Features
Act II
While the group’s mission has not waivered since it was founded in 1971, eta’s leadership is currently going through a major transition. The foundation’s long-time president and co-founder, Abena Joan Brown, stepped down this past March, on the 40th anniversary of the opening of the theater. She passed the reins to Philip Thomas, a... »
Waiting for the Bus
Today, there is no bus along 31st Street. In the neighborhoods the street cuts through, east-west bus service is lacking. Between Cermak Road and 47th Street, Chicago’s grid system of bus service breaks down, leaving large areas of white space on the CTA system map and roughly 200,000 people without a direct route. »
Holding Up the Line
Cecilia Butler spoke before the Chicago Transit Board for the second time in four months. The 63-year-old woman repeated what she had already said four times before: that the historic station house across the street from the Garfield Green Line stop could and should be a building operated by and for the community. »
Toward a Future’s Past
As the head of both the Black Metropolis Convention and Tourism Council and the Bronzeville Online Visitor Information Center, Harold Lucas has worked, he says, to ensure that Bronzeville is recognized as the city’s “premiere destination for African-American tourism and cultural life.” But his is not the only vision of the neighborhood on display... »
Playing the Advantage
Juan Moreno stands at the edge of a small astroturf soccer field and motions around at the encompassing school building that his architecture firm JGMA designed. This freshly built structure at 51st and Kedzie houses the United Neighborhood Organization’s (UNO) Soccer Academy, a school designed to incorporate academics with a soccer training campus. »
Fast Tracked
The old U.S. Steel Mills have been abandoned for almost 30 years. Prairie has fought through the vast fields of concrete, asphalt, and steel; most of the permanent structures have been torn down or have disintegrated over time. Tucked in a corner of the sprawling 576-acre lot, an oversized bowl rises above the wasteland. »
Best of the South Side 2011
If you look at a map, you’ll see our city of neighborhoods carved into 77 “community areas.” The lines, drawn by sociologists in the 1950s, sometimes traced the perimeters of ethnic enclaves and sometimes created them. Flattening Chicago’s complex social geography, these semi-official designations remain in use, but even urban planners would admit they... »
Lessons from the Barbershop
“This is the best barber school in Chicago,” says Charles R. Lenox, a toothy, caramel-complexioned man with a Bluetooth in his ear. Charles, who carries a photo of himself with his daughter at her graduation from the University of Chicago last year, has been cutting hair for 24 years. “I decided it was finally... »
