April 5, 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 24 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, Jonathan Hogeback, Carrie Smith, Margaret Tazioli, Yunhan Wen Video Editor Lucia Ahrensdorf Radio Producers Andrew Koski, Lewis Page Social Media Editors Emily Lipstein, Bridget Newsham, Sam Stecklow Visuals Editor Ellen Hao Deputy Visuals Editor Jasmin Liang Layout Editor Baci Weiler 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 For advertising inquiries, contact: (773) 234-5388 or advertising@southsideweekly.com

Cover illustration by Lizzie Smith

IN CHICAGO

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

IN THIS ISSUE

How Low Can You Go? Justin Breen, DNAinfo’s inveterate reporter on Chicago’s topographical extremes and author of a 2015 article on “Chicago’s Tallest Hill, a ‘Mountain of Garbage,’” wrote this week about the “lowest inhabitable point” in the city of Chicago, which, like the city’s tallest hill, is on the South Side. The lowest pump room in the Calumet TARP Pumping Station, owned by the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, is 365 feet below the surface. The pumping station is located on 130th Street in Riverdale, just north of the Altgeld Gardens community. It’s connected to a network of deep water tunnels that stretch across the South Side and also to the Thornton Reservoir in the south suburbs. If for some reason you want to see this pump room for yourself, the Water Reclamation District offers tours—you just have to sign a waiver.

students united in power

Department of Justice Threatens Budget Cuts for “Sanctuary” Chicago Last Monday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions threatened to enforce one of the Trump administration’s recent executive orders, which stated that so-called sanctuary cities—those cities that generally don’t cooperate with immigration officials’ requests to detain or hand over undocumented immigrants—would stand to lose funding from the Department of Justice. A few days ago, City Hall announced that the possible funding cuts for Chicago, as one of those sanctuary cities, could amount to about $13 million, spread evenly over three different DOJ grants. It’s important to note that those cuts aren’t yet actual: Rahm Emanuel predicted in November that Trump would not ultimately cut funding to sanctuary cities, “because they have bigger fish to fry, mark my words.” But there has been a renewed, worrying flurry of publicity around the issue recently. On top of Sessions’s announcement, Sean Spicer—Trump’s gum-swallowing, grammatically addled press secretary—suggested last week that Chicago shouldn’t receive federal funding when illegal immigrants are responsible for a substantial portion of the city’s violent crime. “You can’t be a sanctuary city and at the same time seem to pretend or express concern about law enforcement or ask for more money when probably a number of the funds that you’re using in the first place are going to law enforcement to handle the situation that you’ve created for yourself,” he said. As Lynn Sweet pointed out in the Sun-Times on Monday, Spicer’s argument is wholly unjustified: there is no evidence showing that Chicago’s activity as a sanctuary city is connected to its crime rate. And if the grants, which are used for a variety of different law enforcement activities, are eventually axed, expect legal action: Corporation Counsel Ed Siskel, the City’s top lawyer, called Trump’s original executive order “an unconstitutional attempt to force municipal police departments to aid in the enforcement of federal immigration law.”

“It's key that when you are the representative of a ward you are there representing the people who voted you in.” john corrigan...................................8

Chance the Rapper the Mayor? On Friday, March 31, at Paul Robeson High School, Chance the Rapper announced the creation of the New Chance Arts and Literature Fund, which will partner with local organization Ingenuity Inc. to identify and donate to CPS schools that lack arts programs. Last month, Chance announced a personal donation of $1 million to CPS, along with donations from his Social Works initiative to ten individual schools that would directly receive $10,000 each. In the month since his first announcement, Chance’s fund has accumulated $1.2 million more in donations, including $1 million from the Chicago Bulls. Twelve additional schools will also receive $10,000 directly from Social Works. Chance’s philanthropic efforts followed an unsuccessful meeting with Governor Bruce Rauner, in which Chance urged the governor to end the budget crisis engulfing CPS. Ever since, the hashtag #ChanoForMayor has been circulating widely on Twitter. The past week has even seen the creation of a Twitter bot, @chano4mayor2k19, and the website Chano4Mayor. com, interlaced with Chance lyrics, cartoon depictions of him, and a heartfelt call to action for Chance to run in 2019. “We think if you ran, you would win,” it reads. “And if you won, you would do a good ass job.” The website and Twitter bot were created in part by former Weekly editor-in-chief Bea Malsky and former Weekly staffer Jean Cochrane; we particularly recommend a read to the website’s end, where you can find information about voting rights and registration.

Trump’s presidency is not creating new issues but revealing how the old issues stay unsolved. michal kranz....................................4 an otherworldly success

Imani Josey’s The Blazing Star dazzles and connects with readers. neal jochmann..................................6 where is your alderman?

fashion spotlight: standout style

Tamika Maria Price, like the brand she has created, certainly stands out. taylor justin...................................11 bronzeville podcast

This is a theme song about our neighbors! leah menzer....................................12

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APRIL 5, 2017 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 3

Students United in Power High school activists in Brighton Park continue a familiar fight in the Trump era BY MICHAL KRANZ

n the summer and early fall of 2015, all eyes in Chicago’s education community were on the campaign and thirty-fourday hunger strike organized by community organizers, families, and educators, that successfully led to the reopening of Dyett High School in Washington Park as an arts school. Among the activists in the “Save Dyett” campaign were Dyett alumni and students, many of whom mobilized after feeling their communities and schools were being undervalued by city officials. While the Dyett campaign was by no means the first example of students taking part in efforts to support Chicago Public Schools, it brought student activism at the high school level to the forefront of Chicago organizing again. Under the Trump presidency, many students in primarily Latinx neighborhoods, such as Brighton Park, are identifying the parallels between the problems facing their high schools and the wider anti-immigrant climate that has largely become the norm. “Now that Donald Trump is president, those people who once were hiding…now are coming out because they think that it’s okay to be racist or it’s okay to segregate people,” said Jesus Sanchez, a sophomore at Hancock High School. “These people are showing their true colors, and it’s just sparking more fear here in Chicago.” Adding to Sanchez’s argument, Curie High School senior Karina Martinez said Trump’s election sends an even broader message. “It shows that in the U.S., if you have money and you’re wealthy, and you get to have a privileged background, then you get the ability to have power even if you’re unqualified for it.” Martinez, Sanchez, and many of their friends have taken actions to combat Trump’s policies and rhetoric on immigration. “We helped with the march that happened [the day before inauguration day] and we all marched to 55th and Pulaski,” Sanchez said. At this pre-inauguration day protest,

