August 5, 2021

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SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY The South Side Weekly is an independent non-profit newspaper by and for the South Side of Chicago. We provide high-quality, critical arts and public interest coverage, and equip and develop journalists, artists, photographers, and mediamakers of all backgrounds.

Volume 8, Issue 18 Editor-in-Chief Jacqueline Serrato Managing Editor Martha Bayne Senior Editors Christian Belanger Christopher Good Rachel Kim Emeline Posner Adam Przybyl Olivia Stovicek Sam Stecklow Arts Editor Politics Editor Education Editor Housing Editor Community Organizing Editor Immigration Editor

Isabel Nieves Jim Daley Madeleine Parrish Malik Jackson Chima Ikoro Alma Campos

Contributing Editors Lucia Geng Matt Moore

Francisco Ramírez Pinedo Jocelyn Vega Scott Pemberton Staff Writers Kiran Misra Yiwen Lu Data Editor

Jasmine Mithani

Director of Fact Checking: Kate Gallagher Fact Checkers: Susan Chun, Grace Del Vecchio, Hannah Faris, Maria Maynez, Olivia Stovicek Visuals Editor Haley Tweedell Deputy Visuals Editors Shane Tolentino Mell Montezuma Anna Mason Staff Illustrators Mell Montezuma, Shane Tolentino Layout Editors Haley Tweedell Davon Clark Tony Zralka Web Editor Social Media Editor Webmaster Managing Director Director of Operations

AV Benford Davon Clark Pat Sier Jason Schumer Brigid Maniates

The Weekly is produced by a mostly 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 Photo by Seed Lynn.

Courtesy Kindred Arts.

IN CHICAGO

IN THIS ISSUE

Chicago wins elected school board Chicago will be transitioning to a fully elected school board by 2027, according to a bill signed into law by Gov. J.B. Pritzker on July 29. The city currently has a seven-member school board appointed by the mayor; under this bill, a hybrid board will be installed in 2025. The hybrid board will include 11 members appointed to two-year terms, including the board president, and ten members elected to four-year terms. By 2027, the board will consist of 11 elected members. Only U.S. citizens will be eligible to run and vote, though a proposal currently in the Illinois Senate would allow non-citizen parents and guardians to vote for the elected school board. The bill is a win for advocates from the Chicago Teachers Union, Raise Your Hand Illinois, the Lugenia Burns Hope Center, and the Kenwood-Oakland Community Organization, who among many others have been pushing for an elected school board for years—though some say the transition period is still too long. The first elections will be held in fall of 2024.

public meetings report

Eviction moratorium extended On August 3, the CDC issued a new eviction moratorium that could cover ninety percent of renters in areas where there are surging cases of COVID-19.

The new moratorium will last until October 3. While states and cities have yet to adapt their policies to this specific moratorium, the extended time frame could help them exhaust over $45 billion in rental assistance—only $3 billion had been allocated by the end of June. The Lawyers Committee for Better Housing and Loyola University predict a backlog of at least 30,000 evictions in Chicago alone. While harassment and illegal evictions are likely to continue behind closed doors, remember: tenants always have the right to fight an eviction in court. Organizations like Legal Aid Chicago and Lawyers Committee for Better Housing provide free legal counsel to tenants facing eviction, and tenants rights organizations like the Chicago Tenants Movement and the Metropolitan Tenants Organization can advise on navigating complex circumstances with your landlord. If an eviction is filed, a tenant is legally entitled to stay in their home until the court sends the county sheriff to carry out the eviction, which can take up to eight months. Lastly, although rental assistance programs at the city level have closed for now, there are still rent and utility bill assistance programs available through the Illinois Housing Development Authority, and Cook County recently announced the Legal Aid for Housing and Debt program as an alternative for landlords and tenants who want to reach a solution without going to court.

op-ed: finding tenochtitlan in chicago

A Cubs obituary Meanwhile on the North Side, the Cubs went through an upheaval that sent shock waves throughout Major League Baseball. In what can only be described as a fire sale, the Cubs traded away the heart of their 2016 curse-breaking championship team. Gone are core players Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, and Javier Baez. With their contracts set to expire at the end of this season and Cubs ownership crying broke, it was a move that many saw coming after a recent eleven-game losing streak. Management traded away seven players within about twenty-four hours, with players heading off to New York, San Francisco, Oakland and the South Side. Yes, even the White Sox got in on the action, acquiring closer Craig Kimbrel. The trade between the Cubs and Sox serves to underscore the opposite directions of the clubs. While the Sox are looking like a lock for World Series baseball, the Cubs have closed the book on the season, and truthfully many seasons, with fans hurting over the loss. The 2016 Cubs team will forevermore be compared to the 1985 Bears: overwhelming talent that took on their respective leagues like meteors, only to burn out far too quickly.

A recap of select open meetings at the local, county, and state level. documenters, jacqueline serrato..4 the democratic socialist caucus gets to work

The new coalition of five alderpeople pushes a progressive agenda in City Council corey schmidt....................................5 black monuments

Going from city to city, the Monumental Tour is an act of cultural equity. isabel nieves......................................8 Tenochtitlan fell to the Spanish 500 years ago this month, but the Aztec capital and Chicago continue to speak to each other across time and space. carlos ramirez-rosa and ismael cuevas jr.......................10 the road from punishment to restorative justice

Hyde Park Academy takes the step to replace one SRO with a dean of climate and culture. grace del vecchio...........................12 old wounds

Officer Nicholas Jovanovich beat a Black teenager for talking back eleven years ago. jim daley...........................................14 cpd’s pattern and practice of home invasions

Does the Anjanette Young Ordinance, which would ban no-knock warrants, go far enough? maira khwaja and trina reynoldstyler, invisible institute..............16 new illinois bill will interrupt the state’s deportation pipeline, but not stop it

Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the Illinois Way Forward Act, which bans immigration detention in the state, but what will happen to individuals currently detained? madison muller...............................18 calendar

Bulletin and events.

South Side Weekly Staff..............20

Public Meetings Report ILLUSTRATION BY HOLLEY APPOLD

July 20 Land owned by the City of Chicago that was formerly the site of Michael Reese Hospital was approved for sale to the GRIT redevelopment team at the City Council Committee on Housing and Real Estate meeting in anticipation of the City Council meeting the next day. The base sale cost is $96.9 million, and the City will offer development incentives, including a $60-million infrastructure project.

GRIT comprises Farpoint Development, Loop Capital Management, McLaurin Development Partners, Draper & Kramer, Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives, and Bronzeville Community Development Partnership.

The compromise ordinance to create a community commission for public safety and police accountability passed the City Council Public Safety Committee just in time to be included in the City Council agenda the next day. Commonly known as the Empowering Communities for Public Safety (ECPS) ordinance, the measure would create a seven-member appointed commission tasked with civilian oversight of policies, leadership, and disciplinary processes related to the Chicago Police Department (CPD). Each of the City’s twenty-two police districts would have an elected threemember council to liaise with community members in order to advise the citywide commission.

July 21 By a vote of 36–13, the City Council passed the ECPS ordinance creating a citywide commission and district-level councils to hold the police department to account. The mayor will retain the power to appoint commissioners, albeit at the recommendation of a civilian nominating committee. A vote of no confidence in the fitness of the CPD superintendent, a Police Board member, or the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) chief requires a two thirds vote of the commission. The mayor would be obligated to implement such a vote. The City Council also approved what the Department of Planning and Development is calling “the largest private investment project in South Side history” at the former Michael Reese Hospital site. The project is expected to take twenty years to build and will extend well beyond the boundaries of the site to about one hundred acres total.

During the Cook County Board of Commissioners Finance Committee mid-year budget hearings, Chief Judge Timothy Evans reported that the county’s courts have been open. His statement was a rebuke to Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s repeated claims that crime is up because the Cook County Courts were “shut down” due to the pandemic. Lightfoot and CPD officials have also blamed recent violence on efforts to reduce the number of people jailed while on bond. Evans defended cash bail reform.

He explained that although some individuals accused of murder were released on electronic monitoring over the Fourth of July weekend, they have not been linked to a surge in violence. Cash bail will officially end in Illinois effective January 2023. On average ninety-seven percent of individuals on pretrial release in 2020 did not commit violent crimes during that time, according to quarterly reports on the circuit court’s 4 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

¬ AUGUST 5, 2021

A recap of select open meetings at the local, county, and state level for the August 5 issue.

BY DOCUMENTERS, JACQUELINE SERRATO

website. Cook County Public Defender Sharone Mitchell also rejected the narrative that a sluggish justice system had fostered more crime, pointing out that the courts have processed 7,000 of some 13,000 backlogged cases.

Ninety percent of current COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths are among the unvaccinated, Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady reported at the Department of Public Health Board of Health meeting. Cases are concentrated in areas where vaccination rates among residents dip below fifty percent. Despite the overwhelming evidence showing the South and West Sides are undervaccinated compared to the city average, Arwady did not appear concerned about COVID spread at Lollapalooza, a festival that attracted at least 100,000 people per day to Grant Park for four days, and which the mayor allowed to proceed.

Youth participants from Austin were surprised by the City budget at one of two sameday events conducted by the People’s Budget Chicago and hosted by Chicago United for Equity and BUILD, Inc. In an exercise, one group chose to allocate $12 for every $100 to the carceral system budget, while another group set aside $1. At a follow-up cookout on July 23, one participant asked if People’s Budget Chicago has an official say in the City’s budget. Sarah Oberholtzer, a facilitator, explained that the project is not affiliated with the City. Its goal is to empower each participant to reach out to their elected alderman and say what investments they want to see in their ward.

July 27 In the first public hearing given by the City Council Committee on Public Safety to the Anjanette Young Ordinance, which would reform how police serve warrants by banning practices such as no-knock warrants, pointing guns at kids or displaying guns when kids are present during raids, and kicking doors open less than thirty seconds after knocking, CPD Chief of Operations Brian McDermott explained that the department has amended its search warrant policy to put limits and accountability on the practices, but refused to ban them. Public commenter Maira Khwaja of the Invisible Institute read a portion of her article co-written for <i>South Side Weekly</ i> detailing other CPD raids gone wrong. Expert testimony was also collected at the meeting on a stalled ordinance that would halt CPD’s use of gang arrest cards, which were formerly entered into the department’s “gang database.” Police officials said an overhaul of the system “​​vetted through a new established criteria” would be ready in September.

