When I plant the seeds, I have multiple seeds and plants growing in one flowerpot. Every creature is, in that sense, a plurality.” The idea of “maybes” comes from the role of happenstance in the project: the bird colliding, the bird dying, the seeds sprouting. “One could ask, what’s the real point of replanting the seeds, or putting the seeds in the bird feeder? Because what are the chances, what ecological or biological impact does a few seeds being redistributed into the landscape really have?” Yang said. “That’s true in one sense.” But Yang’s training in evolutionary biology also makes him think otherwise. “The fact of the matter is,” he said, “all the biodiversity and all the life that exists in the planet today is the consequence of something that was almost completely improbable actually happening. So that involves taking a step back on the spatial and temporal scale of things and taking seriously the fact that everything about life is a ‘maybe.’ “These seeds, fundamentally, are about possibility. As improbable as these possibilities are, they happen, and the existence of all forms of life on earth, including ourselves, are a testament to that ‘maybe’ coming about and reaching fruition.” ¬ FEBRUARY 8, 2017 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 11

LIT

Getting Free and Staying Free David Stovall reflects on Little Village hunger strike and the creation of Lawndale Social Justice High School

BY ANNE LI

avid Omotoso Stovall knows how to hold a crowd. Watching him engage the audience at Seminary Co-op on a January afternoon, it is easy to imagine him connecting with a classroom of teenagers at eight in the morning. Stovall is a professor of educational policy studies and African-American Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), but he also teaches a class on “Education, Youth, and Justice” at the Greater Lawndale High School for Social Justice (SOJO). His talk at the Co-op centers around his book, Born Out of Struggle, which documents his involvement with the school’s creation. There are about fifty people packed into the bright red chairs that have been set up for this installment of the “Fresh Ayers” talk series, along with a dozen more people standing between the bookshelves that hem in the event space. It is evidently an audience full of friends, and Stovall and the namesake of the series, the revolutionary theorist Bill Ayers, spend the minutes before the event shaking hands and exchanging hugs. Stovall begins the talk with a shoutout to the protesters at airports who were expressing their opposition to President Donald Trump’s recent executive order banning immigration from seven Muslimmajority countries. Citing the ban and resulting protests as a particular moment in the struggle for equality and respect, Stovall explains how the creation of SOJO in 2001 represented another such moment. At the time, he says, there had long been a demand for a new school in the Little Village community, and it had been one of then-Mayor Richard M. Daley’s 1997 mayoral campaign promises. Yet while 12 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

there had been three selective-enrollment schools opened since 1998, a new school for local students had not materialized. Stovall’s book lays out how the numerous attempts made by community members, including students and parents, to pressure CPS into building the promised school—speeches at board meetings, sit-ins, and even a Mariachi band singing a song titled “Dónde la escuela,” all turned out to be unsuccessful. Finally, Tomas Gaete led the community in organizing a hunger strike; the organizers saw it as the best way to demonstrate the seriousness of this issue for the community. Fourteen huelgistas, as they came to be known, held out for a full nineteen days to force CPS to the negotiating table. One of the huelgistas was a high school senior, and two were grandparents. The hunger strike culminated in CPS’s agreement to build the long-awaited school. Years later, when SOJO finally opened its doors, the school’s first students wondered why the same protesters who had fought for the school were picketing outside on the first day of the school year. In fact, the huelgistas were welcoming the students, and reminding them where the school had come from. But it was a victory followed by many more struggles. The design committee for the school had to constantly fend off attempts by CPS to stymie the social justice and community-oriented aspects of the school they were trying to create. In his talk, Stovall emphasized the theme of this struggle in perpetuity—in his book, he heavily criticizes what he describes as the neoliberal approach to education reform, writing, “public education has been deemed

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TURTEL ONLI

a ‘failed experiment’ desperately in need of ‘innovation.’ Despite minimal success, these ‘innovations’ have resulted in further marginalization of communities that have historically had the least access to resources and state infrastructure.” The struggle to maintain SOJO’s authenticity is central to the book and the talk. Another internal conflict that appears throughout this story is the tension between the mostly Latinx community of Little Village that first protested to get the school and the largely African-American community of North Lawndale that was required to be included in the student body. This arose because of how CPS interpreted a 1981 federal consent decree to desegregate schools, in this case by requiring each SOJO to have a population no less than thirty percent African-American and no more than seventy percent Latinx. Since the North Lawndale community was not involved in the initial hunger strike, many of the demands and memoirs of the school’s founding seem to carry an exclusionary air to the North Lawndale students. Stovall explains that this divide still persists in the halls and among the school’s board, although there is considerable cooperation in the classroom. Throughout its history, SOJO has come under threat many times for a plethora of

