SSW 05.04.23

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SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY The South Side Weekly is an independent non-profit newspaper by and for the South Side of Chicago. We provide high-quality, critical arts and public interest coverage, and equip and develop journalists, artists, photographers, and mediamakers of all backgrounds.

Volume 10, Issue 16 Editor-in-Chief

Jacqueline Serrato

Managing Editor

Adam Przybyl

Senior Editors Martha Bayne Christopher Good Olivia Stovicek Sam Stecklow Alma Campos Section Editors Sky Patterson Wendy Wei Jocelyn Martínez-Rosales Community Builder

Chima Ikoro

Contributing Editors Jocelyn Vega

Francisco Ramírez Pinedo Scott Pemberton Visuals Editor

Bridget Killian

Deputy Visuals Editor Shane Tolentino Staff Illustrators Mell Montezuma Shane Tolentino Director of Fact Checking: Sky Patterson Fact Checkers: Kate Linderman Alani Oyola Lauren Doan Christopher Good Layout Editor

Tony Zralka

Special Projects Coordinator

Malik Jackson

Managing Director

Jason Schumer

Office Manager

Mary Leonard

Advertising Manager

Susan Malone

Webmaster

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IN CHICAGO City grapples with surge in migrants Mayor Lori Lightfoot is urging Texas governor Greg Abbott to stop busing asylum seekers to Chicago because the City is not receiving federal aid from FEMA or the CARES Act to provide the adequate resources, and criticized his “lack of consideration or coordination in an attempt to cause chaos and score political points.” In a public letter, she said, “the national immigration problem will not be solved by passing on the responsibility to other cities.” Since Monday, several police stations have been allowing new arrivals to sleep on the floor before they are placed in a shelter, which has become a logistical headache. Mutual aid groups and non-profit organizations are collecting food and toiletry donations and delivering them to the stations, while they attempt to relocate families to temporary homes.

A Family and Support Services Commissioner said “we’re receiving over 100 people a day”. Abbot responded to Lightfoot’s letter, saying she should take up the issue with President Joe Biden.

Promontory Point landmark Hyde Park’s Promontory Point is now protected under landmark designation after a unanimous City Council vote on April 19. Residents and activists fought for more than twenty years to preserve the last remaining limestone revetments on the city’s shoreline. Backed by 5th Ward Alderperson Leslie Hairston, Promontory Point Conservancy stood their ground; residents at one point sent hundreds of letters to the commission on Chicago Landmarks demanding its protection and rehabilitation. Promontory Point sits between 54th and 56th Streets and was completed in 1939. The landmark status protects its exterior elevations, pavilion rooflines, pathways, council rings, fountain, and of course, the limestone steps.

In January, the city gave $5 million towards preserving the historic nature of Promontory Point. It is now expected for city officials to begin renovation on the limestone barriers, marking a victory for the South Side.

The Weekly is produced by a mostly all-volunteer editorial staff and seeks contributions from across the city. We publish online weekly and in print every other Thursday.

Send submissions, story ideas, comments, or questions to editor@southsideweekly.com or mail to: South Side Weekly 6100 S. Blackstone Ave. Chicago, IL 60637 For advertising inquiries, please contact: Susan Malone (773) 358-3129 or email: malone@southsideweekly.com For general inquiries, please call: (773) 643-8533

Cover photo by Luz Magdaleno Flores

IN THIS ISSUE underserving the south side

Howard Brown employees allege the organization is allowing health inequities to persist by deprioritizing its South Side locations and fighting with new union. annabelle dowd......................................4 abolition goes global

A panel of three Chicago abolitionist organizers made connections between wars abroad and policing at home. max blaisdell...........................................8 black and brown people forge their own way in the cannabis industry

People of color refuse to wait on the sidelines for an opportunity in the cannabis industry and instead are creating their own. jocelyn martinez-rosales....................10 chicago art exhibit examines global war on 20th anniversary of iraq invasion

A summit opening the exhibit in March featured veteran artists from all over the world and drew connections between the War on Terror and the American Indian Wars. isra rahman...........................................12 once i was you: a memoir of love and hate in a torn america

What does it mean to be American?

Renowned journalist, Maria Hinojosa, delves into the complexities of identity and in being an immigrant in the U.S. sarah luyengi.........................................15 public meetings report

A recap of select open meetings at the local, county, and state level. documenters and scott pemberton...17 the exchange

The Weekly's poetry corner offers our thoughts in exchange for yours. chima ikoro............................................18 calendar

Bulletin and events. zoe pharo, south side weekly staff....21

HEALTH

Underserving the South Side

Current and former Howard Brown employees allege the organization is allowing health inequities to persist by deprioritizing its South Side locations and fighting with the new union.

BY ANNABELLE DOWD

T

MAY/JUNE

he non-nursing employees at Howard Brown, the largest LGBTQ+ health care provider in the U.S., voted to join the Illinois Nurses Association (INA) union at the end of last summer. Just three months later, the union learned that Howard Brown would be laying off sixty-one staff members, ranging from dishwashers to Behavioral Health Clinicians (therapists), due to what Howard Brown describes as a revenue shortfall. All of the sixty-one employees were members of the union’s current

bargaining unit.

This decision didn’t surprise Louis Spraggins, a Howard Brown Partner Services Coordinator, who has long held reservations about the organization’s ability to adequately serve marginalized communities. Spraggins believes Howard Brown’s treatment of its South Side clients and staff before and during the unionization process reflects a racist tradition of underserving Black and Brown communities on the South and West Sides of Chicago.

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Spraggins started doing HIV and AIDS peer-educator work when he was fifteen years old while still a student at Roseland’s Fenger High School. Spraggins got his first job on a stipend basis from the South Side Help Center, a community organization devoted to encouraging a “lifestyle of prevention” and healthy alternatives offered through various programs and services. This is where Spraggins was trained to teach health education to youth by providing courses, workshops, and outreach in high schools

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across the South Side. He compares it more to peer counseling than just outreach.

Spraggins would also talk to young people on the street, at nightclubs, and at schools. The work wasn’t limited to STI and HIV education; he helped connect pregnant and parenting teenagers to community programs and resources.

Spraggins found a second family at the South Side Help Center and was gratified by the work he was doing. In the process of developing his career in health care and education, Spraggins himself had

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HEALTH a positive HIV diagnosis, the day before 9/11. “So yeah, they dropped that bomb,” Spraggins told the Weekly, laughing, his white cat Neema sitting in his lap.

“How the hell did you end up positive if you teachin’ all this information about it?

And it hurt me; for a while, I was a little bit ashamed,” Spraggins admitted “But I had to also realize that a lot of the work that I was doing was peer work. And behavior change is a process.”

Spraggins, now forty-four, is a Black and same-gender loving man who continued working towards providing humanizing, impactful healthcare to marginalized communities his entire adult life. He helped develop and facilitate community programs with the Test Positive Aware Network and advocated with the AIDS Treatment Activists Coalition, a group that connects people living with HIV and AIDS to encourage their involvement in the national agenda to end HIV and AIDS. Given his work and lived experiences, Spraggins was an invaluable resource on these teams.

“We basically worked with pharmaceutical companies as peers who would review scientific information around the medications and ask the questions that no one was asking,” Spraggins said.

“For example, have you had enough Black people in the study in order to understand whether or not this drug is going to be metabolized differently in our livers, as opposed to white mens’ livers?”

During the first twenty years of his career, Spraggins had crossed paths with Howard Brown several times. His initial impression was that they were a company that mostly served the white gay male population. Spraggins was outspoken about his skepticism that Howard Brown held the cultural competency necessary to serve a majority Black and Brown population and advocated against the opening of their South Side clinics.

“Lo and behold, years later, after Howard Brown had actually been on the South Side for some time…I've known some people who've been working here, and they were telling me that Howard Brown is actually trying their best to learn to do that and do that well. And so I needed work,” Spraggins said, laughing again.

For the past three years, Spraggins has been working as a Partner Services Coordinator at Howard Brown, doing

PHOTO BY LUZ MAGDALENO FLORES

disease intervention.

Spraggins says his initial impressions of Howard Brown were proven true within months of working there. “Howard Brown is still not able to live up to its vision of being rooted in LGBTQ liberation and wanting to fight disparities and inequities

Side locations rent space from external organizations or landlords: Thresholds South on 47th Street; a privately owned building on 55th; and a city-owned building on 63rd. Rather than create a new building owned by Howard Brown for its South Side patients, the organization is

“You hear [leadership and management] talking about empowerment and all of this, and they don’t know the programs they dismantled when they did those layoffs.” —Tiffany Foster-Mitchell in communities of color, in particular, for LGBTQ+ people of color,” he said. “There are many, many great staff at Howard Brown. Our leadership, unfortunately, is making a number of decisions that seem very antiproductive to the head.”

Spraggins cites several inconsistencies between the North and South Side clinics to support his claim. All of the South

constructing a $53 million building on the North Side.

It is because of this setup that Howard Brown leadership says they are unable to perform immediate, necessary repairs on the buildings, where employees report rooms in disrepair, a lack of space for operations, brown sink water, bed bugs, and in one instance at 63rd street, a

rodent running up the pant leg of a health provider.

In March of 2022, the organization began construction on the new multimillion-dollar building in North Halsted, which would replace the atcapacity clinic that currently stands at 3245 N. Halsted Street. The new building will be five stories, with triple the clinical space than its previous iteration, and includes “expanded medical care, social services, and Howard Brown’s first North Side dental clinic.”

Many North and South Side employees presume its secondary use is to attract donors and solidify Howard Brown’s status as the exemplary health-care provider in Illinois. They also believe that its stated purpose to help accommodate an overflow of patients is superfluous when the layoffs happened later that fall due to an alleged lack of funds, and the conditions of Howard Brown’s South Side clinics remain in reportedly poor and cramped conditions.