July 29 Cook County has received $1 billion via the American Rescue Plan, though officials are still determining its allocation. Municipalities with populations over 50,000 will also receive their own federal funding, so Cook County plans to steer dollars toward regional “equity and infrastructure” initiatives. Forty-eight percent of the Cook County Jail population receives mental health services, a percentage that has grown steadily since April 2020, according to a quarterly behavioral health report presented at the Cook County Board of Commissioners meeting. The mental health division at Cermak Health, the jail’s clinic, consists of about a hundred staff serving 2,800 detainees. The report identified a staffing shortage on continuing mental health care for returning citizens. This information was collected in large part using reporting from City Bureau’s Documenters at documenters.org.

POLITICS

The Democratic Socialist Caucus Gets to Work

ILLUSTRATION BY KELLY BUTLER

The new coalition of five alderpeople pushes a progressive agenda in City Council.

BY COREY SCHMIDT

O

n May 1, alongside May Day marches across Chicago, alderpersons Daniel La Spata (1st), Jeanette Taylor (20th), Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th), Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez (33rd), and Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th) announced the formation of the Democratic Socialist Caucus in the Chicago City Council.

Before the caucus was formed, the Progressive Reform Caucus—established in 2013—was the council’s prominently left-leaning caucus. Since its formation, the socialist caucus’s relentless push to hold Mayor Lori Lightfoot accountable to campaign promises she made two years ago makes some observers believe the progressive movement in Chicago is

seeing a divide.

“What you're seeing with the creation of the Democratic Socialist Caucus is sort of a break, even among progressives, to say, ‘wait a second, there's some things we want different and now we're the outside group looking in the subset saying that you guys who have taken over the sort of the legitimate positions of governance are not are not going far enough,’” said Nick Kachiroubas, an associate teaching professor in the School of Public Service at DePaul University.

The Progressive Reform Caucus (PRC) was founded during former Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration, and initially challenged some of Emanuel’s budget proposals and policies.

The PRC backed Emanuel’s opponent, Jesús "Chuy" García, in 2015. This helped contribute to the first mayoral election runoff in Chicago’s history. But Emanuel walked away victorious, and at that point the PRC—with twelve members— did not have enough votes in the City Council to block or push any legislation on their own.

“During Rahm’s second term, people were listening to their voice, residents were listening to it, the press were listening to it, and that opened the door to a progressive candidate being seen positively in the 2019 election,” Kachiroubas said. This “opened the door for additional people to run who had a more progressive stance,” and was

part of the reason people rallied behind Lightfoot, he added.

Eighteen city council members are now aligned with the PRC, including all five DSC members as well as more moderate South Side representatives such as Sophia King (4th), Leslie Hairston (5th), and Stephanie Coleman (16th), giving them enough clout to work with members of the Black and Latino Caucuses to push their agenda.

Lightfoot cast herself as a progressive during the 2019 election, but once she reached the fifth floor of City Hall the tide turned. During her administration, the PRC has been split on many votes, with some members questioning if Lightfoot is truly the progressive she AUGUST 5, 2021 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 5

POLITICS

convinced people she was back in 2019.

The Weekly reached out to Lightfoot’s office for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.

Rodriguez-Sanchez noted that the broad term “progressive” encompasses a wide variety of actions and policy positions, which is one of the reasons why she finds the Democratic Socialist Caucus imperative to building a more equitable Chicago.

“One of the things about progressive politics is that you can pick and choose,” she said. “You can decide that you are okay with gay rights [but] you can be racist, or you can do things that actively harm people.”

Rodriguez-Sanchez said she feels that because of this pick-andchoose element, politicians oftentimes camouflage themselves as progressives, when in reality they are not, which is what she believes the Lightfoot administration is doing—using Lightfoot’s identity as a queer, Black woman.

“That's great that we have a Black lesbian mayor; it’s historic,” she said.

“Now, what are you doing in order to ensure that [marginalized] people are going to be able to thrive?”

The progressive divide under the Lightfoot administration has been demonstrated by several key issues, but most prominently the 2020 budget proposal. Lightfoot’s budget passed, 3911; of these eleven “no” votes, nine were from the Progressive Reform Caucus.

In Lightfoot’s 2020 budget, $1.8 billion went to policing. Black people and people of color experience abuse at the hands of the Chicago Police Department in vastly disproportionate numbers.

According to research conducted by the Invisible Institute in 2018, CPD officers are fourteen times more likely to exhibit force on a young Black man versus a young white man.

The DSC believes police funding should be reduced and reallocated to provide social programs, such as mental health support and housing security assistance that could reduce the amount of crime that takes place.

On July 21, in one of the biggest victories for progressive alderpersons 6 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

¬ AUGUST 5, 2021

this year, the City Council passed an ordinance to create an elected police oversight board. The proposal was the result of contentious negotiations between activists and progressive alderpersons on one side, and the Mayor’s office on the other. Ultimately, Lightfoot backed the ordinance that came out of those negotiations, and it is one of the most extensive reforms to policing in recent memory. “There's nothing like it anywhere else in the nation,” RamirezRosa tweeted after the ordinance passed, 36-13. “The people won this change in the streets, at the doors, and through relentless grassroots organizing.”

A

ndre Vasquez, who defeated thirty-six-year incumbent Patrick O’Connor in a runoff to become alderperson of the 40th Ward, is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) but not officially part of the DSC. (The DSA also ran a candidate in that election, but only Vasquez and O’Connor received enough votes to qualify for the runoff.) Vasquez broke with the caucus to vote in favor of Lightfoot’s proposed 2021 budget, a move that the Chicago DSA officially censured.

Vasquez said he considers his constituents when deciding whether to vote with the DSC, whom he referred to as his “comrades.” The 40th Ward includes parts of Edgewater and West Ridge on the North Side, and Vasquez said it isn’t the most progressive in town.

“Being able to have a conversation with our neighbors and having the ability to show independence is something [my constituents] value, which allows me the opportunity to move the agenda more progressively than where our Ward currently is,” he said.

“Do you spend every time making the case that something is wrong? Or do you also find the things that you help improve with the time you have in Council and in government?” Vasquez said. “And I do think you have to put up some things to add to the credibility of what we can do as socialists, and [that] allows us to continue going further, rather than people saying that it's pie in the sky.”

One of the main goals of the caucus is to get corporate money out of Chicago politics, and to focus on the entirety of Chicago— not just the Loop.

Vasquez said that pressure to work towards a specific agenda can sometimes get in the way of solving the issues at hand. He went as far as to say that if conversations shift from a progressive versus socialist to a more issue-based conversation more progress might occur.

“I think, for me, if you remove categories, period, and talk to people about what's important to them, you're more able to find consensus that then moves the agenda and inches forward,” Vasquez said. “Whereas what we've seen, sometimes the categories themselves have a connotation and don't even allow for conversation.”

It is because of this issue that Vasquez said he sees himself as a “city kid” first, not an alderman nor socialist. “My socialism is grounded in my experience growing up as a broke city kid who was gentrified out of five neighborhoods growing up, and racially profiled,” he said. “In looking at that, it’s not that I view myself as a socialist or alderman first more than like, I grew up in this city, and I'm a product of it. So the decisions I make are very rooted in that.”

Rodriguez-Sanchez said she believes that Lightfoot exemplifies the notion that identity does not always correlate to a certain political alignment. She said this is part of why some of the issues the Democratic Socialist Caucus want to focus on, like the “Just Cause for Eviction” ordinance, cannot be accomplished in other caucuses like the Black, Latino, or LGBT caucus. Still, caucuses representing marginalized identities are still needed in City Council regardless of their political

alignment to bring a more diverse set of representation, she added.

Mayor Lightfoot told WTTW in late June, in response to blistering criticism of her leadership from City Council, that ninety-nine percent of criticism of her is driven by racism and sexism. Rodriguez-Sanchez said that identity can be used as a weapon and that while Lightfoot may feel attacked based on her identity, she should take a look at her own track record.

“The track record that the Mayor has right now is that she's been incredibly disrespectful to women of color around them, including me, including my colleague Jeanette Taylor, including people in her staff,” Rodriguez-Sanchez said. “So for me to hear her say that [nearly] all of the criticism comes from racism and sexism is just baffling.”

During the July 23 City Council meeting, Lightfoot came down from the rostrum to heatedly confront Taylor on her decision to second 15th Ward Alderman Raymond Lopez’s motion to table Lightfoot’s appointment of the confirmation of Celia Meza as Corporation Counsel to another meeting.

The move was in protest of the Law Department’s handling of Anjanette Young’s lawsuit against the City for her treatment during a botched police raid of her home in 2019.

“One of the things that the mayor told [Taylor] was [that she was] blocking the appointment of a woman of color,” Rodriguez-Sanchez said. “And the mayor assumed that as an attack on a woman of color when it was just a procedural move.

POLITICS

So, the mayor tried to punish Jeanette and actually attack Jeanette, like, came all the way to the back [of the hall] to argue with a lot of anger towards a Black woman [for] a procedural move that we are allowed to use.”

Taylor agrees with RodriguezSanchez that Lightfoot treats City Council’s women of color unfairly. “[Has] she ever walked up to a male colleague of theirs, and scream, to point their finger in their face like she did me?” Taylor said.

Alderman Lopez ultimately motioned for the vote to be moved, she added. “I just seconded it,” only to have Lightfoot “come scream [and] point her finger in my face.”

“I mean, her floor chair Brandon Reilly, he's done a bunch of things that she doesn’t politically agree with,” Taylor continued. “But does she walk up to him, and [get] in his face screaming, pointing her finger? Anyone can see that there's a difference in how she treats women of color and men in the City Council.”

Dick Simpson, professor of political science at University of Illinois at Chicago and former Chicago alderman (44th), said that while he can see what Taylor and Rodriguez-Sanchez are referencing, Lightfoot hasn’t been completely unfair to minority women. “[Lightfoot] has had some disputes over issues with minority women, aldermen in the council that had some personality aspects,” Simpson said. “But on the other hand, she has made Michelle Harris her political floor leader and she has cooperated with other minority women aldermen.”

Taylor said she believes that the difference between the Lightfoot administration and the Democratic Socialist Caucus is that “we believe in public power, they don't.”