bureaucratic and financial reasons. A budget cut in 2010 cost the school four teachers and its reading specialist, reflecting a trend common across most of CPS. In 2012, the newly hired principal of SOJO was fired four days before the start of the school year, and the interim principal assigned by CPS dropped the school’s existing schedules and changed the list of courses; this was particularly harmful for seniors who needed the advanced classes for their college applications. Stovall also describes a constantly changing list of state or local requirements that the unique school had to meet, keeping it under pressure to conform to the changing standards. Stovall’s involvement in the school began a few days into the hunger strike when Carolina Gaete, one of the organizers, sent him a text message telling him to come to one of their events. Stovall waited at the corner for several minutes with a few others who had received the same message, with no idea of what they were getting into. He ended up becoming part of the design team for the new school. During his talk, Stovall reflected on the personal struggle he faced in writing the book with the dual perspective of both an activist and a researcher. This internal conflict manifested in how he approached the process of offering input, documenting

EDUCATION

the school’s creation, and speaking up against CPS. Much of the book’s introduction focuses on the importance of remaining accountable to the groups Stovall has worked in solidarity with, and of having respect for everyone involved in the process. Stovall’s concerns stem from what he describes as the history of social science researchers exploiting the disadvantaged groups they are working with. Not being a member of the Little Village or North Lawndale communities was another factor in his choices to speak up or remain silent and let the original organizers speak. One of SOJO’s innovations was to offer college credit for courses that would be taught by visiting professors; Stovall was one of these professors, and the book also explores his experience teaching at the school. For all Stovall’s self-criticism of his teaching style, the chapter that focuses on his experiences with his students shows him much more at ease than when he is discussing his activism, but he has just as much enthusiasm. In the “Hip-Hop, Urban Renewal, and Gentrification” section of his course at SOJO, he invited his students to consider Jeff Chang’s song “Can’t Stop Won’t Stop,” and to describe what a “necropolis” meant to them. The students responded with descriptions of problems that plague many of the neighborhoods around SOJO, such as high crime rates and a lack of social services. The discussion moved on to a consideration of how Chicago could remain a “city of dreams” for some, while being a “necropolis” for others. During his talk, Stovall defended students’ right to exactly this kind of alternative education, explaining how unique teaching strategies like those at SOJO were under attack by a larger trend to close down nonconforming schools, especially those in disadvantaged minority neighborhoods. Stovall spoke further on the criminalization of black and brown bodies, stating that many schools that impose harsh discipline and security can be thought of as jails themselves. School, he said to cheers of approval from the audience, is not the same thing as education. “What the majority of people are getting is school, but they are also resisting school and fighting for education, however it comes,” he said. ¬ David Omotoso Stovall, Born Out of Struggle. SUNY Press. 208 pages. $22.95.

OPINIONS & EDITORIALS

Against DeVos

Trump’s pick for education secretary is the wrong choice for our schools, in Chicago and nationwide BY NATHAN PETITHOMME At press time, the U.S. Senate had not yet voted to confirm Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education. According to the most recent reports, there were fifty projected “yea” votes and fifty projected “nay” votes, meaning DeVos would be confirmed by Vice President Mike Pence’s tiebreaking vote.

s a student of a Chicago public high school, there have been numerous times when I pondered whether we’d have enough funds to function for the school year or whether certain electives would be cut from the curriculum. I even fretted at the thought of my favorite teachers receiving a pink slip because of budget cuts the school district had proposed. With our country now headed by the Trump administration, I was eager to see if he would follow through with his promised advocacy of school choice, and to see how that might affect our public schools. My name is Nathan Petithomme and I am a student at Lindblom Math and Science Academy. At Lindblom, we have numerous student organizations that work for advocacy. We have a Genders and Sexualities Alliance that aims to help all students regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation feel safe in school, a Black Girl Magic Club that serves to empower African-American women against pressures from society, a Latino Culture Club that promotes awareness and educates the student body on Latin American culture, and a Student Voice Committee and Chicago Student Union group, among many others. We have teachers that care about us, counselors that strive to make sure our seniors have a path after graduation, and as Lindblom Eagles, we have a sense of community to “Protect the Nest.” Does this not sound like a school that is prospering without competition from extra charter schools? Lindblom is one of Chicago’s selective enrollment high schools, located in Englewood on the South Side of Chicago—a supposed “war zone,” according to many within the new administration. CPS’s budget is not spread around to promote equal achievement among students.

