March 22 - 28, 2023

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Arts & Entertainment Event highlights of the week!

SportsWise

The SportsWise team discusses March Madness!

Cover Story: Historic Heroines

The "On the Wings of Change" mural in the Wabash Arts Corridor and its proposed companion, "Speak Up," is a fitting topic for Women's History Month. "Wings" depicts 10 women who made Illinois the first state east of the Mississippi River to give women limited suffrage and "Speak Up" depicts Kamala Harris a century later in one of the debates prior to her election as the first woman vice president. However, the Chicago Womxn's Suffrage Tribute Committee is looking for an alternative site with the same visibility, since the mural has been blocked, because the owner of the parking lot surrounding it deems it too political.

The Playground

ON THE COVER: "The Wings of Change" mural.

THIS PAGE: Artist Diosa (Jasmina Cazacu) works on a portrate of Ida B. Wells-Bernett on "The Wings of Change" mural. (Both photos by Sandra Steinbrecher, courtesy of the Wabash Arts Corridor).

DISCLAIMER: The views, opinions, positions or strategies expressed by the authors and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or positions of StreetWise.

Dave Hamilton, Creative Director/Publisher dhamilton@streetwise.org

Suzanne Hanney, Editor-In-Chief suzannestreetwise@yahoo.com

Amanda Jones, Director of programs ajones@streetwise.org

Julie Youngquist, Executive director jyoungquist@streetwise.org

Ph: 773-334-6600

Office: 2009 S. State St., Chicago, IL, 60616

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT RECOMMENDATIONS

Genres Collide!

‘Chicago Sings Broadway Pop’

Since its earliest days, songs that appeared on Broadway have crossed over to the music charts, and popular songs heard on the radio have found their way to Broadway stages. “Chicago Sings” is Porchlight’s signature fundraising concert, featuring live performances by Chicago music theater’s best-loved artists, the presentation of the 2023 Guy Adkins Award for Excellence in the Advancement of Music Theatre in Chicago, and more. This one-night, annual event will be at the House of Blues Chicago, 329 N. Dearborn St., at 7 p.m. March 27. Tickets are $50 - $175 at porchlightmusictheatre.org

Nat Geo Live!

‘How to Clone a Mammoth’

National Geographic speaker Dr. Beth Shapiro is one of the scientists investigating if extinct species, like mammoths and passenger pigeons, can be brought back to life. The technical challenges and ethical considerations of de-extinction are substantial, from deciding which species should be restored, to anticipating how revived populations might be overseen in the wild. Join Shapiro at the Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Ida B. Wells Drive, for a vivid exploration into the cutting-edge—and controversial—science that is being used today to resurrect the past. This talk will be at 2 p.m. March 26, with tickets $32-55 at www.nationalgeographic.com/events

Classics on the Big Screen!

Pickwick Theatre's Classic Film Series

“Mad Max 2" (aka "The Road Warrior," 1981) will be shown as part of Pickwick Theatre’s Classic Film Series. This film series is a monthly event with “Mad Max 2” being the last of the series shown on the mega screen. Programs are hosted by film historian Matthew C. Hoffman, who through lecture and documentary, helps audiences discover the context and reevaluate the classic movies’ relevance. Showtimes are 1 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. March 29 at the Pickwick Theatre, 5 S. Prospect Ave., Park Ridge. Tickets are $10-12 at parkridgeclassicfilm.com/film-schedule/

A Comedy Icon!

Paula Poundstone

A master of observational comedy, Paula Poundstone is a rare comedic talent that can cleverly poke fun at someone without demeaning her comic target. Each of Paula’s shows is unique. She was the first female comic to perform at the White House Correspondents’ dinner and the first to win the ACE Award for best comedy special on cable TV. Paula will perform at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie, 9501 Skokie Blvd., Skokie, at 8 p.m. April 1. Tickets are $48+ at northshorecenter.org/event/paula-poundstone

Compiled by Emma Murphy

Growing Together!

Seed Swap

The Humboldt Park branch of the Chicago Public Library, 1605

N. Troy St., is hosting a seed swap. Want to grow some plants but not sure what? Have more seeds than you need? At the seed swap, you can pick up free seeds or drop off your extras. A variety of seeds are available including vegetables, herbs, flowers, and native plants. The Field Museum donated native seeds, great for butterflies and other local wildlife as well. The event is 10 a.m. - noon March 25, and is free to attend. More information is at chipublib.bibliocommons.com/events

The Bond of Motherhood!

