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Arts & Entertainment
Event highlights of the week!
SportsWise
Does the title, "America's Team," still apply to the Dallas Cowboys, and if not,who deserves it?
Black History Month: Blues Music in Chicago
FOUR Blues Inc., NFP is a new West Side nonprofit dedicated to bringing the music of the blues ancestors to a new generation.
Black History Month: Creating Communities
MLK's "beloved community" has inspired social justice work for decades - What did he mean?
From the Streets
Sarah's Circle hosts its annual "Winter Walk' fundraiser. Also, three new laws require insurance to cover mental health services.
The Playground
THIS PAGE: Larry Taylor's band takes the stage at a December 2024 event for FOUR Blues (Suzanne Hanney 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.
Dave Hamilton, Creative Director/Publisher dhamilton@streetwise.org
Amanda Jones, Director of programs ajones@streetwise.org
Julie Youngquist, Executive director jyoungquist@streetwise.org
Ph: 773-334-6600
Office: 2009 S. State St., Chicago, IL, 60616
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT RECOMMENDATIONS
Compiled by Dave Hamilton & Suzanne Hanney
Awe Inspiring Ballet!
Complexions Contemporary Ballet
Celebrate Complexions 30th anniversary season with its newest work, “For Crying Out Loud,” set to the music of U2. Experience an adrenaline-fueled evening with “arabesques that sail to the sky” (Critical Dance) as the dancers take you on a journey that will leave you breathless. The company’s foremost innovation is that dance should be about removing boundaries, not reinforcing them. Whether it be the limiting traditions of a single style, period, venue, or culture, Complexions transcends them all, creating an open, continually evolving form of dance that reflects the movement of our world—and all its constituent cultures—as an interrelated whole. Complexions is an institution that embodies its historical moment, a sanctuary where those passionate about dance can celebrate its past while simultaneously building its future. 7:30 p.m. February 7 at the Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Ida B. Wells Drive. Tickets start at $39 at auditoriumtheatre.org
Vroom Vroom!
Chicago Auto Show
First staged in 1901, the Chicago Auto Show is the largest auto show in North America and has been held more times than any other auto exposition on the continent. This year marks the 117th edition, February 8 - 17, at McCormick Place, 2301 S. King Drive. The show features the complete range of domestic and imported passenger cars, trucks, sport-utility vehicles, minivans, and experimental and concept cars. In total, the 2025 Chicago Auto Show boasts hundreds of different vehicles from more than two dozen different manufacturers. In addition, you’ll find numerous automotive accessories and auto-related exhibits, competition vehicles, project cars, antique and collector vehicles, and interactive exhibits. Tickets are $17 for general admission / $12 children (4-12) or seniors (62+) / FREE for children 3 and under. tickets.drivechicago.com
What A Glorious Feeling!
‘Singing
In the Rain’ Live
The Lyric Opera of Chicago Orchestra performs the score for “Singin' in the Rain” live alongside the film in an inaugural big screen presentation at 7 p.m. February 7. Named the Greatest Movie Musical of All Time by the American Film Institute, this comedy-romance tells the story of film stars Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) and Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen) during the 1920s, when silent films were evolving into talkies. The unforgettable ensemble includes the legendary Debbie Reynolds as Kathy Selden, (only 19 when the movie was filmed) who captures Lockwood's heart; and Donald O'Connor as Cosmo Brown, Lockwood's best friend and fellow entertainer. Tickets $29+ at lyricopera.org
Honoring A Legend!
Sir Andrew Davis Tribute
Sir Andrew Davis (Feb. 2, 1944 - April 20, 2024) had an illustrious career that spanned the globe; he made his Lyric Opera debut in 1987, and served as music director and principal conductor of Lyric from 2000 to 2021. A 7:30 p.m. February 15 musical tribute to Sir Andrew at Lyric Opera, 20 N. Wacker Drive, will feature the Lyric Opera of Chicago Orchestra and Chorus, members of The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center, and special guests Elizabeth DeShong, Christine Goerke, Susan Graham, Amanda Majeski, John Relyea, Stuart Skelton, and Christian Van Horn, all of whom worked closely with Sir Andrew during his career. Music Director Enrique Mazzola and Maestro Francesco Milioto conduct this program featuring music by beloved composers associated with Sir Andrew, as well as an orchestral piece written for the occasion by his son, composer Ed Frazier Davis. Tickets are free, but reservations are required at lyricopera.org. To honor Sir Andrew's wish that memorial contributions in his name should support Lyric, guests may also make a tax-deductible contribution.
