April 13, 2016 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. Editor-in-Chief Jake Bittle Managing Editors Maha Ahmed, Christian Belanger Deputy Editor Olivia Stovicek Senior Editor Emeline Posner Education Editor Music Editor Stage & Screen Editor Visual Arts Editor

Hafsa Razi Austin Brown Julia Aizuss Corinne Butta

Contributing Editors Joe Andrews, Eleonora Edreva, Andrew Koski, Lewis Page, Sammie Spector, Carrie Smith Editors-at-Large Mari Cohen, Ellie Mejia Video Editor Lucia Ahrensdorf Radio Producer Maira Khwaja Social Media Editors Emily Lipstein, Sam Stecklow Visuals Editor Ellen Hao Layout Editor Baci Weiler Senior Writer: Stephen Urchick Staff Writers: Olivia Adams, Sara Cohen, Christopher Good, Anne Li, Emiliano Burr di Mauro, Kristin Lin, Zoe Makoul, Sonia Schlesinger, Darren Wan Staff Photographers: Juliet Eldred, Finn Jubak, Alexander Pizzirani, Julie Wu Staff Illustrators: Javier Suarez, Addie Barron, Jean Cochrane, Lexi Drexelius, Wei Yi Ow, Amber Sollenberger, Teddy Watler, Julie Wu, Zelda Galewsky, Seonhyung Kim Editorial Interns

Gozie Nwachukwu, Kezie Nwachukwu, Bilal Othman

Webmasters Alex Mueller, 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, with breaks during April and December. Over the summer we publish monthly. 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 Iconic Chicago Radio DJ Doug Banks Has Died Doug Banks, former V103 radio host and regular contributor to ABC7’s “190 North” program, passed away on April 11 at the age of fifty-seven. He began radio work at his high school in Detroit, moving from station to station through Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Oakland until eventually finding a more permanent gig at WBMX (now V103) in Chicago in 1982. He would go on to work at different stations, including WGCI and WVAZ, for the rest of his life. He became a nationally recognized radio personality through his syndicated Doug Banks Radio Show, known publicly for his “infectious personality” and among colleagues for his compassion and caring, with media reporter Robert Feder calling him “impossible not to like.” Over the past few months, Banks had been struggling with diabetes complications, keeping him from broadcasting for two months at the beginning of 2016. He is survived by his wife and his four children. The Mindy (Pot) Project “I've been playing around with edibles on the recreational side my entire adult life,” Mindy Segal, a Chicago chef awarded the James Beard Award for her dessert bar, told the Reader earlier this month. After teaming up with Cresco Labs, Illinois’s largest cannabis cultivator, Segal is now poised to take the leap to the professional side. Waka Flocka Flame already has plans to release vegan weed treats, and Wiz Khalifa is dropping a line of regulated marijuana products on 4/20, but Mindy Segal is the first presti-

gious chef to attach her name to a brand of state-regulated and delicious medicinal white-chocolate brittle with pistachios. Not as ready to flaunt the law as Wiz or Snoop, Segal’s culinary experiments are inhibited by state law. Unless she develops one of the thirty-nine dire conditions eligible for medical marijuana in Illinois, Segal can’t taste-test her medicinal treats. Fortune Does Not Smile On Rahm This week in just deserts, Mayor Rahm Emanuel made Fortune magazine’s list of “World’s Most Disappointing Leaders.” The specific award he got for his preposterous mishandling of the murder of Laquan McDonald was “Second Most Breathtakingly Craven Political Move of the Year.” As the blurb points out, Emanuel “stood by former police Superintendent Garry McCarthy before firing him” and “objected to a Justice Department civil rights investigation before welcoming one.” He also fought against the release of the video showing Laquan McDonald’s death until a judge ruled that the city had to make the video public, at which point he apologized for not releasing the video sooner. While it certainly was satisfying to hear Rahm say the words “I’m sorry” in that press conference, we can’t deny that his spot on this list is more than deserved: after all, surely even his supporters expected better than this. The award for “Most Breathtakingly Craven Political Move of the Year,” by the way, was New Jersey governor Chris Christie’s endorsement of Donald Trump.

IN THIS ISSUE justice dept. investigation of cpd growing pains for woodlawn park

community and collaboration

“It’s the same people, but there’s a new environment.” austin brown...4

“If not this year, then definitely the next year.” anne li...8

lifting up the mid-south side

“There could be twenty-eight families on the street.” anne li...10

“We’ll go wherever people can get to us.” as told to maddie anderson...6

hard times for social services

Cover photo by Jordan Jackson

A consent decree could lead to substantial changes in how the CPD uses force and handles complaints. andrew fan...12 notes from the white rhino

There are many missing links disconnecting these men. ray salazar...13

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APRIL 13, 2016 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 3

Growing Pains for Woodlawn Park

A new mixed-income housing project emerges in Woodlawn BY AUSTIN BROWN

n 61st Street and Cottage Grove, not far from the Cottage Grove Green Line stop, life is flowing back into an historic part of Woodlawn. Woodlawn Park, formerly the site of 504 units of Section 8 housing then known as Grove Parc Plaza, is gradually being reopened as a mixed-housing area, most recently with the completion of sixty-five senior living units last October. With more than four hundred units now open, the new apartment complex represents a fruitful, if complicated, attempt at new development in Woodlawn. On the one hand, previous tenants

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in the Grove Parc projects are being offered what appear to be better-managed and more various housing options. On the other hand, Woodlawn residents who value home ownership over renting worry about increased crime, destabilization of a tight-knit neighborhood, and a return to the more unstable times of the 1990s and early 2000s. Grove Parc Plaza was established in the sixties as Section 8 low-income housing, but it’s passed through many hands since then. In the nineties, after a long period of decay, it became a key area for the Woodlawn Preser-

vation and Investment Corporation (WPIC), a local nonprofit based around housing and general redevelopment. Grove Parc was part of the group’s efforts to rehabilitate low-income, government-subsidized housing, with the involvement of famed developer and activist Reverend Leon Finney Jr. However, a series of failed attempts to outsource management of the property to different private firms led to a gradual decline in quality of living. In the meantime, Finney was repeatedly accused of embezzling from his other nonprofit, The Woodlawn Organization.

