March 22, 2017 by South Side Weekly

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SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY The South Side Weekly is an independent nonprofit newsprint magazine written for and about neighborhoods on the South Side of Chicago. We publish in-depth coverage of the arts and issues of public interest alongside oral histories, poetry, fiction, interviews, and artwork from local photographers and illustrators. The South Side Weekly is dedicated to supporting cultural and civic engagement on the South Side and to providing educational opportunities for developing journalists, writers, and artists. Volume 4, Issue 23 Editor-in-Chief Hafsa Razi Managing Editors Julia Aizuss, Andrew Koski Director of Staff Support Baci Weiler Deputy Editor Olivia Stovicek Senior Editor Emeline Posner Politics Editor Adia Robinson Music Editor Austin Brown Stage & Screen Editor Nicole Bond Visual Arts Editor Corinne Butta Editors-at-Large Maha Ahmed, Christian Belanger, Jake Bittle, Mari Cohen, Ellie Mejía Contributing Editors Maddie Anderson, Joe Andrews, Jonathan Hogeback, Carrie Smith, Margaret Tazioli, Yunhan Wen Video Editor Lucia Ahrensdorf Radio Producers Andrew Koski, Lewis Page 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, Baci Weiler 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 Webmaster

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

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

Will Red-Light Camera Reforms Restore Confidence? On Monday, the city announced that the “grace period” for motorists who run a red light will be tripled to three-tenths of a second before they are issued a $100 ticket, in order to give the benefit of the doubt to well-intentioned drivers, at the suggestion of a Northwestern Traffic Center study. According to the Sun-Times, about twenty-nine percent of the 586,415 red-light tickets issued last year went to motorists between one-tenth and three-tenths of a second after the light had turned red. The study also recommended grading the effectiveness of existing red-light camera locations; already, the city will move six existing red light camera locations—three of which are on the South Side—where there is a “high number of violations, but not a commensurate reduction in traffic crashes,” according to Transportation Commissioner Rebekah Scheinfeld. Public hearings will take place before the location changes are finalized. The city commissioned the study to outline a path of reform for a program that gained notoriety after a $2 million bribery scandal, in which former Chicago Department of Transportation official John Bills accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from Arizona-based Redflex Traffic Systems for steering $131 million in contracts between 2002 and 2011. In 2016, Bills was sentenced to ten years in prison—one of the longest corruption sentences given to a non-elected Chicago official—and former CEO of Redflex Karen Finley was sentenced to thirty months in prison after pleading guilty to bribery charges. Redflex agreed to pay Chicago taxpayers $20 million to resolve claims and be re-declared eligible to bid for city contracts. The Northwestern study cited “significant safety benefits” to the cameras’ overall crash reduction in its call to continue the controversial program. After being asked “whether any amount of change could restore confidence in the program,” Dr. Hani S. Mahmassani, the director of the Traffic Center, said that taxpayers understand the safety aspect of the cameras. “They have issues with Chicago politics and the way business is done here, but not necessarily with the technical aspects and the performance of these cameras,” he said. “Biking While Black” The city might be likely to issue twenty-nine percent fewer tickets with the longer redlight “grace period,” as Weekly readers just learned above, but in this period of good fortune for drivers, it might do some good to shift the spotlight to bicycle ticketing, where all is not well. Police ticketing of bicyclists is rising, and for some more than others—a Tribune analysis of police statistics last week found that officers write twice as many citations in African-American than in white or Latinx communities. Over the past eight years, the top ten community areas for bicycle ticketing included seven majority African-American and three majority Latinx areas. Six of them were on the South Side. One lawyer, Brendan Kevenides, has termed the issue “biking while Black.” The ticketing disparity appears to come partly from direct racial bias and partly from racial disparity in biking infrastructure. The most common citation given was for riding on the sidewalk— and, as the Tribune analysis found, bicycle infrastructure like protected cycling lanes are absent in many majority African-American and Latinx neighborhoods, even on large thoroughfares like Stony Island Avenue. While this does not justify the ticketing gap, it does point to a greater problem: a lack of biking accessibility in nonwhite neighborhoods, from where bikers can ride to riding itself.

IN THIS ISSUE another alderman indictment

Cochran is the third of the past four aldermen from the ward to be indicted. ford jamieson....................................4 after fire, south side youth shelter fears for future of homeless teens

This closure comes at the time of year when there are fewest options for homeless youth. jake bittle.........................................6 selling st. adalbert

“If the sale goes through, it would be an absolute illustration of a complete disregard on the Archdiocese’s behalf for regulation.” amy qin..............................................7 stumbling blocks for public preschool

Birthrate alone cannot explain these statistics. jasmine mithani..............................11 green thumbs, concrete steps

“Nothing ever dies. Ever.” christian belanger & thea michele smith................................13

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Cover photo by Robert Harris MARCH 22, 2017 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 3

POLITICS

Another Alderman Indictment Willie Cochran’s indictment is another page in Chicago’s long history of corruption

BY FORD JAMIESON JASMINE MITHANI

uring the last city council meeting of 2016, as Chicago’s aldermen gathered with Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts to celebrate the Cubs’ recent World Series victory, the room received word that Willie Cochran, the alderman serving the 20th Ward, had been indicted. On hearing the news, Cochran sat quietly through more than an hour of praise for the Cubs, checking his phone and talking to a few aldermen. He escaped the room during the end-of-meeting applause as the press rushed to head him off. Chicago’s longest-serving alderman, Ed Burke, who has been on the city council since 1969, told the Tribune that he had never seen another alderman indicted during a council meeting. Cochran faces eleven counts of wire fraud, two counts of extortion, and two counts of bribery. His alleged crimes include using charity funds meant for ward events for personal use and accepting bribes in exchange for changing zoning ordinances, among others. Cochran has said that he will not step down and will continue to serve the 20th Ward, raising questions about how his indictment will affect his constituents, and where it places him, guilty or not, in Chicago’s history. Cochran’s attorney, Anthony Durkin, has characterized Cochran’s actions as “stupid or careless,” but he argues that since the charity funds Cochran is accused 4 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

