The feature in this week’s issue is our annual Hyde Park housing guide, an invaluable resource for anyone looking for an apartment in Hyde Park. For more advice, see our guides from previous years. Elsewhere in this issue, I wrote about the current controversy at Shimer College, the tiny Great Books school on IIT’s campus, where the student body, faculty, and staff are up in arms against new president Thomas Lindsay, who is threatening the school’s tradition of communal governance. Weekly editor Harry Backlund writes an essay, “Report from Obamaland,” about the Secret Service-patrolled space surrounding our President’s house. A chain of barbecue joints along I-57 aren’t just good spots to grab a meal while headed out of town, but destinations in their own right. This weekend at Mandel Hall, a festival of Spanish music shows there’s a lot more to Spain than flamenco. On Saturday, the Hyde Park Art Center puts on a multimedia music and puppet show inside its exhibition “Notes to Nonself.” Author Michelle Alexander spoke last week at the Experimental Station about systematic racial discrimination in the criminal justice system and her book “The New Jim Crow.” And a Queer Intercollegiate Alliance-planned flash mob at the Art Institute last Thursday didn’t really get the whole “f lash mob” thing right.

Chicago may be the third-largest city in America, but it seems to get passed over time after time when it comes to reality show locations. Ever since the eleventh season of the Real World vacated its Wicker Park loft in 2002, the only reality TV series set in Chicago was part of Top Chef’s 2008 season. (Unless I’m forgetting anything?) Now, though, it looks like reality television may be coming to the South Side, as the Southtown Star announces a casting agency is looking for “buff, hot, sexy, crazy, fun, outgoing” participants for a “Jersey Shore”-type series set in these parts.  No details yet about the show beyond that, but if you’ve got a colorful personality and nothing better to do, see the Star article for how to apply.

Tensions ran high last night in the packed McCormick Tribune Lounge, where members of the University of Chicago community gathered to discuss the UCPD’s arrest of a black male student in the Regenstein Library last Wednesday. Dean of Students Kim Goff-Crews, UCPD chief Marlon Lynch, and Assistant Director of the Library Jim Vaughan were there to mediate the discussion and answer questions. But as more than one student pointed out, they said very little, other than that the situation would be dealt with appropriately. The ongoing investigation—involving interviews of witnesses of the arrest—prevented them from disclosing the details of the case.

Some audience members asked about library and UCPD policy, and when it’s necessary to show ID (answer: on University property, almost always). Witnesses of the arrest described it as disturbingly violent, and at least two related their frustration with the lack of a quick response from library and university administrators. The main theme and sentiment of the discussion was summed up by one especially skilled orator, who said, to loud applause, “As someone who’s been affiliated with the University as a grad student for more than eight years, I’m sick and tired of black students being racially profiled by our own police department!” Several African-American students told their own stories of being harassed by the UCPD, and dozens of hands shot up in response to a query of who in the audience had been racially profiled.

The discussion ended without much closure, but Goff-Crews encouraged students to organize an executive committee to continue the conversation, with the possibility of more open meetings in the coming weeks.

You can read more about the meeting in a Maroon article.

Last Friday’s Maroon reported that on the evening of February 26, a fourth-year University of Chicago student, Mauriece Dawson, was arrested in the Regenstein Library for criminal trespass and resisting arrest. University of Chicago Police Department officers were responding to a complaint by a library clerk that Dawson and a friend were being disruptive, and claim that he refused to show ID or leave the library when asked. However, witnesses say the officers never requested ID and used undue force to arrest Dawson, who is African-American. There will be an open meeting about the incident this Tuesday from 6 to 8pm in the McCormick Tribune Lounge at the Reynolds Club, 5706 S. University Ave., with representatives from Campus and Student Life, the College, the UCPD, and the Regenstein Library.