‘Cry It Out’

An honest look at the absurdities of being home with a baby, the power of female friendship, the dilemma of going back to work, and the effect class has on parenthood in America. “Cry It Out” shows how unifying the experience of motherhood can be, following the budding friendship of first two, and then three, new mothers from vastly different social classes. Performances are at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and at 3 p.m. Sundays from March 10 - April 2, at The Jarvis Square Theater, 1439 W. Jarvis Ave. $15-25 at theatreatl.org

Dance With the Fish!

‘Ritmo del Mar’

Enjoy a night of Latino music, cuisine, culture, and mesmerizing animals with an aquatic backdrop like nowhere else in Chicago. Dance to the sounds of salsa, cumbia, merengue and Latin jazz with special performances by Projecto 7 and Carpacho y Su Super Combo. Admission includes all aquarium exhibits and entertainment. Food and beverages will be available for purchase. Must be 21 years or older to attend. This event is 7 p.m. March 25 at the Shedd Aquarium, 1200 S. DuSable Lake Shore Drive. Tickets are $15-40 at sheddaquarium.org/ programs-and-events

Celebrate Spring!~

Fair Trade Nowruz

Join the Chicago Fair Trade Museum for an evening of Persian-inspired mezze (appetizers), music, dancing, mocktails, and cocktails! Nowruz, meaning “new day,” coincides with the first day of spring and is a celebration of the renewal of nature. Special guest Mohammad Salehi, founder of Heray Spice and a CFT business member, will talk about his experience working directly with fair trade saffron and spice farmers in Afghanistan. This event is at the Chicago Fair Trade Museum, at NEWCITY Lincoln Park, 1457 N. Halsted St. Admission for 6 p.m. March 25 is $39 in advance at chicagofairtrade.org, or $49 at the door.

Local Businesses Together!

‘The Exchange 2023’

“The Exchange” is the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce’s annual showcase, convening Chicago’s diverse business community. This event includes booths highlighting various local businesses, including small, midsize and enterprise companies from Chicago’s major industries. The event also includes a Culinary Showcase featuring unique samples from some of Chicago’s best restaurants and bars. The Exchange will be from 3-7:30 p.m. March 29 at Soldier Field, 1410 Special Olympics Drive. Food and drink samples included. Advance registration is $80-100 at chicagolandchamber.org/the-exchange

Author Talk!

‘A House Called Tomorrow’

Michael Wiegers, executive editor of Copper Canyon Press (pictured), will lead a discussion of its 50th anniversary and its anthology, “A House Called Tomorrow: Fifty Years of Poetry” with Chris Abani, Tishani Doshi, Alison C. Rollins, Arthur Sze. This free event will be at 2 p.m. March 25 at the Poetry Foundation, 61 W. Superior St. It will also be live streamed for those who pre-register at www.poetryfoundation.org. Copies of the Copper Canyon anthology will be available for sale.

Russ: Man, I’ve been waiting for March big-time. Easily the best basketball you will see the rest of the year. Very exciting! Shoot, big wins, even bigger upsets, tough losses, last-second shots—I mean, can you really pick a decent bracket?

John: I feel pretty good about what I know this year.

Russ: What do you have going on in yours?

John: Well, I’ll agree with you about one thing: it’s always tough to predict these games, which is what makes it worth watching, right? However, I do have some thoughts and predictions. Now, Houston, as of today, very late February, is ranked number 1, but there’re a few other teams in the race to win this tournament. The Big Ten’s Purdue, UCLA; shoot, even Northwestern from out in Evanston.

Donald: Northwestern, huh?

John: Yeah, they’ve been pretty good. Now, I’ll get back to who’ll win this, but the real drama for me lies with the 3 proud blue blood teams: North Carolina, Duke, and Kentucky: All 3 are on the bubble.

Patrick: Wow. Apparently, I have not been paying attention like I should have.

John: Yeah, if those three all miss the tournament, it would be the first time since 1965— the year UCLA won back-toback national titles—that these 3 didn’t make it.

Russ: I knew I hadn’t heard a ton about those three this year.

