SSW 08.19.21

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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 8, Issue 19 Editor-in-Chief Jacqueline Serrato Managing Editor Martha Bayne Senior Editors Christian Belanger Christopher Good Rachel Kim Emeline Posner Adam Przybyl Olivia Stovicek Sam Stecklow Arts Editor Politics Editor Education Editor Housing Editor Community Organizing Editor Immigration Editor

Isabel Nieves Jim Daley 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 Data Editor

Jasmine Mithani

Director of Fact Checking: Kate Gallagher Fact Checkers: Susan Chun, Grace Del Vecchio, Hannah Faris, Maria Maynez, Olivia Stovicek Visuals Editor Haley Tweedell Deputy Visuals Editors Shane Tolentino Mell Montezuma Anna Mason Staff Illustrators Mell Montezuma, Shane Tolentino Layout Editors Haley Tweedell Davon Clark Tony Zralka Web Editor AV Benford Social Media Editor Davon Clark 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 distribute each Wednesday in the fall, winter, and spring. Over the summer we publish every other week.

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, contact: (773) 234-5388 or advertising@southsideweekly.com

Cover Illustration by Stephanie Zimba

IN CHICAGO IN THIS ISSUE Rest easy Paul Johnson Iconic Chicago House DJ Paul Johnson passed away on August 4 from COVID-19 at only fifty years old. Johnson, who began DJing in 1987 at the age of thirteen, worked with myriad House record labels and founded his own, Dust Traxx, in 1997. Two years later, the South Sider’s signature hit “Get Get Down” took the world by storm, reaching the number-one spot on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart. That track combines staccato piano chords with snappy synths and churning bass, along with an irresistible message: get down. French DJ duo Daft Punk paid tribute to Johnson on their ‘97 track “Teachers,” which lists House legends who influenced them. Even as he became internationally famous, Johnson, who used a wheelchair after being shot as a teenager, continued to play at house parties and clubs in Chicago—ever accessible, kind, and ready with an easy smile. The untimely loss of an internationally famous luminary, like those of other Black artists who recently passed far too soon, underscores the horrific effect systemic racism continues to have on Black health and Black life.

public meetings report

Local demographics: census Chicago's population has grown by about 50,000 people, according to preliminary Census data released last week.

White people are still Chicago’s largest racial group, though their numbers only grew by one percent. Black communities unfortunately continue on a gradual decline; the city lost about 85,000 Black Chicagoans in the last decade. Among new immigrants, the Asian population saw the largest increase, with a growth of 45,000 people. Mexican outmigration into the suburbs, likely due to gentrification as well as proximity to jobs, resulted in suburban Cook County’s Latinx population shooting up by about 100,000 residents in the span of ten years.

the exchange

Illinois’ eviction moratorium uncertain The State of Illinois is still making a decision on whether it will extend its own eviction moratorium. While the CDC has extended its halt on carrying out evictions until October 3, which will afford tenants more time to stay in place, that deadline is currently being challenged in court by real estate groups and property owners across the nation. Whether the new federal moratorium stays in place is to be determined, but at the state level, Governor Pritzker has yet to make a decision on whether he will extend the state’s eviction moratorium, which currently prevents final eviction trials and judgments in court for covered persons. The moratorium is due to be renewed or expire on August 21.

A recap of select open meetings at the local, county, and state level. documenters, grace del vecchio, scott pemberton.............................................................4 summer in house city

A map of House music events. charmaine runes & jim daley.............................5 neighbors beneath the masks

A profile of Hyde Parker Dorothy Green philana woo..........................................................6 the soil from which we grew

The midcentury movement that cemented Chicago as a center for Black literary excellence required its own foundation. malik jackson........................................................8 The Weekly’s new poetry corner offers our thoughts in exchange for yours. chima ikoro.........................................................11 the downside of doing good

Mutual aid projects that start in a rush of urgent optimism may soon run up against bureaucratic barriers. chima ikoro.........................................................12 ecps: a step toward community control of the police

“The main thing is that we have accomplished a very important first step, and that is getting our people in policy-making positions.” jacqueline serrato.............................................15 activists say fight against city’s largest warehouse is not over

La Villita residents and activists protest the private opening of a massive distribution center right off the I-55. peter winslow.....................................................17 out of control

Who’s supervising overtime at CPD? jim daley & kiran misra.....................................18 op-ed: it’s about time for a just cause ordinance

With more than 20,000 Chicago evictions predicted after the moratorium is lifted, we need a policy that protects renters. annie howard......................................................20 calendar

Bulletin and events.

South Side Weekly Staff..................................22

ILLUSTRATION BY HOLLEY APPOLD

Public Meetings Report

A recap of select open meetings at the local, county, and state level for the August 19 issue.

BY DOCUMENTERS, GRACE DEL VECCHIO, SCOTT PEMBERTON July 30 COVID-19-related federal funding is not expected to continue into 2022, the Cook County Health and Hospitals System Board learned at its meeting. The impact of the Delta variant on hospital safety was also discussed— specifically, higher rates of positive COVID-19 tests being seen during routine screenings, even among unrelated admissions. Updated screening protocols will be implemented, and masks continue to be required on-site for staff and patients. There are no plans to provide booster shots in alliance with the FDA and CDC; however, mass vaccination sites can be quickly ramped up, and Cook County Health “would be ready to mobilize." Stroger Hospital was rated “high performing” by US News & World Report in two areas of heart-related care and two of lung-related care.

Aug. 3 At its meeting, the Illinois Department of Public Health Infant and Maternal Mortality Task Force (IMMT) Systems Subcommittee learned that health care providers resumed home visits in July. But concerns over the COVID-19 Delta variant have apparently caused them to cut back visits, according to Glendean Burton, chief of the state’s Bureau of Maternal & Infant Health. The subcommittee also discussed telehealth challenges such as privacy, Internet connections, and Medicaid coverage, in connection with a bill Governor Pritzker signed into law in July that extends insurance coverage of telehealth services. In a report delivered to the General Assembly in January, the state’s Task Force on Infant and Maternal Mortality among African Americans noted that Illinois ranks “36th [lowest] out of 50 states” in infant mortality.

Aug. 5 A more descriptive name for the Chicago Community Land Trust (CCLT), new mission and vision statements, and a one-size-fits-all formula for opting in to home acquisitions and improvements were some of the topics discussed at the CCLT Board of Directors meeting. The goal of a key pilot program launched in 2019 is to provide “working individuals and families with opportunities to purchase homes of their own at prices they can afford.” The program’s original $3 million budget (and relatively low 2020 expenses) were reviewed in connection with anticipated increases for 2021. The areas targeted for the program are Woodlawn, East Garfield Park, Hermosa, Humboldt Park, and Pilsen and Little Village. The CCLT plans to launch a rebranding with a new name and logo in October.

4 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY ¬ AUGUST 19, 2021

Greater Chicago is on its way to reducing greenhouse gas emissions as a part of its strategy to achieve energy and carbon neutrality within the next decade, reported Commissioner Debra Shore at the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) of Greater Chicago Board of Commissioners meeting. For its part, the MWRD board approved advertising for professional assistance to develop “conceptual plans” for energy neutrality at an estimated cost of $1.1 million. Commissioners also discussed the practice of collecting fees from entities that lease land from the district— specifically, a 1966 agreement with Evanston. In an amended agreement, Evanston will lease approximately ninety-two acres along the North Shore Channel to allow public parking and tailgating during Northwestern University home football games.

With the most recent contract, already approved and signed by the City of Evanston before the MWRD board meeting, the district will collect twenty-five percent of annual gross revenue with a minimum fee of $80,000 for each season.

The City Colleges of Chicago (CCC) are ready for in-person classes to return on all campuses this fall with a strict set of COVID-19 guidelines in place. During the CCC Committee on Academic Affairs and Student Services and the Board of Trustees meetings, committee members discussed COVID-19 protocols, which include a facemask requirement regardless of vaccination status, COVID-19 testing and vaccination opportunities on all campuses, contact tracing, and enhanced air filtration systems (including new equipment) and cleaning procedures. Other topics included emergency grants for students, plans to create a more accessible environment for the disabled community, and a resolution that reviewed the applied cannabis certification program to be piloted at Olive-Harvey and Wright colleges.

Aug. 11 Community members voiced concerns over redistricting at the Cook County Board of Commissioners Census Redistricting Committee meeting, worrying that the process would strip communities of resources and Congressional seats. Likely population changes in some districts were noted, including shrinkages in the 1st, 4th, and 5th districts driven by loss of Black residents, and losses of Latinx populations in majority-Latinx districts offset by gains in white population, possibly through gentrification. Commissioners must have proposals of the revised maps drawn and submitted by Sept. 8, and changes must be incorporated and voted on by Sept. 22.

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

Summer in House City A series of House music events gives you plenty of opportunities to dance the rest of the summer away.

BY CHARMAINE RUNES AND JIM DALEY

S

ummer in Chicago—and especially summer’s second act—is magic. By August, the lake is in a Goldilocks zone, perfect for dipping, and languid evenings in the park or backyard are almost humid enough to convince you wind chill never existed. Chicagoans, wise to the ephemerality of such moments, grab hold of summer with both hands: grilling, swimming, front-stooping, ball-playing, and literally dancing in the streets. At block parties and street

festivals, cookouts, quinceañeras, and family reunions, Chicagoans love to dance—and House music, invented here in the 1980s, is one of our favorite sounds for it. This summer, the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events is hosting House City, a collection of outdoor parties featuring local House DJs. There’s still time to catch a bunch of them. In the map below, you can preview headliners and plan to dance away the best part of summer.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF CHICAGO'S DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS AND SPECIAL EVENTS (CHICAGO DCASE)

Check for updates at https://bit.ly/ChiHouseCity

AUGUST 19, 2021 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 5

NEIGHBORS

Neighbors Beneath the Masks

A profile of Hyde Parker Dorothy Green

BY PHILANA WOO

D

orothy Green likes to ride hands free, sometimes while standing on her pedals, cruising down the middle of empty streets. She’s the kind of cyclist who will zigzag into a packed car lane and chance red lights at a busy intersection. Her ride is a restored vintage blue Schwinn with yellow handlebars, her bag of choice a reflective fanny pack she slings across her chest, and her soundtrack—at the moment Australian post-punk—blasts from a mint green portable stereo she bought for $10.