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students chanted slogans related to budget cuts as they marched, drawing parallels between the Trump administration’s priorities and politics in Chicago and Illinois. Martinez and Sanchez are both student activists with the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council (BPNC), a community organization founded in Brighton Park in 1997 to organize residents and to incentivize investment in their area. The group is now focused on mobilizing middle and high school students around education justice and immigration. “Ever since the election people have been talking about it, and I think since the inauguration you’re seeing more actions being taken by students,” said BPNC youth organizer Lynda Lopez, who works primarily with students at Kelly High School. While BPNC students are fighting for an array of causes, they were all inspired to become activists by inequities they experience in their everyday lives. “Most of the activism comes because they see the difficulties in their schools,” said Lopez’s colleague Olivia Abrecht, another BPNC youth organizer. “They’ve had teachers who’ve been laid off, they’re using old textbooks, they’ve seen their after school programs cut, they’ve seen a spike in violence on the Southwest Side, and they see that at the root of that is a lack of funding and this system in Chicago that is prioritizing the white wealthy neighborhoods on the North Side.” Ethan Armour, a junior at Curie High School, said it was his experiences on his school’s track and field team that inspired him to take action. “What made me get involved first was seeing my fellow athletes, not just on the track team but on the soccer team, football team, girls’ soccer team, boys’ soccer team, get injured on the Curie’s field because the

field is in poor condition,” he said. Sanchez shared a similar opinion on the impact this lack of investment brings on students—on the South West Side, certain cuts can potentially put students’ lives at risk. “I heard stories of other schools…not having funding for after-school programs,” he said. “A student should have after school programs in their school because sometimes they can’t go outside because of gang

that wasn’t involved was getting handcuffed and slammed to the floor—there was even videos. This is traumatizing. None of this is normal.” Armour said direct actions at Curie High School against the strong police presence on campus ratcheted up after the Laquan McDonald police tape was made public at the end of 2015. “We would have walkouts [and] there would be

“This isn’t just Trump, these problems have been going on since who knows when. I don’t necessarily think it’s a change. I think it’s waking people up more, now that he’s coming to power. He’s showing them what’s already been going on.” —Ethan Armour, junior at Curie High School

violence or violence in the streets.” However, for many Black and Latino students on the Southwest Side, daily life also requires dealing with police on high school campuses. Armour said many schools’ focus on keeping students in line rather than prioritizing their safety leads to deep-seated trauma. “There was…a situation that actually happened at Curie,” Armour recounted. “It was a fight that happened at Pulaski, on the Orange Line, and you know, even the kids

police and security rounding up students, grabbing them, pulling them, handcuffing them, it was a really traumatizing thing to experience,” Armour said. “That happened because students tried to protest and walk out because we organized it. This was last year.” CPS’s communications office did not reply to the Weekly’s request for comment on police actions against students at their schools. Armour said this cycle of police distrust

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KARINA MIREYA

feeds into the fears of undocumented immigrant students at Curie and other Southwest Side schools. “With what’s going on now with our president, you see these kids getting out of school, they see these law enforcement, and they feel so uncomfortable and fear that one day one of these police officers is going to get in their face and said, ‘Where are your papers, what are you doing here?’ ” Sanchez, Armour, and Veronica Rodriguez, a junior at Back of the Yards College Prep, all have personal stories about individuals they know who could be impacted by Trump’s focus on deportations and ICE raids. They said the current national climate has made undocumented people in their lives fear for their livelihoods like never before. The struggles facing undocumented immigrants and victims of police overreach are thus interrelated, as Armour and

Rodriguez allude to. However, Armour made it clear that he believes the challenges he and his fellow activists are engaging with go back much further than Trump. “This isn’t just Trump, these problems have been going on since who knows when,” he said... “I don’t necessarily think it’s a change. I think it’s waking people up more, now that he’s coming to power. He’s showing them what’s already been going on.” As people continue to organize during the Trump presidency, activists are able to find creative ways to engage with a growing base of disaffected students to find solutions to the problems in their daily lives. “One of the steps we took [to combat immigration fears] was that we created know your rights workshops,” said Rodriguez. “It’s basically to let people know that they have rights and that it doesn’t always have to be a fear to stand up to [law enforcement].” BPNC has worked with students across

high schools in the area to create workshops and clubs like the one at Rodriguez’s high school, said Maria Martinez, who is a sophomore at Hancock High School along with Sanchez. “Our school created clubs like Sueño Libre with help from BPNC. We organized a lot of things with their help.” Rodriguez also hopes to persuade the school board to adopt full sanctuary campus policies. “Last month we went to talk to [the school board] and we mentioned that we want to turn our schools into sanctuaries where students can feel safe and comfortable.” According to Armour, one of the primary strategies student activists use to achieve these goals is walkouts. Students across Chicago stayed home on February 16 as part of the nationwide “Day Without Immigrants,” when around 50,000 CPS students missed school. Armour said students on the Southwest