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of taking had no restrictions on their use, Cochran’s use of those funds was not illegal. It should be noted, however, that Cochran is facing federal charges and, according to Dick Simpson, professor of political science at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and former alderman, the Federal Bureau of Investigations usually only pursues an indictment with strong evidence. In the past, every Chicago alderman who has been indicted has either been convicted or died before the end of the trial. The 20th Ward has endured a long history of corruption from its aldermen. Cochran is the third of the past four aldermen from the ward to be indicted. In 2009, Arenda Troutman was convicted of accepting bribes from developers for zoning changes, and Cliff Kelley was convicted in 1986 for bribery and tax evasion. The 20th Ward is hardly the only ward in Chicago with a history of corruption, however; if Cochran is convicted, he would join more than thirty other aldermen who have been convicted since 1972—out of around a hundred who served between 1972 and 2012. According to a 2015 UIC report co-authored by Simpson, Illinois ranks third in corruption convictions per capita among states with the most convictions, after only the District of Columbia and Louisiana, and four of the past seven governors have been convicted on corruption charges. Meanwhile, the Chicago judicial district has

the most total convictions for corruption of any major city. Between 1976, when the Justice Department started compiling statistics, and 2013, Chicago accumulated 1,642 convictions related to corruption.

o understand corruption in Chicago, and the effects that Cochran’s indictment might have, it is important to understand what aldermen do. There are fifty aldermen, one to represent each of the city’s wards, and they are elected to four-year terms. As members of Chicago’s city council, the city’s legislative body, they attend monthly city council meetings, vote on ordinances and other issues like certain mayoral appointees, and sit on various committees within the council. Cochran, for example, serves as vice chair of public safety and sits on the finance and aviation committees, among others. A significant part of aldermen’s work is handling local constituents’ concerns about things like garbage pickup, road repair, and parking. They also have almost complete control over zoning in their ward. While there is a City Council zoning committee, it rarely overrules aldermen on zoning within their own wards. This control of zoning often acts as a channel for receiving bribes. Of the aldermen convicted of corruption since 1972, twenty-six of them faced charges related to their control of zoning, including

convictions for bribery, extortion, conspiracy, and other attempts to control or make money from those seeking to do business in their ward. Though this might suggest that the zoning system is the source of Chicago’s unusual amount of corruption, Simpson argues that it is simply a convenient conduit for a corruption driven chiefly by “machine politics, patronage, and the need to raise campaign money.” In pointing to machine culture and patronage, Simpson frames today’s corruption within a long tradition of corruption in Chicago politics. In the late nineteenth century, politicians in Chicago exchanged contracts, jobs, and social services for votes, forming relationships with the city’s large immigrant populations. Italians were given transit jobs, for example, while the Irish were given spots in the police. Since 1931, when the last Republican mayor of Chicago left office, Democrats have enjoyed a political monopoly, which for a time ramped up their control and ability reward their supporters. Richard J. Daley, who served as mayor from 1955 up until his death in 1976, controlled an estimated 35,000 patronage jobs, which helped him maintain discipline in the Democratic Party. Court cases in the 1970s, however, severely reduced the ability of the political machine to control patronage jobs. This coincided with increasing dissatisfaction with the efficiency of city government and

diminishing support for the machine from African-American voters, and Harold Washington’s defeat of the machineaffiliated candidates for the Democratic nomination in 1983 and election to mayor led to the end of that iteration of machine politics. However, some of the remnants of that political culture still remain. Simpson and his colleagues have suggested several policies that could continue to reduce corruption in Chicago, including public financing of elections and strengthening the power of the inspector general. One recent piece of progress that Simpson highlighted was the signing of a law that requires high school students in Illinois to take one semester of civics. He described this as a step forward, but he also said Chicago has a long way to go in improving the current political culture.

s the federal case against Cochran continues, the alderman and his staff need to continue to provide

JASMINE MITHANI

services for the 20th Ward’s residents and organizations. Chicago has no laws that prevent an alderman from continuing to serve during the indictment process; currently, only conviction constitutes a resignation for an alderman. Even so, dealing with an indictment must necessarily take up a great deal of time, raising the question of how ward services might be affected during this period of split attention. Cochran’s office declined to comment on this story, so it is difficult to assess what he is doing to manage the challenge. Simpson, when asked how well Cochran could continue to handle his duties as alderman during the indictment, said, “Depending on what you think of [Cochran] as an alderman, he will be as

effective as he was before the indictment. He may get sidetracked having to prepare his defense and may have to pay less attention to services in the ward, but he still has the same vote in the city council, still has the same friends in the city council. I assume he has staff on hand to service complaints.” The Weekly spoke to a number of organizations based in the 20th Ward to determine whether they had been affected by the indictment in any way, including the Kleo Organization, a nonprofit that provides various educational, counseling, and violence reduction programs in the service of their mission of “building a safe haven through education, public safety, health and human services, and economic development.” Executive Director Torrey L. Barrett said that though the organization had collaborated with Cochran and his office on a mobile food pantry and back-toschool events in the past, it was not currently working with the alderman’s office, and he did not think the indictment would affect their ability to provide services to residents. Mattie Butler, executive director at Woodlawn East Community and Neighbors (WECAN), a nonprofit working on multiple projects including advocating for the homeless and near homeless, said she was deeply saddened by Cochran’s indictment. While WECAN is not currently collaborating with the alderman’s office, Butler said that in the past WECAN’s association with the alderman had been useful; the alderman’s good name had helped open doors for the organization and allowed it to more effectively accomplish its goals. With the indictment, she said, “I won’t be able to go to him for support…if there is something I want to do in the community.” Butler also highlighted the negative effects of the uncertainty the indictment has caused. “We don’t know how long this is going to last, and what the outcome will be,” she said. “That puts us all in a nervous position, a nervous place.” Still, while continuing to emphasize how unfortunate the situation was, she also acknowledged, echoing Simpson, that “he still is the sitting alderman, so he has the power of that seat. So he will often be able to supply what he [was] supplying before.” Cochran pled not guilty at his arraignment hearing on December 23. He now faces a potentially lengthy pre-trial process. As this process unfolds, the 20th Ward will wait and see how well their alderman can balance his duties and his indictment. ¬ MARCH 22, 2017 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 5

HOUSING

After fire, South Side youth shelter Ujima Village fears for future of homeless teens BY JAKE BITTLE