Her riding style reminds me of her standup comedy: combative, playful, haphazard. As she tells it, she used to do a bit where she picked a random man in the audience and started screaming, demanding he answer whether he would be able to fight the army of sons she planned to sire with multiple women. This was a few years ago, when she still lived in St. Louis and before her transition, when she presented as male. “I started being like okay, I’ll go to weird open mics as a weird skinny little eighteen-year-old and start doing what’s funny to me, and unfortunately what’s funny to me is just weird shit,” she said.

In a way, this is the Dorothy I know, the performance artist who likes to challenge strangers to a fistfight while simultaneously daring them to love her, or at the least, to acknowledge her. Dorothy is twenty-two and five-foot-ten; she has

shoulder-length wavy hair with bangs dyed orange, and a Cheshire Cat grin.

She speaks with the languorous drawl of an old Hollywood actress and chainsmokes like one as well. Her fashion sensibility is part hippie cowgirl, part riot grrrl. She captioned a recent Instagram selfie: “Goes to the goth night dressed like a slutty country bitch.”

I first met Dorothy at Open Produce, where she works. Open Produce is a compact grocery store two blocks from the apartment I sublet in Hyde Park.

I had moved here from New York City in the middle of the pandemic to attend graduate school and missed late-night bodegas. Open Produce is open until 2am.

With little else to do during lockdown, I found myself stopping in nearly daily, sometimes just to browse.

I looked forward to seeing Dorothy on her shifts, a few times a week and usually in the evenings. She posts a new handwritten index card by the register every shift she works; it bears the tagline “The clerk is a girl,” followed by a punchline. A classic one reads: “The clerk is a girl. She was also surprised when she found out.” Sometimes the vibe is sad: “The clerk is a girl. She’s already cried 3 times today.” Other times defiant: “The clerk is a girl. She’s wearing a dress + has a big knife.” I like all her index cards, but perhaps my favorite are the slightly wistful ones: “The clerk is a girl. If you keep quiet, she’ll stay like this forever.”

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PHOTO BY PHILANA WOO

“Your body stops being a thing you’re self-conscious about and starts becoming a tool for you.

It does what it’s told.

Pedal faster, speed up.

Don’t pedal, slow down.”

NEIGHBORS

Dorothy Green likes to ride hands free, sometimes while standing on her pedals, cruising down the middle of empty streets.

When my writing class assigned us to profile a local shop worker, I instantly knew whom I would pick. Like me, Dorothy moved to Chicago for school; she is studying journalism. She isn’t too keen on being labeled an artist, at least not when it comes to the pressure to create. “If I try to be pretentious, everyone will just figure me out to be dumb,” she says. “The art I used to make was directly related to the fact that I felt very uncomfortable in crowds.” She recently started a blog and is focused on relaxing and riding her bike for the summer.

The first time Dorothy and I sat down for an interview, in our respective apartments a few blocks apart via Zoom, was the first time we saw each other’s faces sans mask. That was about half a year ago.

On this day, we are out for a bike ride.

It’s been over a year since Dorothy started her transition. Her skin is glowing, and she is confident as ever. She wants to show off her body, to get trashed at dives and take Ubers she cannot afford home.

This is her hot lesbian summer.

We make a pit stop at Walgreens on 51st because Dorothy needs sunscreen for her delicate Irish skin. We lock our bikes together since I forgot my key and walk by a fried fish and chicken shop. I am hungry.

We pass a busy nail salon, and for a split second I am surprised to see its Asian staff.

I feel silly, like a cat fascinated by its own reflection in a mirror. After all, seventy-six percent of nail salon workers in the United States are Asian, according to the UCLA Labor Center. Still, we’d been riding through a predominantly Black part of the city and hadn’t encountered anyone who looked like either of us. It occurs to me that this is the first moment of our ride off our bikes, interacting with other people. Whenever someone looked at us, I wondered why. Was it because Dorothy is white and I am Asian, because Dorothy is trans, or perhaps because we were cyclists?

Did they assume we were affiliated with the university and thus gentrifiers?

Or maybe they weren’t thinking anything. As an Asian American, I’m used to having these thoughts of unbelonging. There’s a constant calculus that involves accessing my surroundings for potential hostility, the expected reaction to my perceived foreignness. The last time Dorothy was on a train, another passenger got up real close and asked her what she was as she gripped the knife in her pocket. Sometimes the hostility is imagined, sometimes it is unexpected, but always, it looms.

I end up buying sour cream and onion Pringles that I munch on while Dorothy slathers her face. We bike around some more, along tree-lined streets past churches and abandoned lots.

On her blog, Dorothy writes: “Your body stops being a thing you’re self-conscious about and starts becoming a tool for you.

It does what it’s told. Pedal faster, speed up. Don’t pedal, slow down. The only universal truths present in bicycling.”

The temperature is in the seventies and slightly humid. All in all, a pleasant day for a bike ride.

Dorothy tells me a story about how she told off someone proselytizing downtown by the Bean. He called her a homosexual as she walked by with a friend, to which she replied, “At least I have better sex than you!” Her friend was mortified. Dorothy still likes to yell but there is a part of her that is demure. “I’m trans but I’m also annoying,” she says matter-of-factly.

She is the genre-defying heroine of her own sci-fi novel yet to be written. I imagine her protagonist to be inspired

by Cayce Pollard of Pattern Recognition (Dorothy’s been reading a lot of William Gibson lately), Kiki from the Hayao Miyazaki film Kiki’s Delivery Service (the story of a young witch who moves to a new town and a personal favorite), and Barb, the main character in Isabel Fall’s controversial short story “I Sexually Identify as an Attack Helicopter,” about

a woman whose gender is reassigned to “attack helicopter” to make her a better pilot. We talk at length about Fall and how Dorothy wants to write about a mechanically enhanced character.

She recently reread The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier, a novel assigned by her Catholic high school that had a traumatizing effect. The story, which takes place in a Catholic high school, depicts students ganging up on an outcast who refuses to conform to its internal politics. The way Dorothy sees it, “It’s mostly about how it’s better to go with the herd, because if you dare disturb the

universe you will end up getting beaten by a closeted gay kid.”

Dorothy has dealt with her share of rude customer interactions. She’s been heckled on the street. But she’s also reveling in her newfound freedom, cruising through the city on her bicycle in flowing dresses. “I think I dared disturb the universe at this point,” she says, before taking another drag. This is Philana Woo’s first piece for the Weekly. She is from San Francisco and arrived in Chicago via Honolulu, Beijing, New York, and Shanghai.

AUGUST 19, 2021 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 7

LIT

The Soil From Which We Grew

A new collection explores the early twentiethcentury artists and institutions that made the Black Chicago Renaissance possible.

BY MALIK JACKSON

M

ost cultural movements start small: in the bedrooms of budding orators, around the table at a thrifty pub, or in the margins of an artist’s sketchbook. But humble beginnings are foundations nonetheless.

Their influence, as history tells us, can grow from four people around a table to 4,000 people across a city—all that’s necessary is for a seed to be planted, and for surrounding conditions to foster its growth. Many people know about the richness of the Black Chicago Renaissance, but the midcentury movement that cemented Chicago as a center for Black literary excellence surely required its own foundation, laid by lesser-known names, relationships, and ideas. Pioneers by definition, their stories are chronicled in Roots of the Black Chicago Renaissance, a 2020 collection of essays edited by Richard A. Courage and Christopher Robert Reed.

In the decades following the end of the Civil War, a fresh and righteously freed Black population sought to make a new world for themselves within a world that was still unsure about whether they had the right to one. While most had yet to journey North, early arrivers to Chicago were building the frameworks through which newcomers would be able to flourish, imagine new ways of living, and claim new opportunities. Roots serves as an anthology that honors their contributions, from the writers, artists, and intellectuals who reinvented what

Black representation could look like, to the entrepreneurs and financiers who created the spaces that would insulate and incubate Black culture and thought, which continue to influence the city and the world a century later.

But first, every event needs a convener. 1893 was a critical year in American history for both the everexpanding white population and the newly freed Black population. Chicago’s World’s Fair was an opportunity for the American nation to represent itself in ways that broke from classical European forms, and it was also an opportunity for Black people to begin thinking about how they ought to represent themselves on the world’s stage. Frederick Douglass, the curator of Colored American Day at the World’s Fair, among other things, would orchestrate one of the first opportunities for freed Black folks to ask themselves this question. Influenced by recent trips to Ancient Egypt and his role as a U.S. delegate to Haiti, his temperament entering 1893 was one that pondered questions of Black pasts and futures, dignity, and civility. The essay “Journey to Frederick Douglass’s Chicago Jubilee,” by John McCluskey Jr., explores how these preoccupations, however valid, would have deep implications for the “tensions within and among urban Black Renaissances of the early twentieth century.” After having to convince much of Chicago’s Black culturati to attend the World’s Fair, the show went on. Singers and musicians

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like Desiree Plato, Sydney Woodward, and Maurice Arnold Strathotte performed their renditions of Romantic classics. Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poetry recitations would propel him to national prominence, and a closing from Frederick Douglass himself, in which he spoke to the commendable progress of Black people since the Emancipation, minted the day of events as one that would be formative for the future of Black culture.