Enter You, Stage Center!
Chicago Theatre Week
Chicago is the place for incredible theatre! Experience everything Chicago theatre has to offer for just $15 or $30 (or less!) from Feb. 6 – 16. Chicago Theatre Week features value-priced tickets to more than 100 performances at theatres across the city, from musicals to improv to dramas and beyond. Presented by the League of Chicago Theatres in partnership with Choose Chicago. For a full schedule and to purchase tickets, visit choosechicago. com/chicago-theatre-week
Music For Romance!
Newberry Consort ‘So Sweet is Your Return’
On Valentine’s weekend, the Newberry Consort presents a romantic concert of Italian madrigals and French chansons, “So Sweet is Your Return,” named for the last line of Alfonso d’Avalo’s poem, “Ancor che col partire.” A five-part vocal consort is complemented by music for lute, harp and recorder. Performances are 7:30 p.m. February 14 at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Evanston, 7:30 p.m. February 15 at Bond Chapel at the University of Chicago and 4 p.m. February 16 at Ganz Recital Hall downtown. Tickets $10-$65 at newberryconsort.org or (312) 285-0885.
The Perfect Date!
Puccini Excerpts
Music Director Enrique Mazzola will collaborate with superstar soprano Sondra Radvanovsky in a program of excerpts from each of Puccini’s 12 operas. Just in time for Valentine’s Day, on February 8, 13 and 16, you’ll hear favorite leading lady moments from “Tosca,” “La Bohème,” “Madama Butterfly,” and “Turandot,” plus gorgeous melodies from Puccini's more rarely performed works. Roger Pines will give a pre-opera talk one hour beforehand. Tickets $59+ at lyricopera.org.
Cirque Show Reimagined
Cirque Du Soleil ‘OVO’
After performing in 40 countries and delighting audiences in the Middle East, Egypt, and Europe in recent years, the ‘OVO’ insect colony returned to Cirque du Soleil’s headquarters in Montreal for a new look. Over the past year, a team of more than 135 professionals (including 53 artists of the show) and the original creators of ‘OVO’ have developed this restaging, including a revamped set design, new acrobatic acts and characters, freshly designed costumes, and reinvented music. The renewed show will be presented in Hoffman Estates at the NOW Arena, 5333 Prairie Stone Pkwy., in six performances only, February 13-16. Tickets start at $60 at www.cirquedusoleil.com/OVO
What Does the Future Hold?
‘3-For-1 Psychic Special’
W hat does the future hold? At least one answer to this question can be found by buying a ticket to this triple billed evening of performative transmissions from this world and beyond. Ginger Krebs will mesmerize and apologize her way through a backdoor portal to power, Ian Hatcher will offer coaching on gainful employment in the age of AI, and experimental sound duo Coppice will conduct a "stretch to realtime grounding (Earth dilating with interlacing triangles)". 8 p.m. on February 14 & 15 at Steppenwolf, 1650 N. Halsted St. Tickets are $20 at steppenwolf.org.
Material Richness!
‘A Tale of Today: Materialities’
This winter, the Driehaus Museum, 50 E. Erie St., presents its most expansive contemporary exhibition to date, “A Tale of Today: Materialities,” that invites viewers to discover the history and architectural richness of the Museum through the eyes of fourteen artists rooted in the Midwest. The works in the exhibition each respond to a material in the Nickerson Mansion, home to the Museum, producing a site-specific dialogue that connects the fabric of the building to distant shores, traditions, and ideologies. Featuring intimate displays and large-scale interventions, The exhibit reflects upon the significant role of material histories in the creation of the current social, cultural, and ecological environments. On display from from February 7 to April 27. driehausmuseum.org
America's Favorite NFL Teams
John: Who is America’s team in the NFL? Does the Dallas Cowboys still have the title and if so, have they hung onto it longer than they should have?
Russell: To me, America’s team is still the Cowboys, because back in the ’70s they drafted a quarterback from the U.S. Naval Academy, Roger Staubach, “Captain Comeback.” Other teams don’t have championship rings like they do. The team that might come close is the New England Patriots.