Side see it as a useful tactic for tackling issues ranging from immigration to the lack of police accountability. “Now I’ve seen what really affects Curie, what gets our administration’s attention, and what it is, is attendance,” he said. “It’s because the school’s trying to become a level one school. So now we know how to get them.” In addition to walkouts, walk-ins have also become an effective tactic. Karina Martinez and her peers at Curie High School have started walking into school on Tuesdays wearing black to raise awareness of the plight of undocumented students and their families. Media attention is another critical tool: Oliva Abrecht brought up a CPS budget hearing in February where seven students including Kelly High School freshman Jennifer Nava testified about impacts of the cuts on their personal lives.. “You’re messing with my nine-year-old nephew’s education, my best friend’s education, my family’s, my community’s education,” she said, according to news reports. Nava’s powerful testimony quickly captured public attention. “Out of that there was a news article, and there started to be a moment,” Abrecht said. A few days later, CPS reversed some of the cuts that impacted majority Latinx schools like Nava’s. While the overarching structural issues that lead to the kinds of budget cuts BPNC organizes against have remained, small victories have brought incremental progress to South West Side communities, empowering students to continue being active in speaking out. “In all those situations you saw the importance of youth voice in the discussion, and so I think that’s what we most try to do at BPNC,” Abrecht said. Abrecht said Nava’s impact demonstrates why it is so important to center student voices in the struggles facing young people’s worlds. In many cases, all it takes for a city or education official to change their mind is an anecdote from an affected student. “You just have to meet them.” ¬

APRIL 5, 2017 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 5

South Side author Imani Josey’s The Blazing Star opens a portal into another world BY NEAL JOCHMANN

NATALIE GONZALEZ

An Otherworldly Success

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ate into The Blazing Star, the new young adult novel by selfdescribed “South Side girl” Imani Josey, the Prince of Egypt leads the main character, Portia, into a palatial dining hall. “Personally, I wouldn’t call our Hyde Park home luxurious, but we didn’t want for anything,” Portia said. “But this room was not luxurious. It was otherworldly.” The same could be said for The Blazing Star itself. The book’s language and imagination are luxurious indeed, but “otherworldly” is the only word for dazzling and richly depicted fictional world into which Portia is thrust when she touches a scarab-decorated artifact during her high school history class that transports her from Hyde Park to ancient Egypt. Once there, Portia eventually discovers that both her sister and their mutual acquaintance have been transported there as well. Throughout Portia’s quest to escape Egypt and return to Chicago, she forges friendships that make it harder for her to leave. Being transported into the past also transforms Portia in magical ways. New powers shock her; she finds that white electricity now sparks painfully from the tips of her fingers. In training, Portia tries to learn how to “use and channel” her awesome abilities. The Blazing Star is as much about Portia’s struggle to use newfound powers for good as it is about her struggle to return to present-day Chicago. “My story is considered portal fantasy,” Josey told me. “I’ve always loved fantasy… magic, unicorns, mythology, that sort of thing.” It’s no wonder she’s succeeded at her attempt to contribute to the genre; the settings, issues, and themes in The Blazing Star have occupied Josey’s creative mind for a long time. “The first part takes place in modern Chicago, where the girls live on the South Side.” For Josey, who has lived in Ashburn and Hyde Park, this choice of setting “wasn't a stretch.” It wasn’t an accident either. Feeling a duty to portray the lively, nuanced Chicago

denied by many non-Chicagoans, Josey wanted to use The Blazing Star to counteract destructive stereotypes of life in her city. “I’m a proud product of Chicago Public Schools,” she explains. “There are so many stories that the world sees that show all of the negative aspects of Chicago; I wanted to share the dream and the vision of a Chicago unseen—a beautiful Black family working together.” “We wanted a Black girl on the cover to stress the diversity of The Blazing Star. We also wanted our model to capture the protagonist's agency and sense of adventure, and for the cover to showcase Black beauty,” Josey said. A “tall order,” Josey said, though she praises the work of her cover artist, who she said rose to the challenge. To accurately portray the otherworldly setting of ancient Egypt, writing The Blazing Star required hefty research. Josey relied on an already deep-seated love of ancient Egyptian culture to alleviate the burden. “Researching the novel took about two years,” she said, “but because history is a personal interest, I can’t said I’ve ever really stopped.” Throughout The Blazing Star, characters discuss gods such as Isis, Osiris, Ra, Amun, and Set. Ancient wedding ceremonies are depicted in strange and fascinating detail. Josey’s work is precise: even relatively obscure groups such as the Seafarers and Hyksos people are seamlessly woven into her novel’s narrative. Chalk Josey’s love of Egypt up to her family: her father was a historian, and her mother was a writer. Under these influences, Josey said she has always enjoyed learning about the past. “When I was a kid,” she said, “my mother had a few framed photos of Cleopatra, Nefertari, Makeda, and Zenobia on our walls. Nefertari, the queen of Ramses II, appealed most to me as a child.” From personal experience, Josey believes that what appeals to a child has real power in their life. The voraciousness of young adult literature’s audience was one of her biggest motivations in writing the

LIT

novel. Why are young readers so eager to be engrossed? “Adolescence is a great time of self-discovery for characters,” she said, and young readers crave these kinds of stories. Josey’s own path of self-discovery and self-development has involved a winding path through various achievements. In addition to having been crowned Miss Chicago and Miss Cook County, Josey has also been a cheerleader for the Chicago Bulls. During her time as Miss Chicago, in 2009, Josey started blogging. Marketing came naturally to her, and she began blogging as a way of connecting with her audience. When Josey began interviewing fellow pageant girls, she found that she enjoyed blogging even more. Eight years after her blog was created, it has become “Introvert Problems,” a podcast in which Josey and her fellow contributors interview authors and other creative professionals. Despite the many claims on Josey’s time and attention, she still manages to achieve balance. Management and prioritization are essential, Josey knows, “especially when I'm on some sort of deadline.” As a writer, Josey also knows she needs solitude to work.