A report from the political science department at the University of Illinois at Chicago indicates that Lightfoot has a more progressive agenda than Emanuel. However, despite that, only two alderpersons voted agreeing with Lightfoot one hundred percent of the time compared to the nineteen alderpersons that voted with Emanuel

one hundred percent of the time.

Simpson said Lightfoot’s promise to invest more on Chicago’s South and West Side is a prime example of that.

“During the Emanuel administration, the neighborhoods in the South and West sides of Chicago were being disinvested ,that is they were losing economic development,” Simpson said. “[Lightfoot] has pledged at least $750 million of investments into those neighborhoods over the next several years, and more than $300 million has already been invested.”

Alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez said he is under the impression that the Lightfoot administration has been focusing primarily on the Loop, ignoring Chicago’s seventy-six other neighborhoods. He said that this is in efforts to appease big corporations.

“We have seen, unfortunately, corporations like Amazon receiving huge subsidies, like a $600 million subsidy,” Sigcho-Lopez said. “Corporate developers that have gotten, in recent years, over $2.4 billion in TIF money, while our schools are struggling or small businesses are struggling. Where homeowners are struggling, tenants are struggling, [and elderly residents] are struggling.”

Because of that, one of the main goals of the Democratic Socialist Caucus is to get corporate money out of Chicago politics, and to focus on the entirety of Chicago—not just the Loop.

When looking at Lightfoot’s promise to invest in Chicago’s South and West sides and then seeing DSC members, like Sigcho-Lopez, say Lightfoot isn’t investing in other neighborhoods other than the Loop has people conflicted on if big, immediate change or small steps towards a more equitable future is the way to go.

One of the ways that Sigcho-Lopez and Taylor want to get big money politics out of Chicago is by putting legislation in place that will make campaigns publicly funded. This has been implemented in cities like San Francisco, where the government gives candidates money to use on their campaign. This makes it easier for candidates that do not come

from wealth and don’t want to rely on corporation money to run a realistic, effective campaign. Sigcho Lopez believes that these programs have been effective.

The “Just Cause for Eviction” ordinance is another issue that SigchoLopez, as the alderman of a gentrifying ward, named as one of the caucus’ top priorities. This legislation would require landlords to give reason for evicting a tenant. It would make eviction for failure to pay rent, damage to property, and disrupting neighbors still possible, but would eliminate evictions that occur at no fault of the tenant. Similar legislation in other cities has been shown to lead to a decrease in evictions and helped stabilize the rental market. The ordinance could also help reduce race-related discrimination evictions.

Rodriguez Sanchez recently advocated for affordable housing funds in her ward and received $2.5 million in TIF funds. Also given was $3.5 million in TIF funds for improvements to Ronan Park including an expansion to the park, the creation of a pavilion along with protection and improvements for Global Gardens–a community garden in Albany Park.

Other priorities for the caucus include environmental reform, an elected representative school board, police accountability, and providing more funding support to small businesses.

“We have the inequities that have, you know, got into despicable levels. We see real cost contrast between different communities and an administration that focuses its energy on downtown, right, the one area,” Sigcho-Lopez said. “We have another seventy-six communities.

We need [all] seventy-seven communities to be represented.”

Simpson said that the places in which the two caucuses find themselves focusing on appears to be the biggest distinction between the two, and a potential reason for their divide. “The day-to-day governance is something that people like Scott Waguespack, who used to head the Progressive Reform Caucus, are involved in more and the sort of more extreme positions on things like police reform are pushed hardest by the democratic socialists.”

While Rodriguez-Sanchez said there hasn’t been a conversation on who Democratic Socialist Caucus will support during the next mayoral election, Kachiroubas is certain that it will not be Lightfoot.

“This caucus has been very critical of the Mayor, they've been sort of coming at her from the left from the beginning,” Kachiroubas said. “I think it sort of opens the door for an argument that Lori Lightfoot isn't as liberal as she says she is.” He said that could encourage a strong progressive—or a democratic socialist with political ambitions—to make a run at the mayor’s seat.

The DSC could also attempt to pick up more seats as a caucus in the next election. “Right now, six members can’t really change a lot. But if you expand that, you can start to have a bigger stake in the negotiations or blocking of legislation or budgetary items in a future administration.” Corey Schmidt is a DePaul University student and a senior associate editor at 14 East Magazine. He last wrote about family law accessibility for the Weekly.

This story was originally published online on July 26.

AUGUST 5, 2021 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 7

ALL POWER TO ALL PEOPLE, BY HANK WILLIS THOMAS, AT ENGLEWOOD VILLAGE PLAZA, 5801 S. HALSTED. PHOTO COURTESY OF KINDRED ARTS

Black Monuments Going from city to city, the Monumental Tour is an act of cultural equity.

BY ISABEL NIEVES

I

n a time where we are reassessing what and who in our history should be memorialized, and just whose interests monuments serve, what might the future of monumental art look like?

What is considered a monument? The national Monumental Tour attempts to offer some answers.

“For me, the way that I understood the Monumental Tour is that if the whole nation is in this conversation about ‘let's tear down these toxic monuments’, and then you have people that are resisting that are saying, ‘well, what are you putting 8 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

¬ AUGUST 5, 2021

in its place?’ What are you talking about?” said Eileen Rhodes, of Blanc Gallery in Bronzeville.

“And so to just step out of the white gaze and go into what is the alternative, these are Black monuments made by Black creators located in Black spaces that have been curated by Black people.”

The Monumental Tour made its way to Chicago in June and brought to the South Side two sculptures: Hank Willis Thomas’s All Power to All People, a twentyeight-foot tall hair pick, its handle raised in a Black Power salute, sits at Grow

Greater Englewood’s Englewood Village Plaza. Arthur Jafa’s Big Wheel IV hangs in the front window of Blanc Gallery.

Presented by Kindred Arts, the tour aims to bring large-scale sculptural work to communities that are affected by their messages the most.

“The placement of the sculpture also just challenges what a monument is,” said Andres Hernandez, of Wide Awakes Chicago, a network that practices activism through art and is coproducing the Chicago leg of the tour. “Everyone's first thought is we need the monuments

alive and [to] memorialize this historic event or this historic person… and these are just like literally everyday objects that have symbolism. They have a weight, they have an interpretation. People can see themselves in these things, not just see someone else and their history and their achievement.”

It’s also important, Hernandez said, to place these monumental sculptures “off-the-traditional beaten paths.”

“If they get to encounter it slightly differently, it's important,” he added.

All Power to All People, made from aluminum and stainless steel, stands next to a formerly vacant lot that is now farmland providing sustainable food to the Englewood community. “We thought that it would be really important around some of the stuff that we’re doing in Englewood around land,” said Anton Seals, of Grow Greater Englewood.

With its title referencing the legendary Black Panther slogan, the sculpture is explicitly Black and represents a collective identity. “For us, All Power to All People at our site is a testament around what is taken from farmers,” Seals said. “You know, we work around Black and brown farmers across the city, and that notion of labor around power, who's feeding you, nature, the environment—all of those things for us are embodied in a way, specifically around land…. Englewood has maybe neck and neck the most amount of vacant land in the city of Chicago.

“It's an interesting thing that has happened in Black communities when they've been left behind or disinvested, and then what that rediscovery looks like, and then who gets to rediscover it,” Seals said.

While the meaning of All Power to All People is easier to grasp for most people, viewers of Big Wheel may need to take more time with the piece to interpret it.

“I love the monumentality of All Power to All People, and then it's like, you've set the weight in this sort of gravitas of Arthur Jafa's piece, which requires you to kind of slow down a little bit and kind of come up to it and take a longer look,” Hernandez said.

VISUAL ARTS The monster-truck wheel that is Big Wheel, a seven-foot-tall tire wrapped in iron chains and a few bandanas, tells a story of Black wealth and migration.

“It's about the Black middle class and working in these factories and working in these industries and being able to create foundational wealth for your family,” Rhodes explained. Movement and migration are a part of Bronzeville’s history; the neighborhood experienced upper- and middle-class Black families migrating to other neighborhoods after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled restrictive covenants, a legal contract that prohibited homeowners from selling or renting their homes to Black people, unconstitutional in 1948.

These two sculptures—along with Kehinde Wiley’s Rumors of War—have been installed in other cities, including Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Washington DC, over the past two years, often at sites bearing similar history.

Why situate these sculptures in

Englewood and Bronzeville rather than the Loop? Getting people to question the placement of public art like the sculptures in the tour is part of the impact the tour hopes to have on the communities they are found in.

“The mission has always been to consider supporting communities that are just as deserving [of ] arts that speak to their rich history,” said Marsha Reid, the director of Kindred Arts.

“I have to justify why there's one of a handful of art galleries in the Bronzeville neighborhood or in the whole hub of the South Side. These are like justifications... why are you doing what you're doing?

The real impact is to normalize these situations,”Hernandez said. “Public art can happen anywhere, right? People deserve half-a-million-dollar artworks in their neighborhood. And it's not a big deal.”

The Monumental Tour is an act of cultural equity. The accessibility of the art is at the center of the tour’s goals.

Once access to public art is available,

conversations can happen. “What we try and do is make things available and accessible and use our muscle and might and relationships to make something available to as many people as possible.

Because then you do have the moment where somebody is completely there, they have that ‘aha’ moment where then art becomes something meaningful to them,” Rhodes said.

Seals, who grew up in South Shore, sees All Power to All People through a nostalgic lens. “I thought about my grandmother and I thought about 74th and Champlain. I thought about the Softheen, the blue grease, and having to get your hair braided, unbraided, which was a very uncomfortable thing for me when I had hair as a kid. And getting your hair picked was never what you wanted to do. So when I see the Afro pick, the immediate thing I'm always thinking of is that smell of Sulfur 8 and Softheen grease and the blue grease,” said Seals. “I think of the progress that we've made [at

Grow Greater Englewood] too.”

“When I see both works, it just really reminds me of the complexity of Black experiences,” said Hernandez. “Our experiences are much more complex than even sometimes what one symbol may represent.”

Kendall Hope, from Roseland, shared his thoughts after viewing All Power to All People: “It’s nice to see art like this in Englewood instead of the more gentrified areas in Chicago. A great piece by a Black artist in a Black neighborhood for the people of the neighborhood to see...I think that’s beautiful.” The Monumental Tour sculptures are on view at 5801 S. Halsted St. and 4445 S. Martin Luther King Dr. through August 30.