NATALIE GONZALEZ

early a month ago, the South Side’s only emergency shelter for homeless youth was badly damaged in a sudden and unexplained fire. The shelter, Ujima Village, was located on 73rd Street just off the Dan Ryan expressway, and provided beds for some twenty-four homeless young people every night. Some of those beds were dedicated to long-term residents of the shelter, while others were available to whoever arrived first on a given night. The fire occurred in the middle of the day while the shelter was closed. There were no injuries, but Unity Parenting and Counseling, the nonprofit social services agency that operates Ujima, estimates the shelter has sustained at least $20,000 in damages. The building’s plumbing and electrical systems were badly damaged, and its computers, linens, and hygiene items were destroyed. In the days immediately following the fire, Unity employees stood outside the shelter at nightfall to provide dinner for homeless youth who showed up seeking a bed. The shelter also provided a storage space for homeless youths’ papers and possessions, some of which Unity managed to get back to the youth who owned them. But as weeks have passed, maintaining contact with Ujima’s network of young people has proven more and more difficult. Some young people experiencing homelessness will cycle through three or four phone numbers in a

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week, and most can only access email if they have the chance to visit a library or other public place. “We are dealing with a diaspora here,” said Anne Holcomb, director of supporting services at Unity. She explained the informal “grapevine” among homeless youth is strong, and said word spread quickly among those who rely on Ujima that the shelter was closed. Since then, she has been unable to communicate updates or check in with the youth about their health or their whereabouts. This closure comes at the time of year when there are fewest options for homeless youth, Unity’s executive director Flora Koppel said in a statement about the fire. Not only is there now no functioning youth shelter on the South Side, but the only two daytime drop-in centers on the South Side are also temporarily closed, leaving homeless youth with no choice but to scatter wherever they can find resources. Teen Living Program’s drop-in center in Washington Park, which provided food, coffee, and computer access to teens, has been closed for the past few months; Jeri Linas, the executive director of TLP, said the drop-in center is closed as it restructures its staff and procedures, and “hopes to be open very soon.” Care 2 Prevent, another currently closed drop-in center open in Washington Park on Tuesdays only, plans to reopen in March. But the fact that there were any such

resources at all on the South Side, before the fire and the temporary closures, is itself a recent development. Before the establishment of the Chicago Task Force on Homeless Youth in 2013, resources for young people experiencing homelessness, and LGBTQ young people especially, had always been concentrated on the North Side. The Task Force resulted in the opening of the first-ever daytime drop-in centers on the South, Southwest, and West Sides. Before Ujima Village opened, also in 2013, the South Side had not had an emergency shelter in decades. The desert created by the fire at Ujima, then, is not new. But in the shelter’s absence, Holcomb says, homeless youth will have to travel far and wide to get the resources they need. For the most part, she says, this means the North Side. Many homeless youth do not have the money to travel back and forth on the CTA in this way, and traveling long distances can be dangerous because it requires them to cross gang lines. It also puts them farther away from Ujima’s resources and caseworkers, and from any other support networks they may have in the South Side neighborhoods many of them are from. The fire could not have come at a much worse time for Unity, an organization that, like social service providers across Illinois, has been strangled by the state’s ongoing budget crisis. In addition to starting a GoFundMe campaign to go toward replacing the items damaged by the

fire, Unity also donated the proceeds of a recent fundraiser to its recovery efforts. The money was originally supposed to go toward restarting “Orchids in da Hood,” an “arts/ activism/life skills group” that was the first program Unity had to cancel due to funding cuts. Unity has also had to discontinue the bus funding it offered to youth at Ujima and at its transitional housing facility in Auburn Gresham, Harmony Village. Its administrative office space has been cut in half, with all the directors now sharing one room. The fundraiser Unity held to restore Ujima is just the latest in a series of emergency fundraisers, actions, and appeals the organization has made over the past year to maintain its status quo of services. The fire that has temporarily stranded South Side homeless youth without an overnight shelter is anomalous, more than likely a freak accident, but it offers a chilling indication of what could happen if the state budget crisis strips any more funding from social services than it already has. Budget cuts may feel more like a slow burn than a sudden blaze, but the progress that has been made in providing services to homeless youth on the South and West Sides is not permanent: when state funding is in jeopardy, beds, showers, and foods are all in jeopardy. As the fire at Ujima shows, losing these resources can spell difficulty and disaster for the city’s most vulnerable young people. ¬

POLITICS

Selling St. Adalbert

The future of a Pilsen church puts parishioners and archdiocese at odds BY AMY QIN

ROBERT HARRIS

n the evening of February 28, about thirty congregants of St. Adalbert Church huddled under a tunnel of scaffolding outside the main doors of the church, seeking refuge from a downpour of rain. Holding posters, candles, and various Catholic paraphernalia, the churchgoers collectively chanted “La iglesia no se vende.”(The church is not for sale). At around 6:30pm, a few of the elderly parishioners, standing on the steps at the entrance of the church, began a prayer vigil. During the vigil, a few well-dressed visitors periodically parted the crowd, walking through the scaffolding to enter the church. They were attending the first concert held by the Chicago Academy of Music (CAM), a celebration of the music school’s move to its new location—St. Adalbert. The events that evening represented a months-long dispute over the future ownership of St. Adalbert, a magnificent neoclassical church built in 1914 by Polish Americans and now shared with Mexican American parishioners in Pilsen. At issue is the sale of St. Adalbert to CAM. St. Adalbert Preservation Society, a nonprofit formed by the church’s parishioners, claims that the sale of the church is illegal under religious law. However, the Archdiocese of Chicago, the legal owners of the church property, says that they are currently under contract with CAM and expect the sale to close in the next several months. St. Adalbert has been threatened with closure before, but now the fate of this storied Pilsen church lies in the hands of the Archdiocese: will they sell the church to CAM, or will the church’s parishioners have the chance to decide its future ownership? On May 23, 2016, the Archdiocese of Chicago issued a decree announcing the closure of St. Adalbert’s parish as part of a larger plan to reorganize and consolidate six Pilsen parishes into three. Changing demographics, a decline in the number of MARCH 22, 2017 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 7

