SSW 03.24.22

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.

Editor-in-Chief

Volume 9, Issue 13 Jacqueline Serrato

Managing Editor

Adam Przybyl

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Isabel Nieves Madeleine Parrish Malik Jackson Chima Ikoro Alma Campos

Contributing Editors Lucia Geng Matt Moore

Francisco Ramírez Pinedo Jocelyn Vega Scott Pemberton Staff Writers Kiran Misra Yiwen Lu Director of Fact Checking: Kate Gallagher Fact Checkers: Grace Del Vecchio, Hannah Farris, Savannah Hugueley, Caroline Kubzansky, Yiwen Lu, and Sky Patterson Visuals Editor Bridget Killian Deputy Visuals Editors Shane Tolentino Mell Montezuma Staff Illustrators Mell Montezuma Shane Tolentino Layout Editors Colleen Hogan Shane Tolentino Webmaster Pat Sier Managing Director Jason Schumer Director of Operations Brigid Maniates 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.

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IN CHICAGO Adam’s and Anthony’s killers won’t be prosecuted On March 15, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx announced her office would not be pursuing criminal charges against Chicago Police Department (CPD) officers Eric Stillman and Evan Solano for the separate fatal shootings of 13-year-old Adam Toledo and 22-year-old Anthony Alvarez last year. Their families said they were “heartbroken” about the news and are pursuing legal action. Foxx justified the decision by appealing to the officers’ “reasonable” fear for their lives, which in Illinois is a legal justification for police to use deadly force.

Both Alvarez and Toledo were running away from officers when they were killed.

Alvarez was shot in the back while Toledo dropped the gun he was carrying before being shot in the chest. In both cases, prosecutors said Alvarez and Toledo had their hands near their waist while running as a reason why officers felt their lives were at risk.

In demonstrations and vigils, Chicagoans made demands that ranged from defunding the police to creating a moratorium on foot chases. A year later, CPD’s budget actually increased by $200 million to $1.9 billion and the department made only minor changes to its foot pursuit policy so that, in theory, officers wouldn’t pursue people for minor infractions like traffic violations, as occurred in Alvarez’s case. In reality, there’s no reason to believe the policy change would have prevented either of the deaths since both Solano and Stillman violated the foot pursuit policy at the time. Despite the decision not to prosecute, Foxx said she disagreed with the officers’ actions and that they “created the circumstances” that led to the deaths.

Free gas Some people called his approach theatrical, others said his strategy was disorganized, but thousands of Chicagoans felt seen when businessman and former mayoral candidate, Willie Wilson, offered to pump their cars with $50 of free gas on two consecutive Thursdays. In collaboration with gas station owners, Wilson donated more than $1.2 million worth of fuel during a time with skyrocketing gas prices.

The turnout at nearly fifty gas stations—a great number of them in the South Side—caused mile-long lines and traffic blockages. It’s probably safe to assume Wilson will be running for mayor in 2023.

IN THIS ISSUE public meetings report

A recap of select open meetings at the local, county, and state level. documenters, india daniels, scott pemberton......................................4 tackling food apartheid on the west side

How community organizations are responding to the need for food access in Austin and Garfield Park. isra rahman, city bureau.......................5 south side man held despite state ban on immigration detention

He tried to help the victims of a deadly car accident. Now he’s being illegally detained. alma campos.............................................8 detienen a hombre del sur de chicago a pesar de la ley que prohíbe detener a los inmigrantes

Intentó ayudar a las víctimas de un mortal accidente de tráfico. Ahora está detenido ilegalmente. alma campos...........................................10 the rise of liquor-sponsored murals in pilsen

“The issue is like the murals: they’re not black and white, they’re very colorful, and they’re full of complexity.” kinsey crowley.......................................12 narrowing the digital divide on chicago’s south and west sides

“Sometimes it’s not even about access, it’s about the underground wiring.” nabeela washington ............................15 library branches stock overdose antidote

“It's going to be really important for all Chicagoans to understand what an opioid overdose is.” courtney kueppers.................................16 chicago’s diaspora communities reflect on trigay war

Many in the Eritrean diaspora remain fearful of speaking out. Simon Aman talked to the Weekly about the war back home. max blaisdell.........................................18 the exchange

The Weekly's poetry corner offers our thoughts in exchange for yours. chima ikoro, imani joseph.....................20 calendar

Bulletin and events. south side weekly staff........................21

Cover Illustration by Jennifer Chavez

Public Meetings Report ILLUSTRATION BY HOLLEY APPOLD

Mar. 8 A West Side violence prevention and youth development organization group seeks $2.5 million from a special tax district to renovate and construct a youth center in Austin.

At its meeting, the Community Development Commission voted to recommend that the City Council approve the Department of Planning and Development’s (DPD) redevelopment negotiations with Broader Urban Involvement and Leadership Development (BUILD). The organization plans to redevelop its current campus at a base cost of $21 million and add a three-story building with a gym. BUILD is asking for $2.5 million from the City’s Harrison/Central Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district fund. Construction of the new complex would increase BUILD’s capacity for fitness, mental health, workforce development, and arts service. Completion is expected eighteen months after negotiations are completed. The DPD also recommended that the City Council authorize negotiation of a redevelopment agreement for Logan Square’s Congress Theater. A public commenter called for a community benefits agreement (CBA) for the Congress Theater project and the jobs it’s expected to create.

Mar. 9 The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) plans to buy one hundred electric buses this year as a step toward achieving full-fleet electrification by 2040. In one of a series of CTA meetings, Chief Planning Officer Michael Connelly presented a report to the Committee on Strategic Planning and Service Delivery that mapped out fleet changes and facility upgrades for electric charging. The changes are projected to cut costs and dramatically decrease the fleet’s carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter emissions. Connelly said the CTA plans to prioritize garage conversions in lowincome and communities of color, which are disproportionately affected by pollution.

The CTA’s Charging Forward report indicates that the agency must stop purchasing non-electric buses in 2026 to reach the goal of full fleet electrification by 2040.

Mar. 14 At its meeting, the Committee on Contracting Oversight and Equity dealt with two items designed to hold individuals and entities accountable for hate-related crimes and other actions, essentially by prohibiting them from doing business with the City of Chicago. An amendment to the Municipal Code was proposed that would impose ineligibility to do business “due to removal from public office, treason, sedition, or related offenses” and adding hate crimes as a factor. Alderman Gilbert Villegas (36th Ward) sponsored the amendment to ensure that the City holds “businesses accountable at every level” for actions or statements based on hate. He said the storming of the U.S Capitol on January 6 is an example of why the amendment is important. Offered by retired Judge William Haddad, a former Cook County Circuit Court judge, an agenda item called for the Municipal Code to include “Middle Eastern or North African Americans as a minority group.” Alderman Villegas explained that this addition would enable research into discrimination against Arab residents and be the basis for other policies.

4 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY ¬ MARCH 24, 2022

A recap of select open meetings at the local, county, and state level for the March 24 issue.

BY DOCUMENTERS, INDIA DANIELS, SCOTT PEMBERTON

Mar. 15 The Chicago Department of Housing (DOH) is prioritizing applications from low-income households as it approves about $1 million a day in federal Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) funds, DOH policy director Daniel Hertz reported during a meeting of the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) Board of Commissioners. The City has distributed more than $145 million in ERAP funds to tenants and landlords affected by COVID. While evictions have increased since the Illinois Eviction Moratorium was lifted in October 2021, they remain below pre-pandemic levels, Hertz noted. Hertz said he requested approval from the City Council Committee on Budget and Government Operations to increase the value of the City’s two-year contract with the software company Unqork, which supplies an app the City uses to collect, process, and approve applications. The new contract value would be $1.2 million or twice the initial amount. Hertz said the increase was needed to accommodate a second round of federal funds for the program that pushed the amount of funds to be distributed to $182 million from $80 million. Committee members approved the item, sending it to the City Council for final approval.

At its monthly meeting, the City Council Committee on Housing and Real Estate approved an ordinance that would allow the City to participate directly in the Cook County Scavenger Sale and contract the Cook County Land Bank Authority (CCLBA) to hold, manage, and sell City-owned vacant lots. The City wants to work with the CCLBA to expedite development of vacant lots, but some council members worry that they won’t have a say on land sales in their wards. Alderpersons were told the partnership would help the City find buyers to redevelop the land, returning it to tax rolls, and “breaking the cycle” of speculative investors buying land without redevelopment plans. After some debate, council members approved a revised version of the ordinance, shortening the time CCLBA and the City can work on a specific project from five years to three, and requiring reports on land banking activity for the committee. Alderperson Pat Dowell (3rd Ward), a former city planner, requested that council members be consulted about vacant properties in their wards because they may have insights on whether a buyer is a good fit and on other topics, such as whether a sale would contribute to gentrification. The City owns nearly 10,000 vacant lots. The ordinance was sent to the City Council for final approval.

Mar. 16 A special City Council meeting convened by members who want the City to accept natural COVID-19 immunity from past illness as an alternative to the vaccination requirement for City employees was adjourned. Only seventeen alderpersons attended, nine short of the quorum necessary to conduct a full meeting and vote. The City requires employees to submit proof of vaccination to be paid and to avoid disciplinary action, including potential termination. The City has struggled to enforce multiple deadlines for vocal critics of the mandate, most notably a faction of the Chicago Police Department.

