An all-black, fundraising-burdened baseball team from outside of Roseland makes it to the Little League World Series. And just when the city rallied behind them just for making it there, the team decided to inspire Chicagoland even more by proving that there’s more to winning than just winning. If any one thing could begin to redirect the national perception about Chicago, the Jackie Robinson West team—and story—was it.
Fear on LSD: Based on a “Terrifying” True Story “Newcity,” I tell my wife as we turn northbound onto Jean-Baptiste Pointe DuSable Lake Shore Drive, “is doing a special issue on fear.” “Oh,” she says, “that’s right up your dark alley. You’re afraid of everything.”
What Cuts At My Soul: James Elder’s Story of Mama Lizzie I met James Elder in the early 1980s when he was a creative writing student at Columbia College Chicago, who was well known as a gifted writer. Many years later, in the middle of my first interview I stumbled across his story of Mama Lizzie.