By 2005, Grove Parc had once again lost much of its luster, falling to fifty-six on a 100-point scale in inspections from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). An “E-Update” from affordable housing group The Preservation Compact described, “antiquated design, inattentive management, and poor tenant-owner relations contributed to two failed HUD inspections, and ultimately brought the 504-unit property into foreclosure.” In 2008, the area received new attention after a Boston Globe exposé on then-Presidential hopeful Barack Obama revealed his complicated relationship with Chicago’s low-income housing. The article focused on Obama’s status as a supporter of many of the same housing development organizations (like WPIC) that, through mismanagement, led to the foreclosure of Grove Parc and other properties. That same year, organizers at Southside Together Organizing for Power (STOP) worked with tenants at the Grove Parc area (now organized under the Grove Parc Tenants Association, or GPTA), who were concerned about the preservation of their homes, to find new management with whom they could work to avoid displacement. They came across Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH), a Boston-based organization that became a familiar face in the Woodlawn community after buying the property. The organization’s purpose is to “stabilize and maintain at-risk affordable properties as vibrant, healthy homes for low-income residents,” including developments for the disabled and seniors just as much as the economically disadvantaged. POAH primarily works in Boston, Rhode Island, Maryland and other locations in the northeast. While they had done work in the Midwest before, including a housing development in Missouri, this was the group’s first acquisition in Chicago. Once hired, POAH originally intended to start fresh with the area: the same 2008 Boston Globe article describes the organization’s efforts to buy the Grove Parc development, as well as its plans to demolish the properties and construct new buildings. But a working relationship with current tenants and Woodlawn residents led to a shift in policy: by 2010, POAH was creating an explicitly mixed-income community, working to rehabilitate existing apartments and shift existing subsidies to new units once built. Later, a written agreement between GPTA and POAH from April 2015 promised “Good paying jobs for Grove Park and Woodlawn Residents,” “[Preservation of ] all subsidized units,” a public operating budget

DEVELOPMENT

provided to GPTA, and a hiring and training program conducted with GPTA’s involvement. For these tenants, the prospect of economic opportunity is just as important as the development itself. POAH is in the process of implementing each of the points in the agreement, most prominently with a Family Opportunity Center open to the entire Woodlawn community that helps people find jobs and get prepared for them. In 2015, the center placed 112 people in jobs. “It has not been our goal to just do affordable housing in Woodlawn,” says Bill Eager, POAH’s Vice President in the Chicago area. “We want to do something a lot more comprehensive than that.” As early as 2005, the promotion of housing has been a key part of Woodlawn’s 21st-century civic redevelopment project. A report in 2005 from Chicago’s New Communities Program, titled “Woodlawn: Rebuilding the Village,” outlined eight different strategies for securing the future of Woodlawn. Some of these have come to fruition while others have fallen by the wayside, but the first strategy, which focuses on rental reinvestment, improvement in the Grove Parc area, and senior living options, particularly reflects POAH’s goals. But POAH’s strategies for redevelopment, even if they strive towards a goal that has stayed constant for a decade, have had to contend with a different housing landscape than that of 2005. The 2008 housing crisis in particular has left undeniable imprints in community members and developers alike, serving as a reminder of the perils that development can hold when jobs and economic opportunity fail to accompany it. Although the crisis never directly impacted the Grove Parc area, it devastated much of the West Woodlawn homeowner community, leaving some blocks of apartments empty and unoccupied. Many Woodlawn homeowners are still wary of the new Grove Parc development, seeing in the Cottage Grove apartments the echoes of both development overreach and past Chicago housing failures. “It doesn’t matter how pretty you make it, it’s not going to last,” says Corey Howard, who works with Woodlawn Home Owners, a community group working to promote homeownership over continued development. Howard feels that the residents of these housing projects are less likely to be committed to a community like Woodlawn, and that those who do get “stuck” in the voucher-based housing might simply bring on another bout of “clustered poverty,” with the crime and unrest that comes with it. In addition, Howard and

MARC BALLOG

“Housing poor people isn’t the problem... Good property management is the problem.” —Bill Eager, Preservation of Affordable Housing

his organization are skeptical of the promise of “mixed housing”—they see it as empty, unlikely to be executed properly. “When you put thirty-three percent of the people in there who are on project-based vouchers, and then you put another third in there that have another form of government subsidy, the last third that they try to put in there is market rate rent,” he says. “But the market rate people tend to walk away pretty quickly.” These critiques aren’t entirely supported by available data on other mixed-income housing situations. Data varies from development to development on whether market rate

renters are indeed that likely to leave the developments immediately. Much of the supposed value of these mixed developments lies in the interactions between neighbors, but the reality may be more complicated in rental units, and among neighbors with very disparate incomes. A study for HUD showed that the developments with the least amount of tension between residents had a more gradated diversity of incomes, rather than an even split between subsidized housing and market rate. POAH has worked to ensure that their developments work in a similar fashion—currently, almost a third of their units are somewhere between

Section 8 and market rate. However, Eager says, that “if anything, we [POAH] need to accelerate our ‘market-rate’ development.” The HUD study also emphasized that proper management of the properties and well-staffed security “is critical to building a shared culture within the development.” Before any greater plans for community integration or work on a more comprehensive path to employment are implemented, it’s the basic managerial needs that are key. Since many of the properties have only opened recently, it’s still unclear how effective POAH will be at establishing that culture in the long run. POAH, along with the Grove Parc residents and STOP, hopes to work through any skepticism about their commitment to the area with a more hands-on approach to the development, one that goes beyond their role as simply “preserving affordable housing” into community development. “Housing poor people isn’t the problem,” Eager says. “Good property management is the problem.” Rather than work from an entirely top-down perspective, POAH and the property managers want to be as directly in-

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volved with their tenants as possible. Eager mentions that many of the tenants have his phone number and email, and that any security trouble in the communities usually comes on his desk within a day of the event. Between the collaboration with tenants, block club members, and involved citizens, and the leeway offered by a 2011 “Choice Neighborhoods Initiative Grant” of more than $30 million from HUD (the first of its kind), POAH has worked on many levels to ground its goals for the Woodlawn community in action. Most significantly, a community organization called the Woodlawn Resource Center, works on POAH’s behalf to bring services like G.E.D. classes and counseling to Woodlawn residents, as well as to demonstrate POAH’s commitment to improving the circumstances of residents in the neighborhood. This is something of a change from 2011, when a West Woodlawn newsletter read in all capital letters “ARE YOU AWARE THAT WEST WOODLAWN WILL BE THE FIRST COMMUNITY TO REBUILD THE PROJECTS,” in reference to POAH’s work. Given all of these debates over policy, economics, community management and housing development, it’s a little surprising to see the Woodlawn Park site itself. The buildings are sparsely decorated, unobtrusive, but friendly enough, and any doubts about the quality of security are swiftly squashed by on-duty guards, who have to give you permission before you can enter any of the buildings. Residents mill in and out on their way to work, or to visit a friend. A conversation with Terry Brown, a resident at the Grant on 63rd and Cottage Grove,

