August 9 - 15, 2023

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Arts & Entertainment Event highlights of the week!

HealthWise

Dr. Marina Claudio of Molina Healthcare explains how to ease the uncomfortableness of eczema symptoms.

Cover Story: Dance FOr Life

Dancers live financially precarious lives, often without health insurance from their dance employer. They might work several jobs to make ends meet, which could leave them one catastrophic expense away from insolvent. Chicago Dancers United (CDU) maintains The Dancers' Fund to help out with expenses related to both general health and wellness, and critical medical needs. Dance for Life, which is August 19, is its major fundraiser. CDU Executive Director Nathaniel Ekman talks with StreetWise Editor-in-Chief Suzanne Hanney about the importance of The Dancers' Fund to maintaining the health of workers in this important Chicago art form and his plans to grow the fund to become an important go-to resource for them.

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From the Streets

A curator of the Chicago Hip Hop Heritage Museum gives us a guided tour of this Bronzeville venue. Geoffrey Watts, aka "Dr. Groove" of the group Sneak Attack describes how hip-hop can be used to deliver positive messages.

The Playground

ON THE COVER: Arielle Israel (Todd Rosenberg photo). THIS PAGE: Fernando Duarte (Todd Rosenberg photo). DISCLAIMER: The views, opinions, positions or strategies expressed by the authors and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or positions of StreetWise.

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT RECOMMENDATIONS

Compiled by Kyra Walker

A Culinary Extravaganza!

Taste of Andersonville

The annual Taste of Andersonville returns August 9 from 5-8 p.m. This year’s Taste features three routes, the Fork, the Spoon, and the Spork. Foodies can travel up and down the Clark Street business corridor sampling small plates of 20+ dinner, dessert, and beverage options. Tickets are $45 for single routes, and $80 for the Spork route. Tasters are encouraged to arrive early for check-in; beginning at 3 p.m. near the Molly Costello mural between U.S. Bank, 5340 N. Clark St. and The Clark, 5346 N. Clark St. Attendees are also encouraged to explore the Andersonville Farmers Market, 3-7 p.m. at 1500 W. Catalpa Ave. Tickets and more information at andersonville.org

Rubber Ducky, You're the One!

Chicago Ducky Derby

The Chicago Ducky Derby returns August 10 at the Columbus Drive bridge. Festivities begin at 10 a.m. with a Family Festival in Pioneer Court, 401 N. Michigan Ave., featuring games, prizes, performances and more. At 1 p.m., a minimum of 50,000 ducks will be released into the water and race to the finish line. Ducks can be adopted until the day of, with all proceeds to benefit the Special Olympics. Hopefuls can adopt a Lone Duck for $5 each or go big with a Quack Pack of six ducks for $25! Meanwhile, a Flock of Ducks (24 ducks) costs $100, and a Diamond Duck Pack of 240 costs $1,000. The grand prize winner will win a 2024 Chevy Traxx, while the second prize is a cruise provided by Royal Caribbean, the third prize wins a Save the Duck Shopping Spree, and fourth place wins a $2,000 cash prize. Adopt a duck at duckrace.com

It's All Ancient History!

The Hellenistic Kingdom: Journey into the “Other Ancient” Greece Embark on a captivating journey through the dynamic and far-reaching Hellenisitic kingdoms, 7-8 p.m. August 10 at the National Hellenic Museum, 333 S. Halsted St. Explore the aftermath of Alexander the Great’s empire and delve into the intricate webs of power, culture, and influence that emerged across the Mediterranean and beyond. Investigate the interplay of Greek, Persian, and local cultures, the impact of royal patronage on art and literature, and political rivalries that shaped this era. FREE. Registration on nationalhellenicmuseum.org

Chicago Delights!