practicing Catholics, and a need to reduce the costs of staffing and programming for the Archdiocese were some of the reasons it gave for the restructuring. But the May 23 decree also made clear that the church of St. Adalbert Parish, in this case the physical building of St. Adalbert Church, would retain its own title and “remain a sacred building designated for divine worship.” The distinction between a church and a parish is important to note here. Under canon law, not all Catholic churches are automatically parishes. Parishes must hold regular mass and support the community, whereas a church is just a sacred building. The church’s plan would merge the two parishes of St. Adalbert and neighboring St. Paul, but parishioners would still be able to hold Mass or perform sacraments like baptism and matrimony in the St. Adalbert building. But on May 24, the Archdiocese issued another decree modifying its decree from the day before, stating that the physical church building would actually no longer be a sacred site. The decree cited the closure to the “dangerous state of repair and prohibitive costs of repair and maintenance,” referencing the scaffolding on the two towers of St. Adalbert. Several residents of the neighborhood note that the scaffolding has been up for close to two years. Rosie Dominguez, a parishioner and graduate student at UIC, says, “We’ve had individuals come look at it and there does need to be some filling, but there haven’t been pieces [of the building] falling off.” Meanwhile, the Archdiocese was searching for an entity to buy St. Adalbert Church. Ward Miller, executive director of Preservation Chicago, knew that the church had been on the list of endangered buildings for two years and had been trying to shift the discussion away from demolition toward discussions on “the best user.” He suggested the building to CAM, which at the time was seeking to relocate, claiming that the school had outgrown its current location at University Church in Hyde Park. “Where we can find a viable place to put schools in neighborhoods that allow for safe haven for children, we’ll do it,” said Michael Scott Carter, executive director of CAM. Carter explained that he planned to expand CAM through the preservation of churches. “The church [St. Adalbert] itself fits for what we’re gonna do, so we don’t really have to build anything,” Carter said. 8 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

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“We [the parishioners] kept having masses in our church even though it was a deconsecrated church. We knew something wasn’t right with the Archdiocese,” said Blanca Torres, vice president of the Preservation Society. If the church was deconsecrated, it was no longer a sacred site and therefore unable to hold mass. So on July 1, members of St. Adalbert Preservation Society appealed both decrees issued by the Archdiocese to the Congregation for the Clergy, a court entity in the Vatican similar to a court of appeals in the U.S. Federal Court system. Any decree made by the Archdiocese of Chicago is subject to appeal by Congregation. As a Catholic court, the role of Congregation for the Clergy is to review appeals from parishioners that have not been addressed by their own archdioceses. On October 31, the Archdiocese released another decree confirming the sale of St. Adalbert Church to CAM. However, it also stated that the church was now a sacred site again, rescinding its previous

However, under canon law, for a church to be sold to a secular purpose, which CAM is, the relegation of the church to profane use must precede the act of alienation. But Blaise Cupich, the Archbishop of Chicago, explicitly states in the first point of the decree that he rescinded the May 24 decree relegating the church to non-sacred uses. Brody Hale, founder of the Catholic Preservation Society and a close advisor to the St. Adalbert Preservation Society, says that the sale therefore should not be possible for two reasons. “One is because there are still legal arguments going on in Rome regarding the parish closure, and because of that, no buildings at all on the parish campus should be sold if the law was being followed right now. Point two is that even if there were no legal actions in Rome taking place, in order to sell this church to CAM, he [Cupich] would again have to issue a decree making it np longer a church, which the Cardinal has not done so in this case,” Hale said. Torres emphatically added that this

the church on the weekends while CAM uses the space on the weekdays. But again, according to canon law, if a Catholic church is sold to a secular entity, it is no longer sacred and can no longer be used for regular masses and worship. Additionally, if a church is still a sacred space, canon law dictates that any music must be of liturgical nature. The type of music that the Academy would produce, even if it were classical jazz or music appropriate for children, would not be allowed. Hale concedes the legality of the transaction in state law, but he says that “a multitude of requirements within the Church itself should have prevented such a sale from going through.” So far the Archdiocese has been unresponsive to the Preservation Society and the parishioners regarding its actions. “If the sale goes through, it would be an absolute illustration of a complete disregard on the Archdiocese’s behalf for regulation,” Hale said. “I think the Archdiocese is aware of the

“We’re just afraid that if they take over this big property, they’re not going to know how to manage it and in two or three years, they might go around and sell it to a developer, and something more drastic might happen, like a demolishing of the church.” —Blanca Torres, vice president, Save St. Adalbert Preservation Society

decree from May 24. Torres believes that the Archdiocese’s unprecedented action was due to pressure from the Congregation for the Clergy in response to the appeal. Regardless of the cause, this decree had implications that further complicated the sale of St. Adalbert to CAM. The exact text of the decree says: “… relegation of St. Adalbert Church to profane but not sordid use, according to canon 1222 §2 of the Code of Canon Law, no longer appears to be the right means to advance the objective of preserving this historic church. Immediate alienation of the church, through the sale to the Chicago Academy of Music, is a better solution.”

contradiction in canon law is exactly what the Preservation Society is arguing against. If the church is still a sacred site, “why is the Archdiocese selling it to a non-Catholic entity?” Most of the complications with the sale seem to arise from different understandings of the Archdiocese’s October 31 decree that re-consecrated St. Adalbert Church. The transaction is completely legal under Illinois law. CAM director Carter said that “the church will stay almost, roughly the way it’s going to be. The consecrated or sacred spaces, we won’t take away or destroy.” He views it as a “happy marriage” because the parishioners can continue to worship in

appeal to the Congregation for the Clergy, but is just refusing to engage in dialogue with the community,” said Anabel Arguello, the president of the Preservation Society. Colleen Ryan, a spokesperson for the Archdiocese, wrote in a statement to the Weekly that the decision for the sale came after “a years-long transparent, consultive process that included surveys and meetings conducted throughout the Pilsen community.” But “many of the parishioners are not too happy with the Archdiocese,” said Clemente, a parishioner who helps out with a small shop at St. Adalbert. For instance, parishioner Rosie Dominguez says that the

POLITICS

ROBERT HARRIS

reason why she got involved with efforts to save St. Adalbert was because she felt that the Archdiocese had completely disregarded her community and home. Ryan’s statement also says that the proposal from the Chicago Academy of Music was the only one they received at the time with the financial ability to repair and preserve the church. On November 11, 2016 the Preservation Society, along with The Resurrection Project (TRP), a Pilsen nonprofit, put in a matching bid for the property. Because the property of St. Adalbert Church includes several other buildings, Torres says that the parishioners wanted to partner with an organization “who might be able to use the rest of the building for community services.” “TRP was started twenty-five years ago in St. Adalbert when people needed an organization to help with housing and immigration issues,” says Torres. Now, they have expanded to providing support for undocumented immigrants and building low-income housing such as the La Casa student housing located a few blocks away from St. Adalbert. “One of our biggest frustrations is that we’ve submitted a matching offer with TRP, and the Archdiocese is still not being transparent or establishing dialogue with

