Bridgeport
Betting the Farm
Darion Crawford, compost manager, is pointing down the length of Iron Street Farm. I’m standing with him on the roof of a warehouse in industrial Bridgeport, just across the street from PepsiCo Chicago and just across the river from the smokestacks of some industrial plant. »
Arts and Kraft
Eel Space is the latest addition to Chicago’s league of apartment galleries, a trend that has dominated the Bridgeport-Pilsen art scene for the past few years. »
The Book of Jeremiah
Looking at Jeremiah Jae’s “studio,” a tiny room in his Bridgeport apartment, one is struck by the relative scarcity of recent technology on the room’s low coffee tables. There’s a small synth and a tape deck that looked like it might’ve been copped from Walgreen’s sometime in the mid-’90s. A guitar rests in the... »
Art of Three Neighborhoods: Inside and Out
It’s a critical time for arts on the South Side. After years of attention being focused on the pillars of the Pilsen visual art scene, the tide is shifting—in large part because many artists have trickled into other communities south of the Loop, bringing with them both the hope of a colorful neighborhood and... »
Breaded Bliss
As I walk through the old-fashioned wooden doors of Ricobene’s, the Diana Ross classic “I’m Coming Out” softly directs me towards the old school counter in a mesmerizing fashion. Ricobene’s is a family-owned Bridgeport institution. Started by twin brothers and kept in the family to this day, this well-loved eatery has been serving... »
Awkward Moments
Appearing in multiples, the bodies inhabit bizarre surrealistic landscapes. They seem to wander headless around the canvas, searching for something concrete. But the naked, often distorted figures don’t provide any answers. These topsy-turvy scenes are Tom Torluemke’s creations, now on display at the Co-Prosperity Sphere in Bridgeport. If you decide to see Torluemke’s exhibition,... »
Best of the South Side 2010
The original name for Bridgeport was Hardscrabble. Historically a haven for European immigrants, especially Polish and Lithuanian, the neighborhood’s constant flux of diversity is mostly responsible for Bridgeport’s violent past. Irish and German gangs waged turf wars on its streets in the nineteenth century, setting a precedent for the bloody clashes between Eastern European... »
Exploring Version Territory: The Co-Prosperity Sphere hosts Bridgeport’s annual art festival
“Every year we have the same intention. We want to widen the networks and nodes of various groups so we can grow a multiplicity of milieus in the art world,” explains Ed “Edmar” Marszewski. He’s talking about the Version Festival, an annual eleven-day arts festival that he founded and co-curates, which celebrates social and... »
