“This little light of mine,” a swell of voices rang out over darkness twinkling with red, white, and blue lights. “I’m gonna let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.” The DuSable Museum of African American History Theater was full to the brim with bodies and feeling as visitors sang the spiritual and waved glow sticks in celebration after President Obama’s inauguration speech. Read the rest of this entry »

“Martin should have been born in June,” Rev. Joseph Lowery said, laughing. As the keynote speaker at Thursday’s MLK Commemoration Service at Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, Rev. Lowery spoke to a crowd of a couple hundred people, despite the fact that it was the coldest day so far this winter. Women adorned with fur hats, men dressed in wool coats, and children and students of all ages gathered together to listen to Rev. Lowery speak on behalf of Martin Luther King’s efforts to improve the state of civil rights in the 1960s. Read the rest of this entry »

Today the sight of workers pouring molten steel into molds, sending forth bursts of orange sparks and flames, seems industrial to the point of anachronism. Chicago’s once-famous steel industry has gone the way of much American manufacturing of late; almost all of its steel mills have closed or left the city. A. Finkl & Sons Co. is one of the few that remain. It continues to process over 100,000 tons of steel each year at its Lincoln Park location, cutting a striking sight for passersby and maintaining an active presence in the community. Finkl donates to many environmental and educational causes and has hosted events as momentous as Rod Blagojevich’s gubernatorial election victory parties. It has also contributed greatly to the area’s status as one of the five most polluted zip codes in the city. Now, though, the company is leaving its home of more than 100 years, moving to a more spacious location in the South Side neighborhood of Burnside. Read the rest of this entry »

Of all the speakers chosen for the panel on “Race and the American Voter,” Nate Silver is possibly least qualified for the role. The other members of the discussion are, unlike Silver, mostly minorities; all add more to the conversation than Silver, and when he does speak, he doesn’t really bring up the detailed statistical analyses that made the 2008 presidential campaign predictions on his blog, FiveThirtyEight.com, so remarkably accurate. Nonetheless, Silver is almost assuredly the most well-known speaker in attendance; to the thousands of political junkies w­­­ho frequented his website every day, multiple times a day, until November 4, his name is as familiar as Obama’s, Clinton’s, or Sarah Palin’s. Read the rest of this entry »

2008 ended on a somewhat sour note for Chicagoans.

Sure, it was a bad year for most everyone in a lot of ways, but at least the election of the South Side’s favorite son, Barack Obama, gave us some inspirational hope to go on. Then Hot Rod Blagojevich stepped in and left us a nasty year-end surprise. Read the rest of this entry »

“We’re having a sit-in, yo!”

The statement wasn’t exactly necessary. Judging by the excess of signs with slogans like “Worker Power” and “We Demand a Fair Contract,” it was immediately obvious that some sort of protest was taking place. But in lieu of angry fist-raising, the fifteen or so students gathered on the floor of the University of Chicago’s Bartlett Hall lobby lounged around, singing songs of solidarity to the tune of “Glory, Glory Hallelujah” and playing board games. In their defense, it wasn’t any old board game: it was “Power Grid,” a German game with the objective of powering the most U.S. power plants. Even in recreation, these students aim to help society. Read the rest of this entry »

This November 4, Chicagoans will head to the polls in what may be record numbers to vote for favorite son Barack Obama (and a few for the old guy). Many will neglect to vote for anything below U.S. Representative in the belief that it doesn’t matter. In a way, they couldn’t be more wrong. Local offices directly affect our lives in countless ways, and sometimes elections are decided by less than 50 votes. This issue, the Chicago Weekly presents a guide to six of the more interesting local races on ballots across the South Side. Although we are not endorsing candidates, we trust you’ll make the right decisions. Read the rest of this entry »

The recently tabled “Event Promoters” ordinance, originally scheduled to be voted on by the Chicago City Council on Wednesday, May 14, is so patently fatuous and overbroad that you are moved to wonder how it was ever considered for passage into civic code. While the entire proposed law runs to several thousands of words, its most egregious proposal must be that “event promoters” register every performance they organize with the city of Chicago and pay a filing fee scaled to the expected size of the audience. The price of a promoter’s license ranges from $500 to $2000 for two years. Fines for offenses under the terms of the license range from $500 to $1000, and penalties for holding events without a license can reach $10,000. The definition of an “event promoter” is among the worst of the proposed law’s perversions; the tortured wordiness of the proposed ordinance makes every small-scale music professional, from the booking agent at the Empty Bottle to a singer-songwriter scheduling his or her own shows, subject to the law’s requirements. For the courageous few willing to pay the ridiculous registration fees, more strictures follow: every applicant must be over 21 years old, subjected to a background check, and fingerprinted. And each event promoter would have to inform the police of any performance seven days in advance of its scheduled start. Read the rest of this entry »