McCluskey cautions the reader, though, that “in terms of original and vernacular expression, Colored American Day may be important for what it was not.”

Douglass’s preoccupations with propriety curated a day of events that didn’t do too much to push the boundaries of what authentic Black expression could look like on the world’s stage. But Colored American Day did provide a stage, a gaping avenue for self-definition and expression for one of the first times in American history.

Another presenter at the World’s Fair managed to set fire to expectations, including those of Douglass, in a speech called “The Intellectual Progress and Present Status of the Colored Women of the United States since the Emancipation Proclamation.” Fannie Barrier Williams was a nationally renowned writer, orator, leader, and settlement house activist who took the world by storm in a speech that reintroduced Black women to the world, and demanded the recognition of their moral authority and democratic participation. Her efforts sought to define “the New Colored Woman,” who she envisioned as community leaders. Women who, contrary to gendered distinctions of the time, balanced professional and service work, worked to create “new and renewed communities,” and were concerned with social and political matters both within the race and in broader contexts.

Her dogma, Black feminist pragmatism, carved out a “third way”

LIT

to approach race relations, which incorporated both Booker T. Washington’s and W.E.B. Du Bois’s philosophies on the advancement of Black people. This nonconfrontational, neighborly approach was influenced by her abolitionist upbringing, as her father was a longtime friend of Frederick Douglass, and she herself was a longtime friend of suffragist Susan B. Anthony. The third way would find Fannie in interracial circles, clubs, and social settlements, representing Black women in spaces where they weren’t typically represented, and working to advance the race by way of influencing and activating other populations.

Her success was apparently threatening. In a reception she organized with the women of the social settlement called the Frederick Douglass Club (FDC), she and a group of women of mixed race had a tea party in protest of Jim Crow social lines in Chicago. This sparked negative reactions from the press, obviously because of the issue at hand, but certainly because of the fact that they were women. Fannie’s grace and knack for leadership landed her in the seats of many institutions. She held offices in the FDC’s Women’s Club and the Chicago Woman’s Club, she was once the president of the Illinois Federation of Colored Women’s Club, and was appointed to the board of the Chicago Public Library by the mayor.

Her presence within these spaces, and her emphasis on creating space, made her a trailblazing example of Black womens’ leadership in the early twentieth century, and her friendships with the likes of Ida B. Wells, Irene McCoy Gaines, and Mary F. Waring—to name a few—would create the networks and reverberations necessary for the infrastructure of the coming Renaissance.

Representation at the table, whether it be in boardrooms or classrooms, was important for changing broader perceptions of Black identity. But those spaces, despite having significant influence, were hardly proximate to

the majority of working-class Black people. In order for the Renaissance-which originated in exclusive spaces-to begin influencing the broader Black community, it required forms of selfrepresentation and “cultural capital” that would help the masses reimagine what their roles in society could be. The Black Chicago Renaissance and all its colors were contingent upon the formation of black modern subjectivity. People needed to be able to see their likeness in different forms in order to recreate or emulate those forms for themselves. This is where art and Black media played a formative role in building a collective racial identity.

In “Strategies for Visualizing Cultural Capital,” Amy M. Mooney dives into the power of the Black portrait. She specifically focuses on the art of William Edouard Scott and Charles C. Dawson, and the ways they’d deploy the Five Cs— class, character, costume, countenance, and composition—to both capture and manufacture the essence of their subjects.

Also instrumental were the ways in which portraiture and other art forms were disseminated. Publications like The Chicago Defender, The Champion, HalfCentury Magazine, and Reflexus, were just some of the Black-owned outlets that’d display portraiture and art, let alone writings of and about Black culture.

These publications circulated throughout Black communities and would shape and encourage dynamic Black identities.

Scott and Dawson received numerous commissions from Chicago’s Black political leaders, entrepreneurs, and social activists. The essay focuses on how business leaders utilized the arts to influence perceptions. The arts, for this purpose, were deliberate, collaborative, and intentional. For Dawson, through portraiture, drawings, and advertisements, his goal was to portray Black agency; and so themes of Black “history, mythology, and fable” were aided by tropes of “beauty and nobility.” This sentiment shone through in Dawson’s illustrated

What Roots of the Black Chicago Renaissance captures are the ideas, institutions, and individuals that had to come together in a post-Emancipation America and ask, “Where is the race headed?”

ILLUSTRATION BY MAYA JAIN

AUGUST 19, 2021 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 9

LIT

advertisements, which he did for both banker Jesse Binga and cosmetic mogul Anthony Overton’s respective enterprises.

Scott, most known for his paintings depicting Black life, was attentive to details when it came to composition.

In a portrait he painted of Frederick Douglass, he made sure to position him against a background of a wall of books to indicate Douglass’s scholarly nature.

He captured the subject’s contemplative gaze, a reflection of the way he was understood, an example for those who would look upon the painting. These goals and intentions around visualizing the culture would do many things for the Black populus. On one hand, commissions from notables like Overton and Robert S. Abbott, the publisher of the Chicago Defender, would brand them to the public, setting examples but also facilitating further social and economic progress for themselves and their publications. Mooney speaks to the newspapers and magazines that were backed by the dollars of Binga, Overton, and others, and of the events that would spring about to further promote the work, like the Defender’s annual Bud Billiken parade.

Visualizing the culture would also become the basis through which the culture could critique itself. Mooney uses a quote from Frederick Douglass to contextualize the chapter: “It is only by making ourselves and others objects of contemplation that we can begin to imagine better selves and better futures.”

This self-representation, much like the events of the Colored American Day, sparked imaginations and debates about where the race was headed and how it should appear. In a later example, she references the work of Jay Jackson, a satirical artist, which took aim at Overton’s line of skin-lightening creams by using an illustration to critique those

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with biases toward Black people of lighter skin. These critiques, and the culture of critique writ large, added a nuance to intraracial discourse that made room for more subjectivity and dynamism.

These are just a few examples of the essays that reveal the early workings of what would become a monumental literary and artistic Renaissance in Chicago. Others within the collection dive deeper into the literary groups that would recruit and inspire many, like the Chicago Letters Group, and pioneers like Hazel Thompson Davis, who built a castle out of the Unity Club in Bronzeville to nurture performance artists. The time period of 1893-1930 was a time where Old Settlers (Black people who were already in Chicago) and new Southern migrants would carve out their plots and plant seeds for future generations to observe and build upon. Those seeds would bloom into names that would shape race consciousness until today, with classic works like Richard Wright’s Native Son, Lorraine Hansberry’s Raisin in the Sun, and Gwendolyn Brooks’ Pulitzer Prize-winning poetry. What Roots of the Black Chicago Renaissance captures are the ideas, institutions, and individuals that had to come together in a post-Emancipation America and ask, “Where is the race headed?” Regardless of their individual answers, they laid the foundation for Black people in Chicago and abroad to ask the same question of themselves. Roots of the Black Chicago Renaissance: New Negro Writers, Artists, and Intellectuals, 1893-1930, edited by Richard A. Courage and Christopher Robert Reed, University of Illinois Press, 296 pages, $28.

Malik Jackson is the housing editor for the Weekly. He last wrote a review of Halfway Home by Dr. Reuben Miller.

POETRY

To Our Flags

BY CHIMA “NAIRA” IKORO AFTER “MEDITATIONS IN AN EMERGENCY” (TITLED AFTER FRANK O’HARA)

BY CAMERON AWKWARD-RICH

the first time i got pepper sprayed at point blank, i pretend We all on the ground praying, hoping a medic will spot Us—We’re waving our bandanas in the air like flags... i pledge my allegiance to that paisley, stained and covered in sweat. some people open their eyes in the morning and just live; i clench my teeth while i sleep grinding in between my dreams i wake up and it breaks my heart the flight of children and doves all the same, the city of tents on spikes so the unhoused can stay restless women hawking roses for graves, all of them break my heart. who needs hallucinogens when you could get a concussion free of charge? if you pretend. in reality, a slice of my paycheck pays for all this rah rah shit— all this riot gear you know what’s cheaper than a police officer? a Percocet. but everyone’s on the front line and We’re sober, getting our asses beat for the low cost of 1.8 billion dollars a year. and the sanitary workers that clean our blood up off the sidewalks need a raise; i pledge my allegiance to them niggas too, but back to my troops. who you know could get caught with their empty hands up and still get a 21-gun-salute? and the whole world will say their name and never even know what it means. and strangers will tag their praises on to walls that get painted over in neighborhoods where niggas like that use to live. when a cop dies, the whole neighborhood stops. the funeral procession is a long parade of police cars and fire trucks. my soldiers deserve the same energy. so We organize and stop the whole neighborhood, too. and the cops gone show up whether they’re invited or not.

We got fire trucks, paddy wagons, jail buses and fuck it garbage trucks too. when washington park got hit by the blizzard this year wasn’t a damn salt truck in sight, but they at this protest though. hell! have the mayor come out and speak a few words, so she can get stomped into the earth where our soldiers been laid. some of Us really know what dirt taste like; that’s what it takes to be a soldier. or so it seems. and i pledge my allegiance to each and every one of Y’all. “hand on my heart hand on my stupid heart.”

The Exchange Our thoughts in exchange for yours.

T

he Exchange is our new 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 Weekly..

THIS WEEK'S PROMPT:

“HOW HAVE THE ‘POWERS THAT BE’ FAILED THE PERSON NEXT TO YOU?” “Powers that be” could be educational systems, lawmakers, governing bodies, or anything you consider an institution of power.

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

AUGUST 19, 2021 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 11

ORGANIZING

The Downside of Doing Good Mutual aid projects that start in a rush of urgent optimism may soon run up against bureaucratic barriers.

