Chicago Tribune Archives - Chicago Reader

Black and white photograph of the glass facade of Chicago's Chinatown library.

Rethinking equity in the built environment

by Anjulie Rao November 22, 2022November 22, 2022

The house next door to mine was torn down. My neighbors don’t quite remember the year, but the resident local historian, Maurice, who has lived on the block since the late 60s, was shipped off to Vietnam and, upon his return in 1972, the house had vanished. The product of “slum clearance” on Chicago’s west […]

A young Chrissie Dickinson, looking directly into the camera and wearing a hat and a jacket with a pocket square while touching one of her lapels with a leather-gloved hand

Music

Chrissie Dickinson died with too much writing yet to do and too much art yet to create

by Cynthia Jenkins May 31, 2022June 1, 2022

Chrissie Dickinson was a multimedia artist and award-winning country and rock ‘n’ roll critic whose work appeared in the Chicago Reader, the Chicago Tribune, Newcity, the Boston Phoenix, the Washington Post, and the Christian Science Monitor. She died on May 19, 2022, from heart failure. She is remembered here by friend and creative partner Cynthia […]

Best of Chicago

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by Jack Helbig March 2, 2022March 15, 2022

In the tradition of 18th-century newspapers like Samuel Johnson’s The Rambler, or more contemporary efforts like I.F. Stone’s Weekly, Charlie Meyerson’s Chicago Public Square, a daily newsletter containing short capsules of the day’s top stories, is a one-man show. In full disclosure, I’ve known Meyerson personally since the late 1980s. Meyerson started putting out the […]

Columns & Opinion

Mission accomplished: John Kass has been deplatformed

by John Greenfield June 24, 2021August 18, 2021

Yes, it’s part of the tragic gutting of the Tribune. But John Kass’s departure is still good news.

News & Politics

Politics of fear: Are youth really to blame for the carjacking spike?

by Maya Dukmasova April 28, 2021August 18, 2021

Cops say masked teens with a thirst for violence and joyrides are terrorizing the city. An examination of arrests reveals a narrative built on shoddy data and anecdotal evidence.