This information was collected in large part using reporting from City Bureau’s Documenters at documenters.org

FOOD & LAND

Tackling Food Apartheid on the West Side

How community organizations are responding to the need for food access in Austin and Garfield Park.

BY ISRA RAHMAN, CITY BUREAU

F

orty acres and a mule”— referencing the first act of reparations temporarily granted to formerly enslaved people after the Civil War—didn’t make it past 1865, and definitely has not translated to West Side neighborhoods where mostly Black residents scarcely have land ownership, nor the means to grow their own food.

Traveling west on the #70 bus past Kedzie Avenue or on the Green Line past Ashland Avenue, you will squint and search to spot any grocery store. The same realization hit Liz Abunaw when she first traveled to Austin—a trip that would launch her long journey toward establishing a Black-owned grocery store in the neighborhood, named Forty Acres Fresh Market.

“I needed to get cash,” said Abunaw, a New York native who now lives in Austin.

“Chicago and Laramie is where I got off the bus and there's not a bank within a mile radius. So I'm gonna just go to CVS or Walgreens, buy a pack of gum and get cash back. There's no CVS, Walgreens, in a mile radius either. So then I'm going to have to go to the grocery store, buy one thing, get cash back. There's no grocery store in a mile radius.”

Abunaw wants to change that.

Previously in development and sales at Microsoft in Chicago, she started Forty Acres Fresh Market in 2018 as a series of pop-up markets in Austin that brought fresh produce vendors to the West Side.

Her transition out of tech wasn’t easy but came from the need she saw for a grocery store on the West Side. Over the years

she’s set up in churches and at Westside Health Authority facilities—testing out the concept while making quality food available to folks with Link cards. Now, Forty Acres has grown to employ seven full-time staff and plans to break ground on a permanent, brick-and-mortar grocery store on Chicago Avenue by this summer. “[The name] is an homage to the unfulfilled promise to freed slaves for forty acres and a mule,” said Abunaw in an interview with CBS News. “First, I wanted a name that was distinctly Black, particularly Black American, because the issue of not having access to healthy food where we live hits our communities hard.

I find it to be cruel irony that the people who basically built this country, who were our country’s first farmers, who were so tied to the land, now live in land where they can get nothing that comes from the land.”

Abunaw and other West Side residents, nonprofit leaders and organizers recognize that one grocery store can't remedy decades of disinvestment in neighborhood economies. But food access is key to both public health and economic revitalization, which is why they’re hoping the city will do more to support and fund locally owned, Blackowned grocery stores—to both fill the dire need for healthy food options in the area, and to keep money circulating in West Side communities.

O

nly a handful of miles from well-resourced neighborhoods in Chicago like West Loop, Wicker Park, and Logan Square, you will find neighborhoods like Austin, Garfield Park, and West Humboldt Park struggling to garner even one grocery store that will stick around for longer than a couple of years. In December 2020, Austin’s Save-A-lot on Central and North Avenue closed. Then in October 2021, the Aldi on Madison Street closed in West Garfield Park.

places don't have food and some places do.” On the West Side, where redlining and contract buying decimated Black families’ attempts to build wealth for decades, “food apartheid” is a better term to describe a system intentionally built to disinvest and discriminate, she explained.

This systematic discrimination is one reason why West Side residents are demanding that the city dedicate more money and resources to ensure their neighborhoods have healthy food options. Abunaw’s project comes at

“[Calling it] ‘food apartheid’ gets deeper at the actual root of the problem, where it's not random that some places don't have food and some places do.”

— Stef Funk, Chicago Food Policy Action Council But don’t call it a food desert.

According to Stef Funk of the Chicago Food Policy Action Council, a food desert implies that the inequality is naturally occurring. “Deserts are also important and flourishing ecosystems where there's a ton of stuff going on,” Funk said. “Whereas a ‘food apartheid’ gets deeper at the actual root of the problem, where it's not random that some

a time when the West Side has been promised major new investments. In 2019, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced the Invest South/West initiative, which hopes to disperse $750 million in public dollars to disinvested South and West Side neighborhoods.

The Department of Planning and Development (DPD) has finalized the plan for the “Soul City Corridor MARCH 24, 2022 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 5

FOOD & LAND

ILLUATRATED BY KEVIN MOORE JR.

Development,” which will redevelop Chicago Avenue to include affordable housing, a blues museum, and healthy food options. Plans for the eastern site of the corridor (a mile from the Forty Acres location) include a proposed grocery store, but according to Peter Strazzabosco at DPD, the planning process for that site has not begun, and “it could happen but he is not going to predict when.” As of press time, DPD officials did not respond to questions about progress on that plan.

Though Abunaw is not a part of Invest South/West’s plan in Austin, she did receive over $2.5 million from Chicago’s Neighborhood Opportunity Fund to redevelop the former Salvation

Army building at 5713 W. Chicago Ave. This money came through a development company that Abunaw created, along with local nonprofit Westside Health Authority, in order to purchase the building, which will house an additional commercial tenant besides Forty Acres, Abunaw said.

Financial investment for food retailers is scarce and often difficult to acquire, even for large grocery store chains—an industry that does not have large profit margins and relies on selling a lot of product. “They [big box grocery stores] fear that if we were to come to these neighborhoods, we wouldn't stay in business long because residents won’t

6 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY ¬ MARCH 24, 2022

be able to afford it,” said 29th Ward Alderman Chris Taliaferro.

In the past, these larger companies have also received huge subsidies from local government. In 2014, Whole Foods received $10.7 million in Tax Increment Finance (TIF) funds from the city to open an Englewood location. The money went toward “environmental work and infrastructure improvements.” In 2011, Mariano’s received $7 million in TIF funds to open a West Loop location.

It's much harder to finance a locally owned grocery store, which can’t offset its costs with profits from wealthier chain locations. Angela Taylor, who is the Wellness Coordinator at the Garfield

Park Community Council, has been growing food locally for almost 10 years.

She sells the produce at the monthly Garfield Park Community Council market at The Hatchery Chicago, which became all the more critical for residents after the West Garfield Park Aldi closed.

“I would say the biggest challenge is … finances, because as any other business had to operate, you got to have some operating costs,” said Taylor. “The resources that we get from selling the produce goes back into the gardens, but it don't leave a nice long runway for us to be able to staff the market and keep it up and going.”

Garfield Park was left out of the Invest South/West geographic area, and since the Aldi closed, community members have been demanding the city provide a grocery store in its place.

Taylor is among the community residents who have organized emergency food drives through the Rite To Wellness Collaborative. After an intense debate in a City Council committee earlier this year, the City Council approved plans to possibly purchase the shuttered Aldi site with the intent to find a new operators for the space—but aldermen across the city wondered why and when they should intervene in these cases, considering the purchase would give money to a company that pulled out of the community.

Similar to Forty Acres Fresh Market, the Garfield Park Community Council and the Rite to Wellness Collaborative are imagining what it means to not just bring a mega corporate food business to their communities, but create a way for money to circulate within their neighborhoods.

This concept has an even deeper meaning for Black neighborhoods in the city that have been disinvested from the start.

“We need to really take a seat at the table and discuss what our needs are and figure out how we bring building blocks together and have our own community grocery store,” said Taylor. “We growing food. We got all different types of entrepreneurs like beauty care products, laundry products, light bulbs. How do we put all those ingredients together and build it? And then get an owner-operator to manage it?”

Abunaw, having received the Neighborhood Opportunity Fund grant,

now feels more secure in her endeavor, she said, but only after doing much of the fundraising through private investors. It wasn’t easy. “I initially thought my store would be a $500,000 project. It's now an $8 million project as a 9,000-square foot grocery store. Who has that kind of capital?” she said. “Part of the reason why I partner [with WHA] is because they are a nonprofit; Forty Acres is not. They have access to funding that we don't. This idea of, ‘just build a grocery store’—it's naive.”

It's much harder to finance a locally owned grocery store, which can’t offset its costs with profits from wealthier chain locations.

Her next task is to generate greater visibility for her Black-owned business. Through the pop-up markets and partnership building, she hopes to create momentum in the community in anticipation of the store opening. Not only is Abunaw worried about the quality of food, but also the experience she can cultivate in her store whether it’s through who is working at the cash register, or the music playing on the speakers. Her outspokenness is apparent as soon as you ask her about food apartheid, but she is equally as dedicated to the atmosphere of the store, hoping to employ Black folks from the community and ensure that consumers see familiar faces.

A grocery store can improve food access, and a locally Black-owned grocery store will help restore ownership to the community. But that’s just one puzzle piece to reinvesting and reinvigorating neighborhoods that have faced decades of disinvestment and wealth theft. Long before the COVID-19 pandemic, health

experts have cited the importance of a person’s neighborhood environment to achieving better health outcomes.

“People don't realize, walking down the street and seeing empty lots, broken glass, trash, all of these different things causes a breakdown in mental health called weathering,” explained Jadelyn Brooke, public health coordinator at Westside Health Authority who has worked with Abunaw on the Forty Acres project.

Whether it’s mental health problems, low wages, violent crime, or underfunded schools, these factors that disproportionately affect West Side residents have been exacerbated

by COVID-19, an illness that is especially dangerous for people with pre-existing conditions.

“People on the North Side got COVID and they recovered, but people on the South and West Sides got COVID and they died. They died because they had diabetes or because they had asthma or because they had all of these pre-existing conditions that are often quality-of-life diseases, not genetic,” said Abunaw.