BY CHIMA IKORO

A

lthough the long-term impacts of the COVID-19 shutdown on Chicagoans are still unfolding, one thing has been clear to many from the start: the government wasn’t going to save them.

In 2020, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act distributed stimulus checks of $1,200, on average, to Americans to last from April to December/January or nine months.

The second stimulus check, issued in December, was for just $600, which isn’t enough to cover rent in most cities.

On a larger scale, the CARES Act also provided cities with emergency funding, which was left to lawmakers to distribute. In Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot allocated over $280 million dollars of that money to the Chicago Police Department.

Meanwhile, Chicagoans struggled to make ends meet.

As a direct response to the needs of our communities, many organizers, including myself, put together mutual aid initiatives last year. Mutual aid differs from traditional charity work in that it

creates a symbiotic relationship between members of a community, enabling folks to pool resources to share collectively.

These resources could be food, clothes, money, or virtually anything that can be shared.

A longstanding practice in anarchist circles, as well as in labor and fraternal organizations, mutual aid is one way the community can bridge the gap between folks who need assistance and those who are willing to help. It’s beautiful and sad at the same time; I can’t help but ask myself, why are we doing this work while our tax dollars are funneled into institutions that harm us? Nevertheless, the community’s ability to lift each other up in dark times is inspiring.

On its face, mutual aid would seem to have no downside, but as organizers have learned, there are hidden roadblocks that make the work hard. In some cases, groups that have provided free assistance to community members have even been criminalized by the police. In one example, police and City inspectors served the Chicago Freedom School (CFS) with a cease-and-desist order

12 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY ¬ AUGUST 19, 2021

last year for providing food to protestors after they became trapped downtown following the George Floyd protests in the Loop on May 30, 2020. Inspectors claimed that by distributing food, CFS was in violation of their business license.

Although the City settled and eventually agreed to rescind the ceaseand-desist order, this act was still a violent and egregious effort to stop community members from simply helping each other.

In 2019, the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty released an annual report that detailed, among other things, changes in restrictions on food sharing. This report stated that although homelessness is on the rise, more and more cities are creating laws that discourage food sharing.

In 2018, twelve people were charged with misdemeanors for distributing food to houseless people in El Cajon, California. A municipal code in El Cajon prohibits food sharing in public places. The year prior, seven people were arrested in Tampa, Florida for similar charges, and a woman was ticketed for feeding houseless persons in Atlanta later that year.

If criminalizing the sharing of food didn’t pose a high-enough hurdle for organizers, redistributing funds has its own set of complications as well. If an ad hoc mutual aid group is not registered as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit through the IRS the individual(s) of record receiving the funds (through Venmo, Paypal, or some other means) are liable to be taxed for money received as donations. The process to complete the paperwork and meet the requirements can be tedious and riddled with caveats.

According to the IRS, an organization that is tax-exempt as a 501(c)(3) cannot be an “action organization.” In other words, supporting or influencing policy changes and legislation, as well as supporting or rejecting political candidates, cannot be a part of such an organization's work. This would seem to pose a potential problem for many politically engaged mutual aid projects. But the process of obtaining 501(c)(3) status can be more laborious than upholding its rules. Femdot, a rapper from north Chicago and the south suburbs, is the founder and director of operations for Delacreme Scholars, a

ORGANIZING

ILLUSTRATION BY HALEY TWEEDELL

“It’s beautiful and sad at the same time; I can’t help but ask myself, why are we doing this work while our tax dollars are funneled into institutions that harm us?

Nevertheless, the community’s ability to lift each other up in dark times is inspiring.”

nonprofit organization.

Femdot started the Scholars in 2018 as a scholarship fund for students at DePaul, his alma mater. Since then, the group has expanded to become a scholarship fund for students at other schools as well as servicing the community through mutual aid actions.

“Once I realized how expensive college was, I wanted to do a scholarship,” Femdot said. “I graduated March of 2018 [and] we had a headline show at Lincoln Hall for an album I dropped, and decided to use some of the proceeds to make a scholarship.

“From there, as the community needed more things, we started to [do more]. We started our Scholars SlideBy Program, which is a grocery delivery service that gives free groceries, no questions asked, to families all across Chicago.”

The Slide-By was a direct response to the growing need for food amid the pandemic, especially after CPS schools temporarily halted food distribution.

The group just obtained its 501(c)(3) status a couple months ago.

“Most people pay someone else to do it, like a lawyer,” he explained. “Me being the headstrong person that I am, I’m like ‘Imma just find the information and do it myself.’”

The paperwork took a while to get, he said. “The longest part is waiting for them to review it. It could take up to 120 days from when you apply to even get someone to start viewing your application.”

Although the process is long, Femdot does note a silver lining; the tax-exempt status is applied retroactively once it’s approved. The tax exemption is valid from whenever the organization was officially formed. But what counts as an “official” organization?

“You need to have a board, you need to have members. You have to have roles. You have to have trustees.

You need about four, minimum, just to show this is an entity that [...] maps stuff out,” he said. “You need bylaws as well. Your bylaws need to be signed by all your board members. You have to have certain clauses in there, like dissolution

clauses”—which detail what will happen to monies raised should the organization disband.

While the task was daunting, he was more than capable of completing it. However, many people do not have the same capacity or resources. And for organizations that cannot afford a lawyer or an accountant, it can seem impossible and inaccessible.

Love & Nappyness, a haircare drive initiative created by Matt Muse, a rapper from Avalon Park, was started in November 2019. The drive is a Chicagobased community service initiative that uses natural haircare to create a culture of self-love and community wellness.

The drive collects donations of hair-care and body-care products, and passes them along to charitable groups.

Currently the drive's beneficiaries are Ignite, which provides assistance to young people facing housing insecurity, and Saint Leonard’s, which provides housing and assistance to formerly incarcerated men and women.

Matt’s original plan was to become a 501(c)(3) when he first created Love & Nappyness.

“There’s a lot of regulations and you gotta make bylaws and stuff like that. I wasn’t trying to do all that, I just wanted to do some community service,” he said.

Muse speaks to an important point: waiting for 501(c)(3) status could put a hold on work that needs to be done sooner than later.

“Last year, I took donations via Cash App and Venmo, but the first drive came completely out of my pocket,” he said. “I only collected funds last year because of the pandemic, just in case people didn’t feel comfortable going to the store.”

The hair-care drive is run mostly on physical donations. Community members can purchase their own products and then bring them to drop-off locations around the city, in barbershops and hair salons.

“I think the work of actually becoming a nonprofit would be difficult,” Muse said. “I don’t know how much easier it would make [our work]. I think the only thing that would make it easier is when we’re asking people for money, we would be tax exempt. So there would

AUGUST 19, 2021 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 13

ORGANIZING

be no need for a third party to receive donations and sponsorship. That's the only thing that would make it easier.”

Muse recalls how stressful the act of collecting monetary donations can be, because of all the responsibility that follows. A lot of newer mutual aid projects might struggle with this simply because they don’t have a large enough team.

“I probably won't collect money ever again. I don’t want to be responsible for people's financial donations. That might change because the more [help] I have, the more time there is to disseminate funds, but for me it was just much easier for me to say ‘I have enough money in my bank account to go do it by myself, I’m just going to do it by myself,’” he said. “I don’t want to ever mishandle somebody's funds.”

F

or a grassroots collective like Blck Rising, the one my friends and I founded, doing tax paperwork is a hill too high to climb right now. What started as collecting funds to pay for protest gear on the front lines turned into thousands of dollars constantly being donated and redistributed.

We created Blck Rising in June 2020, as a direct response to the murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.

We were organizing as individuals until two of our founders organized a massive protest in Wrigleyville that they asked me to speak at. A couple days later, we joined forces.

I’d been accepting donations through my personal social media accounts to pay for transportation and protest supplies.

The donations quickly exceeded my need.

As a result, I began redistributing funds.

When we founded Blck Rising, I had a sizable sum of donations already.

We later decided to designate a bank account for these funds and continue to use donations to provide transportation and aid to protestors. As donations grew, we started offering community members money to pay for needs outside of protests, such as rent, groceries, bills or any kind, and transportation via Uber or Lyft especially late at night.

The creation of our collective wasn’t planned; we just saw our community needed help and we became a vessel to provide it. We weren’t prepared to distribute more than $30,000 in the span of a year. We were accepting donations largely through my personal Cash App account—until it was shut down and we weren’t allowed to access the $300 that was then in the account.

When we reached out to the company to find out what happened, they replied in an email stating: “After a recent review of your transfer of funds, we detected the use of Cash App for activity in violation of Cash App's Terms of Service.” The email then went on to say that they could not disclose further details for security reasons.

This scared us, because there was so much uncertainty that came with handling money without the correct paperwork. We never got the $300 back.

A friend who works for Paypal told us that Paypal owns Venmo, the money sending service we now use to accept donations. She warned us that they have strict rules about accepting donations through the app, and that they could shut our accounts down at any moment.

Our collective comprises four young artists. Last summer we were participating in food distributions or protests almost every day. The truth is, we didn’t have the time or strength to sit down and read through tax paperwork.

Even now, as we have returned to work and school while still trying to help our communities, it seems impossible.

However, there is a bright spot: organizations that are already tax exempt are able to help startup mutual aid groups through fiscal sponsorship, which allows nonprofits to act as an umbrella under which other charitable projects can operate through. A mutual aid team could fundraise through a tax-exempt organization that would then pay monies out to them as a grant or donation.

