The Chicago Reader’s Mick Dumke went to the CAPS meeting for beat 234 in Washington Park last Thursday night, and it sounds like the locals weren’t happy. From sinkholes in the streets to prostitutes in the park to an alley drug market disguised as an impromptu auto shop, Washington Park residents have a lot to complain about. Alderman Willie Cochran (20th), who didn’t attend the meeting, took a share of the blame for not being responsive.
This week’s feature is on the redevelopment of Hyde Park’s Harper Court, which aims to turn the 45-year-old retail complex into a mixed-use district over the next five years. Also in this week’s issue: a look at the community garden at 65th and Woodlawn, which brings neighbors together and produces fresh produce in an area often labeled a food desert. Yah’s Cuisine gives Soul Veg a run for its money as the best vegan soul food on the South Side. The University of Chicago’s MFA candidates display their work at the DOVA Temporary gallery in Hyde Park and Roxaboxen in Pilsen. This Saturday, the fifth annual Art in Action festival brings together UofC students and Woodlawn community members for a day of free food, art, and workshops. The Woodlawn Children’s Promise Zone aims to duplicate the success of the famed Harlem Children’s Zone. And Russian artists Ilya and Emilie Kabakov got their first glimpse of clips from a new documentary about themselves at the UofC’s Film Studies Center last week.
Last month we wrote about the Opportunity Shop, a temporary art and community space in Hyde Park that was supposed to last only through the end of April. It proved so popular, and the donations proved so plentiful, that the Op Shop was extended through the beginning of June. This Saturday night is the Op Shop’s second-to-last party, and they’ve booked a handful of local bands to play: Lakesigns, the Names that Spell, Jesus Crisis, and Squat the Condos. The show starts at 8, with doors opening a half hour before that. A $2 suggested donation will get you in, or a $5 suggested donation will get you admission and “a Dixie cup to fill with whatever you want (there will be fillings),” according to Lakesigns multi-instrumentalist Eric Mayer. And mark your calendars a week from Saturday for the art space’s closing event, the Op Shop Ball.
In February we profiled ShoreBank, the paradigmatic financial institution with a social conscience. Founded in the ailing South Shore neighborhood in 1973, it has been credited with proving that responsible lending can raise a profit, serving the low-income neighborhoods that other banks ignored. Although the bank has attempted to keep up with the surging post-recession demand for its services, it has faced troubles of its own in the past months. After its assets took a significant hit, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) ordered it to raise enough capital to remain solvent. Despite seeking bailout money from the state of Illinois, private donors, and national foundations, ShoreBank’s future remained uncertain until this week. But now Crain’s Chicago Business, which has closely tracked the community development giant’s battle for survival, is reporting that General Electric has agreed to kick in $20 million, which combined with $120 million from other private sector lenders will allow the bank to access $75 million of bailout money from the Treasury Department. It now looks like ShoreBank is saved, and communities in need can breathe a sigh of relief.
The University of Chicago’s president Robert Zimmer spends much of his time traveling the country, often to discuss a favorite issue of his: academic freedom. This week, academic freedom comes to the University of Chicago in the form of a three-day symposium. The full schedule is extensive over the three-day period and includes hot-button issues on a college campus such as student journalism, the admissions process, and responsible investing.
The biggest event of the series, held on Thursday, May 5 from 2:50 to 5, is a conversation with President Zimmer, Law School Professor Geof Stone, Law School Dean Michael Schill, and Chronicle of Higher Education Editor Peter Schmidt, followed by a keynote speech by Professor Stanley Fish. Geof Stone is a legal heavyweight with an extensive body of work on the First Amendment. In addition to being a professor at Florida International University, Stanley Fish was formerly Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Fish writes extensively on the politics of the university, particularly regarding campus speech codes and political statements made by universities.
For this week’s feature, we sat down with Bill Gates and examined the impact the world’s second-richest man has made on the South Side and the world. Photographer Justin Kern posts breathtaking shots of Chicago and the American landscape daily on The Windy Pixel, a photoblog he shares with Mike Boehmer. The Renaissance Society’s latest exhibition is a two-story structure containing works by three Romanian artists. Former United States Poet Laureate Mark Strand gave a reading on the University of Chicago’s campus last week, and he took a few minutes afterward to speak with the Weekly. And the Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo that took over McCormick Place two weeks ago gave comics fans three days of panels, vendors, and guest stars.
Our former Editor-in-Chief Sam Feldman has written an excellent feature for this week’s Newcity on the aftermath of Chicago’s failed 2016 bid, some six months after losing to Rio de Janeiro. The remants of Chicago’s plans, plans it hoped would “stir the blood of men,” in the (alleged) words of Daniel Burnham, can especially be seen near the Michael Reese Hospital campus in Bronzeville, site of the proposed Olympic Village, and Washington Park, the site of the proposed 80,000 seat Olympic Stadium. Sam discovers what community developers, students, government officials, preservationists, and others have planned for these places now.