In the end, it isn’t about changing just lives but also lifestyles—which Abunaw hopes to do, and Taylor and organizers are attempting to do in Garfield Park.

As residents ask and wait for the city to ensure their neighborhoods have access to basic needs like healthy food, West Siders like Abunaw are working on their own solutions, forty acres at a time. This story was produced by City Bureau, a Bronzeville-based civic journalism lab. For more information and to get involved, go to citybureau.org.

Isra Rahman is a writer and journalist with the Invisible Institute. This is her first piece with the Weekly.

MARCH 24, 2022 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 7

IMMIGRATION

South Side Man Held Despite State Ban on Immigration Detention

PHOTO BY CENTRO DE TRABAJADORES UNIDOS

He tried to help the victims of a deadly car accident. Now he's being illegally detained.

BY ALMA CAMPOS

M

ore than twenty Illinois elected officials call on Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul to enforce the Illinois Way Forward Act/TRUST Act, that bans immigration detention in the state, on behalf of thirtyyear-old Norberto Navarro. Navarro, who partly grew up in South Chicago, is a U.S. permanent resident being detained at the Will County Adult Detention Facility illegally, said Navarro’s attorney, along with immigration advocates and community and family members who demand his immediate release.

Navarro’s intricate story dates back to 2017 when he became a critical witness in a reckless homicide case. Navarro, who works in agriculture in rural Beecher, IL, about an hour’s drive from Chicago,

ran to the scene of a car accident to aid passengers in a vehicle that was struck by a speeding car.

The passengers, a pregnant woman and her three children, did not survive.

According to Navarro’s mother, Aida Navarro, who spoke to the Weekly, Navarro called the police. He saw when the children sitting in the back seat, still alive, coughed out blood, she said. The driver, Sean Woulfe, twenty-five, was charged with sixteen reckless homicide charges in connection with the fatal crash. He is free while he awaits trial, yet Navarro is detained.

As a critical witness in the case, Navarro, a Calumet City resident and an engaged community member of the Southeast Side, volunteered to testify

8 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY ¬ MARCH 24, 2022

in the trial for the prosecution that was scheduled for March 22. He has been detained in Will County jail since January.

Two years after the collision, Navarro was convicted for a drug charge in Texas, near El Paso. After he completed his fortymonth sentence there, he wasn’t released, but instead transferred to a different detention facility in New Mexico, where Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) began deportation proceedings.

At a protest outside the Will County Courthouse in early March, Ana Guajardo, the executive director of Centro de Trabajadores Unidos, said his detention is illegal because he has not been charged or convicted of any crime in Will County. “He is simply a witness, yet they are detaining him solely

because he has chosen to cooperate in a criminal case.”

According to Sarah Southey, legal clinic coordinator at Centro de Trabajadores Unidos, ICE closed Navarro’s immigration case administratively—meaning ICE can reopen the case if they chose to. But rather than releasing him after serving his time in New Mexico, the Illinois State’s Attorney in a written request to ICE ordered his transfer to the Will County Adult Detention Facility as a material witness for the 2017 accident.

Southey said this wasn’t fair to him under President Joe Biden’s new immigration enforcement guidelines that indicate ICE should not prioritize individuals for deportation with

IMMIGRATION circumstances like Navarro’s.

“Norberto is a good candidate for not having his [immigration] proceedings reopen,” she said. “He has lived in the U.S. for over twenty years. He has a young daughter here, his entire family is here. He knows no other home and, on top of all that, people who are witnesses and victims of crimes are not supposed to be priorities for deportation.”

The Illinois Way Forward Act, which came into effect on January 1—as he was being transferred to Will County— prohibits local law enforcement from carrying out immigration operations, making arrests, facilitating transfers, and holding detainees. But the agreement

PHOTO BY CENTRO DE TRABAJADORES UNIDOS

between ICE and the Illinois State’s Attorney states Navarro will be transferred back to ICE custody after he testifies on March 22 and face deportation.

Navarro’s attorney, Nicole Hallett, from the Immigrant Rights’ Clinic at the University of Chicago, said this is the first time the Illinois Way Forward Act has been invoked in court to request someone’s release.. “Most of the time, when there are violations, it happens very quickly…that you can’t stop it… like someone’s being held for a couple of hours… in order for ICE to pick them up,” said Hallett.

“We have a chance to stop it because [Navarro has] been held for months.”

“Since he was a little boy, Norberto has been with me in the marches against violence, against gangs. He loved going with me to Springfield and we would fight for immigrant rights just like we are fighting for him right now.”

D

uring the protest on March 8, Navarro’s attorneys said they presented a motion at the Will County Courthouse opposing Navarro’s detention, arguing that Navarro’s imprisonment is illegal under Illinois laws and a violation of his constitutional rights. In response, the Will County State’s Attorney set a $1 million bond for his release, which the family cannot afford to pay.

Navarro’s attorneys were able to get the State’s Attorney to certify a U visa for him, since Illinois law mandates it through the Illinois VOICES Act. A U visa is meant to grant residency and citizenship to those who have suffered significant mental or physical abuse from a criminal activity. The U visa statute that Congress passed defines a victim as both the person who was the intended victim of a criminal activity, but it also can include bystanders or other people who are harmed by a criminal activity and are willing to help law enforcement authorities in the investigation or prosecution, explained Hallett.

In Navarro’s case, a U visa would grant him permission to stay in the United States despite his criminal conviction.

Hallett said Navarro is eligible because he was “severely affected” by the car accident in 2017. “He suffered psychological effects, nightmares, anxiety, he had to go to counseling,” she said.

But while he was recently certified as a victim, it takes years to process these visas. “We don't want to deport someone while they're waiting,” Hallett said.

“Because he has this U visa certification, he should no longer be a [deportation] priority and they should close his immigration case.”

Aida Navarro told the Weekly her son

was never the same after the accident, often waking up in the middle of the night. “The day the accident happened my son cried so much and he [became] so scared and traumatized by what he saw. I told my son to go to counseling. He was scared and he wouldn’t eat.”

She is still grieving the death of her eldest son, who died in a car accident last May. “He was always waiting for his brother Norberto to come back. He would call me and ask, ‘Mom, when is my little brother getting out?’”

Recalling old times, Aida said Norberto would accompany her to volunteering and advocacy events in the South Chicago neighborhood where they lived for a long time. “Since he was a little boy, since he was seven years old, Norberto has been with me in the marches against violence, against gangs, and he loved going with me to Springfield…and we would fight for immigrant rights just like we are fighting for him right now. We had to fight for many immigrants who were also at risk of deportation.”

Aida said she has to remain strong for her grandchildren who constantly ask for their fathers, but that it is very difficult to do.

“I need my son. It's not going to bring back the one who died, but I need [Norberto] to be a comfort to me.”

On March 22, immigrant advocates, community members and his family rallied outside the Will County Courthouse. They demanded that ICE close Navarro’s immigration proceedings and release him. However, sources said his testimony was postponed. Alma Campos is the Weekly’s immigration editor. She last wrote about the ​​ physical barriers that segregate Chicago.

MARCH 24, 2022 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 9

INMIGRACIÓN

Detienen a hombre del sur de Chicago a pesar de la ley que prohíbe la detención de inmigrantes Intentó ayudar a las víctimas de un mortal accidente de tráfico. Ahora está detenido ilegalmente.

POR ALMA CAMPOS

M

ás de veinte funcionarios electos de Illinois le exigen al Fiscal General de Illinois, Kwame Raoul, que siga la ley Illinois Way Forward Act/TRUST Act, que prohíbe la detención de inmigrantes en el estado. Norberto Navarro, de treinta años y residente permanente de EE.UU., está detenido ilegalmente en el Centro de Detención de Adultos del Condado de Will, según su abogada, activistas de inmigración, miembros de la comunidad y familiares que exigen su libertad de inmediato.

La compleja historia de Navarro comenzó en 2017, cuando se convirtió en un testigo crítico en un caso de homicidio.

Navarro, un obrero de agricultura en la zona rural de Beecher, IL, que queda a una hora de Chicago en carro, corrió a la escena de un accidente automovilístico con la intención de ayudar a los pasajeros de un vehículo que fue chocado por un auto que iba a toda velocidad.

Los pasajeros, una mujer embarazada y sus tres hijos, no sobrevivieron. Según la madre de Navarro, Aída Navarro, quien habló con el Weekly, Navarro le llamó a la policía. Vio cuando los niños sentados en el asiento trasero, aún vivos, escupían sangre, dijo. El conductor, Sean Woulfe, de veinticinco años, fue acusado de dieciséis cargos de homicidio imprudente en relación con el accidente mortal. Él está en libertad mientras espera su juicio,

PHOTO BY CENTRO DE TRABAJADORES UNIDOS

pero Navarro está detenido.

Como testigo crítico en el caso, Navarro, residente en Calumet City y miembro activo de la comunidad del lado sureste, él se ofreció a testificar en el juicio de acusación planeado para el 22 de

10 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY ¬ MARCH 24, 2022

marzo. Está detenido desde enero en la cárcel del condado de Will.

Dos años después del accidente, Navarro fue condenado por un cargo de drogas en Texas, cerca de El Paso. Tras cumplir su condena de cuarenta meses

ahí, no fue puesto en libertad, sino que fue trasladado a otro centro de detención en Nuevo México, donde el Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas (ICE, por sus siglas en inglés) inició el proceso de deportación.