In early October of last year there were talks of a possible teacher strike because of an unfair contract that included cuts to teacher compensation and large classroom sizes. With pressure from the Chicago Teachers Union, a compromise was reached to keep schools open and students engaged despite the fact that funding remains limited. How can Betsy DeVos, the likely future Secretary of Education, possibly believe that stripping funds from publicly run schools in favor of charter schools and private school vouchers will make this country’s education system better? Stripping funds from already suffering neighborhood schools will effectively kill public education. It will harm students who still depend on these public schools for their education, and it will harm minority students and teachers who may be subject to discrimination by private schools based on religion, gender, disability, sexual orientation, or socioeconomic status, inevitably leading to mixed standards and an unfair playing field for student achievement. School choice is the free-market ideology that says that if the state provides parents and families with the choice of private or public schooling, that students will do better in their chosen school. This ideology perpetuates the idea that having more competition among schools will lift student achievement. When commenting on school choice, President Trump wrote, “Competition is why I’m very much in favor of school choice. Let schools compete for kids. I guarantee that if you forced schools to get better or close because parents didn’t want to enroll their kids there, they would get better. Those schools that weren’t good enough to attract students would close, and that’s a good thing.” However, this was not how school choice played out in Detroit. Betsy DeVos, was involved in the implementation of charter school expansion in Detroit, which gutted traditional public school funding. The Detroit Public School district is an example of why the school choice policy is not effective, because even after its implementation, Detroit still has one of the lowest-achieving school districts in the

nation. According to the 2015 National Assessment of Educational Progress, in Detroit ninety-three percent of public school eighth-grade students were not proficient in reading and ninety-six percent were not proficient in math. As a country, we should not involve politics at the expense of the education of our youth. Rather, we should work and strive for educational equity for all students. Most people believe that an equitable education is where all students have the same shot at the American dream regardless of their background and ZIP code. Rather than strip funding from public schools, we need to improve teacher and principal retention rates, provide equitable funding for all students regardless of legal status, and actually listen to and sympathize with our educators who wake up every morning to teach children, often paying for supplies from their own pockets, as they are perhaps the most affected by the ongoing budget battles. Betsy DeVos, a billionaire and advocate of school choice, doesn’t stand for public schools. Her tax records show that millions of dollars have gone towards campaigns to deregulate and advance charter and private Christian schools. She believes that school choice will “advance God’s kingdom.” After being questioned on educational policy during her Senate hearing, she was deemed unqualified and unfit for the position by numerous senators. We need a Secretary of Education who advocates for strong neighborhood public schools, not one that plans to dismantle them. We need a Secretary of Education who understands the value that education has for the youth of today—who will become the voting and working citizens of tomorrow. We need a Secretary of Education who will work to secure funding for public schools and pressure officials that cheat districts out of funds. We need a Secretary of Education who knows that dedication to the education of our children reflects positively on our work, our values, and our country. ¬ FEBRUARY 8, 2017 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 13

BULLETIN Ahlan Wa Sahlan Refugee Fundraiser Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago Refectory, 1100 E. 55th St. Thursday, February 9, 5:30pm–7:30pm. $35. (773) 256-0702. bit.ly/LutheranRefugeeFundraiser The Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago is taking part in the Hyde Park Refugee Project, whose associate groups co-sponsor two refugee families who have resettled in the neighborhood. Help make up the welcoming squad for Hyde Park’s newest residents, and stick around for delicious Syrian cuisine at this fundraiser meal for RefugeeOne. (Sara Cohen)

Know Your Rights Open Mic Englewood Enterprise Gallery, 7039 S. Wentworth Ave. Friday, February 10, 6pm–8pm. (773) 354-8581. first-defense.org At this open mic night, hosted by First Defense Legal Aid, hear some local youth performers and learn about what your rights are when you come in contact with law enforcement. If you want to perform, contact hugo@first-defense.org; if you want to pass on your knowledge to others, join one of FDLA’s “Know Your Rights” clubs. (Hafsa Razi)

Generation One: The Search for Black Wealth (Screening) Chicago Urban League, 4510 S. Michigan Ave. Friday, February 10, 6:30pm–9pm. RSVP online. Free. (312) 945-6570. bit.ly/GenOneScreening Generation One documents the intergenerational poverty gap gripping Black America after the 2007 recession and features expert advice for financial advancement. Join for a screening and discussion. (Sara Cohen)