Patrick: What do you have going in your pre-known bracket?

Russ: All right, so here’s my take. First off, I’m pulling for all of my Illinois teams to make it into the tourney—Illinois Fightin’ Illini, Northwestern, etc. Also, now, I heard John just mention that the Tar Heels of North Carolina are on the bubble and, strangely, I know this, but still feel confident they will make it and could, possibly, do well. I mean, there is the Michael Jordan alum factor.

Donald: True.

John: You got a point. That

said, though, I’m rolling with UCLA to do a lot of damage in this tournament. But, again, I do feel there’re quite a few teams who could pull it off. Purdue, Indiana, Marquette, Kansas, USC, Arizona, Arizona State…

Patrick: A helluva list. Although, I’m not sold on Indiana. I know they’re good, but they’ve been losing quite a bit.

Donald: Of course, now, they could’ve gotten their losses out the way.

Russ: True. I guess the bottom line is that with this tourney, there’s no tomorrow when you lose. Lose and you’re out— point blank. Though I’m always excited for the madness, this year I’m doubly pumped. It’s been a really strange year: I mean, nobody’s dominating anybody.

Patrick: I won’t lie, fellas, I’m glad y’all are in on this, because

I just haven’t been watching college ball enough to have a good opinion other than I absolutely can’t wait till the Madness begins. Seriously, I’m geeked.

Russ: You know what other part of this madness I’m excited about? The women’s side of things.

Donald: Now, that’s what I’m talking about! This year, I’m not doing any brackets or anything. However, I will watch the women do their thing out there. We’ll see what’s really going on with it. So, y’all watch y’all’s and I’ll watch mine.

Patrick: Now, Donald, we can watch it all. I love women’s basketball—not as much yet as I do men’s basketball—so you can sit there and watch only one side of it, but I’m watching it all.

Russ: Co-signing!

Any comments or suggestions? Email pedwards@streetwise.org

Rashanah Baldwin

Vendors Russell Adams, John Hagan and Donald Morris chat about the world of sports with Executive Assistant Patrick Edwards.

by Suzanne Hanney

The fight for women’s suffrage took more than 70 years, starting in 1848.

“Young suffragists who helped forge the last links of that chain were not born when it began. Old suffragists who forged the first links were dead when it ended,” wrote National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) President Carrie Chapman Catt when the 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote in 1920.

The first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, N.Y., organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott in 1848, built its preamble on the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men [and women] are created equal…”

Women’s rights were put aside during the Civil War (1861-65), however. Afterward, suffragists split over the 15th Amendment. Passed in 1870, this amendment said that the right to vote should not be denied because of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” African American men could (theoretically) vote, but no women of any race.

The National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) opposed the 15th Amendment because women were not covered; NWSA sought a federal amendment. The American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) supported the 15th Amendment, with the idea that women’s suffrage was an eventuality; AWSA favored a state-by-state approach. In 1890, the two groups merged to become NAWSA, and combined their methods.

Illinois played an especially important role in women’s suffrage as the first state east of the Mississippi River to give women limited suffrage (the right to vote for U.S. president, but not state and local officials) in 1913. If Illinois “had not first opened the door,” Catt said, New York would not have passed suffrage in 1917, and that state strengthened the suffrage movement in Congress.

Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan were the first states to ratify the Amendment, on June 10, 1919.

However, the Constitutional Amendment required ratification by 36 states. Although seven southern states rejected the 19th Amendment, Tennessee became the 36th and final state on Aug. 18, 1920.

Illinois also played an outsized role in gaining women’s suffrage because it was home to three of the most famous American women of the Progressive Era. Jane Addams was founder of the Hull House settlement. Frances Willard headed the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. Ida B. Wells-Barnett was an anti-lynching journalist and organizer.

All three of these women are included in the “On the Wings of Change” mural, located back of 33 E. Ida B. Wells Drive in the Wabash Arts Corridor. More on these women:

(Sandra Steinbrecher photo)

JANE ADDAMS

On a post-college trip to Europe, Addams saw people less fortunate than herself and pondered whether mere handouts were the best way to help them. In London, a visit to Toynbee House showed her a model of urban poverty addressed through cross-class fellowship, according to “Women Building Chicago 1790-1990: A Biographical Dictionary,” a project by the Chicago Area Women’s History Conference, edited by Rima Lunin Schultz and Adele Hast (Indiana University Press, 2001). Hull House, opened in 1889, was located in an immigrant neighborhood on South Halsted Street. It offered children’s programs, ethnic clubs, labor organizations, women’s clubs, classes in English, government, literature and art, a gymnasium, art gallery and coffee house.