En una protesta frente a la Corte del Condado de Will a principios de marzo, Ana Guajardo, directora ejecutiva del Centro de Trabajadores Unidos, dijo que la detención de Navarro es ilegal porque no ha sido acusado ni condenado por ningún delito en el Condado de Will.

“Es simplemente un testigo, pero lo están deteniendo únicamente porque ha decidido cooperar en un caso criminal”.

Según Sarah Southey, coordinadora de la clínica legal del Centro de Trabajadores Unidos, ICE cerró el caso de inmigración de Navarro administrativamente, lo que significa que ICE puede reabrir el caso si lo decide. Pero en lugar de liberarlo después de cumplir su sentencia en Nuevo México, el Fiscal del Estado de Illinois, en una solicitud por escrito a ICE, ordenó su traslado al Centro de Detención de Adultos del Condado de Will como testigo material del accidente de 2017.

Southey dijo que esto no era justo según las nuevas directrices de inmigración del Presidente Joe Biden que indican que ICE no debe darle prioridad de deportación a las personas con circunstancias como las de Navarro.

INMIGRACIÓN “Norberto es un buen candidato para que no se reabran sus procedimientos [de inmigración]”, dijo. “Ha vivido en los Estados Unidos durante más de veinte años. Tiene una hija pequeña aquí, toda su familia está aquí. No conoce otro hogar y, además, se supone que las personas que son testigos y víctimas de delitos no son prioritarias para la deportación.”

La ley Illinois Way Forward Act, que entró en vigor el 1 de enero, cuando él estaba siendo trasladado al Condado de Will, le prohíbe a las autoridades locales llevar a cabo operativos de inmigración, realizar detenciones, facilitar traslados y retener detenidos. Pero el acuerdo entre ICE y el Fiscal del Estado de Illinois establece que Navarro sería transferido de nuevo a la custodia de ICE después de que declarara el 22 de marzo, y enfrentará la deportación.

La abogada de Navarro, Nicole Hallett, de la Clínica de Derechos de los Inmigrantes de la Universidad de Chicago, dijo que esta es la primera vez que se invoca la ley Illinois Way Forward Act de Illinois en la corte para pedir la liberación de una persona. “La mayoría de las veces, cuando hay violaciones [de la ley], suceden muy rápidamente... que no se pueden detener... como cuando alguien es detenido por un par de horas... para que ICE lo recoja”, dijo Hallett.

“Tenemos la oportunidad de detener [su deportación] porque [Navarro] ha sido detenido durante meses”.

D

urante la protesta del 8 de marzo, los abogados de Navarro dijeron que presentaron una moción en la Corte del Condado de Will oponiéndose a la detención de Navarro, argumentando que su arresto es ilegal bajo las leyes de Illinois y una violación de sus derechos constitucionales. En respuesta, el Fiscal del Estado del Condado de Will fijó una fianza de un millón de dólares para su liberación, lo cual la familia no puede pagar.

Los abogados de Navarro consiguieron que el Fiscal del Estado certificara la U visa para él, ya que la ley de Illinois lo exige por medio del VOICES Act de Illinois. La U visa está destinada a otorgar la residencia y la ciudadanía a aquellos que han sufrido un abuso mental

o físico significativo por una actividad criminal. El decreto de la U visa aprobado por el Congreso define a la víctima como la persona que ha sido víctima de una actividad criminal, pero también puede incluir a los testigos u otras personas que han sido perjudicadas por una actividad criminal y están dispuestas a ayudar a las autoridades policiales en la investigación o acusación, explicó Hallett.

En el caso de Navarro, una U visa le otorgaría permiso para permanecer en Estados Unidos a pesar de su convicción criminal. Hallett dijo que Navarro es elegible porque fue “severamente afectado” por el accidente en 2017. “Sufrió efectos psicológicos, pesadillas, ansiedad, tuvo que ir a terapia”, dijo.

Pero aunque recientemente fue certificado como víctima, los trámites para procesar estas visas tardan años. “No queremos deportar a alguien mientras espera”, dijo Hallett. “Como ya tiene esta certificación de la U visa, ya no debería ser una prioridad [de deportación] y deberían cerrar su caso de inmigración”.

Aída Navarro le dijo al Weekly que su hijo nunca fue el mismo después del accidente, seguido se despertaba en la noche. “El día que ocurrió el accidente, mi hijo lloró mucho y quedó muy asustado y

traumatizado por lo que vio. Le dije a mi hijo que fuera a terapia. Estaba asustado y no quería comer”.

“Es simplemente un testigo, pero lo están deteniendo únicamente porque ha decidido cooperar en un caso criminal”.

— Ana Guajardo

Aída todavía está de luto por la muerte de su hijo mayor, que falleció en un accidente de tráfico el pasado mayo.

“Siempre estaba esperando que volviera su hermano Norberto. Me llamaba y me preguntaba: ‘Mamá, ¿cuándo va a salir mi carnalito?”.

Recordando viejos tiempos, Aída dijo que Norberto la acompañaba a los eventos de la comunidad y de activismo en el barrio de South Chicago donde vivieron durante mucho tiempo. “Desde pequeño, desde los siete años, Norberto

PHOTO BY CENTRO DE TRABAJADORES UNIDOS

ha estado conmigo en las marchas contra la violencia, contra las pandillas, y le encantaba ir conmigo a Springfield... y luchábamos por los derechos de los inmigrantes como estamos luchando por él ahora. Tuvimos que luchar por muchos inmigrantes que también corrían el riesgo de ser deportados”.

Aída dijo que tiene que seguir siendo fuerte por sus nietos que preguntan constantemente por sus padres, pero que es muy difícil hacerlo.

“Necesito a mi hijo. No me va a devolver al que murió, pero necesito que [Norberto] sea un consuelo para mí”.

El 22 de marzo, el día programado para que Navarro diera su testimonio, los activistas pro-inmigrantes, los miembros de la comunidad y su familia se manifestaron en frente de la Corte del Condado de Will para exigir que ICE cierre el proceso de inmigración de Navarro y lo libere. En cambio, fuentes dijeron que su testimonio fue pospuesto. Alma Campos es la editora de inmigración del Weekly. Su artículo anterior fue sobre las barreras físicas que segregan a Chicago.

MARCH 24, 2022 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 11

VISUAL ARTS

The Rise of LiquorSponsored Murals in Pilsen

From graffiti to icon art and more, public art can have a lasting impact on communities.

PHOTO BY KINSEY CROWLEY

BY KINSEY CROWLEY

T

he vibrant art that adorns the train stations, bridges, and building walls in Pilsen has increasingly become a neighborhood attraction on top of local bars and restaurants. Public art in Pilsen has a long history as a medium of political and social expression for residents, who have been predominantly Mexican since the 1960s or earlier.

Mario Castillo, who painted Pilsen’s first Mexican mural “Peace” or “Metafisico” in 1968, said he created the anti-Vietnam war mural in an attempt to assert his Mexican identity. Over time, the practice of public art in the neighborhood has evolved to depict political struggles, youth initiatives, marginalized communities, and more. In recent years, the murals have included something different: alcohol brands.

A City ordinance passed in 2019 allows mural artists to recognize their business sponsors in their work and still have it be considered art, with recognition limited to an area of no more than two

square feet adjoining the bottom of a mural, as a way to foster artists’ work that beautifies Chicago’s neighborhoods. Since then, at least three murals sponsored by liquor brands have emerged along 18th Street, Pilsen’s business district.

The storefront at Taqueria Los Comales exhibits bright blue and yellow patterns by Claudio Limón stamped with a Don Julio logo approximately four and a half feet in diameter. Crossing Ashland, “Fierce” by Sam Kirk spotlights a Black trans woman with other queer characters celebrating around a flowing rainbow in the background; a block on the top-right corner of the mural reads “Sponsored

by Effen Vodka.” Further east on 18th Street, a mural collaboration between Hornitos Tequila and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) encouraging the community to get vaccinated against COVID-19 is displayed prominently on a side of the building.

Luis Tubens, the co-founder of

12 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY ¬ MARCH 24, 2022

Pilsen Public Art Tours, which does mural tours on foot, said that from the time Castillo painted Pilsen’s first Mexican mural, artistic styles have expanded in historical waves.

Following Castillo’s lead, the first wave of murals was overtly political and social in nature. The second wave came as graffiti, and despite objections from some artists trained in the first wave, graffiti art was considered a political act of resistance in itself. The most recent wave is what Tubens calls icon art, in which artists develop characters or staple icons that they replicate in various pieces.

“Fierce” fits into the expansion of what public art is and can be in Pilsen, according to Kirk, a Latina South Side native. She said the mural aims to bring visibility to the LGBTQ+ community in Pilsen, where she has heard and experienced homophobia.

“This piece—sponsorship aside—is very political,” she said. The mural was one installment of a collaboration with

Effen Vodka that included workshops, and Kirk said she creates artwork that stays true to the community she is depicting. She picked the location herself, painting this mural in the same spot she previously displayed “Viva Fútbol,” a mural sponsored by Major League Soccer.

Kirk said Effen gave her creative liberty. “They just fully supported the work, which I was very grateful for,” she said. “There’s a lot of times where the brands are like, ‘Oh, it’s too much,’ you know, especially when showing selfexpression for the LGBTQ community.”

