“Black And Indigenous Futures” By Indio Opens At Oliva
Featuring photographs from the artist’s documentation of the 2020 Black Lives Matter marches up to their time at the Winnemucca, Nevada Reservation “documenting the struggles of the indigenous leaders and their fight for housing and respect… This photo exhibition of environment reflects the great awakening of our spiritual connection to the land and our ancestors. Depicting the healing energy of the land, alongside images of the rebellion spirit among black and indigenous youth.” Oliva Gallery, opens August 19. More here.
Mural “Outrage” On West Side Before Removal
A mural in Austin has been removed, reports Austin Weekly (via Block Club). “The mural was a collaboration between the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events and the Chicago Department of Public Health as part of the city’s Vax-Chi-Nation program that encourages community members to get vaccinated.” “Chicago Love,” by artist Joseph “Sentrock” Perez was criticized “by local community members who were offended by what they believed were racial caricatures depicted in the mural… Sentrock declined to address the mural’s removal when reached by email. The artist only posted a terse message on his Instagram account: ‘No comment, I am too heartbroken.'”
DESIGN
City Plans Ten More Neighborhood Plazas
Mayor Lightfoot announced plans to build ten more outdoor plazas in city neighborhoods, reports the Sun-Times. The plazas are “part of the Public Outdoor Plazas program funded by the $1.2 billion Chicago Recovery Plan and are expected to be completed by spring.” Locations and amenities were selected from eighteen submissions by local groups for “viability, local needs and project design” and to “give residents a reason to spend time outside in their own neighborhood, patronize local businesses and enjoy the unique offerings of our great city,” Lightfoot is quoted as saying.
Group Urges CHA Open Up Vacant Properties To Those Without Homes
“About thirty-five people gathered outside a four-bedroom house in Humboldt Park on Friday,” report Shanzeh Ahmad and Rosemary Sobol at the Trib. “They were stationed there to serve as a barrier between the people who lived in the house and the people trying to push them out. The home was one of four houses that about twelve people were ‘illegally locked out of’ … said social researcher Emma Tamplin… who is helping the people who have called 1629 North Washtenaw [owned by CHA since 1996] their home since the new year… They said they moved in January 1 after seeing a homeless encampment pop up in the neighborhood, while a large number of homes allegedly owned by the Chicago Housing Authorities remained vacant.” The CHA issued a statement: “CHA takes these issues seriously and follows all appropriate legal processes to remove squatters from our property. We have viewed the video of the encounter on July 26 and have concerns about how this situation was handled by our third-party property manager and this incident is under investigation.”
City Planning Officials Need Developers And Architects For South And West Side Corridors
“Planning officials have reconfigured their process to spur development in blighted corridors,” reports Crain’s, “with sites in Woodlawn and East Garfield Park serving as their newest targets” seeking developers and architects.
Police Presence Heightened On CTA
Superintendent David Brown said police will add patrols to CTA trains after the most recent violent attacks, including the fatal Red Line shooting, reports Block Club Chicago. “Incidents like these, whether on the CTA or in our neighborhoods, have no place in our city,” Brown said at a press conference. “It is unacceptable and will not be tolerated… We think it’s counterproductive and not strategic to give you the actual numbers… I could just tell you, it’s a significant number that we’ve added to the CTA this year, but we also committed to adding even more.”
Pharmacy Deserts Join Food Deserts
“Even as drugstores are providing more vital services—including COVID-19 tests and vaccinations, contraceptive counseling and wellness visits—a recent study shows communities on the city’s South and West sides have fewer pharmacy locations than other parts of the city,” reports the Sun-Times.
DINING & DRINKING
Dick Calendo, Owner Of East Dundee’s Calendo’s Bar, Was Seventy-Nine
“A memorial service is being planned for Dick Calendo, a longtime East Dundee resident and bar owner who died unexpectedly,” reports the Elgin Courier-News. “’Everybody who knew him, loved him,’ said Leo ‘Dog’ Shales, who manages the downtown business that bears Calendo’s name.”
Intelligentsia Coffee’s Five Chicago Cafés Unionize
Jeff Schuhrke, unionist and history teacher at UIC, posts, “Baristas at Intelligentsia Coffee’s 5 Chicago cafes have WON their union election w/ IBEW Local 1220. The bargaining unit consists of 27 workers, but due to some mailing issues, only 10 voted. The vote was 9-1 in favor of the union. Next, IBEW is moving to also unionize Intelligentsia’s Chicago Roastery Works.” IBEW’s statement is embedded here.
