Rudy Nimocks is a pear-shaped man with a pedagogically dapper bowtie and a tough scowl. But as he rises, and the din of the crowded atrium resolves into an attentive silence, a jovial grin melts his hardened visage. He’s clearly pleased by the turnout. “Before we get into the here and now,” he coos, “I want to tell you all a story about a neighborhood called Woodlawn.” Read the rest of this entry »

Senegalese musician Morikeba Kouyate sits in the sunny front window of Hyde Park’s Chant restaurant, his twenty one-stringed kora resting in his lap. He is taking a breather in between songs, which layer his high, strong voice over complex fingerwork on the gourd-and-stretched-skin instrument. In the expansive dining room, a few diners circle around the buffet table, where fresh fruit, French toast, and omelets-to-order are offered alongside Thai-style chicken and bottomless mimosas. It is the mid-afternoon, and the brunch rush has passed; Morikeba no longer has to compete with the clinking of silverware. Jazz and blues has, of course, a long and illustrious history on the South Side, and Chant’s musical brunches are well-attended, with outdoor tables crowding the sidewalk in warmer weather. But what do brunches with accompaniment say about Chicago’s jazz tradition today? Read the rest of this entry »

Churches dot the Woodlawn like freckles and underlie it like foundations. Some of them are historically significant, some have architectural merit, and some stand out only for their typicality. This photo essay includes a little of each.

Founded in the second Fort Dearborn in 1833, First Presbyterian Church was a pioneer in the temperance and abolition movements in the mid-nineteenth century. The congregation had moved to its sixth and most lavish building when it was destroyed by the Great Fire in 1871. Several mergers and nearly six decades later, First Church moved into its present home at 6400 South Kimbark Avenue. Its membership grew in numbers and racial diversity throughout the ’40s, and in the late ’50s the church helped establish T.W.O., or The Woodlawn Organization, to fight the encroachment of the University of Chicago campus. Since then, First Church has housed organizations and efforts as diverse as the Blackstone Rangers, Head Start classes, a community garden, and today the Woodlawn Collaborative, which unites Woodlawn residents and UofC students in promoting arts, education, and community empowerment. Read the rest of this entry »

When asked about being a professional storyteller, Judith Heineman consistently fields the same question: “Do you read stories to children?” As the activities of Heineman and the Chicago Storytelling Guild show, this question hardly brushes the surface of the art, a skill that appeals to the young and the old through a wide variety of media and many approaches. According to Heineman, who has been named an Illinois Humanities Council Road Scholar for her craft, being a storyteller is about relating to people, becoming one with your material, and finding your voice. Read the rest of this entry »

Alaskan puppet troupe Reckoning Motions’ performance of “The Great Ziggurat,” held last Tuesday at the Experimental Station, was challenging, elegantly evocative, and all-around enjoyable. The piece, based loosely on the biblical story of the Tower of Babel, explores the concepts of humanity’s penchant to build up and tear down, making use of tower allegories from history and popular culture. Led by Byrne Power, the performance adds new depth to the puppetry medium, challenging its relegation to the realm of children’s entertainment. Complementary storylines create a complex patchwork of images and ideas, leaving the audience wondering and contemplating long after Power and his team take their bows. According to Power, “In conventional theater, everything is predictable—it screams theater. We wanted to create an experience in which people wouldn’t know what they were screaming about.” Read the rest of this entry »

Everyone agrees that Woodlawn is changing. The neighborhood that once suffered from widespread arson, gang warfare, and a plummeting population is now seeing reinvestment in housing, a new grocery store, and a wealth of new cultural opportunities. And at 64th and Woodlawn, a historic church is ringing with rare Baroque music on the third Sunday of every month. Read the rest of this entry »

South of Hyde Park stretch two lakefront neighborhoods with very different histories. Woodlawn was once a prosperous neighborhood, helped along by the World’s Fair of 1893 and the El tracks that connected it to downtown. In the 1940s and ’50s, integration brought a sudden demographic shift, and after the 1968 riots that raged across the West Side, the remaining white-owned businesses decamped for the suburbs. The neighborhood’s further decline lead to a rash of insurance arsons in the ’70s and ’80s, and 63rd Street, once one of the city’s major retail corridors outside the Loop, became a patchwork of empty lots. Today it’s on an upwards trend, with new housing developments, University of Chicago campus buildings, and a new coffee lounge opening soon at 63rd and Woodlawn Avenue. Across 67th Street is South Shore, a middle-class neighborhood centered along 71st Street and blessed with two lakefront attractions, Rainbow Beach and the South Shore Cultural Center, a former country club bought by the Park District for public use. Read the rest of this entry »

Early last winter, Paul Baker realized a long-time dream of bringing a community theater company to Hyde Park. Inspired by his teenage daughter’s passion for theater and the neighborhood’s need for quality theater produced in a spirit of collaboration, Baker hit the streets of Hyde Park, posting yellow flyers emblazoned with an emphatic call-to-arts: “Hyde Park Needs a Community Theater. Do You Agree?” The first meeting for the Hyde Park Community Players drew a dozen Hyde Parkers in spite of what Baker calls the “stupid” choice of timing: January 20, 2009, was Inauguration Day, after all, and a moment of historic importance for many members of the community. Still, the group has retained enough members to put up its first show this week. “An Evening of One Acts,” featuring Irish playwright John M. Synge’s tragedy “Riders to the Sea” and Chekhov’s “The Bear” (a more farcical, if not equally tragic work), goes up at the Experimental Station this Friday. Read the rest of this entry »