Limón, a Mexican pop artist who worked with Don Julio Tequila on its “For Those Who Know” campaign, said in an email that the brand also did not influence his creative process. Rather, he said he was “inspired by Don Julio to create the murals and art pieces that tell the message Don Julio wanted to communicate.”

According to a representative from Hunter PR, the agency that managed

VISUAL ARTS the project on behalf of Don Julio, the project was intended to “highlight local family owned and operated eateries in a few cities that celebrate Mexican culture, and help tell their story through art.”

Each mural was custom to the restaurant owners’ stories, the agency said. However, Don Julio–sponsored murals by Limon in Dallas, and Brooklyn, utilize similar color, patterns, and iconography.

The owners of Taqueria Los Comales could not be reached for comment.

The mural collaboration between Hornitos and LULAC uses the art, which plays on the Hornitos slogan “A shot worth taking,” to focus on their campaign mission. A QR code next to the organizations’ logos leads to COVID vaccination resources in Spanish. The artist used for this mural is not credited on the mural or in the media kit.

Tubens said, after a bit of deliberation, that he would rather see walls in Pilsen be covered with art that has a message, even if it is sponsored by a liquor brand, than to see them left blank. A factor in that preference is the potential for economic benefits that brand sponsorships bring to the neighborhood business, considering that there was a time in recent history when corporations didn’t recognize, pay, or market to the Latinx community.

“That’s a testament to the political power, but also to the financial buying power of the Latinx community, that now we’re finally being recognized not only by governments, but by corporations,” said Tubens.

Kirk said that working with brands not only helps her get paid for her work, but gives her the ability to give back to the community she is working within.

For the “Viva Fútbol” painting, she was able to provide tuckpointing for the building, and for “Fierce,” she provided an anti-graffiti sealant on the mural and other parts of the building that were continuously getting tagged.

In its email response, Hunter PR said that it hosted a private celebratory dinner at the restaurant when the mural was complete.

Pilsen resident James Valadez shared Tubens’s sentiment recognizing the benefits of sponsorships, but also raised concerns regarding the type of brand sponsoring the murals.

“I live in a block with a school; I don’t love seeing art that has... alcohol, drugs, that kind of stuff near the school,” Valadez said.

3,966 children, who are largely Mexican-American, attend the ten public

schools that are within a mile of one of these murals, according to Chicago Public Schools’ most recent enrollment data.

Unlike advertising for tobacco and other drugs, alcohol advertising is mostly unrestricted in regard to how and where it occurs. According to a study titled “​​The Alcohol Marketing Landscape: Alcohol Industry Size, Structure, Strategies, and Public Health Responses” published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, alcohol brands are allowed to target certain communities, “including target marketing focused on special populations such as women, racial and ethnic minorities, young adults, older adults, adherents of particular sports, and so on.”

At least one mural on 18th Street is sponsored by a brand that is not a liquor company: the piece by Czr Pzr, at 1541

PHOTO BY KINSEY CROWLEY

MARCH 24, 2022 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 13

VISUAL ARTS W. 18th Street, is supported by Ava Grey Designs. According to its website, Ava Grey is “a creative agency and production house comprised of artists and designers with a range of professional backgrounds, working towards a common goal of creating dynamic projects that connect to audiences in authentic and visually impactful ways.”

Since some of the murals in Pilsen are decades old, the sponsored murals that go up today could have a lasting impact.

“The issue is like the murals: they’re not black and white, they’re very colorful, and they’re full of complexity,” Tubens said.Kinsey Crowley is a graduate student at the Medill School of Journalism specializing in social justice. She reports on local business and economic development news here in Chicago. This is her first piece for the Weekly.

PHOTO BY KINSEY CROWLEY

14 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY ¬ MARCH 24, 2022

EDUCATION

Narrowing the Digital Divide

Neighborhoods on Chicago's South and West Sides continue to lack internet infrastructure while others struggle with affordability as more programs spring up to provide access.

BY NABEELA WASHINGTON

I

magine not being able to complete schoolwork necessary to move ahead in your grade. Imagine not being able to communicate with your family and friends over Zoom, or being the last to hear about local and national news, all because you don’t have access to a stable internet connection. This is what ‘connectivity’ looks like for certain residents in Chicago. This is the impact of living in a digital desert.

Chicago residents in neighborhoods on the city's South and West Sides have been struggling with prohibitively expensive internet costs, unreliable connections, and a lack of devices to access the web. There have been a few initiatives to address the issue, with more potentially on the way, and significant progress has been made to improve access. Still, resident testimonies make evident that more needs to be done to bridge the divide.

In 2020, Kids First Chicago, a group that works with Chicago Public Schools (CPS) to increase graduation rates, partnered with the Metropolitan Planning Council to build a report on internet infrastructure, access, and adoption among CPS students and families. According to the report, one in five children under the age of eighteen— or about 110,000 kids across the city— lack access to broadband.

Families without access to broadband were predominantly located in South and West Side neighborhoods, like Englewood, North Lawndale, and Washington Park. A further 90,000 households without kids also did not have reliable internet access.

The report suggested creating subsidy programs, expanding wifi hotspot locations, and increasing access to low-cost or free internet programs.

In response, CPS created Chicago Connected, a program that subsidizes internet for eligible families at no cost.

A one-year survey in 2021 found that 64,000 students across 42,000 households had been enrolled in the program.

Around one in four survey respondents “reported that they did not have internet access prior to Chicago Connected” and that of these, nearly three in four said it was because the cost was “prohibitive.”

The report claims that the internet service providers (ISPs) in Chicago already have the infrastructure to provide reliable internet to every resident. Not everyone agrees.

20th Ward Alderperson Jeanette Taylor is working with AT&T to wire her ward—which includes most of Woodlawn and large parts of Washington Park, Englewood, and Back of the Yards—for high-speed internet, which she says is lacking. “When I was running for office, if more than five or six of us were on the internet, it would just drop. And I was paying for the best internet,” she said.

Taylor primarily communicates with residents with limited or no internet access by phone. “Sometimes it’s not even about access, it’s about the underground wiring.”

“It's frustrating how much of an obstacle it is to get consistent, strong, and affordable internet in Washington Park,” said Maya Tatum-Lattimore, a neighborhood resident. “We pay so much and still can’t manage to support two people, in a two-bedroom apartment working from home.”

Chamara Moore, also in Washington Park, faces the same problem. "It's a joke in our neighborhood…even though we see an Xfinity technician in the area, every month, they've told us numerous times there's nothing they can do to

ILLUSTRATION BY MELL MONTEZUMA

improve the internet for our building,” she said. “Extenders don't work. Outages are constant. Even our local coffee shops have spotty connections, but if I drive a bit to a white neighborhood, I never have any issue.”

In addition to being a barrier for remote learning and work, a lack of internet access has been linked to higher rates of mortality from COVID-19. A study published earlier this month found that even when controlling for other risk factors like socioeconomic status, age, and disability, a lack of internet access was one of the strongest factors associated with increased deaths from the virus.

Recognizing the source of the disparities in internet infrastructure and access seems key to ensuring everyone gets to connect reliably. Last year, a team of researchers from the University of Chicago were awarded a $1.2 million grant from data.org to assemble stories from residents and aggregate data to strengthen insights on the digital divide and what infrastructure, resources, and planning are needed to alleviate the disparities. It’s unclear what’s been done so far.

In the meantime, local knowledge has helped address some gaps in access. Woodlawn nonprofit Sunshine Enterprises began teaching its entrepreneurship classes online during the pandemic and partnered with

T-Mobile and Comcast to institute a Digital Access Program (DAP) to loan out hot spots and laptops. “A lot of people just don’t have access to anything,” noted program coordinator and Woodlawn resident Ashley James.

Community education about the gaps in digital access has proven essential to the success of Sunshine’s program. To date, 156 small business owners, mostly in Woodlawn and South Shore, received Chromebooks or relied on hot spots to complete coursework online.

Even with better information about the digital divide, the City will need to marshall a significant amount of time and resources to address the problem and prioritize the South and West Sides.

“Black, brown, and poor people are not prioritized in the City of Chicago,” said Taylor. “It’s simple. There has to be a political will to make sure that the city is balanced.”

“It’s clear cable and internet is yet another racialized difference in our city infrastructure,” said Moore. “It’s made the extra remote work in the pandemic almost impossible.”

Access to the internet is a national issue. According to the Pew Research Center, ninety-three percent of all U.S. adults used the internet in 2021, but that number dropped to eighty-six percent for Americans making less than $30,000, and further down to seventy-five percent for Americans aged sixty-five or older. The $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, passed by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden last November, set aside $65 billion to build out broadband infrastructure for the thirty million Americans without reliable internet access. Much of that money will be funneled into grants for each state later this year.

MARCH 24, 2022 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 15

EDUCATION There may also be state funding available to tackle the issue in the coming years. Governor J.B. Pritzker’s 2019 Rebuild Illinois capital plan set aside $400 million for Connect Illinois, a state matching grant program that aims to expand access to reliable, high-speed internet service statewide. So far, Cook County has received just over $1 million in grants, all of which have been used to shore up broadband infrastructure in the south suburbs. Up to $350 million is up for grabs in this year’s funding round, some of which may make its way to Chicago.

“We’re a rich enough city to make sure that everyone has free access to the internet.

