Commentary
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See Potential: helping us all envision the rebirth of abandoned buildings on the South Side.
See Potential in what’s around us. That’s the goal of photographer Emily Schiffer’s See Potential initiative: affixing huge weatherproof photographic works to undervalued community assets. It’s a great idea that can help harness the public imagination for the greater good. It’s the sort of greater good that Schiffer always hoped her art would serve. She…
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Chicago: in all its fried, dyed, laid-to-the-side (or perhaps natural) glory.
I was watching my “Best of Soul Train” DVD box-set this weekend (of course), which includes tons of original TV spots for Ultra Sheen and Afro Sheen (two black haircare lines manufactured by Chicago’s own Johnson Products). Iconic brands, to be sure. During the glory days of Black Haircare manufacture in Chicago (roughly the late…
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Sophia Tareen’s Chicago Soul Food Sign-of-the-Times
photo by Southern Foodways Alliance. Sophia Tareen’s article published on various platforms this month, entitled “Chicago Soul Food Disappearing as Blacks Leave, (excerpted below) brings up a number of over-arching issues as to why these community institutions have had some hard times, but leaves out any solutions, leaving us with sort of a hollow ‘sign-of-the-times’…
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Bridgeport Neighborhood Sees Identity Shift
Detail of a larger mural created by Juan Chavez and located at Fellowship House, 32nd and Lituanica, Bridgeport. Image from Mad About The Mural. Below is an interesting piece from WBEZ by reporter Natalie Moore that sheds light on changes that the Bridgeport neighborhood (home base for the Version Fest [see below]… and the Daleys) has been going through…
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Army and Lou’s: obituary of an icon.
(above, Common pictured at Army and Lou’s) How does a person write an obituary for a restaurant? Not just a restaurant, but a place with historical significance. The Sun-Times did a pretty good job: It was the late Mayor Harold Washington’s favorite restaurant — the booth where he always sat still bears his name. And…
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Don’t Care Bears. Hilarious.
You know you love it. Or else, you don’t care. This t-shirt, featuring a trio of apathetic bears modeled after the iconic Care Bears is available from Chicago’s own Threadless, by artist Alex Solis.
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The Return of Captain EO: This was it.
Hot off the presses.. Captain EO will be reopen at the Epcot Center (at Walt Disney World) this July. The ride/film short directed by Francis Ford Coppola and featuring Michael Jackson was originally opened in 1986 and closed in 1994 amidst allegations of abuse. The film was definitely a highlight of my family’s trip to…
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Chicago Public Schools Walk Out to Stop Budget Cuts
My Teen Talk Radio students tell me that many students at our school (Uplift Community High) are planning on walking out of school on Thursday April 8th at 9:30am to protest proposed CPS (Chicago Public Schools) budget cuts. Another school involved is Social Justice High School at Little Village/Lawndale High School’s campus (a school…
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Ebony in the digital age
Chicago’s own Ebony Magazine has digitized its archives. Celebrate. Ebony was the premier photojournalism and news magazine of the Black Diaspora for decades. During its peak, Ebony featured groundbreaking work by photographers such as Gordon Parks (work seen below), as well as thought provoking articles that exposed sometimes obscure corners of the “black experience” (Mixed race children of WWII G.I.s…
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Eunice Johnson: Wrought a Roadshow of Dreams
Eunice Johnson (1916-2010), widow of Ebony/Jet Publisher John H. Johnson, was more than Black Media’s First Lady. As Creator and Director of the Ebony Fashion Fair (an all black roadshow of haute couture), she paved the way for generations of black models from Beverly Johnson and Naomi Sims to Naomi Campbell. In fact, Richard Roundtree (“Shaft”) was a…
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