Canal Street Market Open
Canal Street Market is open at the new 320 South Canal building in the West Loop, and the Italian-inspired Canal Street Eatery will open on August 25. Canal Street Market “is a high-end deli, specialty coffee and pastry counter, and gourmet retail market. The menu offers seven salads and seven sandwiches, both made-to-order and available as grab-and-go items,” they advise. “The Park at 320 is just south of Canal Street Market and Eatery, offering the largest garden in the neighborhood and patio seating for guests. The 11,000-square-foot project is the latest from Spearhead Hospitality (The Robey, Chikatana, Getaway Hostel). Chef Forster Sorensen and chef de cuisine Ross Sundberg have created specialty sandwiches including the Canal St. Italian, Canal St. Cubano, Tofu Bahn Mi, and classics like a Meatball Sub, Turkey Club, Ham & Cheese, and Buffalo Chicken. The Market’s coffee and pastry counter, managed by Stevie Conway (Foxtrot and Champion Coffee) serves locally owned Brewpoint and Hexe Coffee and housemade pastries by pastry chef Zachary Dawson.” Menu here.
Wheat’s Role In Feeding The World
Carbon Brief begins a series “explaining how key commodities are affected by and contribute to climate change, [looking] at wheat–how and where it is grown, where it is traded and consumed–with a special focus on Ukraine and India.”
Chicago Urban Agriculture Poses Lead Danger
“Urban agriculture is booming, but there’s often a hidden danger lurking in city soils: lead. A recent University of Illinois study showed universally elevated lead levels in soils across Chicago,” an urban agriculture hotbed, reports Phys.org. “U of I research in Chicago backyard gardens shows tomatoes are likely safe to eat, even when grown in highly lead-contaminated soils.” Says a co-author of the study, “It’s not the fruits I worry about, it’s the practices of tillage and planting. That’s where you get exposed.. If you magically have no exposure to contaminated soils to get to the fruit stage, or if you mulch the heck out of the soil and wear a suit and respirator, you’re golden. But… we all know it doesn’t happen that way.”
Is “The Bear” A “Reckoning” For The Restaurant Industry?
“There’s so much in ‘The Bear’ that’s relatable for anyone who has worked in restaurants: small details like the plastic quart tub that Carmy drinks water from; banter with co-workers on smoke breaks; comparing scars from accidents and burns,” writes Saru Jayaraman, president of One Fair Wage and director of the Food Labor Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley, at the New York Times. “The show also accurately depicts the relentless pressure that drives some restaurant workers to addiction or injury; the screaming, harassment, toxic masculinity and overwork that they often endure for very little pay; and the pride in their work that brings them back day after day… After twenty years of organizing restaurant workers to demand higher wages and more equitable working conditions, I watched ‘The Bear’ with some trepidation: It focuses on the struggles of the young white male chef, with only glimpses into the lives of the workers of color in the restaurant. Even so, I found the show to be a strikingly accurate depiction of the joys, challenges and inequities of restaurant life.”
Taste Of Fulton Market Announces Restaurants
Organizers of the second annual Taste of Fulton Market announced the first batch of participating restaurants. This year’s event will expand to take over all of Morgan’s on Fulton’s special events building. The showcase of the Fulton Market Dining District will benefit the Illinois Restaurant Association Educational Foundation Restaurant Employee Relief Fund as well as a new charity partner, Recipe for Change, an organization that provides culinary instruction and job skills training to detainees at Cook County Jail. “As it was in year one, our purpose for this event is to raise money for the workers on whose backs this industry is built and to bring together restaurants from the hottest dining neighborhood in the country for a day of culinary celebration and gratitude,” Morgan’s owner James Geier says in a release. Participating Taste of Fulton Market 2022 restaurants will include Rose Mary, Publican, BLVD, Gus’s Fried Chicken, Chikatana, Carnivale, Marvin’s Food & Fuel, Bar Takito, Kuma’s Corner, Real Good Stuff, Pure Green, KOMO and Blind Barber. September 29, 5-9pm. A limited number of early bird tickets are on sale for $75 here.