“Those authors who write to music? Nope, not me,” she said. Originating in solitude, her work has now achieved worldwide appeal. Since the publication of The Blazing Star, Josey has interacted with bloggers and reviewers from Egypt, Pakistan, Istanbul, Sri Lanka, Ireland, Australia, and beyond. “My favorite part is seeing what [my readers] react to,” Josey said. “What inspires them, and what strikes a chord, are often the same themes (sisterhood, overcoming obstacles, personal development). It shows exactly how the human experience is so connected.” Though glad about her success, Josey isn’t stopping to celebrate. Her literary career continues to blossom; since late 2016, both the Crossed Genres’ Hidden Youth Anthology and the Young Adult Review Network have featured her stories. At the moment, she is doing the hard work of editing the second installment in The Blazing Star series. Though her work is far from over, she is well on her way to making her neighborhood proud. ¬

“My favorite part is seeing what [my readers] react to… what inspires them, and what strikes a chord.”

APRIL 5, 2017 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 7

Where is Your Alderman? Low attendance rates in City Council take ward interests off the table BY JOHN CORRIGAN

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he Chicago City Council’s Committee on Committees, Rules and Ethics (CCRE) met on December 1, 2015 to appoint two people to the city’s board of ethics. The committee’s chairman, Alderman Michelle Harris, was not present for the vote; neither were any of the three vice chairmen, Aldermen Carrie Austin, Ed Burke, and Marty Quinn. In a room filled with empty seats, seven of the committee’s fifty members confirmed the appointees by voice vote, with four in opposition. The other thirty-nine were nowhere to be found. On average, almost fifty percent of aldermen skip out on the CCRE each time it convenes. It may come as little surprise that discussions on bylaws, meeting procedures, and organizational disputes don’t draw huge crowds, but the CCRE isn’t unique in its shoddy attendance. In fact, a number of arguably less wonky committees have worse absence rates, including the Committee on Education and Child Development, where one can expect less than forty-five percent of members to show up. Of City Council’s sixteen standing committees, only two have boasted an average attendance of more than seventy-five percent over the last six years. Although final votes do not occur in committee, when aldermen don’t show up to committee meetings, they miss out on discussions of substantive legislation. In doing so, they remove their voice, and the voice of their constituents, from the table. According to data from the Chicago City Clerk’s office, the average alderman made it to roughly seventy-two percent of their total meetings between January 2011 and January 2017. The data was collected from the clerk’s LegiStar database and covers about seventy percent of all meetings during this timeframe. Among sitting aldermen, attendance rates vary widely, ranging from some at more than ninety percent to others just above fifty percent. Over the last six years, eight sitting aldermen have played hooky for more than four of every ten meetings— Aldermen Michael Zalewski (23rd Ward), Daniel Solis (25th Ward), Ricardo Muñoz (22nd Ward), Proco “Joe” Moreno (1st Ward), Carrie Austin (34th Ward), Roberto Maldonado (26th Ward), George Cardenas (12th Ward), and Howard Brookins, Jr. (21st Ward) each have attendance rates between fifty and sixty percent. On the other end of the spectrum, five aldermen boast attendance rates of

over ninety percent—freshmen Aldermen Michael Scott Jr. (24th Ward), Gregory Mitchell (7th Ward), Raymond Lopez (15th Ward), and Brian Hopkins (2nd Ward), along with Alderman Ariel Reboyras, who’s helmed the 30th Ward since 2003. All Meetings Are Not Equal To better understand these rates, it helps to break them down into two different figures: attendance at City Council general meetings and attendance at committee meetings. For the most part, aldermen show up to City Council meetings. That’s where bills get final approval and the public sees their aldermen at work. Nobody’s attendance rate at City Council dips below eighty-six percent. In fact, there are twentyfour aldermen who haven’t missed a single meeting. It’s the committee meetings that mostly drive variance in attendance. When examining only committee data, the rates drop across the board. Aldermen Scott and Reboyras still lead the pack with attendance above ninety percent, but at the bottom of the pile, rates for Aldermen Brookins, Cardenas, and Maldonado stand at or below forty percent. Among sitting aldermen, there doesn’t seem to be a consensus regarding the importance of attending committee meetings. For Brookins, “all committee meetings are not equal.” While he tries to attend meetings that involve important hearings and debate, he views most as mere procedure, passing along uneventful service items like stop signs, awnings, and parking permits. If the legislative items don’t relate to his ward, he finds no value in being there for approval. “I don't feel like I'm missing out if [the meeting involves] nothing controversial,” he said. “I'm not going to a meeting to waste my time.” Though Brookins said he was unaware he missed sixty percent of his committee meetings since 2011, he gave a couple explanations for his low attendance. He first noted that his private law practice requires him to make his schedule up to a month in advance, and if a committee meeting gets called on short notice, it sometimes overlaps with prior obligations. “If I have a conflict and there's nothing major in that meeting then I'm going to what I have previously scheduled,” he said. Brookins also said he belongs to more