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makes it clear just how far in the background much of this tension is to residents. As one of Grove Parc’s original residents, Brown has seen all the hands the property has moved through, and seems plenty satisfied with the current state of affairs. “It’s the same people, but there’s a new environment,” Brown says, “except with some new friends.” He has no patience for any hand-wringing about the quality of life at the new developments, calling it like “night and day.” But when asked whether he feels like the development was successful, he seemed to be more ambivalent. “You just take it day by day,” he says—a far cry from the world of four-letter organizations and ten-year redevelopment goals. On March 19, POAH presented at the annual Woodlawn Community Summit, where business and community leaders gathered to discuss the issues that affect the Woodlawn area. In addition to their Woodlawn Park projects, POAH also presented their new initiative “Renew Woodlawn,” a reclamation project meant to promote home ownership and the redevelopment of buildings hit hard by the recession. The project takes houses that are currently without owners and rehabilitates them, hoping to bring more and more stable homeowners to the area. It’s more likely to put those like Howard and his fellow citizens in Woodlawn Home Owners at ease, but the question of whether the new Woodlawn Park developments will last, and whether integration will be possible—that is to say, whether “mixed housing” will be a silver bullet for Chicago’s poverty woes—will only be revealed in years to come. ¬

Lifting up the Mid-South Side Sol Anderson on LIFT’s holistic approach to breaking the cycle of poverty and their MidSouth Side relaunch AS TOLD TO MADDIE ANDERSON

ol Anderson, vice president of the Chicago branch of LIFT, a national nonprofit working to break the cycle of poverty, is leading the organization’s upcoming relocation from Uptown to a still undecided mid-South Side neighborhood. LIFT works to help low-income families across the country strengthen their personal, social, and financial foundations. According to Anderson, 2,500 low-income families were served annually at its Uptown location, with each averaging three or four meetings with LIFT's staff. The staff is comprised of four full-time employees, nine AmeriCorps members, and as many as fifty volunteers at a time. For the past year, their direct services were suspended as they focused on their move, and when they relaunch in June, LIFT Chicago will start smaller and expand from there. The Weekly spoke to Anderson recently about why he chose nonprofit work, LIFT’s move, and the future of social services on the South Side.

know this is really weird to say, but I feel like I didn’t choose nonprofit work; I kind of feel like it was always my path. I finished my MBA in 2005, and at the time there weren’t a ton of nonprofit MBA programs, so I was really the only person in my MBA program that wanted to do nonprofit management. Not a lot of people really understood why I wanted to pursue this path, but it’s just something that’s always been important to me. I grew up on Ballard Street, a working-class neighborhood in Grand Rapids, Michigan—all around me family, friends, and neighbors were living in poverty or struggling to make ends meet. My father was a minister, a teacher, and a counselor, so he was always involved in helping alleviate the poverty around us. Black churches have traditionally played a social service role, so social service work was always in my life. My grandfather was also a minister in Michigan. Before that, though, he was a sharecropper with fourteen kids in Mississippi, all of whom my grandparents sent to college.

That’s pretty remarkable for anyone, and especially on what a sharecropper makes. They were able to do it because they were able to move their family up north and find stability and a supportive church and community. They received all kinds of support. It wasn’t just in one area, it was anything—you know, someone in the neighborhood who could watch the kids if you had to take another kid to the doctor. Their story helped me to understand that it’s never really just one thing that causes someone to fall into—or keeps someone out of—poverty and you really need to be able to support people holistically, or at least have an understanding that everything is interconnected. LIFT operates under this kind of holistic approach. Our fundamental intervention is a volunteer—or advocate, as we call it—sitting down with a LIFT low-income member and working together. Primarily our advocate and member are sitting at a computer one-on-one and talking through what steps the member needs to take. On one hand, our advocates help our

INTERVIEW

members come up with a financial plan. To that effect, we help with resumes, cover letters, and interviews preparation. We help members fill out affordable housing applications, find banks and other institutions. On the other hand, we focus on social connections and personal foundations, meaning helping members build self-confidence and self-esteem. Those are huge hurdles— believing you can do something is a really big indicator of whether you’ll be able to do something. Another one of the biggest things I think holds people back from feeling that they can achieve things is not having anyone in their corner. There’s a lot of research out there that shows that people are more likely to find persistence in their employment and housing if they feel supported, so we train people to do that. In general, I think we do a really good job of leveraging the power of relationships. And our volunteers bring a lot of positivity and a lot of motivation to our work and to our office, and that whole vibe of people coming into a positive environment creates something special. Right now, an important part of the work we’re doing is connecting to other like-minded organizations that understand the holistic needs of people living in poverty and are building their interventions around that. When we move to the South Side we want to be connected to other organizations in the community, regardless of how few there are, to make sure we are part of a web of support for people. The other thing we’re doing is planning our new intervention approach, which we’ll primarily be advertising through our partner organizations. Our plan is to start on the

ground working with one or two small cohorts of parents (five to ten parents at a time). We want to go to community gathering places and start a program with parents whose children are in those centers, so that they don’t have to pack up and take their kids to another place. I have a ten-and-a-half-month-old son and it’s really hard to get a baby anywhere, and I don’t want to make parents do that. So we want to be in childcare centers, we want to be in head start centers, we want to be in churches; we’ll be in people’s basements if there are enough people on a block who want to do something together. We’ll go wherever people can get to us. Accessibility is a big deal. Additionally, we think a group-based intervention will be important. We want to help parents to become resources for one another. We want to build a peer network, something we don’t do a lot currently. So if one group member doesn’t have a safe, affordable daycare center near her, then maybe she and someone else in her group can trade off taking care of each other’s kids. We want to create opportunities like that for our members. We also want to connect people with opportunities to learn how to be community leaders. When we think about organizing, we often think about protests, but organizing is more robust than that. It’s really about understanding the underlying systemic base behind an issue, and building consensus with other people who care about that issue, and being able to talk to other people who can make decisions around that issue. That type of training, that type of leadership development, can be applicable in a number of settings. So we want to put our members through leadership

