SSW 07.10.19 - Comics Issue

Submmissions Open We invite you to be a part of our sixth annual issue celebrating literature on the South Side! We are seeking creative work relevant to the South Side and/or by past or present South Side residents. Submit poems, fiction, essays, and artwork.

Deadline: July 22 Email submissions to editor@southsideweekly.com Deadline: July 22

SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY The South Side Weekly is an independent nonprofit newsprint magazine written for and about neighborhoods on the South Side of Chicago. We publish in-depth coverage of the arts and issues of public interest alongside oral histories, poetry, fiction, interviews, and artwork from local photographers and illustrators. The South Side Weekly is dedicated to supporting cultural and civic engagement on the South Side and to providing educational opportunities for developing journalists, writers, and artists.

Editor-in-Chief Managing Editors Deputy Editor

Volume 6, Issue 31 Adam Przybyl Sam Stecklow Jasmine Mithani

Senior Editors Julia Aizuss, Christian Belanger, Mari Cohen, Emeline Posner, Olivia Stovicek Politics Editor Jim Daley Education Editor Ashvini Kartik-Narayan, Michelle Anderson Music Editor Atavia Reed Stage & Screen Editor Nicole Bond Visual Arts Editor Rod Sawyer Nature Editor Sam Joyce Food & Land Editor AV Benford Contributing Editors Mira Chauhan, Joshua Falk, Carly Graf, Ian Hodgson, Maple Joy, Morgan Richardson, Rachel Schastok, Amy Qin, Jocelyn Vega, Tammy Xu, Jade Yan Data Editor Radio Exec. Producer Social Media Editors

Jasmine Mithani Erisa Apantaku Sam Stecklow

Director of Fact Checking: Sam Joyce Fact Checkers: Abigail Bazin, Susan Chun, Elizabeth Winkler, Tammy Xu Visuals Editor Ellen Hao Deputy Visuals Editors Siena Fite, Mell Montezuma, Lizzie Smith Photo Editor Keeley Parenteau Staff Photographers: milo bosh, Jason Schumer Staff Illustrators: Siena Fite, Natalie Gonzalez, Katherine Hill Interim Layout Editor J. Michael Eugenio Deputy Layout Editor Haley Tweedell Webmaster Managing Director

Pat Sier Jason Schumer

THE COMICS ISSUE In this year’s annual Comics Issue, our fifth and biggest one yet, we explore the many ways in which images can tell stories—simply, dramatically, mysteriously.

Stories rarely make sense if they’re not grounded in the place and time in which they occur. Visual storytelling is uniquely positioned to portray the setting, its objects and people both slowly and at a glance, leaving room for the reader to sift through the story in small bits and pieces, or devour it all at once.

Some of the comics in this issue explore moments of quiet victory, like Aim Beland finding acceptance and letting go of fear in a trans inclusive community after moving to Chicago. Others present straightforward accounts, such as Leila Abdelrazaq’s unflinching explanation of connections between an Israeli company and U.S. border enforcement technology.

In the issue’s longest comic, as sunshine gao finishes a crowded shift at a dumpling restaurant, the busy, fluid panels of dinnertime hustle end in tranquil, post-rush dishwashing—an artist shepherding us gently along to a calm and happy place. That it’s immediately undercut by a piece of shocking news is more evidence of how illustrated narratives can pacify and gut us in quick succession.

Images can hide just as easily as they can illuminate. Katie Hill’s depiction of the colorful atmosphere at a beloved, now-closed café, based on reporting by Helena Duncan, is only one part of a deeper, more troubling picture that took much digging to unearth. And will we ever find out what happens to the leaf creature in Mell Montezuma’s “I Don’t Exist Here”?

We’d be remiss not to give props where they’re due—to the many artists and illustrators who worked tirelessly on their pieces, but also to the incredible visuals editors that made it all happen. In particular, we owe a lot to Ellen Hao, who’s leaving her position as the Weekly’s visual editor after three-and-a-half years. Few people have done more to shape the look of the paper that you’re holding in your hands now.

meet the artists...................................4 church business

“The café’s public image and its purported environment of radical inclusivity was not the reality experienced by all of its staff.” helena duncan, katherine hill.....5 gender: custom

“It would take a move to Chicago and entrance into a more trans inclusive community for the fear to fade.” aim beland.......................................12 bad blood

The Weekly is produced by an all-volunteer editorial staff and seeks contributions from across the city. We distribute each Wednesday in the fall, winter, and spring. Over the summer we publish every other week.

“What’re you doing?” “Catching fireflies.” amber huff......................................16

Send submissions, story ideas, comments, or questions to editor@southsideweekly.com or mail to:

popcorn

South Side Weekly 6100 S. Blackstone Ave. Chicago, IL 60637 For advertising inquiries, contact: (773) 234-5388 or advertising@southsideweekly.com

“Most of the time I would buy candy, but one of my favorite things to do was buy cheese popcorn.” andrea pearson..............................20 i don't exist here

single issue voter

“With the primaries approaching, Palestine is my ‘deal breaker’ issue.” leila abdelrazaq............................22 las cosas cambian

“I remember when avocados first showed up in Jewel, everyone didn’t know what it was.” david alvarado...............................24 for the first time

“Three ramyun up, and...that clears me!” sunshine gao...................................25 dogs i've walked

“That day, I learned to always be wary of grumpy old pups.” grace culloton...............................32 friends?

mike centeno...................................34 making friends

rachel bard.....................................36

mellissa montezuma......................21

Cover Photo by Mel Valentine JULY 10, 2019 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 3

Amber Huff Amber Huff is a graphic designer, illustrator, and comic artist from Chicago. She likes to make stuff inspired by nostalgia, myth, childhood, and fantasy. You can find more of her work online at berhuff.com. sunshine gao sunshine gao studied ecology and philosophy, sold produce, and cooked noodles in Chicago. Now, they're studying comics in Minneapolis. They draw stories about home-—in all its forms, with all its complications. You can find their work at sunshine-gao.com or their Instagram @sunshine.gaoh.

Aim Beland Aim Ren Beland is a trans storyteller currently located in Chicago.

Follow him on Instagram and Twitter at @aimrenatus or visit his website at aimren.com.

Matt Ford Matt Ford is a writer, educator, and archivist from Detroit now living on Chicago's south side. Matt's art and writings explore the human condition along race, gender, sexual, spiritual and musical lines, and their work has been published in HuffPost, the Chicago Reader, and various literary journals. Matt currently archives at WBEZ and the Stony Island Arts Bank. They love all things Janet Jackson and the color yellow.

