About 15 workers from Berlin Nightclub stood outside the 40-year-old Lakeview venue on March 11. They were a few dozen feet from the Belmont Red Line station, in a gaggle, below a steady downpour of flurrying snow that wouldn’t stick. Because of the weather, the streets and buildings all had a thin, wet film. The […]
Category: News & Politics
Posted inNews & Politics
“Voices from inside”
“Walking up and down the galleries, I’d hear some really deep conversations,” Renaldo Hudson said, recalling the origins of Stateville Speaks, the newspaper he founded in prison almost 20 years ago. “I would hear people talk about Socrates, the stuff that people don’t think happens in prison.” Despite living under the oppressive conditions of prison, […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The news in Gary
Capital B is a fresh Black local-national nonprofit news organization on the scene. It turned one year old this year, and it recently brought its mission of partnering with communities to create a high-quality news and information experience for Black folks to Gary, Indiana. Gary is a rust-belt news desert that notoriously has lost 61 […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Queer gun owners are ‘American as fuck’
Dina fascinated me. So much of the national conversation around gun use and control depicts gun owners as white, conservative, heterosexual men, but here in Chicago was a trans, nonbinary musician and performer who makes songs about pussy, money, weed, and pizza, and who also conceals and carries.
Posted inNews & Politics
Superheroes that look like me
The story of Chicago’s own Black Child Book Fair, a traveling event that promotes literacy for Black kids across the country, starts with Chicagoan and author Darryl Harvey releasing his incipient children’s book in 2010, I Can Do Anything. It features a Black child on the cover and is the first in his Sunflower series, […]
Posted inNews & Politics
‘This feels like losing a family member’
On February 10, Chicago’s skateboarding community gathered at Grant Skate Park for a candlelight vigil in remembrance of Tyre Nichols and all victims of police brutality.
Posted inNews & Politics
Billy the Kid
“Everyone knows him because of his glasses. He’s the kid.” Campaign volunteer Ava Gal gestured to William “The Kid” Guerrero, the 21-year-old artist running for a council seat in the 12th Chicago Police District. It was 6 PM on a Friday night in early February, and Guerrero’s supporters waited for guests to arrive at his […]
Posted inFeature
The Gage Park Latinx Council nurtures community and identity
The queer, DACA-led southwest-side group addresses community needs around food, health and public space.
Posted inNews & Politics
How Chicago fell for crypto
While lawmakers cozied up to cryptocurrency firms, crypto fraudsters fleeced Illinois residents.
Posted in2023 Police District Councils Voter Guide
The youth are on fire
Saul Arellano, Anthony Michael Tamez, Ashley Vargas, and William “The Kid” Guerrero are among the youngest candidates for Police District Councils.
Posted inNews & Politics
The City Council’s “newbie caucus” prep for their first aldermanic race
In recent interviews with the Reader, none of Mayor Lightfoot’s appointees endorsed her reelection campaign.
Posted inNews & Politics
Lightfoot looks back
Ahead of the February 28 election, the mayor talks to the Reader about the past four years.
Posted inNews & Politics
Brandon Johnson supports safe consumption sites
His position is nuanced, and it’s informed by family experience.
Posted inNews & Politics
An ex-cop is suing UIC Law School for discrimination
One of the defendants’ attorneys says he’s using this lawsuit to silence and intimidate students and decision makers in higher education.
Posted inNews & Politics
South Asians are helping build Chicago’s progressive movement
South Asian people have been organizing in Chicago for years—now, two are running for alderperson in the February 28 election.