us,” said Arguello, who says that she had been asking for an opportunity to review the joint project with TRP with the Archdiocese with no response. “They’ve actually hired an attorney, a law firm, and they’ve directed all of our communication to them.” The Archdiocese continues to hold the position that they are under contract with the Chicago Academy of Music and that the transaction is expected to close in the next several months. Their only communication with the Preservation Society has been through a letter sent by the law firm representing the Archdiocese confirming the sale of St. Adalbert. Hale thinks that the process could drag on for months, or at least until all the legal motions in the Vatican are finished. Last month, on February 8, the Preservation Society received a letter from Archbishop Christopher Pierre, the highest representative of the Catholic Church in the U.S., confirming that the appeal made back in July has been “forwarded through the diplomatic pouch to the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura,” the highest court in the Vatican. The best-case scenario for the Preservation Society is that the Vatican rules in favor of the parishioners to keep both the parish and the church open, although Torres is not optimistic about the success of the appeal

for the parish. The more realistic alternative is that the appeals process will give parishioners enough leverage to make the Archdiocese willing to engage in negotiations with TRP regarding the future of the church building. Although the progress of the sale is unclear, when I spoke to Carter on February 13, he remained confident that CAM was still under contract for the sale. “For us, the infrastructure of saving those towers and putting the church back and still allowing the church to be used on Sundays has always been the plan,” Carter said. The Chicago Academy of Music was founded as the brainchild of Carter in 2013, with the aim of bringing jazz and classical music education to underserved children. Carter’s business model for the academy is to have musicians and artists from around the world teach, in exchange for providing shortterm living arrangements for them with money from student tuition. He explains that the Academy would build “enterprises”— think restaurants and bakeries—on the side to “help fund the shortfalls that music schools have because they need instruments and other things.” However, there have been worries from parishioners about the Academy’s financial health and long-term commitment to the Pilsen community. Torres remarked that she has no

problems with the mission of CAM as an organization, but sees it as unfit to own St. Adalbert. “We’re just afraid that if they take over this big property, they’re not going to know how to manage it and in two or three years, they might go around and sell it to a developer, and something more drastic might happen, like a demolishing of the church. We just want to make sure that a proper entity that is established. It doesn’t even have to be Catholic per se.” Greg, a Polish parishioner who grew up in St. Adalbert, said that CAM is not a community organization and “has no roots in Pilsen.” After speaking to several parishioners at the prayer vigil, it seems clear that whatever happens to the church, what they would like to preserve is not just the building itself, but the community services it provided, so that, as Arguello remarked, “We can continue to have a vibrant and diverse community.” Hale is advising the Preservation Society for free. He has been fighting against Catholic Church closures since 2006 and agrees that there are some churches that genuinely need to be closed. “But I can tell the difference, and when I saw St. Adalbert’s situation in early 2016, it did look savable on account of parishioners willing to do what they needed to do to save it.” This is not the first time that St. Adalbert has been in danger. The church was threatened with closure in the 1970s due to repair costs. A special committee was formed by Polish parishioners to collectively raise the $248,000 needed to halt deterioration. In 1974, the committee had raised enough money to save the church, celebrating with a special mass to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the parish’s founding. When I asked Clemente why the church mattered to him, he pointed to the history so many people had with the church. “Everyone has that little moment or the place where it all started. This is where it started for me, and many other people. This is not just a building where I had church or mass, it’s a building where their faith started and grew. That’s why it means a lot to people. You see a lot of older people tearing up, but even with younger people—and you understand it every time.” ¬ In order to understand the arguments made for and against the sale of the church, it is helpful to retrace a few of the events that have led up to the impasse. A timeline of the events, which includes links to the decrees from the Archdiocese, can be accessed at savestadalbertchurch.org/timeline

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EDUCATION

Stumbling Blocks for Public Preschool

What’s behind the drop in CPS pre-K enrollment? TURTEL ONLI

his school year, Chicago Public Schools saw a shocking enrollment loss of 1,882 students in its preschool programs, nearly six times greater than last year's enrollment decrease. The drop in preschool enrollment accounted for seventeen percent of all attrition in the district—the largest decline in preschool enrollment since 2008. This dramatic change coincides with the introduction of a universal online application for Chicago public preschool programs, echoing a similar drop in preschool enrollment after a 2013 shift to a universal in-person application system. While it would be easy to point to the new application system as the cause of CPS’s troubles, it would also be an oversimplification of the issue. In Chicago— as well as nationwide—parents and schools face a myriad of obstacles to accessing early childhood education.

espite Mayor Emanuel making early childhood education a priority, preschool enrollment in Chicago Public Schools has steadily slumped since he took office in 2011. CPS did not respond to the Weekly’s repeated requests for comment on this story, but on the CPS budget website, the district attributes lower enrollment dates to a continuous decline in birthrate. Generally, public health data backs

BY JASMINE MITHANI that decline. However, even with the birth rate taken into account, CPS’s projected 2017 preschool enrollment expected an increase of eleven students from the previous year. But this year saw an enrollment decrease of 1,882 students, nearly six times the year-to-year loss of 318 students for the 2015-2016 school year—the birth rate alone cannot explain these statistics. The dream of universal preschool in Chicago has long suffered from a narrow definition of “universal.” One of the most important issues facing parents and the City is whether to prioritize full-day or half-day preschool programs. Since his reelection campaign, Emanuel has promoted increasing the availability of full-day programs, which have been shown to lead to better academic outcomes than half-day programs. Furthermore, half-day preschool is only 2.5 to 3 hours a day, which requires a working parent to find additional childcare in order to hold down a full-time job. Last year, the district announced that 1,000 new free full-day preschool slots will be available for low-income students in the 2017-2018 school year. In October 2016, CPS spokesperson Emily Bittner told the Sun-Times that recent shifts toward fullday programs have contributed to this year's drop in enrollment, as the district converted multiple half-day slots into single full-day slots.

