Author Archive

“This little light of mine,” a swell of voices rang out over darkness twinkling with red, white, and blue lights. “I’m gonna let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.” The DuSable Museum of African American History Theater was full to the brim with bodies and feeling as visitors sang... »

Enter Woodlawn: Get off the Cottage Grove bus at Marquette Road. Turn east and cross the street. Keep trudging through knee-deep snow for as long as you can stand it; if there are no cars coming, it might be easier to walk in the less-snowy street. Use your judgment. Look around and you’ll see... »

Recession is a terrifying thing: it destroys industries, communities, and families on a global scale. With the stakes so high, it’s natural that all the major players would start searching desperately for a place to lay the blame—preferably, a place as far away from theirs as possible. One possible cause for our current recession... »

“The University of Chicago” can be a four-letter word. Pundits use it as a symbol of Barack Obama’s alleged aloofness and professorial remove from reality, while South Side activists have often accused the UofC of being primarily concerned with itself—to the detriment of its neighbors. The core of these accusations center around an image... »

Shaquocora Henderson has big plans for her future. “I’m going to be the CEO of my own company,” the eighth grader says. “I’m not going to work for anybody.” When asked about future colleges, she says without hesitation, “It’s still a battle between Harvard and Brown University.” »

Marisol Flores has proof: stacks of Polaroid photographs documenting bruises and welts, emergency room bills, police and Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) reports, reams of court testimony. All these tell in painful detail the history of her twelve-year marriage that has dramatically colored her life in the United States, retold by the Chicago Reporter.... »

Vesta Johnson could be your grandmother—that is, if your grandmother is a musical trailblazer. The eighty-something Missourian, one of the first female fiddlers in the style called “old-time” or “Ozark style,” made a name for herself with her energetic bow work at a time when few women played at all. Although she’s more accustomed... »

He appears to be a high-powered businessman, perhaps in the financial sector—black-suited, armed with a busily ringing Blackberry and headset, accessorized with an immaculately shaven head and stylish rimless glasses. Laughter rolls out of his mouth, booming and golden like a sentry’s horn, whenever he stumbles upon a pithy way to explain a theory... »