Katie Hill Katie Hill (@hillkatherinee) is an illustrator for the Weekly and a researcher for WTTW's Ask Geoffrey. She is also a staff member at the Smart Museum of Art. David Alvarado David Alvarado is a Chicago based illustrator and cartoonist.

After graduating from Columbia College Chicago with a BFA in Illustration he has worked for various outlets including print and digital media such as cover art, editorial illustration, packaging design and comics.

Leila Abdelrazaq Leila Abdelrazaq is a Chicago-born Palestinian author and artist.

Her debut graphic novel, Baddawi ( Just World Books, 2015) was shortlisted for the 2015 Palestine Book Awards and has been translated into three languages. She is also the author and illustrator of The Opening (Tosh Fesh, 2017) as well as a number of zines and short comics, which have been featured in publications such as The Believer, The FADER, Harper's, Hyperallergic, Mizna and VICE News.

4 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY ¬ JULY 10, 2019

MEET THE ARISTS Rachel Bard Rachel Bard is a cartoonist and illustrator who self-publishes comics about monsters, bees, robots, and other excellent creatures. She spends her time experimenting with book design, inventing strange new animals, and assembling an endless amount of tiny books.

Andrea Pearson Andrea Pearson is a comics artist from Chicago. She writes and draws an autobiographical comic zine series titled “No Pants Revolution.” You can check out some of her comics and scribbles on her Instagram @Saturn2169.

Grace Culloton Grace Culloton is a life-long Chicagoan and SAIC alum who likes to draw animals acting ridiculous. She works largely in autobiography to contemplate the painful moments and memorialize the joyful ones. When she is not making comics, she is thinking too much about video games. You can find her work on gianttalk.me as well as @gracedrawsstuff on Twitter and Instagram.

Mel Valentine Mel Valentine is a Latinx Chicago based illustrator and comic artist.

They love creating work that represents all kinds of people, and lives.

You can find more of their work on Instagram (@Onlinevalentine), Twitter (@MelValentinev) and Melvalentinev.com.

Mellissa Montezuma Mellissa Montezuma is an illustrator, comic artist, and cheesemonger born and bred in Chicago. Her work focuses on small moments, memories, beautiful hands, and delicious things. You can see these things at Twitter: @princejellybutt, Instagram: @mellmakesart, and Tumblr: mellsart.tumblr.com.

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Church Business

Sanctuary Cafe was supposed to be a much-needed space for the marginalized, but it lasted less than two years.

What went wrong?

TEXT BY HELENA DUNCAN, COMIC BY KATIE HILL

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hen K. was offered a position as artist-in-residence and curator at Sanctuary Cafe, a coffee shop located inside of University Church, she was thrilled. It was the summer of 2018. K.—an artist and a parishioner at the Hyde Park church, who requested to be identified by her first initial so that her artworks would not be associated with this story—found herself in an Uber Pool with Martin McKinney and Ellen Lose, both managers at Sanctuary and fellow parishioners at the church. They recognized her from the congregation, and as they got to chatting about K.’s art, she realized they all shared a common vision: art not for art’s sake, but for the public good.

Sanctuary was a social justice-oriented café, and her works, which centered the experiences of the working class and marginalized identities, were a perfect fit.

The position paid a stipend that came out to roughly fifteen dollars an hour when K. worked twenty hours a week. In addition to painting the murals that hung on the café’s walls, she coordinated exhibitions and taught two weekly art classes there: one for preteens and one for adults. The job was “too good to be true.”

“I have a really bad medical condition and a really sketchy work history,” said K, “and so I have a difficult time finding a job.”

The café, which was an initiative of Stories

Connect—a nonprofit storytelling collective founded by McKinney in 2015 and focusing on amplifying marginalized voices—had an explicit mission of hiring those who might have difficulty finding employment elsewhere. “[The employees] come from that group of people who are hard to hire...from people like me who are disabled to people who are trans or people who have been incarcerated,” K. told the Weekly.

Sanctuary Cafe opened in April 2017, setting up shop in a space in University Church where Fabiana’s Bakery had been located before its move to 53rd Street just a month prior. The spacious café, with several long cafeteria-style tables, art-covered walls,

and accoutrements that reflected the church building it was housed in—pew benches, a carved wooden prayer placard above the doorway—was popular among University of Chicago students, church parishioners, and neighborhood residents. (McKinney said the café received about 350 transactions per day, and that more than 6,000 people had enrolled in its loyalty program). Patrons enjoyed the tranquil atmosphere and a wide array of drink and pastry choices, but also the sense of social good that the café promoted.

Sanctuary’s coffee was fair-trade, many food and drink ingredients were sourced locally, and the menu was designed to JULY 10, 2019 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 5

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accommodate a range of dietary restrictions.

All staff members were paid a living wage, at least fifteen dollars an hour. Homeless people who came in to the café were given free food and coffee. Local activist and advocacy groups were also welcomed to hold meetings there, including the local chapter of the League of Women Voters, UofC student group #CareNotCops, and the UofC chapter of the International Socialist Organization. In June, when graduate student workers at the university went on a three-day strike, some professors, as an act of solidarity, held classes at Sanctuary to avoid crossing picket lines on campus.

Sanctuary Cafe’s commitment to social justice was an extension and reflection of University Church’s legacy as liberal Protestant congregation that has long acted as a safe space for the marginalized, from queer people to undocumented immigrants: an “intentionally multicultural faith community” that was a local leader in resisting war and promoting desegregation, according to its website.

“I really wanted [Sanctuary] to be a space that took seriously its role in justice issues and that it connected itself to the church’s ideas around justice,” McKinney, who is married to Dr. Suzet McKinney, the executive director of the Illinois Medical District and a former city public health official, said in an interview, adding that he envisioned the café as “the living room of the community” and a welcoming space in the midst of the UofC, “which so many people feel dispossessed from.” University Church is located across the street from the UofC’s Regenstein Library, one of its dining halls, and Reynolds Club student center.

When news broke publicly in June that the café would be closing following an eviction filing by the church, customers and community members tried to make sense of the loss. University Church’s senior pastor Julian DeShazier, board moderator Sarah Jones (a position equivalent to board chair), and director of housing Vince Cole published a joint statement on the church website on June 5 describing a deteriorating business relationship between church and café, as well as “serious legal risks,” revealing that the church wasn’t zoned for business operations, which meant that the café couldn’t obtain a business license.

A statement signed by “the staff of Sanctuary Cafe,” however, claimed that the church knew all along about the lack of a license, and could have applied for a zoning change. The statement also said that in place

of a lease renewal, University Church had offered Sanctuary a space-use agreement that included a what the café characterized as “excessively high” rent and a thorny “morality clause”—that allowed the church to close the café if there were any “violations of moral tenets of the church,” the statement reads—and the church hadn’t given the café proper avenues of communication to address these issues.