Addams’s skill as a writer built the Hull House reputation. She was a valued speaker for the woman’s suffrage movement, but kept her distance from strategic battles between 1900 and 1920, although she was vice president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association from 1911 to 1914. World War I made her a pacifist and “convinced her that women simply cared more about life than men did,” that they should be more involved in political affairs, according to “Women Building Chicago.”

FRANCES WILLARD

Willard was president from 1879 -1898 of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, which had 200,000 members, both white and Black. Besides sobriety, the WCTU’s reform agenda included women’s economic and religious rights, marriage reform and the growing gap between rich and poor. Suffrage became one of its goals because women’s votes could help pass legislation to ban alcohol, thus protecting women from the effects of male drunkenness, whether physical abuse or loss of job/income.

Willard’s father had served in the Wisconsin legislature until he moved the family to Evanston, IL, where he became a banker. She graduated from NorthWestern Female College and was initially a teacher, then president of Evanston College for Ladies in 1871, which merged into Northwestern University in 1872.

Women were morally superior, Willard believed, so they were needed in the male-dominated world

of politics, business and government, in order to make it responsive to women and children. The peak of her power was her presidency of the National Council of Women, organized during the 40th anniversary of the Seneca Falls, NY declaration of women’s rights in 1888. She pushed for women’s coalitions in cities and states across the U.S.

IDA B. WELLS-BARNETT

The lynching of a grocer friend who had competed with white businessmen in Memphis launched Ida B. Wells as an investigative reporter. Lynching was the result of economic envy and the desire for control, she realized, not the myth that Black men had predatory desires for white women. Her 1892 expose on lynching so enraged Tennesseeans, that they burned her printing press. In fear for her life, she fled to Chicago. The next year, during the World’s Columbia Exposition here, she joined other African American leaders in calling for a boycott of the fair, because of negative portrayals of the Black community.

Wells-Barnett saw that white women played an important role in uplifting the community, and she also felt it was important for Black women to “emancipate” their white sisters from prejudice. Seeking to attract Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) supporters in the South, for example, Frances Willard never repudiated racial stereotypes about Black men, despite protests by Wells-Barnett, according to the Willard Museum website. However, the WCTU passed yearly anti-lynching resolutions from 1893 to 1899. Wells-Barnett also worked with Jane Addams as part of an interracial group that convinced the Chicago Tribune to stop publishing stories promoting school segregation.

Around the time Illinois gave women limited voting rights in 1913, Wells-Barnett established the Alpha Suffrage Club in Chicago, the first such group for Black women in the state. Ahead of the February 1914 primary, their candidate was leading the machine’s. Officials took note, and promised to slate a Black candidate. As a result, Oscar DePriest became Chicago’s first Black alderman.

Ida and her lawyer husband, Ferdinand Lee Barnett, established the weekly Chicago Conservator newspaper. She was co-founder of the National Association of Colored Women in 1896 and co-founder of the National `Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) with W.E.B. DuBois and others in 1909.

CATHARINE WAUGH MCCULLOCH

After Waugh McCulloch graduated from Union College of Law (later Northwestern University), male lawyers propositioned her sexually in return for a clerkship. Instead, she opened her own Rockford practice; her clients were women whose problems stemmed from their own legal status: wage discrimination, divorce, probate, and child custody. She drafted the legislation that guaranteed mothers the same custody rights as fathers, that strengthened rape laws and that raised the age of consent from 14 to 16. Her husband shared her mission in their joint Chicago practice.

McCulloch solved her problem of being a working mother by serving as a Justice of the Peace (1907-13), and twice convinced a male electorate she would always be available – at home.

In 1893, McCulloch introduced the bill that would become the Illinois suffrage law 20 years later. She was legislative superintendent of the Illinois Equal Suffrage Association (predecessor to the Illinois League of Women Voters) from 1890 to 1912, National American Women Suffrage Association legal adviser (1904-ca 1911) and 1st VP, 1910-11; and president of the Women’s Bar Association of Illinois, 1916-20.