Monica Eng and David Hammond: 'Made in Chicago' Co-authors Monica Eng and David Hammond will be at the Harold Washington Library's Cindy Pritzker Auditorium, 400 S. State St. August 9 from 6-7 p.m. to talk about their new book, "Made In Chicago: Stories Behind 30 Great Hometown Bites." Chicago food shows its true depth in classic dishes conceived in the kitchens of immigrant innovators, neighborhoods, entrepreneurs, and mom-and-pop visionaries. Eng and Hammond draw on decades of exploring the city’s landscape to serve up 30 can’t-miss eats found in all corners of Chicago. FREE. Masks are strongly encouraged in all CPL spaces.

The Sounds of the World!

Flamenco Quartet Project at Back of the Yards

Clinard Dance has discovered that flamenco is a foundation for understanding authentic music and spoken word traditions and is dedicated to connecting the flamenco perspective to local artists from jazz, blues, and hip-hop.

Wendy Clinard and Diego Alvarez will welcome Billy Branch, Joan Collaso, and King Mossa to this special presentation on August 12, 2-5 p.m. at Back of the Yards Park, 4922 S. Throop St. FREE.

Back in the Loop!

Sundays on State

Neighbors from every Chicago community unite for a free, interactive block party while enjoying art, culture, food, drinks, and more. The festival will begin on Lake Street, and end on Adams Street. Admission is FREE. Make sure to visit the GiveAShi*t tent, where all the proceeds go directly to StreetWise! The festival will be from 11 a.m.-6 p.m.

Interactive Trip to the Past!

Virtual Reality Film: 'Walk to Westerbork'

The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center, 9603 Woods Drive, Skokie, presents a new virtual reality film, "Walk to Westerbork," in the Richard & Jill Chaifetz Family Virtual Reality Gallery. The film explores the often-neglected story of the annihilation of 75% of Jews from the Netherlands and shares an intensely personal account of a young girl’s survival during the Holocaust. Tickets on ilholocaustmuseum.org

Multimedia Art!

Jade, Silk and Metal at Ping Tom Park

Presented by Yin He Dance, enjoy a Chinese performing arts festival featuring local artists on August 12 from 3-5 p.m. at Ping Tom Memorial Park, 1700 S. Wentworth Ave. See how local artists continue to practice art forms from a rich ethnic history in modern times. FREE.

Home is Where the Heart Is!

'Letters From Home' Exhibit

This exhibit is a collaborative contemporary art exhibit that brings together artists in Sweden and Chicago. These artists have created original works interpreting a collection of early 20th century letters to Chicago immigrant Emil Olsson from his family in Sweden. This international exchange inspired new contemporary artwork interpreting themes present in the Olsson letters that relate to the early Swedish American immigrant experience and the artist's own experiences with immigration. The exhibition is now on display until August 13 at the Swedish American Museum, 5211 N. Clark St. Learn more at swedishamericanmuseum.

org/special-exhibits

Support Local Makers!

Underground Art Market @ Salvage One

Are you an artist or crafty in some way? If so, here’s your chance to sell your items at Salvage One, 1840 W. Hubbard St. at the Underground Art Market September 10, 2-8 p.m. Underground Art Market aims to promote recycled art, handmade artisan wellness products, and functional art. Charitable causes and positive social change through art-making is encouraged. Applications are open, more information on undergroundmarket.com

Recognizing and easing eczema symptoms

Eczema is a general term used to describe rash-like skin conditions. The most common type of eczema is called atopic dermatitis. It is caused by some type of allergic reaction, but the exact cause is unknown. Atopic dermatitis is a chronic skin condition. It is caused by an allergic reaction. You can’t catch it from other people. You are more likely to have this condition if a family member has it.

“Atopic” refers to a form of allergy where a reaction such as dermatitis may occur in a part of the body not in contact with the allergy trigger. “Dermatitis” refers to skin that is red and itchy. Atopic dermatitis usually starts during infancy and continues into childhood. Some children outgrow this condition.

Eczema is most common in babies but also affects children and adults. The condition can get worse or flare up. The more you scratch, the worse it tends to get. Common places for eczema rashes are in elbow creases, behind the knees, on the cheeks, and on the buttocks. Flare-ups in adults tend to be less severe. Symptoms can include dry, itchy skin. There can also be redness, swelling, and soreness of the affected skin.