Meanwhile, a Change.org petition titled “Save Sanctuary Cafe”—created by an unrelated party, McKinney said—amassed more than 1,000 signatures in forty-eight hours and many comments from supportive customers.

“Sanctuary Cafe is a great asset to the community. Fantastic food and highest ethical values,” wrote one fan lamenting the closure. “sanctuary cafe is the best damn cafe in hp!” wrote another.

But a half-dozen former employees tell a much different story: they say that working at the café meant enduring frequent verbal abuse and sexual harassment from McKinney, and having their concerns about unpaid labor and wage theft routinely dismissed, or met with hostility. Their allegations paint a picture that is starkly different from the Sanctuary that many of its patrons had come to know and love—a “toxic” and “exploitative” environment where employees were told that complaining about workplace conditions meant they were “greedy” and “capitalistic.”. Their claims also raise questions about how University Church, in its capacity as landlord, has managed these and other issues related to the cafe’s tenancy in the space.

Despite the outpouring of public support, the café closed its doors on June 15.

Through interviews with former employees, members of café management and church leadership, and a review of emails and legal documents, the Weekly pieced together a picture of Sanctuary’s brief, turbulent tenure—the accusations of workplace misconduct, failed attempts to salvage its deteriorating relationship with University Church, and the other events leading up to its unexpected eviction.

For K., who left her position at Sanctuary after eleven months and now works as an elder caregiver, the café’s failure to live up to its public image and its purported environment of radical inclusivity was particularly disappointing. “Me and all of my coworkers were incredibly excited to work there when it started out. I think in the church’s statement they said something like

‘there was a beautiful idea that everybody was on board with,’ and that’s exactly true,” she said. “We all wish it could have been different.”

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mong the online petition’s largely supportive comments, one stood out.

“Sanctuary Cafe is a farce,” wrote Ryan Greenlee. “Ask 9 out of 10 former employees how they feel about this place. The service industry in general is rife with exploitation and abuse, but Sanctuary takes it to another level.”

The Weekly spoke to Greenlee, who began as a barista at Sanctuary when it opened in spring 2017 and was promoted to manager before quitting in November 2018, about their motivation for writing the comment. Greenlee said that McKinney made female employees “feel uncomfortable through extended, prolonged, and unwanted touch, through inappropriate conversations about body parts.”

Four female former employees of the café told the Weekly that McKinney had sexually harassed them verbally or physically at work.

The artist-in-residence, K., who is white, said that in one instance McKinney, who is Black, made a joke to her about how he wanted her artwork in the café to be more “urban,” and that she needed to “access her Black side.” He then told her, “I know you have Black in you when your boyfriend’s in you.” (K.’s boyfriend is Black.) After K. looked at him in shock, McKinney quickly backtracked, saying that his comment was inappropriate.

“He just does this thing where he kind of tests the waters and if you have a reaction, he’ll kind of like, back off, but also insinuate that it was your fault for being sensitive about it,” K. recalled.

McKinney denied the conversation taking place, adding that “I have never sexualized my employees or had sexual conversations with them.”

Lori-May Orillo, who said she worked in the cafe for almost a year, called Sanctuary “the most unprofessional work experience of mine to date” and described an environment in which she was “verbally hyper-sexualized, racialized, diminutized and disrespected”

by McKinney for the majority of her time there.”

Mariel Martinez was twenty years old when she began working as a barista at Sanctuary. When she was alone with McKinney one shift, he asked her out for

drinks, which made her feel uncomfortable.

He would touch her in ways she felt were inappropriate, such as by touching her lower back as they worked together in the kitchen.

He also made repeated jokes involving her country of origin. McKinney would tell customers that Martinez was from Mexico in unnecessary and irrelevant ways, she said, and would frequently try to speak with her in Spanish, behavior she found bizarre and uncomfortable, and which she never reciprocated.

McKinney said that his conversations with Martinez about Mexico were respectful and never meant “in a negative way,” and that she was not offended by his jokes or Spanish-speaking. He said the situation around drinks was a quickly-clarified misunderstanding, as he frequently went out for drinks with café and church staff after closing, and was not aware that she was not of legal drinking age until she told him. “She never expressed to me anything, any concern about that...there was never a time where she said to me that I'm feeling like you're targeting me,” McKinney said.

One woman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of concerns for her safety, was an eighteen-year-old UofC student when she began working at Sanctuary in September 2017. She described repeated harassment by McKinney, including victim-blaming when she received unwanted attention from a coworker, and an instance in which McKinney found out that she dances as a hobby and asked her to dance for him privately. She left after less than six months “out of a concern for [her] well-being.”

After her departure, “word eventually got to the church leadership that I had left on these terms,” and Pastor Julian DeShazier reached out to the student to urge her to speak out about what happened.

She said that she didn’t feel comfortable coming forward with her name and that McKinney was “removed from the church leadership” but retained his position at the café. To her, this meant “nothing was really done.” (McKinney says that he was once the church’s “multimedia chairman” but had left that position to start the café. DeShazier would not comment on the record about whether or how long McKinney was a church board member.)

The student was disappointed with how her experience was handled. DeShazier “urged me to come to the church for support, but I cannot imagine seeking help from the very institution that (from my perspective) JULY 10, 2019 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 7

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protected my harasser,” she wrote to the Weekly.

McKinney was arrested in 2013 and charged with criminal sexual assault of a family member who was under the age of eighteen, which allegedly occurred in 2006, and to which he later pled guilty. He was placed on the Illinois Sex Offender Registry.

McKinney’s bio on the Stories Connect website appears to allude to the incident: “The Stories Connect idea came to Martin as a result of personal family tragedy in 2013 when he found himself entangled in the criminal justice system,” it reads.

DeShazier declined to comment on the 8 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY ¬ JULY 10, 2019

record except to direct the Weekly to the Church’s published statement and to add the following: "The challenge on our end is to be fully transparent while keeping private what needs to remain private... Along with the business concerns came some concerning personnel issues that were brought to our attention - issues I can't discuss publicly because my role as pastor." Sarah Jones, the church board moderator, declined to comment for this story except to refer to the official statement.

McKinney said the church board never provided him with documentation of allegations of sexual harassment: “What

these conversations were, was there any evidence, show us text messages, show us emailing, to help us know what was happening, that had never been specifically brought to my attention, so that I could try to fix it.” He said that some allegations came from a “disgruntled employee”—Greenlee— and asked, “Employees who have now left the space and are saying they were feeling unsafe, how do deal with that, how do I fix that?”

