WBEZ | Chicago

Bike culture 101

Fri, 17 May 2013 08:00:00 -0500

Just in time for summer bike season, Walk Score (the company best known for rating the walkability of neighborhoods across the country) awarded Chicago the number 10 spot on its list of most bikeable American cities. Sure, we lag behind Portland, San Francisco and New York, but we beat Austin! Hipsters unite.

Of course, not all Chicago cyclists are hip young people riding vintage Schwinns or fixie conversions with neon aerospokes. Some are newbies (a.k.a the people who had no idea what I was referring to just now), while others are hard-core athletes accustomed to flying down Lakeshore Drive at maximum velocity. We're a diverse bunch, and our many varied bicycle-friendly neighborhoods prove it.

So, what are you waiting for?

Meet up

The Chainlink- an online community for Chicagoland cyclists to share info on bikes, routes, rides and events.

Handlebar- A restaurant/bar that supports bicycle advocacy. Come for the beautiful beer garden, stay for the best veggie brunch in the city.

Chicago Cycling Club- Become a member! Upcoming events include a ride through the 45th Ward (Parks & Burgers) and a Memorial Day 35-mile round trip to Frankfort, IL via the Old Plank Bicycle Path.

Critical Mass Chicago- Group bike rides start at Daley Plaza at 5:30 p.m. on the last Friday of each month. Free, fun and perfect for meeting fellow cyclists.

"Bike the Drive" 2013- May 26. Register for five hours of car-free biking down Lakeshore Drive. Best summer kickoff party ever.

10th Annual World Naked Bike Ride- June 8. If you dare.

Gear up/Tune up

Working Bikes Cooperative (gold star for incredible community service) - Pilsen

Roscoe Village Bikes- in the heart of Roscoe Village

Heritage Bicycles (with general store/coffeeshop) - Lakeview

Boulevard Bikes and The Bike Lane- both in Logan Square

Comrade Cycles- Ukranian Village

Rapid Transit Cycle Stop- Wicker Park and UIC

Ride like the wind

The city's Divvy bike-sharing program launches in June, with 4,000 three-speed bikes painted "Chicago blue" available at 400 docking stations and priced at $7 per day. Hopefully, this new infrastructure will continue to grow Chicago's budding cyclist community and convert more city streets to be bike-friendly to all.

Bike Score didn't take this new program into account when adding up Chicago's "bikeability" numbers, but their methodology did come up with the 25 best neighborhoods for cyclists based on bike parking, on-street lanes and road connectivity:

East Ukrainian Village
Ukrainian Village
Wicker Park
Illinois Medical District
Noble Square
East Pilsen
Margate Park
West Loop Gate
Sheridan Park
Fulton River District
University Village / Little Italy
Tri-Taylor
Bucktown
Palmer Square
Near East Side
Uptown
Ravenswood
Pilsen
Greektown
Streeterville
Buena Park
South Loop
Lincoln Park
Near West Side

Are you as surprised as I am to not see Logan Square on this list? Where are your favorite places to meet, shop and ride in Chicago?

Leah Pickett writes about popular culture for WBEZ. Follow her on Twitter, Facebook, or Tumblr.

Violence in the streets can start in the home

Fri, 17 May 2013 07:51:00 -0500

Ubaldina is a mother of six, who works the night shift at a packing company so she can be there when her kids come home from school.

She’s raising her kids alone now. She said her husband abused her verbally and physically almost every weekend.

“He came home drunk one day,” Ubaldina said. “I was pregnant with my 12-year-old. And the police came home and arrested him because they found him hitting me. I was on the floor with my face covered in blood.”

Ubaldina said she didn’t have the strength to end the relationship, until her husband tried to abuse her oldest daughter.

“I woke up,” she said. “I didn't make any noise or turn on the lights. I was going to the bathroom and everything was dark. I went back and heard my daughter’s bed moving and that’s when I opened the door and I found him there, but my daughter had no clothes on.”

All of her children slept in that bedroom. They watched what happened next.

“I took him out of the room,” Ubaldina said. “ I slapped him in the face twice and pushed him out. I was so angry that I remember going to the kitchen sink and grabbing a knife. I wanted to kill him.”

Ubaldina took her kids out of their house and waved down a cop car. Juvenal, her oldest son who is now 16, was terrified.

“That really got to me. I wanted to like, already be grown so I could beat up my dad. I wanted to beat him up, and I got so mad.” Juvenal said.

His dad was arrested, convicted and is still in prison. Ubaldina said her kids got some counseling at the time, but nothing to deal with all the domestic violence they witnessed at home.

Today, eight years later, Juvenal and his younger sister still struggle with anger. They’ve both been arrested for getting into fights at school.

“My anger is like when you feel the blood is coming up to your head and is not working back now. You get this nervous feeling and your hands ball up,” Juvenal said.