ZELDA GALEWSKY

development training and give them the opportunity to join and take leadership positions in grassroots efforts or start their own. LIFT was working with some community groups in Roseland a few years ago—there were no real grocery stores in the neighborhood, so the community created a large and really great farmer’s market. We want to help our members get into that kind of work, identifying community needs and working to make positive change. My pie-in-the-sky goal, my long-term goal, is for LIFT to be providing these sorts of satellite services in a number of neighborhoods in Chicago. Obviously we’re starting in the mid-South Side, but we want to expand to the far South Side over the course of the next few years and also start looking at West Side neighborhoods like Austin where families are facing some of the same things so that we can help in neighborhoods all across Chicago. I believe that the South Side will eventually transform from the social service desert it currently is. I have to believe it, you know—

otherwise, why do it? This is my fifteenth, twentieth year of doing this, but I’m still an optimist, still believe beyond belief that we can do it, and the way I see it happening is that someone has to make the first step and that’s why it’s important for us to make this move. Low-income parents need support and we’re in a position to provide parents with good supports and connect them with other parents. We’re going to start to build a network of people. Our presence is one more brick in the wall, one more piece of this infrastructure we’re trying to build. And then when the next organization comes in, we’ll welcome them with open arms and make them a part of the work that we’re doing too and just all get on the same page. I know that sounds a little optimistic, but that’s the only way it’s going to happen. Social services, businesses, community members: it has to be a community effort. ¬

APRIL 13, 2016 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 7

Community and Collaboration The 10th Ward showcases its participatory budgeting projects BY ANNE LI

he residents of the 10th Ward have been busy through the winter months, and they exhibited the fruits of their labor on Saturday, April 9, at the Participatory Budgeting Project Expo. Colorful posters and tri-folds lined the walls of the 10th Ward office, each depicting the benefits of a proposed community infrastructure project. A dog park proposal was decorated with intricate dog cutouts; the Streets and Sidewalks Committee connected sections of text with a winding road dotted with cracks; the Arts and Cultures poster showed vibrant pictures of murals and artwork. These displays make up the project expo phase of Participatory Budgeting (PB), a process pioneered in 2010 by the 49th Ward, in which community members decide how to allocate some of the ward’s funds. In previous years, the alderman decided how to use the $1.3 million in “menu money” that each ward receives annually for discretionary infrastructure spending, such as road repairs and parks. This year, the 10th Ward is one of seven wards in Chicago to give residents the financial reins. Toward the end of 2015, 10th Ward Alderwoman Susan Garza and her office held a series of meetings to spread the word about PB. This was followed by the idea-collection phase, which began in January. Residents could come to meetings to brainstorm potential uses for the money, as well as submit ideas online. By March, regular attendees of the PB meetings had been organized into committees focusing on areas such as streets and sidewalks, parks and recreation, and arts and culture. These committees took the lead on turning the ideas into full-fledged project proposals for residents to vote on from April 13 to April 21. Committee heads were helped through this process by Garza’s office, with Chief of Staff Ismael Cuevas and staffer Nicole Garcia sorting through city databases to find relevant information. The staff also spent meetings explaining city ordinances and bureaucratic intricacies to the residents. As Cuevas told the Weekly, “Team collaborations have played a very important and critical role in the PB process. Bringing community members together

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from the largest ward in the city definitely posed various challenges.” At a March 10 meeting, for example, Cuevas produced a map of the ward’s streets as marked by the Department of Transportation (DOT), as well as one by the Department of Water Management. Addressing the Streets and Sidewalks Committee, Cuevas noted, “If you look at this map, the majority of the ward is actually pretty decent, according to DOT standards. Now, there are streets that are damaged that aren’t marked on here. Do you notice how none of the streets that people suggested are in line with the DOT map?” The discrepancy, he explained, was due to overlaps with Water Management. Streets that have moratoriums on them have sewers that were done within the last twenty years and so cannot be repaved, “since they’re not going to tear

up a street that was just fixed.” Additionally, some streets have one-hundred-year-old water mains underneath them. “That means Water Management will tear up the street, replace the water main, and do the repaving for free, not menu money. The only thing is that there are no dates. It depends on the budget, and it depends on the year. But they’re replacing them as a goal.” Even with these limitations, though, there was plenty for the Streets and Sidewalks Committee to do. Cuevas told the committee, “If we were to add up all the streets, it’s easily a million dollars, especially because there are streets that we know are bad that people haven’t requested.” He recommended that the proposal be voted on as a percentage of the total menu money to be allocated to roadwork, and not by specific streets, so that the ward

could easily pick and repave the worst streets. Voting by percentage makes efficient allocation a bit easier, but it still leaves complications when it comes time for implementation. John Sandoval, a retired police officer and member of the Streets and Sidewalks Committee, explained one facet of erosion. “We have no curbs, so the streets get eroded, and it erodes toward the sidewalk and the grassy areas. But there are some areas that don’t want curbs, which we understand because it raises the value of their homes, and the taxes go up. So we’ll leave the curbs alone if the people there don’t want it.” Kristal Stosich, a member of a separate organization called the Southeast Chicago Dog Park Committee, has been working in the Parks and Recreation Committee to secure menu money for a dog park. Her group has

POLITICS

DAVID VANCE

“Let the people decide, and let’s hope for the best.” —John Sandoval, 10th Ward resident

identified a set of unused tennis courts that can be converted and used to fill what she views as a community need. Emphasizing the project’s appeal with the dog-biscuit-shaped brownies she’d brought along, Stosich explained: “Adding a dog park would be so beneficial. We have support from our alderwoman, we have com-

munity support, we have a kind of a committee. The fact that it made the ballot got us so anxious and excited. It shows how much you want to see your project, and how hard you’re willing to work. We’re maybe a little sad if we’re not one of the winning projects. But it was a fun process, and there’s always next year.”

Everyone at the meeting seemed excited about PB in future years. Wynona Pyrtel and David Vance of the Arts and Culture Committee described the difficulties they’d had getting approval from building owners for murals, but expressed hope that seeing murals done from this year’s PB process might convince building owners in the future. Pyrtel said it’s a matter of “explaining to them that this isn’t graffiti, it’s professionally done by artists, and it wouldn’t take away from your building, it would enhance it.” Pyrtel added, “One area that kept coming up during the meetings was places for the children to play. So that’s another area that is going to be addressed, too. If not

this year, then definitely the next year.” There has been concern, however, about getting people to show up and vote. Attendance at the Project Expo was low, outside of the committee members who have been involved throughout the process. “It’s been slow, but we kind of figured it would be,” Stosich said. “And I’m Instagramming, and posting pictures on Facebook and whatnot. Those are getting some likes, so people are able to get an idea of what this expo is.” Cuevas explained that over the course of the process, “the 10th Ward office sent out weekly emails, featured an education piece in the 10th Ward newsletter that went out to 20,000 people, distributed flyers to local organizations and groups, and had PB meetings in all neighborhoods of the 10th Ward.” Plans have also been made to bring the posters to the voting sites in the coming weeks. Sandoval said he believes that the voting process will be a great success, though “we’ll have to see how many people come out and see these [posters], and vote. Even if we don’t have these displays at the voting locations, somebody will be there to explain it, and show them maybe on an iPad, or a mobile. Let the people decide, and let’s hope for the best.” Early voting starts on April 13, but at the Expo, the excitement and dedication in the room were already palpable. “[Garza] has generated ten times more 10th Ward improvements than she could have done on her own,” Vance said. “By reaching out and building these committees she did ten times more than she could ever have done with her office staff. It’s an example of what other wards should try to do. If they don’t, they’re missing out.” As Sandoval sees it, “Voting is going to show us how much the community is actually going to impact this. So next year we can do it again, and it will be just the norm, for our neighborhood. And if we’re lucky, the whole city will do it this way. But then again, every community is different. I think the alderman works for the community, the community works for our alderman, and we work for our city.” ¬