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he apparent inaction of University Church board members in response to complaints about McKinney was

a recurring theme in interviews with former Sanctuary employees. Edward Cabral, the cafe's first executive chef who resigned in June 2017, wrote a complaint upon his resignation and sent it to several church members; McKinney says he knew about the document but was never provided with a copy by the church.

In an interview Cabral said he was the executive chef and acting general manager of the café, but that there was confusion between himself and McKinney regarding the parameters of his role, and that he had asked McKinney multiple times for an employment contract, which McKinney

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never produced. (“I didn’t see a need for contracts,” McKinney said. “We’d need to spend money to hire a lawyer.”)

The Weekly obtained a copy of this complaint, which alleged multiple violations of health code that Cabral had brought up with McKinney, apparently without effect.

(McKinney acknowledged one of the complaints, about the lack of separate handwashing sink as required by health code, but countered the others.) Some of the issues Cabral mentioned in the complaint seemed to stem from poor communication between church staff members and the cafe. Cabral elaborated on frustrations with church staff members using the cafe's kitchen to prepare their own snacks and store their own food, which he said opened up the kitchen to the possibility of health code violations.

Cabral’s complaint also noted that Martin withheld money Cabral was owed for ingredients he’d purchased. In an interview, Cabral said he was still owed around $2,000 for ingredients, supplies and pay from his one-week suspension (“I know I’m never going to see it,” he said).

McKinney denied that Cabral was owed outstanding reimbursements and said that his suspension was an unpaid one.

Cabral elaborated on several issues mentioned in the complaint, including frustrations with church staff members using the cafe’s kitchen to prepare their own snacks and store their own food, which he said opened up the kitchen to the possibility of health code violations.

“They didn't realize that you can't have a personal kitchen and a commercial kitchen simultaneously. And I brought attention [to that] a million times they really didn't seem to care.” Cabral’s relationship with McKinney grew tense, with repeated arguments regarding the delineation of roles and responsibilities in the café’s management, and Cabral finally quit in mid-June.

Finally, Cabral’s complaint also mentioned that three employees had told Cabral they’d been sexually harassed by Martin.

Cabral said that he wrote and sent the complaint to some church members including Pastor DeShazier, but that nothing came of it at the time. He claimed that it was only in spring 2019, a year and a half after Cabral resigned, that he was contacted by a church board member who’d heard of the document and asked if Cabral could forward it to him; he did, and said that more board members then called him to talk

about it.

“At that point it had been over a year since I left Sanctuary,” Cabral said, expressing disappointment with the church’s initial inaction. “It’s like, if you wanted to do this right you would have talked about this like a year and a half ago.” dding to the cafe's troubles was confusion among employees around how to report complaints and who was responsible for holding perpetrators accountable, stemming in part from its ties to Stories Connect and its uneasy tenancy within University Church. In his letter, Cabral wrote that “because of the specific organization of this café and Stories Connect, there is no HR person to report to or to mediate on behalf of.”

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do that in the structure of the organization,” she said.

One recurring complaint among employees was about pay. Four employees spoke to the Weekly about issues with their pay, including that their paychecks were repeatedly delayed, their hours were not recorded properly or they were not given access to view their timecards. Greenlee also alleged that they were not paid for sick days in accordance with Chicago’s Paid Sick Leave Ordinance. Employees were also upset when the cafe's tips were transitioned to a donation model, so that employees did not receive tips, and tips went directly to Stories Connect.

McKinney acknowledged that staff members’ paychecks were delayed,

“In the church’s statement they said something like ‘there was a beautiful idea that everybody was on board with,’ and that’s exactly true. We all wish it could have been different.”

Sanctuary’s management said there was clear complaint structure in place: employees should report issues to their direct manager, Lose said. McKinney added that if anyone had issues with him that they didn’t feel they could address directly with him, they could talk to the church’s administrative assistant, who frequented the café.

In addition, McKinney hired Ajooni Sethi, a puppeteer and artist who, along with DeShazier, is a spiritual advisor for the UofC’s Spiritual Life office and used to work as a human resources associate for the UofC’s Chapin Hall research center, in fall 2018 in a part-time HR capacity to address unrest and dissatisfaction among the staff, including its high turnover rate.

She worked there until this January. Sethi discovered “the support structure that was needed for the staff wasn't there because people took all different kinds of routes and when they found that that route didn't give them like the resolution they needed then either they would leave, or they would start conversations among other staff and find out more information,” resulting in a lot of “whispers.”

“There was a lot of people that were like trying to figure out their situation on their own because there wasn't a way for them to

sometimes by more than a week. McKinney said he was proud that although checks were delayed, none were ever missed or withheld, and pointed out that this issue is common to new, small nonprofits. He disputed Greenlee’s claim over sick leave, and said that since employees were paid a living wage, that eliminated the need for tips. Lose said that while employees were frustrated by not being able to view their timecards, the café’s free payroll software didn’t allow for that option, and that employees’ paychecks should have been easy enough to interpret on their own. Any issues staff experienced stemmed from capacity difficulties and the struggle of operating a small nonprofit, not from malintent, she added.

But employees were most upset about the way their complaints and concerns regarding pay were met with indifference or hostility. “During pay periods when we’re not getting paid, we were called greedy,” Greenlee said.

K. noted similar language was used by McKinney and Lose to dismiss employees’ concerns: “What made it unusual was that all this was covered up by social justice-y language…. You asked why you were having wages withheld or being pressured to work without clocking in, you were accused of

being ‘capitalistic.’ ” Orillo also said she felt “shamed” for asking for compensation she was owed, and was made to feel “greedy.”

One email provided by McKinney described an instance in which employees were given the option to attend a training without pay: notifying employees in May 2018 of an upcoming “restorative justice” training session, McKinney wrote, “While we can pay you for attending the training, you are also able to attend without pay as we are a nonprofit cafe.”

K. felt that this practice was more like pressure than a choice.

She recalled staff meetings in which “Ellen [Lose] would be standing at the register where people clock in trying to pressure people into not clocking in for the staff meeting and kind of saying, ‘If you were really dedicated to the mission and values of Stories Connect then you understand that we really need to save money and you won’t make us pay you for this.’ Or pressuring people to volunteer their time for fundraisers and stuff when they couldn’t really afford to make payroll.” Employees who questioned these practices had their own values questioned in turn: “If you bring up any of those questions then you are being capitalistic, ‘you are not valuing the community that we’re trying to build,’ that was one that was used a lot.”

Lose denied that she pressured employees not to clock in or that she’d used language like “capitalistic,” saying that she was transparent about the organization’s finances while clearly framing the clockingin as a choice.

But K. said, “The overarching idea is that the café and like Stories Connect in general is sort of this, like, special, sacred social justice entity so it’s exempt from any conflicts or complaints that you would have with an employer, and that to bring up grievances or concerns that you would have with an employer in any other situation is a betrayal of the values of the organization.”