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committees than many of his colleagues, so when meetings overlap, it’s impossible to attend both. However, like Brookins, 30th Ward Alderman Ariel Reboyras also sits on ten committees, but his attendance rate is more than forty points higher. While Reboyras concedes that many meetings involve mostly routine items, for him, showing up is no less important. And show up he does. Reboyras boasts the second highest attendance rate of any sitting alderman, at 92.7 percent. His committee attendance comes in at 91.6 percent, just a tenth of a point shy of freshman Alderman Scott, who holds the top spot. “I think the least we can do as elected officials is be present when there's a committee hearing on any subject matter, no matter how difficult it might be, no matter how easy of a vote it's going to be,” Reboyras said. “It's key that when you are the representative of a ward you are there representing the people who voted you in.” Civic obligation aside, Reboyras believes aldermen can reap concrete benefits from attending meetings, even on the most mundane issues. He recalls many instances during his tenure when service legislation proposed by other aldermen sparked new ideas he could use in his own ward. What’s especially notable about Reboyras’s attendance rate is how long he’s kept it up. Among the city’s top ten best-attending aldermen, only four took office before 2015. Reboyras and 3rd Ward Alderman Pat Dowell are the only aldermen in the top ten who took office before 2011. According to the data, consistent attendance doesn’t usually last as long as Reboyras’s thirteen-year tenure. Freshman aldermen tend to show up frequently early in their terms, but their absences increase over time. For the thirty-six sitting alderman who took office before 2015, the average attendance rate stands at 70.9 percent. On the other hand, the fourteen aldermen who took office in 2015 or later average about eightyone percent attendance. As these freshman aldermen’s terms continue, their attendance rates may slowly decline to the long-term average.

DATA ANALYSIS BY JOHN CORRIGAN DATA VISUALIZATION BY ELLEN HAO

Legislative Heavy Lifting Political researcher Dick Simpson finds committee attendance an especially telling indicator of aldermen’s involvement in the legislative process. A political science

APRIL 5, 2017 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 9

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DATA ANALYSIS BY JOHN CORRIGAN / DATA VISUALIZATION BY ELLEN HAO

Top five aldermen with the best committee attendance professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and former 44th Ward alderman, Simpson said committee meetings are where the majority of legislating takes place. Though most committee meetings do involve the passage of bills covering ward service items, debate and discussion over substantive, city-wide legislation also occur here. Thus, he said, if someone wants to have a said in how broad policy changes get put into effect, they need to show up to their committees. In Simpson’s eyes, aldermen who fail to attend committees are selling their constituents short. “They aren't staying on top of legislation,” he said. “They're not even seeing opportunities for service legislation they should be guiding through the council. My general sense is that the aldermen who don't attend are among the worst aldermen.” By going through the motions and removing themselves from committee discussions, aldermen cede more control to committee chairmen, whose presence at the table is essentially guaranteed. Chairmen make their meetings ninety-seven percent of the time on average. Part of this may have to do with scheduling—chairs call the meetings, so they won’t plan one if they can’t attend—but beyond that, they’re the members carrying real power. Chairmen determine what hearings get held, what legislation comes before committee, and how it’s introduced to the council. Without general members there to voice potential opposition, the chairman’s agenda gets a virtual fast-pass to City Council. Depending on the chair’s political allegiances, this could render the committee a rubber stamp for the mayor’s legislation. For instance, 14th Ward Alderman Ed Burke chairs the Committee on Finance, 10 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

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arguably the most powerful standing committee. Since the City Clerk began collecting data in 2011, Burke hasn’t missed a single finance committee meeting. A study by Dick Simpson and other researchers from UIC also found that Burke sided with Mayor Rahm Emanuel in one hundred percent of the divided (non-unanimous) roll call votes between June 2015 and April 2016. If Burke, and transitively Emanuel, control the money, they control Chicago government. Opposing this “rubber stamp city council,” as Simpson’s study calls it, requires aldermen to constantly and actively participate in discussion of the complex issues Chicago government deals with. This requires grasping the issues in the first place. Simpson said one of the biggest black boxes in Chicago government is the city budget, which he speculates few aldermen truly understand. “It takes work to study the city budget,” he said. “It's easy enough if you just want something for your ward. You can get the administration department to put in a budget line for your one item. But to actually understand the budget and try to find money so all sorts of things can be done for the city, most aldermen don't do that heavy lifting.” Holding Aldermen Accountable The unfortunate truth is that aldermen generally have little incentive to attend committees to which they were appointed. Unlike City Council meetings, where the press and the public can call out absentees, only a couple committees, like the Committee on Finance, get fairly consistent media coverage. If constituents want to keep an eye on their aldermen themselves, they have to navigate the convoluted Legistar

database where the City Clerk’s office keeps public records. Frequently, the information isn’t even there. The data used for this story encompasses only 69.4 percent of City Council and committee meetings. The other 30.6 percent of meetings don’t have publicly available attendance records. According to a source at the Office of the City Clerk, even though the clerk’s office operates LegiStar, the individual committees are responsible for submitting their own records. Because the committees have no legal obligation to submit records for public display, they directly control how much the public does or doesn’t know. Some committees are more secretive than others. While the Committee on Economic, Capital and Technology Development published attendance records for all but three of its fifty-one meetings over the last six years, the Committee on Finance operates more off the grid. It submitted attendance records for about sixty-four percent of its 133 meetings. The Committee

“They aren't staying on top of legislation. They're not even seeing opportunities for service legislation they should be guiding through the council. My general sense is that the aldermen who don't attend are among the worst aldermen.” —Dick Simpson, UIC professor on Budget and Government Operations convened 128 times since January 2011, but only forty-nine attendance records are available. Without a basic level of transparency, constituents cannot accurately track their alderman’s attendance. And if aldermen know they won’t face repercussions for absences, they have less incentive to show up. Insufficient public accountability frees aldermen to do as they please, whether that’s committee chairmen chauffeuring the mayor’s agenda through City Council or aldermen removing themselves from the process altogether. ¬

FASHION

FASHION SPOTLIGHT

Standout Style

Bridgeport-based boutique offers high style without the high prices BY TAYLOR JUSTIN This is the second in a series spotlighting South Side clothing stores and businesses.