In last week’s issue I wrote about poet Charles Bernstein, who gave a reading on the University of Chicago’s campus on February 14.  Here is the interview that I did with Bernstein the previous day. Read the rest of this entry »

Bon Appetit magazine’s Restaurant Editor, Andrew Knowlton, includes Dat Donuts as one of the “Top 10 Best Places for Donuts” in the country.  Dat joins the ranks with Thomas Keller’s Bouchon Bakery in Yountville, CA—a far cry from the South Side of Chicago, but arguably better as the “purists’” first choice.

A former Chicago Weekly writer and Features Editor like Katie Buitrago! All of us at the Weekly want to congratulate Katie on her excellent feature in the most recent Chicago Reader, “What sort of woman reads Playboy?” It’s about Peggy Wilkins, a forty-something Hyde Park resident and University of Chicago Library server technician, who has worked her way to the top of Playboy Magazine fandom. She’s even had to rent an second apartment above the one she shares with her boyfriend to store her exhaustive collection of magazines and posters. So what drives Wilkins’s passion? Read the article to find out!

One of the countless photos for sale: Patrolman Bill Edwards studies a map of Hyde Park, January 2, 1968 (Chicago Sun-Times)

A rummage sale is always a great way to make a few dollars while getting rid of all that clutter. The Chicago Sun-Times, which could certainly use a little extra cash, has decided to clean out its archives and put up thousands (yes, thousands) of original photographic prints up for sale on eBay. Starting at $9.99, the photos range from mundane to surreal, from humorous to beautiful.

The feature in this week’s issue of the Weekly is on the Academy for Urban School Leadership, a nonprofit organization based on the Northwest Side that’s been taking over failing public schools in Chicago and replacing the entire faculty and staff over the summer. They created this model, called “turnaround,” in partnership with Arne Duncan back when he was CEO of Chicago Public Schools, and now it’s being held up as an example for other cities. An article in the February issue of Philadelphia Public School Notebook gives a brief history of turnaround in Chicago over the past six years.

Toni Preckwinkle, the Hyde Park alderman who Clare Fentress profiled in our pages earlier this winter, has handily won the Democratic primary for the highest office in Cook County government, and with it, probably, the office itself. More at the Tribune.

(photo by Sam Bowman)

A lot’s happening in Bridgeport at the moment. Bridgeport art collective Lumpen has launched a new “community newsletter,” the Bridgeport International. Check out their first issue online or in stores around the neighborhood, and make sure to read their endorsements for today’s primary. This Friday Lumpen is holding a combination zine release party/benefit concert for the Whale, the Pilsen artists’ society building that went up in flames in December. Meanwhile, Chicago freelancer John Greenfield wrote a comprehensive tour of Bridgeport for the latest issue of bike magazine Momentum.

During a graduate seminar at UIC in 2008, Joe Baldwin came up with an idea for a mobile garden attached to a CTA train that would travel around the city bringing a bit of green into all of our lives. On Saturday he announced on his website that the CTA has approved the project. No word yet on when the garden will appear. [via Hugh Bartling]

In this week’s issue, we had a piece on poet Rae Armantrout, who was in the area for a reading and talk last week. Here is the rest of the interview with Armantrout, as conducted by Weekly writer Daniel Benjamin over email; follow-up questions, conducted in person and lightly edited, are preceded by an asterisk.

You have written about this before, in interviews and in your memoir True, but I’m wondering if you could say something about how your upbringing, education, and poetic influences have figured into your poetry?

I was alone a lot when I was growing up. I was an only child and there was alcoholism in my family so I often wanted to stay out of the way. I think that has affected my work in a couple of ways. First, I tended to entertain myself by reading and writing. And then, of course, I was a lonely child. I think that original loneliness shows up in my poems. I often seem to be looking at things from a distance. I don’t know how confessional I want to get here. As I’ve said before, my mother was a fundamentalist. That means I was exposed to the Bible. When I was looking for reading material, it was always there in all its strangeness. On the other hand, my exposure to dogma made me ornery. Read the rest of this entry »

The Jibarito (jntolva/Flickr)