GRACE WILBUR TROUT

Trout was a gifted public speaker with a flair for making headlines in the Illinois suffrage movement’s final, crucial, decade.

As Chicago Political Equality League president in 1910, she entered the first suffrage float in Chicago’s July 4th parade. A week later, with a touring car and chauffeur, as president of the Illinois Equal Suffrage Association (predecessor of the Illinois League of Women Voters) she led the first Suffrage Automobile Tour of Illinois: 16 towns within 40 miles of Chicago in five days. She and IESA members gave speeches about women’s suffrage on street corners and train stations – and were assured of front-page coverage.

Trout urged a “quiet campaign” – no publicity, no special hearings – to convert so-called opponents of suffrage into friends. But she kept a card file on all the legislators. She also visited Chicago’s seven newspapers on a rotating basis, getting them to write editorials that were placed on legislators’ desks. And when the suffrage bill came up for a final vote, she urged a telephone campaign at the Chicago home of the Illinois Speaker of the House from Saturday through Monday. Back in Springfield on Tuesday, the Speaker also found thousands of letters and telegrams.

He immediately scheduled the final vote on suffrage for June 11, 1913, when it passed.

MARY LIVERMORE

Born in 1820 in Boston, Mary Livermore came to Chicago in 1857. She founded the Home for Aged Women and the Hospital for Women and Children, and became a board member for the Home for the Friendless. Her experiences in the Civil War convinced her that women needed the vote, because without it, in the eyes of men, they and their infant children “were robbed of their legal rights.”

In 1868, she organized the Illinois Woman Suffrage Association and served as its president. She created her own suffrage and temperance publication called “The Agitator.”

When the suffrage movement split because the 15th Amendment gave the vote to Black men but not women of any race, Livermore joined Lucy Stone in the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA), which saw suffrage as an eventuality. She became its first vice president, president from 1878 to 1895, and editor at The Women’s Journal.

As a speaker at the Women’s Tea Party in 1873, Livermore reflected on the Boston Tea Party of 1773. “The Woman Suffrage movement has often been spoken of as a new movement. It is…simply a carrying out of the principles further than our fathers carried them a hundred years ago.”

MYRA BRADWELL

Myra Bradwell organized the first Illinois women’s suffrage convention and passed the Illinois Bar exam with high honors in 1869, but she was refused admission because of her gender, despite an appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court. Finally, the Illinois legislature opened most professions to women, and she was admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court and Illinois Supreme Court in 1892, retroactive to her original application.

As editor and publisher of the Chicago Legal News, Bradwell advocated for women’s rights, women’s suffrage and property ownership rights by women; she helped get Mary Todd Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln's widow, released from an insane asylum after her son, Robert, had her committed for her eccentricities and wild spending.

Bradwell was an active member of the Illinois Woman Suffrage Association. In 1869, she helped organize Chicago’s first suffrage convention and aided in establishing the American Woman Suffrage Association in Cleveland; she also served on its executive committee. Her influence with lawyers, judges and lawmakers gave her enormous impact as a women’s rights advocate and she became one of the Midwest’s most notable suffragists.

FANNIE BARRIER WILLIAMS

As a new teachers’ college graduate in 1870, Fannie Barrier went to Washington, D.C. to teach freedmen, and was stunned by the discrimination she encountered. Enrolled at the School of Fine Arts, she was told that the only way she would remain was if she were surrounded by screens. Barrier married S. Laing Williams in 1887 and the couple moved to Chicago, where her husband was admitted to the Illinois bar and began a successful law practice.

Barrier Williams became director of the art and music department of the Prudence Crandall Study Club, but she extended her interests beyond this elite African American group. She helped found the National League of Colored Women in 1893 and its successor, the National Association of Colored Women (NACW) in 1896. The organizations provided kindergartens, mother’s bureaus, and savings banks for women who would not otherwise have had them. Because there were no Black nurses and doctors in hospitals, she helped to create the interracial Provident Hospital, with a nursing school that admitted Black women.

In 1895, Barrier Williams and Mary Church Terrell established the National Federation of Afro-American Women, which became part of NACW. The two women, and Ida B. Wells-Barnett, also split from Booker T. Washington at the National Colored Women’s Congress, saying that Washington compromised too much with “the white supremacist South.” The Congress condemned discrimination and lynching and passed a resolution for a fully integrated women’s movement.