In 2018, Sanctuary brought in Nehemiah Trinity Rising, a restorative justice (RJ) organization, to lead a “skills transfer” to train the café’s management in using RJ to resolve conflict. In RJ, a focus is made on voluntary, collaborative reconciliation of harm, rather than punitive measures. RJ often involves the use of “peace circles,” which the Centre for Justice & Reconciliation describes as “circles [that] provide a space for encounter between the victim and the offender” with the goal of bringing healing and understanding to both JULY 10, 2019 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 9

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parties.

“Stories Connect cannot become like corporate culture,” McKinney wrote in an email to staff announcing the RJ skills session, “where we simply excommunicate those who upset the balance or offend.”

What was planned as a three-day training ended early following a lack of participation by the members of management, Lose said, though the staff did come together to create a set of shared values and commitments to adhere to in the café, which were later added to the employee handbook.

In a March 2019 email to Sanctuary 10 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY ¬ JULY 10, 2019

Cafe management, DeShazier expressed confusion regarding some aspects of restorative justice, and asked to meet with McKinney, Lose, and Nehemiah Trinity Rising to address his reservations: “Specifically, that RJ and peace circling was being used in lieu of official policies around reporting (including access to the board) whenever employees had complaints of any nature that involved management” and “that employees were encouraged to engage in circles with people they felt violated by.”

In a statement, McKinney said that Stories Connect was not opposed to “an adoption of policies required by the state,

namely a sexual harassment policy” but added that “while willing to comply, [Stories Connect] feels strongly that policies are created to penalize, and that we stand for and with the penalized, not the policy... our policies would need to be supportive of the Restorative Justice practices the staff established, which does not use policy to penalize, investigates concerns and asks people to speak directly with the persons they feel hurt by.”

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anctuary was the third café at University Church. The first, the Blue Gargoyle, was a coffee shop founded

by UofC divinity students in 1968 that grew into a nonprofit providing services to disadvantaged members of the community.

(Though the coffee shop closed, the organization’s offices are still at University Church.) The second was Fabiana’s, a Brazilian bakery that opened in September 2015 and moved from the church to a 53rd Street storefront in spring 2017.

Court records show that Fabiana’s’ time at University Church also came to an end following an eviction filing, which was made in November 2016.

The University Church statement on the closing of Sanctuary alluded to the reasons

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for Fabiana’s departure vaguely: “Quickly we learned how difficult it is to manage a café inside a church (these are both two things that are incredibly difficult to manage on their own!), and our first partners moved to greener pastures, with lessons learned by all parties involved,” the statement reads.

McKinney claimed that Fabiana’s had been positioning itself as a nonprofit, a “members-only” space for church parishioners despite the fact that it was, in fact, a for-profit business. He said that the church found out about Fabiana’s lack of proper business license and was concerned about issues of legal liability, and had to resort to an eviction filing to move them out.

Fabiana Carter, founder of Fabiana’s Bakery, declined to comment for this story; the eviction proceedings ended with Fabiana’s vacating the space, with no word as to the $4,200 University Church was claiming in unpaid rent.

McKinney, who has a background in real estate, guided the church through Fabiana’s exit, then approached the church with the idea of a café run by Stories Connect, he said. He also claims to have personally loaned $15,000 to the café’s startup costs to get it up and running in just forty-five days.

The café’s statement on the closure said Fabiana’s had made it “abundantly clear” to church leadership that they did not have a business license, and that when he opened Sanctuary he approached the city’s Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection (BACP) about the issue. He said the BACP told him that the café did not need a license because it was located inside a church.

“That was a mistake on my part to accept that,” McKinney said. “’Cause what they actually meant was...as a function of the church.” He took issue with the church’s statement that it hadn’t found out about the lack of license until this year.

From the beginning, McKinney said, the relationship between the church and Sanctuary was a business one, but built on important personal relationships and a shared vision. “The church was very supportible in that first year, and it gave rent abatement so that we could continue operating” in the face of financial difficulties, he said.

McKinney provided the Weekly with forty pages of emails and text messages with café staff and church board members, as well as lease and legal documents. They form a timeline of the events of 2019 that show an increasingly tense relationship between

café management and University Church leadership.

In early February 2019, board moderator Sarah Jones emailed McKinney asking to schedule a meeting with him.

“University Church has learned of several allegations that have been levied against the café and Stories Connect, including organizational mismanagement, employee mistreatment and sexual harassment,” she wrote. “University Church takes these allegations seriously, and the leadership has been determining how to move forward both as a congregation and as a landlord (for lack of better term), charged with the faithful stewardship of a building and the community that uses it.”

It was also in February 2019 that Ryan Greenlee, the former manager, filed a complaint with the BACP regarding issues with pay that they said they were owed by Sanctuary—in particular, that they were not paid for sick days they’d taken in accordance with labor law. A city inspector paid a visit to Sanctuary on February 15 and cited Sanctuary for “failure to display the notice advising covered employees of the current minimum wage and right to paid sick leave,” and for “deceptive practice,” or misrepresenting the organization’s financial standing. (The Illinois Secretary of State website listed, as of April, Stories Connect’s status as “not good standing, meaning it had failed to keep up with its payments or paperwork to the state, or both; it has since returned to good standing.)

Most importantly, Sanctuary was cited for operating without, and failing to display, a retail food establishment license.

Emails back and forth between McKinney and church board members between February and April 2019 reflect multiple meetings, requests to meet, and ongoing discussion regarding the licensing, lease, Stories Connect finances, and harassment allegations. Nehemiah Trinity Rising was engaged to mediate discussion between the parties at a meeting in March.

Yet the café’s closing message stated that the café’s efforts to meet with the church’s actual “decision-making body” went unfulfilled, that communication became one-sided and that “any suggestion that we have been allowed to meet with the church to resolve disputes is false and misleading.”

On April 5, director of housing Vince Cole sent McKinney a notification of non-renewal of lease, saying that it was a “difficult and distressing decision” and citing “the issues of operating without the

required license, not being in good corporate standing with the state, the zoning issues, potential property tax liability, along with questionable financial standing for Stories Connect.” It asked Sanctuary to surrender the premises by April 21. In an email response McKinney addressed that he was working on the license and zoning issues, and also reiterated that no employees had come to him directly with allegations of misbehavior on his part. McKinney said he was exploring the viability of transitioning the café to a “pay what you want” model or seeking a zoning change through the alderman’s office.

The church made an eviction filing on May 13. It came “out of nowhere,” McKinney said, adding he was upset that it named him personally, as this may affect his ability to rent in the future. The church’s official statement said that the café had chosen to remain open past the date of closure it was given, putting the church at legal risk.