Experts say that anger can lead to violence on the streets if youth, like Juvenal, have ties to local gangs. They’re finding a link between domestic violence and youth involvement in gangs that goes largely unreported.

“Domestic violence is basically at the root of much of the violence that we see here in the streets,” said Father Dave Kelly of Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation. He teaches at-risk youth -- even rival gang members -- how to resolve their disputes peacefully.

“Most of the kids whom we deal with, youth who are locked up, speak of the violence they had to endure a big part of their life,” Father Kelly said.

Several other agencies say they’re seeing the same pattern.

CeaseFire Illinois, the local branch of Cure Violence, tries to “interrupt” violence before it erupts in the streets. More and more, leaders there say, they’re being asked to intercede in homes, too.

But there’s no single way to measure how big the problem is in Chicago. The Chicago Division of Domestic Violence said it doesn’t collect data on the number of minors who witness violence at home. They referred me to the Chicago Office of Violence Prevention, which doesn’t collect such data either.

“The primary challenge is to find a unique way to count children,” said Chicago Office of Violence Prevention Director Marlita White. “That is going to continue to be a difficult thing, because you are dependent on internal resources of very different departments. And often times you have a child who may be exposed to domestic violence, but also to community violence or to child abuse or neglect.”

The Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority collects some data from state-funded domestic violence programs. They said of the 22 state-funded domestic violence organizations in Chicago, more than 11,000 victims of domestic violence sought services last year. Those clients had a total of more than 20,000 children, but only 1,348 of them were identified as witnesses of domestic violence, and also received some type of supportive service.

Domestic violence groups said victims of domestic violence like Ubaldina are often afraid to come forward themselves. They’re also hesitant to acknowledge their kids witnessed the violence and are in need of services. The leaders of those groups said there is no uniform intake form that asks that information.

Some of those agencies like Mujeres Latinas en Accion are starting to identify and treat these young people, but they lack resources and can serve only small pockets of the population. But even when the resources are there, it can be hard to fight the influence of gangs over kids like Juvenal who have seen violence at home.

Juvenal said if he has trouble at home or if he’s being bullied and no one is around to protect him, the gangs are there.

“It’s easy man. It’s really easy. If what you need is protection, they are gonna throw it at you,” he said.

His mom said the gangs have been after him since he was 13. He also has cousins who are already gang members.

What stands between Juvenal and the gangs is the aid of one cop.

Officer Rafael Yañez mentors Juvenal and other at-risk youth. He founded an organization called Union Impact Center that provides after-school sports and mentoring.

On his own time, Yañez picks up Juvenal and his sisters every Saturday and drives them to a local gym.

“He is running away from the problems and the male figures and the real role models that he has are not the most positive ones, but are the only ones there,” Yañez said.

Juvenal sits up front so they can talk. Juvenal tells Yañez his plans of building a recording studio in his room. At the gym, they talk about the importance of keeping good grades for college and, as usual, they play ball.

Yañez said it’s hard for Juvenal to control his anger and that gets him in trouble.

“There was a time where I had to be in his high school, I was called by the principal maybe every week. Sometimes every other day to come and talk to him about his behavior,” he said, adding that’s slowed down since the pair started working together.

And he said Juvenal’s mom, Ubaldina, calls him when her son comes home late or breaks the rules.

“I prayed to God so my kid would not accept to join the gangs,” Ubaldina said.

Despite all of this support, there are ongoing pressures for Juvenal. His family lives in a crowded apartment. The TV is always on, and his younger siblings play everywhere.

At home he loses his temper easily. Ubaldina worries because her son is growing up without a father. And if he wants to go out, the gangs are right there.

“My perimeter is where I live and how I get to school, that’s it. You know like sometimes I get mad because I can’t go places that some of my friends can go to,” Juvenal said.

He lives with a constant reminder of the looming violence just across the street. It’s a memorial made of stuffed animals and beer cans.

A young man* who lives nearby stooped to clear garbage away from it and said the altar’s there to remember a friend who was shot three years ago, on Thanksgiving.

“All his friends gathered up before going back to their families for Thanksgiving and I guess they thought they were gangbangers and started shooting at the group, and he is the one that got shot,” the neighborhood resident said.

So Juvenal sees this every day. And he said he stays inside as much as he can. He’s trying to figure out how to build that recording studio in his bedroom using foam and cardboard.

But the lure of the streets is evident even in his favorite rap tune, “Knuck if You Buck.” He likes the song because he said it reminds him to always stand strong.

But even though Juvenal’s trying to stay out of a gang, he knows one more fight could change everything. If he joins, he said he’ll have to get tattooed, carry their guns and sell their drugs.

When I ask Juvenal where he sees himself in five years, he said he isn’t sure if he’ll even make it that far.

