The past decade of Chicago hip-hop would be entirely different without Young Chicago Authors and the Harold Washington Library’s YouMedia lab. Both have served as creative hubs for local teens, and their storied weekly open mikes—YouMedia’s Lyricist Loft and YCA’s WordPlay—have given many beloved Chicago rappers their starts. In the 2020s, a new generation of […]
Tag: Harold Washington Library
Posted inNews & Politics
What happened to YOUmedia?
The Chicago Public Library’s flagship teen program was a refuge for Black and Brown youth. Recent layoffs put that in jeopardy.
Posted inArts & Culture
Belkis Ayón retrospective, the International Women’s Day Festival, and more to do this weekend
Arts and culture happenings from Fri 3/6 to Sun 3/8.
Posted inMusic
WemmyMo makes his rap career a family affair
The Nigerian American MC hopes to help support his family by making music—and he’s filled his crew with cousins.
Posted inMusic
Rapbrarian Roy Kinsey finds his voice in queer hip-hop
With his next album, Roy Kinsey wants to make the music he wishes he’d heard as a young queer man of color.
Posted inMusic
DJ King Hippo on the holy grail of Chicago spiritual jazz
Current musical obsessions of DJ King Hippo (aka Alejandro Ayala), Resavoir bandleader Will Miller, and Reader writer Leor Galil
Posted inMusic
Marcus Mixx has lost his home, but he still has house
Marcus Mixx’s early records fetch hundreds of dollars apiece from a cult of collectors, but he just wants a space of his own to make his new tracks.
Posted inMusic
Chicago rap crew Pivot Gang honor a fallen comrade
Pivot Gang cofounder John Walt is memorialized in Saba’s Care for Me—and by an arts nonprofit that bears his name, which holds its flagship concert fund-raiser this weekend.
Posted inMusic
Chicago rapper Taylor Bennett wants everywhere to be a place black people can be themselves
When Chicago rapper Taylor Bennett was a teenager, one of his havens was Navy Pier. And this weekend, he’ll make himself at home onstage at Lollapalooza.
Posted inArts & Culture
Here are seven more of the most interesting maker classes the city has to offer
Build a terrarium! Sew a baby bib! Design your own perfume!
Posted inBlogs
Maker Class Listings
A list of some of the most interesting maker classes the city has to offer.
Posted inBlogs
Chicago students plan another walkout Friday despite suspension threat
Students across the city plan to leave class and gather in Grant Park Friday to protest gun violence.
Posted inNews & Politics
The lost Harold Washington files
Thirty years after Harold Washington’s death, a newly unearthed trove of documents reveals the early stages of his transformation into the insurgent who’d become the first (and still only) black man elected mayor of Chicago.
Posted inBlogs
Chiditarod XII, the Air Sex World Championships, and more things to do in Chicago this weekend
Chicago’s 180th Birthday, Dapper Ball, and more happenings from March 3-5
Posted inMusic
Steve Reidell of the Hood Internet on an overlooked R&B wizard
Current musical obsessions of Steve Reidell from the Hood Internet, Metro publicist Shannon Shreibak, and the Reader’s Leor Galil