FILM & TELEVISION
The Women Of “The Bear”
At Bustle, Anna Peele profiles Ayo Edebiri of “The Bear”. When the breakout Chicago-set series premiered, it was “a visual introduction to Edebiri, a twenty-six-year-old comedian-actor-podcaster who has graced the animated series ‘Big Mouth’ with her distinctive voice for two seasons. On ‘The Bear,‘ Edebiri plays an ambitious young chef who goes to work at a Chicago sandwich shop… The internet went into heat for the pasty virility of Jeremy Allen White’s chef Carmy, who is brilliant, tormented, and visibly smells of cigarette smoke and unwashed hair. But the revelation of the show is Edebiri. As Sydney, she vibrates with the impatience and self-consciousness of a talented aspirant who wants to both upend her industry and impress its gatekeepers. After the finale became available, White posted a still from the episode showing most of the cast looking off camera at someone. ‘Not pictured here is the incomparable Ayo Edebiri,’ he wrote in the caption. ‘But we’re all looking at her in this photo, and I know you’re all looking at her now.'”
LIT
Forces Mass Against “The Best Small Library In America”
Earlier this year, a patron of the Boundary County Library in Bonners Ferry, Idaho, known as “the best small library in America,” “approached the library director with a concern. She was upset about a graphic memoir, ‘Gender Queer,’ [and] approached Kimber Glidden, director of the Boundary County Library, to make a formal complaint about the book. Which the library does not have,” reports the Spokesman-Review in an opinion page column. “’A lot of the books that are concerning to the public–all of them, to my knowledge–we do not carry in the library and we do not plan to carry in the library,’ said Lee Colson, one of the four board members… People have also accused Glidden of wanting to bring drag queen story hours to the library. ‘It isn’t true,’ she said. ‘It’s never even been discussed. I spend fifty- to seventy-five-percent of my time dealing with mythological scenarios that don’t actually exist. That’s what I deal with every single day.'” Most of the people massing against the library are “from the Redoubt movement, which envisions the Northwest as a political sanctuary for ultraconservative Christians. Recall organizers are meeting at the Lordship Church, which has been labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.”
MEDIA
Cox Enterprises Buys Axios For $525 Million
After a sale to Cox Enterprises (which dates back to 1898), digital media company Axios’ founders, Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen and Roy Schwartz, will continue to run the bullet points, reports the New York Times. Chicago is among the cities where Axios provides its product. “The deal offers a rare flicker of hope for the digital publishing sector, which has been fraught with difficulty for investors and operators over the last decade. Some of Axios’ peers have struggled to go public, sell or raise funding at favorable valuations as investors cooled on digital advertising, a market dominated by tech giants like Google, Meta and Amazon.”
STAGE
Destinos Announces Fifth Year Roster
Destinos, Chicago’s annual citywide festival that brings together and showcases Latino theater artists and companies from Chicago, the U.S. and Latin America, has announced its September and October attractions for its fifth year. “Destinos will give Chicagoans and visitors alike the chance to experience a rich array of Latino-centric shows, panels and student performances presented at marquee venues downtown, neighborhood storefront theaters, and cultural institutions throughout the Chicago area.” Destinos will host the U.S. premiere of “Blanco Temblor” by Puerto Rico’s Teatro Público, a play about mental health featuring Isel Rodríguez, September 29-October 2 at The Den Theatre, as well as the Midwest premiere of “Pequeños Territorios en Reconstrucción,” a documentary about a group of Colombian women who built ninety-eight houses with their own hands from Mexico City’s Teatro Línea de Sombra, co-presented by CLATA and Goodman Theatre from September 21-25. Mexican TV stars María del Carmen Félix and Mariannela Cataño star in the world premiere of “La Pájara de San Juan” at the National Museum of Mexican Art, September 14-17. Latino favorite Flaco Navaja stars in UrbanTheater’s Midwest premiere of his first solo show, “Evolution of a Sonero,” September 29-October 23. More here.
ARTS & CULTURE & ETC.
W. Raymond Johnson Retires As Director Of Epigraphic Survey And Chicago House
W. Raymond Johnson has retired from the Oriental Institute. “After beginning his career as an Epigraphic Artist in 1979, Johnson became the director of the Epigraphic Survey and Chicago House in Luxor, Egypt. During his tenure, two Epigraphic Survey OI publications were released. Over that same period, Ray authored dozens of articles, concentrating on the Amarna Period. Over the past forty-two years, Ray has contributed to and led the effort to fulfill Breasted’s vision for Chicago House: to record all of the texts that survive in Egypt for integration into the scientific record. Among his many accomplishments, Ray has successfully secured USAID funding, critical to the work of the Epigraphic Survey… With the support of the World Monuments Fund, Chicago House provided protected storage of 50,000 inscribed stone fragments in the Luxor Temple block yard, two groups of which were restored to their original walls. The digital photography project in the Luxor Temple block yard provides critical documentation of tens of thousands of inscribed blocks and fragments. This project preserves significant data that will be accessible outside of Egypt for generations to come.” More on the OI here.