For more on the tour visit bit.ly/36QZi0I. Isabel Nieves is a Puerto Rican and Mexican American journalist and multimedia producer based in Pilsen, and the Weekly’s arts editor.

This is her first piece for the Weekly.

AUGUST 5, 2021 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 9

OPINION

Op-Ed: Finding Tenochtitlan in Chicago Tenochtitlan fell to the Spanish 500 years ago this month, but the Aztec capital and Chicago continue to speak to each other across time and space.

ILLUSTRATION BY JENNIFER CHAVEZ

BY CARLOS RAMIREZ-ROSA AND ISMAEL CUEVAS JR.

A

ugust 13 marks the 500-year anniversary of the Fall of Tenoc htitlan—moder n-day Mexico City.Through a virtual and printed map and a series of free community events, the project Chicagotlan: Finding Tenochtitlan in Chicago invites Latinx, Indigenous, and Mexican-American youth, and all Chicagoans, to contemplate and commemorate the catastrophic and world-changing event that led to the rise of a historical system that shaped and continues to shape political, economic, and social relations across the globe.

Spanish colonizers, driven by an imperialistic lust for gold and land and an obsession to proselytize the Indigenous, had successfully taken advantage of divisions among the Valley of Mexico’s Indigenous peoples and made an alliance with the Tlaxcalans—the rivals of the Mexica, commonly known as the Aztecs. Bolstered by tens of thousands of Tlaxcalan soldiers, the Spanish waged a three-month siege against Tenochtitlan.

Outnumbered, and with his people starving and beleaguered by a tool of biological warfare—a smallpox epidemic—Cuauhtémoc surrendered to the Spanish on August 13, 1521. He was only twenty-five-years old and had 10 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

just emerged as Tlatoani (ruler) of the Mexicas after Cuitláhuac, Montezuma II’s successor, had himself succumbed to smallpox. Montezuma II, Aztec emperor at the time of the Spanish arrival, had died thirteen months earlier during a Mexica insurrection against the Spanish colonizers, according to historians.

Tenochtitlan was two times the size of Paris, Europe’s largest city in the sixteenth century. In the immediate aftermath of the conquest, the Fall of Tenochtitlan resulted in the tragic killing and capture of an estimated forty thousand Indigenous civilians. It is reported that thousands of bodies floated in the city’s canals. The great city of Tenochtitlan, which was once home to between 200,000 and 400,000 inhabitants, now lay in ruins.

The conquest led to the ongoing occupation of Indigenous territory for the next 500 years. It led to the genocide of Mesoamerica’s Indigenous peoples at the hands of the Spanish Empire and the Catholic Church. The Fall also shaped the contemporary Mexican nation and the present-day metropolis of Mexico City, as well as paved the way for Spanish expeditions into what is now the United States, Central America, and South America.

¬ AUGUST 5, 2021

While the Spanish laid siege to Tenochtitlan in an attempt to eradicate Indigenous peoples, Indigenous knowledge systems, and Indigenous cosmologies, Indigenous peoples survived the conquest and continue to survive the ongoing legacy of colonialism.

Tenochtitlan continues to exist not just in Mexico City, the new capital literally built atop the ruins, but also here, in the capital of the Midwest. In metropolitan Chicago, 1.1 million people of Mexican descent comprise seventy-five percent of the area’s Latinx population.

As we approach the 500-year anniversary of the Fall of Tenochtitlan, we can examine the ways in which Tenochtitlan is alive in Chicago and other cities. We can ask: How does Tenochtitlan appear in our public murals, community spaces, and local institutions?

Chicagotlan: Finding Tenochtitlan in Chicago was conceived in the summer of 2021 by the Chicagotlan Organizing Committee members, who were born in the U.S. or Mexico, and raised in Chicago. Chicagotlan was created out of a desire to commemorate and historicize the Fall of Tenochtitlan and the legacy of colonialism, while educating and creating dialogue with younger generations

of Mexican-American and Chicanx Chicagoans about their history and the cultural and educational resources available in their backyard.

Chicagotlan’s full virtual map, found at chicagotlan.org/map, invites participants to visit well-known community spaces: Pilsen’s Plaza Tenochtitlan, the 18th Street Pink Line Stop, the former Casa Aztlan community center, the Aztecinsipired mural outside Benny’s Pizza #2, and many other sites on an evolving and growing list.

The map also invites participants to visit lesser-known locations, such as the statue of Cuauhtémoc outside of Benito Juarez Community Academy, the fifteenfoot statue of Mexico’s first Indigenous president off Michigan Avenue, the 1503 Coronation Stone of Motecuhzoma II at the Art Institute of Chicago, colonizer Hernán Cortés’s 1524 map of Tenochtitlan at the Newberry Library, the hundred-foot-tall Native American pyramid at the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, and the lesser-known mounds at Kincaid Mounds State Historic Site.

In total, the online map highlights forty-seven community spaces, local institutions, archeological sites, and

OPINION

historical and/or sacred objects that have been politically, economically, socially, intellectually, and spiritually formative for migrants that originated or travelled through what is now known as Mexico and settled in Chicago.

The map is an ongoing project that locates the ways in which Tenochtitlan and Chicago speak to each other across time and space. Chicagotlan’s map is not meant to be an exhaustive list, but an invitation to contextualize the Fall of Tenochtitlan, the links between Chicago and the Mexica capital, and the ongoing project of colonization of the Americas.

Chicagotlan asks the question: What are the histories that link the geographies of Chicago and Tenochtitlan? For example, how did Montezuma II’s coronation stone, undoubtedly sacred and a piece of the living history of the Valley of Mexico’s original peoples, end up in a Chicago museum? The Art Institute’s website indicates that they purchased it from the Time Museum in Rockford, Illinois in 1990, which acquired it from a private gallery in Los Angeles in 1971.

How did the coronation stone end up in Los Angeles in 1971?

It also invites participants to contemplate the ways in which the original peoples of the Americas and their descendants have resisted colonization. To this end, we highlight the First Nations Garden in Albany Park, created by the Chi-Nations Youth Council on publicly owned land in the spring of 2019. The garden, whose fence is decorated with a number of murals that draw on Mexica symbols and iconography, represents Indigenousled resistance to colonization and a furtherance of the Indigenous demands of the Land Back movement.

By exploring Chicago’s existing resources, Chicagoans can gain a better understanding of history and the Aztec capital’s enduring legacy. ¬

Chicagotlan: Finding Tenochtitlan in Chicago events take place Thursday, August 12, Friday, August 13, and Sunday, August 15, and are free and open to the public. For more information and to register (required) for the August 13 event visit chicagotlan.org.

Carlos Ramirez-Rosa is alderman of the 35th Ward. Ismael Cuevas Jr. has an M.A. in Mexican American and Latina/o Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. Both are members of Chicagotlan’s organizing committee and both have previously contributed to the Weekly.

AUGUST 5, 2021 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 11

The Road from Punishment to Restorative Justice

ILLUSTRATION BY MELL MONTEZUMA

Hyde Park Academy takes the step to replace one SRO with a dean of climate and culture.

BY GRACE DEL VECCHIO

O

n July 1, the Hyde Park Academy local school council (LSC) voted to remove one of the school’s two school resource officers (SROs)— Chicago police officers assigned to individual public schools—and reinvest the funds into a dean of climate and culture position. The decision comes a year after a historic summer of students fighting to get police out of Chicago Public Schools (CPS.) As students return to Hyde Park Academy High School this fall, they will find one less SRO and in place of them, an administrator whose role is devoted to restorative justice. A year ago, some deemed it impossible to remove SROs from Hyde Park Academy—last summer, the LSC voted 9-0 to keep both SROs. But now, those who advocated for removing them entirely are halfway to achieving that goal. What changed?

In April, CPS Chief of Safety and Security Jadine Chou announced that SROs would not return to CPS high schools for the remainder of the school year. Additionally, the remaining fiftyfive high schools that opted to keep SROs last summer were instructed by CPS to establish a whole-school safety plan, which would be created by each school’s safety committee. The committees would then present the plan to the LSCs

by July 14.

12 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

In the case of Hyde Park Academy, the safety committee, which was made of school administrators and staff, including the school’s three-person counseling team, a student, a young alumnus, a community member and members of the LSC, recommended whether the school should keep both, one or zero SROs. The LSCs were also informed that with every SRO that the schools chose to cut, they would receive funds to go towards holistic services and alternatives to policing, said Maira Khwaja, a community member on the Hyde Park Academy LSC. Schools will receive anywhere from $50,000 to $75,000 per SRO removed, a number which fluctuates by school depending on the CPS equity index, a new tool to “help identify opportunity differences so that resources can be prioritized for the schools in greatest need” which was informed by community feedback, according to the CPS website.

At Hyde Park Academy, these funds will go toward a dean of culture and climate, a high-level administrative position that will manage conflict resolution, restorative justice and a peace room, things which other schools have already adopted.

“Hyde Park has made some effort towards adopting it but truthfully, they don't have the capacity,” Khwaja said.

¬ AUGUST 5, 2021

“There's nobody that is specifically looking to be in touch with every single student and lead conflict resolution efforts in a way that does not necessarily feel punitive.”

Other CPS high schools, including Roberto Clemente Community Academy, Lincoln Park High School and W.H. Taft High School have already implemented deans of culture and climate or similar positions.

The dean of culture and climate will be different from other administrative roles and will be a polar opposite to the role of SRO. According to Khwaja, where the SROs at Hyde Park Academy are supposed to distance themselves from students and have a clear power dynamic as a person who has the authority to arrest students, the dean is meant to be in constant contact with students and work to remove toxic power dynamics.

“What we would be looking for is not somebody who, as soon as they enter the room, the power imbalance feels very threatening,” Khwaja said. “That makes it very hard to actually mediate any type of conflict, that's just using a hammer to say we cannot discuss this conflict, the power dynamic’s clear this is over. We don't want to shut down students in that way with this person that would be coming in.”

Climate and culture positions look

different at every school, depending on what administrations are looking for and the student populations’ needs.

Kat Hindmand is director of climate and culture at Taft High School. Before starting the position seven years ago, Hindmand worked at the CPS central office where she oversaw the safety and security of all North Side schools (about 150) and at one point all North and West Side schools (about 300). She is also a licensed clinical social worker.