*Name withheld by WBEZ to protect the family’s confidentiality. And WBEZ isn’t using the last names of the family in this story to protect their confidentiality, given the nature of the abuse.

Latin dance company Luna Negra closes

Wed, 15 May 2013 16:56:00 -0500

Chicago lost some of its Latin flavor this week.

After 14 years, Luna Negra is shutting down. The company, launched in 1999, specialized in cutting edge, contemporary Latin dance from around the world. In-house choreographers, like Mónica Cervantes, were considered “dancers to watch”.

But in March the music changed. Luna Negra had just performed Made in Spain at the Harris Theatre, receiving rave reviews.

Then days later, all the dancers were laid off.

Veronica Guadalupe was one of them. “It was a complete shock,” says Guadalupe, “I don’t think anybody, especially the dancers, were aware of the extent to which the company was in dire straits”

Guadalupe joined the company in 2002, first as a dancer then, after retiring last year, as the company’s associate artistic director.

She says under artistic director Gustavo Ramirez Sansano, the company’s reputation soared.

Sansano left the company abruptly in late April.

And based on Luna Negra’s last tax return, their finances were grounded.

The company’s deficit more than doubled in one year, from $48,475 in 2010 to $121,141 by the end of 2011.

Guadalupe thinks there are other factors at work in the company’s closure. She was surprised there wasn’t more support from Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who is a support of Chicago dance, especially after the layoffs in March.

But Guadalupe also thinks the community didn’t show up.

“You know for being a Latin company, for being the only Latin company here in Chicago, we don’t get any support from the Latin community.”

The company’s tax returns indicate gross receipts from admissions and other items (merchandise sold, services performed, facilities furnished) remained relatively flat, until falling off by about $100,000 between 2010 and 2011.

Luna Negra officials and board members did not respond to requests for comments.

Alison Cuddy is WBEZ’s Arts and Culture reporter. Follow her @wbezacuddy, on Facebook and on Instagram

Searching for sweat-free fashion in Chicago

Wed, 15 May 2013 08:56:00 -0500

The collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory complex in Bangladesh on April 24 continues to make headlines. One of the "worst industrial accidents in the world" is now known to have killed at least 1,127 people.

The event has roiled Bangladesh. There have been worker protests, a number of other factories have been closed at least temporarily, and the owner of Rana Plaza was arrested and faces murder charges.

Those poor labor conditions within Bangladesh’s enormous garment industry have had consequences around the globe. Rana Plaza workers helped supply major European and North American chains, and there’s increased pressure on these companies to help improve safety standards in the global garment industry. Unfortunately, not everyone is getting with the program.

And many consumers, including me, have started to take a hard look at those innocent-looking outfits hanging in our closets or stuffed in our drawers. What, exactly, are we buying into?

Now I’d like to be able to give myself a pat on the back when it comes to sustainable or ethical fashion. After all, I buy the majority of my clothes at thrift or secondhand stores. Yes, even shoes. But I can't say that concern over the clothing supply chain drove me to it. I started thrifting in high school because I wanted to look cool, like my older brother’s girlfriend at the time, Heidi.

Heidi was a madly savvy thrifter, but she was actually concerned about ethical consumerism. She dug up a copy of Diet for a Small Planet by the early eco-foodie Frances Moore Lappé, and stressed the reuse and reduce angles of the holy environmental trinity. She also worried that her Mennonite family had strayed from its social values in favor of conspicuous consumption. Heidi was smart and persuasive, so I kind of paid attention to her ideas. But mostly I made note that replicating Diane Keaton's preppy menswear style in Annie Hall was going to be dead cheap at a church rummage sale.

And so, driven more by the thrill of a good find than a set of good politics, I’ve kept going to the thrift store. But that's not to say I haven’t picked up a few insights along the way.

One way of weeding out the real retro clothing from the Old Navy clones is to take a look at the label. If it says "Made in America" then chances are I’m looking at a garment that dates back to at least the 1980s. Up until then, locally made clothing was easily available. And if the dead-stock price tags I've stumbled across are any indication, it was also affordable. And not just the polyester stuff. We’re talking quality clothes, made from cotton, linen or silk. I often wonder if that's because they were produced simply: I'm struck by how low-tech the actual assembly of many of these garments appears. More than once when I've taken an older dress to be altered, the seamstress has mistaken something factory-made for a hand-sewn garment.

In just a few short decades though, oh, how things have changed - at least if we’re to judge by the stuff current discount retailers such as Forever 21 or Target or "insert name here" are selling.

One of the reasons I stopped shopping at those places is I couldn’t take the increasingly poor quality of the clothes. I kept wondering not just where the clothes are made, but what they’re made from.