Your healthcare provider will be able to diagnose eczema by examining the skin and asking about your medical history. People with allergies and asthma tend to be at higher risk of having eczema. Your healthcare provider may order blood tests or skin patch tests to exclude other possible conditions. You might not know exactly what is causing your eczema. Discovering and then avoiding triggers can help you better manage your symptoms.

Some things that may irritate your skin:

• Household cleansers

• Detergents

• Aftershave lotions

• Soap

How to decrease flare-ups:

• Wash your hands only when necessary, as soaps and wetness can cause skin irritation.

• Use mild unscented soap, especially if you have hand eczema.

• Dry hands fully after washing.

• Wear vinyl or plastic gloves if you need to have your hands in water (e.g., dishwashing).

• Wear gloves when your hands could be exposed to anything irritating.

by Dr. Marina Claudio

• Wear gloves outside during winter to avoid dryness.

• Wear clothes made of cotton or a cotton blend.

• Bathe only with a small amount of mild unscented soap.

• Keep water temperature cool or warm, not hot.

• Keep baths or showers short.

• Use a soft towel to pat skin dry without rubbing.

• Immediately after drying, use a moisturizer to seal the moisture.

• Use moisturizer, without fragrances, daily.

• Avoid activities that make you hot and sweaty.

• Reduce stress.

Treatment includes over-thecounter steroid cream or ointment that is applied directly to your rash. Antihistamines can reduce itching. A new drug class (immunomodulators) work well for severe rashes. The Food and Drug Administration recommends these drugs be used only when other, more common treatments don’t work.

Be sure to see your healthcare provider if you suspect eczema, or your symptoms get worse or don’t go away.

https://familydoctor.org/condition/eczema-and-atopic-dermatitis/

Dr. Marina Claudio is a board-certified family physician who has been in practice since 2003. She is currently a Medical Director at Molina Healthcare of Illinois/Wisconsin. She's a graduate of the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago. She completed her residency in Family Medicine at the UIC/Advocate Illinois Masonic Family Medicine Residency Program.

Dance For Life

Supporting the health and wellness of chicago dancers

It may be surprising to see an interview about dance in a publication focused on homelessness, but many dancers live on the edge while doing careers they love; they work multiple jobs, often without health insurance from their primary employer. Just the same, they help create a cultural landscape that makes Chicagoans proud.

Chicago Dancers United (CDU) is a 501 (c)(3) tax-exempt charitable organization that provides financial relief for preventive health care and critical medical needs for Chicago dance industry professionals via The Dancers’ Fund and its signature fundraiser, Dance for Life. Begun in 1992 as a grassroots benefit performance for dancers battling HIV/AIDS, Dance for Life will be August 19 (see page 10). It is a loving, city-wide solution to providing wraparound support from other members of the dance community, from philanthropy, and from the general public. CDU Executive Director Nathaniel Ekman has a bachelor’s degree in urban studies from Harvard University, a master’s in public policy from Northwestern, and was previously executive director of NAMI Cook County North Suburban. He spoke with StreetWise Editor Suzanne Hanney about dancers, health care, and his intentions to grow CDU to become the dance community’s go-to resource.

Suzanne Hanney: Please tell me more about the health concerns you see among dancers.

Nathaniel Ekman: Most dancers are young, or younger professionals, who hold multiple jobs. Fewer than 5% of them have health insurance though their employment as professional dancers. They are often just one catastrophic expense or even one moderately large expense away from insolvency.

There are plenty of people who have marketplace insurance, or spousal insurance, or something else. Some are covered through government programs. I spoke with an applicant [to the Dancers’ Fund] the other day who’s on Medicaid. Who would think that a dance professional is on Medicaid? But,

you know, it’s a patchwork system – U.S. health insurance –and not a good one.

To have insurance through your spouse is nice, but what if your spouse loses a job or you get divorced? And, most 19-year-old dancers are not married.

You mentioned that many dancers hold multiple jobs.