Allen: The Cowboys are pretty good; they carry the star that’s on the [American] flag. The Cowboys against the Steelers era was a great era. But my choice is the Buffalo Bills, which, along with the Denver Broncos, made them the only teams to beat Kansas City this season.
Ruben: I agree with Russell. I started watching football at an early age and I grew up with the Dallas Cowboys being America’s team. I have never been a Dallas Cowboys fan, even though I am from Texas, and I never will be. With all due respect, it will always be America’s team, but that was back in the day.
Russell: made a good point and so did Allen, that the New England Patriots and the Kansas City Chiefs were dominating. I think with the Detroit Lions, we are seeing the birth of a new America’s team.
John: The Cowboys became America’s team even before they were announced in 1978-79. Back in 1975, there was that Hail Mary pass from Staubach to receiver Drew Pearson against the Vikings that helped them advance to the NFC championship and then Super Bowl X against the Steelers. Not only was Staubach the boy-next-door quarterback, but you had coach Tom Landry, who was a bornagain Christian, the guy who has his priorities straight. You also had general manager Tex Schramm, with a louder than life personality, and owner Jerry Jones. What also helped was that cheerleaders of the Dallas Cowboys are America’s sweethearts. The Cowboys
were deserving of being America’s team until the Chicago Bears for a brief period in 1985; you had Mike Ditka, William Perry, Walter Payton and Jim McMahon. But to me, the criteria is to be good consistently, have the excitement of coming back in games, a boy next door and sweethearts.
Today, it could be the Detroit Lions, because you have a head coach with a largerthan-life personality in coach Don Campbell, like Mike Ditka back in the day. If not the Detroit Lions, the Kansas City Chiefs; QB Patrick Mahomes is as flamboyant as anyone who ever played, along with tight end Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift. What could make either of them America’s team is that not only do they win, they are exciting.
Russell: The Dallas Cowboys have America’s star on their helmets, even though they are not playing good now.
Allen: The Bills’ colors of red, white and blue are the first thing people see when they hit the field. And I still like the Buffalo Bills’ quarterback, Josh Allen. I am looking for them to do something really big, if not this year, next.
Ruben: The team for the 21st century is the Detroit Lions. Detroit a few years ago - stores were shutting down, unemployment was extremely high; this [season] is a blessing, that Detroit is rising.
John: Detroit or Kansas City may be America’s team now, because the Dallas Cowboys haven’t been to a conference championship team for 30 years, but the Cowboys’ cheerleaders have their own place as America’s team.
Any comments, suggestions or topic ideas for the SportsWise team? Email StreetWise Editor Suzanne Hanney at suzannestreetwise@yahoo.com
Vendors (clockwise) A. Allen, Russell Adams, Ruben Garcia and John Hagan chat about the world of sports.
FOUR Blues: 'Telling and
by Suzanne Hanney
Growing up in a distinguished Chicago Blues family, Tim Taylor would ditch school and go beat on the drums at his brother Larry Taylor’s house and learn a little from him, a little on his own. Their father, guitarist Eddie Taylor Sr., who came up from Clarksdale, MS in 1940, and won fame as the guitarist for guitarist/harmonica player Jimmy Reed, added strict rules to live by.
Eventually, by following other musicians, Tim developed a shuffling drum with a straight beat. As a young teen he had called it “that old broke down music,” but it became a source of pride, the pathway to a nearly 30-year career with tenor saxophonist Eddie Shaw and bassist/bandleader Willie Kent (& The Gents) that took him all over the world: France, Italy, Spain, Germany.
Now, Tim said during the December 13 announcement of a new nonprofit to support the Blues at a 69th birthday party for Larry Taylor at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Austin, today’s kids need the same grounding in their musical heritage. The birthday event was reminiscent of old blues clubs back in the day, with everyone welcome to jam with the musicians and a free buffet by their sister Brenda Taylor’s Soul Food Kitchen.
“Blues comes from slavery,” Tim Taylor said. “The slaves were picking cotton, singing and humming, they didn’t even know they were singing blues. [The music] schools them about their ancestors. My father schooled us a lot about different musicians – who to stay with and who were the cutthroat musicians. [We need to] build a foundation for young children to learn their heritage...it would give them more structure. Too many children are losing their lives too young, doing the wrong thing, hanging with the wrong people. It has to get done.”