At Taft, which has a student population of around 4,000 spread across two campuses, the job isn’t small.

Hindmand’s position includes managing all student discipline and behavioral supports, which includes mental health.

She is also in charge of all emergency drills and the crisis team and works closely with the security team, which includes the school’s two SROs. The goal of Hindmand’s position? To drastically alter the school’s environment around discipline. “It's really about changing the culture, from one of punishment as a way to deal with kids to using restorative practices to help them learn from their mistakes. So that they don't keep repeating them,” Hindmand said.

One part of managing behavioral supports includes working with Taft’s behavioral health team of social workers,

school counselors and climate and culture administrators, which meets every week to address student's behavior, mental and emotional health needs. If a student requires resources that cannot be met by a school counselor or social worker, they’re provided outside service, which is billed to students’ medical insurance or Medicaid, by clinicians from Lutheran Social Services who come into the school to meet with students.

While Taft has been able to make strides in the school culture, have other schools been able to do the same?

According to Hindmand, CPS is working to shift the district’s overall culture from one of punishment to restorative justice.

While there were only a handful of climate and culture positions when Hindmand began in 2014, there has since been an increase in positions. As of March 2021, out of over 42,000 CPS employees, there were 80 who held job titles pertaining to climate and culture, fifteen conflict resolution specialists and 763 school counselors—some of the primary roles that make up a school’s behavioral health team.

Schools are funded by CPS based on student population. Therefore, the more students, the higher the funds. At a school as large as Taft, they are able to hire more climate and culture positions than others and when there aren’t sufficient funds for the positions necessary to meet students’ needs, Hindmand will seek outside support.

At Hyde Park Academy, where the student population is around 700, there is less funding to hire climate and culture positions.

The change that provided Hyde Park Academy with the funds to create the new position cannot simply be chalked up to CPS suddenly choosing to provide high schools with options and resources for them to define safety on their own.

Student organizers applied the pressure and changed the narrative.

Davione Jackson is a rising junior at Hyde Park Academy and an organizer with Southside Together Organizing for Power (STOP). He is also on the school’s safety committee.

He said he Khwaja’s words on power dynamics resonate with him. While he’s

happy about the removal of one SRO, he won’t be satisfied until both are removed, their presence replaced with people and programs who can support students.

“I feel that it's best to have more social workers or something for the students to be able to talk to because students go through a lot, even though it might not show and that’s one of the reasons or causes for different altercations at school,” Jackson said. “We don't really have people to go to since there's not really a lot of counselors and the counselors that we do have, we have to share with all grades.”

Students and their allies have protested, called, emailed, organized and even showed up at the door of school board members’ homes to fight for the removal of police from schools. The steps that CPS is taking to, in part, comply with students’ demands is proof of the ground that has been gained. But organizers aren’t satisfied.

In a statement released on July 2, announcing the removal of the SRO, Executive Director of STOP, Alex Goldenberg, wrote that while this was considered a victory, the coalition of organizations and individuals who have fought to remove SROs from Hyde Park Academy are only getting started.

“We are not sitting down and we are not taking a break. We will not stop until all police are removed from our schools,” Goldenberg said. “We will work to build alternatives to policing in our school.

“Last year, our school—and nearly all majority Black schools—voted unanimously to keep the police in the school. They said it was impossible for a majority-Black school on the South Side to remove police…well, Black students made the impossible possible. Now let’s get back to work and finish the job.” Grace Del Vecchio is a Philadelphia-born, Chicago-based freelance journalist primarily covering movements and policing. She is a former City Bureau fellow and the current editor-in-chief at DePaul University’s student-led publication 14 East Magazine.

This is her first piece for the Weekly.

AUGUST 5, 2021 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 13

POLICE

ILLUSTRATION BY HALEY TWEEDELL

Old Wounds

Eleven years before he attacked Miracle Boyd at a protest, officer Nicholas Jovanovich beat a Black teenager in Englewood for talking back.

BY JIM DALEY

O

n a warm, slightly overcast evening in July 2009, Nicholas Jovanovich, a Chicago cop who had been on the force a little more than three years, got into an argument with a Black seventeen-year-old named Cortez Donaldson outside a food mart in Englewood. Jovanovich and his partner, Kelly Bongiovanni, were arresting Donaldson’s cousin when the teenager asked them what the arrest was for.

14 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

Jovanovich told him to shut up, but the teenager persisted.

Jovanovich and Bongiovanni attacked him, leaving abrasions on his neck and bruises on his chest and arms, and then arrested him for resisting arrest and assaulting police officers. An investigation exonerated the police of any wrongdoing. Over the next decade, both cops continued to rack up numerous excessive-force complaints.

¬ AUGUST 5, 2021

Eleven years after beating Donaldson, Jovanovich attacked another Black teenager. Miracle Boyd, a GoodKids MadCity organizer, was at a July 17, 2020 protest near the site of the Columbus statue in Grant Park.

Earlier in the day, demonstrators had confronted police who were guarding the statue, and some had thrown things at the cops. The police retreated before returning in force, and the confrontation

soon deteriorated into a police riot.

Boyd was filming police as they arrested demonstrators and asking arrestees for their names and phone numbers so that lawyers and activists could later locate them in custody.

(Filming police is entirely legal.) A video shot from across the street was tweeted by GoodKids MadCity (see bit.ly/2WxgJSc) showing the altercation: Jovanovich lunges at Boyd, who is backing away,

POLICE

“This is the kind of violence that really reflects the culture of a police department that is at its core violent and racist.” before he strikes her. Boyd turns away and retreats, and Jovanovich stalks away as onlookers shout in anger at what they just witnessed.

Jovanovich struck Boyd with such force that he knocked out the young woman’s front tooth.

After the Grant Park protest, the Weekly sent Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) for paperwork on all complaints stemming from the melee. From those records, we identified Jovanovich as the cop who attacked Boyd. We then sent FOIA requests to CPD for Jovanovich’s personnel records and disciplinary files.

The files were extensively redacted, but they included information on the investigation

by COPA’s predecessor organization, the Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA), into the 2009 incident.

The IPRA reports were full of clues as to what happened in 2009, but most of those leads had grown cold. The 59th Street Food Mart has since closed, and its former owner refused to speak to the Weekly. The cousin’s name was redacted in the reports. Donaldson’s mother, Latricia Mosley, who helped him file a complaint and gave a statement to IPRA, passed away in 2014. Donaldson died in 2016; his Facebook page is full of periodic bursts of heartfelt remembrances from friends and family.

Months passed. By autumn, the Weekly was pursuing two investigations: one into the 2009 beating, and another of the 2020 attack.

We also sent FOIA requests to COPA for any body-worn camera footage they had obtained of the Grant Park incident. COPA denied that request, citing its then-ongoing investigation.

We filed a lawsuit for the footage, and as of press time it is still making its way

through the court. A spokesperson for COPA declined to comment for this story.

In July, I heard back from Cortez’s sister, Lexis Donaldson. She replied to a message, and we later spoke by phone.

“He was goofy, and he made everybody laugh,” Lexis said wistfully.

“He was older, and I’m the baby, but we were really close. He was my best friend. I miss him every day.” Cortez, who went to Fenger High School and took classes at Kennedy-King College, liked basketball and video games. “He was focused on getting a better life for himself,” she said.

Cortez had a good heart, but occasionally he could get on people’s nerves, Lexis said. He was once fired from Subway for giving food to a homeless person instead of throwing it away.

Cortez never really spoke to her about the attack by Jovanovich.

“But he didn’t like cops.”

According to the statement Cortez Donaldson gave IPRA, on that afternoon in July 2009 he had finished doing his chores at home when he went for a walk. At the corner of 59th and Morgan, outside the food mart, Jovanovich and Bongiovanni, who had been called to a fight at a gas station across the street, pulled up. “Where’s your cousin?”

Bongiovanni asked him. “I don’t know, I’m not my cousin’s keeper,” Donaldson replied.

The cops drove around the block before rolling back up and jumping out of their Chevy Tahoe. Donaldson’s cousin, who had ducked into the food mart to avoid the police, was now outside, and the cops grabbed him and placed him under arrest.

Once the cousin was in the back of the Tahoe, Jovanovich turned to Donaldson and asked him to repeat what he had said to Bongiovanni. “You

heard what I said,” the five-foot-eleven, 165-pound teenager replied. Jovanovich shoved him with both hands. “Get the fuck out of here,” Jovanovich said.

“Just ‘cause you think you’re a police officer you could do what you think you wanna do,” Donaldson said. “Just ‘cause you have a badge that don’t make you a nobody. ‘Cause if you didn’t have that badge on, I guarantee you, me and you would probably been out here fighting if you were any person on the street.”

Jovanovich pulled his baton, and told Donaldson he would hit him if he didn’t shut up. Bongiovanni swooped in. “What are you going to do?” Bongiovanni asked the teenager, according to a witness. “You want to hit me?” Donaldson later told IPRA that he replied, “bitch, shut up ‘cause I’m not talking to you.”

Bongiovanni grabbed Donaldson by the throat and shoved him against the wall of the food mart. At the same time, Jovanovich attacked the teenager, quickly landing five blows on his arms with the baton. Donaldson pulled away from Bongiovanni’s grasp. “Why the fuck are you guys hitting me?” he asked. He later told an IPRA investigator that his arm went numb after Jovanovich’s first two blows. More cops arrived and tackled him, slamming his head into the sidewalk hard enough for a witness to later say they heard it. That witness also told IPRA that the teenager was never physically aggressive toward any of the officers.

The police arrested Donaldson on felony assault charges, kept him locked up for hours, and released him the next day with misdemeanors.

About a week after the attack, which left deep scratches on his neck, abrasions and bruises on his chest, and bruises on his arms and wrists, Donaldson filed a complaint with IPRA, which then interviewed ten witnesses, seven of whom were cops. Although a clerk at the food mart and another witness both provided statements that supported Donaldson’s account, the police all maintained they had seen their fellow officers do nothing wrong, and said Donaldson tried to fight the cops and resisted arrest. IPRA found the accusations not sustained.

Jovanovich and Bongiovanni remained on the force. According to the

Invisible Institute’s Citizens Police Data Project, by 2015 they had racked up more use-of-force reports than ninetyfive and eighty-six percent of Chicago police, respectively. And then last year, Jovanovich punched Miracle Boyd in the mouth, knocking out her front tooth.