Organizations started by young people that were able to obtain 501(c)(3) status within the past year, like Delacreme Scholars or Free Root Operation (FRO), an organization founded by Eva Maria Lewis that seeks to stop gun violence

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“In order to start dismantling this system, we need one of our own.”

through the creation and distribution of resources, can now act as fiscal sponsors for other groups that may not have the tools to complete that process.

Market Box is a mutual aid project that crowdfunds to buy food from small farms to distribute for free to South Side neighborhoods. Hannah Nyhart, who’s one of Market Box’s core organizers, recalls how the project began.

“We started out as a group of friends who worked at different organizations in the same building, Experimental Station [where the Weekly is also housed],” Nyhart said. “Market Box was our way of using the resources of our organizations and networks to take care of our community in the pandemic.”

Market Box is pursuing its own 501(c)(3) status. “It makes sense for the kind of long-term impact we want to have,” Nyhart said, but the organization is currently working under the fiscal sponsorship of the Invisible Institute, an independent journalism lab also housed at the Experimental Station that is a taxexempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

The biggest worry for many mutual aid groups is maintaining the integrity of their organizations as they become taxexempt. “We’ve had some ambivalence about 501(c)(3) structure because it’s really important to us to retain the mutual aid framework Market Box is built on,” Nyhart said.

“We’ll still be centered on a volunteer, communal structure,” she said, “but nonprofit status means we don’t have to rely on a fiscal sponsor, and we’re hoping it will mean we can eventually sponsor other peoples’ projects to help them get off the ground.”

Her statement speaks volumes to the state of mutual aid in Chicago. As new organizations become more equipped, they lift as they climb. When Delacreme Scholars officially became a nonprofit, Femdot offered to fiscally sponsor Blck Rising. Prior to that conversation, I didn’t know how attainable fiscal sponsorship was. Setting up that sponsorship is still a work in progress.

“When the systems that are set in place fail, then the community has to take care of themselves,” Femdot said.

“Which is beautiful because it means we have the ability to take care of ourselves, and we really don’t need a government, but also it’s wild as hell that we have a government and yet here we are having to do their jobs to help sustain the communities we’re a part of.

“In order to start dismantling this system,” he said, “we need one of our own.” Chima Ikoro is the community organizing editor at the Weekly. She last wrote about the recognition of Juneteenth as a federal holiday.

ORGANIZING

A Step Toward Community Control of the Police

For now, ECPS organizers want to ensure community voices are included in the interim commission that will be formed in January and on slating candidates to run in the district-level elections.

BY JACQUELINE SERRATO

N

early a decade of grassroots organizing for police accountability in Chicago culminated in a measure that provides residents with two levels of oversight of the Chicago Police Department—on a citywide scale and in each police district.

Frank Chapman, a field organizer for the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR), attended the first meetings in Englewood in 2012 that called for a fully elected civilian police accountability council. In other words, community control of the police, in the spirit of the Black Panthers.

Organizers called that proposal The Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC).The earliest supporters of the movement were families of police torture survivors and the kin of people who had been killed by CPD, namely twentytwo-year-old Rekia Boyd, who was shot by an off-duty cop. Within a few years, the campaign grew from a couple of hundred supporters, to tens of thousands, emboldened by the police murder of Laquan McDonald in 2014 and countless other cases of police brutality that have gone unaccounted for.

An ordinance that passed on July 21 was celebrated by roughly one hundred community organizations on the South

and West Sides. However, it was not CPAC. The new ordinance, called the Empowering Communities for Public Safety (ECPS), was a compromise.

It was “a unified ordinance,”Chapman told the Weekly, one that combined the CPAC ordinance with another one that a separate but overlapping coalition, the Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability (GAPA), had been drafting under the same name since 2017.

The conversations about policing in Chicago bubbled to the surface the previous year, after the murder of George Floyd that sparked the 2020 uprisings across the country. The work of the coalitions preceded the Black Lives Matter and Defund the Police movements, according to Chapman, though those popular campaigns undoubtedly influenced public opinion about the role of police. Marches and protests last summer were repeatedly attacked and surveilled by police, as demonstrators continued to push for police accountability.

“The police have always been in the forefront of repressing our movements,” Chapman said. “And that's why we see having some kind of community control over the police is critical to the defense of our movements.”

In the City Council, the push for civilian oversight came to a head in February, when Lightfoot asked Alderman Chris Taliaferro (29th), chair of the Committee on Public Safety, to stall consideration of the two ordinances presented by CAARPR and GAPA while the mayor drafted her own. The legislative maneuvering only fueled the coalitions’ efforts.

In a joint statement in March, organizers said, “After years of working independently, the coalitions joined forces, collaborated with aldermen who have been powerful voices for reform, and delivered an ordinance that integrates the best thinking on police reform in Chicago.”

On March 29, a Chicago police officer shot and killed thirteen-year-old Adam Toledo, and on March 31, another Chicago cop shot and killed twentyyear-old Anthony Alvarez as he fled. In a Weekly op-ed on April 29, Chapman and GAPA spokesperson Desmon Yancy wrote, “The ECPS ordinance has broad support within City Council—but it is being blocked by Mayor Lightfoot, who has refused to join forces with our coalition and who has had important Public Safety Committee meetings canceled to stop our work.”

In May, Lightfoot presented her own ordinance, which would have kept most of the control of police in the Mayor’s Office. It failed to pass.

As public support of ECPS mounted and compromises were made at the negotiating table, the ordinance gradually gained the support of every caucus in City Council and even Lightfoot’s reluctant support— and ultimately the vote of thirty-six aldermen.

“We admit that we made some concessions,” Chapman said of ECPS. “But we also admit that there were a lot of things that we didn’t make concessions of.”

B

oth Chapman and Yancy are native South Siders whose respective offices are located on 63rd Street, an area of the city that is overpoliced, with two police stations located on that thoroughfare about two miles from each other.

Yancy, who serves as the community organizing director of the Inner City Muslim Network (IMAN) said the mayor’s role in advancing the ECPS ordinance was “small” despite her campaign’s talking points around overhauling the police department.

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ORGANIZING

“The GAPA coalition met with Lori Lightfoot when she was considering running for mayor… because she had a background in this work through her role in the Police Accountability Task Force,” Yancy said. “But the crux of the ordinance was written by the community.”

GAPA consulted other legislative and policy experts such as the LAPD Commission, considered the oldest police commission in the country, and the Chicago Board of Elections to figure out how to incorporate elections in the oversight process. On their end, CAARPR considered the input of the National Council of Black Lawyers, the Women’s All Points Bulletin, the Criminal Justice Project at KennedyKing College, and the South Side chapter of the NAACP, among other professional and community-based advisors.

The ECPS ordinance will create a citywide commission of seven members (known as commissioners), selected by the mayor, but recommended by a nominating committee and approved

by City Council, for four-year terms beginning in 2023. Two will be from the South Side, two from the West Side, two from the North Side, and one representative for the whole city.

“The commission [acts] as the steering committee that vets those candidates and presents those candidates to the mayor,” Yancy said. “We have a voice that we didn't have before in this process. It really removes the mayoral appointees out of the process that allows for the community to be involved.”

At least two commissioners will be experienced lawyers in civil rights, civil liberties, or criminal defense or prosecution. Other candidates will have “at least five years’ combined experience in one or more of the following fields: law, public policy, social work, psychology, mental health, public safety, community organizing, civil rights, or advocacy on behalf of marginalized communities,” with the exception of two commissioners between the ages of eighteen and twenty-four years old who will bypass these requirements.

COALITION CELEBRATING THE PASSAGE OF ECPS. PHOTO BY PAUL GOYETTE

“The main thing is that we have accomplished a very important first step, and that is getting our people in policy-making positions.”

The other kind of oversight will consist of three elected seats in each of the twenty-two CPD districts in the city. Interested residents would have to meet Board of Election eligibility requirements and submit petitions for nominations. Among their duties would be to hold public meetings at least once a month; engage with members of the community to gather input about public safety and policing in their districts; and “report its findings, conclusions, and recommendations to the commission as requested,” according to the ordinance.

“Instead of trying to have a conversation with a police officer in a police station, they can come to a district council meeting, which is held outside of the police department, staffed by people who are not connected to the police

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department, and in most cases, people from the community who have the same sorts of concerns,” according to Yancy.

The mayor would retain the power to hire and fire the police superintendent, but the commission could adopt a resolution of no confidence on the superintendent, a Police Board member, or the COPA chief, by a two-thirds vote. The City Council Committee on Public Safety must then hold a hearing to “consider and vote on whether to recommend that the affected party be removed,” which the mayor would be required to act upon.

“There's a lot of things about this ordinance that we want to improve and develop further,” Chapman said.

They will work on expanding the powers of the commission, he said. The inclusion of a referendum in the ballot or

creating a separate ordinance is a priority that could empower the community to decide on the police budget, set policy, and negotiate contracts.

For now, organizers want to ensure community voices are included in the interim commission that will be formed in January and slating candidates to run in the district-level elections.

“But the main thing is that we have accomplished a very important first step, and that is getting our people in policymaking positions. And by people, we mean people who live in the community, people who are the ones who are most affected by police abuses and police crimes... and by Black and brown people in this city.”Jacqueline Serrato is the editor-in-chief of the Weekly.

Activists Say Fight Against City’s Largest Warehouse Is Not Over La Villita residents and activists protest the private opening of a massive distribution center right off the I-55.

BY PETER WINSLOW

T

arget Corp. and Hilco Redevelopment Partners hosted a private ribboncutting ceremony on July 27 to mark the opening of Exchange 55, the controversial 1.3 million-square-foot distribution center in La Villita, prompting roughly thirty residents and environmental activists to protest and voice their concerns about the development in the Southwest Side neighborhood.

