Aisha June of the Goodman Theatre Youth Poetry Ensemble
Two weekends ago, high school poets from across Chicago took to the stage for the finals of the Louder than a Bomb (LTAB) poetry slam, a competition that seeks to engage the city in the “pedagogy of listening,” as Young Chicago Authors marketing manager José Olivarez says. Olivarez has been involved in LTAB since 2005: while he began as a student participant in the festival, he’s now working to make the slam an annual reality.
“Say Rahm Emanuel has got to go” was one of the many chants during the demonstration.
Bridget Vaughn
An estimated 300,000 demonstrators—nearly fifty thousand more than organizers counted last year—took to the streets of downtown Chicago on Saturday to mark the one year anniversary of the national women’s march.
Mexican wrestler Mosco-X Fly pins Huracan Ramirez Jr. as the referee awaits a tap out from Ramirez. (Heriberto Quiroz)
Last month, just outside of Little Village and Lawndale, the Cicero Stadium held a spectacular Lucha Libre Total celebration. The event featured the performance of iconic Mexican wrestlers El Hijo Del Santo, Discovery, Yakuza, and Dr. Cerebro, as well as former WWE wrestler Super Crazy. But in the main and final attraction of the night, attendees young and old only cared to catch a glimpse of legendary WWE champion Rey Mysterio. With its high-flying and dangerous stunts, Lucha Libre Total embraced the Mexican free-fighting tradition.
Bridget Vaughn
In its eleventh year, the Hyde Park Jazz Festival drew large crowds two weekends ago. The free two-day festival offered music lovers ten venues to hear some of the best local, national, and international music on the planet.
Children from the Back of Yards neighborhood take turns trying to hit a piñata as it rises and falls, pulled by a string controlled by Increase the Peace youth leaders. (Sebastián Hidalgo)
Weekly photographer Sebastián Hidalgo attended the last Increase the Peace campout—youth-led anti-violence demonstrations across the South Side—of the summer. On August 4, dozens gathered outside of St. Michael’s Church in Back of the Yards for games, music, and food to celebrate the community center’s reopening after over ten years.
Sebastián Hidalgo
This year’s sixth annual Slow & Low: Community Lowrider Festival drew thousands to Pilsen on Sunday, August 6. Lowriders—customized classic vehicles that drive low to the ground—originated in Los Angeles, but here in Chicago they come with a lifestyle devoted to family and community.
Tonika Johnson’s photos document everyday life as it is lived in Englewood among families and friends, young folks and old; they take place in front of stores and on sidewalks, in parks and on trains—all the places we find ourselves every day, but sometimes forget to think of as beautiful. “My passion for Englewood and community work, plus my belief in the power of contemporary art [as] a conduit for social awareness, motivated me to use my art to challenge public perception of Englewood,” she said of her photos last year in a Weekly article about the first annual Englewood Art Fair in Hamilton Park. Some of these photos have been shown in galleries or published in other outlets before; others appear here for the first time. Her next exhibition, Everyday Rituals, will open at Rootwork Gallery in February, and will feature photography as well as an experimental film short.
Lorenzo "Bambam" Jenkins, 12, his two-year-old niece Laylay Striblin, and his friend Keanthony Brown, 14, spend time at a park near the West Calumet Housing Complex. Jenkins says he's upset that he has to move but that he'll keep up with his friends like Brown if they are able to stay at the same school.
The West Calumet Housing Complex is home to nearly 1,200 people, located on a seventy nine-acre site in East Chicago, Indiana, which the Environmental Protection Agency has declared hazardous to human health. Up until 1985 a lead refinery, a copper smelter, and a secondary lead smelter were also in the area, and as early as 1987, federal and state agencies investigated the site as a potential cleanup priority. But due to limited resources and an abundance of red tape, the site has remained contaminated for decades.
Juliet Eldred
I have explored and documented the diverse array of spaces that fall under the umbrella of the UofC