This week’s issue of the Weekly is all about visual art on the South Side and why it matters. The feature includes profiles of galleries and interviews with artists all over the South Side, plus a preview of Lumpen’s eleven-day Version festival and an exploration of Bridgeport’s Third Fridays gallery nights.
The feature in this week’s issue is on Moneythink, a nonprofit founded and run by University of Chicago undergrads that teaches local high schoolers financial literacy and entrepreneurship. Teamwork Englewood is trying to raise neighborhood participation rates in the census above the abysmal 2000 rate. Logsdon 1909’s latest gallery exhibition features works from two very different mixed-media artists. The Opportunity Shop, a monthlong communal art space that occupies vacant storefronts in Hyde Park, is back, this time in a former Hollywood Video on 53rd Street; we also wrote about it last December, when it was located in former MAC Property Management offices on 55th Street. At Little Black Pearl, kids and artists are collaborating on murals for the future Logan Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Chicago. St. Sabina’s Catholic Church and the Black Star Project call together 1,000 men of action to repair the black nuclear family and fight gang violence. And last Saturday, the Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America celebrated twenty years of fighting for human rights and economic well-being in the Americas.
(Laura M. Browning/Chicagoist)
The good folks over at Chicagoist have started showcasing the many murals on the South Side. This week’s entry in their mural series is located at the Metra underpass at 56th Street and Stony Island. The mural, Childhood is Without Prejudice, features children of many races with their faces interlocked in Venn diagrams. William Walker, the artist, was one of the founders of the community art movement in the 1960s and painted many notable murals throughout Chicago, such as All of Mankind (1972) on the Strangers Home Missionary Church and the Wall of Respect (1967), now demolished.
The last mural showcased, Where We Come From… Where We’re Going (1992), also has an incredibly interesting story. Artist and UIC professor Olivia Gude, who has written a book about urban art in Chicago, stood outside the 56th and Lake Park Metra underpass and took down the stories of the passersby. She then painted their stories, omitting any names.
Childhood is Without Prejudice was restored last year, and the Chicago Public Art Group is behind many of the restorations that have taken place around the South Side. In addition to restoring historic public art, CPAG does quite a bit of work encouraging new artists, designing public art projects, and encouraging community development. They also have a handy map of all the public art around the Chicago area.
You (yes, you!) can vote to get a fruit orchard planted in Chicago. The Communities Take Root initiative is going to donate a fruit orchard to five lucky winners throughout the country. Seven Illinois sites are eligible, and five of those are Chicago Park District parks:
Communities Take Root is a partnership between Edy’s Fruit Bars and the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation to provide fresh fruit to communities as well as the environmental benefits of fruit trees. The Fruit Tree Planting Foundation has been to Chicago before—they planted 22 fruit trees in Kilbourn Park in 2008, creating the first mature public fruit tree orchard in a major metropolitan city. FTPF is an international organization and has done work in Brazil, India, and Kenya with the eventual goal of planting 18 billion fruit trees worldwide. In the United States, FTPF primarily targets low-income communities and often partners with schools and Native American reservations.
Chicago is one of the few major cities on the list of candidates, but despite our population advantage, none of the CPD parks are currently in the top ten. Cast a vote for your favorite here.
This week’s feature is on the Neighborhood Writing Alliance, a nonprofit organization based in Hyde Park that offers writing workshops to people all over the city and publishes their work in the Journal of Ordinary Thought. Chicago-based artist Nance Klehm blurs the line between art, activism, and environmentalism in her wide-ranging projects, which include a community apple orchard in Little Village and two huge earthworm compost sites at a homeless shelter in the South Loop. In the Perspectives section, Andrew Foster plays with the concept of a “Human Library” to show the divisions between people in and around the University of Chicago’s Regenstein Library. Pilsen art collective No Coast explains why we can’t have nice things through the collages and mixed media work of artist Marvin Astorga. Contra dance comes to the International House tonight and tomorrow, and beginners are welcome. And a service at Rockefeller Chapel for victims of gun violence brought together mourners of all faiths last week.
The Chicago Weekly, Metropolis Coffee, and the University of Chicago’s Student Run Coffee Shops invite you to a coffee tasting on the UofC’s campus. The tasting will take place at Hallowed Grounds (5706 S. University, 2nd floor) tomorrow, April 8th, from 5-7pm. For $5, witness a cupping session, hear performances by local bands Lakesigns and Sparrowdown, and enjoy a variety of desserts!
Tony Dreyfuss, owner of Metropolis Coffee, will be coming in to demonstrate a cupping session and discuss some of his recent adventures to Ethiopia to get beans. Stacey Brown, Coffee Shop Coordinator at the UofC, will be leading a coffee tasting, where we get to know what we’re drinking.
All proceeds of the event will go to promoting local journalism!