“We are bringing it back to its roots, culturally, so young generations of Black people today will understand what the blues is,” said Larry Taylor, vice president of the new nonprofit FOUR Blues Inc., NFP in press material about the event. “Even though they may not be into it, they will understand it, where their roots come from. When it came from the Mississippi Delta, it came here [Chicago].” FOUR Blues stands for “Further On Up the Road,” from the Bobby "Blue" Bland song, the idea of bringing the music of the blues ancestors to a new generation.
Dueling music genres
Larry Taylor told StreetWise that the music industry has pushed traditional musicians out of clubs and allowed rap music to take over because of commercialism, “more money in their pockets.”
He has played the Chicago Blues Festival. Along with Katherine Davis, an attendee at the jam, he was among 13 artists to receive an Esteem Artist Award, a special new $10,000 city grant for career expenses including studio rental, supplies, travel and equipment.
Blues musicians should also be at rock festivals, he said, because rock musicians like the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton started out playing the genre. And both the Stones and Clapton covered his father’s music.
l-r Kevin Stovall, keyboardist; Rodney Brown, saxophonist; Abraham Avery Brady on bass; Liljet 2x, sound; Larry Taylor, lead singer; Minoru Maruyama, guitar; Tim Taylor, drums (Dean Moten photo).
and Singing Our Stories'
The Stones re-recorded Eddie Taylor’s 1955 “Ride 'Em on Down,” for their Blue and Lonesome album of 1950s and 60s Chicago blues that won the best traditional blues Grammy in 2018. “Rock legends cover Eddie Taylor classic,” noted rollingstone.com. There was also a video of Kristen Stewart racing a Mustang through Los Angeles while listening to the song.
Originally recorded by Eddie Taylor Sr. and Vee-Jay Records in 1955, “Bad Boy” was re-recorded by Clapton in 1969 and released in 1970.
Larry Taylor says that he considers himself uniquely qualified to educate young artists in the ways of the business. “I have been dealing with publications and people from Europe ever since I was 5 years old. I am a born musician. I was born to do this.”
He now leads the Soul Blues Healers, which brings the rhythm and roots of the West Side, from Howlin’ Wolf to
James Brown. Besides Tim and himself, band members include Abraham Avery Brady on bass; Liljet 2x, Larry’s son, rapping; Kevin Stovall on keyboards and Minoru Maruyama on guitar.
In prepared material, FOUR Blues officials say the new nonprofit “is about getting people together and telling and singing our stories.” Its president and publicist, Bonni McKeown, who is also Larry Taylor’s partner, says that the new nonprofit, which has applied for IRS 501 (c)(3) status, will help them partner with groups and agencies. Ideas that have been discussed include all-ages community jams with both professional and amateur musicians, more outdoor performances in parks, more blues history discussions in libraries, more house party fundraisers – and more input from people who may have had a musician in the family. They will reach out to the younger generation and partner with both West Side and South Side groups.
Telling the story of later generations
The Austin Town Hall has a Blues Wall photo exhibit that features bios of Eddie Taylor’s generation, although Larry and Tim are included. What’s missing is information on more Baby Boomer musicians, she said. McKeown, who is a journalist and former writer for the Austin Weekly Voice, did 50+ short bios on the Maxwell Street Foundation website (maxwellstreetfoundation.org/history/the-music/ ) of the earlier generation.
As McKeown sees it, blues music changed through its association with rock music, where the shredding guitarist is the star. However, “the main focus in blues is a human voice telling a story, hollering across a cotton field, often in code the slave masters couldn’t understand.”
Musicians from the neighborhood, she said, can bring back this level of perspective.
Younger musicians can offer new lyrics and new feelings but still retain the blues tradition.
However, as she told the Austin Weekly Voice, Chicago blues music is faced with challenges such as insufficient musical education in schools, unfair wages for performers like Taylor and a lack of venues on the West Side where young people
can hear it. The rewards would be economic development – and tourism.
Chicago blues got its start at the Sunday-only Maxwell Street Market begun by immigrant Eastern European Jews in the late 19th century. The first wave of the “Great Migration” came a little later, when World War I shut down European immigration; between 1910 and 1920, the number of Black Chicagoans who were born in Mississippi increased from 4,612 to 19,485.
