Posted inBest of the South Side 2020

Best of North Lawndale 2020

Best Multitasking Landmark Best Long-Running Arts Retreat and Community Group Best Neighborhood Cultivators of Green Space Best Student Park Anti-Racism Advocacy Best Retirement Best Art-Based Rebranding Initiative Best Pandemic Isolation Buster Best Urban Farm and Tasty Lunch any residents of the North Lawndale community area don’t call it that. To them, it’s simply Lawndale, the […]

Posted inBest of the South Side 2020

Best of Chinatown 2020

Best Cross-Town Unity March Best Essential Delivery Service Best Pandemic Unemployment Hotline in a Chicago Landmark Best Class for Learning to Talk to Family Members Best Food Drive for Building Solidarity In Memoriam: Chinese-language newspapers serving Chinatown Anita Gist-Jones’s family has called Archer Court home for three generations. She served on the Local School Council […]

Posted inDevelopment

Following the Yellowlined Road

n December 1939, yellow ink flooded Chicago’s Southwest Side. Frank Reidy, my paternal grandfather, and his neighbors never saw it coming.  At the time, the twenty-four-year-old man was living with his Irish-immigrant parents at 64th Street and Maplewood Avenue in the Marquette Manor section of Chicago Lawn. Each weekday, Frank, short in stature with a […]

Posted inArt

“SLAYSIAN,” an Art Show at Home

n her years on the Chicago art scene, curator Jenny Lam had never seen a large-scale exhibit that focused on local Asian American art. “So I figured I should be the one to do it,” she said. After putting out an open call to Chicago and the surrounding Midwest, Lam chose thirty-nine Asian American artists […]

Posted inArcher Heights, Back of the Yards, Beverly, Bridgeport, Brighton Park, Chinatown, Elections, Englewood, Gage Park, Hyde Park, McKinley Park, Mount Greenwood, Pilsen, Politics, Pullman, South Chicago, Woodlawn

South Side Election Guide

3rd U.S. House District Activist Rush Darwish Mechanic Charles Hughes U.S. Representative Dan Lipinski Nonprofit executive Marie Newman Second time’s the charm? After coming within 2,500 votes of incumbent U.S. Representative Dan Lipinski in 2018, Marie Newman, a former small business owner and nonprofit executive, is trying once again to win over the Democratic primary […]

Posted inEducation

Queering the Curriculum

ast summer, Illinois passed the Inclusive Curriculum Law, making it the fifth state in the U.S. to require public schools to teach LGBTQ history. The bill, signed by Governor Pritzker on August 9, mandates that students learn the “roles and contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the history of this country and […]

Posted inEnvironmental Justice

Life in the Doughnut

ltgeld Gardens and Phillip Murray Homes sit about as far south as you can go in Chicago. Wedged between Lake Calumet, West Pullman, and South Deering, the almost 1,600-unit CHA-owned development is notably isolated, removed from business districts and most public transportation options. Altgeld also lies in what has become known as the “toxic doughnut”; […]