Hands down.”

Senior Planet, an affiliate of the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), is also working to address the digital divide across Illinois. At the start of the pandemic, Senior Planet launched its Aging Connected Initiative, which connected older adults with low-cost internet options. The initiative also made sure older adults struggling with connectivity, especially those living in low-density or rural areas, gained access to the Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB)—now known as the Affordable Connectivity Program—a federal program that helps families and households struggling to afford internet service during the COVID-19 pandemic.

More recently, with the help of a $10 million grant from Google, the AARP Foundation launched Digital Skills Ready@50+, an initiative to provide technology and digital skills training to people over fifty who are living with low income.

“We are working to mitigate the perpetuating reason behind why digital

deserts are so prominent among the older adult demographic,” said program coordinator Deirdre Lee. “The Aging Connected initiative helps older adults find low-cost internet in their area and free Senior Planet programs can help ensure that seniors are able to integrate digital skills into their lives,” she added.

The program will be coming to Illinois this year, which you can learn more about here.

These programs could help create access to affordable internet services and reliable infrastructure from ISPs that help close the digital divide, a growing gap between those with access to the internet and those without—often poor, rural, elderly, and other underprivileged communities. “There is a tale of two cities here with the have and have nots and usually the have nots look like me,” said Taylor. “We’re a rich enough city to make sure that everyone has free access to the internet. Hands down.”

“It’s equity or else.”South Side Weekly is gauging interest in a town hall event where residents can share how they’ve been affected by a lack of reliable internet access. If you are interested in attending the town hall or discussing it with the Weekly, please contact NaBeela Washington at beelawashington@gmail.com or (312) 547-1088, or fill out the form at bit.ly/DigitalDesertTownHall NaBeela Washington is an Alabama-raised poet, editor, and budding art collector. Learn more at nabeelawashington.com This is her first piece for the Weekly.

16 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY ¬ MARCH 24, 2022

Library Branches Stock Overdose Antidote The initiative aims to expand access to life-saving naloxone.

BY COURTNEY KUEPPERS

I

nside the front doors of the Chicago Public Library branch in Austin, there’s a sign that reads “save (nalox) one life.” Below it, there’s a plastic container that looks like a first aid kit affixed to the wall. The box is labeled with bold letters that read “naloxone available here.”

The library location in the West Side neighborhood is one of fourteen branches across the city that started stocking Narcan, the brand name of the overdose-reversal medication naloxone, in early January. The partnership between the city’s library system and the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) is aligned with similar efforts across the country as communities attempt to address the ongoing opioid crisis.

The idea for the Chicago initiative began last fall, when CDPH data continued to show “extremely high rates of opioid overdose and opioid fatality,” said Sarah Richardson, a grants research specialist in the health department’s office of substance use.

In December 2020, the Weekly reported on the correlation between the rise of homelessness and the uptick of street overdoses during the pandemic, as well as the creation of the South Side Opioid and Heroin Task Force, which was modeled after a West Side task force composed of medical and drug treatment experts.

According to CDPH, 1,303 people

died of an opioid-related overdose in 2020 in Chicago, which was a fifty-two percent increase over 2019—the highest number of fatal overdoses ever recorded in the city.

Richardson and her team began thinking of ways to get Narcan, which she called “our first tool when we’re addressing the opioid crisis,” into more people’s hands.

“One of the first thoughts we had was libraries because they are open to everyone,” Richardson said. “They are in every community in Chicago, and they are really just this kind of community institution where folks can access all kinds of resources.”

The health department initially identified fourteen branches in communities with the highest number of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) runs for overdoses and overdose fatalities, which are all on the city’s South and West Sides. They then began training staff members at those library locations on how to use Narcan and recognize the signs and symptoms of an overdose.

The initial branches to have Narcan available on site are: Austin, Chicago Bee, Coleman, Hall, King, Legler, Manning, North Austin, R.M. Daley, South Shore, West Chicago Ave, West Englewood, West Town, and Whitney Young.

“As we continue to thoughtfully examine the ways our libraries support the neighborhoods we are in, this partnership to offer Narcan at library branches is a natural fit,” Chicago Public

HEALTH Library Deputy Commissioner Maggie Clemons said in a press release.

Two months after launching, the effort is expanding and thirteen more branches will have Narcan available this month. The added locations are Douglass, North Pulaski, Humboldt Park, Toman, Avalon, Brainerd, Greater Grand Crossing, Jeffrey Manor, Kelly, Pullman,

“Do you let somebody potentially die?

In your building?

When you could have just sprayed something up their nostril and potentially (saved) them?”

Sherman Park, Thurgood Marshall, and West Pullman.

PHOTO BY COURTNEY KUEPPERS

In 2017, Denver became one of the first cities in the country to stock Narcan in its public libraries after a 25-yearold man died in a library bathroom, according to reporting done by Colorado Public Radio.

“Do you let somebody potentially die? In your building? When you could have just sprayed something up their nostril and potentially (saved) them? To me that's a pretty easy decision to make,” Denver’s city librarian, Michelle Jeske, told the radio station at the time.

Jeske told the Weekly that library staff across Denver’s library system have administered Narcan on site forty-three times since they began stocking it five years ago.

“I think that we potentially saved forty-three peoples’ lives,” she said. “And I think that other (libraries) should think about implementing it if they're seeing these challenges in their own community.”

Jeske notes that Denver’s program didn’t set out to solve “the whole city’s challenges,” but rather to be “one more place where this could be used if needed.”

“We knew that, given the thousands of people we see every day, that there would be people that could potentially benefit from us having this available,”

Jeske said.

In Chicago, the library partnership isn’t specifically meant to address overdoses happening on site— although Richardson said it could be used in that instance as well—but rather as a means of distributing the medication in neighborhoods where it may be most needed.

Community members can come into the library branch and take the Narcan, packaged in a small box, with them. As of early March, twenty-four kits had been distributed from the initial fourteen branches, according to CDPH. The goal, of course, is to reduce the number of fatal overdoses happening in the city. It’s also about educating all community members, Richardson said.

“It's going to be really important for all Chicagoans to understand what an opioid overdose is, what's happening in the city and what they can do … which is to carry Narcan, to understand what Narcan is and just be aware that this is happening,” she said.

If someone is experiencing an opioid overdose, the nasal spray will revive them.

If the person is not experiencing an opioid overdose, Narcan won’t be harmful.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that carrying naloxone is no different than carrying an EpiPen for someone with allergies. “It simply provides an extra layer of protection for those at a higher risk for overdose,” the CDC says on its website.

“Naloxone quickly reverses an overdose by blocking the effects of opioids,” according to the CDC. “It can restore normal breathing within two to three minutes in a person whose breath has slowed, or even stopped, as a result of

CREATED BY COURTNEY KUEPPERS

opioid overdose.”

The CDC also notes that signs of an overdose include: small, constricted “pinpoint pupils,” loss of consciousness, slowed breathing, choking sounds, and cold, clammy or discolored skin.

If you think someone may be overdosing, the CDC advises calling 911 immediately, administering naloxone if it’s available, trying to keep the person awake and breathing, laying the person on their side to prevent choking, and staying with the person until emergency assistance arrives.

“If we can keep people alive, when they overdose, we can get them help, we can get them treatment, and other resources,” Richardson said.

If you or a loved one is struggling with a substance use disorder and would like help, call the Illinois Helpline at 833234-6343 or visit https://helplineil.org/ app/home. Courtney Kueppers is a Chicago-based journalist. She last wrote about food insecurity in South Shore.

MARCH 24, 2022 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 17

IMMIGRATION

Chicago’s Diaspora Communities Reflect on Tigray War

Many in the Eritrean diaspora remain fearful of speaking out against that nation’s government. Simon Aman, who lives in Chicago, talked to the Weekly about the war back home.

BY MAX BLAISDELL

J

ust as Chicago’s Ukrainians have reacted with alarm and dismay at the Russian invasion of their homeland, so have Chicago’s Ethiopians and Eritreans as they closely watch events in the Horn of Africa. Fighting there has left thousands dead and famine is looming.

The spark that lit the fuse of the current conflict was when the Tigrayan regional government held parliamentary elections in September 2020 in defiance of an order postponing them issued by Abiy Ahmed, the head of the Ethiopian federal government. Similar to the Kremlin’s tactics in the lead-up to the invasion of Ukraine, Ahmed and his generals massed troops near the northern Tigray region’s borders and flew military supplies to Ethiopia’s neighboring ally Eritrea. Soldiers from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) struck first, attacking a federal military base, after which Ethiopian and Eritrean troops countered with a two-pronged offensive from the north and south. The tide of the conflict has swung back and forth since, and fighting drags on to this day.

Historically, Ethiopians and Eritreans in Chicago have organized around providing support, language classes, and other services for recent

refugees and immigrants. The community also created a cultural museum on the North side, and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church on the Southeast Side.

Aviva Levine is an organizer from the Chicago chapter of Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) who helped organize a protest downtown last fall. She said the central belief animating the protest was “that every country in the Horn of Africa deserves the right to determine their own destiny, and if a government is deemed illegitimate, it should be the right of the people of that country, and not the United States, to determine or to meddle in that.” The specific goal was an end to American sanctions on countries in the region, which Levine said have had a destabilizing effect. The protest brought more than 500 people, among them not only Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Somali Americans but also Black, Latinx, and white folks with no immediate ties to the Horn of Africa who showed up in solidarity with the cause.