These days, new clothes smell so strange, like molded plastic products, made via a chemical-laden process better suited to car or weapons manufacturing. And if elastane and polyamide are just the new synthetic fabrics, why do they feel so flimsy and slip-slidy? Why don't they actually feel like clothing?

They're the garment world's equivalent of mystery meat. And despite my knee-jerk belief that the best clothes are those to be had on the cheap, I’m developing this mad compulsion: To dash into the fashion aisles yelling "Don't (wear) anything your Grandmother wouldn't recognize as (clothing)!”

Okay, who am I kidding? I’m not the Michael Pollan of clothing. I haven’t entirely given up shopping at places like T.J. Maxx or Marshalls. For many of us, especially people with kids, cheap or disposable clothes feel like not just a bargain but a necessity. After all, how many of our salaries have risen alongside the price of Mary Janes or Garanimals?

Still, I'm not alone in wondering how it’s possible to make a T-shirt so cheaply you can sell it for $5. A majority of Americans say they are willing to pay more for clothes made here. Apparently pride in the idea of a homegrown clothing industry trumps even our pocketbooks (wherever they come from).

Unfortunately, even if we want to buy clothes locally, we’d be hard pressed to find them. As my highly unscientific survey of thrift stores confirms, we’ve "offshored" the bulk of American clothing manufacturing, some 98 percent of it, according to many reports.

In doing so, we seem to have traded quality for quantity. But the bigger trade-off is transparency: We can’t see where our clothes come from, who makes them and under what conditions. That’s the hard lesson of the Bangladesh factory collapse. And in an effort to take it seriously, I’ve decided to cut out the disposable clothes and start looking for clothes designed and manufactured right here in Chicago.

If you think that’s easy as pie in the "best country in the world" think again. There are deplorable labor conditions to contend with much closer to home. Recently, both WBEZ and the Chicago Reader have explored questionable labor practices behind some of our most everyday objects. According to the Reader report, if you want to know who made your Beanie Baby and how much they’re paid to do so, you don’t have to go to Bangladesh or Guatemala or Eastern Europe. Just take a trip to Bolingbrook, Ill.

Still, according to some of the people I spoke with, small-scale and ethically sound manufacturing is on the rise in our area. We also have a government that appears to be willing to help grow it. So to the extent we too can support our local factories, that's likely to make for good economics and good politics.

With a city this big and creative, I can only scratch the surface of consciously made clothing options. So I've decided to focus on independent "high" fashion made on a small scale. Most of these designers and producers reflect a relatively new but growing interest in sustainable, hand-crafted goods, including clothing.

The Designer: Shelby Steiner. I was immediately intrigued by Steiner when I found out the source of one of her collections was inspired by “The Cove,” the devastating eco-documentary about dolphin slaughter. Steiner makes her own custom prints, and she’s used that talent to design collections that reflect on rhinoceros poaching or conflict diamonds.

Steiner says finding truly environmentally friendly fabric can be difficult: The high temperature process involved in its making can be difficult to get around. But she sources as much of her materials from the States as she can, and uses materials like vegan leather or fabric that is free of that nasty plastic, polyvinyl chloride.

Steiner is currently in residence at the Chicago Fashion Incubator, a 2005 collaboration between the city of Chicago and Macy’s to help young designers launch their careers. Steiner says all six of the current residents are trying to create fashion made solely in Chicago or the U.S. Their next big runway show is in October; right now the designers are getting their lookbooks ready and approaching boutiques with their designs.

The Retailer: Dovetail. Over the past 10 months, Julie Ghatan has been quietly but steadily turning her vintage clothing boutique into a showcase for locally made designs (including those by Shelby Steiner). Ghatan had her epiphany about the clothing supply chain while shopping for a "splurge" in a high-end boutique.

"The price point was above $100, but all the labels said 'Made in China,'" Ghatan said. “So what am I paying for?"

Ghatan thinks people are getting "bamboozled" by shelling out for designer labels "when the source materials are the same as Forever 21."

Ghatan started with menswear and all the lines she carries, including Vagrant Nobility and Glass House Shirtmakers, are made locally (see below). More recently she's branched into women's wear. Currently, Sadie Monroe and Claire Henry of Co.lab are showing their first ready-to-wear line there, a summer collection inspired by nomadic voyages.

Ghatan says that though she's in West Town ("not exactly a shopping hub") people are making the trip to see and buy local clothes. She tries to convert people by explaining the labor process behind the higher prices and by hitting them on a "selfish level" — both she and the designers pair their quality clothing offerings with a level of enthusiastic and attentive service that's largely absent from corporate or discount retail.

The Manufacturer: Stock Manufacturing Company. For Tim Tierney, one of the designers behind local menswear line Vagrant Nobility, making clothes locally was actually a selfish option – or at least a cost-saving one. "Early on we were not given a choice,” Tierney said. "We didn’t have the volume or funds to afford manufacturing overseas."