This construction, while no doubt good for those who may directly benefit, informs Spraggins’s assessment that Howard Brown behaves contradictory to its mission to reduce health inequities across all identities.

In an email, a spokesperson for Howard Brown wrote, “As was done in all departments that underwent cuts, reductions in the behavioral health department were made strategically to ensure that no part of the city would be disproportionately affected by the changes.”

While the INA union representatives the Weekly spoke to confirmed that the South Side clinics did not see a greater number of layoffs to their behavioral health staff, the staff was smaller and understaffed to begin with. The layoffs then have a greater per person impact on a staff that says they are already overwhelmed.

H

oward Brown’s oft-referenced genesis story (on their website) is touted as evidence of their commitment to the advancement of LGBTQ+ rights and enrichment. The organization’s humble beginnings started in 1974 as a post med–school project assembled by members of the Chicago Gay Medical Students Association, who sought to provide safe and nonjudgmental sexual health services to Chicago’s MAY 4, 2023 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 5

HEALTH gay community. The students met and provided care on a walk-in basis in a oneroom apartment above a grocery store in Lincoln Park.

The organization thus christened itself Howard Brown after the pioneering Illinois-born doctor, who publicly identified as gay in 1973 and helped to create the National Gay Task Force (now the National LGBTQ Task Force).

Howard Brown Health established itself as an early researcher of Hepatitis B and contributor to the vaccine and an early tester and researcher of HIV and AIDs, providing free testing and resources to patients living with the disease.

As white gay men gained mainstream acceptance and class mobility, so did Howard Brown. While early funding came from the Brown Elephant, its vintage clothing and furniture stores, and grassroots fundraising, the clinics were able to acquire transformative funding by way of large private donations and milliondollar grants. This evolved into Howard Brown being the primary healthcare provider for LGBTQ+ Chicagoans, Illinoisians, and out-of-state patients who relied on Howard Brown for affirming and affordable care.

It is this progressive history that attracted people like Jessica Vasquez, twenty, to work for Howard Brown.

Vasquez, a queer Latinx person who was born and raised in Humboldt Park and Logan Square, is currently in school for registered nursing and began an externship at the Howard Brown off-site clinic in La Casa Norte, conveniently located near their home.

Vasquez was elated when she was offered the position as a full-time bilingual medical assistant on her second day at Howard Brown. However, Vasquez would have to commute to 47th and Halsted for this job.

Every Chicagoan has a CTA story.

Vasquez’s involved taking a train to a bus for their commute to Howard Brown on the South Side. Without the common delays and disruptions that plague the CTA, their commute was about an hour long. But the pandemic-era setbacks coupled with their knee pain contributed to Vasquez being late to work on several occasions. Vasquez maintains that this lateness was not excessive in time or occurrence. Additionally, they say they 6 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY ¬ MAY 4, 2023

Louis Spraggins

were easily able to catch up on what they missed by consulting with their lead or peers if they missed that morning’s huddle.

Two of their co-workers seconded this with the Weekly.

Vasquez and coworkers said that most employees are accommodated for schedule changes due to school and childcare conflicts. Vasquez required these accommodations so that she could make her 6pm Thursday class and a daytime class on Saturdays. At this point, Vasquez was working five days a week at Howard Brown in addition to a shift every third Saturday of the month. But when they requested to leave work early on Thursdays or change her Saturday shift, Vasquez was told she couldn’t be accommodated.

After several warnings about their lateness, Vasquez was fired at the end of February. In her dismissal paperwork, Vasquez’s manager referenced a complaint from the health care provider, stating that the provider felt Vasquez’s lateness was a disruption to service. The provider told the Weekly that this is a lie, and she not only denies ever making these complaints but also feels that Vasquez was an outstanding employee whose presence the team misses.

Representatives from Howard Brown say that they cannot comment on these allegations due to employee confidentiality law but also said their code of conduct handbook clearly outlines prohibited behaviors, and any person who feels they are being treated unfairly is encouraged to file a claim with their internal incident

PHOTO BY EMILY SOTO

reporting system. Representatives also said there is a team “dedicated to actively investigating all claims and will take appropriate action.”

While her employment would have been much more secure had a union contract already been in place, Vasquez still found relief and support from the union after her termination, even though a contract has not been established.

Showing up to work late and receiving formal warnings on these instances can result in a fair termination. However, the union can file a claim with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on Vasquez’s behalf because the conditions involved disparate treatment between Vasquez and their peers since Vasquez observed other coworkers’ scheduling needs accommodated A previous NLRB case, referred to as Total Security Management, established this precedent. When employees are terminated based on discretionary discipline, wherein personal discretion is used for when and how discipline is given, the employer is required to bargain with the union over the termination, regardless of whether a contract is being established or not.

This precedent was overturned during the Trump administration, but the INA union is considering using similar cases to return to this standard in their support of cases like Vasquez’s. In addition, the fabrication of a provider’s complaint can serve as evidence that Vasquez was being

singled out by her manager.

The INA considers all sixty-one of the layoffs in January as part of several unfair labor practices, or ULPs, that Howard Brown has allegedly committed. So far, the INA has successfully reinstated two employees that were terminated last fall due to violations of the National Labor Relations Act. According to Vasquez, one of the Howard Brown nurses said to them, “‘You know, you have this glow on you; you have this amazing personality you bring to the team.’ I was just there to help. I was just trying to come in every day with a smile, just trying to get through the day,” said Vasquez.

Vasquez has since struggled to find new employment, even as she is one of the sole providers for her family. She remains passionate about healthcare and her planned career in nursing but feels the blowback of broken trust when the security that she initially found at Howard Brown was compromised by the actions of a single leader. Vasquez says she has been asked about “drama” at Howard Brown during job interviews.

T

iffany Foster-Mitchell started her career as a Medical Assistant in 2013, at Roseland Hospital’s emergency room, a job where she says she worked with her community: “minorities, period.” From there, she worked in cardiology at Northwestern for four and a half years, and then she did dermatology at Rush for one year. And while she enjoyed this work, it was not making the impact she imagined herself making.

Foster-Michell, thirty-three, was hired as the lead Medical Assistant at Howard Brown’s 47th Street clinic within Thresholds South, the housing nonprofit, in February 2022. She looked forward to working for Howard Brown because it put her in closer proximity to working-class Black and Brown people like herself.

“I feel like I went and got all this awesome training. And I was like, I’m gonna bring it back to my community and show them that you can get the same care and passion that the patients at Northwestern and Rush are getting,” Foster-Mitchell said.

“Especially in this particular area between 63rd and 55th and 47th, there’s a lot of queer individuals, a lot of sex workers, things of that nature. That’s our reality over

HEALTH here. But if we can get them the care that they need, they can do what they’re doing safely.”

Foster-Mitchell started work with expectations of being a leader. She assumed she’d work with a team and a manager with similar goals and sought to meet those goals by doing things “by the book…like our medical system should.” But FosterMitchell says she wasn’t provided the resources or management support to do so.

Her staff was short and overworked; at the 47th Street location, there are only three doctor rooms and four exam rooms, one of which is allegedly not fully functioning, that providers have to rotate between.

Discussion of unionizing at Howard Brown began before Foster-Mitchell started, and although she wanted to join, the prospect of still being within her ninety-day probationary period concerned her. Within this period, an employee can be terminated without specific reason; in this case, an employer could terminate a potential union member because the organization perceives the union as a threat.

Once she passed this period, FosterMitchell was all in. “I was just pushing, ‘Vote for the union.’ I was nominated as a bargaining committee member, and I didn’t even know people had nominated me! I didn’t know that people knew who I was.

It made me proud that people trusted me enough to represent them.”

During the process of voting for the union, Foster-Mitchell experienced turmoil at 47th Street. She says her manager, who was also manager to Jessica Vasquez, often pitted coworkers against each other through favoritism and by sharing confidential information. When Foster-Mitchell would email her manager about an issue, the message would be ignored or not properly addressed. At one point, she was put on a performance improvement plan, a move most consider the courtesy warning shot before termination.

Despite these thorns, Foster-Mitchell shared plenty of roses from this period, many of which were about the ecstatic joy her team felt when the union passed.

“When we got that phone call, it seemed like everything was working. I knew how my manager was, I knew how things was,” Foster-Mitchell said, referring to her manager’s actions that seemed to undermine the passing of the union.

“But I felt like I just took such a beating

and pushed through. And once I became on the bargaining committee, I was, like, untouchable, as far as I had support from my union.”

Since assuming her position on the bargaining committee, Foster-Mitchell has seen personal improvements. She’s received private and public praise from leadership for her work applying the PCMH (patient-centered medical home) model, a philosophy of client-centered care, and Epic, a platform to organize client

‘wow.’”

Foster-Mitchell says the response to claims about mismanagement, buildings in disrepair, and overall union busting have been dismissed by Howard Brown’s team at the bargaining table. Their response is sterile and often references the employee handbook or the company’s stated values as reasoning that the claims are unfounded or as grounds for defense.

An INA union representative, Sarah Hurd, told the Weekly that she finds

Howard Brown staff take a lunch break during a bargaining meeting.

treatment, in 47th Street’s clinic.

But she fears these positives are negated by the overall response from Howard Brown since the union started contract negotiations. Continued layoffs and firings, specifically surrounding the behavioral health staff at 47th Street, put increased pressure on Foster-Mitchell and others. A mandatory attendance policy and in-person care, rather than telehealth visits, impacts not only the employees but also those patients who come from outside of Chicago or even out-of-state.

