(Ejojola\flickr)

Into the inferno. In go the orange earplugs, and we step into the belly of the beast. The guide shouts to us over the roar of the furnace, but even with our ear protection in the place is clamorous—a coal plant is a noisy place. More than anything else, though, the heat is intolerable. Our guide wears heavy long pants and boots with a shirt and work jacket and appears perfectly comfortable. The furnace itself is 1000 degrees Fahrenheit; that we can stand a few feet away from it and survive is incredible and uncomfortable.

On a chilly spring day, a group from the University of Chicago went to tour the Crawford Coal Plant at 36th and Pulaski in the working-class neighborhood of Little Village. We hoped to find out what a coal plant looks like, how it works, and what it does in the world besides generate electricity. Read the rest of this entry »

(Emilie Shumway)

The truck for Shawn Michelle’s Homemade Ice Cream sits tucked away under the pavilion of Kimbark Plaza at 53rd and Kimbark Avenue. Parked oddly between Leona’s and CVS, the powder blue truck’s painted-on slogan, “Best Homemade Ice Cream in the World,” is difficult to make out from across the plaza. Read the rest of this entry »

Alone on the second floor of the Hyde Park Art Center, I push aside thin felt curtains to enter a gallery featuring “The City,” the first of four video installation programs in “Spatial City: An Architecture of Idealism.” There are two pieces in this exhibition, Sarah Morris’s “Midtown” and Bertrand Lamarche’s “Autobrouillard.” The second is playing. Read the rest of this entry »

With a straw hat on his head and a crêpe stand that was once displayed in the Museum of Contemporary Art, Zak Arctander is hard to miss. Every Saturday, the vendor at the 61st Street Farmers Market turns four simple ingredients—flour, milk, eggs, and water—into golden, steaming, oh-so-tasty crêpes. Read the rest of this entry »

(courtesy of Vermilion Development)

In May 2008, when the University of Chicago completed the $6.5 million purchase of Harper Court, President Robert Zimmer heralded the moment as an opportunity. “Ideally,” he said in a public statement on the purchase, “this project will be reflective of the distinctive nature of Hyde Park and represent the best of Chicago’s mid-South Side.” This January, after Vermilion Development was selected by the University to redevelop Harper Court, its CEO, David J. Cocagne, was quoted by the Chicago Maroon echoing the same sentiment. “We’re very excited to be undertaking this project,” Cocagne said. “We think it will be very transformative for the commercial core of Hyde Park and will really celebrate all that Hyde Park is.” Read the rest of this entry »

(Temple Shipley)

Benjamin Murphy wedges his cigarette butt into the gray planks of a picnic table and squints, surveying his sanctuary. In the fading light of a late-May Thursday afternoon, the 65th and Woodlawn Community Garden resembles a living patchwork quilt—some plots in this roughly 1000 square-foot space are lined with misshapen bricks, others are freestanding mounds of soil punctuated by the occasional wire trellis, tree branch, or toiling gardener. Murphy laughs, “You can’t gang-bang on this corner.” Read the rest of this entry »

Last January, Yah’s Cuisine became the second vegan restaurant specializing in soul food to open on 75th Street. Located roughly three miles from its well-established predecessor, Soul Vegetarian East, Yah’s may be signaling the setting of a delicious South Side standard. If that be the case, consider me satisfied. Read the rest of this entry »

Around a rectangular table in a conference room at the Bessie Coleman Library, a group of University of Chicago students and community members are meeting to discuss this year’s Art in Action festival. “Okay, who is taking care of sign-making Monday?” one student asks. Several hands go up from the planning committee, made up of seven students and seven community members, including a local pastor, several artists, and members of various South Side organizations. Enthusiasm is high and periodic chatter interrupts the main agenda: the logistics of an event meant to bring the UofC community into contact with those around it. Read the rest of this entry »