Tierney and his partner found a local option at A. I. Industries, a uniform manufacturing company run by Areill Ives and his family since the 1960s. Tierney, who used to work in the pit at the Chicago Board of Trade, says they quickly realized that instead of just manufacturing their own line, they could also be a resource for other small designers, who were also looking to make stuff locally at a decent price. So they brought in Ives and two other partners to form Stock.

Teirney attributes Stock’s efficiency and economy to its "vertical process" whereby everything it takes to make a garment is done in-house (except manufacturing the fabric itself, which Tierney sources only from developed countries, including a trusted Japanese textile maker). Their operators are paid by the piece, and Tierney says nobody makes less than $10 an hour (but closer to $16 or $17 depending on how fast they work).

But it also has to do with a more radical gambit.

At Stock they combine a largely unchanged process of making clothes on old school machinery (and by hand) with the very modern power of social media. Partnering with local people (designers, bloggers, tastemakers), Stock puts designs up on its website and ask people whether or not they’re interested. If enough people buy in, the object (shirts, ties, you name it) gets made and sold at a price without a retail markup.

So far Tierney says most of the designs have attracted enough buyers to be made. As for the future, he says if things take off, they have plenty of room to grow. Between uniforms and designs (which are still a tiny part of their output), the factor generates about $1 million in revenue annually. But Tierney thinks they have the capacity to expand to about $10 million annually in their current space

The bigger question may be whether Tierney and his partners can sustain their own energy. "Running a factory, managing its production, is brutal," Tierney said, adding that it isn’t all that easy for newcomers like him. "[To do it well] you have to do have done so for a long time, back in the heyday of Chicago production."

So, clearly a shift in our clothes consumption isn’t going to be easy - for anyone involved. And I'm not saying buying a locally made, button-down shirt can make up for all the deaths at the Rana Plaza complex in Bangladesh. What could, short of criminal proceedings, alongside a wholesale overhaul of our global clothing economy?

Plus, buying local or handmade clothing may not even be the best solution. Some think moving to a fully automated manufacturing process might be the way to bring back an affordable, safe and sustainable garment economy in the United States.

But what do you think? How - and where - do you shop for clothes? Do you care about sustainable or organic fashion? Would you give your businesses that make clothes locally, even if the prices are higher? And if you don't, what would make you change your mind?

Alison Cuddy is WBEZ’s Arts and Culture reporter. Follow her @wbezacuddy, on Facebook and on Instagram.

City wrecks an 1890s apartment house

Mon, 13 May 2013 05:00:00 -0500

The Sheridan apartments at 71st Street and Cottage Grove Avenue—across from Oak Woods Cemetery—had been an unofficial landmark of the Greater Grand Crossing community since Benjamin Harrison was president.

But after more than 120 years, the long-vacant dilapidated three-story brick building with prominent bay windows is now being wrecked by the city under court order. Demolition equipment has ripped away the west side of the Sheridan as of today, exposing its interior.

The Sheridan's demolition had been under an automatic 90-day review because the building is listed in the city's Historic Resources Survey as having potential landmark qualities, but the hold was released April 25. A city spokesman had no information on site's future, but here's hoping something gets in the works soon. Too much of the South Side is vanishing under the wrecker's ball, leaving large tracts of undeveloped land in neighborhoods like Greater Grand Crossing returning to prairie. And less than 10 miles from downtown Chicago.

Add the senseless and ongoing violence to the mix and the symbolism of the Sheridan's demolition is jarring. Once the building is razed, its intersection will be marked by a vacant lot, a police station and a cemetery.

Built between 1890 and 1891 on the six-corner intersection of 71st, Cottage Grove and South Chicago avenues, the 16-unit structure is a remnant of the residential building boom in the years surrounding the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition held in nearby Jackson Park.

Here's a photo I took of the Sheridan last year when the building was relatively intact:

The Sheridan has been vacant since the mid-1990s. The city filed suit in 2008 to get the owners--who had attempted to convert the place into condominiums--to repair the property after inspectors found fire damage, rotting wood porches, crumbling brickwork, holes in floors, shifting exterior walls and evidence of squatters in the building. Heating, plumbing and electrical systems were also stripped out, a city building inspector testified. The demolition case made it all the way to the Illinois Appellate Court. The court ruled in favor of the city this year and you can read the file here.

South Shore resident Maurice Rabb has watched the building for years.

"I remember eyeing the building as a kid in the '70s and '80s every time I came up South Chicago Avenue with my mom," Rabb said. "It was an odd, yet handsome building [and] I always wondered whom might have lived there."

