Woodlawn
Rise and Swing: Jazz brunch on the South Side
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... »
Sanctuaries: A photo tour of Woodlawn’s churches
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... »
Fever to Tell: The Chicago Storytelling Guild’s thirteenth annual festival shows stories aren’t just for kids
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... »
Puppet Mastery
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... »
Woodlawn’s Hidden Treasures
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... »
Best of the South Side 2009: South Shore and Woodlawn
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... »
Dramatis Personae: Hyde Park Community Players present their first show at the Experimental Station
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:... »
Hard Knocks Café: The Living Room Cafe serves meals and more to low-income residents in Woodlawn
On a Saturday morning in May, the line for a table at the Living Room Café goes out the door. Every seat around each hardwood table is filled and the atmosphere is noisy with conversation. Servers take orders and drop off stacks of pancakes, strips of bacon, and plates piled with eggs, hash browns,... »
