In the city with the greatest number of theological schools in America, the neighborhood with the biggest fraction of these is Hyde Park. Besides the University of Chicago’s Divinity School, it is home to five of the eleven members of the Association of Chicago Theological Seminary (ACTS), a consortium of seminaries whose students can cross-register and share academic resources. Within ACTS, the Hyde Park Cluster of Theological Schools forms an even closer community, fostering collaboration and dialogue among its six member schools. Hyde Park may be dominated by the UofC in terms of educational institutions, but its theological seminaries deserve just as much renown.

In the coming years, though, the neighborhood’s high concentration of seminaries will drop, as two of them move a few blocks south to the community of Woodlawn. The Meadville Lombard Theological School plans to move to 62nd Street and Ellis Avenue in 2011, and the Chicago Theological Seminary (CTS) will relocate to 60th Street and Dorchester Avenue in 2012. Read the rest of this entry »

“We can’t turn down the music. Let the Beatles speak for us. Anything they have to say, we have to say.” These are the words of the founding fathers of Go-Go Town, a contemporary loft venue at 3117 S. Morgan Street. Read the rest of this entry »

Celebrities are consumer goods. Reading gossip in the press or on trashy blogs and fantasizing over new babies, new outfits, juicy breakups, and emotional breakdowns is a form of escapism. The allure is obvious: celebrities embody some of our culture’s dominant desires—for wealth, status, beauty, exposure, mobility, access, and glamorous lifestyles. Like all consumer goods, celebs are manufactured. An entire celebrity industry populated by advertisers, event planners, paparazzi swarms, and a slice of the media dutifully fabricates images of these people and of the worlds they inhabit, images framed to appease and reinforce these desires. But what happens to a person in the media spotlight? What happens to an inner life or a family life constantly bombarded by the glare of the cameras and the public? Read the rest of this entry »

Chicago’s first elevated train went into operation in 1892, and since then the system has been constantly shifting. Today, few remember how it looked at its peak, before the formation of the CTA in 1947 out of the privately owned Chicago Rapid Transit Company and Chicago Surface Lines. Since the consolidation, the CTA’s rail network has declined from a high of 227 stations to only 144. Today, however, the tide is turning the other way: although the CTA’s economic difficulties led to the recently announced fare hike, capital projects, like new facilities, stations, and tracks, are often eligible for millions of dollars in funds from the federal government. With Olympic hopes on the horizon, environmental concerns and volatile gas prices driving people out of their cars, and the city once again seeing positive population growth, now is a good time to take a look at a few ways our transit system might expand in the near future. Read the rest of this entry »

Though soil has been trucked in and piled thick on top of the concrete, cracked pavement still emerges at the edges of this empty lot in Englewood. Adjacent residential streets are scattered with discarded couches, and those couches are scattered with rusty springs and mildew stains. A couple of portable trailers nestle up to three hoophouses—that’s “unheated greenhouses” to those of us without green thumbs—half full of beautiful red kale, dying tomato plants and neat rows of spinach. From a fourth, open patch of land springs forth lettuce. Low-lying strawberry plants run down the center of the lot. This is the Wood Street Urban Farm, an organic farm on a formerly abandoned lot in the middle of Englewood. Since its owners bought the land from the city for $1 in 2006, it has been the only year-round functioning farm in Chicago. Read the rest of this entry »

There are any number of guides to Chicago’s culinary wonders. From the North Side’s Alinea to the North Side’s Charlie Trotter’s, Chicago is littered with four-star wonderlands. But these gourmet eateries share one weakness: they all close. And once they do, the South Side may have the upper hand. Some of the city’s tastiest—and greasiest—food can be found at its 24-hour cult spots, where night owls and frazzled waitstaffs burn the midnight oil in sleepless solidarity. To help wake you up to the nocturnal bounty around you, the Weekly presents our guide to food after dark on the South Side. Read the rest of this entry »

At first glance, a casual visitor might not expect Bridgeport to be an emerging hub for Chicago’s art scene: streets are stark, shops are scattered, and the wind chimes that dangle from residential houses break the silence. But lo and behold, on the southeast corner of 32nd and Morgan is the Co-Prosperity Sphere, one of the motors behind Bridgeport’s art renaissance. Read the rest of this entry »

“Shawnimals, as a land,” creator Shawn Smith explains, “is made up of eighteen different countries, and Ninjatown is one of them.” In this land of Ninja, characters like the Wee Ninja roam. The Wee Ninja, as its name suggests, is no ordinary ninja—he is, as Smith puts it, “less about assassination and more about hugging.” Welcome to the world of Shawnimals: an ever-expanding universe of cute plush toys, comics, buttons, T-shirts and now, a video game coming to an electronics store near you. Read the rest of this entry »