In fact, it is unclear how many of the students enrolled in CPS preschool are enrolled in full- or half-day programs, now or in the past. The district rejected a Freedom of Information Act request from the Weekly, which asked for enrollment numbers broken down by full- and half-day slots; CPS claimed that the district does not maintain such records. In the 2016-2017 CPS budget, the district states that it has increased the number of full-day classrooms from 102 in 2014-2015 to 292 this year— approximately 5840 full-day slots if each classroom has twenty students. By this rough estimate, full-day programs would account for less than a third of total preschool enrollment that year. Some of these slots are in Head Start or other programs which charge tuition on a sliding scale; some are in CPS Tuition-Based Preschool, a fullday program at less than twelve elementary schools. This self-described “[h]igh quality preschool experience” carries a price tag of $13,974 for the 2017-2018 school year; financial aid is not available. Limited free, full-time slots creates an additional barrier to preschool enrollment, which can make the present difficulties of obtaining early childhood education outweigh the longterm benefits for busy parents—especially the low-income families Mayor Emanuel has pledged to help. The last time there was such a drastic

fall in enrollment was 2013, the year Emanuel introduced the universal in-person pre-K application program. Early childhood education encompasses a dizzying array of options, including full-day, half-day, Head Start for low-income families, CPS preschool, and community preschools. The CPS application process was notoriously arduous and varied from school to school. CPS tried to simplify this process by introducing a new in-person enrollment system for the 2013-2014 school year. Parents were required to visit one of thirteen sites city-wide—schools or CPS offices—in order to register their child for preschool. The sites were initially open for registration for one month, with a traveling registration group visiting other schools for an average of three hours, frequently during the nineto-five work day. Under the old system, families directly communicated with each site they applied to. Under the in-person enrollment system, families ranked their top three choices from April until May, then waited until June to learn where they had been placed. After introducing this new system, CPS preschools saw a nearly one thousand student drop in enrollment. The universal online application that debuted in March 2016 restricted families to applying to their top two choices, but included independent Head Start centers MARCH 22, 2017 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 11

EDUCATION

and community partners as well as CPS programs. Mayor Emanuel championed the new application as a way for CPS to prioritize the needs of low-income families; in a centralized system, each student is assigned one placement, preventing multiple seats from being offered to the same student. The online application also allows the City to prioritize enrollment for low-income families—based on provided financial information—during the rolling application period which begins in June after the initial placements have gone out to families. However the significant amount of financial information required for each member of the household makes it harder for families to submit their applications. Another barrier to entry occurs after acceptances are finalized: families are required to visit one of two CPS offices or a local library in person to verify age, location, and income within two weeks of notification of placement.

espite the correlation between the online application’s debut and this year’s enrollment decline, some volunteers at the nonprofit Community Organizing for Family Issues (COFI) do not believe the new application system itself is the largest barrier for parents trying to enroll their students in preschool. On the contrary, a simplified application process was one of parents’ most requested changes, and was an official recommendation of the organization in a report published in 2013. The report was compiled by Parents Organized to Win, Educate and Renew Policy Action Council (POWER-PAC), a Chicago advocacy organization of lowincome parents and grandparents trained by COFI. In 2007, POWER-PAC launched the Early Learning Campaign to help bring quality preschool education to low-income students of color. Their most well-known campaign—which continues to be highly successful—is the Head Start Ambassadors program, launched in 2009. Head Start Ambassadors canvass their communities, going door-to-door with information about the benefits of preschool and sharing their experiences. Ambassadors are parents and grandparents whose children have attended Head Starts in the area. Ambassadors are trained by COFI and equipped with maps of local community- and school-based centers; they are prepared to help a family identify options and fill out a paper preschool application that day. After the family fills out the application, the intake team back at COFI completes an online application with 12 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

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the family’s information and submits it on their behalf. Ambassadors and intake members closely interact with parents year-to-year and are privy to common complaints and complications. Rosalva Nava has been working for the Early Learning Campaign for eight years. She joined POWER-PAC after struggling to register her children for preschool, citing difficulties in determining which programs she qualified for and a lack of spots available. Nava sees the online application as a

The dream of universal preschool in Chicago has long suffered from a narrow definition of “universal.” win for parents and COFI, who urged CPS to streamline their application system. “We have been working diligently with [the Department of Child and Family Services] and Head Start and CPS but it was very exciting to hear that they were all working on this website together all at once, that they had this one united website for CPS and independent Head Starts to work together,” she said. “That was one of the exciting parts and the accomplishments of the ambassadors and the campaign.” However, family organization isn’t taken into consideration as a part of the new application, leading to siblings being placed at separate schools. This was simplified before the universal application, when parents could just walk in and register at their school of choice. Nowadays, Gloria Harris, another POWER-PAC organizer, says that preschool is often sacrificed in favor of an older child’s education. “Lots of people don’t want to take their kids to different schools,” Harris explains, which is a very real possibility for parents if their preschool placement differs from the school their older child attends. Combined with the difficulty of transportation in general—working parents struggle to pick up and drop off their kids from half-day

programs—Harris thinks more foresight in the process, such as tracking the age of younger siblings in the online system to alert schools when they need to reserve a spot, could ease the load on parents and make them more likely to consider preschool as an option. “That way you would know already that you have one child who need to be enrolled in that school…you would have that family information.” This would have the bonus of reminding families to enroll their children in the spring, preventing the September panic when parents realize they need to find a preschool. For Harris, the largest issue is the lack of information parents have at their disposal. Peer-to-peer outreach programs, like the Head Start Ambassadors, are successful in low-income communities, but are difficult to scale and are dependent on funding from public and private grants. Even after talking to parents about the online application, Harris says many were still confused, as they had never heard of it before.

t this point, there is no definitive cause of this year’s preschool enrollment drop. Many factors have come to a head: working parents unable to take time off in the middle of the day to pick up their child from halfday preschool, transportation difficulties for elderly caregivers, and the constant demand for slots balanced with school resources. However, the negative correlation between new application processes and preschool enrollment cannot be ignored. And with 80 percent of CPS students being economically disadvantaged, the needs of low-income families need to be heavily weighed in any proposed change. Mayor Emanuel’s plans to reinvigorate CPS preschools have heavily skewed towards discussions of funding, with the City borrowing nearly $17 million in social impact bonds in order to fund early childhood education. However, as in many areas of public life, pouring money into a broken system won’t fix it without a conscious plan for change. Community organizing, like COFI, is an effective hyperlocal solution, but the program requires a large amount of manpower and is slow to scale. Only broad systemic change can create a healthier preschool system in Chicago. Parents and caregivers are the backbone of public education, and CPS must listen to the experiences of the low-income families it seeks to help as it designs a solution for truly “universal” preschool. ¬

STAGE & SCREEN

Green Thumbs and Concrete Steps One Earth Film Festival hosts environmental films, dialogues across Chicago BY THEA MICHELE SMITH & CHRISTIAN BELANGER

ne Earth Film Festival, Chicago’s premier environmental movie festival, put on its sixth run earlier this month, from March 3 to March 12. Aiming to raise awareness and facilitate dialogue about environmental issues and protections, One Earth screens films and hosts post-screening discussions for free. This year, they put on fortyseven showings of thirty films in thirty-nine locations throughout the Chicagoland area. The Weekly sent writers to three of these: Can You Dig This?, NaturePlay, and Chicago’s True Nature.