After they got off the Illinois Central train at Roosevelt Road and Michigan Avenue, the open-air market one mile west on Maxwell and Halsted Streets was a logical place to outfit themselves for their new urban lives and to meet musicians who had come earlier. People sold from pushcarts, at outdoor stands, or even as street peddlers, so that a musician could easily fit in, playing for coins. Because of the low overhead, clothes and household items were cheaper than downtown.
The need for factory labor during World War II prompted a second wave of the Great Migration. Between 1940 and 1950, there were 150,000 Mississippians who moved to Chicago, including Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Bo Diddley, Jimmy Reed, Sunnyland Slim, Elmore James, Otis Rush and Magic Sam.
(Charles
Collection at Indiana University Bloomington). Singer Katherine Davis with Larry Taylor, State Sen. Lakesia Collins and piano player Yoko Noge (Dean Moten photo). The band (Dean Moten photo). "Barrelhouse" Bonni McKeown and Larry Taylor with StreetWise editor Suzanne Hanney (Dean Moten photo). Bottom Row: Larry Taylor; Tim Taylor; Brenda Taylor; Katherine Davis (Suzanne Hanney photos). Rodney Brown on sax (Dean Moten photo).
The noise of the market meant that musicians needed to amplify the basic acoustic guitar and harmonica-based Delta blues. Because the musicians drew crowds, the merchants, who by now owned stores on Maxwell Street, were happy to provide electricity to mic the harmonica and to hype the guitar, bass guitar, drums, piano and sometimes saxophone and trumpet.
British bands copy the music
In the 1960s, Chicago-based Chess Records producer and bass man Willie Dixon took many of his songs to British bands, according to the Maxwell Street Foundation website. These rockers came to Maxwell Street and followed Chicago blues stars to clubs all over the city. “The sound of bands like the Rolling Stones, Cream, Led Zeppelin and many others came about when English teenagers tried to duplicate the music of Maxwell Street bluesmen,” Chuck Cowdery noted in his book, “Blues Legends” (Gibbs-Smith, 1995).
But the Maxwell Street market shut down in 1994. Gone also was the Delta Fish Market at Jackson and Kedzie. The latter, a converted gas station with a small stage, paid musicians $15-$20 a day to entertain as patrons ate their catfish sandwiches; it’s where Tim Taylor played with many musicians. The Maxwell Street market reopened last summer in its old location – with music, local food and handmade crafts – on
the last Sundays of the month – six occasions from May to October last year.
Katherine Davis and Brenda Taylor are optimistic that blues education can reach young people accustomed only to rap. Music and history go together, and after slavery, Chicago was the melting pot, the “gold mine” for people starting new lives, said Davis, a Blues in the Schools educator for 30 years. Often, these new arrivals came with nothing but their music. A piano was the first piece of furniture they bought, so they could express themselves. Likewise, kids today experience most of their rap music in recordings. They respond to live music for its energy and the connection to the artist, she said.
Brenda Taylor, who followed her parents (her mother, Vera, was a singer/songwriter) to clubs from age 7, is drawn to the music as a writer of blues, gospel, rap and a cappella. She likes where blues came from and its enthusiasm. As a child, she saw Howlin’ Wolf crawl across the floor.
Brenda has a complete studio in her basement, and she watches how her son and others respond. “This is the new millennium, you got blues that’s slow, you got to speed it up, you have to play with it so they can feel it. But you also got Old School-heads that like it. I say to myself, If I like it and I was young, I know somebody out there will like it too.”
Top Row: Many Black musicians migrated to Chicago from the South in the 1940s and 1950s. They discovered that the Maxwell Street Market (located on Maxwell & Halsted Streets) was a perfect place to perform since it attracted large interracial crowds
W. Cushman Photograph
MLK's 'beloved community' has inspired What did he mean?
by Jason Oliver Evans
Since 1983, when President Ronald Reagan signed Martin Luther King Jr. Day into law, many Americans have observed the federal holiday to commemorate the life and legacy of the civil rights leader, Baptist minister and theologian.
MLK Day volunteers typically perform community service that continues King’s fight to end racial discrimination and economic injustice – to build the “beloved community,” as he often said.
King does not fully explain the phrase’s meaning in his published writings, speeches and sermons. Scholars Rufus Burrow Jr. and Lewis V. Baldwin, however, argue that the beloved community is King’s principal ethical goal, guiding the struggle against what he called the “three evils of American society”: racism, economic exploitation and militarism.