“The fact that this officer has had at least two reported incidents of using unjustified violence against Black teenagers really gets to the core of what’s wrong with the Chicago Police Department,” said Sheila Bedi, an attorney who is representing Boyd.

“The fact that this was a highprofile, widely publicized event, and as far as we know, this officer is still policing our communities, demonstrates the intransigence of the department and its resistance to change,” Bedi said.

“This kind of violence is not the kind of violence that is about training. This is the kind of violence that really reflects the culture of a police department that is at its core violent and racist.”

COPA concluded its investigation of the Grant Park attack in June and sent its recommendation to CPD Superintendent David Brown, who has final authority on whether to fire or otherwise discipline Jovanovich. According to a spokesperson, Brown is still reviewing the case.Jim Daley is the Weekly’s politics editor. He last wrote about how the police used the City’s gun-violence prevention center to monitor political demonstrations.

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AUGUST 5, 2021 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 15

POLICE

Anjanette Young Is Not Alone Home invasions and violations at the hands of police are not an isolated mistake but the regular outcome of CPD’s system of search warrants.

BY MAIRA KHWAJA AND TRINA REYNOLDS-TYLER, INVISIBLE INSTITUTE

O

n Tuesday, July 27, seven months after Chicago witnessed bodycamera footage of Anjanette Young in her home, naked and surrounded by officers who were raiding it in search of someone who did not live there, the City Council held a hearing on an ordinance named after her. The Anjanette Young Ordinance would prohibit the practice of no-knock or knock-and-announce warrants, require more evidence beyond just one informant before conducting a raid, and require police to keep more documentation of such home invasions, especially when children are present.

“It was so traumatic to hear the thing that was hitting the door,” Young said in a December 2020 interview with CBS 2. “And it happened so fast, I didn’t have time to put on clothes. There were big guns. Guns with lights and scopes on them. And they were yelling at me, you know, put your hands up, put your hands up…. It’s one of those moments where I felt I could have died that night.”

Young’s high-profile experience is not unique or some rare mistake. The City Council and the public can read for themselves a mountain of evidence in the form of police misconduct complaints about home invasions by the Chicago Police Department. And though Young drew in support through the body camera footage and the fact that the 16 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

police invaded on the incorrect address, traumatic experiences like hers are not limited to search warrants of someone’s home, “correct” or not.

Anjanette Young’s story is reminiscent of another woman whose lawsuit helped open the door to this library of misconduct. In 2003, Diane Bond lived in high-rise public housing at Stateway Gardens, where she was repeatedly assaulted by a group of police officers known as the Skullcap Crew.

She came forward with her story, which is documented in an Invisible Institute series called Kicking the Pigeon, by filing a police complaint and a lawsuit.

Bond v. Utreras revealed a list of officers with many complaints made against them and spurred the legal intervention Kalven v. Chicago, which ensured the records were made public.

For Bond, however, her case ended like most others who filed a lawsuit against the police: she received money in lieu of pursuing a trial. In 2018, years after her ordeal, Bond told us she still sleeps with a bar in front of her door.

The pretenses cops use for home invasions do not always take the form of a search warrant. The group of officers who sexually violated Diane Bond used the war on drugs as their excuse to force their way into her home. They routinely searched for drugs on people who lived in

¬ AUGUST 5, 2021

PHOTO OF DIANE BOND BY PATRICIA EVANS

public housing, physically assaulting and tormenting residents in their homes with impunity for years.

Craig Futterman, a professor at the University of Chicago Mandel Legal Aid Clinic who represented Bond, helped write the Anjanette Young Ordinance.

At a May 4 town hall on the ordinance, Futterman shared data that showed that between 2016 and 2019, CPD performed more than 1,500 raids a year, forty-three percent of which resulted in no arrests and fewer than five percent of which turned up any drugs.

“CPD doesn't even document when it targets the wrong address, the wrong home, much less report it, to any of us during those 1,500 raids they perpetrate every year,” Futterman said at the town hall.

Damon Wiliams, an organizer with the Chicago Torture Justice Center and Defund CPD campaign, told the Invisible Institute that the collective burden of police violence in the city is that of an institution rooted in terror. “If we saw this practice happen in a different national context we would use it as an

excuse for military intervention,” he said.

“This practice shows that our police are municipal military agencies, not health responders or social services.”

While he supports the ordinance, Williams said he believes the City should build a framework for reparations into its legislation.

“If someone's house or living situation has been destroyed, we should know how often that’s happened. We should acknowledge that so many of the people who have been targeted have been criminalized or marginalized in certain ways,” Williams said. “The City, if it were sincere, should look deeply at the decades of harm by this practice and take seriously the project of repair and healing, which requires deep investment [into at least] housing and medical healing resources.”

Through a release of police complaint documents as a result of Charles Green v. Chicago Police Department, in which Green sued to force CPD to release police misconduct files, we are able to read testimonies of community members who have come forward through the

POLICE

daunting official complaint process to report their stories of police abuse.

W

e have thus far identified fifty complaints connected to home invasions in Chicago that occurred between 2011 and 2015.

We’ve made a list of them available here for public viewing at bit.ly/searchwarrants.

Some examples that stand out: A disabled Black man alleged that in 2012 officers entered and searched his apartment without giving justification, dragged him out of his wheelchair, forced him into a non-accessible police van, made him crawl up the stairs inside a police station, and denied him use of a wheelchair or accessible bathrooms, causing him to urinate on himself.

While the officers’ behavior violated policy, they were not held accountable because the complainant did not sign an affidavit. The Anjanette Young Ordinance would potentially change this complaint process, as it states that “No Affidavit, Sworn Testimony or Statement shall be required to initiate an investigation into an allegation of misconduct against any Chicago Police member.”

A forty-two-year-old Black woman alleged in 2014 that while an officer executed a search warrant—an approved search for cannabis—he pointed his gun at her face and the faces of the other victims, poured her medication on the floor, and broke open her safe.

A thirty-year-old Asian woman alleged that the CPD Narcotics Division executed a search warrant in 2013 at the wrong address, breaking open her deadbolted back door while she was half dressed and causing her one-year-old and three-year-old children trauma and hypersensitivity to all loud sounds, and emotional distress for the family weeks after the incident. Officers were not held accountable because the complainant did not sign an affidavit.

A thirty-year-old Black woman alleged that in 2012, a group of white officers entered her home while she was half naked, cuffed her, and while she was handcuffed, the officer who helped her pull up her pants touched her vagina with his right thumb.

A fifty-three-year-old Black woman alleged that in 2014 a group of officers— who she said had served warrants at her residence in 2011 and 2012 and found nothing—served a warrant without justification and destroyed her door locks, put a hole in a basement door, and ransacked her home. Officers were not held accountable because she did not sign an affidavit.

A Black woman alleged that in 2012, police coerced her into signing a form consenting to a search only after they had already searched her home for cannabis, and that they did so by threatening to arrest her and call DCFS. Officers were not held accountable because the complainant did not sign an affidavit.

T

hese documents reveal that home invasions and violations at the hands of police are not an isolated mistake but the regular outcome of CPD’s system of search warrants.

They are only public because of a lawsuit Jamie Kalven, the founder of the Invisible Institute, brought against the City in 2014. The City’s Law Department fought to keep the records hidden, as it did in the case of Diane Bond, as it did in Anjanette Young’s case, and as it continued to do in Charles Green’s case.

In Young’s case, the Law Department fought for more than a year to keep bodycamera footage of the raid from being released. “I feel like they didn’t want us to have this video because they knew how bad it was,” Young said when the video was finally made public. “They knew they had done something wrong. They knew that the way they treated me was not right.”

Laws around search warrants exist already, and the policies that currently exist are supposed to be stringent. But in practice, those policies haven’t had much effect on the carte-blanche approval judges typically grant to search warrant requests. The Fourth Amendment requires that a person have some notice before the police enter the home, making noknock warrants unconstitutional, and police must have probable cause under exigent circumstances. The Supreme Court held in Mincey v. Arizona (1978) that the seriousness of the offense under

investigation does not create exigency; exigency exists when there is some possibility that harm will befall someone [Brigham City v. Stuart (2006)] or that evidence will be destroyed [Kentucky v. King (2011)]. In matters of probable cause, however, judges routinely defer to police judgement. Traumatized civilians must be believed, or at least given the same deference as police officers.

The documents routinely include testimony that officers damage property.

Often, the police are exonerated. When the Anjanette Young Ordinance requires officers to be the “least intrusive to people's home, property and person and least harmful to people's physical and emotional health,” what consequences will officers be held to if they try to act with impunity?

The ordinance will require police to provide more documentation of residential raids. But can documentation alone change the lived experience of those subjected to police violence? How can we prevent the trauma and violence inflicted upon children who are not named in a search warrant, but are casualties of the raid? Even in the cases where the search warrant was approved and served on the correct address and an arrest was made, how do we ensure constitutional and human rights are protected?

Above all, these records—a veritable library of misconduct—raise the questions: what should the threshold be to allow an officer to enter one’s home? Why and when should society allow for raids?

Williams cautioned against being

satisfied with banning no-knock raids as enough of a reform. “The difference between not knocking and then destroying your house, versus knocking on the door then destroying the house, is marginal,” he said. “The harm will continue if we’re overly accommodating to police in this legislation. We need to look at police and their practices holistically and move past looking at their best intentions, and instead look at their power.” The authors are members of the Invisible Institute, where Trina Reynolds-Tyler is the director of data and Maira Khwaja is the director of public strategy. Together, they work on Beneath the Surface, a long-form investigation into gender based violence at the hands of Chicago Police; Citizens Police Data Project, a database of Chicago police misconduct information going back to 1988; and Release the Records, a campaign to ensure the City of Chicago fulfills its legal obligation to make all underlying narrative documents of police complaint records available and accessible to the public. student at the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice.

Durrell Malik Washington Sr. is a PhD Student at the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice. This is their first story for the Weekly.

This story was originally published online on July 27.

Free Writing Classes To Ignite Your Creativity playonthepage.com This project is partially supported by an Individual Artist Program Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events, as well as a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency, a state agency through federal funds provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.