Edward Hirsch: Poems for my father(s)

Sat, 11 May 2013 08:00:00 -0500

The poet Edward Hirsch was born in Chicago in 1950, and many of his poems are haunted by little glimpses back into that old city of his youth. In the 2008 poem “Cotton Candy,” for example, Hirsch is again a small boy, walking with his grandfather over one of Chicago’s many bascule bridges:

We walked on the bridge over the Chicago River
for what turned out to be the last time,
and I ate cotton candy, that sugery air,
that sweet blue light spun out of nothingness.
It was just a moment, really, nothing more,
but I remember marveling at the sturdy cables
of the bridge that held us up
and threading my fingers through the long
and slender fingers of my grandfather,
an old man from the Old World
who long ago disappeared into the nether regions.
And I remember that eight-year-old boy
who had tasted the sweetness of air,
which still clings to my mouth
and disappears when I breathe.

There is pain here, but also tenderness, and maybe even a little nostalgia -- a recognizable combination where the subject matter is childhood and family.

As an adult, Hirsch won the Lanvan Younger Poets Award from the Academy of American Poets and the prestigious Rome Prize, as well as fellowships from the MacArthur and Guggenheim foundations (the latter of which he now chairs) and the National Endowment for the Arts.

But Hirsch’s future success was not necessarily forecast by his Chicago childhood. Early on Hirsch was burdened by a biological father, his “first father” as he calls him in one poem, with poor boundaries and cruel attachments. In one poem, Hirsch depicts Harold, nicknamed “Ruby,” talking openly to his young children about his sexual preferences and his frustration with their mother’s “frigidity.” Ruby then left the family when Edward was a still a child, an event Hirsch writes about in “My Father’s Back”:

There's an early memory that I carry around
In my mind
like an old photography in my wallet,
little graying and faded, a picture
That I don't much like
but nonetheless keep,
Fingering it now and then like a sore tooth,
Knowing it there,
not needing to see it anymore....
The sun slants down on the shingled roof.
The wind breathes in the needled pines.
And I am lying in the grass on my third birthday,
Red-faced and watchful
but not squalling yet,
Not yet rashed or hived up
from eating the wrong food
Or touching the wrong plant,
my father's leaving.

And yet, Hirsch was also cared for by his “other father” – the man who raised him. He writes about this father with the great longing of a grown-up son who has just lost his parent in “Early Sunday Morning”:

Give me back my father walking the halls
of Wertheimer Box and Paper Company
with sawdust clinging to his shoes.
Give me back his tape measure and his keys,
his drafting pencil and his order forms;
give me his daydreams on lined paper.
I don’t understand this uncontainable grief.
Whatever you had that never fit,
whatever else you needed, believe me,
my father, who wanted your business,
would squat down at your side
and sketch you a container for it.

Of channeling these feelings and memories into his work Hirsch said, “I became, I’d say, addicted to this idea: That you could take the muck and mire of your own life, you could take the messy things in your own life, the difficult experiences you didn’t understand, and try to turn them into something.”

“And the idea that you could turn them into something that you thought was beautiful? That seemed noble to me. I aspired to that,” Hirsch added.

The poet gave a reading in Chicago in April, and read several poems that touched on these two men in his young life. You can hear his reading in the audio above.

Dynamic Range showcases hidden gems unearthed from Chicago Amplified’s vast archive of public events and appears on weekends. Edward Hirsch spoke at an event presented by the Society of Midland Authors in April of 2013. Click here to hear the event in its entirety.

Robin Amer is a producer on WBEZ’s digital team. Follow her on Twitter @rsamer.

5 ways Big Star shows why Chicago is America's 'best food city'

Fri, 10 May 2013 11:14:00 -0500

This week, the Munchies Awards named Chicago the country’s best food city, citing local hot spots like Black Dog Gelato in Wicker Park, Intelligentsia Coffee in Lakeview and Streeterville’s Bar Toma as some of Chicago’s best food attractions. However, no restaurant better emblematizes Chicago foodie culture like the visionary Big Star, the hub of Wicker Park’s cuisine scene. Big Star is a love letter to Chicago, a testament to our city’s endless capacity for invention. When it comes to food, we are second to none.

There are an endless number of reasons you should be a Big Star regular—or a self-described "fan girl" like myself. Here’s five.

1. Big Star makes great food accessible.

Big Star is located in the heart of Wicker Park, a latte’s throw from the neighborhood’s popular Wormhole Cafe and the shops that line Milwaukee Avenue. They say that business is about location, but dining at Big Star turns geography into a mindset. Although The Girl and the Goat (tucked away in the West Loop) might get the haute cuisine cred, Big Star succeeds by bringing quality to the masses. Nothing is over $10, and it’s the rare establishment that can bring together college students, poor artists and the neighborhood’s influx of young professionals.