Many in the Eritrean diaspora, even those in the United States, remain fearful of speaking out against that nation’s government. “People are traumatized.

They wouldn’t want to say anything negative,” said Simon Aman, who was born in Asmara, Eritrea’s capital.

18 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY ¬ MARCH 24, 2022

ILLUSTRATION BY KEVIN MOORE JR.

In 1998, when Asman was already a lecturer at Asmara University, he came to the United States to pursue a master’s degree in mathematics and statistics at Southern Illinois University (SIU). A border war between Eritrea and Ethiopia that would last more than two years and result in close to 500,000 deaths prevented him from returning, so Aman stayed on at SIU for a Ph.D. After a stint teaching at Florida Atlantic University, Aman returned to Illinois for a position at Truman College in Uptown, the place he has called home for the past fifteen years.

In 1973, when Aman was born, Eritrea was not an independent country.

Just one year after his birth, Haile Selassie,

the long-time emperor of Ethiopia, was overthrown in a coup and replaced by a Marxist military dictatorship. As a young boy, Aman survived a terrible famine that was caused by a historic drought and killed nearly a million people. Eastern and Western bloc countries, who were adversaries during the Cold War, both airlifted pallets of food across Ethiopia, a country nearly two times the size of Texas with the second-largest population in Africa.

When Aman was still a young man in 1991, fighters from the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) defeated the Ethiopian army and took control of Eritrea, a funnel-shaped territory hemmed in by the Red Sea, Ethiopia,

IMMIGRATION Afwerki’s government has justified repression and mandatory conscription into the armed services because of the unresolved border war with Ethiopia that began in the early 2000s. Not until 2018, after Abiy Ahmed was elected prime minister of Ethiopia, did the two countries strike a peace deal for which the newly minted leader was awarded the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize.

It was around this time that Aman and many other Eritreans across the United States began saying “Yiakl,” which means “enough is enough” in the Tigrinya language.

“It started through Facebook and YouTube,” Aman said. “It was a social movement at the beginning. But then we started to organize.” Eritreans met, discussed grievances, and traded political opinions in over forty U.S cities. A meeting in Washington, D.C. brought the local groups together and included dissidents who had been jailed by the regime. The event ultimately spurred the formation of Yiakl Chicago/Milwaukee in 2019.

Unlike Aman, who took a direct flight to America, many of Yiakl’s sixty members made their way out of Eritrea across treacherous land routes through Sudan and Libya before securing permission to come here, fleeing from war, famine, or forced military service.

“There's no future there, especially for the younger ones,” Aman said. “Before they finish high school, they leave their homes. They become the government's property, and they don't know when they will return. There is no payment.

It's called national service, but it is really like slavery.”

Since the beginning of the latest conflict, Yiakl Chicago/Milwaukee has been opposed to Eritrea’s involvement in Tigray. “The war is an internal situation in Ethiopia, it didn’t touch any Eritreans. But our president, because he wanted revenge, took our soldiers,” some as young as fifteen years old, and sent them to Tigray, Aman said. “We’ve been demonstrating, and we've been telling people that our organization is completely against the government’s [actions].”

When I asked Aman about the prospects for peace or the complete breakup of Ethiopia into ethnic republics, he initially struck an optimistic note. “The only way forward is for them to sit down and figure out their differences,” he said.

“We have to live together, whether we look the same, whether we talk the same, whether we have different cultures.” But when asked if he thought reconciliation was likely, he became grim.

“The issue is that the leaders in that region of Africa don't give up their seats for the sake of peace; once they get in, they will just do everything to stay there,” he said. “And that is going to be the cause if there's any breakup, it's going to be because the leaders wouldn't want to give up their power…which is very saddening, because if you have many broken up states, then they will continue to fight.” 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 wrote about gun violence initiatives in Chicago.

PHOTO: Ken Carl

Djibouti, and Sudan. The little-known leader of that rebel group, Isaias Afwerki, ascended to the presidency in 1993 and ratified his country’s independence through a referendum that garnered ninety-nine percent of the population’s support. Afwerki has ruled the country ever since. In 2015, the United Nations accused his totalitarian regime of torture and human-rights violations.

Aman related the story of a friend he had not seen until a recent visit. The friend, a writer who worked primarily translating texts from English into Eritrean, was arrested out of the blue one day and thrown into a cramped cell with hardly enough space to stretch his legs. The cell was so dark that the only glimmer of light was from a keyhole in the door. Guards periodically pulled him from his tiny cell for interrogations in which he was pressured to confess to a crime he did not commit. The man was released after a year in prison, once the security services finally decided he could not have committed the crime of which he was suspected.

STORIES OF OUR CITY:

wttw.com / firsthand #FIRSTHANDwttw

MARCH 24, 2022 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 19

POETRY

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 WEEK'S PROMPT: “WRITE A PIECE THAT CHALLENGES MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT A STRUGGLE OR HARDSHIP THAT YOU’VE PERSONALLY EXPERIENCED.” THIS COULD BE A POEM OR A STREAM-OFCONSCIOUSNESS 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.

Caution and Its Fineprint

BY CHIMA “NAIRA” IKORO Only nineteen percent of the time the perpetrator is a stranger.

The other eighty-one percent dropped me off at my doorstep, waited, and made sure I made it in safe.

The Pigs Must Starve!

BY IMANI JOSEPH Shaoxiong “Dennis” Zheng hadn’t been in Chicago long, but his murder on a street in Hyde Park has resonated across a city facing its second straight year of rising violence [I remember when they closed 49 elementary schools in 2013/ I remember when 51 Black women went missing, and no major news outlet reported it/ I remember Rahm Emanuel covering up the murder of Laquan McDonald in 2014/ Him appointing Lori Lightfoot to the CPD board in 2015/ And her becoming his successor in 2019/ I remember a 95 million dollar police academy and a coverup/ I remember summer of 2020 when Lori Lightfoot raised the city bridges/ I watched my friends fall into the Chicago river/ I remember running for my life/ The pigs blocking off the train entrances and hoarding us into dark alleys/ I remember seeing the Christopher Columbus statue being torn down/ I remember being knocked down as the pigs sprayed tear gas/ I remember the baton beating down on me/ I was told my partner carried me on their back to the train/ I remember so much violence but still think I imagined it].

20 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY ¬ MARCH 24, 2022

The University of Chicago, where the “bright and talented” Zheng recently got his master’s in statistics, called on the mayor and police superintendent to treat violence as a “public health crisis” [Displacement is violent/ The university of chicago owns the land/ They hear the tentats screaming/ And when one of their own people is hurt/ They release the pigs on us for slaughter/ I’m sick with anger/ When I spark the end of a blunt the open smoldering end looks like the sun/ Breathin n’ hizzin smoke/ The wind waters my eyes/ Sweeps the ash away/ Sometimes I feel like I’m wading in ash/ That I’m filth/ Ass to earth/ Root or unrooted/ Sometimes I buck so hard I scratch myself at night/ One time it was just the bed bugs/ Eating my ass alive/ I’m so sad I could smoke a black n mild/ I’m so scared I could eat the sun].

Shootings in Hyde Park have more than tripled this year to 16, but that’s still low compared to Woodlawn, the community area to the south. Woodlawn has seen 83 shootings so far this year, an increase of 150% compared to the same time in 2019 [My childhood was demolished for mac apartment complexes/ Push us out/ Move us South/ Pacify the natives with PPP Loans/ My plug doesn’t deliver to King Von’s 63rd anymore/ That summer our dryer caught fire, burned a hole through the ceiling/ If only our landlord would field our calls/ Next door they are building mirror houses/ The construction woke the field mice/ We are infested/ Ash rains down on me/ I was walking home one night as they were laying out the caution tape/ They had just cleared away the body/ I couldn’t smell death in the air it was too cold/ Niggas burn so bright/ Laquan McDonald is a star/ And I’m a freedom fighter/ When a nigga is shot his body vibrates like a star/ Burnin n’ bleeding soul slooply out on the street corner/ Pigs always come to clean us out/ I get frustrated writing protest poems they are never ending/ I recite poems to remember reality].

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who lives in Hyde Park, asked, “When is enough, enough?” and called for “an immediate and urgent response to the violence.”

[The expansion of downtown hyde park is a public health crisis/ The university of chicago is violent/ Fear mongering pigs disguised as politicians/ They starve black students, shutdown Black schools, n’ steal Black land/ I’m sick with anger/ My niggas will rain down an abundance of abolition/ Lightfoot will burn].

[Pigs cause violence] Lightfoot’s 2022 budget promises to boost funding for an array of violence prevention programs [She fed them 1.9 billion dollars]. But the violence has stubbornly stayed high [This is a set up/ They are raising the bridges/ I’m 15 again being thrown down the marble stairs of city hall/ My tongue is a knife/ My name is a poem if they kill/catch me].

This is a state of an emergency [Niggas die everyday g University of Chicago students aren’t allowed to tho].

Imani Joseph is a writer from Woodlawn. You can find her on Instagram @ itsssssimaniiii!

CALENDAR

ILLUSTRATION BY THUMY PHAN

BULLETIN Adler Planetarium Free Days

Adler Planteraium, 1300 S Lake Shore Dr, Wednesday, March 30, 4:00pm–10:00pm.