Aligned with W.E.B. DuBois, Barrier Williams was among the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

MARY FITZBUTLER WARING

Born in 1870, in Canada, but raised in Louisville, KY, Mary Fitzbutler married Frank Waring in 1901 and came to Chicago, where she became prominent in social circles, reform and charitable causes. By 1906, she was gaining visibility in the National Association of Colored Women (NACW) and in 1911, she represented the NACW at the National Council of Women’s Executive Session, (a predominantly white organization) as a replacement for Fannie Barrier Williams. She was later secretary of the Illinois Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs.

A teacher in the Chicago Public Schools, she also became a doctor, like both her parents; she took charge of NACW’s

Department of Health and Hygiene and wrote a column for its national publication. She also represented the NACW in Norway at the International Congress of Women, a group founded to unite women’s groups across the world; and at the International Council of Women in Scotland.

Fitzbutler Waring was elected president of the NACW in 1933 and then again in 1935. In this capacity, she petitioned President Franklin D. Roosevelt to desegregate railroad passenger cars in the United States.

AGNES NESTOR

Born in 1876 in Grand Rapids, MI, Agnes Nestor moved with her family to Chicago in 1897 when her father needed work. But after he fell ill, Nestor left 8th grade to support her family as a glovemaker in a factory. Impressed with the gains men made through unions, she led a successful 10-day strike by glovemakers in 1901. The organizing spurred the formation the next year of the International Glove Workers Union (IGWU), which secured better conditions and higher wages for workers.

Nestor also organized overworked and underpaid women workers in Illinois through the Chicago Women’s Trade Union League (WTUL), which she headed from 1913 to 1948. Her most important achievement, however, according to the Encyclopedia of Chicago History, was lobbying against fierce opposition from Illinois businessmen for the 1909 state law limiting work for women to 10 hours per day.

While much of the Illinois suffrage movement was headed by middle- and upper-class women, Nestor was not alone in speaking for under-represented groups. Her work naturally led her to Hull House founder Jane Addams, who invited her on an April 1909 lobbying trip to Springfield led by the Illinois Equal Suffrage Association (IESA), predecessor to the Illinois League of Women Voters. In Joliet, one of seven stops made by the train, Nestor made a three-minute speech on “The Lack of the Ballot, the Handicap for Working Girls,” which drew hundreds of people. Although the Municipal Suffrage bill did not pass, the campaign led the IESA to form a broader coalition that showed the benefits of suffrage to all classes.

Nestor ran unsuccessfully for the Illinois General Assembly in 1929, then served on several committees during the Great Depression and worked for women’s labor issues until her death in 1948.

Two murals in the Wabash Arts Corridor were supposed to depict historic women’s heroines, but organizers are seeking an alternate Loop site for the modern piece, since it was deemed too political by the owner of a parking lot that surrounds it.

“On the Wings of Change” shows a little girl looking up from a history book at 10 Chicago women who made Illinois the first state east of the Mississippi River to give women limited voting rights in 1913. But “Speak Up” has been stalled, because it would depict the first female Vice President, Kamala Harris, during the pre-2020 election debate with Mike Pence.

“Wings,” by Diosa (Jasmina Cazacu) went up first in October 2021 on the wall behind 33 E. Ida B. Wells Drive. “Speak Up,” by Dorian Sylvain, was set to follow directly opposite on the long and narrow, 240 foot by 30-foot wall of the University Center behind 525 S. State St. as a replacement for “Harmony.” The two pieces were commissioned together, but the artists worked separately – yet in complementary palettes.

“You can’t get any better. It was like divine intervention to have two walls: one visually-based and one text-based, to have not only the history, but the present, as the culmination of what these women fought for,” Michelle Duster, a member of the Chicago Womxn’s Suffrage Tribute Committee, said of “Wings” and “Speak Up,” respectively.

However, when the owner of the parking lots surrounding the murals saw a sketch of “Speak Up,” he refused to allow Sylvain to place her apparatus there – even though the work space had already been paid for, Duster said.