APRIL 13, 2016 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 9

Hard Times for Social Services South Side organizations cope with the budget crisis BY ANNE LI

n June 2015, a coalition of about three hundred Illinois nonprofits issued an open letter urging Governor Bruce Rauner and the General Assembly to pass a budget before the new fiscal year. The letter highlighted the impact funding cuts would have on people who rely on social services if the Illinois legislature failed to resolve their budget impasse. In particular, a number of programs on the South Side that depend on government funding have already made, or are considering making, cuts to their services. The result has been the beginning of a widespread lack of services for South Side residents, especially for at-risk youth. The stalemate over Illinois’s budget boils down to a showdown between Rauner, a Republican, and the state legislature, which is controlled by Democrats. Rauner vetoed the proposed 2016 fiscal year budget in July, since it didn’t contain spending cuts he wanted. The state has been without a budget ever since, although a collection of separate bills, state laws, and court orders has maintained many programs. However, these methods have largely failed to fund social services, resulting in severe consequences for some of the most vulnerable groups in the city. Family Focus, a Chicago-based organization, is one of the groups that signed the open letter. Family Focus provides support programs for children and parents, such as counseling and screening for children exposed to violence. Loretta Barriffe, the director of Family Focus Englewood, told the Weekly the center has needed to cut its Young Parents Program, which provided home visitations for about sixty-five families. “We have continued to involve participants quarterly in some sort of special event, and to open opportunities for them to attend group sessions which are no longer paid for, but which we’re trying to maintain,” Barriffe said. “We want to still have some contact with the families who we’re no longer seeing in the program where they were able to get support for the parent-child interaction.” A loss of funding from the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority has also impacted the Safe Start program, which provides support and counseling for families with children below the age of five who have been exposed to violence. Barriffe estimated that 10 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

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about forty families who were in the Safe Start program have stopped receiving services. “All we can do is serve the families we still have,” she said. In fact, entire support systems for youth and young adults are gradually being eroded as organizations struggle to come up with the funds to survive. Harmony Village, a transitional living facility for youth located in Auburn Gresham, was awarded a contract from the Illinois Department of Human Services this past June but has not received any money since July. Flora Koppel, executive director of Unity Parenting and Counseling, the organization that runs Harmony Village, estimates that the state owes the facility about $150,000, money that normally goes toward paying rent, utilities, and staff. “We thought we might be in trouble at the end of April, but we keep kicking the can down the road,” said Koppel, adding, “I think we’ll be okay through June, but I don’t know what we’re going to do this next fiscal year.” The effects of the crisis are instead making themselves felt in smaller ways, ominous suggestions of the larger changes to come if the budget impasse remains unresolved. Administrative office space and staff have both been reduced—in Koppel’s words, “it feels like we all have a million jobs”—and Unity Parenting can no longer provide the sixty residents with non-crucial goods and services, like bus passes and new furniture. Still, it’s nothing compared to what will happen if new funds aren’t forthcoming. “There could be twenty-eight families on the street,” Koppel said. “And since a lot of other programs are in similar crises, there is no other program they can get in quickly because all of them are having difficulties.” She predicts that in trying to feed their families, many of the residents could end up in jail. And the systems of information, formal and informal, that Harmony’s tenants currently have access to—how to get healthcare, or use proper protection for sex—will also be lost to them. Education is another area that has taken a significant hit. Run by the School Sisters of Notre Dame, Corazón a Corazón is an organization that provides educational assistance to the South Side Latino community. They run an ESL program for adults, particularly for par-

ELLEN HAO

“Luckily, our staff is comprised of dedicated individuals who feel committed to our clients, and have willingly taken on more work rather than curtail services.” – Mayra Pimentel, Corazón a Corazón

ents who want to improve their employment opportunities and better help their children with their schoolwork. The After-School and Summer Achievement Camp programs are designed to support children through tutoring and academic enrichment. Though these programs are primarily run by volunteers, the budget crisis has still had a severe effect on the organization. Particularly notable was the loss of a $25,000 grant from the Secretary of State’s office. As staff member Mayra Pimentel explained to the Weekly, “Not having a volunteer-intern coordinator definitely affects the number of volunteers we are able to secure.

The lack of funds affects our budget, but we have been able to maintain our services since other staff has taken additional responsibilities and absorbed the work that pertains to that position.” That’s because the commitment of the staff to Corazón a Corazón’s mission is keeping the group going in spite of the funding shortage. “Luckily,” says Pimentel, “our staff is comprised of dedicated individuals who feel committed to our clients and have willingly taken on more work rather than curtail services.” Another organization that is finding ways around the budget crisis is Growing Home, a community farm and training program based

POLITICS

in Englewood. Growing Home’s model is to provide residents with a supportive environment in which they can develop skills and habits that will help them find future jobs. The farms, which are coordinated by production assistants, also provide healthy and fresh produce. This is particularly notable because much of the South Side is a food desert, an area in which healthy foods like fresh fruits and vegetables are few and far between. April Harrington, Development Director at Growing Home, explained the organization’s funding situation to the Weekly: “We are very fortunate that state funds only make up three percent of our budget. We have a contract with the Illinois Department of Corrections for $50,000 per year. Because of this,

we have not been affected as much as other organizations. We haven’t been paid for that contract since last July, but we are able to make up for the shortcoming without cutting programs or staff.” This strain is often more pronounced, though, for similar organizations. “What's happening in Illinois is precisely why fundraisers try to keep government funds to a small percentage of our budgets,” Harrington said. “That's unfortunate because it means that public funds aren’t really doing what they're supposed to do, and it’s up to private money to keep our lights on and make sure our clients get the services they need.” ¬ Additional reporting by Christian Belanger.