Free. bit.ly/AdlerFreeDays The Adler reopened March 4 and is once again holding free days for Illinois residents on Wednesday evenings.

Whether going on a date or taking your family, your ticket will let you watch a simulation of the Chicago night sky without light pollution, learn fun facts about the solar system, and examine old telescopes and sundials. You'll have the option to pay to upgrade your ticket to include sky shows, half-hour movies in the dome theater about the moon and a mysterious ninth planet, among other topics. (Adam Przybyl)

COVID-19 in North Lawndale

Online, Wednesday, March 30, 12:00pm– 1:00pm. Free. bit.ly/NLEN_roundtable Join youth leaders and healthcare workers in a free online forum on the pandemic and how to identify accurate sources of health information.

Participants will also discuss promoting COVID-19 safety and health equity in the North Lawndale community. RSVP online. ( Jackie Serrato)

South Side Critical Mass Bike Ride Nichols Park, south end, 1300 E 55th St, Friday, April 1, 5:45pm–10:00pm. Free. bit.ly/CriticalMassBike Have you wanted to bike around

Chicago but are worried about being a lone biker on busy streets? Join the critical mass bike ride, where you’ll be able to bike for around fifteen to twenty miles at a moderate pace with a large group of cyclists. The organizers of the event remind attendees that you come at your own risk and to bring water, a bike lock, a mask, and to wear a helmet.

The group will meet at the south end of Nichols Park and ride at 6:15pm. The event takes place on the first Friday of the month throughout the year except winter. Next dates are May 6th and June 3rd. (Adam Przybyl)

Dental students at UI Health and the UIC College of Dentistry are offering free screenings every Wednesday, no appointment necessary. Call the clinic for more information at (312) 413-4179. ( Jackie Serrato)

Guided Tour of Historic Former Wabash YMCA

Spring is just around the corner, but if you want to take a sneak peek, go see the playful spring flower arrangements at the Garfield Park Conservatory. There are tulips, hydrangeas, daffodils, and more, along with 'knock knock' jokes and colorful art-doors. While you're there, check out the cacti in the desert house and waterfalls in the fern room, which looks like a time capsule of when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. If you go on a Saturday morning, you may run into a master gardener who can answer questions and give tips about planting your spring garden! Reserve spot online to guarantee entry. (Adam Przybyl)

Former Wabash YMCA, 3763 S Wabash Ave, Saturday, April 9, 10:30am– 11:30am. bit.ly/FormerWabash Every other Saturday, the Renaissance Collaborative is leading tours of the former Wabash YMCA, an historic center of Black social life. Built in 1911, in the heart of the Black Belt, it was the only Y in the city that admitted Black people for many years. In 1915, the Association for the Study of Negro Life was founded here and went on to create a precursor to Black History Month. The tour uses archived newspaper articles and archival photos to tell the story of the building and the people who congregated there. (Adam Przybyl)

Free Dental Screenings

Pilsen Family Health Center, 1713 S. Ashland St., Saturday, April 30 9:30am– 12:00pm. Free.

FOOD & LAND Spring Flower Show: Knock Knock Garfield Park Conservatory, 300 N Central Park Ave, 10:00am–5:00pm.

Free, reservations recommended. garfieldconservatory.org/visit/

61st St. Farmers Market

Experimental Station, 6100 S. Blackstone Ave. 9:00am–12:00pm. Free to attend. experimentalstation.org/market As winter comes to an end, get a headstart on finding farm-fresh vegetables, seedlings, and other products

from local farmers and creators. The 61st St. Farmers Market is continuing a monthly hybrid indoor-outdoor market at the Experimental Station.

Vendors include Ellis Family Farms, Mick Klug Farm, Gorman Farm Fresh Produce, Faith's Farm, Mint Creek Farm, Stamper Cheese, The Urban Canopy, and others. As ever, the market accepts LINK and Senior Farmers Market Coupons, and will match LINK purchases up to $25 per customer per market day, as long as funding holds out.

Customers must wear masks while inside the building. The market will go fully outdoors starting on May 14. (Martha Bayne)

ARTS Pilsen Vendor Market

Art House Underground, 2631 W. Division St., Sundays, 12:00pm–5:00pm. Free. bit.ly/37RMZFr This family-friendly weekly market invites artists and vendors to sell their wares such as candles, jewelry, woodwork, apparel, handmade goods, and more. There are both indoor and outdoor spaces, and masks are required throughout the event. (Alma Campos)

Art and Race Matters: The Career of Robert Colescott

Chicago Cultural Center, Exhibit Hall, Fourth Floor, 78 E. Washington St., Free. chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/ colescott.html A comprehensive retrospective exhibits

MARCH 24, 2022 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 21

CALENDAR the work of Robert Colescott, a Black twentieth-century artist and satirist who took aim at race, class, and gender in America, will be on display through May 29. ( Jim Daley)

and has written more than fifteen novels. The event is in-person and will be livestreamed. Register online. ( Jackie Serrato)

Young Chicago Authors Wordplay Open Mic

Providence of God Church, 717 W. 18th St., Saturday, March 26, 7:00pm– 12:00am. $20. bit.ly/LatinOldies

Instagram Live, Every Tuesday, 6:00pm–7:30pm. Free. instagram.com/ youngchicagoauthors One of the longest-running youth open mics, Worldplay, is back every Tuesday on Instagram Live. The virtual open mic is hosted by DJ Ca$hera and showcases music, spoken-word performances, and a featured artist. (Chima Ikoro)

Eruption At The Seafloor Exhibit

The Silver Room, 1506 E. 53rd St, 6:00pm–8:00pm. Free, register online. bit.ly/EruptionSeaFloor Eruption At The Seafloor is a collection of screen prints, collages, and paintings that “expresses a dormancy that's resurfaced through meditation [and] idleness” and “highlights the cracking of our surfaces.” The exhibit features Puerto Rican painter Amanda “Raspy” Rivera, South Sider Alexandria Valentine, whose archival and collage practices “explore themes of Black latent thought [and] ancestral landscapes,” and Denver-raised artist Cortney Anderson who recently graduated from SAIC. The exhibit coincides with Women's History Month and runs until April 8. (Adam Przybyl)

Ana Castillo Fuller Award Celebration

American Writers Museum, 180 N. Michigan Ave., Thursday, March 24, 7:00pm. Free. Registration required. bit.ly/CastilloFullerAward The Chicago Literary Hall of Fame will present its prestigious Fuller Award to Chicana writer Ana Castillo, author of Massacre of the Dreamers: Essays on Xicanisma, for her lifetime contribution to literature and feminist thought.

Castillo was born and raised in Chicago

Latin Oldies Dance

After a hiatus due to COVID-19, Providence of God's popular fundraiser returns this year with the support of St. Procopious, the church it merged with.

Reminisce on the good old days on 18th Street with DJ Mike Hernández and his selection of "Latin Oldies." Buy tickets online. ( Jackie Serrato)

Chess Records Tours

Chess Records, 2120 S. Michigan Ave., 12:00pm–4:00pm. $15 donation. info@ bluesheaven.com Willie Dixon’s Blues Heaven, the foundation that owns the building formerly known as Chess Records, is resuming tours of the place that saw some of the most legendary Black artists in the '50s and '60s: Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, and Etta James, among them. The second floor is dedicated to Dixon, and the recording studio displays period artifacts. Tours are Tuesday through Saturday afternoons. (312) 8081286. ( Jackie Serrato)

hop artist Amina Norman-Hawkins will moderate a discussion. (Adam Przybyl)

Frida-Inspired Self-Portrait

National Museum of Mexican Art, 1852 W. 19th St., Saturday April 2, 10:00am. $20 suggested donation. bit.ly/3qp0umy Parents with toddlers are invited to join the National Museum of Mexican Art to learn to make a self-portrait college. You'll view the exhibit Frida Kahlo, Her Photos, focusing on portraits and facial features. A $20 suggested donation includes all materials needed. To register, email gabriela@ nationalmuseumofmexicanart.org.

(Maddie Parrish)

Deborah Kanter, Author of Chicago Católico

DePaul Student Center, Room 314B, 2250 N. Sheffield Ave., Tuesday, April 5, 6:30pm–8:00pm. Free. bit.ly/ChicagoCatolico

Say My Name Film Screening Parkway Ballroom, 4455 S King Dr, Saturday, March 26, 2:00pm–5:00pm.

Free. bit.ly/SayMyNameScreening

The documentary Say My Name explores the experiences of female lyricists in hip-hop and R&B, who navigate sexism, racism, motherhood and more in the pursuit of their dreams. The movie takes viewers on a tour around the country and beyond, from the Bronx and Chicago to London's Eastside, and features interviews and musical performances from Remy Ma, Erykah Badu, Jean Grae, as well as newcomers like Chocolate Thai and Miz Korona, among others. After the screening, hip-

22 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY ¬ MARCH 24, 2022

Over one hundred Chicago-area

Catholic churches offer Spanishlanguage mass to congregants. How did the city's Mexican population, contained in just two parishes before 1960, come to reshape dozens of parishes and neighborhoods? In her book, Chicago Católico: Making Catholic Parishes Mexican, Kanter tells the story of neighborhood demographic changes and rebirth. The event is hybrid, in person and on Zoom. DePaul requires attendees to show proof of vaccination, including a booster or negative test. ( Jackie Serrato)

Scan to view the calendar online!