AUGUST 5, 2021 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 17

IMMIGRATION

New Illinois Bill Will Interrupt the State’s Deportation Pipeline, but Not Stop It Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the Illinois Way Forward Act, which bans immigration detention in the state, but what will happen to individuals currently detained?

BY MADISON MULLER

G

ov. J.B. Pritzker signed the Illinois Way Forward Act on August 2, dramatically restricting the way local law enforcement will be able to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Illinois.

“The Illinois Way Forward Act strengthens the TRUST Act by taking immigration status off the table in all state procedures where it has no relevance, putting greater teeth into those protections through the attorney general’s office and making Illinois the second state in the nation to require all local officials to end partnerships with ICE by the end of this year,” Pritzker said during Monday’s press conference at East Aurora High School.

Introduced in February, SB 667 was pushed by state Rep. Elizabeth Hernandez (D-Cicero), state Sen. Omar Aquino (D), and the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR).

The bill builds on the 2017 TRUST Act, which ended local law enforcement’s ability to arrest and detain individuals in Illinois for immigration violations or based only on an ICE detainer.

Upon signage, ICE will no longer be able to use local jails or hold contracts with detention centers in Illinois, law enforcement will not be able to give them information about custody status or 18 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

release dates for those with immigration charges, and police will not be able to transfer anyone into ICE custody.

But despite the bill’s embrace by immigration advocacy groups and progressive lawmakers, questions remain about the presence ICE will continue to have in the state and what will happen to the estimated 260 individuals currently detained at the three facilities in Illinois that have agreements with ICE. The three county jails in Illinois with which ICE holds contracts—Jerome Combs Detention Center in Kankakee, the McHenry County Jail, and the Pulaski County Detention Center—will be required to terminate their agreements before January 1, 2022. Once their contracts are cancelled, McHenry and Kankakee will have 30 days to close their immigration detention facilities, while Pulaski will have 120 days, according to Fred Tsao, senior policy counsel at ICIRR. Nationally, ICE relies heavily on partnerships with local law enforcement to carry out immigration operations, make arrests, facilitate transfers, and make use of detention space. With this bill, anyone arrested and detained by ICE in Illinois will have to be transferred to an out-of-state facility, according to advocates. County jails and local law

¬ AUGUST 5, 2021

enforcement will also be barred from entering into new agreements with ICE for immigration detention purposes in the state of Illinois.

“One piece of the deportation pipeline will be closed off,” said Tsao.

“People in immigrant communities, their family members and their neighbors should have some greater assurance that they can turn to police or other law enforcement without being questioned about their status,” Tsao explained.

But he said it is still unclear how ICE will adapt to not having jails to hold people for immigration detention in the state. “ICE already uses several other jails outside Illinois (in Wisconsin, Indiana, and Kentucky) for detention in its Chicago region, so it's likely that ICE will put those facilities to greater use,” he wrote in an email.

Tsao said his organization hopes ICE will release some of the current detainees instead of transferring them all to other facilities with which the agency continues to hold contracts. “What we do not want them to do is to merely transfer people out of Illinois to other jails, whether that’s in the Chicago region or far beyond the Chicago region,” he said.

Additionally ICE, which operates independently of state laws, will still be able to arrest, detain and deport people

in Illinois—they will just have to do so without the assistance of local authorities.

The majority of ICE detainees are not held in facilities directly owned and operated by ICE, but instead are housed in local and privately owned facilities. ICE utilizes different types of contracts with facilities and local governments in order to do this. One type of partnership, called an Intergovernmental Service Agreement (IGSA), is a direct contract between a local jail and ICE; the agreements, signed by both parties, can be initiated by ICE or the county jail.

ICE utilizes contracts with county jails, detention centers and private facilities to detain individuals for immigration-related offenses or to hold them during deportation proceedings. As of July 6 2021, ICE had agreements with 203 different facilities across the United States. Forty-two of them are in the Midwest, according to a list of facilities maintained by ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Custody Management Division.

In Kankakee and McHenry, ICE uses a “rider” on the facilities’ existing detention contracts with the U.S. Marshal’s Service, allowing ICE to bypass entering into their own contract with a local jail or detention center.

The Illinois Way Forward Act includes

IMMIGRATION

ILLINOIS GOVERNOR J.B. PRITZKER SIGNS BILL BANNING LOCAL JAILS FROM DETAINING PEOPLE FACING DEPORTATION ON MONDAY AUGUST 2, 2021.

PHOTO COURTESY OF ILLINOIS COALITION OF IMMIGRANT AND REFUGEE RIGHTS

language intentionally directed at ending all types of contracts ICE may use, according to Mark Fleming, associate director of litigation at the National Immigrant Justice Center in Chicago.

“It’s drafted in a way to make sure that no matter what nomenclature [ICE] is using for what the contract is, that this captures it,” Fleming said. “It requires [detention centers] to terminate any portion of the contract that is used to house or detain people on civil immigration violations.”

Fleming also said that it is possible Kankakee and McHenry counties may try to sue the state over this bill or try to claim that it does not apply to their contracts with ICE. COVID-19 has decreased the number of people detained in ICE detention centers. But since President Joe Biden took office at the end of January, the number of people in ICE detention across the U.S. has doubled—from 13,529 in February to 27,670 as of July 23, according to the USCIS website. According to data from Syracuse’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), 79.4% of current ICE immigrant detainees have no criminal record.

ICE declined to comment on the Illinois Way Forward Act but did provide

information about what typically happens when they make custody determinations.

According to an ICE spokesperson, cases are reviewed on an individual basis and take into account someone’s criminal background, immigration history, ties to the community, risk of flight and whether they pose a safety risk.

They added that ICE considers a detainee’s support network and community when making decisions about where to transfer them, in an effort to keep them close to family members or legal services. If McHenry, Kankakee and Pulaski terminate their ICE contracts, detainees will either be released or transferred—a decision that is made by ICE, according to immigration policy experts.

Tsao said that it is encouraging to hear that ICE intends to review detainees’ cases. But he worries, citing at least two recent examples of detention centers in other states that—after expressing a desire to terminate their ICE contracts— transferred their detainees to other facilities, some in other states, according to local news outlets.

For example, after celebrating the anticipated termination of ICE detention contracts in New Jersey and Pennsylvania,

advocates were disappointed to learn that detainees were transferred rather than released. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration in June over the detainee transfers in Essex County, New Jersey, alleging they would be transferred as far away as Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana. At least forty-six detainees have been transferred from Essex County to unknown locations, a county official told NJ Spotlight News.

“Transferring hundreds of people far away from their families and attorneys violates the rights and dignity of New Jerseyans, and we’re calling on the courts to stop this policy of gratuitous cruelty,” ACLU-NJ Executive Director Amol Sinha said in a press release.

ICIRR will continue to push for the release, rather than transfer, of individuals detained for immigration offenses in Illinois, Tsao said. He also warned that even when the Illinois Way Forward Act passes, immigrant communities and their families should continue to be “on guard.”

Bárbara Suarez Galeano from Organized Communities Against Deportations (OCAD), a Chicagobased organization working to end the criminalization and incarceration of undocumented individuals, agreed that although the bill is a step forward, it will not completely stop deportations in Illinois. “We know that nothing's going to completely take away the constant threat of violence and abuse that the presence of ICE in our communities, as well as the presence of police represent,” she said. “Many times, things sound great on paper.”

Suarez Galeano stressed that detention centers are just one way that the U.S. incarcerates people of color.

Continued surveillance and electronic monitoring—alternative options for detainees released from ICE detention centers—are not what their organization hopes to see. “It's a big reason why we still need to keep pushing to defund these institutions, because they'll always rethink ways to use those funds to target us,” she said.

ICIRR, OCAD and other local organizations created the Family Support Network (FSN) to help

undocumented communities fight back against deportations through legal services, know-your-rights workshops and political action. They also maintain a family support hotline offered in Korean, Spanish, English and Polish, which can be reached at +1 (855)-HELP-MYFAMILY, (1-855-435-7693).

Now, advocates and lawmakers are pushing for legislation similar to the Illinois Way Forward Act in other states and at the federal level, in an effort to provide greater protections for immigrants across the country. U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García (D-IL), who attended the press conference, introduced the New Way Forward Act in January with the support of 41 congressional Democrats.

If passed, a federal bill would begin to dismantle the system of laws that criminalizes and penalizes immigrants. Among its reforms, it would ban cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration agents not just on the state level, but nationwide. Madison Muller recently completed her master’s degree at the Medill School of Journalism and is now a Barbara M. Reiss Fellow for the Medill Investigative Lab and The Washington Post. She last reported on the Palestinian march downtown Chicago in May 2021.

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AUGUST 5, 2021 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 19

ILLUSTRATION BY THUMY PHAN

BULLETIN Defund CPD Workshop Defund CPD Workshop, 3525 W. Madison St., Thursday, August 5, 4:00pm–6:00pm. Free. bit.ly/ defundcpdeastgarfieldpark DefundCPD is hosting a workshop with Kuumba Lynx in East Garfield Park. They will be discussing abolition, why they're trying to defund the Chicago Police Department, and how to hold conversations with family and friends about the matter. (Chima Ikoro)

Nuestra Fiesta / Our Annual Kermes St. Procopius Church St. Procopius Church, 1641 S. Allport St. Friday, August 6, 12:00:00pm–12:00:00am. Free. bit.ly/3xkFPAC This is a three-day family-friendly festival that includes a variety of live music, Mexican food, drinks, raffles, bingo games, entertainment for children, and more.

Guests can find free parking in the lot on 16th and Racine and on 19th and Throop. Artists and performers include: Ralphie Rosario, Gino Rockin’ Romo, John Simmons, Catfight, Angelica Victoria a Tributo a Selena, Alacranes Musical, Sonora Dinamita, and Vanguardia. Friday is House music night. (Alma Campos)

Delacreme Scholars Slide By

House City in Humboldt Park

Saturday, August 7 & Sunday, August 8, 11:00am–5:00pm.

Free. delacremescholars.steadyrepeat.com/volunteer/

National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture, 3015 W. Division St., Sunday, August 14, 3:00pm–9:00pm.

Free. bit.ly/37gg61A

Delacreme Scholars is putting together another Slide By grocery drop-off initiative. Volunteers are needed to shop for groceries to deliver to families all over the city.

