Woodlawn
Because we are
Roundtable discussions led by aldermen and local activists detailed new efforts to promote “creative solutions” by inspiring informal leadership—everything from education to crime prevention to neighborhood beauty. »
The Crowd
“Read my lips…Obama won’t kill Grandma.” The slogan is printed over the image “Whistler’s Mother,” and the button-seller tells the small student crowd around her that this one was very popular during the President’s push for health care reform. There are salesmen like her all along the 59th street Midway, men and women vending... »
The Hip-hop Populist
In recent years, it has become increasingly difficult to tell the difference between politics and show business—both celebrities and senators must endure a loss of privacy, hair and make up crews, and appearances on Oprah. At the first political rally for Che Smith, known to the hip-hop community as Rhymefest, it seemed to be... »
Local Grind
The technometropolis that is South Campus Residence Hall may have just opened its doors last year, but its effects on the neighboring Woodlawn community are already palpable. As the university's population moves south of the Midway and outside the safe confines of the main quad and the student ghetto immediately to the north, businesses... »
Best of the South Side 2010
Around the turn of the last century, workers and businessmen attracted by the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition settled down in Woodlawn and South Shore. New homes and brick apartment buildings were built for the predominately upper-middle class white Protestant residents. The streets of South Shore are filled with remnants of the first decades of... »
Crêpe Expectations
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. »
Finding Common Ground
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... »
The Art of Action
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... »
