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AUSTIN WEEKLY news ■
Vol. 32 No. 7
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First District commissioner candidates meet in Austin,
February 14, 2018
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austinweeklynews.com
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Also serving Garfield Park
@AustinWeeklyChi
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@AustinWeeklyNews
W Side W. Sid mourns Brandon Porter-Young, page 3
New police oversight body meets in Austin
Seeking input, COPA held town hall at Hope Community Church on Feb. 6 By SUZANNE McBRIDE & IGOR STUDENKOV AustinTalks & Contributing Reporter
More than 50 people turned out on Feb. 6 at Hope Community Church, 5900 W. Iowa St., to learn more about the city’s new police accountability office. “It’s important for us to know the responsibility of police. It’s also important we know the responsibilities we have as citizens,” said Rev. Steve M. Epting, who opened his church to the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) as the new agency works to increase its visibility. “There’s a lot we don’t know,” Epting said. The new oversight body was created on Oct. 5, 2016 to replace the Independent Police Review Authority. Over the next 11 months, IPRA was gradually phased out as COPA was established. Like its predecessor, COPA has the power to investigate complaints against CPD officers, but unlike its predecessor, COPA can investigate allegations of illegal search and seizure, as well as domestic violence complaints against officers. Both of the latter complaints used to be investigated by CPD’s internal affairs division. Since the transition, COPA has been doing community outreach, and attending ward and CAPS beat meetings on the South and West Sides. Several COPA staff members were present at last Tuesday’s community meeting, one of See COPA on page 10
The founding fathers remixed
ALEXA ROGALS/Staff Photographer
Providence St. Mel School students John Bonds III, left, and Erik Imathiu-Jones, perform a scene between Banneker and Jefferson last Wednesday, during the Hamilton Education Program at the CIBC Theatre on Monroe Street in downtown Chicago. More photos on page 4.
A West Side artist’s inspiration begins at home
To find her voice, Alexandria Eregbu looked to her heritage By IGOR STUDENKOV Contributing Reporter
Artist Alexandria Eregbu grew up in Iowa, but she and her family would often travel to her great-grandparents’ house in East Garfield Park. “My great-grandfather was a photographer
who built a dark room in the basement,” she recalled during a recent interview. “Seeing his work over four decades, and Chicago as it changed over time, is inspiring.” Her great-grandmother, a master quilter, was another major source of inspiration. “She was one of the reasons why I learned and started to sew,” Eregbu said. “And perhaps one of the reasons why I’m so obsessed with cloth and fibers.” So when it was time to go to college, she knew that she wanted to study art and that she wanted to study it in Chicago. She attended the School of the Art Institute of
Chicago, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. By Eregbu’s own account, actually becoming an artist wasn’t easy, but her work and persistence eventually paid off. Now living in Austin, she specializes in threedimensional pieces that feature a wide variety of materials. Eregbu draws upon her family’s legacy, as well as the traditions of African Americans and Nigeria, her father’s homeland. According to her website, Eregbu uses a See ALEXANDRIA EREGBU on page 6
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