Members of Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO), Mi Villita Neighbors, Únete La Villita, and El Foro Del Pueblo held signs and chanted as they walked down Pulaski Road, eventually congregating outside of the distribution center’s entry gate at West 35th Street, which was guarded by Chicago police officers.

In collaboration with the other groups present at the protest, LVEJO demanded that Hilco and Target commit to supplying at least fifty percent of the distribution center jobs to residents of ZIP Codes 60623 and 60632, which include La Villita, Brighton Park, and Archer Heights, among others.

“We are a home of environmental racism in the city,” said Kim Wasserman, executive director of LVEJO. “We will no longer stand by and be sacrificed by the city or by our elected officials. And so, we stand here on behalf of our community in solidarity, we stand here to voice our demands for clean air and clean land.”

Protestors called the privately-held

inauguration hypocritical, since Hilco received public dollars through a $19.7 million tax break from the city in 2019.

The resolution was originally sponsored by former Ald. Ricardo Muñoz (22nd).

“If they are really trying to be part of the Little Village community, all residents, anyone who is interested to learn about Exchange 55, should have been invited to this ribbon cutting ceremony,” said Edith Tovar, an organizer with LVEJO. Hilco purchased the seventy-acre site in 2017, after the Crawford Generating Station was decommissioned in 2012.

“Construction activity at the site is ongoing and the new building structure is approximately 99% complete,” read the most recent status update listed on the Exchange 55 website.

All demolition activity at the site is also “substantially complete,” according to a July 22 project status update. Last April, the developers mismanaged the demolition of a 378-foot smokestack of the old Crawford plant, which sent plumes of dust into adjacent communities during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Attorney General Kwame Raoul announced a $370,000 settlement between the city and Hilco and its contractors in November of 2020. The city also imposed $68,000 in fines against the developer.

The La Villita facility will stock nearly ninety Target stores, according to the corporation. The Minneapolis-

based big box retailer executed a lease agreement in 2019 with the developers worth $100 million, according to a report

by Crain’s Chicago Business.

“We're excited to open our new supply chain facility in Chicago, bringing 2,000 jobs with market-competitive wages and benefits to the Little Village neighborhood,” Target said in a statement provided via email.

Ald. Michael Rodriguez (22nd), who was present at the private ceremony, said there were roughly 100 people in attendance, including a number of faith and community leaders from the neighborhood, Target representatives, members from the Illinois governor’s office, representatives of the Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and others.

Environmental racism has been a perennial charge of local activists in this industrial sector of the city. When asked how he would characterize local support for the logistics center opening, Rodriguez said that the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the residents, who suffered job and wealth loss. “Target has actually been very communicative with us; over the last several weeks and months they've been meeting with us, meeting with community organizations, and I’ve also been present at times for those conversations,” said Rodriguez.

“That's led to some upcoming job fairs that will be targeted here in the community and we are very hopeful that

a great amount of the jobs there will go to local folks in the immediate area.”

The first job fair occurred August 5 at the Central States SER office located at 3946 West 26th Street. The workforce development organization has as its mission the promotion of economic independence and “upward mobility for low-income community residents through education and employment,” according to its website. The second employment fair took place August 7 at the immigration non-profit Instituto del Progreso Latino at 2520 South Western Avenue.

The job fairs were promoted through social media posts and through thousands of flyers that were disseminated to residences and local businesses near the distribution center, according to Rodriguez.

Applications for warehouse positions are currently listed on Target’s job board.

“Virtually everybody that was assisting the applicants were bilingual,” said Javir Garibay, executive director of Central States SER. “We had a lot of people that were monolingual Spanish.

They are eligible to apply, you know, we've got jobs for them, Target has jobs for them, so that’s not a limitation.”

However, community advocates are skeptical of the promises made by the corporation. Members of LVEJO attended the August 5 job fair to provide applicants with resources about workers’ rights in warehouses.

AUGUST 19, 2021 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 17

DEVELOPMENT Full-time warehouse workers at the distribution center will be eligible to receive a starting wage of $18.00 per hour, while overnight shifts start at $19.50, according to Target’s employment application portal. Employees are eligible for 401(k) options after completing 1,000 hours of work.

Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for employment, as applicants must provide proof of legal eligibility to work.

Irma Morales, president and cofounder of Únete La Villita, said that Únete and other community organizations will continue to assemble protests in opposition of the Target distribution facility.

LVEJO and other community organizations plan to tally the number of diesel trucks at high-volume intersections near the distribution center with the hope of “trying to figure out ways to also work with those truck drivers” to prevent them from traveling through residential streets, said Tovar.

“The facility was designed for sustainability and safety—which will be the largest LEED-certified building in the state,” Target said. “The development included major improvements to the surrounding area, including native landscaping, modified intersections and redesigned street routes to limit traffic in the neighborhood.”

Other activist demands include that solar panels be installed atop the distribution center to power residential homes in the area, air filters to be distributed to residences near the warehouse, and that Target commit to electrifying their truck fleet within the first year of operation in La Villita.

Target and Hilco are here to stay for now. But, a question still hangs in the balance: Will all of the jobs Target promised to offer to the community be provided to local residents? “There's no guarantee that's going to happen,” Garibay said.

“We are also here to remind Little Village residents and folks... that this campaign is not over, that just because they are doing their ribbon-cutting ceremony doesn’t mean our campaign ends here,” said Tovar. “We are here telling Target to end their lease with Hilco Redevelopment Partners.”

Wasserman also has a clear message for future employees in the distribution center: “If you want to unionize, let us know. We will support you. We will bring resources to support you.” Peter Winslow is a freelance journalist and investigative journalism student at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. He last wrote about the uptick in street overdoses in late 2020 for the Weekly

PHOTO BY PETER WINSLOW

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ART BY ZAHID KHALIL

Out of Control

Last year Superintendent David Brown ordered deputy chiefs to approve all overtime. Internal records don’t show that it’s happening.

BY JIM DALEY AND KIRAN MISRA

S

hortly after taking command of the Chicago Police Department in April 2020, Superintendent David Brown moved to curtail overtime spending by issuing an order requiring supervisors who are ranked deputy chief or higher to approve all overtime requests. More than a year later, it’s unclear whether that order had any effect.

Records obtained by the Weekly appear to indicate the vast majority of overtime clocked by officers since Brown issued the directive has been approved by lower-ranking officers such as lieutenants and sergeants, who seem to still be primarily responsible for managing its oversight. The department claims that is simply because lower-ranking supervisors are entering the data, and insists all overtime is being authorized by deputy chiefs and above.

The directive—one of Brown’s first as superintendent—followed a similar one issued in late 2019 by thenInterim Superintendent Charlie Beck that elevated overtime supervision to district commanders, rather than leaving it in the hands of lieutenants and

sergeants. Making district- and arealevel supervisors such as commanders (as Beck did) and deputy chiefs (per Brown’s order) responsible for approving overtime apparently had little effect on spending.

Overtime expenditures rose steadily each year from around $45 million at the start of the decade until 2017, when the department spent $161 million on it. That year, the City’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) audited the department’s use of overtime, and found CPD lacked “basic operational controls” for spending.

Following the audit, overtime spending fell to $122.5 million in 2018, but rose again the following year. In 2020, CPD broke department records by spending more than $177 million on overtime.

Last week, City Budget Director Susie Park told the Sun-Times she anticipates spending at least $150 million on it this year.

At a press conference last year, Brown shrugged off the Weekly’s question about overtime supervision. “Nothing to see here. We are good stewards of the taxpayers’ dollars and we don’t apologize for that,” he said. “We wanted to ensure

POLICE that we were making sure we were spending the taxpayer dollars as it relates to overtime in the most prudent way, and we feel satisfied that’s being done.”

Brown’s April 2020 directive says no officer can work overtime “without the approval of the member’s appropriate higher-ranking supervisor AND approval of the member's exempt supervisor the rank of deputy chief or above.” [emphasis original]. Deputy chiefs or higher are required to grant final approval by signing an overtime or compensatory time report, according to the directive. According to a CPD Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) officer, the department no longer uses such reports, and instead uses an automated system called CLEARNET. To understand what effect Brown’s April order had on overtime supervision, the Weekly sent FOIA requests to CPD for timekeeping data and other records.

The department provided spreadsheets generated from CLEARNET, that show all overtime officers earned from April 28, 2020 through May 1, 2021.

The spreadsheets also list the name and rank of the officer who granted prior authorization for each overtime request and the supervisor who later approved it.

We analyzed the data to determine how often supervisors of each rank approved or authorized the requests.

The data indicates that Brown’s directive had little effect on the day-today supervision of overtime. In the twelve months following the order, sergeants and lieutenants are listed as having authorized or approved more than half of all overtime earned between May 1, 2020

and April 21, 2021. Deputy chiefs and other top-ranking officers are listed as having approved or authorized less than five percent of it.

A CPD spokesperson told the Weekly that all overtime is authorized by deputy chiefs or above, despite what the data seems to show. The spokesperson said the CLEARNET records show lowerranking supervisors authorizing it because the person inputting the deputy chief ’s authorization can be any other officer under their command. “That individual's name would show up in the electronic system, though the Deputy Chief would still be the approving individual,” the spokesperson said.

But Brown’s order regarding overtime supervision clearly states: “Members will document approval with the name and PC Login ID number of the approving supervisor in the ‘Overtime Authorized By’ section of the Overtime/ Compensatory Time Report.”

O

ne way the department has said it is holding deputy chiefs accountable for overtime is in CompStat meetings, where command staff review crime statistics, prevention, and other administrative matters with area and district and area commanders.

When asked in meetings last year, some commanders told their superiors they had no control of overtime due to COVID-19 and that summer’s protests.

Via FOIA requests, the Weekly obtained notes, summary reports, and transcripts of CompStat meetings held between April and December 2020.