Dining Chicago has an article up on four incredible-sounding Chicago sandwiches that haven’t yet acquired the same status as the Chicago hot dog or Polish. You’ve got the jibarito, a Puerto Rican steak sandwich between two crispy fried plantains, and the big baby, a sort of double cheeseburger with a particular list of condiments and probably invented by a man unfortunate to have the name Nick Vaginas. Then you’ve got the Freddy, an Italian sausage sandwich created by Calabria Imports founder Benito Russo, and finally, the mother-in-law, which is a… well, you should just read the article. The last three have South Side origins, even the jibarito can be found outside its Humboldt Park birthplace at places like Desde Puerto Rico in South Chicago. Be sure to check out Fat Johnnie’s Famous Red Hots for the mother-in-law, and Nicky’s the Real McCoy for a big baby.

Yesterday the Tribune reported that another round of school closings will hit Chicago Public Schools after this year, with four schools being shuttered outright, four being consolidated with other schools, one no longer accepting new students, and five being “turned around” by the Academy of Urban School Leadership or CPS’s Office of School Turnaround. We’ve put together a Google Map to help visualize the geographic distribution of the schools to be closed. As the map shows, the fourteen schools are mostly located on the South Side, with only three on the West Side and two on the North Side. Public schools blog District 299 has the full 54-page CPS presentation on the closings.

Do some good for Haitian disaster relief–and your sweet tooth–by checking out the charity bakesale held tomorrow from 2-6 pm at the Medici on 57th Bakery (1327 E 57th St.)  All proceeds are given directly to Doctors Without Borders and Oxfam, and goodies will be available from individual volunteers and pro bakeries from across the city, including Bleeding Heart Bakery, Jimmy Jamm Sweet Potato Pies, and Luscious Layers Bakery. More info, including the full list of participating bakeries and items (gluten-free goods should be available too), is here.

Courtesy of Golden Age

Golden Age, a Pilsen gallery and “concept shop” whose exhibitions we’ve covered before, is moving to the West Loop, according to an announcement posted on their website yesterday. In our October 2008 feature on galleries in West Pilsen, co-founder Marco Kane Braunschweiler spoke highly of the neighborhood around Golden Age. “Where there’s open storefronts [around here], those storefronts often turn into galleries,” he told us. “It seems likely that there’ll be a lot more art spaces.” Things are looking a bit different in Pilsen these days, with galleries moving out or closing right and left.

Golden Age’s last open day at its current location will be Sunday, January 24, and they expect to open at their new (undisclosed) location in the West Loop late next month.

Toni Preckwinkle, the 4th Ward alderman we profiled in this week’s feature, may not be ahead in the polls, but she’s winning the hearts of newspapers right and left in her campaign for the Democratic nomination for Cook County Board President. The Tribune and the Sun-Times both enthusiastically endorsed her earlier this week, and the Austin Weekly News, a West Side community newspaper, added its voice to the Preckwinkle chorus last night. The Illinois chapter of the Sierra Club also endorsed her last week. Add in the endorsement from Daley fan Phil Krone at the Chicago Daily Observer and the fact that Mayor Daley’s brother’s law firm donated $1,500 to Preckwinkle’s campaign, and it looks like everyone’s lining up behind the Hyde Park alderman. We’ll see if the voters follow suit on February 2.

Memphis garage-punk rocker Jay Reatard was found dead yesterday morning, cause unknown. When we covered him two years ago, before his show at Reggie’s Rock Club, he told us Chicago was his favorite place to play. Chicago will miss him today.

This week’s cover story is a must-read: a profile of Alderman Toni Preckwinkle (4th), Hyde Park’s independent alderman and a candidate for Cook County Board President. Also in this issue: Gloria Henderson opens a popcorn shop under the Metra tracks in Hyde Park after years of setbacks. Abundance Bakery on 47th Street offers a wealth of baked goods. Experimental music collective the Exponential plays at the Chicago Art Department in Pilsen this Saturday night. John Paro, a student at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, has recorded an album, “Med School Rock,” to help medical students learn their material. And Katherine de Shazer is teaching a weekend class at St. Mary of Perpetual Help on Byzantine Russian icon painting.