Big Star feels like a part of the community. There’s no better testament to that than Big Star’s drive-thru, which caused many to scratch their heads when it opened a few years ago. However, this is exactly what I love about Big Star: They blend the affordability of fast food and the experience of a great night out with friends at the neighborhood’s hottest restaurant. It’s the best of both worlds: mobile cuisine for a society of multi-taskers. It’s also incredibly helpful on days where you don’t feel like battling the crowds for a seat.

2. They think outside the taco.

From a name inspired by California honky-tonks to a website that looks more like a Tumblr page than the home base of Chicago’s finest dining, Big Star is a restaurant bursting with creativity. At Big Star, style meets substance in a way that brings joy and wit to the table. Their menu lists every entree in a different font, giving every dish its own distinct personality.

Although the restaurant is known for its Taco de Panza and Taco Al Pastor, the Walking Taco is a fan favorite. The chefs transform a simple bean and corn chip dish by serving it in a Fritos bag, a take on the Frito Pie that’s charmingly tongue in cheek. The price? A whole $2.

3. Did I mention everything is delicious?

With most restaurants I frequent, I know what dishes I like and which are the lemons of the bunch. But with Big Star, you can’t go wrong. The menu is petite and deceptively simple, allowing the chefs to focus on getting each dish exactly right. Although customers gravitate toward certain options, I’ve never been disappointed with taking a risk on the potato-based Taco de Papas con Rajas or Tostada de Nopales, with a chief ingredient of cactus. I never thought something so prickly could be so tasty. (Watch out, Sonic the Hedgehog. I’m onto you.)

4. The service is bonkers good.

In addition to being universally attractive—always a dining plus—the staff at Big Star are helpful and attentive without being pushy. The last time I visited, I grabbed a spot at the bar, my preferred dining arrangement. (I like to be on a first-name basis with those liquoring me up.) I made the mistake of ordering the Sonoran Hot Dog, a delicious (and giant) take on the Chicago staple that turned out too spicy for my tender taste buds.

After attempting to power through, I crapped out a quarter of the way in, confessing to my server that I couldn’t finish. I wasn’t strong enough. Three glasses of water later, he comped the hot dog and helped me find something more favorable to someone who orders Indian food "negative spicy." As the hot dog is one of his favorites, he suggested I order the jalapeno on the side next time. Duly noted.

Also, for a place as perpetually slammed at Big Star is, the service is so fast it’s practically rocket-fueled. Maybe they all eat the hot dogs before work to give them that jalapeno power.

5. Big Star offers an experience you take with you.

Many establishments pride themselves on being hidden treasures, and if you journey to Violet Hour, that’s part of the shtick. It’s the speakeasy mentality: that greatness should be hard to find. However, Big Star is great because it feels so open. Don’t let the long lines fool you. The interior of Big Star is expansive enough to seat the cast of Downton Abbey, giving guests an ambience that feels warm and inviting. Instead of a dim space where you barely see your food, Big Star lets the light in.

Big Star fosters its convivial ambience with a structure recalling the great diners of the 1950’s, and there’s no better seat in Chicago than Big Star’s patio in the middle of summer. Like a French bistro, the patio blends seamlessly with the sidewalk traffic, and it’s not uncommon to see passersby running into friends and family enjoying a meal. At Big Star, it’s the more, the merrier; if they can’t accommodate more, you can take the experience to go and find a spot at a park.

It’s almost summer. The three months of paradise Chicagoans wait for. Why else would we put up with the winters? There’s no place in the world like Chicago in the summertime, so get out and enjoy it however you can. If your enjoyment includes tacos, even better.

Nico Lang covers LGBTQ issues in Chicago...and sometimes tacos. You can find Nico on Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr.

Thomas Dyja discusses his book "The Third Coast"

Wed, 08 May 2013 14:43:00 -0500

Thomas Dyja discusses his book The Third Coast: When Chicago Built the American Dream. Though today it can seem as if all American culture comes out of New York and Los Angeles, much of what defined the nation as it grew into a superpower was produced in Chicago. Before air travel overtook trains, nearly every coast-to-coast journey included a stop here, and this flow of people and commodities made it America’s central clearinghouse, laboratory and factory.

Recorded live April 18, 2013 at the Harold Washington Library.

'Zero trust' after CPS admits it overstated savings from closing schools

Mon, 06 May 2013 21:12:00 -0500

One of the reasons Chicago says it needs to close 54 schools is to save money. If the school district doesn’t have to fix a leaky roof on one school, it can spend the savings on a library at another school. But the amount Chicago Public Schools says it’s going to save by closing down schools is being challenged by parents, school staff and aldermen across the city. And CPS itself recently admitted to overstating how much it would save from closing schools.

WBEZ’s Linda Lutton has been looking into claims that estimated savings from closing school buildings are inflated. She brings us this story, which was reported with Sarah Karp of Catalyst Chicago Magazine. Read the Catalyst story here.