“You hear [leadership and management] talking about empowerment and all of this, and they don’t know the programs they dismantled when they did those layoffs. Now we [the medical assistants] have to perform as health educators, changing people’s job titles when your union contract is under negotiation,” Foster-Mitchell told the Weekly. “Changing the attendance policy—that’s the first way to get rid of people. The things they did, the moves that they were pulling, had me like,

PHOTO BY EMILY SOTO

Howard Brown’s actions before and at the bargaining table to be egregious.

Hurd said the bargaining location at Howard Brown’s headquarters in Uptown symbolizes the way the company allegedly treats its South Side employees and clients as an afterthought, citing evenings when Howard Brown employees from all over Chicago commuted after work for bargaining meetings that sometimes lasted hours. Additionally, Hurd says workers from one side of the city, many of whom use public transit to get to work, have since been relocated across town.

“The sheer amount of anecdotal evidence that we have points to some amount of bad-faith bargaining on the side of management,” said Hurd. “We have a group chat that is all the workers in their non-work group, and not a day goes by that somebody doesn’t post in that saying, ‘You know, can somebody find me a union rep? I feel like my manager is targeting me for X, Y, or Z.’ It’s basically like a nonstop onslaught of what we feel is like union-

busting behavior.”

In an email, a spokesperson for Howard Brown wrote, “Howard Brown Health and the Illinois Nurses Association (INA) have been engaged in contract negotiations for five months now. In that time, we have had nineteen direct bargaining sessions and have reached sixteen different tentative agreements on contract proposals. We will continue to bargain in good faith so that we can reach a contract agreement that is satisfactory to all parties involved.”

The INA’s Executive Director, Julia Bartmes, agrees that the current length of the bargaining process is standard, but that this is irrelevant to the overall claims that Howard Brown staff are making about alleged union-busting behavior.

“That just feels like a superfluous defense,” Bartmes says.

The wave of unionization across the country and healthcare industry includes several organizations and companies whose otherwise progressive values are demonstrably malleable once their staffs unionize. Howard Brown’s union has experienced nothing different, but the power dynamic between staff and leadership is magnified by the fact that the union is diverse across race, class, and sexual orientation, while executive leadership remains mostly white, cis people.

Despite this, the union members remain determined. The two employees whose terminations were found to be in violation of the National Labor Relations Act and whose jobs were reinstated have also received back pay covering the period they were out of work.

For people like Louis Spraggins and Tiffany Foster-Wallace, the purpose they found in organizing the union is itself a win.

“A lot of the people within the Howard Brown union, they are therapists,” Hurd noted, referring to when a union member noticed a change in Hurd’s mood after a frustrating bargaining meeting.

“And like, ten different workers came up to me throughout the day, and they were like, ‘Hey, are you okay? Like, do you need to talk about things? You need to take some space? Are you taking care of yourself?’”

“And I was like, ‘No, no, no, I’m supposed to be here supporting you,’” Hurd said. “Don’t you dare do unpaid emotional labor on my behalf. But this is a special group.” MAY 4, 2023 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 7

POLICE

Abolition Goes Global A panel of three Chicago abolitionist organizers made connections between wars abroad and policing at home.

BY MAX BLAISDELL

D

emands to defund and abolish the police and prisons took center stage in the wake of the summer 2020 protests. Politicians and lawmakers took some measures to reduce the prison population, such as President Biden pardoning thousands of federal inmates convicted on marijuana charges, but prison and police department budgets continue to rise. And in recent years, the “Forever Wars” in Iraq and Afghanistan have drawn down substantially due to declining public support for military involvement overseas, yet the Department of Defense’s budget has actually increased since 2016 and it has awarded large multi-year contracts to arms manufacturers to meet growing demand for munitions for Ukraine and to replenish reserves should the U.S. go to war with China.

The police, the prison system, and the military-industrial complex can thus seem as entrenched as ever, even though calls for radical change have gained ground. In this context, three Chicagobased organizers—Asha Ransby-Sporn, Benji Hart, and Timmy Châu—spoke on Tuesday, April 25, for a virtual panel titled, “It’s All Policing, It’s All War: Chicago Organizers on Connecting Abolition and Demilitarization,” hosted by Barnard’s Center for Research on Women (BCRW).

Dean Spade, a professor of law at Seattle University and panel organizer and moderator, has written extensively about the abolition and trans-rights movements.

He also directed a documentary on “pinkwashing,” in which an organization presents itself as LGBTQ+ friendly in order to downplay negative behavior, and created a mutual aid toolkit dubbed Big Door Brigade. The panel was part of a series of public conversations about mutual aid, transformative justice, and abolition hosted

by BCRW and aimed at university students and politically-active young people.

8 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY ¬ MAY 4, 2023

Spade and panelists Ransby-Sporn, Hart, and Châu knew each other prior to the panel through their collaboration on Dissenters, a youth-led anti-war organization with chapters throughout the country. The aim of the organization is to end government contracts with major arms manufacturers like Boeing and Lockheed Martin. They also aim to reroute federal budget money currently allocated to the Department of Defense towards greater social service provision like Medicare for All or increased funding for public education.

The motivation behind the panel was for the Chicago organizers to draw connections between their domestic

connection between that fight and the protests against “Cop City” near Atlanta, where a police academy is being built on forest and farmland that had been a prison labor site for much of the 20th century.

“Even those in resistance are taught to see the system and structure that is directly in front of us as the primary target and are discouraged from understanding all of the different tributaries that are feeding the target that is in front of us,” Hart pointed out. “The segregation in the city of Chicago aids in that, keeping communities from having conversations with each other aids in our fights staying separate and aids in our lack of our analysis in terms of seeing how structures are connected.”

“If I am upset about [violence] happening to me and the people that I love in the community that I belong to, I should be upset seeing that and resisting it happening wherever it is happening.” — Benji Hart organizing work for police and prison abolition, and global anti-war movements.

“When we talk about internationalism, it is not always literally crossing the borders between nation states, but understanding that the imaginary delineations between systems and structures mirror the delineations in our communities, how the power is kept separate,” said Hart, an interdisciplinary performance artist and educator.

Hart was deeply involved in Chicago’s #NoCopAcademy movement that sought to block the construction of the $128 million facility that opened in January on the West Side. In a recent article, they drew

The term abolition is generally understood in public discourse as a shorthand for calls to defund or abolish the police, the prison-industrial complex, and other carceral systems—and before that, the abolition of slavery. The panelists emphasized abolition’s constructive potential, too.

“The abolition of war and prisons and policing and militarism is about saying we can get rid of those systems of violence and punishment and can build up systems that invest in people,” Ransby-Sporn said. “The resources to do those things exist, and it is our collective responsibility to claim them.”

In that sense, abolition is about creating

the conditions in which human beings no longer relate to each other in violent terms, but instead relate to each other because of their shared inherent moral worth, with a focus on the material conditions that would make such relations possible.

“Abolition work requires not only radical critique but also imaginations of new futures,” Spade added.

Although there are strains within abolitionism that harken back to radical leftist and pacifist movements of the past, there are important differences around the place of Black voices and concerns in the struggle for social, economic, and environmental justice.

“Whenever we center Black lives, Black stories, and Black struggles, we are undoing all of the myths that empire, particularly the U.S. empire, likes to tell about itself,” Hart said. When “the U.S. positions itself as a global moral authority, [it] is inherently undermined every time Black struggles put on full display how brutal, how violent, how undemocratic the U.S. nation-state actually is.”

For Ransby-Sporn, part of forging solidarity across nationalities is about understanding anti-Blackness as underpinning the global capitalist system.

“How anti-Blackness works is the idea, whether being said explicitly or implicitly, [that Black people] are somehow less human, less able to govern ourselves, less deserving of whatever the idea of citizenship affords people, that then justifies the use of militarized violence, of economic control and all of the other ways Black communities are not given the space we deserve for self-determination and selfgovernance.”

The conversation ranged from the abstract to the intimate, the structural to the personal. All three panelists spoke about how they first became politically aware and active, offering stories to their college-age

listeners that might inspire or demonstrate how there is no one single trajectory into activism.

Ransby-Sporn, a co-founder with Châu of Dissenters, became politicized through a youth arts program sponsored by the City of Chicago. Through that program, she met other young, mostly Black and brown folks with whom she read and wrote poetry and swapped stories, all of them trying to make sense of their shared experiences of the workings and role of race in American society.

“It wasn't an organizing or a movement space, but it was very much political,” she said. “It was a space where I as a young person felt like I found my voice and became a part of a big collective that was changing a narrative about who we were and what Chicago was.”

While attending Columbia University, Ransby-Sporn got involved in antigentrification efforts. After exposing the extent of their holdings in for-profit prison companies, she was instrumental in pressuring the university to divest from the private prison industry.

Ransby-Sporn also traveled to Geneva, Switzerland as part of We Charge Genocide, a group with origins in Chicago, to deliver a report to the United Nations Committee Against Torture, which gave her experience with the workings of international institutions.

It was through that group that Châu got his start in organizing work. “Through We Charge Genocide I got connected to a group called Chicago Torture Justice Memorials, a radical consortium of movement builders fighting for reparations,” Châu said.

Chicago Torture Justice Memorials grew in response to the decades-long practice of torture by former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge and his associates, many of whom served in the Vietnam War and developed some of the torture techniques there. Memorials went on to win a landmark reparations ordinance from the city in 2015, inspiring reparations movements across the country.

The revelation of Burge’s service in Vietnam struck a chord for Châu. Both his mother and grandmother survived the war and came to the U.S. as immigrants. “I remember these vivid stories,” Châu said.

“At the time I was a child, they sounded like movies, but [my grandmother] would

tell these wild stories of having to evacuate their home because of ongoing conflict, machine guns, hearing B-52 bombers flying over their homes.”