Chicago Humanities Festival Previews September
Events from the Chicago Humanities Festival in September will include a day-long Arts Party at the South Shore Cultural Center on Sunday, September 11, including a collaborative art installation from the Floating Museum; mural workshops from artist Dorian Sylvain; music from Chosen Few DJs; and performances from Great Black Music Ensemble and Hypnotic Brass Ensemble. Also in September, CHF will present Angel Bat Dawid performing a special piece of music honoring Yoko Ono’s “Skylanding” in Jackson Park; and artist Sam Kirk giving tours of the Pilsen murals. More coming here.
Wheaton’s All-Night Market Set For August 20
“DuPage County Fairgrounds–it’s legends galore, fleas and more,” the group relays in a release, “at the World Famous Annual Zurko’s All Night Flea Market on Saturday August 20, 3pm-3am.” “Offered for sale will be thousands of treasures by dealers from across the Midwest. Dealers will be bringing an electric mix of antiques, collectibles, toys, sports collectibles, crafts, artwork, pop culture, and more! Bob Zurko of Zurko Promotions stated this market will be held ‘Rain or Moonshine,’ as dealers will be in buildings, sheds, tents, and open-air.” Details here.
Are The Illinois Billionaires Of Uline Office Products Fortune The Current Kochs?
“Illinois husband and wife Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein are working to reshape the Right with profits from their privately held shipping products empire. Are they the next Kochs?” asks Forbes. “No one distributes more [packaging materials and industrial supplies] than seventy-six-year-old Richard Uihlein, an heir to the Schlitz beer fortune, and his wife, Elizabeth, seventy-seven, who together started a company called Uline in their basement in 1980. Today the Wisconsin-based business, which they run as CEO and president, respectively, does an estimated $6.1 billion in annual sales, enough to make the pair worth $4 billion apiece… Both have been donating to Republican campaigns since the nineties, contributing roughly $15,000 a year on average up to 2009. In 2010, the Supreme Court blew up efforts to limit political spending with its rulings in ‘Citizens United v. FEC’… The Uihleins have ratcheted up their giving every cycle since, reporting more than $190 million in political donations in all.”
UpRising Show Goes On Without Incident In Lake In The Hills
“As Corrina Sac set up tables and chairs in UpRising Bakery and Cafe on Sunday morning, she said she was excited to finally be holding the family friendly drag show that was canceled twice after harassment, vandalism and a zoning issue,” reports the Trib. “‘We’re really grateful for everyone to allow us and support us with these events,’ said Sac, the owner of the Lake in the Hills shop.”
Obscure Federal Maritime Commission Enlisted To Tame Inflation
“The Federal Maritime Commission, traditionally obscure, has been cast by Congress and the administration to help lead the campaign to tame inflation,” writes the New York Times. “The commission regulates the international shipping industry at American ports, an element of modern life that is typically ignored but has emerged as a reason major retailers are short of popular goods… Nine container shipping carriers—all of them foreign companies—dominate the market for moving goods between Asia and North America… The industry has been besieged by chaos, from traffic jams choking ports to a shortage of truck drivers… With containers stuck on ships and stacked on docks, shortages and rising prices have become central features of these times…The White House has seized on these two realities — soaring prices, and record profits for carriers.”
Northwestern Students Press On Summer Compensation
Seven weeks into a conference assistant program, “A group of Northwestern students participating in a summer work program are alleging that they are underpaid and overworked and are circulating a petition demanding changes from the university,” reports the Tribune. “The university’s conference assistant program employs twenty mostly low-income students of color [supporting] the university’s summertime events, including conferences and high school programs. In exchange for working approximately twenty hours a week, the assistants receive free housing, dining hall access and a stipend of $1,650… Students say that they are underpaid for the long hours they work, sometimes in conditions they describe as unsafe. They also say their access to the dining halls is limited.”
Illinois School Districts Ditch Coronavirus Testing
“Officials at several Illinois districts said this week they are halting the program due to waning interest from parents and the availability of home tests,” reports the Trib.