(Chima Ikoro)

Family Yoga at McKinley Park Community Play Garden 3518-28 S. Wolcott Ave., 3518-28 S. Wolcott Ave., Sunday, August 8, 11:00am–11:45am. Donations requested. bit.ly/3rmxc6Z Families are invited to the McKinley Park Community Garden on Saturday mornings through August to get fresh air, sunshine, and exercise in a yoga class designed for all ages. Participants should bring their own yoga mats, and water. (Alma Campos)

City Council Committee on Environmental Protection and Energy Online, Wednesday, August 11, 10:00am. Free. bit.ly/ AugEnvir The meeting will be held remotely. Written public comment will be accepted at committeeonenvironmentalprotectionandenergy @cityofchicago.org, until 10am on Tuesday, August 10. ( Jim Daley)

The City's summerlong festival of House music (presented by the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events) comes to Humboldt Park. DJs Lugo Rosado, Phatman, and Julio Bishop will each spin twohour sets in a performance hosted by Yvette Magallón. ( Jim Daley)

EDUCATION CPS Achieving Well-Resourced Schools for Every Student: En español Online, Thursday, August 5, 5:00pm–6:30pm. Free. bit. ly/3ie99Va Unase a CPS para un taller comunitario. Los participantes obtendrán un mejor entendimiento sobre la experiencia estudiantil de calidad, lo que el distrito está haciendo para lograr esta meta, y empezaran el proceso de trabajar en colaboración para crear soluciones.

Los participantes se reunirán con otros miembros de la comunidad para ver cómo el distrito escolar puede mejorar el acceso e inscripción de las escuelas.

Registrarse en bit.ly/3ie99Va. (Maddie Parrish)

EVENTS

Scan to view the calendar online!

CPS Achieving Well-Resourced Schools for Every Student Online, Wednesday, August 11, 5:00:00pm–6:30pm. Free. bit.ly/3ie99Va Join Chicago Public Schools for community conversations about their Annual Regional Analysis: Achieving Well-Resourced Schools for Every Student.

This event is for the Southwest region. Network chiefs will share updates regarding schools' current academic priorities, summer re-engagement efforts, school achievements, and the upcoming school year.

Participants will work with other members of their community to co-create ideas on how CPS can help improve access and enrollment in schools. Register at bit.ly/3ie99Va. (Maddie Parrish)

HOUSING Chicago Community Land Trust Board of Directors Meeting Remote, Thursday, August 5, 9:00am–11:00am.

The Chicago Community Land Trust is a 501(c)3 with a $3 million endowment tasked with leasing, buying, developing, and selling properties as well as working with homeowners and renters to preserve and promote affordable housing. The Land Trust spans Woodlawn, East Garfield Park, Hermosa, Humboldt Park, and Pilsen/Little Village. Contact the CCLT Program Coordinator to confirm time and location, Destiny Edmonds, at (312) 744-2967 or Destiny.edmonds@ cityofchicago.org. (Malik Jackson)

Community Development Commission

Back Alley Jazz

Online, Tuesday, August 10, 1:00pm–3:00pm. bit. ly/3CcocGA

Various, Saturday, August 7, 12:00pm–7:45pm. Free. bit. ly/3lCOE6L

The Community Development Commission reviews and recommends action on the provision of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) to assist private redevelopment projects; the designation of new TIF districts and Redevelopment Areas; the sale of City-owned property located in TIF districts and Redevelopment Areas; and the appointment of members to Community Conservation Councils. The agenda for this meeting has not been made public; in their last meeting, they discussed TIF districts on the 43rd and 71st Street corridors. Written statements from the public will be accepted up to 24 hours in advance at CDC@cityofchicago.org. Watch the live stream at bit. ly/3ii7GwN. (Malik Jackson)

Back Alley Jazz is back! Inspired by the South Side back alley jams of the 1960s and 70s, this annual neighborhood celebration features emerging and established jazz performers offering casual pop-up sets in outdoor locations across South Shore. Featured artists include the Maggie Brown Duo, Erwin Daugherty, Thaddeus Tukes and the Chicago Freedom Ensemble, Ayodele Drum & Dance, and many others.

BYO chair, umbrella, and whatever else, and check the festival website for specific schedule and locations, or to register for a free COVID vaccination on site. This year's event honors Jazz in the Alley legend Jimmy Ellis. (Martha Bayne)

Chicago Plan Commission Meeting City Hall and online, 121 N. LaSalle St. Thursday, August 19, 10:00am–12:00pm. bit.ly/3A3my8p The Chicago Plan Commission is an agency within the Department of Planning and Development whose job is to oversee the growth and sustainable development of the City and its neighborhoods. They often lead the approval processes for Planned Developments across the city, from large projects like The 78 to new residential developments across the city. Written statements from the public will be accepted up to twenty-four hours in advance at CPC@cityofchicago. org. You can find the agenda online at bit.ly/3A3my8p.

(Malik Jackson)

THE ARTS South of Roosevelt: Short Film Fest Whiner Beer Company, 1400 W. 46th St., Saturday, August 7, 7:30pm. $5 suggested donations. bit.ly/3yjipwQ This film festival focuses on South Side film producers, including footwork dancer and educator Brandon Calhoun, whose hand-drawn animations are showcased in the recent large-scale projection "Footnotes," currently on view nightly at the Merchandise Mart.

DM @whinerbeer on Instagram or email info@ whinerbeer.com to reserve a spot. (Isabel Nieves)

DanceAfrica 2022 Artist Call Online, Sunday, August 8 through Thursday, August 19.

Free. bit.ly/3A3ud6E DanceAfrica is returning to Chicago in 2022 and calling for artists to participate. Organizers at Muntu Dance Theater are looking for community arts programming in all disciplines, to engage, uplift and unite our city's various communities. Some examples include family drumming circles, dance classes, poetry workshops, basic introduction to music, spoken word jam sessions, senior movement classes, teen improv intensives, family crafting, etc. With a focus on accessibility, the range of programming length is up to the applicant. DanceAfrica is seeking everything from once-in-a-lifetime classes/workshops to regularly scheduled programming for the year. Got a crazy idea?

Complete the artist call survey at bit.ly/3A3ud6E. (Isabel Nieves)

Zulema: A refugee's musical journey from Chiapas to Chicago Davis Square Park, 4430 S. Marshfield Ave., Thursday, August 19, 6:30pm–7:30:00pm. Free. bit.ly/3xjdNFD Sones de México Ensemble and the Goodman Theater present a free performance of the new play Zulema, which follows the journey of the titular young woman from her home in Chiapas, Mexico, to Chicago through music and dance. Masks are required. (Isabel Nieves) AUGUST 5, 2021 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 21

EVENTS

Sundays at Stony Island Arts Bank Stony Island Arts Bank, 6760 S. Stony Island Ave., Sunday, August 8, 12:00pm–7:00pm.

Free. bit.ly/3rPxrYv Stony Island Arts Bank brings back Sundays at Stony Arts Bank with the opening of "Toward Common Cause: Art, Social Change, and the MacArthur Fellows Program at 40." Work in the exhibition explores questions of race as it intersects with the natural environment, the built environment, monuments and institutions, and identity and representation. Artists include MacArthur Fellows Carrie Mae Weems, Kerry James Marshall, Gary Hill, Whitfield Lovell, Trevor Paglen, Deborah Willis, Dawoud Bey, Fred Wilson, and Nicole Eisenman. The exhibit runs through December 19. Public tours of the Arts Bank will commence at 12:15pm every Sunday. Walk-ups may be accommodated if capacity permits, but you can also register to ensure a spot at bit.ly/2VnQxsH. (Isabel Nieves)

FOOD & LAND Community Farm Stand at Otis Farm OTIS Farm, 1509 W. 51st St., Tuesday, August 10, 3:00pm–6:00pm. Free.

Meet the #LetUsBreathe Collective at OTIS Farm on Tuesdays from 3-6pm! They'll have fresh produce available directly from the Breathing Room gardens and OTIS farm. (Malik Jackson)

South Loop Farmers Market Printers Row Park, 632 S. Dearborn St., Saturday, August 7, 9:00am–1:00pm. Free. bit. ly/3jfP28d Offering everything from kombucha to cookies to cheese—as well as, of course, fresh fruits and veggies—the South Loop Farmers Market runs through September 25.

There's a second location every Thursday through September 30 at 1936 S. Michigan Ave. (Isabel Nieves)

61st Street Market Experimental Station, 6100 S. Blackstone Ave., Saturday, August 7, 9:00am–2:00pm.

Free. bit.ly/2UqRuQo Chicagoland farmers, cheesemakers, bakers and others hawk their wares every Saturday outside the Experimental Station. The market accepts LINK and Senior Farmers Market Coupons, and all LINK purchases are matched up to $25. (Martha Bayne)

22 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

¬ AUGUST 5, 2021

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Accurate Contact Rod: (773) 930-7112 Exterior & Masonry CLEANING 773-592-4535

708-599-7000

Moving, Delivery and Cleanout Jobs

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CONSTRUCTION $

(773)

SPECIALIZING IN ARCHITECTURAL: METAL WORK:

MICHAEL MOVING COMPANY

MOVING -

MICHAEL MOVING COMPANY Moving, Delivery and Cleanout Jobs

Serving Hyde Park and surrounding communities

773-977-9000

Residential Plumbing Service SERVICES INCLUDE:

Plumbing • Drain Cleaning • Sewer Camera/Locate Water Heater Installation/Repair Service • Tankless Water Heater Installation/Repair Service Toilet Repair • Faucet/Fixture Repair Vintage Faucet/Fixture Repair • Ejector/Sump Pump • Garbage Disposals • Battery Back-up Systems

Licensed & Insured • Serving Chicago & Suburbs

10% OFF Senior Citizen Discount License #: Call 773-617-3686 058-197062

ROOFING -

Conrad Roofing Co. of Illinois Inc.

SPECIALIZING IN ARCHITECTURAL: METAL WORK:

• Cornices • Bay Windows • Ornaments • Gutters & Downspouts • Standing & Flat Seam Roofs ROOFING WORK: • Slate • Clay Tile • Cedar • Shingles • Flat/Energy Star Roof

(773)

286-6212

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Let Us Help Build Your Business! Advertise in the Business & Service Directory Today!!

Call 773-358-3129 to place your ad!

Let Us Help Build Your Business! Advertise in the Business & Service Directory Today!!

Call 773-358-3129 to place your ad!