In addition to being a co-founder of Dissenters, Châu served for four years as the managing director for the Prison + Neighborhood Arts/Education Project (PNAP), which builds networks of mutual support and advocacy among activists, scholars, students, and artists both in and out of prison.

The detail about Burge’s military service before his career in CPD also seemed telling for Hart, many of whose Black family members are police officers.

“I want to underline that all of the police officers in my family are all former military veterans as well,” Hart said. “We see [that] systems and structures are always recruiting from the same populations, targeting the same populations for violence, protecting the same interests and investing in the same companies and corporations and private bodies.”

Echoing Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous declaration that “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly,” Hart concluded about the violence practiced by both police in the United States and the military abroad.

“If I am upset about [violence] happening to me and the people that I love in the community that I belong to, I should be upset seeing that and resisting it happening wherever it is happening,” said Hart.

Offering a path forward, Châu remarked that the only way to “disrupt the status quo of the U.S. empire is by agitating, by sustained mass, militant direct action, by pushing those moments of rupture as far as we can. And in the lulls, we want to be maintaining those radical demands and translating that into [real] policies.” Max Blaisdell is an educator and basketball coach based in Hyde Park. He is originally from New York City and later served in Peace Corps Morocco. He last covered community benefits agreements around the Obama Presidential Center.

MAY 4, 2023 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 9

CANNABIS

Black and Brown People Forge Their Own Way in the Cannabis Industry

People of color refuse to wait on the sidelines for an opportunity in the cannabis industry and instead are creating their own.

BY JOCELYN MARTINEZ-ROSALES

T

his past April 20 was a holiday for many in Illinois. Dispensaries across the state promoted giveaways, raffles, and special cannabis product deals in commemoration of the unofficial cannabis holiday. Yet there were people in the cannabis industry who have had to find other ways to promote their business because of long standing inequities in who gets to legally profit from the plant.

Illinois lawmakers promised that the state’s legalization of cannabis would be the “most equity-centric” law in the nation. HB1438, which legalized cannabis in January 2020, was signed alongside criminal justice reform advocates and a major component was to promote “equity and invest[ments] in the communities that suffered through the war on drugs.” But the plant’s legalization more than three years ago has not led to substantial gains for the Black and Brown communities most affected by its criminalization.

Data from the 2022 Illinois Cannabis Market Diversity Report conducted by the Illinois Cannabis Regulation Oversight Officer (CROO), showed that eighty-eight percent of dispensary majority owners were white. The same CROO study reports that less than one percent of the cannabis ownership and workforce was formerly incarcerated.

For Brighton Park resident Carlos Ramos, waiting by the sidelines for an opportunity to be part of the growing industry was not an option. “The cannabis industry or culture is dominated by these MSOs, these multi state operators, these huge corporations that are really just in pursuit of profits off of this plant,” said the thirty-four-year-old. “The cannabis

10 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY ¬ MAY 4, 2023

industry doesn’t look like me, it doesn’t represent me or reflect me.”

MSOs, or multi-state operators, are large cannabis corporations, such as Cresco Labs, Curaleaf, and Verano Holdings, that have the infrastructure to expand as cannabis continues to be legalized in other states. MSOs are often described with the mission to “capitalize on new markets by extending their opportunities” and “unlocking revenue.”

Ramos, who had previously been convicted of a felony for cannabis distribution, found an opportunity in the beverage industry after graduating from his bachelor degree. When COVID-19 hit,

equity dispensary licenses. These licenses are awarded to people that “have lived in a Disproportionately Impacted Area,” have been arrested or convicted of a cannabisrelated offense and or have a spouse, child or parent that’s been arrested/convicted of such offense. Criteria does not include gender, race, age or sexual orientation specifications.

There were problems with the approach from the beginning, such as allowing established medical marijuana dispensaries to immediately apply for adult-use retail licenses as well as a second retail location regardless of whether they were a social equity applicant. Successful applicants also

“The cannabis industry doesn't look like me, it doesn't represent me or reflect me.” –Carlos Ramos. he then decided to combine his mixology knowledge with his passion for cannabis into Up Elevated Cocktails, a mobile cannabis cocktail bar that launched in August of 2020.

“I’m trying to build my own kind of legacy and work alongside people that have a care for the plant and have a care for people and community and trying to restore the harms done by the war on drugs,” said Ramos.

One component of Illinois’s equitycentric approach to legalizing cannabis was the development of the adult-use Cannabis Social Equity Program, which carved out an application process for social

had 180 days to meet state requirements and open up shop, which posed problems for many applicants who had limited access to capital and after lawsuits and delays in the program led to partners and investors pulling out.

Media outlets have also reported on the hurdles social equity applicants face in obtaining licenses, like tens of thousands in fees and legal help, and administrative errors leading to denied applications.

It took Alejandro Hernandez over two years of applying for budtender positions— dispensary staffers that have knowledge on cannabis products and steer customers in the direction of their pallet—to finally land

an interview. In the meantime, Hernandez wrote on cannabis, with bylines in the Chicago Reader, and regularly blogs strain reviews and cannabis lifestyle content for Black Hippy Farms.

Hernandez says that despite cannabis consumers being diverse, the industry has yet to reflect the same. “People don't really realize that if you're just a fly on the wall at a dispensary, anything like that, you would literally see any type of person walk in,” said Hernandez, describing the range of cannabis consumers.

Hernandez went through three rounds of interviews with Grasshopper Club dispensary in Logan Square before getting the job. He believes that he got this far because it’s a Black-owned dispensary and part of its mission is “to create a more diverse ecosystem in the industry.” This is the kind of intentionality that Hernandez and other cannabis activists advocate for in the industry, and that he says is missing from MSOs. Cannabis social equity programs were developed to avoid market dominance, but the big players have multiple advantages over small businesses and social equity applicants. The Reader reported that MSO Cresco Labs, for example, was allowed to submit multiple applications for licenses.

The Cannabis Business Association of Illinois, which includes MSOs, lobbied against a bill that would allow craft cannabis growers more canopy space, something that craft growers have said is necessary to make their businesses profitable.

W

hile individuals like Hernandez and Ramos are forging their own ways into the cannabis

industry, agencies like the CROO are set in place to promote a path towards equity and diversity. However, unlike other states, Illinois does not have a central agency for cannabis regulation that has left agencies like CROO asking for reorganization of the system set in place.

“The difficulty in that is that the Cannabis Regulation Oversight Office is kind of the mediator, the middleman between nine state agencies that have a hand in regulating cannabis,” said Solomon Hatch, CROO deputy of administration.

Hatch explains that while the CROO was developed to advocate “effective policies to ensure diversity and equity,” they are urging for the consolidation of a single state agency that would help streamline effective policies that could resolve diversity.

“Illinois is the only outlier as far as states that have a decentralized governing or regulatory body that makes things difficult sometimes,” said Hatch.

In the meantime, CROO conducts extensive research into the industry to quantify and track demographic trends in Illinois. Currently, the office is undertaking a comprehensive disparity study that has not been done anywhere across the U.S. “It's kind of a dream team of folks from all over the country that have not only experience in cannabis, but in conducting research and disparity studies across the country,” said Hatch.

The study is set to be completed at the start of the coming year. Hatch emphasizes that the studies conducted by CROO have shown that diversity has taken slow strides in Illinois. “Progress is being made.

Things don't happen overnight. This is a very expensive industry to do business in and keep in mind, even though it's legal on the state level, it's still illegal on the federal level,” said Hatch.

And while some communities might shy away from doing business with MSOs, CROO is partnering up with Cresco Labs for a Social Equity and Development Program. This program would offer training and licenses free of charge. Cresco launched their SEED (social equity & education development) model in 2019 “with a dedicated mission to address the absence of people, businesses, and communities disproportionately impacted by the War on Drugs in the regulated cannabis industry.”

Hatch says the partnership will be rolled out in the coming summer and mentioned

potential partnerships with entities like City Colleges of Chicago.

Currently, City Colleges of Chicago has three certification programs and one cannabis degree path under the Urban Agricultural department at Olive-Harvey College.

“I would say 96% of our students are of Black and Brown descent. We are located in the Pullman area so we serve a lot of the community,” said Akilah Siti Easter, dean of the Urban Agriculture department.

In anticipation of the legalization of marijuana, a dispensary operations certificate program was developed for various colleges and now, after more than two years of operation, they are in the process of creating a mock dispensary.

“Our students can say that ‘we've had twenty hours in a mock dispensary.’ And that would give them an advantage over other candidates,” said Easter.

This mock dispensary would be created on top of their infusion lab and already functioning 1500 square foot hemp greenhouse where “students actually get to trim, cut, grow cannabis within their curriculum.” Olive Harvey president, Kimberly Hollingsworth, also mentioned they were recently granted a statewide distinction where students from anywhere in the state could take advantage of indistrict-cost.

Ramos says Black and Brown people have historically had to persevere and survive; this is just an added instance. “A really interesting aspect about us, people of color, is that we've always been the agents of change in culture,” said Ramos.

Ramos hopes to have a packaged product in the market by the end of the year and one day own a cannabis consumption space. To him it’s only a matter of when because “you can't stop greatness.”

Ramos and Hernandez believe the cannabis industry will become more diverse but it’s because people are forging their own way instead of waiting for the cannabis industry to bend. Jocelyn Martinez-Rosales is a MexicanAmerican from Belmont Cragin, Chicago.

As an independent journalist she’s passionate about covering communities of color with a social justice lens. She’s also a section editor at the Weekly.

MAY 4, 2023 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 11

Chicago Art Exhibit Examines Global War on 20th Anniversary of Iraq Invasion A summit opening the exhibit in March featured veteran artists from all over the world and drew connections between the War on Terror and the American Indian Wars.