hat makes fashion icons such as Zendaya, Solange Knowles, and the beloved fictional fashion maven Carrie Bradshaw stand out? Well, their style, of course. Whether it be gracing Vogue or the red carpet, these women (and characters) have embraced a style that is truly one-of-a-kind. To Tamika Maria Price, founder of Standout Style, these celebrities and, perhaps, the stylists behind their looks, stand out because of their ability to be bold, free, and even experimental. The same could be said about both the women who shop at and the owner behind this truly special Bridgeport clothing boutique. Tamika Maria Price, like the brand she has created, certainly stands out. Her outgoing spirit and personality are laced with a story of overcoming struggle—a motivation for budding female entrepreneurs. Growing up, Price had to deal with homelessness throughout most of her teenage years. She was determined that when she became selfsufficient, she would never be in that situation again. While working in corporate America, like any true entrepreneur, Price began a side business as a personal stylist. In 2008, she fully pursued her passion and launched A-Line Style Services. As Price’s business began to build, both local and national figures definitely took notice. Within six months of starting her business, Price received a call from the Rachael Ray show to be featured as an on-air stylist. Throughout her early career and even now, she reflects on how her years of being homeless impacted her journey to success. Her struggle prepared her for entrepreneurialism. “It prepped me for the stresses and for the hard times, because I am not a stranger to hard times,” Price said. Reflecting on those difficult days has kept Price moving towards

bigger and better business ventures such as her Standout Style boutique. Standout Style was launched in 2014. Discouraged by the lack of options for curvier, everyday women, Price decided to open her own boutique where women from sizes XS to 3XL could find a look that worked best for their body type. She created a boutique for the “Shop Style Girl.” With the evolving fashion taste of the Midwestern customer, it was important for Price to embrace and carry pieces designed for the women she knew how to style well. “I have always been able to style curvy frames,” said Price. These women epitomize the Standout Style girl. “She loves wearable style,” she said. “She likes trends, but also loves classic style too.” The Standout customer is someone who is on the go, whether that be the busy mom or the bustling entrepreneur. She is a woman who wants great style, but “without the sticker shock,” Price said. Price’s clothing store is not just a store, but a truly standout experience for every woman that enters through the door. Price relocated her shop to Bridgeport for a more convenient shopping experience for her faithful “standout clients.” Of course, the bigger space and free parking also aided in her decision to move to the neighborhood. Price describes her boutique as “experience intensive...We are a place where girlfriends meet.” Upon entering Standout Style Boutique, you can expect one-on-one service, being offered a beverage, honest styling experience, and my personal favorite: a really great music playlist. Price does not want any of her customers to feel like they do not belong or that they have entered into “just another clothing store.” In addition to exceptional customer service, the place where “girlfriends meet” is an extension of the shopping selection at Standout Style. At this South Side boutique, shoppers will also find an array of local designer goods from

TAYLOR JUSTIN

fellow shop owners and other budding female entrepreneurs. Price carries local designers such as South Side jewelry designer and shop owner Mashallah, Passport by SP, and hatmaker Angela Morano. Price sees collaboration as highly valuable to her business and to her store’s personal shopping experience. She has held several collaborative events with local bloggers and fellow shop owners and says that it is, ultimately, a “win-win.” Collaborating rather than competing has led Price to experience other opportunities, like her successful, ongoing Boss Babe pop-up shop located at Block 37 on State Street. The pop-up has generated some great buzz for her brand and exposed the brand to new clientele who prefer the convenience of the downtown in-person boutique experience. After celebrating three years this past month, Tamika Price is in continuous pursuit to expand her standout brand. Within the next few months, Price plans on offering private label Standout Style footwear, so that

her customers can be styled from head to toe. Outside of the boutique, she plans to release a book that will focus on one of her biggest passions, female entrepreneurism, and she will continue to focus on building a community of women entrepreneurs in the city of Chicago. Price is certainly, if not already, well on her way of making Standout Style, a “must shop” boutique in the city of Chicago. ¬ Standout Style, 3353 S. Morgan Street. Wednesday-Friday, 12pm-7pm. Saturday and Sunday, 12pm-5pm. Boss Babe pop-up shop location, 108. N. State St. Monday-Saturday, 11am-7pm, now through March 31, 2017. Taylor Justin is the founder of The Haute Seeker, a Chicago-based cultural lifestyle blog. She currently lives in Pilsen and enjoys art gallery hops, vintage thrift shops, and exploring South Side eateries with a few great friends.

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STAGE & SCREEN

Bronzeville: The Podcast

A review of a new online radio show set in the Black Metropolis BY LEAH MENZER TURTEL ONLI

he policy, the numbers game The church, the folks / Help make the change, We’re not here just to survive / it’s a way we all can thrive Livin’ in Bronzeville, all of my dreams are real all of my dreams are so real Livin’ in Bronzeville... It’s the first minute of the new podcast Bronzeville, and the theme song runs through me like a joyous whisper. This is our city they are singing about, people! This is a theme song about our neighbors! Bronzeville, an online radio show, is a ten-part series that premiered February 7. An episode is released every Tuesday. The eye-catching executive producers and main promoters for the show are actors Laurence Fishburne, Larenz Tate, and Tate’s brother, Larron Tate. Since this podcast is a miniHollywood production, there is a long list of other executive producers and contributors, and the show has received national attention in response. According to NBC News, Larenz Tate described the show as “theater of the mind,” and it features high-caliber acting. The cast is full of black actors, in sharp contrast to the chart-topping podcasts on iTunes, most of 12 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