The café’s last day open to the public was June 15. As of July 6, the café is mostly, but not completely, moved out of the space.

O

n June 27, during an eviction court hearing, the church’s attorney argued that the café should be granted none of its sought extensions of time, and that another tenant was waiting to move into the space. (An extension was granted, but only until the following day.)

McKinney believes the church had wanted to see Sanctuary close so that the Blue Gargoyle, the nonprofit headquartered at the church, could take over the space.

DeShazier, who is also the executive director of Blue Gargoyle, declined to confirm or deny plans for a new tenant on the record.

McKinney and Lose are considering reopening Sanctuary elsewhere, though they acknowledge the high cost of rent in Hyde Park could be limiting. As for Sanctuary’s first run, he said, “That it has to close is not an indication that it was not successful” and added that “I’m very proud of it and I’m gonna rest in that power that it was a great space, it was a great journey.”

“I have a desire to see this chapter that was more beautiful than it was ugly close with peace,” Lose said.

In the wake of the closure, many former staff members expressed sadness, frustration, and anger that the café’s vision, in their view, didn’t align with its practices. But most acknowledged its successes and the beauty of its mission, too.

Sethi characterized Sanctuary’s issues as examples of the questions that justiceoriented institutions grapple with. “How do we create better structures for people to be helped?...What are the pitfalls of when we try to do business better? How do you have structure and hierarchy? How do you not have structure and hierarchy and have a way for people to be safe?”

Edward Cabral, like the artist K., said his position at Sanctuary was, in hindsight, “too good to be true.”

“I took a lot of pride in it,” Cabral, who is also an artist and School of the Art Institute of Chicago graduate, said in an interview.

“It really sort of kills me that it evolved into something that was really negative.”

He also feels sad that the cafe’s original mission—to be a much-needed space for the marginalized—was never fully realized: “It just was so obvious to me that there was this need for a space that actually was socially engaged and gave a shit about everyone in the system that brought the food to your plate, you know? And that is what broke my heart the most—as things went south it's like, wow, these people aren't getting what they deserve.” Helena Duncan is a writer based in Hyde Park.

She last wrote for the Weekly in May about the 125th anniversary of the Pullman Strike.

Additional reporting by Sam Stecklow

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Gender: Custom

BY AIM BELAND

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Excerpt from

Bad Blood

Excerpted from a comic about kids, mosquitoes, and sin. The comic can be bought online at storytell.storenvy.com

AMBER HUFF

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I Don't Exist Here

BY MELL MONTEZUMA

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Excerpt from

for the first time

BY SUNSHINE GAO

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BY GRACE CULLOTON

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Friends?

BY MIKE CENTENO

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Excerpt from

Making Friends

BY RACHEL BARD

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EVENTS

BULLETIN Public Meeting: Proposed Pilsen Historic Landmark District 1661 S. Blue Island Ave. July 11, 6pm–8pm.

Free. bit.ly/PilsenDist Later this month the Chicago City Council will vote on whether to establish a landmark district in Pilsen that would protect around 850 buildings, most of which are grouped along 18th Street. The last meeting open for public comment before the vote will allow residents to ask questions and voice concerns about the proposal. ( Jim Daley)

Schools as Anchors: Communities Planning for Their Schools Jacob Beidler Elementary School, 3151 W. Walnut St. Friday, July 12, 9am–Saturday, July 13, 12pm. bit.ly/SchoolAnchor Community groups Blocks Together and Raise Your Hand host Mary Filardo, executive director of the 21st Century School Fund, to discuss best practices for vacant and under-utilized schools including joint building use, attendance boundaries, student recruitment, and potential school mergers. Free childcare available. ( Jim Daley)

Panel on the State of Homelessness in Chicago Dovetail Brewery, 1800 W. Belle Plaine Ave. Thursday, July 18, 5:30pm–8:00pm. $13. bit.ly/ChiHomeless According to the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless’s most recent estimate, some 83,000 Chicagoans are experiencing homelessness. The Night Ministry—whose most familiar face to many is its Health Outreach Bus—and Chicago Impact Network will host an event that explores the history, politics, and human cost of homelessness in the city. Speakers: Betsy Carlson, Jennifer Ritter, and David Van Zytveld. ( Jim Daley)

Chicago Community Bond Fund Summer Party Leonard Goodman Home, 3000 N. Lake Shore Dr. Saturday, July 20, 6pm–9pm. $100. bit.ly/CCBFsummer Since its inception, the Chicago Community Bond Fund has posted over a million dollars in bonds that has helped free more than 225 incarcerated people.

CCBF will celebrate and raise funds to continue its work at a party that will feature DJs, vegan and omnivore food, an open bar and a silent auction. ( Jim Daley)

Know the System: Associate Judges Injustice Watch, 55 E. Jackson Blvd. Monday, July 22, 6pm–7:30pm. Free. bit.ly/KnowJudges Did you know that Cook County’s 138 associate judges retain (or lose) their seats by a secret vote of circuit judges every four years? Injustice Watch wants you to know.

The investigative journalism organization will host a panel discussion on the role of associate judges and process by which they are elected.

Eastland Disaster 104th Anniversary Commemoration Chicago Riverwalk, 120 W. Wacker Dr. Wednesday, July 24, 12pm–1pm. Free. bit.ly/Eastland104 On the morning of July 24, 1915, the steamship Eastland rolled on its side while docked in the Chicago river, killing 844 passengers and crew in the single worst shipwreck on the Great Lakes. The Eastland Disaster Historical Society host a commemoration ceremony along the Riverwalk at the site where the ship sank on its 104th anniversary. ( Jim Daley)

VISUAL ARTS Cross Currents/Intercambio Cultural Summer Cookout Smart Museum of Art, 5550 S. Greenwood Ave. Thursday, July 11, 5–8pm. bit.ly/CCICSummerCookout In celebration of the opening of the exhibition “Cross Currents/Intercambio Cultural,” the Smart Museum of Art and National Museum of Mexican Art bring you a summer cookout. Attendees will be able to take a first look at work by Chicago and Havana-based artists who took part in an artist exchange, enjoy a DJ set from the collective (((SONORAMA))), eat exhibition-inspired food, partake in a printmaking activity, and best of all, enjoy beer provided by Lagunitas Brewing Co. (Roderick Sawyer)

Relearning, With Mentions Opening Chicago Art Department, 1932 S. Halsted #100. Friday, July 12, 6–10pm. bit.ly/RWMO2019 Curated by Zakkiyyah Najeebah, “RWMO“ is a study rooted in the visualization and preservation of the archives, histories, and shared experiences of Black families. Through the use of photography, mixed media, and videography, “RWMO” examines the work of Black-identified artists. These family sourced materials and found vernacular images provide the basis for an exploration of memory, belonging, and legacy building.