Can You Dig This? In the warm emerald world of Garfield Park Conservatory, the One Earth Film Festival was beginning its 2017 run. Small foldable chairs were lined up in rows; a projector and laptop supplied the screening. Although the room was nearly bare and a bit low-tech, it didn’t matter; it was the people, not the place, which gave the film agency and impact. The winner of the Jury Award at the 2015 Los Angeles Film Festival and produced by John Legend, Can You Dig This? weaves together the stories of four urban gardens in South Los Angeles. Director Delila Vallot begins the documentary by exposing her own prejudice against the city, explaining how she had grown to view it as a concrete metropolis of gangs, drugs, and violence. Yet the lives she explores quickly change not only her perspective, but the perspective of the audience as well. The subjects of the documentary vary in age, gender, and background. The most recognizable is Ron Finley, a renegade

gardener who fought the city to allow him to keep the lush “food forest” he planted in front of his home. Finley stands in contrast with the giggly, comical Quimonie Lewis, an eight-year-old living in the projects, growing and selling food to feed and support her family. Jumping ahead drastically in age, there is Hosea Smith, who, after spending thirty years in prison, is finally getting the chance to build a garden with the members of his halfway house. Last is the duo of Mychael “Spicey” Evans and Kenya Johnson, members of the Compton Community Garden who form a bond over difficult pasts and hopeful futures. When the director, Vallot, asks Spicey about his dreams, he doesn’t answer. All he does is scoff and look out the car window. But for Spicey and others in the film, gardening is filled with opportunity. Each seed has the chance to grow if it finds the right conditions. It may falter but Finley puts it perfectly: “Nothing ever dies. Ever.” These five gardeners may have faltered in the past, but that is just a part of rebirth. “It destroys itself,” says Finley, holding the remains of a dead plant in his hands and smiling. “Then, you get life.” (Thea Michele Smith)

NaturePlay and Chicago’s True Nature Last Sunday, the final screening of the One Earth Film Festival took place at 29th and Wabash, in the basement of St. James Catholic Church. (You may remember it as the congregation which had its church

building torn down by the Archdiocese a few years back.) St. James is a fitting place to screen a pair of eco-friendly documentaries: the atmosphere surrounding a gathering of environmentalists often possesses the same serious spirituality as a Catholic Mass. This particular showing kicked off with NaturePlay, a documentary about Scandinavian pedagogy; the film’s argument is that educating children in nature is essential to their personal development, both inside and outside the classroom. The point is important, even if the movie levies it a bit unsubtly: at one point, there is a shot of a Danish playground bustling with happy kids, situated alongside a take of a predictably empty American schoolyard. The film’s reverential approach—title cards featuring quotes from the likes of John Muir, Mr. Rogers, and Ralph Waldo Emerson; long, slow-motion scenes of beautiful blonde children bathed in a golden forest light— was met with ripples of affirmation by the Chicago congregation. Because of scheduling constraints, the screening of NaturePlay ended after about half an hour (and, to my chagrin, before the promised Matt Damon feature). While its idyllic images are certainly enchanting, one wonders if the documentary, with its grousing about things like high-pressure testing environments, hasn’t missed something about the plight of many American schools. In a city like Chicago, budgetary shortfalls and programming cuts, particularly in systemically underserved areas on the South and West Side, present immediate and urgent problems. Compared to the loss of afterschool anti-violence programs that have been

shown to decrease shootings, the solutions offered up by NaturePlay seem a little facile. Chicago’s True Nature, the second documentary shown, was a straightforward exploration of the Cook County Forest Preserve District. After briefly chronicling the history of the forest preserves in and around the Chicagoland area, it gave an overview of the activities, educational and recreational, that are available to children and adults: museum trips, canoeing, hiking, and cultural festivals, among others. After the movie finished, a festival organizer led a discussion with audience members. Many of them expressed an interest in visiting the forest preserves more. A child suggested that one obstacle might be the number of people who sit inside looking at pictures of nature on their computer instead of going out into nature itself. At the end, Douglas Stotz, an ornithologist at the Field Museum, spoke about his experience with bird-watching in Chicago. After he was finished, an audience member asked what she should do if she wanted to attract less common sparrows to her birdfeeder. Stotz suggested she try putting out niger seeds, since sparrows mostly prefer millet and sunflower. (Another benefit of niger: squirrels don’t like them.) At that, another woman raised her hand, and added that planting red mulberry and crabapple trees would also work. A similar spirit of sharing was in evidence throughout the audience. As one man said, when asked to think of concrete steps he could take, “I’m just going to go out and tell as many people about the forest preserves as possible.” (Christian Belanger) ¬

MARCH 22, 2017 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 13

EVENTS

BULLETIN Thornwood High School Career Fair Thornwood HS North Field House, 17101 S. Park Ave. Wednesday, March 22, 9:20am– 1:30pm. theblackmall.com Black-owned business directory Black Mall will host a career fair at South Holland’s Thornwood High School aimed at connecting students with potential employers; the goal is to have about sixty companies there. Businesses can register online to participate. (Christian Belanger)

Reinventing Police Oversight: A Public Conversation Experimental Station, 6100 S. Blackstone Ave. Wednesday, March 22, 7pm–8:30pm. Free. bit.ly/IPRAtoCOPA Sharon Fairley, head of the Independent Police Review Authority, will join intrepid journalist Jamie Kalven in conversation about the impending transition from IPRA, the city’s old police oversight agency, to COPA, its new one. The discussion will also touch on other issues related to policing in Chicago, including the CPD’s new use of force policy and looming police union contract negotiations. (Christian Belanger)

Hidden Figures Revealed DuSable Museum of African-American History, 740 E. 56th Pl. Thursday, March 23, 7:30pm. General admission $20, members $15. (773) 947-0600. dusablemuseum.org The DuSable Museum of AfricanAmerican History will be hosting a panel discussion about Hidden Figures, the 2016 film about three Black female mathematicians at NASA in the 1960s. STEM leaders will discuss clips from the film and the important contributions African-American women have made to the field of mathematics and the sciences. (Michael Wasney)

City kids can have trouble getting in touch with nature, but McKinley Park Play Garden Organizing Committee hopes to change that. They want to bring a natural space to the McKinley Park neighborhood that will engage children and adults alike. Attend the March 25 fundraising event to make their vision happen. (Michael Wasney)