You have to have health insurance, or you have to have a way to pay for your medical care. So, you get a second job, or a third or a fourth. I know a dance professional who holds five jobs: part-time administrative job, a second part-time administrative job, work as a professional dancer, work in the personal fitness realm and one other part-time job.

They’re one paycheck away from losing an apartment, losing a house, losing medical coverage, losing the ability to pay for things that they need, like food, like medicine.

So, The Dancers’ Fund can come to the rescue?

If a dancer gets injured and cannot dance, there is no art. Art is important to the human condition and to one’s overall mental health. And since I believe in the mind-body connection, there is no health without mental health. We award funds to dance professionals – not only dancers, but choreographers, dance educators, artistic directors, administrative staff, retired professional dancers and rehearsal accompanists.

by Suzanne Hanney

We pay for medical bills that stem from critical health needs and from general health and wellness needs, including preventative and routine care, medications, psychotherapy, physical therapy and dental care.

A very large number of dancers are under age 30. If you’re 35, 40, and still dancing, that is a long time to have been a working professional dancer. Dance is hard on your body: the bending, the jumping, the falling, the flexibility required. It’s hard on the muscles, bones, ligaments, joints and tendons. I’ve spoken with applicants who need MRIs for injuries and breaks – all kinds of things.

How much did you give out in grants last year?

In 2022, we awarded $87,000 for critical health needs (grants up to $5,000), based on demonstrated need and documented expenses. These relate to events such as illness, injury, surgery; as well as grants up to $1,000 for general health and wellness, which includes preventative and routine care, and ongoing care. For 2023, The Dancers’ Fund is slated to give out $100,000.

Did you fund everyone who applied last year?

We were able to fund almost every applicant who applied, and in the small number of cases where we didn’t, there was usually something about the application that made it ineligible.

How are the grants determined?

By the fund committee. We are very HIPAA-compliant in the way that we receive and review applications. As Executive Director, I am intentionally not on the fund committee, so I don’t see anything [that has] to do with an applicant’s injury, illness, medications, diagnosis. That’s all handled by the committee, which is chaired by a physician who is herself a former professional dancer. The committee reviews the applications and also includes a hospital administrator, a dance educator and administrator, and experienced former dancers. Just like when you receive a check donation at a non-profit, you’re not supposed to have [just] one person process it. There’s a chain of custody and a separation of duties to protect the privacy of the applicant.

What’s next for The Dancers’ Fund?

I want to grow the fund, to grow the organization and the board, so we continue to mature as an organization. Ultimately, I would hope that we can award larger grants, because somebody who’s had major surgery with a bill of $100,000 –yes, it’s great that we can help with a $5,000 award, but that’s a drop in the bucket with a bill that large, so I would like us to increase the pool of funds so that we can significantly raise the maximum size of an award, to serve more dancers and be known as the go-to resource for the health and wellness needs of Chicago’s dance community.

Dance for Life 2023 photos by Todd Rosenberg, featuring (l-r) Devin Buchanan and Fernando Duarte; Jack Halbert, Arielle Israel, and Devin Buchanan.

Since I joined CDU, we have increased our messaging within the dance community: how to reach us, how to apply, and that if in doubt, please apply. In 2022, we lowered the eligibility age from 21 to 18.

How are you working to grow The Dancers’ Fund?

We have benefitted recently from a Recovery grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) that will increase the pool of available funds. We have also formed partnerships—the biggest one with Howard Brown Health, who is designated as the healthcare provider of choice for the professional dance community. They are a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC), and we make a point of referring Fund applicants there. They’re exceedingly culturally competent and a wonderful place to call your medical home.

We have a cross-referral agreement that if Howard Brown has a patient who identifies as a dance professional and needs help paying for care, Howard Brown will direct the patient to CDU; and if a dance professional needs a medical home, CDU directs them to Howard Brown. It works both ways.

Dancers can go anywhere, but the clinic of choice for dance professionals is the 55th Street Clinic in Hyde Park. Howard Brown also has the Broadway Youth Center, which provides absolutely free care and services to anyone up to age 24. So if a dancer is 19 or 23 years old and needs testing, treatment, lab work, a doctor’s appointment or a specialty visit, they can go there.