(Roderick Sawyer)

Blonde Judas: works by Jon Veal Chicago Art Department, 1932 S. Halsted #100. Friday, July 12, 6–10pm. bit.ly/blondejudas West Side artist Jon Veal's “Blonde Judas“ is a project that investigates the moral values of people living in a capitalist society through architecture, commodities, and race. Veal's work will also feature community performances in partnership with Priscilla Sánchez, Alexis Burr, Jasmine Benitez, Jordan Campbell, Roe Melloe, Nick Thompson and The Simple Good.

(Roderick Sawyer)

MUSIC Valee w/ Kami and Qari Thalia Hall, 1807 S. Allport St. Thursday, July 18, 7:30pm. $18. (312) 526-3851. thaliahallchicago.com However you know Valee—as a G.O.O.D. Music signee, a larger-than-life figure (see: dyed-red chihuahuas and koi ponds), or the “Womp Womp” guy—you should know he’s not to be missed. The Bronzevilleborn rapper will take the stage alongside Savemoney’s KAMI and Qari, fresh off his revelatory Operation Hennessy project.

(Christopher Good)

Briana Marla, Warm Human, RXM Babality Big Forever, ask a punk. Thursday, July 11, 7:30–10:30pm. $5–$10 suggested donation for touring bands. bit.ly/big-forever-july Stop by this Humboldt Park DIY hub on Thursday for an early show, featuring synth-singer-songwriter Briana Marela (on tour from Oakland), “sludge pop trash princess” Warm Human, and Hausu Mountain’s own RXM Babality.

(Christopher Good)

Live Music Nights at the Hyde Speakeasy Red Fish Bleu Fish, 5121 S. Harper Ave. Mondays, 9pm–2am, through July 29. bit.ly/HydeSpeakeasyLiveNights Stop by Hyde Park’s newest speakeasy every Monday this month for a live music treat.

New artists will take the stage by storm and keep the beat flowing while guests enjoy refreshing drinks and grub. (Atavia Reed)

The Spirit of ‘79: Dance Forever Stony Island Arts Bank, 6700 S. Stony Island Ave. Saturday, July 13, 3pm–6pm. bit.ly/DanceForeverParty In the year 1979, soul, disco, jazz-funk, and pop collided and catchy bops were made timeless. Throw on your favorite seventies fit and boogie the day away at this soulful event celebrating the rise of popular artists like Prince and a sound that lasts forever.

(Atavia Reed)

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EVENTS

AirGo Live! With guests Tasha and Eve L. Ewing Green Line Performing Arts Center, 329 E. Garfield Blvd. Wednesday, July 17, 7:30pm– 10pm. Free with RSVP. bit.ly/AirGoLiveShow Join Eve L. Ewing, author of Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago's South Side and Chicago songwriter Tasha for a live conversation about how young Black Chicagoans are bettering their communities through engagement. (Atavia Reed)

The 16th Annual Silver Room Sound System Block Party The Silver Room, 1506 E. 53rd St. Saturday, July 20, noon–10pm. Donations accepted. bit.ly/SilverRoomBlockParty For the 16th year, stop by downtown Hyde Park to enjoy the most of Summertime Chi! Live music, a fashion show and a film festival all make up this year’s celebration.

All ages are welcome at this event of the summer. (Atavia Reed)

STAGE & SCREEN The Mic Check with Dorian H. Nash – Episode 1: Damon Williams Watch online now at bit.ly/2Xigj1x Author, playwright, and friend to the Weekly Dorian H. Nash has done it again! The Weekly last checked in with Nash in February 2018 on South Side Weekly Radio, where she and her husband Sean—who together are the Extraordinary Everyday Marriage Duo—served up sage wisdom, learned during their nearly twenty year marriage. Now Nash has a solo project on independent television forum indéTV. New episodes of The Mic Check will air Tuesday evenings at 7pm. Don’t miss the first episode online now featuring Chicago’s own comedy legend Damon Williams.

Great conversation. Hot topics. Cool host.

Tune in. (Nicole Bond)

Trivia & Happy Hour Harper Theater, 5238 S. Harper Ave. Every Wednesday night starting at 6pm. Admission free. Harper Theater Box Office. (773) 7526043. harpertheater.com 42 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY ¬ JULY 10, 2019

Harper Theater presents a classic trivia night with something for the whole family.

Be prepared to answer questions about movies and other topics for a chance to win a different price each month. June winners received a one-year VIP pass to the theater.

Who knows what could be the prize for July! So stop in. Buy some snacks for the kids, some cocktails for you, and show off your trivia knowledge for a win. (Nicole Bond)

Red Summer 31st Street Beach (at 29th Street), Lakefront.

Saturday, July 27, 10am sharp. (312) 4288033.

RSVP to bronzvillehistoricalsociety@gmail.com Bronzeville Historical Society President Sherry Williams will lead prayer, libations, and solemn reflection for the 100th year remembrance of the 1919 Chicago Race Riots. On July 27, 1919, seventeenyear-old Eugene Williams was stoned and drowned when he swam into the unofficially segregated waters at the 29th Street Beach. This day calling for peace and safe communities throughout the city will include honored guests: CPD Mounted Police, retired Battalion Chief of the CFD Dekalb Walcott, noted trauma and grief counselor Dr. Obari Cartman, along with poets, activists, and others, emceed by James Parker. Libations begin at 10am at 29th Street on the beach. (Nicole Bond)

NAJWA Dance Corps 2019 Night Out in the Parks Series Varying locations listed below. All performances begin at 6pm and are free and open to the public. Call (312) 940-3718 or email najwadancecorps@sbcglobl.com for details not found here.

Chicago’s premier African dance corps along with their junior corps will present evenings of dance and drumming around the city featuring an interactive program of West African dances. Here are the remaining dates and locations: Thursday, July 18, LaFollette Park, 1333 N. Laramie Ave. Wednesday, July 24, Grand Crossing Park, 7655 S. Ingleside Ave. Friday, August 16, West Chatham Park, 8223 S. Princeton Ave. (Nicole Bond)

Hull House Summer Theater Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, 800 S. Halsted St. Sundays now through August 12.

Performance and workshop times vary. All are FREE and open to the public. Call (312) 413-5353 or visit hullhousemuseum.org for schedule.

