Tag Archive
The Art of Development: Marguerite Horberg’s new venue aims to build community in Bronzeville
Envision this: a creative haven for artists both local and global to come together and encourage the economic growth of a community. A neighborhood place where artists, intellectuals, community activists, students, and visitors can work collaboratively towards creative expression and community building. Marguerite Horberg, drawing on over 20 years of experience with the acclaimed... »
The Third Migration: The Chicago Defender returns home to Bronzeville
Buried in a blockhouse of paperwork and newspapers, Lou Ransom, executive editor of the Chicago Defender, remarks, “When you tear down projects, and you issue vouchers, people will move and try to find the most hospitable places to live.” He swivels his chair around, turning his back against the view of Lake Michigan from... »
Who Backs the Bid?: The view from the ground of the 2016 Olympics
Bankrupt and deserted, the Michael Reese Hospital on the 2900 block of Ellis Avenue is an unlikely site for Olympic grandeur. But across the street from the hospital, flags wave in the parking lot of the Prairie Shores apartment complex to welcome members of the International Olympics Committee, who visited Chicago this past week,... »
The Bronze Age: Harold Lucas fights to preserve Bronzeville’s historic heritage
Of all Chicago’s neighborhoods, Bronzeville boasts some of the most hotly contested real estate in the city. Developers of the South Loop’s upscale condos threaten to build their way down State Street, gentrifying Bronzeville from the north. The University of Chicago campus extends in an ever-encompassing radius from the south. And now, with the... »
The Garment District: Some South Side shops to check out when you’re looking for…
DIY-Chic to Wear While Riding Around on your Fixie No Coast The awning outside No Coast advertises sandwiches, snacks, and pop, but if you wander into this corner store with a rumbling tummy, you’ll be sorely disappointed. If your hunger is for something a little more imaginative, however, you’re in the right place: the... »
Restraining Zeus: How a local ballot initiative is attempting to control Mayor Daley’s Olympian actions
While everyone has analyzed and reanalyzed the presidential campaign this year, it’s easy to forget that Chicago’s many ballots contain a long list of judges to appoint or retain, a proposed constitutional convention, and individual ballot initiatives about various local issues. One local issue concerns Chicago’s prospective hosting of the 2016 Olympics. Voters in... »
Best of the South Side 2008: Bronzeville
Historically known as Chicago’s “Black Belt,” “Black Metropolis,” or even “Black Ghetto,” Bronzeville has long been the center of Chicago’s African-American culture. Famous residents have included Ida B. Wells, Gwendolyn Brooks, Sam Cooke, Lou Rawls, and Louis Armstrong. The ’50s and ’60s saw a disastrous urban renewal program replace the area’s theaters and tenements... »
Live from Englewood: Chicago Public Radio’s Natalie Moore covers the real South Side
Sometimes it seems like there are two different versions of this side of Chicago. Media portrayal of the “mean streets” of the South Side can sometimes look like a whirlwind of shootings and low-income housing controversy, but this sensationalized portrait is not the South Side that residents know—as many can attest, life south of... »