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which are hosted by white men and women. (Bronzeville sits at 114th place.) Its format, which utilizes a lot of first-person, may take some getting used to for some listeners. The listener is right there in the scene with the characters, like in a movie. The show is moved along non-diegetically by a narrator who sets the scene by saying things like “1946, Grand Crossing in Chicago.” One of the first times the sound-design of the show becomes jarring is when we first meet the character Jimmy Tillman, played by co-producer and co-director Larenz Tate himself. Soon after we are introduced to him, Tillman is forced to kill a cartoonish, hateful white racist who comes after him. At first, acts of violence like this scene feel satisfying to the listener, because you are still getting used to the act of listening for its audio signs: knife sounds, fighting noises, grunts. But as the series goes on, the violence feels less heroic, and more tragic. The show focuses on two main families, the Randolphs and the Copelands, as well as Jimmy Tillman, who gets mixed up with both. Laurence Fishburne plays Curtis “Eyeball” Randolph, an empire-builder, the type who’s gotten mixed up with Al Capone here and there, and turned “straight” and “narrow-ish” with help from the love of his life, Anna, who is played with warmth by

Golden Globe–winner Tracee Ellis Ross. Curtis heads the first black-owned bank in the U.S., the fictional Caldwell Bank. The Copelands run the famed “policy wheels,” betting games that were especially popular in Black neighborhoods in midcentury Chicago. Acting basically like a localized lottery, the wheels were used to keep money within the neighborhood, and to fund political and community events. Although they were technically illegal, law enforcement largely overlooked the games. There are four Copeland siblings: Everett, who we meet serving jail time for tax evasion in Terre Haute, Indiana; Zeke and Jesse, who are running the policy wheels on the outside; and their younger sister Lisa, who has just graduated from a segregated Northwestern University. Lisa, played with reserved nuance by Tika Sumpter, is the star of the Copeland family, the character with the most “eartime.” With her heroine smarts, she is the hope for her family to make it in the “the straight world” (read “the white world”). We are introduced to Lisa early on as she interacts her white “best friend” Marjorie, who “tries” to get Lisa to be allowed to walk at their segregated graduation from Northwestern, and who also “tries” to get Lisa invited to her wedding at a segregated country club.

Within the plot of the show, it is revealed to us that Marjorie turns out to be the daughter of the mayor, presumably Mayor H. Kennelly, the same mayor who starts allowing raids on her family’s policy wheels, because of some political mechanizations. Lisa comes to Marjorie and asks her to talk to her father about stopping the raids on the policy wheels. Marjorie refuses, citing “you can’t build anything on the back of crime.” Lisa burns her with class, replying, “Forgive me, your family made its money on the back of the slave trade,” an interaction representative of the wit and candor with which Lisa’s character is written throughout the entire series. In an interview with WBEZ, the Tates and writer Josh Olson said they based much of the show off the book Black Metropolis, the landmark study of race in Chicago first published in 1945. Yet it is difficult to ignore the parallels between the forties-set show and today—they create a pressing mandate for change. This podcast is ideal for anyone interested in local history, or anyone who wants to learn a historical fact or two from Laurence Fishburne. For those who enjoy the serial experience, there is still time to catch up: the show just released its penultimate episode, with one more to go. ¬

BULLETIN The Black Women’s Expo McCormick Place, 2301 S. King Dr. April 7–April 9. Friday–Saturday, 10am–7pm; Sunday, 10 am–6pm. Prices vary for different events; free–$100. (312) 454-6100. theblackwomensexpo.com Celebrate the aspirations and achievements of Black women at the twenty-third annual Black Women’s Expo. This three-day-long event will highlight small business and feature numerous speakers, celebrity guests, live performances, and seminars on topics ranging from Black love to business skills to discussions on health and beauty. (Adia Robinson)

Bronzeville Walk of Fame Walking Tour Tour begins at 35th St. and King Dr. Saturday, April 8, 1pm–3pm. $15. Tickets at bit.ly/bronzevilletour Focusing on Bronzeville’s unparalleled public art presence, this walking tour will proceed down King Drive in search of murals and other works integral to the community. The tour will be led by Bernard Turner, a prolific expert on Chicago history. (Sarah Fineman)

Let’s Take Action in Englewood Together R.A.G.E. Office, 6620 S. Union Ave., ste. 2. Saturday, April 8, 11:30am–1pm. Free. (866) 845-1032. ragenglewood.org The Resident Association of Greater Englewood (R.A.G.E.) invites residents of Englewood to learn more about R.A.G.E. initiatives at their Open House and New Member Orientation. Enjoy light refreshments while learning about ways to take action in the community. (Adia Robinson)

Queendom Recharge

VISUAL ARTS Lesley Jackson: Walking with Rilke 4th Ward Project Space, 5338 S. Kimbark Ave. Opening reception Sunday, April 9, 4pm–7pm. Saturdays, 1pm–5pm, through Saturday, May 6, or by appointment. Free. (773) 203-2991. 4wps.org Multimedia artist Lesley Jackson uses objects like gathered leaves, a rubber band, and tree bark to evoke the “romantic struggle with mortality” of the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke at this monthlong exhibition in Hyde Park. ( Jake Bittle)

BURN353 Elephant Room Gallery, 704 S. Wabash Ave. Opening reception Saturday, April 8, 6pm–9pm. Saturdays, 11am–5pm, through April 29, or by appointment. (312) 361-0281. elephantroomgallery.com This solo exhibition by artist BURN353, a graffiti and mixed media artist from downstate Illinois, looks back on a childhood spent spray-painting freight trains and watching hip-hop films, and showcases pieces from his extensive painting and design work. ( Jake Bittle)

Ghost Pattern Waves Gallery 400, 400 S. Peoria St. Opening reception Friday, April 7, 5pm–8pm. On view through Saturday, April 8, with performances Tuesday, April 4, 11am; Wednesday, April 5, Friday, April 7, and Saturday, April 8, noon. (312) 996-6114. gallery400.uic.edu This thesis exhibition by three MFA candidates at UIC will feature performance art with an interactive apparatus, new media art “drawing from a fascination with amusement park rides and magic tricks,” and painting that explores “place, memory, and the natural world.” ( Jake Bittle)