Women in Tech: Amplifiers of Community Voice DuSable Museum of African-American History, 740 E. 56th Pl. Thursday, March 30, 6pm. RSVP online at bit.ly/WomenInCivicTech. (773) 947-0600. dusablemuseum.org The Women in Tech Speaker Series celebrates the many talented and diverse women in Chicago’s civic technology sector. After a panel discussion with Andrea Hart (City Bureau), Aviva Rosman (BallotReady), and Tiana Epps-Johnson (Center for Tech and Civic Life), attendees will get the opportunity to participate in a mini-hackathon. (Michael Wasney)

VISUAL ARTS Who Twists Lures Ballroom Projects, 3012 S. Archer Ave., #3. Through April 1. Free. (312) 972-5691. By appointment only. bit.ly/2mHPexU Chicago-based comics artist Krystal DiFronzo steps into new territory with her first solo exhibition at Bridgeport’s livein art space, Ballroom Projects. Through a focus on unraveling and relating the multiple meanings of ancient mythological words, DiFronzo’s work brings issues of gender and sexuality to the fore. (Sara Cohen)

Visiting Artist Talk: Justine Pluvinage

McKinley Park Play Garden Fundraiser

Hyde Park Art Center, 5020 S. Cornell Ave. Wednesday, March 22nd, 6pm–7:30pm. Free. (773) 324-5520. hydeparkart.org

Co-Prosperity Sphere, 3219-21 South Morgan St. Saturday, March 25, 7pm. $25. Buy tickets online at bit.ly/McKinleyParkPlayGarden. 21+. mckinleyparkplaygarden@gmail.com

Join French artist Justine Pluvinage for a discussion about her film and video work, which moves from documentary to fiction,

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and all the points in between. It centers around issues of human faith, resiliency, and adaptation in times of struggle. (Corinne Butta)

Memoria Presente National Museum of Mexican Art, 1852 W. 19th St. Friday, March 24th, 6pm–8pm. Free. (312) 738-1503. nationalmuseumofmexicanart.org In honor of its thirtieth anniversary, the National Museum of Mexican Art presents an exhibition of locals paving the way for an art world of the future. The opening for “Memoria Presente: An Artistic Journey” showcases a diverse array of works from contemporary artists in Chicago’s Mexican community. (Sara Cohen)

MUSIC David Sanborn The Promontory, 5311 S. Lake Park Ave. Sunday, March 26, doors 5pm, show 6pm. $22–$46. (312) 801-2100. promontorychicago.com David Sanborn has released twenty-four albums over his forty-plus year career and performed with the likes of Stevie Wonder, the Rolling Stones, and David Bowie. Now the Grammy award-winning saxophonist comes to the Promontory to play songs that bridge pop, R&B, and jazz. (Hafsa Razi)

AMORPHIS Reggies Rock Club, 2105 S. State St. Sunday, March 26, 6pm. $25 online, $28 day of show. 17+. (312) 949-0120. reggieslive.com Finnish metal group AMORPHIS started with a classic death metal sound when they debuted at the beginning of the nineties, but they’ve since sucked every possible variation on metal (along with some folk and psychedelia) into their guitar-driven onslaught. Catch ’em riffing and roaring this Sunday at Reggies. (Austin Brown)

Ralphi Rosario Thalia Hall, 1807 S. Allport St. Saturday, March 25, doors 8pm, show 9pm. $10. 21+. (312) 526-3851. thaliahallchicago.com

One of the founding members of Chicago’s classic DJ group, the Hot Mix 5, Ralphi Rosario has made his own nonstandard way through the music industry, going from his classic house hit “You Used To Hold Me” to work with pop icons like Beyonce, Depeche Mode, and Stevie Nicks. He’ll be spinning all night at Thalia Hall this Saturday. (Austin Brown)

STAGE & SCREEN The Hard Problem The Court Theatre, 5535 S. Ellis Ave. Through April 9. Wednesdays–Thursdays, 7:30pm; Fridays, 8pm; Saturdays, 3pm and 8pm; Sundays 2:30pm and 7:30pm. $15–$68; lower prices for students, seniors and UChicago staff. (773) 753-4472. courttheatre.org Acclaimed playwright Tom Stoppard, whose long list of credits includes Arcadia, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, and Shakespeare in Love, has a new play. The Hard Problem, directed by Charles Newell, concerns a young psychologist who’s grappling with some of the biggest philosophical questions about human consciousness. ( Joseph S. Pete)

By the Apricot Trees eta Creative Arts, 7558 S. South Chicago Ave. Through April 2. Saturdays, 8pm; Sundays, 3pm. General admission $35, seniors $25, students $15. (773) 752-3955. etacreativearts.org eta’s new production, written by Ntsako Mkhabela, follows the story of TK, the only girl arrested in a famous series of protests led by Black South African schoolchildren in 1976. The children took to the streets of Soweto, a town outside of Johannesburg, to protest the introduction of Afrikaans as the official language of schooling. They were met with a brutal response from the police. ( Jake Bittle)

Antigone Beverly Arts Center, 2407 W. 111th St. March 24–March 26. Friday–Saturday, 7pm; Sunday, 2pm. $10-$12. (773) 445-3838. beverlyartcenter.org Teenage participants of Beverly Arts

Center’s Star Student Productions, from Evergreen Park, Frankfort, Mount Greenwood, and Oak Lawn, revive Sophocles’ tragic tale of pride and loyalty with an original stage adaptation. (Sara Cohen)

The Revival The Revival, 1160 E. 55 St. Thursday, March 30, 7pm; Friday, March 31. $10–$15. the-revival.com The birthplace of Chicago improv comedy continues to revive its sixty-year-old roots with weekly shows in a spiffy gut remodel to match the newly spit-shined Hyde Park [smirk]. On March 30, watch ten city comics perform auditions for the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal. On March 31, Bronzeville’s own (and now Comedy Central’s own) Brian Babylon serves up “Home Grown,” comedy made in Chicago. (Nicole Bond)

The Albanian Cinema Project Presents: Tomka and His Friends Filmfront, 1740 W. 18th St. Friday, March 24. Doors 7:30pm; show 8pm. Limited seating. Free. filmfront.org See the restored 1977 film by Albania’s first director, Xhanfise Keko. In the film, Tomka and His Friends are children living in Nazi-occupied Albania, turned spies and saboteurs against the German army. Stay for a conversation and Q&A with the director of the Albanian Cinema Project, Regina Longo. (Nicole Bond)

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