As a Baptist minister and theologian myself, I believe it is important to understand the origins of the concept of the beloved community, how King understood it and how he worked to make it a reality.
Older origins
Although King popularized the beloved community, the phrase has roots in the thought of 19th-century American religious philosopher Josiah Royce.
In 1913, toward the end of his long career, Royce published “The Problem of Christianity.” The book compiles lectures on the Christian religion, including the idea of the church and its mission, and coined the term beloved community. Based on his readings of the biblical gospels, as well as the writings of the apostle Paul, Royce argued that the beloved community was one where individuals are transformed by God’s love.
In turn, members express that love as loyalty toward each other – for example, the devoted love a member of the church would have toward the church as a whole.
While Royce often identified the beloved community with the church, he extends the concept beyond the walls of Christianity. In any type of community, Royce argued, from clans to nations, there are individuals who express love and devotion not only to their own community, but who foster a sense of the community that includes all humankind.
According to Royce, the ideal or beloved community is a “universal community” – one to which all human beings belong or will eventually belong at the end of time.
‘Beloved’ diversity
Twentieth-century pastor, philosopher, mystic, theologian and civil rights leader Howard Thurman retrieved Royce’s idea of the beloved community and applied it to his life and work, most notably in his 1971 book “The Search for Common Ground.”
Thurman first used the term in an unpublished and undated article: "Desegregation, Integration, and the Beloved Community." Here, he argued that the beloved community cannot be achieved by sheer will or commanded by force. Rather, it begins with transformation in each person’s “human spirit.” The seeds of the beloved community extend outward into society as each person assumes the responsibility of bringing it to pass.
Thurman envisioned the beloved community as one that exemplifies harmony – harmony enriched by members’ diversity. It is a community where people from all racial, national, religious and ethnic backgrounds are respected, and where their human dignity is affirmed. Thurman was convinced that beloved community was achievable because of the dedication he saw from activists during the struggle for racial integration.
During his lifetime, Thurman sought to build this beloved community through his activism for racial justice. For exam-
inspired social justice work for decades -
ple, he co-founded the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples, an interracial and interfaith community in San Francisco, which he co-pastored from 1943 to 1953.
Thurman’s writings and activism deeply influenced King. Burrow argued that it is not entirely clear when and where King first learned the concept of beloved community. Yet King emphasized its importance in much of his writing and political action.
Love and action
In simplest terms, King defined the beloved community as a community transformed by love. Like Royce, he drew his understanding of love from the Bible’s New Testament. In the original Greek, the Gospels use the word “agape,” which suggests God’s self-giving, unconditional love for humanity – and, by extension, human beings’ self-giving, unconditional love for each other.
According to Baldwin, however, King’s understanding of the beloved community is better understood against the backdrop of the Black church tradition. Raised in the Ebenezer Baptist Church of Atlanta, King learned lessons on the meaning of love from his parents, Rev. Martin Luther King Sr. – Ebenezer’s pastor, who was also a leader in the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People – and Alberta Christine Williams King.
One of the distinctions in King’s thought is that he believed the beloved community could be achieved through nonviolent direct action, such as sit-ins, marches and boycotts. In
part, he was inspired by Thurman, who had embraced the nonviolence at the heart of Mahatma Gandhi’s resistance against the British in India. For King, nonviolence was the only viable means for achieving the United States of America’s redemption from the sin of racial segregation and white supremacy.
For King, therefore, the beloved community was not merely a utopian vision of the future. He envisioned it as an obtainable ethical goal that all human beings must work collectively toward achieving.
“Only a refusal to hate or kill can put an end to the chain of violence in the world and lead us toward a community where men can live together without fear,” King wrote in 1966. “Our goal is to create a beloved community and this will require a qualitative change in our souls as well as a quantitative change in our lives.”
Searching for the beloved community today
King’s idea of the beloved community has not only influenced people affiliated with the Christian tradition but also people from other faiths and none.
For instance, scholars Elizabeth A. Johnson, bell hooks and Joy James have reflected upon the meaning of the beloved community amid ongoing challenges such as global climate change, sexism, racism and other forms of structural violence.