“His argument was it was too political. [But] we tried to explain to him it’s not political. It’s history. If you like Kamala or not, she was the first female and the first person of color to become vice president of the United States. That’s not partisan, that’s just history. The murals were created to complement each other. There’s no way Kamala would have become vice president of the United States without women getting the historic right to vote. And the idea of her becoming vice president exactly 100 years after the 19th Amendment passed showed the continuum. The words ‘I’m Speaking’ were what

the women in the mural were saying. ‘Hear us. Here’s our voice. We are speaking.’”

Although the parking lot owner requested new designs for the 240-foot by 30-foot wall, the Chicago Womxn’s Suffrage Committee is instead seeking a new, equally prominent South Loop site for Sylvain’s mural. The Wabash/Ida B Wells intersection has high visibility: over 10,000 pedestrians, drivers – and riders on the CTA Orange and Green Lines – pass it every day.

Sylvain’s previous works include the “Remembering AfriCOBRA Community Wall on the Bronzeville Mariano’s, Margaret Gwendolyn on the Forum Theater and “Banking on the Future" at the abandoned South Shore Bank. “She deserves to have her work displayed,” Duster said.

Duster, who is the great-granddaughter of anti-lynching journalist and early 20th century activist Ida B. Wells-Barnett, said that the impetus for the murals came after she was contacted about a New York suffrage sculpture. Ultimately, her greatgrandmother was not included, and so she began to think about a mural, which would be cheaper than a sculpture, with the capacity for depicting more people. She was also on a book tour for her biography of her great-grandmother, “Ida B. the Queen,” and the mural was a natural follow-up to questions about her next project.

“Wings” depicts Illinois history all the way back to the 1860s and the first women’s suffrage organization in the state. The 10 women depicted (see sidebar, page) include Jane Addams, Fannie Barrier Williams, Myra Bradwell, Mary Fitzbutler Waring, Mary Livermore, Catharine Waugh McCulloch, Agnes Nestor, Ida B. Wells, Grace Wilbur Trout and Frances Willard: seven white and three African American Chicago area women (see story, page 8).

In addition to Duster, the Chicago Womxn’s Suffrage Tribute Committee includes: Meg Duguid, executive director of the Department of Exhibitions, Performing and Student Spaces, at Columbia College, which oversees the Wabash Art Corridor; Catherine Mardikes, bibliographer for classics at the University of Chicago Library; Kris Nesbitt, former chief of strategic

by Suzanne Hanney

initiatives at the Chicago History Museum; Lori Osborne of the Evanston History Center and director of the Frances Willard House Museum; and Neysa Page-Lieberman, co-founder of Monuments to Movements.

Fundraising has surpassed $100,000, with donations from individual supporters and the Chicago Foundation for Women, Jane Walker by Johnnie Walker, The Harnisch Foundation, Chicago Women’s History Center and the University Center. The delay has cost the project thousands of dollars, Duster said.

“I am taking it personally,” Duster said. “It’s my reputation. People donated and I want to see it completed.”

Duster said she doesn’t see the parking lot owner’s argument that “Speak Up” will hurt his business. People just park close to their destination, she said.

“If there’s some people who decide ‘I don’t want to park in that lot, because of what’s on the wall,’ there’s probably an equal number of people who will say ‘I want to park in this parking lot because of what’s on the wall,’ some women for whom it is their favorite lot.” The committee also used the argument that the mural could become a tourist attraction, with national exposure.

“Speak Up” is mostly text, Duster said, although it does depict Harris during the debate with Pence. She twice told him “I’m speaking,” when he interrupted her rebuttals: first when she disagreed that the Trump administration’s slow response to the COVID pandemic was an attempt to keep the populace calm and second when he said that Joe Biden would immediately raise taxes if he were elected, according to CNN.com.

“There was no real contest in the vice-presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Mike Pence,” The Guardian. com noted on Oct. 7, 2020. “Harris wiped the floor with him.

Pence ignored, patronized and talked over the two women in the room [including moderator Susan Page of USA Today]. [Harris’s] strategy was cool competence. His was sexist entitlement.”

Parking lot owner Thomas R. Baryl, vice president of People’s Auto Parking, initially told StreetWise to speak to his attorney. Then he said, “we like art, we’re apolitical. If you look at the Wabash Arts Council, they have a lot of nice art.” Baryl said he is also grateful to customers from Columbia College.

“In hindsight,” the Harris mural “might be art to someone,” he said. “I just didn’t want any statement.”