BY ISRA RAHMAN

W

12 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY ¬ MAY 4, 2023

hen I first heard about “Surviving the Long Wars,” a series of art exhibitions and events that opened with a Veteran Art Triennial and Summit in March, I was both curious and skeptical. Having lived through the events of 9/11 and the structural Islamophobia that intensified in its wake, I’m jaded about American portrayals of war and Muslims, and how quickly they fall into a ’good Muslim’, ’bad Muslim’ dichotomy. I had never met anyone who was a veteran, let alone a veteran who was stationed in countries where my people came from.

But I trusted one of the co-organizers, Aaron Hughes, who put on an incredible interdisciplinary exhibit at the DePaul Art Museum in the fall that connected policing and militarism around the world, from Guantanamo Bay to Homan Square. So at the same time, I was drawn to attend, to see for myself what veteran art would evoke in me and whether it would feel like propaganda about the necessity of war or

critically reflect on U.S. militarism.

I wasn’t disappointed. The triennial questioned the origins and impacts of war at home and abroad by bringing together art and artists. By putting a face to the individuals creating pieces intimately linked to their identity, the exhibits moved past reflection and invited artists and attendees to make space for all the hurt that came with bringing up the displacement and violence of war.

The summit took place March 16-19 and was put together with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities Veteran fellows and the three institutions the exhibit will be housed in: the Chicago Cultural Center, Hyde Park Arts Center, and the Newberry Museum. The summit featured performances, speeches, and hands-on arts activities hosted by the artists at all three locations.

The triennial was organized by a group of artists, organizers, and academics, mostly in Chicago, who are well-versed in work

and writing around the global war on terror, policing, and the American Indian wars.

In addition to Aaron Hughes, an Iraqi War veteran, curator, and anti-war activist, the triennial was organized by Ronak K. Kapadia, an associate professor of Gender and Women’s Studies at UIC; Therese Quinn, a professor in Museum Exhibition Studies; Joseph Lefthand, a veteran descended from the Cheyenne-Arapaho, Taos, and Zuni tribes; Amber Zora, veteran and artist from South Dakota; and Meranda Roberts, who recently co-curated the Aspaalooke Women and Warriors exhibit at the Field Museum.

In an interview with the Weekly, Ronak K. Kapadia talked about the internationalist work they were attempting to do by curating this project. “It is about

Art by Saba Elahi

PHOTO COURTESY OF RONAK KAPADIA WITH SURVIVING THE LONG WARS

putting Arab, Muslim and South Asian diasporic art in conversation with the long, centuries long history of native and black led rebellion against security orders in the US.” This triennial was coming at the twenty year anniversary of the U.S. Invasion of Iraq. The advertising of the summit brought to light the two longest wars in U.S history: the American Indian Wars and the Global War on Terror. Those parallels were explored and made even more apparent throughout the weekend.

There was a palpable discomfort among the viewers of this art; forcing a recknowing about how to hold multiple truths about the war machine.

“It’s this particular group of people whose lives and communities have also

been destroyed by the war machine, trying to have discussions about transformative conversations, healing, justice oriented conversations about the perpetrator, perpetration of violence and some mode of reconciliation or reckoning now,” said Kapadia.

The second day of the exhibit, at the Hyde Park Arts Center, featured programming that captured the essence of seventeen artists’ works while speaking to the themes being navigated during this summit. This space felt more casual than the Newberry from the day before and the Cultural Center would later. There was space to walk around, eat, and drink at your own pace; luxuries not afforded as readily in the more policed arts spaces downtown.

Mahwish Chisty, a visiting artist from Massachusetts who was raised in Pakistan, brought with her a series of pieces called “Drone Art”. Beautifying the ugliest parts of violence, she created collages in the outlines of the aerial drones used by the U.S. military in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Yemen.

“The imagery on these machines is borrowing from the truck art, which is a native tradition of Pakistani truck art culture, where trucks are painted beautifully, elaborately in bright colors, and they have this iconography mixed with text and almost universal visual symbols that require no language in some way,” Chisty said during the group tour. “So I’m using that to show the deadliness of these machines.”

The exhibit wasn’t remarkable just because of the incredible art. As a fly on the wall in the room, one could expect to overhear the history of the U.S. Annexation of Native land, the Patriot Act, and policing in schools all while breaking bread and sipping a glass of wine. The threads of Chisty’s work, and how intimate and enmeshed surveillance is in the lives of drone victims, drew parallels to the work of June Carpenter, another exhibit artist.

Carpenter, repatriation specialist at the Field Museum, made visible the violence of the forced expulsion of Native Americans through the creation of hand embroidered shawls. The shawls contained the language of the six most egregious Supreme Court cases that set the precedent for violence against Native Americans. In one such case titled Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831), the Cherokee nation was deemed a “domestic dependent” nation, thus establishing the

Art by June Carpenter

PHOTO COURTESY OF RONAK KAPADIA WITH SURVIVING THE LONG WARS

guardian-ward dynamic between Native nations and the American government.

This case, along with many others, set legal precedent for the ways the U.S. government received leeway to intervene in every aspect of Native life through forced separation of families and schooling. This was all portrayed in ornately embroidered woven shawls functioning almost as shrouds and expansive coverings for the abuse done by the American government.

Shawls, symbols of beauty and warmth, even wealth, in Carpenters’ pieces are symbolic of all the covers that have allowed for American violence.

“These seventeen stars that are here are the beaded stars. These are seven pointed stars,” said Carpenter. “They are on the Cherokee seal. And that refers to these 17,000 people, 17,000 Cherokee, who are removed from Georgia after this case was decided.”

In a place like Chicago, where indigeneity is understood differently than in states like Oklahoma and South Dakota where reservations are visible and present spaces, it is not by coincidence that Native American art is less seen and visible.

While Native Americans were offered land in neighboring states, they were continuously pushed out of IL, making it one of sixteen states—and one of the furthest west—to not have any reservations.

This present-day fact is a reminder of the violence that went into that expulsion, and makes the organizing of groups like Chi Nations Youth Council even more

significant.

As Kapadia shared, the parallels between these wars lie in the way the war machine aims to disrupt intimate spaces; an idea that many of the artists at the triennial captured.

“War violence works by trying to destroy intimate intimacy, to also destroy our sense of our relationship to each other.

This is a key idea in my book, which is that counterinsurgency operates by trying to destroy our sense of how we are connected to each other. And so actually, part of what our practice is doing is giving us a sense of solidarity and a sense of intimacy through difference.”

Intimacy was a thread that wove together all the pieces across the city, whether through the forms themselves, or the ways artists shared stories of personal and public lives being disrupted and destroyed by war. Saba Elahi, Chicagobased artist, built off the same drone imagery as Chisty and the use of fabric as Carpenter, but instead of capturing the drone, she captured what the drone would see. By embroidering living room scenes, and intimate domestic spaces, she showed what a drone operator might see prior to falling on and destroying a family.

Outside of the context, these pieces could be seen as images of families embroidered, tender moments over a box of pizza or sitting on the couch watching nightly news. Instead, in the context of drones, its violence is even more insidious.

Taking it a step further, she uses the form MAY 4, 2023 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 13

MUSIC and technique of machine embroidery in some of her pieces to shed light on the mechanization of so much of the warfare industry, whether it be in production or practice.

There was no shortage of mediums used in this exhibit, from performance and paintings to collages, weaving, embroidery, and printmaking. Ruth Kaneko, former combat medic, created paper out of her military uniforms to honor the 38,000 Hawaiians who signed a petition refusing annexation of Hawaii by the United States.

The pieces were an homage to her Hawaiian heritage and resistance ancestry, and were poignant in the way they combined form and function to deliver power.

In a tearful explanation because of the recent death of her grandmother, Kaneko explained how she came to these pieces.

Both by anonymizing, but showing the sheer volume of individuals impacted by U.S forced annexation, she makes clear what it means to be from a community victimized by the war machine and a veteran.

“In the early 1800s, there was 1.2

Art by Ruth Kaneko

PHOTO COURTESY OF RONAK KAPADIA WITH SURVIVING THE LONG WARS

million Native Hawaiians in Hawaii.

By the time that it was illegally annexed by the United States, there were 40,000

PATRIC McCOY:

TAKE MY

PICTURE Traveling Chicago by bike, always with his camera, Patric McCoy captures 1980s Black gay Chicago, creating a poignant marker of place, time and memory.

THROUGH JULY 15, 2023 wrightwood659.org

THIS EXHIBITION IS PRESENTED BY ALPHAWOOD EXHIBITIONS AT WRIGHTWOOD 659 IMAGE CREDIT: Smoke Clouds, 1985,

by Patric McCoy. Courtesy of the artist.

14 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY ¬ MAY 4, 2023

WRIGHTWOOD

CHICAGO

native Hawaiians left,” said Ruth. “So after Hawaii was illegally annexed by the United States in 1893, these women went across Hawaii and they collected 38,000 petition signatures, which basically is the entire population.”

The pieces shed light on the organizing work of Native Hawaiians at the time and the power and work it took to collect signatures from all the Hawaiians left after strategic policies of displacement and erasure by the U.S. military. The art was also deeply personal for Kaneko, as her family name was one of the 38,000 featured. Her pieces, as of many Native veterans, captured the tension that I walked into the exhibit anticipating; how could we hold space for veterans and war victims? The reality of which is that war entangles itself deep into communities and there is room for the veterans in this space to share just how insidiously that happens.

In the work of Chitra Ganesh, New York-based artist, on display at the Chicago Cultural Center, we begin to see a reminder of the effect on individual lives that the war on terror had. Her soft

art form in the watercolor portraits ‘Seeing the Disappeared’ highlights individuals disappeared by the U.S government following 9/11 such as Fahd Gazy, a former detainee at Guantanamo Bay, or Sami AlArian, a Kuwaiti-born Palestinian activist held under house arrest from 2008 to 2014 under Patriot Act charges. Form and medium speak especially strongly to this, as instead of stiff sharp portraits with acrylic paint, she chose to do watercolor, softening the edges and the outlines of the portraits to honor lives lost and stolen.