According to the records, overtime was discussed at about half of those CompStat meetings. In those instances where transcripts of the discussions were available, commanders repeatedly stated they had no control of increased overtime due to the department-wide orders.

At a May 14 CompStat meeting, then-Deputy Chief of Crime Control Strategies Thomas Lemmer (who has since retired) asked then-8th District Commander Brian McDermott why overtime due to officers involuntarily working on regular days off (RDOs) had recently increased. “It was because of the COVID and RDOs being canceled,” McDermott replied. “It was beyond my control.”

At a meeting on May 28, Lemmer similarly asked 2nd District Commander Joshua Wallace why the amount of overtime due to officers working on days off had increased. “Officers working their days off were out of my control with COVID,” Wallace replied.

At an Area 4 CompStat meeting in October 2020, “not notifying DC for approval of overtime” was noted as an ongoing administrative issue; “DC” could refer either to Deputy Chiefs or District Commanders. In either case, the department was aware of the problem regarding approvals. It’s unclear what steps, if any, were taken to fix the problem.

The apparent lack of overtime supervision by top brass continued through this year. In March 2021, about one percent of overtime was approved or authorized by a deputy chief or higher, according to the CLEARNET data we reviewed.

Our analysis uncovered a number of additional anomalies in the data: Between May 2020 and April 2021, the same officer who was listed as initially authorizing the overtime was listed as also having later approved it seventy percent of the time—a problem that was flagged in the OIG’s 2017 audit.

In the nearly 25,000 overtime entries that were categorized as being for court duty, only five had an authorizing officer listed. A CPD spokesperson said that according to department directives, when an officer receives notification to appear in court while on-duty, “no

additional signatures are required for authorization.” While that’s true, Brown’s directive also requires officers to enter a court notification record number, yet the CLEARNET spreadsheets don’t even have a field for entering such data.

Two police officers, Edmund Szudy and Anthony Papadakis, authorized nearly all the overtime earned for “special voluntary duty.” Cops earn this categorization of overtime by working on their days off to provide extra security to the Park District, Chicago Housing Authority, and Chicago Transit Authority. The spokesperson reiterated that this is because individuals below the rank of Deputy Chief can enter the overtime data into the electronic system.

Again, the order requires the approving supervisor’s name to be entered, not the name of the officer doing data entry.

Has Brown’s directive had any impact? It’s hard to tell. The department no longer uses paper reports that would get a deputy chief ’s signature, as the Superintendent’s order dictates. CPD’s electronic timekeeping system allows any supervisor under a deputy chief ’s command to enter themselves in the “approved” and “authorized” fields, according to the department, so there’s no record of which deputy chief signed off (if any). When district commanders were asked about increased overtime at CompStat, they repeatedly said they had no control over it; at least one meeting noted the problem of “DCs” not even being notified of overtime requests.

And the City expects overtime spending to continue to exceed $150 million annually.

“We understand how important it is to ensure public safety while also being responsible with taxpayer resources,” the CPD spokesperson told the Weekly.

“We will continue to review the use of overtime and ensure it is being used appropriately and efficiently.” Jim Daley is the Weekly’s politics editor.

He last investigated the police officer who attacked activist Miracle Boyd at a 2020 protest. Kiran Misra covers criminal justice and policing in Chicago for the Weekly.

She last interviewed Cook County Public Defender Sharone Mitchell, Jr.

AUGUST 19, 2021 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 19

ILLUSTRATION BY MELL MONTEZUMA

OPINION

M

oratoria on evictions put in place by local, state, and federal authorities in the early weeks of the pandemic recognized an obvious truth: amid a public health crisis, having stable housing is vital to protect people’s health.

Despite that, we’ve seen familiar stories play out in the last year, perpetuating the painful reality that many of Chicago’s enduring inequalities are founded upon one fundamental force: residential segregation. With Black and Latinx communities home to significant concentrations of essential workers, these communities also saw the greatest numbers of COVID infections and deaths.

But if eviction protections saved many from losing their homes due to loss of income, childcare needs, or from the fallout of a COVID-related illness or death, we may soon see more than 20,000 evictions in the month after the moratorium is lifted, according to predictions from the Lawyers’ Committee for Better Housing (LCBH). Although state-level rental assistance is expected to reach thousands of residents, housing insecurity goes deeper than the pandemic.

We need policies to do more than cover up wounds that were deepened but not created by the pandemic; we need them to secure housing as a fundamental right for all.

One such policy is Just Cause for Eviction, which our coalition, the Chicago Housing Justice League (CHJL), has been advocating for since 2019. [The Weekly previously covered the Just Cause ordinance in an op-ed

by Bobby Vanecko in April 2020.] The policy currently governs over 10 million rental units nationwide, including four states and more than twenty cities, and in all federally-subsidized affordable housing units.

Just Cause’s fundamental principle is simple: renters deserve the right to remain stably housed. Today, renters who are current on rent and are good neighbors are vulnerable to sudden displacement, whether due to eviction, non-renewal, or lease termination. Before the pandemic, LCBH estimated that 10,000 Chicago households typically faced these outcomes each year, creating instability and lifelong harm, particularly for children. Despite the eviction moratoria, some landlords have filed eviction cases, and some have illegally locked their tenants out, during the pandemic. Unless Just Cause is passed, tenants will be at risk of these unscrupulous practices well after COVID-19 has subsided.

Just Cause ends the practice of nofault, no-cause evictions by establishing seven exclusive just grounds for ending the landlord-tenant relationship. On

Op-Ed: It’s About Time for a Just Cause Ordinance

With more than 20,000 Chicago evictions predicted after the moratorium is lifted, we need a policy that protects renters.

BY ANNIE HOWARD

20 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY ¬ AUGUST 19, 2021

OPINION

the tenant side, nonpayment of rent, disruption to neighbors or damage of property, or a refusal to renew a lease under similar terms remain present. The bill also recognizes four landlord-side reasons for wanting a tenant moved out: desire to substantially rehabilitate a unit, to move in a qualified family member, to remove the unit from the market, or to convert it to a condo. If a tenant is not at fault, renters must then be given relocation funds that will ease their transition into other housing, a much-needed change that recognizes the devastating impact of sudden displacement.

Examining a map of Chicago’s eviction filing rates over the last decade reveals a painful, unsurprising truth: each of the twenty-one community areas with average rates greater than six percent had a majority-Black population. The disproportionate toll of evictions falls in these communities, most acutely on Black women, who have previously been estimated to be about half of those who appear in eviction court.

While Just Cause cannot unsettle underlying issues like low wages, overpolicing, and underfunded schools, it can protect renters, in part, from unscrupulous landlords like Pangea, responsible for thousands of Chicago evictions in the last decade. One of the most common reasons for no-fault eviction is as a form of retaliation against tenants demanding necessary repairs to their units. Rather than dealing with building code violations that cause harm to renters, particularly children and the elderly, those seeking repair are often met with an eviction notice instead.

This is exactly what happened to Sharon Norwood, an organizer with Working Family Solidarity, a CHJL coalition member. She had lived for eleven years in a rented house that had bad plumbing (which would sometimes cost her $1,000 in monthly water bills), and mold that threatened her family’s health. Norwood also ran a home childcare facility and had foster children, and when the state of Illinois told her the property needed repair, she was forced to invest her own money to deal with the issues when the landlord refused to repair.

After raising concerns, her landlord filed to evict her in early 2020, just before the pandemic. In court, Norwood struck a deal to move out without an eviction, leaving her savings drained. She was prevented from getting access to family photos and government documents when she was locked out by the landlord while moving.

“If Just Cause was the law, she wouldn’t have been able to retaliate against me,” Norwood said. “We don’t want to cause trouble, we’d rather stay where we’re at, because it’s hard to be uprooted from a place that you’ve been at for a long time.”

Norwood’s story is just one example of the urgency of Just Cause, reflecting the ongoing imbalance in landlordtenant dynamics. Stable housing for renters should not come at the whim of a landlord who can remove them for no reason, especially when no-fault removals are often tied to retaliation, or to flip a building for higher rental incomes. Yet without Just Cause, this unconscionable outcome remains common for too many of Chicago’s 1.4 million renters.

The Urban Institute estimates that by 2030, Chicago’s Black population will decline to 665,000, almost half the city’s historic peak of 1.2 million. Chicago’s leaders have given Black residents ample reasons to leave, from shuttering schools and under-resourcing (and then demolishing) public housing to dealing with violence through more policing instead of funding mental health and other community resources. A right to stable housing is something else that many Black Chicagoans cannot take for granted, and countless displaced people are the victims of unfair rental policies that suggest their right to the city is less valued than others.

Until these families know that the basic security of continuous tenancy is present, how many others will leave our city, long after special COVID-19 protections delay the pain just a little while longer? ¬

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Annie Howard is the Equity and Operations Organizer for the Chicago Housing Justice League. This is their first piece for the Weekly.

AUGUST 19, 2021 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 21

Scan to view the calendar online!

and literacy organizations. In addition to the race, the entertainment program will include vendors and feature Sally Marvel, one of approximately fifty known female sword swallowers worldwide. (Maddie Parrish)

City Council Committee on Economic, Capital and Technology Development Online, Tuesday, August 31,10:00am. Free. bit.ly/ ClerkSched The committee will meet online, and information on attending and offering public comment will be available on the City Clerk's website, chicityclerk.com. Written public comment on any of the items listed on the agenda will be accepted at ECTD@cityofchicago.org until 5pm on Monday, August 30. ( Jim Daley)

ILLUSTRATION BY THUMY PHAN

BULLETIN Chicago Plan Commission Meeting Online, Thursday, August 19, 10:00am–1:00pm. Free. bit. ly/3ii7GwN Every month, the Chicago Plan Commission convenes to discuss and approve development proposals in the city of Chicago. The department also oversees the City’s zoning and land use policies and, through its economic development and housing bureaus, employs a variety of resources to encourage business and real estate development, as well as a diverse and stable housing stock throughout the City. (Malik Jackson)

Stop Shotspotter Rally and Teach-In W. 63rd St. & S. Bishop St., Thursday, August 19, 3:00pm.