South Side Weekly Civic Journalism Workshops

How to Cover an Election A workshop with CNN politics reporter Tal Kopan

Sunday, April 17, 2016 1pm–3pm Experimental Station 6100 S. Blackstone Ave. The Chicago Civic Journalism Project is presented by the South Side Weekly, City Bureau, University of Chicago Careers in Journalism, Arts, and Media, and Chicago Studies. APRIL 13, 2016 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 11

POLITICS

What’s at stake in the Justice Department’s investigation of the CPD? BY ANDREW FAN

This report was produced in collaboration with City Bureau, a Chicago-based journalism lab. It is part of a series of “Explainers” that provide background on important topics relating to policing and criminal justice in Chicago. The full series is available online at citybureau.org

ince the U.S. Department of Justice announced a formal investigation of the Chicago Police Department’s use of force and accountability structures last December, speculation has surrounded the outcome of what is expected to be a lengthy review process. If past investigations conducted by the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division are an indication, the CPD could find itself subject to a consent decree, a binding legal agreement that would outline expected reforms. A decree, and the accompanying federal oversight, could lead to substantial changes in how the CPD uses force and handles complaints about discrimination, but could also spur a revolt among the department’s rank and file and cost Chicago taxpayers millions of dollars. The Justice Department’s investigation, which may take up to several years, could lead to several different outcomes. Some cases have ended without formal action or with a non-binding reform agreement. In cases where investigators find serious violations, the Justice Department can file a lawsuit to demand changes. In most cases, the police and the government instead agree to a legally binding set of reforms, typically overseen by a federal monitor. The use of consent decrees in policing dates to 1994, when Congress passed a law authorizing federal investigations of local police departments in the wake of the Rodney King riots. Since then, the Justice Department has

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initiated nearly seventy formal probes. With the approval of a consent decree in Ferguson, Missouri, on March 15, the Justice Department now monitors fourteen departments, including the police in Seattle, New Orleans and Cleveland. The record of consent decrees is mixed. In 2001, the Los Angeles Police Department and the Justice Department reached a wide-rang-

partment.” An intervention in Detroit was less successful. In 2000, the city’s mayor requested an investigation following a six-year period where city police shot and killed nearly fifty people and another nineteen people died while being detained. After a two-year probe and an eleven-year consent decree, police shootings and detainee deaths dropped, but residents

A Tribune report puts the potential cost to implement reforms similar to Los Angeles’ at $100 million. Those costs could be a major issue for Chicago, though reforms also might reduce the amount the city pays to settle lawsuits against the police, which totaled over $500 million between 2004 and 2014. ing agreement that included training changes, civil rights reform and better management of gang units. When the federal monitor lifted the decree twelve years later, a comprehensive review by Harvard researchers found major improvements. Their study declared that “community engagement and partnership is now part of the mainstream culture of the De-

complain that officers frequently ignore new use-of-force rules and that the department’s internal investigations are still deeply flawed. Today, Detroit remains under partial supervision, over fifteen years since the start of the investigatory process. The use of consent decrees in other cities has several implications for Chicago. First, the

process is a long and expensive undertaking. Los Angeles spent an estimated $300 million to complete reforms; a Tribune report puts the potential cost to implement reforms similar to Los Angeles’ at $100 million. Those costs could be a major issue for Chicago, though reforms also might reduce the amount the city pays to settle lawsuits against the police, which totaled over $500 million between 2004 and 2014. Second, political support is essential for the success of a consent decree. In Los Angeles, community activists worked with Bill Bratton, a respected police chief, to enact reforms, overcoming a lawsuit from LAPD officers. In Detroit, federal oversight led to the creation of new policies and procedures, but limited funds and persistent internal resistance have helped stall deeper reforms. Chicago’s situation has similarities with both cities. Deep public frustration with the police helped unseat incumbent State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez, and Mayor Rahm Emanuel has grudgingly welcomed the federal investigation in the face of relentless activist pressure. Still, Chicago’s Fraternal Order of Police (the police union) is a powerful presence in the city and has previously resisted reform efforts. The FOP has already sued to destroy police complaint records from before 2011 and elected to fund the legal defense of former CPD commander Jon Burge, who ran a police torture ring in the 1970s and 1980s. A federal consent decree could transform the CPD, but it could also set City Hall on a collision course with its own police force. As reform efforts in other cities have shown, only a city leadership firmly committed to reform and willing to spend money and political capital can hope to have a shot at long-lasting change. ¬

COLUMN

Notes from the White Rhino What Arne Duncan misunderstands about his new Chicago role

Ray Salazar

ow wonderfully privileged that Arne Duncan can pick and choose his causes and decide what he’ll do, how he’ll do it, and who he’ll do it with—and who he won’t do it with. I listened to former Chicago Public Schools CEO and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s interview on Chicago Public Radio on March 17. A few days prior to the interview, Arne (I learned he likes first names when I worked at CPS’s central office) announced a new effort to tackle youth violence. He says he’ll focus on “disconnected youth—young men who are out of school or who don’t have a job." He’ll do this with funding from the widow of Steve Jobs and the Emerson Collective. Steve Jobs’ widow called him “one of the extraordinary leaders of our country.” In the affluent world, yes, Arne Duncan is extraordinary. But for those of us who actually work and teach and raise children in the consequences of his leadership decisions, no—he is not. Arne Duncan is out of touch with the realities of the young people he aims—and aimed—to help. Without knowing and understanding the complex reality of the problems he wants to fix, he will again, like an idealizing undergraduate, make changes that misconstrue the problems faced by disconnected young men— and young women—of color. In the interview, Arne describes how he went to a jail to meet with a group of young men who could not find legal, dependable ways of making an income. One young man told Arne he “was tired of hearing his mother cry.” So he did what he had to do. Now, these young men are doing time in jail. Duncan says he asked a disconnected young man, “Did you have a mentor?” “He looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language,” Arne said. Maybe you did not understand his language, Arne.

Maybe he thought the question was ridiculous. I certainly think it was. And it was disconnected—out of touch— with that disconnected man’s reality. “The only way to create safer communities and give young men and women a chance to build successful lives is to give them concrete reason to hope, which means real jobs. If we do that,” Arne says, “we can compete with the gangs. We can compete with life on the streets.” I don’t know your entire reality Arne, but I hope you’re not using the concept of competition you learned playing elite college basketball. You’re talking about having disconnected young men compete within a reality whose rules are the antithesis of what the privileged consider a fair game. The educational system, the social system, WBEZ journalist Melba Lara pointed out to Arne, has not worked for these young men—even when Arne led the schools. Arne goes back to his core message: “What has been missing is the concrete ability to get a real job.” So Arne thinks a threemonth coding boot camp will automatically lead to good jobs in advanced manufacturing, in retail. Because, Arne says, getting paid while training is the missing link. No, Arne, you’re wrong. There are many missing links disconnecting these men. Right now, Chicago’s unemployment rate is six-percent; 180,000 people are unemployed. You’re forgetting the low literacy and numeracy skills that these young men also need to improve. You’re ignoring the physical or mental health issues many young men also need help with. You’re forgetting the social skills, the self-advocacy skills, the cultural conflicts these men must prepare to face. On the same day as Arne’s interview, I happened to overhear a group of young men in their early teens— young men who run the risk of being more disconnected—discussing their lives with an adult male mentor. To respect their privacy, I won’t share the details. They talked about the challenges they face and the decisions they’ve been forced to make. One young man’s decision was determined because of another family member’s choices. But Arne thinks that all a disconnected man needs is to get paid while training for a job.