How big a role does Dance for Life play?

Dance for Life has a revenue goal of $325,000. It is the primary fundraiser for the organization. It funds operations and staff and everything else you need to keep a non-profit going. And it also fuels The Dancers’ Fund. The bigger The Dancers’ Fund can become, the more good we can do in the professional dance community, for more people.

If we can say that there were 96 applicants and we just couldn’t serve them all, that inspires funders to give more generously to us, demonstrating that the need outstrips the available resources.

Dance For Life: the Event

by Suzanne Hanney

Chicago Dancers United, whose mission is to support the health and wellness of Chicago’s professional dance community, will host its 32nd annual fundraiser, Dance for Life, at 6 p.m. Saturday, August 19 at the Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Ida B. Wells Drive, Chicago. The performance will be followed by an after-party at Venue SIX10, 610 S. Michigan Ave.

Dance for Life raises money for The Dancers’ Fund, which provides Chicago dance industry professionals with financial support for preventive health care and critical medical needs. The event showcases the city’s unique variety of dance traditions and styles by bringing together professional dance companies and dancers from throughout Chicago, who volunteer their time and energy to support their peers. An additional beneficiary of Dance for Life is AIDS Foundation Chicago. For information, visit chicagodancersunited.org.

Dance for Life 2023 Co-Chairs are Ted Grady, Ross Slotten M.D., Victor Alexander, and Maray Gutierrez.

Tickets are $45-$125 for the performance alone, or $500 for the performance and after-party, available at the Auditorium Theatre Box Office, at 312.341.2300 or auditoriumtheatre.org/events-details/ chicago-dancers-united-presents-dancefor-life-2023. Group tickets of 10 or more are available by calling the box office. All programming is subject to change.

The program includes the following companies:

photo by Todd Rosenberg, featuring Jack Halbert and Fernado Duarte.

BOOM CRACK! Dance Company combines hip-hop styles with curated choreography in “Decibel,” an excerpt from an evening-length production choreographed by Trae Turner with music by Paul Mond. The work explores frequency and emotions attached to sound, with an eclectic score of lo-fi sample-based production, harsh electronic instrumentals, and energetic music.

Chicago Tap Allstars, which features tap dancers from throughout the Chicago area, performs “Birdland,” a joyous dance choreographed by Bril Barrett and Mark Yonally with improvography by the dancers, to the music of Weather Report. Chicago Tap Allstars aims to amplify the excellence of Chicago tap dance by creating an equitable, healing, and inclusive community.

Giordano Dance Chicago and South Chicago Dance Theatre join forces for “Luminescence,” created by Kia Smith for Giordano’s 60th anniversary season earlier this year. With music by Coldplay and U2, the work was created in the spirit of community and celebrates humanity.

Hiplet Ballerinas, the professional company of the Chicago Multi-Cultural Dance Center, performs “React,” choreographed by Trevon Lawrence and Anthony Sampson to the music of The Pussycat Dolls. From classical ballet to hip-hop, this piece fuses tradition with the energy of dance.

Freelance dancers Joseph Massarelli and Riho Sakamoto perform “On the Nature of Daylight,” a pas de deux choreographed and staged by David Dawson to music by Max Richter. This work explores the idea of love as the ordinary and the extra-ordinary— the many possibilities of finding pure love, a task that binds us as human beings, and a search that happens daily around the world. Its concept is that love lost remains unforgettable.

(Michael Mabbo photo)

(Anderson Photography photo)

(David Harmantas photo)

(Roshawn Lyles photo)

(Altin Kaftira photo)

Muntu Dance Theatre performs “Djeliya,” featuring Lamba, the dance of the djeli, or griots, who are highly respected among the Mandingue people for keeping the history and culture intact by playing special instruments and singing. Choreographed by Regina Perry-Carr to music by Idris Daniel and Sekou Conde, “Djeliya” includes a drum procession.