E

ach space that housed the triennial added something different to the experience. The Hyde Park Art Center was a unique space for this exhibit, miles south from the rest of the installations, in the midst of work and studios of people like Robert Paige and Malika Jackson. The culminating moment at HPAC came with the performance by Hipólito Arriaga III, GOODW.Y.N., and Hussein Smko. On the cusp of Ramadan, on jummah nonetheless, I did not expect to hear the adhan echo

through the gallery room at HPAC. But the start of the performance was just that, the creation of a solemn space.

From there these three movement artists captured hurt and pain, joy and solidarity, all through the lyrical ways their bodies danced and fell.

In every way the still art (a word for non movement) could not capture emotion, the performance artists delivered, tying all the pieces together with a knot.

The artwork in the Cultural Center evoked a grandeur that the arts center could not, mirroring the art in a different way. Participants walked through the Tiffany dome and the marble engraved ceilings to make their way to the gallery.

The lights on Michael Rakowitz portrait-

esque collages of Iraq commemorated art stolen and destroyed in Iraq, leaving space for silences, but also grandeur to capture the remains from the Assyrian northwest palace of Kalhu. These wars not only had an impact on people and bodies, but art and the space it occupies.

The pieces throughout this exhibit echo in the trauma and hurt they convey.

“Very little attention [in mainstream media] to the ongoing nature of these wars, like these Indian wars never ended,” said Kapadia. “The War on Terror never ended, even if it was declared mission accomplished a million times. Yeah, the war permeates the lives of so many different kinds of peoples.

And so I think part of Surviving the Long Wars was about attending to that not only

afterlife, but the ongoing lived presence of war in lots of different kinds of people’s lives.”

The exhibit invites viewers to walk away with a global sense of solidarity, a commitment to the internationalist struggle for freedom. In the same way, it can evoke a sense of powerlessness; despite the beautiful community created, these wars still go on.

As Dunya Mikhail said in one of the poems she read on the second day of the exhibit: Their songs will not save us, although, in the chilliest times, they keep us warm, and when we need to touch the soul to know it’s not dead

their songs give us that touch. Surviving the Long Wars exhibits will remain open for a few months. Residues and Rebellions at Newberry Library until May 26; Unlikely Entanglements at the Hyde Park Art Center until July 9; Reckon and Reimagine at the Chicago Cultural Center until June 4.

Isra is an advocate at the Children and Family Justice Center and reporter with the Invisible Institute. In her free time she is reading, writing, and contemplating our role in the movement and how we can work to build a better world.

Once I was You: A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America

Maria Hinojosa writes about growing up on the South Side of Chicago as an immigrant, explores the complexities of identity, and examines the problems with U.S. immigration policy.

BY SARAH LUYENGI

M

aria Hinojosa’s memoir, Once I was You: A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America, is like a time capsule: it spans historical events during the turbulent 1960s and 1970s until the current events of the 2020s. The book analyzes America’s attitude towards immigrants throughout the decades and Hinojosa narrates her life from the time she entered the U.S. as a child, and her life as a teenager and young adult. It is the memoir’s personal stories that connect the dots of what it truly means to be an immigrant in America.

Hinojosa peels back the layers of America, writing “our attitudes toward the immigrants who come here to work, either by choice or force, are doubleedged.” History is written by the winners, and America is no exception. She breaks down the words behind the Declaration of

Independence as it mostly applied to white men, and examines the white-washing of the first settlers.

“History shows us the truth,” Hinojosa writes, “Or rather, one version of U.S. history told from a limited perspective reiterates the ‘truth’ that they want us to believe.” Even the Transatlantic Slave Trade, justified as the driving force behind America’s economy, is written from the “perspective of white male privilege” as it rather should be called a “governmentsponsored human-trafficking ring” instead, she writes.

What does it mean to be American?

Hinojosa was born in Mexico City in 1961.

She and her family immigrated to the U.S. the following year and settled in Hyde Park.

But, unlike other immigrants, Hinojosa was still able to experience her birthplace as she and her family would often visit

Mexico City during the summer. She describes Mexico as “a beautiful product of the chaos of confrontation between the advanced civilizations of the Mayans and Aztecs clashing with the arrivals of the Spaniards…a multicultural puzzle.”

Her father, Dr. Raul Hinojosa, MD, was selected by the University of Chicago to continue his research on the temporal bone at their institution. Hinojosa understands that her family’s immigration to the U.S. was only made possible through her father’s career journey. “My dad was part of the opening of this country toward some immigrants,” she writes. Hinojosa knows this isn’t your average immigrant story.

Dr. Hinojosa didn’t understand his family’s place in America’s racial dysfunction—was he white or colored?

Originally from Tampico, her father was a small-town man overwhelmed by this new

world. There were signs that read “No dogs, Irish or Mexicans” dictating who could use the drinking fountain. Where did the Hinojosas fit in this country?

The idea that race plays a role in achieving the American Dream is not lost upon Hinojosa. She touches upon the racial dynamics in America, and the dichotomy of the “good immigrant and bad immigrant” based on America’s economic growth. When the country is doing well, immigrants are seen as hardworking, but on the other side of the coin, immigrants are used as scapegoats during economic downturns.

Describing her family, she writes, “We were not Americans, but if we kept our mouths shut, sometimes we might be able to pass.” There is a racial hierarchy and to be accepted as an American is to gain a degree of whiteness. Hinojosa understands that MAY 4, 2023 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 15

LIT she could pass as white in different contexts and has a degree of privilege but, at the end of the day, she couldn’t fit into America’s standards or even Mexico’s.

“The first years of my life had been here in the United States, in Chicago, with gray skies, frigid winters, caves and hills made of ice, steamy humid summers, black people, and Motown,” she writes.

“Not Mexico City, with palm trees and the Popocatépetl, candy vendors, and my tias, tios and primos.”

During her teenage years, Hinojosa has arguments with her boyfriend as he attempts to tell her that she’s American— “You’re really American! Why can’t you just say so?” Hinojosa’s journey to finding her voice is also based on her bi-nationality as she writes, “being binational required constant jujitsu to navigate the expectations of others, and it was exhausting.”

But throughout the memoir, she expresses the importance of community and family to understanding herself and creating the pathway towards her journalism career. During her time studying at Barnard College in New York in the 1980s, she

was a student activist and created her own community of counterculture disruptors, queer radicals, feminist revolutionaries, war refugees and everything in between.

She got her footing as a radio host at WKCR during Barnard and since then, Hinojosa has covered ICE raids, abuse in

immigrants, I resonated with Hinojosa’s experiences—from being the “grateful immigrant” and being part of the exclusive club of “having moms and dads who spoke with thick accents” to constantly having to prove myself and watching 60 Minutes as a family during dinner. It’s important to not

“We were not Americans, but if we kept our mouths shut, sometimes we might be able to pass.” –Maria Hinojosa detention centers, youth violence, DACA, and more; she has reported for PBS, CBS, WNBC, CNN, and NPR. She continues to bring attention to points of view that are underreported in mainstream media.

Hinojosa writes, “I am that Mexican immigrant who is always looking for others like me everywhere, searching for visibility in others.”

As a daughter of Congolese

only shine a light on the issues that we as a country prefer to keep hidden but to also humanize the people behind the stories.

As a reporter, Hinojosa has succeeded in humanizing the headlines and her memoir is no different.

Once I Was You is a beautifully written memoir that often reads like literary fiction.

Each page flows into the next as the memoir spans her childhood and adulthood. The

memoir captures the differences of her two homes: “crazy, colorful, tormented and yet loving” Mexico City and the “grayish-blue skies and trees that change color” of Chicago.

In some moments, Hinojosa romanticized her time in college, and did not delve enough into discrimination based on skin tone, as she only briefly mentions her parents’ distrust of Black Americans or the fact that Hinojosa is light skinned and, at times, could pass. While Hinojosa did not address these in-depth, Once I Was You is still an insightful read that rings more true as the country continues to swim in racial tension.

Until Americans address the skeletons in their closet, we will continue to be a nation divided and full of broken promises.

“If you can’t take this color, then maybe you can’t take us,” Hinojosa writes. Sarah Luyengi earned her B.A. in English with a concentration in creative writing from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2014. Some of her non-fictional work has appeared in Borderless Magazine. She last conducted a Q&A with Beverly artist Hollie Davis.

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16 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY ¬ MAY 4, 2023

Public Meetings Report ILLUSTRATION BY HOLLEY APPOLD/SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

A recap of select open meetings at the local, county, and state level.

BY DOCUMENTERS AND SCOTT PEMBERTON

April 11 At its meeting, the City Council Committee on Housing and Real Estate recommended that several agenda items be approved. The Committee determined that 2020 changes to an ordinance encouraging developers to build more affordable housing have been so successful that they should be implemented retroactively. One of the changes incentivized developers to build family-sized rental units in addition to one-bedrooms and studios.

The other change made income requirements more flexible. The changes are now slated to apply to fifty-nine stalled housing projects. The Committee also recommended approval of a grant of more than $1 million for renovations to Greenstone United Methodist Church in Pullman. The site was recommended for Chicago landmark status nearly a year ago. A negotiated sale for City-owned property in Washington Park was authorized to Center Court Development LLC for construction of duplexes and townhomes. XS Tennis and Education Foundation Village plans to house elite student tennis players in the twenty-three-unit complex while they train at the organization’s athletics facility.

The project includes four affordable housing units.

