(Mehves Konuk)

Barack Obama doesn’t live here anymore, but his presence does.

A few times a week I walk past that sign. I work inside the security area, teaching elementary school students in an afterschool program that rents space in the huge, Byzantine-inspired KAM Isaiah Israel temple that faces the Obama home. Every time I enter the secure area, I feel myself enter a new kind of space.

Lift the metal barrier that blocks the sidewalk, walk to the corner towards the black sedan. You become suddenly conscious of your body, feeling watched from every direction at once, even when no one is looking at you. The car door opens; a Secret Service agent steps out.
“Afternoon. Where are you headed today?”
“I’m going to work in the temple.”
“Okay. Have a good day.”

The Secret Service agents who work on the site are real people: they smile, they are gracious, they are serious but never severe, and they will play with children. They have earned the trust of the neighborhood. But they do not discuss their personal experiences, and when asked even the simplest questions about their work, the agents regretfully refer to a saying they learned in the academy: “The United States Secret Service speaks with one voice, and I am not that voice.”

The house has long been Obama’s home, but what “Obama” means has changed a lot in two years. This neighborhood once knew Barack Obama the man, and it has seen the idea of Obama, that second presence, grow up around him. Now the man is gone, but the idea is still here. It is in the name printed across our winter hats, the face emblazoned in gold on our T-shirts next to the images of Malcolm and Martin, the Obama special on local restaurant menus, and in the enthralling illustration stenciled in layers of red, white, and blue above the word HOPE that hung from every lamppost on 53rd Street for months after the election.

The idea of Obama is in more than our clothes: it is in us. Like no other figure of this generation, he has become a reference for how we understand our world—not only our politics, but our individual lives, our history, the color of our skin, and the content of our character. The South Side’s native son has become the consolidated image of American hope, and this neighborhood is proud of him. But there is also a kind of trauma in a transition so intense.

The kids I work with remember when playing next to Obama’s house was a novelty. Now they climb over the riot-guards to retrieve lost soccer balls. One 11-year-old boy remembers watching Michelle Obama teach her youngest daughter how to ride a bike in the street in front of her home. The future First Lady held the seat of the bike for her wobbling daughter while Secret Service agents stood on the sidewalk and kept a perimeter around the intimate moment. The kids have also pointed out to me the flag that now hangs from the house’s front porch. Before the campaign there was none.

In the metal barriers and the black SUVs, there is also a reminder that Obama’s presence, because he represents such hope, must also show what we fear. I asked one of my students what she thought the house was being protected from. Five years old, no front teeth, beautiful brown eyes still focused on the book in front of her, she said, “Terrorists.”

It is hard to imagine that the security around Obama’s house is part of the same process that has produced the more recognizable and comforting images of his presidency. But it is. Most people who live near the President’s house have never met him, but they have met the people who protect him. And most of us will never meet Obama the man, but we live every day with a body of words, images, beliefs, and behaviors that carry our collective hope and fear, and that, no matter where we stand in relation to it, has a presence in our lives that is as real as metal and concrete.

There is nothing different about the air on the other side of the perimeter, but I feel that air differently, and I think anyone who crosses that barrier does too, even the Secret Service agents whose one voice will never say so. The air inside that barrier is hopeful and anxious, reassuring and deeply alienating. Walking around that barrier I have the hugely stupid urge to start sprinting across the lawn, or to do somersaults, to do anything at all to break the heavy normality enforced in that space. But I don’t. When I cross the barrier and step into that sacred, secured space, I can tell myself that the house through the trees on the left is just an empty brick building, that the security is a show, a formality. But it doesn’t matter what I tell myself. Inside that area there is a presence speaking that is louder than I am. One voice is speaking, and I am not that voice.

“Our systems provide high-quality, safe, healthy, and affordable food to people in all communities,” said Allen. Growing Power’s urban farm facility in Milwaukee boasts a lucrative and productive set-up that contains six greenhouses, several hoophouses for various greens and vegetables, an apiary with five beehives, and an outdoor hoophouse for goats, rabbits, and turkeys. The greenhouse beds, which can be up to ten stories high, are stacked vertically so that the nutrient-rich water can easily flow from the fish bed to the purifying gravel bed down to the growing beds. The greenhouses are also surprisingly cost-efficient. “Anyone could put up a greenhouse for $500 just by using tubing from Home Depot,” said Allen.

