This week on SSW Radio, we spoke with a home baker, and heard holiday histories from Pilsen and stories from Englewood
Christina Salesberry’s “Black Bottom Pie You Make The Rockin’ World Go ‘Round,” the second-place winning pie in the nut category of this year’s South Side Pie Challenge, started not as a recipe, but as a name. “I will confess,” Salesberry says, “that I came up with the title first and then I tried to come up with a recipe that fit the title.”
With a cookie crust, layer of chocolate, and a caramel peanut top, Salesberry likens her pie to a Snickers bar. During an interview with South Side Weekly Radio’s Erisa Apantaku, Salesberry shared her recipe and anecdotes from her family’s yearly holiday pie cook-off.
Speaking of family traditions, South Side Weekly’s Bridget Newsham went to Cafe Jumping Bean and Nitecap, two cafes in Pilsen, to collect some holiday histories from South Siders. In our show, we shared traditions from Ricky, Alex, and Steve from Pilsen; Joaquin from Bridgeport; Alexandra, from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Benji from Hyde Park; Sara from Pilsen; and Carmila from Pilsen.
To close out the hour, we aired the final story from Englewood Speaks: Things I Learned While I Was Teaching. Clarence Hogan (aka Sonny Speaks), who developed and hosts Englewood Speaks, explains how stories impact our lives. “People who control the narrative can control people,” Hogan said at Kusanya Cafe during What I Learned While I Was Teaching, “so we have to learn to tell our own stories.” This week, James Gordon delivers the final story, about a harrowing experience he had with a fellow teacher.
In the middle of our program, we shared a throwback Weekly Read from this summer, in which the Weekly Read ranted about the controversy surrounding the Balbo monument.
SSW Radio is the Weekly’s radio hour, featuring stories and interviews from the people of the South Side of Chicago. SSW Radio airs Tuesday afternoons from 3pm-4pm on WHPK 88.5 FM.
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