Lawyer, teacher, philanthropist, and author Barack Obama doesn’t need another career. But he’s entering politics to get back to his true passion—community organization.
Author Archives: Hank De Zutter
Posted inArts & Culture
Art People: Aimee Picard puts the text in textile
When poet Naomi Shihab Nye stepped onstage at a Poetry Center of Chicago reading last year, she brought along an intricate and brightly colored box, handwoven on a loom from paper, broom straw, pieces of maps, and silk thread. Laced through the side panels were strips of paper bearing the words of her poem “The […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Flower Power
By Hank De Zutter As miracles go, it was small, even silly. It brought a giggle, not a gasp. And yet it was miraculous that somehow on a cold November morning both a tomato plant and a sunflower were blooming out of a sidewalk in downtown Chicago. With no visible source of sustenance–not even dirt–both […]
Posted inNews & Politics
What Makes Obama Run?
Lawyer, teacher, philanthropist, and author Barack Obama doesn’t need another career. But he’s entering politics to get back to his true passion—community organization
Posted inNews & Politics
Here comes the neighborhood: South Loop SRO has got to go
The winds of change sweeping the blocks south of the Loop are beginning to look like a hurricane of upscale development. It’s as if the residual benefits of the rejected world’s fair are coming anyway, with castles for the rich, lofts for the lawyers, esplanades for the joggers, and dramatic new walkways to the old […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Urban wilderness: a walk around the neighborhood with Scott Holingue
It was stiff, about the size of a human forearm, wrapped in yellowing, blood-stained gauze and plastic. And it smelled of death. Some animal or human had dug it up from its shallow grave on the edge of Lincoln Park’s North Pond, northeast of Stockton and Fullerton. Like the joggers, cyclists, and mothers passing with […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Clout City
Here is your official map and guide to Clout City (formerly Chicago)–the world’s largest gaming theme park, where you can safely and vicariously experience the thrills of a modern American city and gamble anytime you feel the urge. Clout City is a neighborhood-oriented alternative to the megacasino complex once proposed for downtown. Recognizing that gaming […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Urban Studies
Maxwell Street: It’s sociology. It’s economics. Most important, it’s history.
Posted inNews & Politics
Name That Gang/Gory Days/Amazing Facts
Name That Gang Like it or not, street gangs are a fact of life in Chicago. Their presence is felt across the city, from alleys to playgrounds, schools to street corners. Even in jails and prisons gang turf and loyalties are given grudging respect, with members of the same gangs or gang coalitions assigned to […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Fungus Hunters
These Parts–Buchanan, IL/Stalking the Elusive Morel Mushroom
Posted inNews & Politics
Crinoid Story
These Parts/Those petrified Cheerios that wash up on beaches in the Dunes–they’re the fossilized remains of prehistoric marine animals, and they have a tale to tell.
Posted inNews & Politics
Fashion Accessory of the Year
The old hard-core look–motorcycle leathers with locks, chains, and studs–has either gone respectable or gone away. But it takes on a fresh, scandalous air with the addition of 1989’s liveliest fashion accessory–a pet rat worn on and around the collar. According to the fashion plates pictured here, whom we encountered near the corner of Belmont […]