Growing Power is currently working on plans to open an urban farm in Chicago much like the facility in Milwaukee. The organization has already established a community garden in Jackson Park and an impressive 20,000 square-foot garden in Grant Park that has proved that urban food production can be, as Allen said, “beautiful, aesthetic, and productive.”
Growing Power has received attention locally, nationally, and globally for not just its social influence, but its economic and scientific impact as well. In 2008, founder and CEO Will Allen (Erika Allen’s father) received a $500,000 MacArthur Fellowship, also known as the “Genius Award.” “It’s a really long process, but it’s an important one,” Ms. Allen said, when asked by an audience member if growing food was truly more beneficial than just going to the grocery store. “Because, let me ask you,” said Allen, addressing the audience as a whole, “who here knows how to grow food?” Nobody raised their hand.

best art complex
Hyde Park Art Center
Billed as the “oldest alternative exhibition space in the City,” the Hyde Park Art Center provides the Hyde Park-Kenwood community with innovative exhibitions, exciting programming, and art classes for all levels. Founded in 1939, it recently celebrated its 70th anniversary with a 70-day series of events and exhibitions that ranged from a kimchi-making party to artists’ talks and poetry readings. In the 1960s, HPAC was the main venue for exhibitions by the Chicago Imagists, perhaps the most prominent art movement the city has produced. Today HPAC hosts about six exhibitions at a time, many of which are accompanied by lectures, readings, musical performances, and open house events. On the south side of the building is one of the two locations of Istria Cafe, a neighborhood coffeeshop known for its gelato and ample comfortable seating. HPAC has been led by Executive Director Chuck Thurow for the last ten years, during which time it found its first permanent home in a former army warehouse; at the end of this year he will be replaced by former HPAC Director of Development Kate Lorenz. 5020 S. Cornell Ave. Monday-Thursday, 9am-8pm; Friday-Saturday, 9am-5pm; Sunday, noon-5pm. (773)324-5520. hydeparkart.org (Leah Reisman)

best collision of cultures
Rajun Cajun
The fact that Rajun Cajun serves a highly unusual mix of Indian and soul food is not why you should go there. You should go there because its food, regardless of national origin, is delicious. For about $10, you can get an Indian combo dinner (the butter chicken is an old standby) that includes a vegetable dish, a paratha, and a samosa. Pair it with a corn muffin or two and you’ve got a meal that will keep you warm through the cold winter. (Like many local restaurants, Rajun Cajun will deliver within Hyde Park for a small charge, helping you avoid both freezing to death and starving.) Alternatively you could go the Southern route, with a fried chicken dinner and some sweet potatoes or macaroni and cheese. Throw in a samosa on the side and it’s still multicultural. But more importantly, delicious. 1459 E. 53rd St. Monday-Saturday, 11am-9:30pm; Sunday, noon-8:30pm. (773)955-1145 (Sam Feldman)

best breakfast
Valois
Though open all day, cafeteria-style Valois is busiest at breakfast-time. Don’t be intimidated by the line: the kitchen is run like an assembly line and the disparate elements of a meal are quickly assembled on each tray, ensuring their warmth as you settle down to eat them. As the awning entreats you, “SEE YOUR FOOD.” Dishes like hash browns, scrambled eggs, pancakes, and bacon are large, cheap, and satisfying, and murals of Hyde Park landmarks provide a cheery backdrop against which to eat at whatever pace you’d like. For a real cross-section of Hyde Park, wander into Valois on a Saturday morning: you’ll see retirees, white-collar types, cops, professors, students, and perhaps the President of the United States, all enjoying their food in a communal hubbub. Valois opens at 5:30am, rendering their breakfast also the perfect end to a long weekend night, especially if you’re up to walking a few extra blocks east to watch sunrise over the lake. Cash only. 1518 E. 53rd St. 5:30am-10pm. valoisrestaurant.com (Katy Burnett)

best neighborhood market
Zaleski & Horvath MarketCafe
Named after the owners’ grandparents, Z&H has been impressing every one of its customers since opening last fall, focusing on locally produced and quality foods, sustainability, and knowledgeable, neighborly service. After only a couple of visits, owners Tim Schau and Sam Darrigrand will be greeting you by name. The market portion isn’t cheap, but the prices match the quality. The deli menu has all-original sandwiches and panini, as well as their take on the usuals, complete with creative (but not annoying) names. The “Jamon, Jamon” sandwich contains Serrano ham, manchego cheese, quince paste, Dijon mustard, mixed greens, and roasted tomato and tastes at least as incredible as it sounds. The garlic bread soup—sautéed garlic, pancetta, and onions in chicken broth with a big piece of day-old bread—reminded me of the power of homemade chicken broth base. Make sure to grab a cup of coffee made by the famous Clover machine. The Clover 1s is a single-cup coffee brewing machine whose manufacture brags—and which I can attest—releases the subtle characteristics of each type of bean better than any other brewing method. The citrus of the Nicaraguan Flor Azul and the herbal notes of the Ethiopian Yrgacheffe are instantly apparent. Z&H managed to obtain only the fourth machine in all of Chicago before Starbucks bought the manufacturer. As Tim explained, unlike the warm staff at Z&H, no one at Starbucks can take the time to chat as the Clover 1s gurgles and slurps. 1126 E. 47th St. Monday-Friday, 7am-7pm; Saturday-Sunday, 8am-6pm. (773)538-7372. zhmarketcafe.com (Ellis Calvin)