The Joffrey Ballet performs excerpts of Gerald Arpino’s “Birthday Variations,” which was commissioned by Becky D’Angelo as a birthday present to her husband Dino, who owned Chicago’s Civic Opera House and who loved the music of Giuseppe Verdi. Set to Verdi’s infectious operaballet music, the work is a sparkling showcase of classical dancing.

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago offers the full company in excerpts from “BUSK” by Aszure Barton, set to music by Daniel Belanger, Ljova, Camille Saint-Saëns, and David Wikander. WTTW called it “wildly eccentric and stunningly original.”

For this year’s finale, Randy Duncan revives and expands his world-premiere finale from Dance for Life 2021, “As One,” with music by Ira Antelis and costumes by Richard Dayhoff. Created in honor of longtime Dance for Life supporter Harriet Ross, “As One” drew inspiration from marches and protests during the pandemic, and also from the hate – and the love and healing – necessary to survive in this climate.

Moonwater Dance Project’s work “Clarity,” choreographed by Hanna Brictson to music by Murcof and Vanessa Wagner and Travis Lake, explores the challenge of finding transparency within oneself, taking a dynamic journey to discover purity and strength.

(Marc Monaghan photo)

(Danica Paulos photo; courtesy of Jacob's Pillow)

(Cheryl Mann photo)

(Cheryl Mann photo)

(Ren Picco Freeman photo)

The Chicago hip hop heritage museum provides music and chicago history

Hip-hop started organically, as people were actually making music for themselves, says Brian Gorman, one of three curators of the Chicago Hip Hop Heritage Museum in Bronzeville. Gorman, along with Carrico “Kingdom Rock” Sanders Sr. and Darrell “Artistic” Roberts, started the museum in July 2021 for HipHop Heritage Month.

Gorman, 47, is a member of ChiRock (Chicago Respect Our Creative Kids/Kings) Nation, a collective of MCs, graffiti writers and other people in hip-hop culture, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.

Located in an historic greystone decorated with a bold graffiti woman on the curve of its interior stairway, the hip-hop museum is also an accessible entrée into Chicago history.

On one wall, there is a huge CTA “Supertransfer” poster. On Sundays in 1986, this slender piece of paper cost $1.40 (later $1.75) for rides all day, all over the city. Young people used the Supertransfer to go to the Museum of Science and Industry, and play their music outside, Gorman said. It was the kind of transit equity, bringing diverse people together for economic opportunities, that advocates dream about today.

Musician sign-in sheets from the late 1980s list ZIP codes from all over the city: from 60610 for areas near Cabrini-Green to 60660 and 60626 in Edgewater and Rogers Park, 60643 in Morgan Park, 60651 in Humboldt Park and Austin. No 312 or 773 area codes are listed, because they weren’t invented until 1995. Everyone’s Chicago phone number had just seven digits.

Gorman and his ChiRock Nation friends had been holding onto all this material, reluctant to throw it away, when they were approached by a New York group in 2020 that wanted their memorabilia for a little display in their museum.

“We decided we would be better off doing it ourselves, because all of us were hoarders,” Gorman said. “The next thing you know, we’re here.” The trio is still processing over 10,000 objects and actively expanding their collection through acquisitions and donations.

A highlight of the museum are black and white concert photos by photographer Raymond Boyd of hip-hop stars in their prime years ago: Queen Latifah, Snoop Dog, Common, who was then known as Common Sense; 2nd II None, Tung Twista and DJ Quik at Malcolm X College in 1991; Da Brat at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in June 1994; even a very young Kanye West with his original band, the Go Getters. Boyd started with a Kodak pocket camera in high school and was still shooting for fun when he was discovered by Earl Calloway, fine arts editor at the Chicago Defender, who hired him as a freelancer.

The museum shows the work of writers like Slang, Artistic, Upski, Trickster and Ray Pitman; emcee/rappers like Casper, Dr. Groove, Kanye, Chance the Rapper; DJs like Mustapha Rocks and Timbuktu; radio personalities like Al Greer, Ramonski Luv, First Lady, Chilly Q; dancers like Jeffery Daniels, Shabba Doo, Brickheadz, and more.

