The right fight
The facts float around—over two million Americans in prisons, constituting one in every fifteen black men in the country, who, statistically speaking, will most likely end up back in jail shortly after...
View ArticleTalk about a man
“Sin separated you from seeing the father’s love for his son, so you never knew the type of love a father should have for his son,” Lamar Simms called out. The poet bent over a mic at the head of a...
View ArticleWelcome to the Litehouse
After many false starts and stops, and the growing anticipation of Hyde Parkers, the Litehouse Whole Food Grill is finally open. A brief skimming of the Litehouse’s Facebook page reveals a long history...
View ArticleBridgeport Pasty
Every weekday, at lunchtime, the 5800 block of Ellis Avenue becomes a sort of culinary bazaar. Food trucks pour in from all over Chicago, crowding both curbs in hopes of serving the medical and...
View ArticleA Fashion Ethic
Rahpheal Hunter is an early riser, an attribute he credits sheepishly to his two little girls. “I get them ready for school, we do a little meditation, run them to school, and between the hours of...
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Batting 300 Million
They say it takes a village to raise a child. But what does the child say about the village? What if the village happens to be a testosterone-fueled 300 million dollar megalopolis of athletics...
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The Gathering
Hans Knapp has lived at the corner of 33rd and Halsted his entire life. Now, having graduated from DePaul with a math degree, he’s setting up shop just across the street. Joining him are two of his...
View ArticlePassing Through
Visitors at Sunday’s Renaissance Society opening of “Passing Through the Opposite of What It Approaches, Chapter 25” walked right up to the paintings, their noses nearly brushing wood. People...
View ArticleKing of the Streets
Hyde Park’s 53rd Street might just be the place for future leaders to find their footing. Ten years ago, in what would later become the then-Senator Obama’s political campaign headquarters, a humble...
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A Second Grace
Second Presbyterian Church of Chicago sits almost uncomfortably on the corner of Michigan and Cullerton, its great neo-Gothic mass of soaring arches and stone buttresses spliced into the South Loop’s...
View ArticlePower from the People
“Something needs to be done, and something needs to be done now!” Reverend Booker Steven Vance’s canorous voice enveloped the crowd that filled West Point Missionary Baptist Church in Bronzeville....
View ArticleLabelmates
Captcha Records is a local record company that likes to party. And they showed it off last Friday at a label showcase in Bridgeport’s Co-Prosperity Sphere. The musician working the iPad for The North...
View ArticleEl Sabor del Desdén
When you enter Casa Michoacán, it’s like being at your own family reunion. Everybody greets each other warmly and wishes each other well for the new year, while enjoying a variety of wine and fusion...
View ArticleCommunity R.A.G.E.
Lights spill out of Ogden Park’s lone field house into the barely-lit parking lot in Englewood. “There’s a lot of great people who grew up here, everyone says ‘I learned to swim here!’” says local...
View ArticleLarry Ward and the Gunsmith Cats
This Saturday, gun advocate Larry Ward sent out a rallying cry for Americans to celebrate “Gun Appreciation Day.” The newly-fabricated holiday was intended as a response to Obama’s proposed firearms...
View ArticleThe Experimental Grocer
Grand Crossing is parched. However, an oasis stands among dilapidated businesses and a motel that still proudly proclaims color TV. Louis’ Groceries is ready to flood the sprawling South Side food...
View ArticleGraffiti Graduates
Graffiti writing is by nature eye-catching, designed to capture the fickle attention of the passersby. “Has Beens & Wannabes” at the Zhou B Art Center certainly bears the imprint of this heritage....
View ArticleBombing Style
Mario Gonzalez Jr. calls himself a “graffiti purist, hard core.” In his show “Style Bombing,” Gonzalez brings that artistry to the gallery, expertly walking the line between fine art and street art....
View ArticleSpace Jam
At night, Pilsen is bathed in a kind of urban yellow. The light slides over buildings, all either half-lit or dark. What makes Roxaboxen Exhibitions striking, then, are the red letters hanging in the...
View ArticleA Return
Billed by founder Louis Farrakhan (accomplished violinist and leader of the syncretic movement The Nation of Islam) as “The Palace of the People,” Salaam Restaurant—with its smoky black windows,...
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