best ribs institution
Ribs n’ Bibs
A Hyde Park mainstay, this barbecue joint offers minimal indoor seating and no perks, but many locals swear by it. For a cheap late-night snack (well, late for Hyde Park—Ribs n’ Bibs closes by 1am), you’ll want a Bronco Burger ($1.75) or a Texas Burger with fries and cole slaw ($4.45), or maybe a Gun-Slinger Sausage Sandwich with fries ($3.30). If you’re ready for a meal, though, check out one of their chicken and links combos, the Ranch Owner’s Smorgasbord ($16.60), or, for tough guys, the Boss ($18.60), a giant slab of sauced-up ribs with fries, slaw, and bread. Just make sure to leave your vegetarian friends at home. Ribs n’ Bibs also delivers within Hyde Park, which is key during the long winter months. 5300 S. Dorchester Ave. Sunday-Thursday, 11am-midnight; Friday-Saturday, 11am-1am. (773)493-0400 (Sam Feldman)

Do residents and businesses appreciate all the fanfare? Simply put, they do. When asked how Obama had affected business, Paso, Valois’ manager, affirmed that many came from all over the world to see the restaurant: “People,” he said, “want to see where Obama eats.” It’s that simple. For many, Hyde Park provides a glimpse into the life of the President, and to be a part of the community that produced Obama is something that residents are proud of.

One of the area’s newest B&Bs is tucked away in Woodlawn, where owners Peter and Paula Schuler have been operating University Quarters (6137 S. Kimbark, (773)855-8349) since March 2007. “We’re kind of in a unique situation,” says Peter. “This block is like a master’s thesis in urban sociology.” This is no understatement; the Schulers hire their low-income neighbors to help out at the B&B, while a few doors down live students and professors at the University of Chicago. Not including the current wave of Obama-seeking journalists, Peter estimates that one third of his guests are families of prospective or current students, one third visiting professors, and one third convention attendees commuting to McCormick Place. Many are repeat customers who have grown attached to the Schulers’ cozy living room, delicious breakfasts, and large dog Lulu. “We’re the classic bed & breakfast,” says Peter. “The proprietors are here and involved.” Like all B&B licensees in Chicago, the Schulers are required to live on-site as well as serve breakfast, submit to periodic inspections, and provide a parking spot for each guest room, among a host of other requirements.

These requirements can prove onerous at times. After five years of operation, Kimbark Bed & Breakfast in leafy Kenwood recently shut down. There was “absolutely” enough demand to sustain the business, according to the owner, who preferred to remain unnamed. “My guests were almost exclusively professors visiting.” The only problem was the licensing process, which demanded that the owner take cooking classes, erect a fire escape on her landmarked home, install smoke detectors in every room, and pay a “hefty fee” every year. In the end, she and her husband decided it wasn’t worth the trouble.

A few blocks over, the Hutchins House Bed and Breakfast (4810 S. Ellis, (773)548-5534) has managed to make it work. The building housing it, built just after the nearby 1893 Columbian Exposition, served as St. George’s School for Girls from 1946 to 1964, but by the time Sue and Tony Kossiakoff purchased it in 1998 the old mansion had become a mess. The two spent two and a half years restoring it. “When I began, my basis was that this was first and foremost our family home,” says Sue, and although their daughters have grown up and moved out, Hutchins House has a family feel. Tony, a department chair in the University’s Biological Sciences Division, gives guests a lift to campus in the mornings, and when parents come to visit Sue invites students to drop by for breakfast. Unlike the Schulers, who advertise heavily on Google, the Kossiakoffs try to keep their B&B more low-key out of respect for the neighbors, and Sue estimates that 95 percent of their guests are referred by departments at the University. These guests have run the gamut, though, from Polish poet Adam Zagajewski (a visiting professor) to current Ambassador to Uzbekistan Richard Norland (visiting his daughter). “We’ve had collaborations start around the breakfast table,” says Sue.

Word of mouth has contributed to rising demand at Hutchins House, and some rooms during graduation season are booked as early as four years in advance. Nevertheless, the Kossiakoffs’ rate is always a steady $155 per night (not including tax). “I don’t run it the way a real business is run,” Sue says. Peter Schuler agrees. Given the lack of convenient lodging, he says, “Sue Kossiakoff and I believe we’re doing some kind of public service.”