(Dan Forbush)
According to an article in yesterday’s Tribune, the Shoreland’s developer has hired an architect for the former hotel and dormitory’s renovation. Antheus Capital has hired Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang Architects, designer of the award-winning Aqua residential tower downtown, to redesign the Shoreland’s interior for 350 rental units. Proposals include turning one of the ballrooms into a restaurant or event space and adding ammenities like a small bank and gym, but Antheus and Gang still have to convince the community to get on board. U of C students don’t come off too well in the article:
The Shoreland was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986, an honor that meant little to undergrads. One student’s fond Shoreland memory, posted on a blog, was of hurling cans of Schlitz over the fire escape to the street below while taking in the downtown skyline.
At least they were having fun. (via Gapersblock)
(Ellis Calvin)
Coffee shops sometimes have great food, restaurants can have outstanding drinks, and bars even occasionally serve excellent coffee. The South Loop’s Little Branch Cafe is a rare combination of all of the above, as we reviewed in our 2009 Best of the South Side.
The comfortably elegant Little Branch Cafe has been expanding their menu since opening in 2007, most recently adding a heavenly-sounding dinner menu. With dishes like a Croque Madam [sic] Crepe, Warm Mediterranean Farro Salad (“toasted pine nuts, roasted red peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, goat cheese, eggplant puree, balsalmic vinaigrette”), and the Little Branch Burger (“fontina red onion gratin, truffle oil roasted mushrooms, garlic aioli served with sweet potato fries & habanero raspberry ketchup”) added to their selection of sandwiches, espresso drinks, and cocktails, I can’t wait to go back. Finding a place that skillfully handles this trinity of modern urban living (great coffee, great food, great booze) can be tough. Finding Little Branch Cafe can be tough too, so be sure to take a look at a map before setting out.
1251 S. Prairie Ave. Monday-Tuesday, 7am-4pm; Wednesday-Friday, 7am-10pm; Saturday, 8am-10pm; Sunday, 8am-8pm. (312)360-0202 littlebranchcafe.com
(courtesy of Liren Chen/Flickr)
An early morning fire spread through the kitchen of popular Chinatown restaurant Lao Sze Chuan. The blaze also damaged two neighboring restaurants in the Chinatown Square complex, but no one was injured. Although Lao Sze Chuan will likely be closed for a while, the indefatigable chef and “culinary superhero” Tony Hu has two other excellent restaurants nearby, Lao Beijing and Lao Shanghai. This fire follows a little over a year after another beloved Chinatown restaurant, Penang, succumbed to a kitchen fire. (via Gapers Block)
On a happier note, Chicagoist is reporting that the 47th Street Marketplace, destroyed by a fire in January, should be open again soon. Repairs are underway, and tenants such as Blu47 and the Jamaican Consulate are expected to be able to return in three to four months, according to building owner East Lake Management.
This Wednesday, Cafe Society will meet at Brown Sugar Bakery at 6pm to discuss “Greening the Southside” with WBEZ’s South Side correspondent Natalie Moore and Blacks in Green founder Naomi Davis. Davis is one of a number of black environmentalists who see potential in green jobs for revitalizing poor and minority communities. The discussion is free, although reservations are required, so drop by and find out more about how the South Side can get greener and golder. And don’t forget to congratulate Moore on her recent Studs Terkel Community Media Award.
Gapers Block recently published an article and video about Chicago’s street vendors, many of whom can be found on the sidewalks of Little Village selling elotes (corn with mayo, cheese, and chili powder), chicharrones (pork rinds), and other cheap, delicious snacks. It’s currently illegal to sell food that’s been prepared at a street cart in Chicago, and the Little Village-based Asociación de Vendedores Ambulantes (AVA) is lobbying the city to create a new license that would allow them to do so. You can read more about the issue in an In These Times article by CW writer Robin Peterson.
INRIX just released the 2009 edition of its National Traffic Scorecard, and unsurprisingly the news isn’t good for Chicago. For the fourth year in a row, Chicagoland is the third most congested metropolitan area in the country, behind only New York City and Los Angeles. INRIX also found that five of the country’s 25 worst traffic bottlenecks are located on the Dan Ryan Expressway between the Cermak and Taylor exits—a distance of about a mile and a half. No wonder traffic tends to back up there at all hours of the day.
This Saturday, Shades, Yale University’s youngest a cappella group, is performing at the University of Chicago International House. Shades’ repertoire draws on many different musical backgrounds, but its focus is on African-American music, particularly R&B, gospel, jazz, pop, and traditional music. Having attended several Shades performances, I can attest to the true talent of the group. And normally I am a music snob. But their tone is rich, and their harmonies are tight. And it doesn’t hurt that the group is incredibly good-looking across the board. Some of the songs they’ve showcased have ranged from Mary J. Blige’s “Real Love” to a traditional Caribbean mineworker song (adapted from “Sweet Honey in the Rock”). The performance is free, but donations are encouraged.
Shades will perform at the International House at 8pm on Saturday, March 13th. Catch a video of their recent performance in San Diego here.