Free. bit.ly/37KFr3W Join Defund CPD for a rally and teach-in to learn more about Chicago's ShotSpotter contract and how to spot the surveillance devices in your community.

(Maddie Parrish)

Family Yoga at McKinley Park Community Play Garden McKinley Park Community Play Garden, 3518-28 S. Wolcott Ave., Saturday, August 21, 11:00am–11:45am.

Donations requested. bit.ly/3rmxc6Z Families are invited to the McKinley Park Community Garden on Saturday mornings through August to get fresh air, sunshine, and exercise in a yoga class designed for all ages. Participants should bring their own yoga mats, and water. (Alma Campos) 22 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY ¬ AUGUST 19, 2021

#PeoplePower Peace Walk and Mutual Aid Giveaway

EDUCATION

Start at W. 63rd St. & S. Ashland Ave., Sunday, August 22,11:00am. Free. bit.ly/3iOG5nb

Chicago Public Schools Back-to-School Town Hall

The People Power Peace Walk is a mutual aid event and march hoping to unite our communities in the midst of recent shootings and continued violence. Organized

by GoodKids MadCity, the Chicago Teachers Union, and other allied groups, this walk aims to create a peaceful space for people to rally, as well as honor those who were harmed at actions organized last summer. #PeoplePower is also taking place on the one year anniversary of #BreakThePiggyBank. (Chima Ikoro)

Online, Thursday, August 19, 6:00pm–7:00pm. Free. bit. ly/CPS-B2S-townhall

City Council Committee on Environmental Protection and Energy Online, Thursday, August 26, 1:00pm. Free. bit.ly/ ClerkSched The committee will meet online, and information on attending and offering public comment will be available on the City Clerk's website, www. chicityclerk.com. Written public comment on any of the items listed on the agenda will be accepted at committeeonenvironmentalprotectionandenergy@ cityofchicago.org, until 1pm on Wednesday, August 25. ( Jim Daley)

Dragon Boat Race for Literacy Ping Tom Memorial Park, 300 W. 19th St., Saturday, August 28, 8:30am–4:00pm. Free. bit.ly/3g6e4WG Started in 2000, and staged by the Chinatown Chamber of Commerce, the annual Chicago Dragon Boat Race for Literacy is a family-fun activity in which teams of brightly decorated dragon boats face off paddling on the Chicago River to raise money for local schools

Before school starts on August 30, hear your questions answered about the coming school year. Registration closes one hour before the event, and you can register at bit.ly/CPS-B2S-townhall. Simultaneous translation and American Sign Language interpretation are available. (Maddie Parrish)

12th Ward Annual Back to School Fair McKinkey Park Field House, 2210 W. Pershing Rd., Saturday, August 21, 10:00am–1:00pm. Free. https://bit. ly/3iQiS4h Families are welcome at this back-to-school event that will be giving free school supplies and immunizations to children. Shot records are required for children that need their immunizations. Visitors are required to wear masks. Children must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. (Alma Campos)

Chicago Public Schools Vaccination Site Chicago Vocational Career Academy, 2100 E. 87th St., Tuesday, August 24, 9:00am–1:00pm. Free. bit.ly/ cpsvaccinations Every Tuesday from July 12 through the start of the school year, CPS hosts a vaccination site at Chicago Vocational Career Academy. The vaccine is free for all, no ID or insurance is required, and walk-ups are welcome. Anyone under eighteen must have a parent or guardian present to provide consent. Make an appointment at bit.ly/cpsvaccinations. (Maddie Parrish)

EVENTS

Chicago Public Schools Board of Education Meeting CPS Loop Office, 42 W. Madison St., Garden Level, Board Room, Wednesday, August 25, 10:30am. Free. cpsboe.org Advance registration for speakers and observers opens August 23 at 10:30am, and you can register online at cpsboe.org or by phone at (312) 989-7313. You can watch the meeting via livestream at cpsboe.org.

(Maddie Parrish)

THE ARTS Recuerdos Co-Prosperity Sphere, 3219-21 S. Morgan St., August 14– August 21. Free, but appointment required. bit.ly/3m5rshB Curated by Mexican-American artist Moises Salazar, "Recuerdos" features work by Juan Arango Palacios, Lissette Bustamante and Salazar, that explores "the complexities that are generated by the recontextualization of a quinceañera’s cultural celebration within a queer identity." It includes paintings and sculptures and serves as the performance space for a quinceañera celebration to be held at the exhibition's close in September. Make your viewing appointment through the link. (Isabel Nieves)

Enchanted Tightrope

Sterling Hayes and Friends

Calumet Park, 9801 S. Ave. G, Thursday, August 19, 4:00pm & 6:00pm. Free. bit.ly/3yQuM3z

Chop Shop, 2033 W. North Ave., Friday, August 27, 7:00pm. $22. bit.ly/3smMBoy

Do you believe in fairies? They believe in you!—or so posits Enchanted Tightrope, a family friendly romp through Chicago parks featuring tightwire artist Molly Plunk and others. Social distancing and masks are requested for this outdoor event. Additional South Side performances are August 23 at Morgan Park Sports Center and August 30 at McKinley Park. See bit. ly/3yQuM3z for more information. (Martha Bayne)

Hyde Park artist Sterling Hayes performs with MFNMELO, Bianca Shaw, and others. (Isabel Nieves)

Sweet Home South Chicago 9000 S. Commercial Ave., Saturday, August 21, 10:00am– 6:00pm. Free. bit.ly/3AGLyCE Sweet Home South Chicago will fill the sidewalks of Commercial Ave from 87th to 92nd Streets with interactive arts, music, food, and local vendors, who will also be passing out free school supplies. This celebration will inaugurate Commercial Avenue's activation as an arts and community space, uplifting local businesses.

(Alma Campos)

Quiet Impressions: zakkiyyah najeebah dumas o'neal in conversation with Jazmine Harris

Big Wheel

Online, Tuesday, August 24, 7:00pm. Free. bit.ly/3k1v2H0

Blanc Gallery, 4445 S. Martin Luther King Dr., Thursday, August 19. Free. bit.ly/36QZi0I

Arts in Public Life/Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture artist in residence zakkiyyah najeebah dumas o'neal discusses Quiet Impressions, recent photo work that visualizes memory, intimacy, family, and the domestic space, with artist Jazmine Harris. Both artists are engaged with questions embodied knowledge, and how to process the past, present, and future. They'll discuss the intersections of their work, as well as a collaborative project on view at The Silver Room, 1506 E. 53rd St., through September 24. (Martha Bayne)

Another piece of the Monumental Tour, Arthur Jafa's Big Wheel is made of four seven-foot tires—gargantuan things, made for monster trucks by a Colorado manufacturer—each laced with a mesh of iron chain; in lieu of hubcaps are abstract medallion sculptures that are 3-D printed from melted chains. It's on display through August 30. (Isabel Nieves)

All Power to All People Englewood Village Plaza, 5801 S. Halsted St., Thursday, August 19. Free. bit.ly/36QZi0I Standing twenty-eight feet tall and weighing 24,000 pounds, Hank Willis Thomas's sculpture All Power to All People combines a hair pick and the Black Power salute, two potent symbols of Black identity and social justice. The work is part of the Monumental Tour, a national touring exhibition intended to foster social change through the arts, presented by Kindred Arts. It's on display through August 30. (Isabel Nieves)

My House Music Festival 2021 Harrison Park, 1824 S. Wood St., Saturday, August 28, 12:00pm–1:00pm. $25-$125. bit.ly/3sjOOks Loyalty's My House Music Festival is a two-day house music event located in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood.

Visitors can also expect food and art to purchase and family friendly activities. Guests twelve and under enter for free with an accompanying adult. Proof of COVID-19 vaccination or negative PCR test may be required for entry. (Alma Campos)

FOOD & LAND Wood Street Farm Stand 1844 W. 59th St., Every Thursday until October 31, 11:00am–5:30pm. Free.

Hosted by Growing Home, the farm stand includes cooking demonstrations with free samples and recipe cards for healthy meals. Free farm tours are also available. WIC, SNAP, EBT and Senior Coupons are double-valued. The Farm Stand takes place every Thursday until October 31. (Maddie Parrish)

Englewood City Market Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Roller Skating & Bowling Center, 1219 W. 76th St., Every Saturday until September 18, 10:00am–2:00pm. Free.

Hosted by the City of Chicago, this market takes place every Saturday until September 18. The market accepts Link. (Maddie Parrish)

CircEsteem Around Chicago

Plant Chicago Farmers Market

Gage Park, 2411 W. 55th St., Friday, August 27, 6:00pm.

Free. bit.ly/3fn3Roi

Davis Square Park, 4430 S. Marshfield Ave., Every Saturday, 11:00am–3:00pm. Free. plantchicago.org/ farmers-market

CircEsteem's 2021 summer tour wraps up the season with one final stop at Gage Park. The troupe brings its usual mix of clowning, juggling, acrobatics, and more as part of its mission to use the circus arts to unite youth across all backgrounds and effect social change.

(Martha Bayne)

Plant Chicago hosts a weekly farmers market featuring locally grown produce and flowers, plus honey, coffee, baked goods, and more. The nonprofit also runs a community composting site where residents can drop off their food scraps. Link card purchases are matched up to $25. (Martha Bayne) AUGUST 19, 2021 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 23