Photo by Samantha Wishnak

The deli menu has all-original sandwiches and panini, as well as their take on the usuals, complete with endearing names. To give you an idea, the “Jamon, Jamon” sandwich contains Serrano ham, Manchego cheese, quince paste, Dijon mustard, mixed greens and roasted tomato and tastes at least as incredible as it sounds. The garlic bread soup—sautéed garlic, pancetta, and onions in chicken broth with a big piece of day-old bread—revealed just how bland other chicken broths can be.
One of the most exciting features of the café is certainly the high-tech Clover machine. The Clover 1s is a single-cup coffee brewing machine whose manufacturer brags (and to which I can attest) that it releases the subtle characteristics of each type of bean better than any other brewing method. The citrus of the Nicaraguan Flor Azul and the herbal notes of the Ethiopian Yrgacheffe are instantly apparent. For a mere $11,000, you too can own one of these magical machines—if you can find one, that is. Z&H managed to obtain Chicago’s fourth Clover just three days before the company was bought out. Starbucks felt threatened by them and snatched them all up along with the company itself. It’s a shame since, as Tim explained as the Clover gurgled and slurped, unlike the hospitable staff at Z&H, no one at Starbucks can take the time to chat while preparing the gadget’s enhanced coffee.

Durica, the founder of Pocket Guide to Hell Tours and a graduate student in the English Department at the University, draws on his research to lead curious South Siders from the site of Franks’s abduction near the Harvard School at 49th and Ellis to the scene of the murder. “Most of the buildings associated with the murder are gone,” Durica says, but both the Franks house and the Harvard School are still standing. Like a modern-day Sherlock Holmes, Durica walks the group through the phases of the crime at various Kenwood landmarks.

The Leopold and Loeb tour will be offered on November 9 and 16. Durica is planning other quarterly South Side historic tours, including “The Working Man’s Guide to the Columbian Exposition,” “The Secret History of the University of Chicago,” and a chronicle of the 1919 race riots.
Following the tour, the appropriately named Backstory Café (6100 S. Blackstone Ave.) hosts a screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rope,” a film inspired by the Leopold and Loeb case. Hot cider, coffee, and pumpkin bars are available for sale. As Durica would tell you, there’s nothing like murder to arouse your appetite. After all, Leopold and Loeb feasted on hot dogs and root beer on their way to dump Franks’s body.

Spots for the “Crime of the Century Tour” are limited and must be reserved in advance. To secure your spot, contact Durica at pgdurica@hotmail.com. All tours are free.

The work on display included graphic novels, political cartoons and traditional paperback comic books. Most of the artists gave their work a specifically African-American setting or content, from a comic book series set in an African Atlantis (Brother G’s “Shades of Memnon”) to a graphic novel (“Mary Fleener’s ‘Hoodoo’”) based on Zora Neale Hurston’s “Mules and Men.” Really everything that could fall under the category of “comic” or “comic book” was represented. Artists explained their sometimes off-beat creations, like Nino Masirina’s “The Incredible Laundry Detergent Man,” to passing fans and offered books and drawings for sale. Other activities included a raffle, a drawing competition with a scholarship to the Illinois Institute of Art as a prize, cartooning workshops for families, and presentations on marketing and graphic novel production.

At the center of all this was Turtel Onli, a dreadlocked artist whose business cards say “Father of the Black Age.” Onli started the first Black Age of Comics Convention in 1993 and has been organizing the conferences ever since. A trained artist with an interest in a wide range of mediums, Onli emphasizes “independent creativity” as the major subject of the convention. “Independent people need to come together and cooperate,” says Onli, and a convention, which is part of the city-wide Chicago Artists Month, is the ideal venue for this sort of cooperation. The profusion of artists, styles and messages that filled Kenwood Academy was the result of the convention’s emphasis on “independent creativity.”

Onli’s own work, like others on display at the convention, is difficult to categorize. When asked about his artistic background he says, “I split between fine art, comic book art and major market illustration.” All the while he is also organizing the annual convention—something that by itself can take up a good part of a year. He also runs Onli Studios, a showcase for his particular kind art, which is called “Rhythmistic,” a combination of futuristic, historical and fantasy elements that has parallels with both fine art and comic book art.

The Black Age of Comics Convention is an important part of what Onli sees as a movement of artistic innovation, a movement that has grown by leaps and bounds since the first Black Age of Comics Convention. In contrast to the time of the first convention in 1993, now “People see the Black Age as a legitimate movement. Before they didn’t know what to make of it,” says Onli. Over that time, the convention has expanded to include new genres, and a new set of artists and fans. “We now include anime and manga. We’re including mainstream artists like Jamal Igle [of DC Comics] and Craig Rex Perry [of Disney],” says Onli. All of this points to a new range of possibilities for the Black Age of Comics.

Leaving the Black Age of Comics Convention was something like waking up from a daydream. After an hour or so spent in the world of cape-wearing superheroes, who can dart effortlessly between skyscrapers, it was something of a shock to walk outside and see only the sun-baked asphalt of the Kenwood Academy parking lot.