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Block Club Workshop 007 District Police Station, 1438 W. 63rd St. Saturday, February 11, 10am–noon. (872) 205-9710. fedenglewood@gmail.com At this workshop, participants will learn about what a block club is, how to form one, and the benefits one can have for a community. Attendees will also engage more broadly on the ongoing revitalization of Englewood. (Michael Wasney)

Rest In Power: The Enduring Life of Trayvon Martin Day 1: First United Methodist Church at the Chicago Temple, 77 W. Washington St.; Day 2: DuSable Museum of African American History. February 16–February 17, 6pm–7:15pm both days. $15 for members, $20 general admission, $10 students and teachers. Online RSVP required. chicagohumanities.org For a two-night event co-presented by the Chicago Humanities Festival, DuSable Museum of African American History, and Chicago Urban League, Trayvon Martin’s parents, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, will discuss their journey of grief and seeking justice for their son’s life. There will be a book signing of their newly released book Rest in Power following the program (Njeri Parker)

Community Members Standing Together Against Violence AKArama Foundation Community Center, 6220 S. Ingleside Ave. Thursday, February 23, 6pm–8pm. RSVP online. Free. Dinner served. (773) 834-4244. communitygrandroundsfeb2017.eventbrite.com The University of Chicago’s Center for Community Health and Vitality’s latest installment of Community Grand Rounds will be a discussion on efforts to lessen community violence. Community members are invited to engage on the issue with researchers and other attendees over a complimentary dinner. (Sara Cohen)

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VISUAL ARTS Everyday Rituals Rootwork Gallery, 645 W. 18th St. Opening reception Friday, February 10, 6pm-10pm. Through March 19. Free. (917) 821-3050. Documentary photographer Tonika Lewis Johnson and painter Adrienne Powers come together in this joint exhibition to explore and unpack the concepts of sacredness and divinity in regular people and in Black existence. The exhibition works from the heart of radical self-love and self-care to develop a body of artwork and images that challenge assumptions and personally empower their audience. (Corinne Butta)

Robert Grosvenor Renaissance Society, 5811 S. Ellis Avenue, 4th floor. Opening reception Saturday, February 11, 5pm–8pm. Through Sunday, April 9. Free. (773) 702-8670. renaissancesociety.org Robert Grosvenor has made large abstract sculptures out of industrial materials by hand over the last fifty years. The Renaissance Society will display his work, including an untitled centerpiece from 1989-90, in a spare architectural installation in the hope of encouraging more scholarship about his note-worthy contributions to American sculpture. ( Joseph S. Pete)

Not on Paper Hokin Gallery, 623 S. Wabash Ave. Opening reception Thursday, February 16, 5pm-8pm. Through Thursday, March 16. Monday– Friday, 9am–10pm; Saturday, 8am–6pm. Free. Join a group of senior students and recent alumni of the Loop’s Columbia College for a large exhibi-tion featuring an equally large exploration of the many diverse illustration practices that exist and in-form our visual environment. Not On Paper is just that: work on canvases, walls, and even screens all take center stage. (Corinne Butta)

Lovey Town MANA Contemporary, 2233 S. Throop St, 5th floor café. Saturday, February 18, 5:30pm–7pm. Free. (312) 850-0555. manacontemporarychicago.com In Lovey Town, artist Michael Velliquette’s miniature project space in Pilsen, gallerygoers become the art in “a sudden and peculiar pleasure, a feeling of protection.” You strike a pose, get your picture taken, and are turned into a paper doll cutout that’s put on display, all in about twenty minutes. ( Joseph S. Pete)

MUSIC theWHOevers Reggies, 2105 S. State St. Friday, February 10. Doors 8pm, show 9pm. $10. 21+. (312) 949-0120. reggieslive.com. Chicago-based theWHOevers, consisting of MCs J. Arthur and DotKom, will bring their vibe-heavy hip hop and stage presence to Reggies this Friday. Opening acts include Valparaiso University student Solo Sam, Sage, the 64th Wonder, and golden era hip hop-influenced The Highest Low, a duo of Just Wise and Snotty Pippen. ( Joseph Pete)

Fulcrum Point New Music Project Promontory Chicago, 5311 S. Lake Park Ave. Friday, February 10. Roundtable discussion 5:45pm, show 7:30pm. $25 seats, $35 table. All ages. (312) 801-2100. promontorychicago.com Jazz musicians, minimalists and composers of all stripes meet up at Promontory this Friday to perform and discuss their various traditions: there’s a discussion, led by WBEZ world music reporter Steve Bynum, on diaspora and its influence on the avant-garde, and later, a debut of composer Tomeka Reid’s latest jazz-classical project. (Austin Brown)