Baryl termed “On the Wings of Change” slightly political. "But we actually thought it was important to women’s history, especially Ida B. Wells.”

“Wings” is non-controversial because its subjects are longdead, however, Baryl said.

On the other hand, Harris is the sitting vice president, he added.

“In this current environment, what if Trump people want to put up a mural over the “Bubblegum Moose” [at 710 S. Wabash, east of the Wings mural, also in the parking lot]. Where do you stop?”

In the meantime, Duster said she hopes the women suffragists’ mural will make people curious about them – and start a conversation about the hard struggle for voting rights that many women take for granted.

“It was an ugly history – very violent – a soap opera. I teach, and most of my students just don’t know about it. This is a history that needs to become more well-known.”

(Wabash Arts Corridor photos)

CORNELIUS J. WASHINGTON JR. re 'ON THE WINGS OF CHANGE' mural

The 'On the Wings of Change' mural was created by artist Diosa (Jasmine Cazacu) on the south wall of 33 E. Ida B. Wells Drive on the Columbia College Chicago campus.

It tells the story of women’s activism through portraiture and is the first large-scale public history tribute in the city of Chicago to celebrate local suffragists who participated in the decadeslong fight for women’s full inclusion in our democracy. It also features 10 of the movement’s leaders from the Chicago area and a representation of the future of female leadership.

The amazing 10 women featured are Jane Addams, Myra

Bradwell, Mary Livermore, Catharine Waugh McCulloch, Agnes Nestor, Grace Wilbur Trout, Mary Fitzbutler Waring, Ida B. Wells Barnett, Frances Willard and last, but definitely not least, Fannie Barrier Williams.

March 2023 is the federal government's designation of Women's History Month The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum all join in commemorating and encouraging the study, observance and celebration of the vital role of women in American history.

However, I am especially grateful and thankful for the many influential women in my life. The beautiful murals representing these 10 powerful matriarchs is a testament of just how blessed this world really is. It also represents how the power of print, paint and passion can promote peace!

What is the big deal about Kamala Harris becoming president of the United States in case something should happen to our beloved 46th president, Joe R. Biden, who was sworn in Jan. 20, 2021 and who was born Nov. 20, 1942. That makes him 81 years old, and in 2023, he would be the oldest president in the history of the United States.

I am sure there are concerns as to whether age would affect his judgment or health, if he were to run again for the presidency. Many may call for Kamala Harris as an identity-politics pick, just to bring in Black voters. Call it what you want. He won, she’s in, and we as Blacks support her in backing Joe

Biden and in upholding the Constitution of the United States of America. She is the highest ranking female official in U.S. history.

Harris also previously served as attorney general of California from 2011 to 2017 and as U.S. senator representing California from 2017 to 2021. She is well-educated and has been a servant of this country for many years. So let us not be afraid of the fact that she’s a lady and a Black lady, the first female to become vice president of the United States of America. She has the background of a well-qualified candidate for this position, and if something happened to the president, she is able to step up to be President of the United States.

America has been founded on principles of all men are created equal and have inalienable rights. Does this not include women and Blacks? Or are we still playing games of saying one thing and then believing or acting on another? Are we living by fear of what may happen if a certain race or gender gets into office?

President Barack Obama is an example of breaking the race barrier, and Lori Lightfoot is another example of women crossing the gender barrier, becoming the first Black, female mayor of Chicago.

Times are changing and we have to trust the Founding Fathers' political credo of a government by the people, for the people – as well as the motto on our dollar bills: "In God We Trust."

vendor JACQUELINE SANDERS on IDA B. WELLS-BARNETT

Ida Bell Wells-Barnett was born into slavery July 16, 1862, in Holly Springs, MS, but was freed by the Emancipation Proclamation during the American Civil War. Both her mother and father, as well as an infant brother, died in the 1878 yellow fever epidemic that affected people in the Mississippi River Valley.

Wells was visiting her grandmother in Memphis at the time, so she went to work with the help of her grandmother and moved there with her siblings. She became a teacher and soon co-owned and wrote for the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight newspaper. She reported on incidents of racial segregation and inequality.

vendor A. ALLEN on the 'SPEAK UP' mural

To solve the Sudoku puzzle, each row, column and box must contain the

Last week's Puzzle Answers

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