As a Shadow Before the Law

The Silver Room, 1506 E. 53rd St. Tuesday, April 11, 6pm–8pm. $7. Tickets at bit.ly/rechargequeen

Ballroom Projects, 3012 S. Archer Ave, #3. Opening reception Saturday, April 8, 7pm– 10pm. Through April 28. (312) 972-5691. facebook.com/ballroomprojects

Every full moon, Nicolia “FLYKelly” Kelly hosts an evening dedicated to bringing women together in community and mutual healing. April’s event, to be led by Rashida Khan Bey, will include relaxation and empowerment activities from yoga to coloring. (Sarah Fineman)

This Bridgeport exhibition featuring two Chicago-based artists, Josh Rios and Anthony Romero, will show how “injustices of distribution and injustices of recognition” are “interrelated and inseparable.” The abstract event description promises an APRIL 5, 2017 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 13

EVENTS

exploration of how we experience “symbolic and material alienation...within one’s own land.” ( Jake Bittle)

MUSIC Greg Murphy The Promontory, 5311 S. Lake Park Ave. W. Wednesday, April 5. 6pm doors, 7pm show. $20. (312) 801-2100. promontorychicago.com Legendary pianist and composer Greg Murphy returns to Chicago this week to perform at the Promontory. Murphy’s music, which blurs the lines between Afro-Cuban music, pop, and jazz, will be accompanied by a performance from the award-winning Ray Blue Quartet, which will offer a similar mixture of jazz and African groove. (Adia Robinson)

Margo Price Thalia Hall, 1807 S. Allport St., Friday, April 7, 8pm. $20–$35. This event is sold out, but visit website by noon April 5 to enter for two free tickets. (312) 526-3851. thaliahallchicago.com This poetic country songstress mixes vulnerability and resilience, more reminiscent of Loretta and Dolly than current Music Row chart-toppers, on her debut album—perhaps in hopes of soothing listeners through their hardships and heartaches, as music did for her during her early adult years. (Nicole Bond)

Centennial Brooks with Nicole Mitchell and Jamila Woods Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E. 60th St. Saturday, April 8, 7:30pm–9:30pm. Free. voices.uchicago.edu/brooks100 Flutist Nicole Mitchell has composed “Gwendolyn Brooks: New Art and Anthem,” combining the creative forces of music and poetry to honor the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet. Mitchell’s Black Earth Ensemble will present the work to conclude the UofC’s Centennial Brooks festival. A performance by musician and poet Jamila Woods will follow. (Sarah Fineman)

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STAGE & SCREEN Vine Culture Now playing on Vimeo at bit.ly/2oSabYo If you enjoyed the Weekly’s piece on 57th Street Wines in January, explore the shop further by viewing this short-film interview with 57th Street Wines sommelier Derrick Westbrook. FeelSoReel director Reginald J. Rice pairs crisp and filtered shots with a mellow musical score by Manesey to pour the true notes of a conscientious sommelier. (Nicole Bond)

Centennial Brooks: Opening Night DuSable Museum of African-American History, 740 E. 56th Pl. Thursday, April 6, 7pm. Free. (773) 947-0600. voices.uchicago.edu/brooks100 Come to the opening night of Centennial Brooks, a three-day celebration put on by the UofC and DuSable in honor of the once longtime Poet Laureate of Illinois, Gwendolyn Brooks. The poets Sonia Sanchez, Haki Madhubuti, and Angela Jackson will read, followed by a reception including Nora Brooks Blakeley, Brooks’s daughter. The celebration will continue the rest of the weekend with scholarly panels, readings, and music. (Michael Wasney)

Neo-Futurists: Process Workshop Performance Mana Contemporary Chicago, 2233 S. Throop Street. Saturday, April 8, 1pm. Free. (312) 850-0555. highconceptlaboratories.org Members of the experimental theater company The Neo-Futurists led a twomonth-long class on their artistic process at High Concept Labs—you can see what they learned this Saturday, when they showcase the short plays produced by the workshop students. (Michael Wasney)

Beyond Caring Lookingglass Theatre, Water Tower Water Works, 821 N. Michigan Ave. Through May 7. Wednesdays through Sundays, 7:30pm; Saturdays and Sundays, 2pm. General admission $55-$65. (312) 337-0665. lookingglasstheatre.org

Writer-director Alexander Zeldin and Dark Harbor Stories have reimagined for Chicago the acclaimed British play The Guardian, about unseen minimum wage temp workers on the fringes of society, fighting just to scrape by. Beyond Caring shines a spotlight on the hardship people endure in the grinding shadow economy. ( Joseph S. Pete)

Chicago Home Theater Festival with Nikki Zaleski and the Illinois Caucus on Adolescent Health Hyde Park Art Center, 5020 S. Cornell Ave. Sunday, April 9, 1pm–3pm. (773) 324-5520. hydeparkart.org Director/playwright Nikki Zaleski, ICAH, and Chicago Home Theater Festival team up with a variety of organizations such as City Bureau and the Chicago Park District for this interactive workshop, which will use the principles of Pleasure, Pretend, Practice, and Power to create Neighborhood Field Guides on reproductive histories. By participating, you will contribute to ICAH’s mission of educating and organizing for reproductive justice for Illinois youth. (Nicole Bond)

Afro-Pop Series: Intore Stony Island Arts Bank, 6760 S. Stony Island Ave. Friday, April 7, 7pm–9pm. Free. (312) 857-5561. rebuild-foundation.org Filmmaker Eric Kabera combines traditional Rwandan music and dance with moving interviews of those involved in and affected by the country’s genocide, Rwandan leaders, upcoming artists, and more to show how they have recovered from a tragic past by regaining—as well as renewing—an identity. A discussion with Black Cinema House curator Jacqueline Najuma Stewart follows the film. (Nicole Bond)

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