Story and photos by Suzanne Hanney

Brian Gorman, a curator of the Chicago Hip Hop Heritage Museum, leads a tour (Suzanne Hanney photo).

Right past the memorial wall at the top of the stairs is a room overlooking Indiana Avenue that Gorman uses for mini-shows after recordings in the museum’s soundproof studio. He hosts twice-monthly podcasts, followed by artist performances.

Another highlight of the room is the row of promotion posters for Chicago movies with some tie to hip-hop: “Cooley High,” “Running Scared,” “Candyman,” “Barbershop” and “Barbershop 2,” “Soul Food,” “Love Jones,” “Above the Rim,” “Save the Last Dance,” “Chiraq” and “The Chi” are all obvious, but there’s also “The Blues Brothers” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” – the latter for the scene where Ferris, his girlfriend and best friend, encounter a break dancer outside Wrigley Field.

There are also posters from the yearly “Battle 4 the Eagle” for graffiti artists and musicians, which this year will be 11 a.m.8 p.m. August 13 at the Illinois Centennial Memorial, 3150 W. Logan Blvd. More information at rofchi.com

The Chicago Hip Hop Heritage Museum, located at 4505 S. Indiana Ave. in Bronzeville, offers guided one-hour tours starting at $12. More information on visits, legacy and other donations, and its private label apparel at www.chhhm.com

dR. groove waxes on Chicago hip hop

If you think hip-hop is about negativity, you’ve been paying too much attention to people who would buy out land in the 'hood low and sell it high, says Brian Gorman, one of three curators of the Chicago Hip Hop Heritage Museum in Bronzeville.

“[Funkadelic band leader] George Clinton knew Black people didn’t love each other so he put up the P Funk sign,” which was the International Sign Language hand signal for “I love you,” said Geoffrey Watts, aka “Dr. Groove,” formerly of the rap group “Sneak Attack.” Sneak Attack did positive raps – “Drugs, No Drugs; “You Don’t Have to Be in a Gang to do Your Thang; “Stay in School”— around Chicago from 1986 to 1989.

“I’m old enough now that I can break the code,” said Watts, who is also an emcee and poet/mentor to many, in an interview at the hip-hop museum for an upcoming documentary.

Clinton was connected to Chicago through the artist Pedro Bell, a Chicago native who created psychedelic album covers. Bell’s style has been described as “urban Hieronymous Bosch,” and his album covers redefined the P-Funk collective as sci-fi superheroes fighting the evils of society.

Parliament Funkadelic inspired Watts’ performance name, Groove, a code word for God.

Groove’s story began much earlier. He met poet Gwendolyn Brooks in fourth grade at Burnside School, 650 E. 91st Place. The school won an appearance from Brooks after reading the most books in a contest sponsored by a radio station. “She not only gave me a hug, she told me I could write something.”

The next month, he had penned, “The 12 Black Days of Christmas,” he said, laughing.

Later, at Kentucky State University, he was exposed to a New Yorker who did Superman Rap. Two weeks later, he met Manhattan DJ Robert Weeks, who introduced him to mixing.

Closer to home, he learned from the late Phil Cohran, who mentored Earth, Wind & Fire. “He taught us about beats: which were heavenly and which were not. He taught us not to violate them, and he would do things that were uplifting for our people.”

Groove never listened to people who said rap was a short-term fad. “I knew rap was here to stay.”

He used the rhymes as a tool for teaching kids mathematics and geography until the death of Harold Washington quashed such cultural teaching methods.

“The names of African nations – kids would catch on just like that. Using rhythm, there were things they would teach in a month that I could teach in a week.”

From top: Lonnie “Tu Short” Strong; Daphne “Double D” Ivory; Lazarick “Rick Dog” Leak; Michael “Sugar D” Richardson; Waldo “Fatman MC” Correa; Geoffrey “Doctor Groove” Watts of the group Doctor Groove and Sneak Attack (photo by Suzanne Hanney).

To solve the Sudoku puzzle, each row, column and box must contain the

Last week's Answers

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