April 17 Most of the Local School Council (LSC) Advisory Board meeting was taken up with a presentation by Jadine Shou, the CPS chief of safety and security, titled “Whole School Safety Planning Process” and the following discussion about CPD-supplied school resource officers (SROs). The issue of school safety has been ongoing and at times contentious. In 2020, the CPS Board charged the LSCs with deciding whether to retain SROs. In the first vote in the summer of 2020, fifty-five schools retained the officers and seventeen removed them. Now, forty schools are using SROs. The Board had also directed CPS to identify and implement “alternative systems of safety for CPS students.”

Chou explained a number of issues and procedures connected with school safety–for example, student-SRO interactions, training for SROs and school personnel, criteria for lockdowns, and others. Schools voting to eliminate SRO positions have used the overall $3.8 million in savings for other actions, such as hiring climate and culture coordinators, security officers, and restorative justice coordinators and developing other programming.

“There are so many things we can do that are not police solutions,” Chou said. CPD has been valuable in working with CPS on safety, she explained. “But there are also things we can do with CPS ourselves.” After completing a public planning and education process, the LSCs whose schools have SROs must take a stay-or-go vote no later than June 2.

Members of the City Council Committee on Finance heard extensive public comment at their meeting, mainly in connection with an agenda item “concerning the authority to amend Municipal Code Chapter 11-12 regarding the Utility Billing Relief Program.”

Public speakers complained about unusually high, accumulating water bills ($55,000 for an unoccupied building, for example, and $19,000 for a bill that has gone to collections)

and the difficulties in resolving them. One speaker described bureaucratic issues as egregious. The Committee took no action in connection with the UBR Program. The Committee did approve a recommendation for a one-hundred year, one-billion-dollar agreement to supply water to the City of Joliet. A presentation by Jennie Huang Bennett, Chicago’s chief financial officer, indicated that the deal would help to position the city for growth in the face of challenging financial issues. The Committee also reviewed, discussed, and passed several TIF allocations for development projects involving millions of dollars in funding.

April 18 Three proposals passed review by the City Council Committee on Zoning, Landmarks and Building Standards during its meeting. The proposals would designate Promontory Point as an official Chicago landmark, allow commercial urban produce growers to more easily sell their produce directly to consumers, and rezoning of the Lu Palmer Mansion in Bronzeville to enable it to be used as a museum by the Obsidian Collection. The group’s website describes it as a “hub of resources for Black journalists, content creators, media outlets and archivists who define the narratives of our community.” Lu Palmer was a Chicago journalist and activist who was a leader in the voter registration drive leading to the election of Harold Washington, Chicago’s first Black mayor, in 1983.

Taking no action, the City Council Committee on Ethics and Government Oversight reviewed a proposal at its meeting seeking to transfer the power to make certain government reports public from the City of Chicago’s corporation counsel’s office to the Office of the Inspector General, which is considered apolitical. Council member Michael D. Rodriguez (22nd Ward), who co-sponsored the ordinance with Council member Maria Hadden (49th Ward), said the move would support “a more transparent government that citizens can rely on and have faith that our decisions are independent.”

Hadden noted that “people want to know what the results of [an investigation] are . . . I think it’s better for the public good; it’s better for the public trust.” A process governing redactions would be developed. Also discussed was reinstating the position of a Chief Administrative Officer, which, though required by Municipal Code, has been vacant since 1988, Harold Washington’s successor as mayor, Eugene Sawyer, was in office. The role of Chief Administrative Officer is to coordinate the activities of the city’s departments.

April 19 Over an hour and forty-five minutes, a number of resolutions recognizing several individuals, groups, and events were heard and approved. Beginning with appreciation for outgoing City Council members and Mayor Lightfoot, they also included recognition of the 150th anniversary of the Chicago Public Library, the DePaul College Prep 2A state champion basketball team, the basketball coaching career of Simeon Academn’s Robert Smith, and April March as Arab American Heritage Month. Among twelve committee reports the City Council members heard—which mostly stated the date of the committee’s most recent meeting—was a list of $60 million designated for seven TIF projects approved by the Finance Committee.

April 25 This meeting of the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability (CCPSA) consisted of the third CPD Superintendent Search Public Forum. Two previous public forums were conducted in person; this one was virtual using Zoom.

CCPSA is required to hold at least four such forums to gather information and feedback on its nomination of three candidates for the next CPD superintendent from a pool of applicants. The mayor can select someone from that list for the City Council to approve or ask CCPSA to nominate three new people. This forum saw demands for better accessibility at the meetings, support for nominations from officers currently serving CPD, and support specifically for Commander Roderick Wilson, 3rd District.

Three more forums are scheduled for Thursday, May 4, at Roosevelt High School; Wednesday, May 10, at Kennedy High School, and Monday, May 22, at Beverly Arts Center. All forums begin at 6pm.

MAY 4, 2023 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 17

LIT

Our thoughts in exchange for yours.

T

he Exchange is the Weekly’s poetry corner, where a poem or piece of writing is presented with a prompt. Readers are welcome to respond to the prompt with original poems, and pieces may be featured in the next issue of the Weekly.

This Poem Is Definitely About Movie Theaters… by chima “naira” ikoro

i would never admit to being afraid of the dark. if walls can speak, i’m sure they learned those words from listening. i don’t want to give them any ideas. in a place where the sounds the walls make surround you anxiety finds inspiration; the manifestation of things i never knew existed, let alone feared. someone taught these walls how to use language, how to imitate the sounds of the human voice like a parrot, and i am petrified. knowing they’d only ever repeat things they’ve heard me say.

Chima Ikoro is the Weekly’s Community Builder.

THIS WEEK'S PROMPT: “IF WALLS COULD TALK, DESCRIBE A PLACE OR ROOM THAT WOULD HAVE THE MOST TO SAY ABOUT YOU.” This could be a poem, journal entry, or a stream-of-consciousness piece. Submissions could be new or formerly written pieces.

Submissions can be sent to bit.ly/ssw-exchange or via email to chima.ikoro@southsideweekly.com.

18 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY ¬ MAY 4, 2023

LIT

Ode To my Old Water Bottle by stuti sharma

Cursed soft heart that is always looking for something to love That cried over the old water bottle that is now sitting in my trash.

Oh blue water bottle with too many stickers on it, saved me from the white lady I worked with at the library who wanted to say something racist so I said “Sorry, I have to go fill my water bottle” and took ten leisurely minutes filling it up because it was so big Blue water bottle that held my secrets, my loves, my travels—my REI sticker with a van and cactus and the sky that said “Let’s get lost”—hilarious considering I get an anxiety attack any time the GPS shuts down on the road. A spiderman sticker I was going to give to an ex before we ended things. Ponyo and Princess Mononke staring up at me from a sticker that a stranger at Pitchfork gave me the summer my cousin died—she handed it to me and said her name was Hope.

Water bottle, you have been my constant companion, taken on my first flight since I left Kenya at five years old

to DC last summer, carried through the highest point of the Badlands, through the mountains of Wyoming, in my tent under the rain, accompanied hiking under pine trees hundreds of years old and reminder that I, too, will one day return to the earth but will always need to be watered.

Water bottle who Tanvi had the exact same type of and we’d always laugh and say “Twins!” whenever we went hiking together.

Water bottle, you were my reminder in the past three hellish years that no one is coming to save me except for myself, that I must get up and be my own hero, and some days that looks like successfully filling a water bottle up three times.

I have a metal pink Hydro Flask now, a strange class indicator. I will miss your transparent blue that the sun caught on good days and would turn into a rainbow.

Water bottle, what a beautiful life I’ve had, what a pleasure it’s been to have you in it.

Rugged for softness by c. lofty bolling

I am executing all the parts of me that Reject softness and its bellows. Give me release and flowing water Let the incense smoke fall and i’ll eat lunch in The other room. I can’t fathom disturbing its peace of mind and motion.

I find a hole in myself that is fragile. It is So tender to the touch. I haven’t nursed a wound In so long it took so long to even excavate the The scar. I just needed to be alone to realize The sensitivity. Give me charcoal and ash for the dust bath I’ll shower in the night time, im over due for rest by day break Chicago winds brush the dust off me but i still feel the weight, still I still feel the burden of resentment and its development, still I feel the ache of a lonely bone wishing to feel resonance through Another’s skin. I got orange peels scattered in my room A Colombian lover boy once told me they bring good luck.

MAY 4, 2023 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 19

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BULLETIN The 2023 Production Institute Application Monday, May 1, 12:59 AM. Free. bit.ly/2023ProductionInstitute

The Community Film Workshop of Chicago presents the Production Institute, which makes high-quality digital production training accessible to emerging media makers from South Side Communities. Applicants must have have a feasible project proposal, and

have attended all Film Aesthetics classes, which take place on Tuesdays, March 21, 28, April 4, 11 from 7pm to 9pm. The deadline for applications is April 30.

(Zoe Pharo)

Volunteer Day at Star Farm Chicago

Star Farm, 5155 S. Wolcott Ave. Wednesday, May 3, 11 AM–2 PM. Free. bit.ly/StarFarmVolunteer Star Farm Chicago in Back of the Yards is hosting a volunteer day. Tasks may include outdoor and indoor activities

Summertime in the Parks!

Register

ranging from weeding, planting seeds, trash pickup, compost sorting and organization and sanitation of spaces. Bring closed toed shoes, work gloves, a water bottle, snacks and dress accordingly for the weather in clothes you don’t mind getting dirty. Star Farm is run by the Community Food Navigator, a nonprofit launched in 2020 which aims to expand food sovereignty.

(Zoe Pharo)

Teamwork Englewood 20 Year Anniversary Celebration Kennedy-King College, 740 W. 63rd St.