No, Arne. A disconnected man has forged or been forced to make solid ties that he cannot simply tear away like a check stub. A job-training program is a starting point. But don’t oversimplify this complex urban situation by saying this program will give them all the hope they need. What about the young men connected to another country at birth but trying to re-connect in this country as an undocumented immigrant? They deserve hope, too. These disconnected men also need a good home in a gentrifying city. They cannot simply pack up and move away like a privileged kid going off to college and sever connections to family members who have been, for good or bad, their entire network. According to DNAInfo, “a recent real estate report showed median one-bedroom rent is up to $1,970 a month across the city, about eleven percent higher than a year ago." That’s for a one-bedroom place. Disconnected men still have family connections. Unlike your gig with Chicago Public Schools that you got by chance, unlike your stint in the U.S. Department of Education that you got with help from a well-connected network, unlike this new role you handpicked, the obstacles faced by these seventeen to twenty-four year old “disconnected men” have long-term connections that you cannot simply cut with a paycheck. I’m not against your program. Start it. Grow it. Make it flourish and help all the men you can. But don’t insult them by sounding like a traveling salesman at their front door selling a new-found path to hope. I have hope. I hope you, Arne, start to understand the problems you aim to address are not as simple as they look from the privileged reality that has disconnected you.

“I’m not against your program. Start it. Grow it. Make it flourish and help all the men you can. But don’t insult them by sounding like a traveling salesman at their front door selling a new-found path to hope.”

This column was first published on Ray’s blog, The White Rhino (www.chicagonow.com/white-rhino/) on March 17. Since 1995, Ray Salazar has been an English teacher in the Chicago Public Schools and is a National Board Certified teacher. He started writing The White Rhino about education and Latino issues in 2011. Ray lives on the Southwest Side. Follow him on Twitter @WhiteRhinoRay

ILLUSTRATION BY JAVIER SUAREZ

APRIL 13, 2016 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 13

BULLETIN Chicago Style with Ben Austen of Harper’s Magazine Institute of Politics, 5707 S. Woodlawn Ave. Wednesday, April 13, 7pm–8pm. Free. (773) 834-4671. politics.uchicago.edu The two decades since the Chicago Housing Authority began destroying its high-rise public housing have been marked by huge budget surpluses, staggering waiting lists, slow-to-nonexistent reconstruction, and rapid turnover at the top. Attendees of this event will hear from journalist and South Side native Ben Austen, who is currently working on a book about the Cabrini-Green complex. (Adam Thorp)

4th Ward Shred-a-Thon Lake Meadows Shopping Plaza Parking Lot, 35th St. and Rhodes Ave. Saturday, April 16, 9am–1pm. (773) 536-8103. aldwillburns.org If you need to shred “unwanted” or “sensitive” documents, you’ll have your opportunity this upcoming Saturday, in the parking lot at Lake Meadows. The event runs until the afternoon, but get there early to avoid drowning in strips of shredded paper. (Christian Belanger)

3rd Ward Housing Fair Wendell Phillips Academy High School, 244 E. Pershing Rd. Saturday, April 16, 11am–2pm. (773) 373-9273. dowellforthirdward.com Are you looking for home sweet home? Look no further than the 3rd Ward Housing Fair. Panelists and vendors convene to offer information for anyone seeking to buy or rent. (Anne Li)

Clean and Green Day of Service Urban Juncture, 4245 S. King Dr. and 10th Ward office, 10500 S. Ewing Ave. Saturday, April 16, 10am. Free. (773) 882-4011 for Bronzeville, (773) 768-8138 for 10th Ward. bit.ly/1N5aTy9 Take part in a citywide annual tradition; these cleanups in Bronzeville and the 10th Ward are just a few of the sites for the Clean and Green Day of Service in Chicago. Beautify your neighborhood with city-provided tools, but bring your own gloves. Spring cleaning has never been so fulfilling. (Anne Li)

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VISUAL ARTS Freedom Dreams: in an age of mass incarceration Pop Up Just Art Gallery, 729 Maxwell St. Thursday, April 14, 5:30pm–8pm. Free. p-nap.org In response to the writings of men incarcerated at Statesville Prison, Chicago-based artists made an exhibition of artwork of varying media and styles. This collaboration between the Prison + Neighborhood Arts Project and the Social Justice Initiative shows with incredible strength the emotional aspect of the often impersonal topic of mass incarceration. (Sam Royall)

Nathaly Bonilla: Kids from Latino-America 1329 E. 50th St. Friday, April 15 through Thursday, May 5; open from 3pm–4pm. iuplr.uic.edu

Production duo Genesis has invited ten local artists, including some special guests, in the disciplines of theatre, visual art, performance art, music and sound, movement and dance, and even puppetry, to collaborate on five different pieces that will be sure to inspire and amaze. (Troy Ordonez)

MUSIC Kweku Collins Reggies, 2105 S. State St. Friday, April 15, doors 7pm. $10 in advance; $12 at the door. (312) 949-0120. reggieslive.com Evanston native Kweku Collins has made a name for himself as part of the Chicago collective Closed Sessions and is now taking the stage to support his new album Nat Love, described by Passion of the Weiss as being perfect for “humid, rainy, lonely July nights.” Ric Wilson, another up-and-coming hip-hop act, will be opening. ( Jake Bittle)

Works from the Kids from Latino-America collection of Venezuelan illustrator and tattoo artist Nathaly Bonilla will be displayed in Hyde Park for the next month. These illustrations capture the beauty and wonder of childhood with vibrant colors. (Sam Royall)

The Darcy and Lisa Show with the Muzak Sisters

Julie Rafalski: Dear Mondrian

This “reunion” show will bring together Dame Darcy and Rachel Carver, two members of the storied punk-musical-act-turned-performance-art-troupe Suckdog. They will be preceded by a “tortured new age puppet show” entitled Forced to Lap Menstrual Blood out of a Metal Bowl. Don’t miss this. Or do. It’s up to you, really. ( Jake Bittle)

Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E. 60th St. Closing event Friday, April 15, 5pm–7pm; exhibition runs Monday–Saturday, 8am–10pm; Sunday, 11am–8pm. Open through April 22. Free. (773) 702-2787. arts.uchicago.edu They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery—but tribute is something else altogether. With acetate, paper, and a healthy appreciation for De Stijl, artist Julie Rafalski has created a compelling collage-homage to Piet Mondrian. The installation’s closing reception will feature performances by Jaroslaw Kapuscinski, Marek Choloniewski, and Grazyna Auguscik. (Christopher Good)

HybridSalon2: an Interdisciplinary Salon Co-Prosperity Sphere, 3219 S. Morgan St., Sunday, April 17, and Monday, April 18, doors 7pm, salon 8pm. $15 suggested donation. (773) 837-0145. coprosperity.org

The Learning Machine, 3145 S. Morgan St. Friday, April 22, 7pm–10pm. $5 requested donation. learningmachine.chi@gmail.com

Supa Bwe & Friends Reggies, 2105 S. State St. Thursday, April 14, doors 7pm. All ages. $10 in advance; $15 at door. (312) 949-0120. reggieslive.com “I’m self-taught, that’s self-discipline unlimited,” chants producer and rapper Supa Bwe on “I’ll Hurt Alone.” But whether he raps about self-fortitude or cooking breakfast, Bwe will keep it real with a lineup of friends that reads like a who’s who of up-and-coming artists— notably, Taylor Bennett and Zelooperz of Detroit’s Bruiser Brigade. (Christopher Good)

Freddie Gibbs and Chris $pencer

Thalia Hall, 1807 S. Allport St. Wednesday, April 20, doors 7:30pm, show 8:30pm. $22 standing room; $28 seats. 17+. (312) 526-3851. thaliahallchicago.com Gary, Indiana, born hip-hop veteran Freddie Gibbs will take up the mic alongside underground Chicago rappers (and Weekly featurees) Vic Spencer and Chris Crack at Thalia Hall for a night of lyrical and hard-hitting rap that’ll almost certainly serve as the most “lit” place to be this 4/20. Bring a lighter— you know, to wave around during the show. (Troy Ordonez)

STAGE & SCREEN Trapped Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E 60th St., Screening Room 201. Thursday, April 14, 7pm– 9pm. Free. (773) 702-9936. bit.ly/1ScosvP This week’s feature in the collaborative, fourpart documentary screening series Consent, Choice, Agency documents the fight for legal, safe, and accessible reproductive health services in America. Jenna Prochaska, Staff Attorney at ACLU-IL, will lead discussion following the film, which premiered this year. (Sara Cohen)

Jackie Robinson DuSable Museum, 740 E. 56th Pl. Thursday, April 14, doors 7:30pm, screening 8pm. RSVP by Wednesday by phone or online. Free. (773) 4871358. wycc.org/jackierobinson In partnership with WYCC PBS Chicago, the DuSable will premiere a new documentary by Ken and Sarah Burns and David McMahon about the life and legacy of Jackie Robinson: one of the most storied and significant figures not just in American baseball, but also in American history. Q&A to follow. ( Jake Bittle)

The Silver Room Presents Dave Helem The Silver Room, 1506 E. 53rd St. Friday, April 15, 9pm–11pm. $5 suggested donation. (773) 947-0024. bit.ly/1NlFD6Y An evening with up-and-coming standup

EVENTS comedian Dave Helem and Comedy Central and TouchVision TV’s Felonious Munk is sure to entertain. The duo, who call themselves “Blipster Life,” promise material that is “unapologetically dope”—so BYOB and prepare for hilarity. (Sara Cohen)

Rebuild Knights: Brooklyn Castle Dorchester Art + Housing Collaborative, 1456 E. 70th St. Friday, April 15, 7pm–9pm. Free. (773) 324-2270. rebuild-foundation.org Join the Rebuild Knights youth chess club for a screening of Brooklyn Castle, a critically acclaimed (and family-friendly) documentary about the junior high school “Yankees of chess.” The free popcorn and juice should only sweeten the deal. Check it out with your mates, talk about checkmates, have a good time. (Christopher Good)

Saturday, April 16, 2pm. Free. (773) 752-4381. semcoop.com Join New York Times film critic A. O. Scott for a talk on his recent book Better Living Through Criticism: How to Think About Art, Pleasure, Beauty, and Truth. Examine the roles criticism and critical thinking play in our lives, including their ability to enhance our engagement with art. (Anne Li)

Story Club South Side Co-Prosperity Sphere, 3219-21 S. Morgan St. Tuesday, April 19, 7:30-9:30pm. Free. storyclubchicago.com Light up literature by sharing it live at this monthly open mic. Each of the three performance slots is eight minutes, or enough time for the recommended 1,300 words. The event will be hosted by Andrew Marikis. (Anne Li)

Study The Light of a Black Star

Bernadette Mayer Reading

The Silver Room, 1506 E. 53rd St. Sunday, April 17, 2pm–5pm. (773) 947-0024. thesilverroom.com

Joseph Regenstein Library, 1100 E. 57th St., Room 122. Wednesday, April 20, 6pm–7:30pm. Free. (773) 702–8740. lib.uchicago.edu

Arts + Public Life artist-in-residence Aquil Charlton will put his “teaching artist” title to good use in this multimedia interactive teachin about singer-songwriter Gene McDaniels. A session encompassing decades of music, video, and photography will culminate in a performance of Charlton’s own, inspired by his research on McDaniels. ( Julia Aizuss)

Bernadette Mayer is the author of more than two dozen collections of poetry and the recipient of more awards than the entire faculty of many universities. Part of the influential New York School, her experiments in poetic form (not to mention her innovative multimedia works) have changed the landscape of American art. Mayer is a national treasure. Do not miss this reading. ( Jake Bittle)

LIT Understanding Time Travel at 57th Street Books 57th Street Books, 1301 E. 57th St. Thursday, April 14, 6:30pm–8pm. Free. (773) 684-1300. semcoop.com/57th-street-books Join members of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators and University of Chicago math professor Danny Calegari for an evening of rudimentary time travel discussion—yes, such a thing exists! This could be the impetus for your fantasy or science fiction novel sensation. (Sara Cohen)

The Frunchroom O’Rourke’s Office, 11064 S. Western Ave. Thursday, April 21, 7:30pm. Free. thefrunchroom.com Enjoy the power and potential of Chicago stories with The Frunchroom’s quarterly reading series, in which five local writers give their thoughts on the South Side. Come early or stay late to celebrate the start of the series’ second year. (Sarah Claypoole)

Better Living Through Criticism Seminary Co-op, 5751 S. Woodlawn Ave.

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