People around the world continue to draw insight and inspiration from King’s thought, especially from his insistence that love is “the most durable power” to change the world for the better. Questions remain about whether his beloved community can be realized, or how. But I believe it is important to understand King’s ethical concept and its continuing influence on movements that seek an end to injustice.
Jason Oliver Evans is Research Associate and Lecturer at the University of Virginia. Courtesy of The Conversation.
Center: Volunteers paint columns in a hallway during the Martin Luther King Jr. National Day of Service at Ron Brown College Preparatory High School in Washington, D.C., in 2019 (Katherine Frey photo). Above: Philosopher Josiah Royce (1855-1916) (The Royce Society via Wikimedia Commons). Minister, theologian and civil rights activist Howard Thurman (On Being/Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA). Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife, Coretta, lead a five-day march to the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery in 1965 (Bettmann)
Sarah's Circle winter walk mar 9 3 new laws for insurance and mental health
Sarah’s Circle will host its 33rd annual “Winter Walk: A Mile in Her Shoes” from 1-3 p.m. March 9. The program will begin at Uplift High School, 900 W. Wilson Ave., with speakers, followed by a one-mile walk through Uptown and then a Sarah’s Circle client telling her life story.
The 501 (c)(3) nonprofit Sarah’s Circle has a $200,000 fundraising goal. Walkers can sign up at www.classy.org/campaign/ winter-walk-2025/c622263 and link to the page, or create their own individual pages for peer-to-peer fundraising. Donors are also encouraged.
Any amount is welcome: $25 will buy laundry detergent for all its clients in Sarah’s Circle’s daytime support center; $50 will help provide all clients in its interim housing (shelter) one of the three meals they receive every day; $100 will help replace IDs for 5 women and $250 will help 3 women get CTA passes for one month.
Sarah’s Circle is part of All Chicago: Making Homelessness History, the “Continuum of Care” that receives funds each year from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to combat local homelessness. In November, it cut the ribbon on its 3rd building in Uptown, Sarah’s on Lakeside, at 4737 N. Sheridan Road, with 28 new units of permanent supportive housing for women with a history of chronic homelessness.
Sarah’s Circle serves 700 women annually across all its programs. In 2023, it helped 230 women with daytime support (meals, showers, washing a load of laundry, accessing toiletries, meeting with a case manager or escaping the cold) at Sarah’s on Sheridan, 4838 N. Sheridan Road. Another 299 women received interim housing until they were able to be permanently housed. The nonprofit also has 181 units of permanent supportive housing: 105 units scattered all over the city and the remainder in its three buildings in Uptown – with more to come.
Sarah’s Circle was founded during the blizzard of January 1979 by volunteers who looked around Uptown and saw a need for services for single, unaccompanied women. They created a daytime drop-in center in an upstairs apartment. Sarah was the cat.
–Suzanne Hanney, from online sources
Three state laws effective Jan. 1, 2025 require insurance to pay for at least one no-cost, no-diagnosis mental health and wellness visit and cover couples therapy for first responders and their spouses or partners.
“Our mental health system today – including insurance coverage—fails to focus on prevention and early treatment,” said state Rep. Lindsey LaPointe (D-Chicago). “Our kids and adults wait until they are experiencing overwhelming mental health symptoms before they seek, or are forced to seek, help.
“We are finally changing that paradigm, starting with enacting legisation that treats mental health care as what it is – healthcare.”
LaPointe and state Sen. Laura Fine (D-Glenview) led efforts in 2023 to pass House Bill 2847, which requires most insurance plans to cover one mental health visit to a mental health professional or primary care physician, similar to an annual physical, with no diagnosis required.
According to the Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Illinois website, a visit of up to 60 minutes may be covered.
“By prioritizing prevention, we’re taking a big step toward a reality where accessing mental health support is as routine and stigma-free as visiting your family doctor,” LaPointe said.
LaPointe also supported newly effective measures that expand mental health resources for first responders. House Bill 4460 and Senate Bill 3538, respectively, require insurance to cover couples therapy services for first responders and their spouses or partners and remove cost-sharing or copays for first responder mental health visits.
“This trio of new laws, all effective January 1, removes barriers to taking that first step to reach out for help — for first responders, our neighbors, and us,” said LaPointe. “Mental healthcare is healthcare, and everyone should be able to seamlessly use their insurance for care.”