Thursday, May 4, 7 PM–9 PM. Tickets are $150, table and general sponsorship opportunities are also available. bit.ly/TeamworkEnglewood20thAnniversary Teamwork Englewood is celebrating 20 years as a service and resource provider to the Englewood community. The organization was formed in 2003 to improve the quality of life for Englewood residents and stakeholder by facilitating economic, educational and social opportunities. RSVP in advance. Formal attire event. (Zoe Pharo)

ROLL IN EN

Jun. 2

6 – Aug

.4

for Summer

Programs & Events at the Chicago Park District!

Online registration opens Monday, May 1 & Tuesday, May 2.

In-person registration begins Saturday, May 6.

Summer Programs session runs June 26 to August 20.

For more information about your Chicago Park District, visit www.ChicagoParkDistrict.com or call 312.742.7529.

MAY 4, 2023 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 21

APIDA Arts Festival

hours each, followed by a thirty-minute reception where participants can connect with service providers and peer-led resources. (Zoe Pharo)

Chicago hosts the Asian, Pacific Islander, Desi/South Asian American Arts Festival in honor of May’s AAPI Heritage Month, with events downtown at the Chicago Cultural Center, Goodman Theatre, the Museum of Contemporary Art and an after-party at Lookingglass Theatre. (Zoe Pharo)

Kid Koala: Creatures Board Game Event

Various locations. Friday, May 5–Sunday, May 7, 4 PM–9:30 PM. Free or tickets can range up to $45. www.apidaarts.org/

Southside Critical Mass Bicycle Ride

Nichols Park Plaza, 1300 E. 55th St. Friday, May 5, 6:45 PM–11 PM. Free. bit.ly/criticalmassbikeride Now that the weather is starting to warm up, join Southside Critical Mass for a group bike ride starting at Nichols Park, 55th Street and Kimbark Avenue for 15 to 20 miles at a moderate pace, with a rolling speed 10 to 14 mph. By participating in the ride, you accept that you are responsible for your bike’s condition, your own fitness to ride and safety. Bring a mask, helmet, water, money, a bike lock, bike lights and jacket.

[Recurring] (Zoe Pharo)

WJI Reclamation Circle

Women’s Justice Institute, 2150 S. Canalport Ave. Saturday, May 6, 10:45 AM–2:15 PM. Free. bit.ly/WJIReclamation The Women’s Justice Institute is hosting a reclamation circle led by and for women impacted by the criminal legal system.

The circle brings people together to share experiences, identify resources and build networks and community. Circles run 2.5 22 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY ¬ MAY 4, 2023

Epiphany Center for the Arts, 207 S. Ashland Ave. Saturday, May 6, 7 PM– 8:30 PM. Free. bit.ly/KidKoalaboardgame From Chicago Humanities and CHIRP Radio, Kid Koala—DJ, film composer, theatre producer and visual artist and multimedia performer who has toured with Radiohead and other famous groups—presents his new project “Creatures of the Afternoon.” Part board game-part vinyl, this interactive gaming experience allows players to meet various music-playing creatures, find musical instruments, collect cards and create a song to save the Natural History Museum. (Zoe Pharo)

Community Pet Day Free Pet Clinic

Lagunitas Brewing Company Chicago, 2607 W. 17th St. Sunday, May 7, 11 AM–3 PM. Free.

Lagunitas Brewing Company is hosting a free pet clinic for the first 350 dogs and cats. The event will also include pet bundles, such as flea/tick and rabies vaccinations, in addition to pet supplies such as leashes and collars. (Zoe Pharo)

Historic Pullman First Sunday Walking Tour Pullman Exhibit Hall, 11141 S. Cottage Grove Ave. Sunday, May 7, 2:30 PM. Tickets are free for children under 12, $15 general admission and $10 for students and

seniors. bit.ly/PullmanSundayWalkingTours Historic Pullman Foundation is kicking off their First Sunday Walking Tours, a neighborhood tour that explores how Pullman and its residents played an important role in the development of American industry, rail innovation, urban design and the labor movement. Guides will explore the connections between the town, the State Historic Site and the newly re-designated Pullman Historic Park. Tours continue monthly, with different stories and spins on stories, from May through October. Tours start in the Pullman Exhibit Hall and last around 90 minutes, with a walking distance of about a mile. Later this month, Historic Pullman’s annual celebration, the second annual “Pullman Railroad Days” will take place at Pullman National Historical Park on May 20 & 21. (Zoe Pharo)

The South Side sit-in—80th anniversary commemoration 47th Street and Lake Park Avenue.

Monday, May 15, 6:30 PM. Free. bit.ly/3HxAnlA

This May marks the 80th anniversary of a 1943 sit-in organized by The Congress on Racial Equality’s (CORE) leader James Farmer in protest of Jack Spratt Coffee House, which refused to serve or overcharged Black customers and integrated groups. Joined by more than two dozen University of Chicago students and area residents, the owner was forced to change his policies. The protest marked an early success of the sit-in strategy which would spread throughout the South in 1960. To commemorate the anniversary, civil rights and CORE veterans will gather at the former site of Jack Spratt to reflect on its history and significance today. (At

12pm that day, the DuSable Museum of African American History will also host a virtual “Lunch and Learn” over Facebook Live featuring civil rights veterans and legal historian Christopher Schmidt, author of “The Sit-Ins.”) (Zoe Pharo)

One Summer Chicago Application

Various locations, Various locations.

Friday, June 2, 1 PM. Free. bit.ly/OneSummerChicagoapp One Summer Chicago, an initiative by the mayor’s office and Chicago Department of Family and Support Services to provide in-person job and life-skills training for youth ages fourteen to twenty-four have opened their applications. The program take place from June 26 to August 4.

Participants earn $15.40 an hour within all Chicago Departments and most programs are between twenty to twenty-five hours per week. Young people can apply at OneSummerChicago.org. Deadline of June 2. (Zoe Pharo)

YBG Chicago Earth Day 2023 Gwendolyn Brooks Park, 4542 S. Greenwood Ave. Saturday, April 22, 11 AM–2 PM. Tickets are $10. bit.ly/EarthDayGwendolyn

YaleBlueGreen-Chicago’s Art, Humanities and Science program at the Gwendolyn Brooks Monument will honor the spirit of Gwendolyn Brooks, the first Black Pulitzer-awarded writer and “The Oracle of Bronzeville.” This earth day celebration will include workshops in sapling care and poetry, with Chicago-based poets Kira Tucker and Laura Joyce Tucker. Coffee and bagels will be provided, and the workshops will be followed by a 12pm lunch at Carver 47 of Little Black Pearl. (Zoe Pharo)

ARTS Deeply Rooted spring dance education show

Logan Center for the Arts, Performance Hall, 915 E. 60th St. Saturday, May 6, 7 PM. Tickets are $25 for the show and $45 for it and the pre-show conversation. bit.ly/DeeplyRootedspringshow Deeply Rooted Dance Theater, a professional dance company for more than 25 years, is hosting its annual “Dance Education Spring Showcase.” This

year’s showcase honors the legacy of the company’s co-founders Kevin Iega Jeff and Gary Abbott, who debuted Deeply Rooted in 1996. The evening starts with a pre-show conversation with the cofounders, followed by a performance of the professional company with participants in its education programs, which include the Youth Ensemble, Mature H.O.T. Women and Men Moving. 6pm for the conversation, 7pm for the show. (Zoe Pharo)

SECC’s A Night at the Theatre

Reception at the Smart Museum, followed by the performance at the Court Theatre., Smart Museum—5550 S. Greenwood Ave. Court Theatre—5535 S. Ellie Ave. Friday, May 12, 6 PM. Tickets range from $20 to $75. bit.ly/SECCNightAtTheTheatre The South East Chicago Commission is holding a reception and trip to the Court Theatre for the opening night performance of “The Gospel at Colonus.”

All sales will go to benefit the 21st annual Shirley J. Newsome Beautification

(formerly Neighborhood Enhancement) Grant projects in the Hyde Park, Kenwood, Oakland, Washington Park and Woodlawn communities. “The Gospel at Colonus,” written by Mark J.P. Hood and Charles Newell, reimagines the classic story of Oedipus as the centerpiece of an African American Pentecostal church service with gospel music. 5pm reception and 7:30 performance.

(Zoe Pharo)

MAY 4, 2023 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 23

Take time to explore the everyday

May 14 – Sept 4 Get Tickets This exhibition is organized in collaboration with the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.

Lead support for Van Gogh and the Avant-Garde: The Modern Landscape is generously provided by

THE KENNETH C. GRIFFIN CHARITABLE FUND

24 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY ¬ MAY 4, 2023

Lead foundation support is generously contributed by the Harris Family Foundation in memory of Bette and Neison Harris.

Major support is provided by the Shure Charitable Trust, the Jentes Family, the Pepper Family Foundation, Julie and Roger Baskes, The Manitou Fund, and Margot Levin Schiff and the Harold Schiff Foundation. Additional funding is provided by the Jack and Peggy Crowe Fund, the Suzanne and Wesley M. Dixon Exhibition Fund, and The Regenstein Foundation Fund.

Members of the Luminary Trust provide annual leadership support for the museum’s operations, including exhibition development, conservation and collection care, and educational programming. The Luminary Trust includes an anonymous donor, Karen Gray-Krehbiel and John Krehbiel, Jr., Kenneth C. Griffin, the Harris Family Foundation in memory of Bette and Neison Harris, Josef and Margot Lakonishok, Robert M. and Diane v.S. Levy, Ann and Samuel M. Mencoff, Sylvia Neil and Dan Fischel, Cari and Michael J. Sacks, and the Earl and Brenda Shapiro Foundation. This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

Vincent van Gogh.

Exterior of a Restaurant in Asnières (detail), May–June 1887.

Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation).