Meet the Candidates: Jeanette Taylor
The Weekly sits down with a candidate for alderman in the 20th Ward
Meet the Candidates: Nicole Johnson
The Weekly sits down with a candidate for alderman in the 20th Ward
The Farmers' Lobby
Volunteer ambassadors prepare to talk "urban ag" with their aldermen
Healing and Funding Chicago's Food System
Black and brown farmers collectives earn recognition through a newly launched grassroots funding model
Meet the Challengers: Byron Sigcho Lopez
The Weekly sits down with a candidate for alderman in the 25th Ward
Meet the Challengers: Hilario Dominguez
The Weekly sits down with a candidate for alderman in the 25th Ward
The Guide for the Zoning Perplexed
A new handbook seeks to empower community members by explaining public land use
Meet the Challengers: David Mihalyfy
The Weekly sits down with a candidate for alderman in the 11th Ward
Meet the Challengers: Gabriel Piemonte
The Weekly sits down with a candidate for alderman in the 5th Ward
Education Uninterrupted
Students, teachers, and parents celebrate saving National Teachers Academy in the South Loop
Learning to Program—Swiftly
The first cohort of students complete City Colleges' coding bootcamp pilot
Where to Cash Your Check?
The impact of currency exchanges on South Side neighborhoods
Is Eddie Next?
Mayoral candidates say they would replace Eddie Johnson as superintendent
Losing the Thread
A new book highlights Chicago’s many art movements but fails to tie it all together
Caring for a Segregated City
An interview with longtime Chicago public health nurse Joan Lawson on the importance of caring, family, and education
New Voices, New Faces
An interview with Clyde Moreau, organizer of the inaugural Decibel Crawl Fest
Do You Know Margaret Burroughs?
A symposium on art in Chicago and a Margaret Burroughs exhibition explore and celebrate the South Side’s contribution to art
The Overlooked Legacy of Ida B. Wells
Michelle Duster, Eve Ewing, Nikole Hannah-Jones, and Natalie Moore discussed the journalist and civil rights activist’s life and legacy
Healthier Words for a Healthier Lifestyle
Melo Makes Music talks mental wellness, seasonal depression, and his budding career as a performance artist
Development | Features | History | Politics | Woodlawn
Where Are You Going, Woodlawn?
At a community celebration, residents and visitors consider the neighborhood’s next chapter
Tap Is Music. Rhythm Is Everywhere.
South Side tap dancers show the next generation what’s possible
Not Forgotten
An exhibition at an East Side gallery remembers the dead through the art they left behind
Cognitive Dissidence
Chicago’s abolitionists make space for conversation after the Van Dyke trial
Architecture | Photo Essay | Religion
Open Houses of Worship
Eight places of worship around the South Side, viewed during the Chicago Architecture Center's annual Open House Chicago
Activism | Immigration | Police | Politics
Know Your Movements: The #EraseTheDatabase Campaign
The organizers working to reform and abolish the city’s gang database
Activism | Development | Environment
Dumping Dirty Industry
Across the South Side, neighborhood groups fight for environmental justice
Interviews | Radio | Visual Arts
Creative Control
Ciera Mckissick talks the importance of space, connecting creatives, and how Chicago has unexpectedly become her home
Nature | Opinions & Editorials
Scavenging the South Lakefront
A researcher writes about how data is informing the development of the Burnham Wildlife Corridor
Re-imagining Community at the Summer Fefe
Uncomfortable experiences at a block party spark a deeper meditation on safety at street fests
Midnight Coltrane
At Rockefeller Chapel, Ravi Coltrane leads a tribute to his mother’s musical meditations
Facing Fate
'The Area' is a complex, issue-driven documentary analyzing the erasure of a neighborhood, and shining a light on the meaning of community
Avian Oasis
Restoration at Indian Ridge Marsh has turned a wasteland into an important home for wildlife
Development | Nature | Visual Arts
A Study in South Works
A summerlong installation explores the anthropocene in artifacts from South Works
Art Aquatic
Muralists and the Shedd Aquarium showcase the beauty of underwater animals throughout the city
Kopano, In Their Own World
The nineteen-year-old South Shore native sits down with the Weekly to discuss donuts, dreams, and art
A Different Taste of Chicago
The second annual Taste of Black Chicago drew big crowds in South Shore
Court Theatre's Ron OJ Parson Hits a Hole-in-One
"Radio Golf" at Court Theatre is directed with humor and heart
West Garfield Park residents reject proposed police academy, organizers argue
#NoCopAcademy surveyed 500 Garfield Park residents for their new report
Health | Interviews | Music
Within "Decay," A Story of Growth
Akenya releases a single to raise awareness of Lyme Disease
Education | Opinions & Editorials
They Say We Don’t Love Our Students
So why do I feel so guilty leaving them?
Bringing Up the Backwaters
After decades of debt and secrecy, the Illinois International Port District presents a plan
Development | Environment | Far Southeast Side | Nature
Shoreline Abnormality
An industrial corridor’s past and future, as seen from the waters of the Calumet
Interview Issue 2018 | Politics
Continuing to Challenge the Status Quo
A family legacy of activism guides mayoral candidate Amara Enyia’s vision of social justice in the city
Beer and Bingo in Bridgeport
Steve Badauskas builds community around an old pastime in a changing neighborhood
History | Interview Issue 2018
Bones of the City
A Chicago archaeologist makes the case for digging up the past
Soil and Sovereignty
A Pullman resident uses mushrooms to heal a formerly toxic site in the neighborhood
From Rink to Radio
Ahead of Teklife’s latest album release, the Weekly sat down with three of its long standing members to talk Chicago, history of Teklife, and what it’s meant to them
Interview Issue 2018 | Music | Photo Essay
Bringing Jazz Back to the Alley
In South Shore, an old tradition is revived for a day
Interviews | Music | Radio
Melkbelly: Living the Yard Sale
The Pilsen-based band on the success of their 2017 release Nothing Valley, touring with The Breeders, and the origins of the name Melkbelly.
Belli's Is Shown the Door
After Thalia Hall discontinued its lease, the beloved Pilsen grocery store is searching for a new home
Architecture | History | Housing
Digging Up the Past
After a new archaeological discovery at IIT, a spat over the school’s history of displacement emerges
Lit Issue 2018 | Stage & Screen
Opening Up
As Young Chicago Authors ages, a new generation of open mics emerges on the South and West Sides
More Than a School
An upcoming book tells the history and traumas of school closings on the South Side
A Man of Substance
Two biographies go beyond symbolism in the life of Harold Washington
Education | History | Lit Issue 2018
Charting a Course
A new history examines the long-overlooked life and work of trailblazing academic Allison Davis
A Poet and Her Platform
National Youth Poet Laureate Pat Frazier on the intersection of her poetry and activism
Architecture | Development | Media | Visual Arts
Saving a Black Aesthetic
How two nonprofits preserved parts of Johnson Publishing
Activism | Features | Police | Politics
The Fight Over Chicago's Largest Private Police Force
Organizers return to challenging the University of Chicago Police Department's practices—this time with a more radical agenda
The Fight to Stay
An innovative new housing cooperative may be a solution for residents to combat Pilsen’s gentrification
Their Body, Their Choice
A new interactive play challenges us to think about teen abortion differently
Bridgeport | Education | Visual Arts
Bridgeport Elementary Schoolers Map Their Neighborhood
Educators with the Hull-House Museum work with Armour students to consider their community
Nature | Stage & Screen | Visual Arts
Sites for Leisure, Sites of Danger
Artists and activists discuss reclaiming parkland as a public space
Sitting With Gwendolyn
A new sculpture will be unveiled to celebrate the life and work of Gwendolyn Brooks
Shimer College Leaves the South Side
An uncertain future for the small, strange Great Books school
Growing Neighborhoods
An art exhibit connects local goals and larger climate problems
Activism | Politics | Religion
Bailing Believers Out
Organizers frame cash bond abolition as a Muslim issue
Redlining Remembered
A new memoir wrestles with a familial history of racism and redlining
We Got Power, and We Got Love
The Chicago Torture Justice Center honors the mothers of police torture survivors
Why Won't Chicago Say What It's Offering Amazon?
Transparency activist Freddy Martinez on his lawsuit against City Hall
Features | Food | Politics | Woodlawn
God's Little Acres
First Presbyterian Church has fostered community gardens since the nineteenth century. Its now-former pastor nearly put an end to that.
Agriculture | Features | Food | Politics
A Lot to Lose
After the near-sale of a community garden in West Englewood, questions arise about what it takes for gardens on the South Side to stay afloat.
Stewards For the Land
Some of the farmers behind the city’s newer generation of cooperative farms
A City Built on Sludge
An ambitious book chronicles the early years of the South and West Sides’ sewage systems
A New Home for Home Movies
Digital archive immortalizes film footage of family life on the South Side
The Living Legacy of the Pullman Porters
The Pullman Porter Museum renews its push for a national registry
Interviews | Music | Radio
Know Me More
For artist-abolitionist Ric Wilson, Black art need not be bad or sad
Interviews | Music | Radio
Singing Since She Can Remember
Jazz singer Tracye Eileen on her unusual career path
Remembering the Riots, Fifty Years Later
Artists and activists explore the question of how much Chicago, and the Chicago police, have changed since 1968
Reassessing Fritz Kaegi's Victory
The factors that could impede reform to Cook County’s assessment system
Development | Environment | Far Southeast Side | Politics
Planning Beyond Pollution
After manganese regulations, Southeast Side residents push to reconsider the neighborhood’s manufacturing zoning
Mango and Maki on 26th Street
Japanese-Brazilian cuisine finds an audience in Little Village
A Cuban Food Haven
Grilled steak, seasoned veggies, and some of the best café con leche ever
Education | Features | Politics