Sundays this summer the Hull House courtyard will transform into an “off-south side” live theater space, featuring a series of free performances and workshops from the local Chicago theater talent you know and love. See storyteller Lily Be on July 7 at 2pm, then stay for a spoken word inspired improvisation workshop with PREACH! at 3:30. On July 14 writer, actress comedian Adrienne Brandyburg and B.A.P.S take the stage at 3:30. Ratas de Dos Patas on July 21. Workshop with Mojdeh Stoakley from Poets with Class on August 4 at 2pm, plus so much more! (Nicole Bond)

FOOD & LAND Farmers Markets Sundays: Maxwell Street Market, S. Desplaines St. & W. Taylor St. Sundays, 9am–3pm. bit.ly/ MaxwellStMarketChicago 95th Street Farmers Market, 1835 W. 95th St. Sundays, 8am–1pm, through November.

Pilsen Community Market, 1820 S. Blue Island Ave. Sundays, 9am–3pm, through October. facebook.com/pilsenmarket Wood Street Urban Farm Stand, 1757 W. 51st St. Sundays, 9am–noon, through November 24.

McKinley Park Farmers Market, 3705 S. Archer Ave. Sundays, 10am–2pm. Through September 29. facebook.com/MPFM1 Wednesdays: Back of the Yards Community Market, S. 51st St. & W. Throop St. Wednesdays, 3pm–7pm, through September 25.

Boxville, 320 E. 51st St. Wednesdays, 4pm–7pm, starting June 19. facebook.com/ Boxville51 Thursdays: City Market at Daley Plaza, 50 W. Washington St. Thursdays, 7am–2pm, through October 24. bit.ly/DaleyPlazaMarket South Loop Farmers Market, 1936 S. Michigan Ave. Thursdays, 4pm–8pm, through September 26. southloopfarmersmarket.com Hyde Park Farmers Market, 5300 S.

Harper Ct. Thursdays, 7am–1pm, through October. downtownhydeparkchicago.com Saturdays: 61st Street Farmers Market, 6100 S. Blackstone Ave. Saturdays, 9am–2pm, through October 27. experimentalstation.org/market The Plant Farmers Market, 1400 W. 46th St. The first Saturday of each month, 11am– 3pm. plantchicago.org/farmers-market Eden Place Farmers Market, 4911 S. Shields Ave. Saturdays, 8am–2pm, through October 12. edenplacefarms.org Printers Row City Market, 700 S. Dearborn St. Saturdays, 7am–1pm, June 15 through October 26.

Farmers Market at The Port Ministries, 5013 S. Hermitage Ave. The second Saturday of each month, noon–4pm. facebook.com/ theportministries Multiple Days: UHSC Farm Stand, 1809 W. 51st St. Mondays–Fridays, 9am–1pm, through November 25.

Gary Comer Youth Center Farmers Market, 7200 S. Ingleside Ave. Tuesdays & Fridays, 3pm–6pm, June 18 to October 29. garycomeryouthcenter.org/produce Farm on Ogden Food Stand, 3555 W. Ogden Ave. Tuesdays & Thursdays, 11am– 7pm; Wednesdays, Fridays, & Saturdays, 10am–6pm. chicagobotanic.org Summer has arrived, and Chicagoans are blessed with neighborhood farmers markets! Also remember, the Illinois Products Farmers' market will double Link purchases to $25 per card holder, per market day. Shop local, support midwest farmers, and enjoy healthy nourishment! Food justice is social justice, support fair wages and environmentally conscious agriculture production. (Morgan Richardson)

McKinley Park Bird Walk McKinley Park Farmers Market, 2210 W. Pershing Rd. Saturday, July 13, 9:00am– 11:30am. chicagoaudubon.org At this free event, you can learn to identify the many interesting birds that call McKinley Park home during the summer months. The Chicago Audubon Society will also hold bird walks on the second Sunday in August and September. (Morgan Richardson)

EVENTS

Family First Resource Fair, Chicago State University Chicago State University, 9501 S. King Dr. Saturday, July 13, 10:00am–4:00pm.

University Greens, between Jones Convocation Center and the Jacoby Dickens Center. Free.

Education, employment, entrepreneurship, financial literacy, health and wellness, mentorship—at this event organized

by Project SUCCESS Educational Opportunity Center and TRIO, you can find all that and more. (Plus food trucks, music, and fun). (AV Benford)

Openings CHINATOWN Chef Xiong's Taste of Szechuan opened this past month in the former Mandarin Kitchen space. Best website quote, by one Charles B: “This place really has an awesome take on Szechuan style food.

Everything that my girlfriend and I got there was tasty, flavorful and filling.” 2143 S. Archer Ave. NORTH KENWOOD Radio Ribs opened this past month in

a space formerly occupied by a Dunkin’ Donuts and Fung’s Chop Suey, which closed earlier this year. Current Grubhub ratings: seventy-five percent say the food was good; ninety-six percent say delivery was on time, and ninety-one percent say their order was correct. Ribs, turkey links, and wings, oh my. 1400 E. 47th Street SOUTH LOOP Mei’s Asian Small Plates & Dumplings has opened inside the South Loop Hilton Garden Inn. Best quote, from online commenter Mommas to Go: “Friendly service. Very fresh and healthy food. We ordered vegetable fried rice, sesame chicken and sweet tea. You MUST try the Sweet Tea! It tastes as if it is sweetened with honey!” 1108 S. Michigan Ave. (AV Benford)

Closings SOUTH LOOP Vice District Brewing South Loop Taproom.

1454 S. Michigan Ave (AV Benford)

HAPPY BEE GARDEN SERVICE Clean up your back yard with Happy Bee! native gardens

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JULY 10, 2019 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 43 The 61st Street Farmers Market is a program of the Experimental Station, with the support of:

FREE COLLEGE COURSE THIS PROGRAM IS FOR YOU IF: You are 18 years of age or older You are income eligible (living at or below 150% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines) You can commit to doing the assignments and completing the course You can read a newspaper in English You do not currently have a four- year college degree (B.A)

The Odyssey Project is a free, 32-week, college-credit granting humanities program for incomeeligible adults with limited to no access to a college education.

Course materials are provided.

Transportation assistance is also provided in cases of demonstrated need.

We offer classes at locations in Greater Grand Crossing, Austin, Rogers Park and Cicero, IL (in Spanish). Classes meet twice a week from 6:00-8:00 p.m., September through April.

Apply online at www.ilhumanities.org/ odysseyproject OR by contacting Illinois Humanities at (312) 374-1550.

IN THE ODYSSEY PROJECT YOU WILL: Explore five different subject areas: Literature, Philosophy, Art History, U.S. History, and Critical Thinking & Writing Study with professors from local universities Work with like-minded adult students in a supportive environment Earn 6 transferable college credits from Bard College upon completion of the course.

APPLICATIONS DUE AUGUST 15