EVENTS

Thaddeus Tukes’ Valentine Vibes

“Man Law”

Room 43, 1043 E. 43rd St. Sunday, February 12, first set 7:30pm, second set 9:30pm. $10; $5 for children and students. hydeparkjazzsociety.com

Frederick Douglass Academy Auditorium, 543 N. Waller Ave. Sunday, February 12, 2pm– 5pm. $10 general admission, $5 students. bit.ly/2ldDAyi

A frequent collaborator with the SAVEMONEY crew, the sometime student and all-around jazz pro Thaddeus Tukes will be bringing his vibes (and vibraphone) to Room 43 on the twelfth. It’s anyone’s guess what the musical polymath will bring to this classic jazz club, but it’s bound to be exciting. (Austin Brown)

Man Law returns to Chicago for what will surely be a powerful performance about shootings between police and civilians. The show will address the realities of normalized gun violence in our communities and put forth possible solutions. There will likely be a discussion after the performance between law enforcement officials and community members. (Bridget Newsham)

DJ Rude One 606 Records, 1808 S. Allport St. Friday, February 17. 6pm–8pm. Free. All ages. (312) 585-6106. 606records.com Recent Closed Sessions signee DJ Rude One debuts tracks from his new project, ONEderful, at 606 Records next Friday. Check it out for a set of instrumental, downcast hip-hop that could only have come from the producers out of the Chi. (Austin Brown)

STAGE & SCREEN “Flower Girl” at Stony Island Arts Bank Stony Island Arts Bank, 6760 S. Stony Island Ave. Friday, February 10, 7pm–9pm. Free. (312) 857-5561. rebuild-foundation.org Flower Girl, a critically and commercially acclaimed “Nollywood” (Nigeria's Hollywood) film, follows the story of a “frumpy flower girl” in the Nigerian capital of Lagos. The screening will be followed by a discussion led by Mary Adekoya, a doctoral student at the UofC who studies African cinema. ( Jake Bittle)

The Moth: Chicago StorySLAM The Promontory, 5311 S. Lake Park Ave. Wednesday, February 15, 7pm. Tickets on sale online February 8. $10. 17+ unless accompanied by an adult. (312) 801-2100. promontorychicago.com Every month at the Promontory, The Moth showcases the diversity of human experience by presenting real people and their stories. This month’s theme: “Love HURTS.” Watch, participate in, and enjoy a series of five-minute stories about real experiences of love gone bad. (Drew Holt)

Grown Folks Stories The Silver Room, 1506 E. 53rd St. Thursday, February 16, 8pm–10pm. Free. (773) 947-0024. thesilverroom.com Show up early to grab a seat and hear stories from people all over the city. Those who feel adventurous can grab a fiveminute time slot and tell a story of their own. No themes required—just real life and real talk from real adults. (Rachel Henry)

Acting for Adults

$106 for non-residents. 18+. (773) 256-0149. amp.activecommunities.com Have you wanted to pursue that longforgotten acting career (or hobby)? Then this workshop at the South Shore Cultural Center is made for you! The class will introduce participants to the basics of acting and performance through exercises and games designed to make everyone feel confident and comfortable onstage. (Bridget Newsham)

“Gentrified” at Harold Washington Cultural Center Harold Washington Cultural Center, 4701 S. King Dr. Saturday, February 18, 7pm. $20. (773) 373-1900. gentrifiedmovie.com/tickets This “explosive” documentary film from Black Channel Films promises to explore the process of gentrification or, as the film calls it, “ethnic cleansing Americanstyle...the most devastating socioeconomic movement in America today.” Watch the film at Bronzeville's Harold Washington Cultural Center and reflect on Chicago's own complicated history of gentrification. ( Jake Bittle)

Blues for an Alabama Sky Court Theater, 5535 S. Ellis Ave. Extended through February 19. Ticket prices $38–$68. (773) 753-4472. courttheater.org Pearl Cleage’s 1999 play explores the effects of the Great Depression on a set of characters living in the wake of New York’s Harlem Renaissance, the interwar cultural movement among the black community in the famous New York neighborhood. The play is part of a larger celebration of the Harlem Renaissance around the South Side, including jazz concerts with poetry readings and an exhibition at the Beverly Arts Center. (Christian Belanger)

South Shore Cultural Center, 7059 S. Shore Dr. Every Saturday, January 14 through March 18, 1:30pm–3:30pm. $53 for residents,

FEBRUARY 8, 2017 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 15