“It’s always quiet around here until it’s not,” said my neighbor from down the street, petting her big dog’s head. Her dog was sitting contentedly in the grass near the lagoon in Sherman Park, near my house in Back of the Yards. It’s often silent there, unless there’s a flock of geese fighting—or unless a […]
Tag: south side
Posted inCity Life
Photos: opening reception for Brandon Breaux at Blanc
Our contributor Isa Giallorenzo attended an opening reception in April for artist Brandon Breaux’s solo exhibition “BIG WORDS,” which is on view at Blanc Gallery in Bronzeville through May 27. She reports, “A beautiful, stylish, and lively crowd attended . . . the gallery has a cozy outdoor space that could accommodate a large number of guests. […]
Posted inFilm
‘Chicago is a funny-ass town’
The Reader caught up with Kerman to talk about what connects South Side and Bust Down, being reasonable in an insane world, and working with Freddie Gibbs.
Posted inArts & Culture
A theft hidden in plain sight for decades
The greater Englewood area has been subject to land theft for over 80 years. It’s apparent when you see boarded-up windows and overgrown weeds that cover the community. Empty houses abound, a legacy of the impact that racism has had on the area for years, vacant lots indicating opportunities withheld from aspiring Black homeowners. It’s […]
Posted inMusic
P.S. Studios, where a musician recorded musicians
Paul Serrano, founder of P.S. Studios, was a south-sider at his core. Once a student of Captain Walter Dyett’s famed music program at DuSable High School, he forged a path as a young trumpeter in New York before settling back in Chicago and playing on sessions up and down the city’s storied Record Row. By […]
Posted inSmall Screen
Expanding the universe of South Side
It’s been over two years since South Side debuted on Comedy Central and made many Black Chicagoans from the city laugh in a way that felt personal. Amongst the many dramas centering the violence and real disadvantages many south-siders face on television, South Side screened with a refreshing perspective that many folks from the south […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Race, fate, and sisterhood on the south side
“My earliest memory of myself is of my sister. My earliest understanding of my world comes from three women—my mother, grandmother, and aunt.” In her new memoir Three Girls From Bronzeville: A Uniquely American Story of Race, Fate, and Sisterhood, Dawn Turner turns her journalistic eye toward her own story, one she weaves as inextricable […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Breaking the cycle
For three decades, the city has failed to cope with the loss of mental health clinics. The pandemic revealed the wounds of this disinvestment.
Posted inCity Life
Reset your mind with cherry blossoms
Upcoming events and recommendations from our listings coordinator
Posted inNews & Politics
Have you seen these 51 women?
If there wasn’t a serial killer who picked off dozens of victims without detection for decades, then the city was broken in a way that gave off the illusion of one.
Posted inNews & Politics
A case of disappearing hoops in gentrifying neighborhoods
In the last decade the Chicago Park District has removed 12 of 16 basketball courts from neighborhoods that have doubled and tripled in value, further marginalizing communities facing displacement.
Posted inMusic
Chicago’s Growing Concerns Poetry Collective use kindness to unite people against bigotry
The three members of Growing Concerns Poetry Collective all juggle other practices outside their collaboration. Their CVs are too extensive to discuss exhaustively, but poet McKenzie Chinn has built a career acting onstage (she’s a Goodman Theatre regular) and on TV (she has a recurring role on CBS’s Chicago-based drama The Red Line). She also […]
Posted inCity Life
Wherever you go, there you are
Upcoming events and distractions from our listings coordinator
Posted inCity Life
I’ll just drink this tea, thanks
What our listings coordinator is musing about this week
Posted inNews & Politics
This is my brain on local TV news
Thirteen and a half hours of broadcasts on looting leave a day of impressions without a trace.