* * *

In late March, 14,000 kids across Chicago brought home letters saying their schools were being closed, the reasons for shutting each school spelled out…

BURKE: Stuck in the backpack. ‘We’re closing Trumbull and this is why….’

That’s parent Ali Burke. She’s standing outside four-story Trumbull Elementary in Edgewater, a 100-year-old school building that dominates the corner of Foster and Ashland. Parent James Morgan is there too.

MORGAN: So this is what was sent home: Trumbull Elementary. Why CPS recommends to close this school: Enrollment has declined by 33 percent over the last 10 years, and building requires $16.3 million to maintain and update.

LUTTON: And that’s what you looked at and said…?

BURKE: There’s no way. There’s just no way. I mean, I was in shock. I mean, come on. Because $16 million—it’s not accurate! I’m telling you, I’ve been in this school—every day! It doesn’t need $16 million dollars worth of improvements.

Parents are incredulous for a reason: A 2010 assessment found Trumbull needed $4.9 million in repairs and upgrades. The assessment was itemized, three pages. The new $16 million figure is more than three times higher. There's no new assessment, nothing in writing.

And at many of the 54 schools slated for closure, there’s a similar pattern. Parents, teachers, principals—even aldermen—say CPS is inflating what it would cost to repair or update their closing schools. The higher those costs, the more CPS can say it saves by shutting them down and avoiding those repairs.

RILEY: We are looking at pretty much brand new banisters that were put in last year. The roof was put in last year. Freshly painted… all this is new… you can come in my room for a second, look at the smart boards.

At Paderewski Elementary on the West Side, teacher April Riley gives me a tour of the latest building improvements. Five years ago, this school needed $3 million worth of work. The school district did some of that. In March, the school closing letter CPS sent home said nearly $7 million more was needed.

RILEY: So how is the number twice what it was in 2008? I don’t know where they got the number from.

WBEZ and Catalyst have been asking a lot of questions about just that, about why schools were being assigned such high repair costs, about how the district arrived at the $560 million total it said it would save by closing schools. Then, last week, CPS lowered that estimate. Lowered it by $122 million, about 20 percent.

School officials explained: their numbers changed because they had new building assessments, long itemized lists of needed improvements. But it turns out that just six closing schools have received the new assessments. For the rest of the closing schools, CPS rejiggered old assessments, adding in costs for inflation, construction management, and a contingency.

Board president David Vitale said he is not really bothered by shifting estimates of how much the district will save by closing schools.

VITALE: Not so much. Because you know we’re not going to be making a decision until May (22). And I’m sure we will ask what these numbers look like in their final form. But from my standpoint, whether it’s $400 million or $600 million isn’t going to be the key decision variable for whether the school needs to close.

Vitale says he’ll be looking at each school individually. He says he'll consider potential savings from layoffs too. And he’s keeping his eye on the big picture—the district’s belief that consolidating schools will give kids a better education.

One top CPS official said it doesn’t make sense to quibble over what the total cost savings might be. He said it’s “intuitive” that the district will save money by closing schools.

Not everyone sees it that way.

LEAVY: The presumption has been, 'Of course we’ll save money!' They already have a couple dozen buildings that are vacant that they haven’t been able to sell.

Jackie Leavy works with a General Assembly task force that reviews CPS facility decisions. She thinks it’s possible not a penny could be saved from some school closures. There’s still a cost to owning a closed school, Leavy says. There’s a cost to mothball it, to put it on the market, keep it heated and graffiti-free. And if that neighborhood needs another school in the futre?

LEAVY: I mean, keep in mind to build a new elementary school today costs anywhere from $60 to $75 million.

There’s a more fundamental question about cost savings from closing schools. Namely: would CPS ever make all the repairs schools need anyway? And is it fair to say the public “saved” money on improvements the district was never going to get around to? Here’s an example: at one point CPS budgeted in the cost of central air conditioning for all the closing schools. No one thinks that improvement was ever going to happen. Still, it was counted in the savings we’d get from closing schools.

Alderman Ricardo Muñoz says the whole thing reminds him of his college statistics class.

MUNOZ: It’s obvious that the Board of Education here is playing with the numbers to their advantage, saying that they’ll be saving millions and millions and millions of dollars. There’s no real rhyme or reason as to how they’re gonna be saving this much money.

Back at Trumbull, the $16 million that CPS originally told parents it would cost to fix up their school got revised—down to $11 million. That’s according to an internal document CPS provided WBEZ and Catalyst last week. But parents at Trumbull still haven’t been told anything is different.

Ali Burke, the parent there, says she can’t believe CPS put out a school closing list and didn’t double check its numbers. She says Trumbull parents have been asking from the beginning for anything in writing that substantiates what CPS would save by closing their school.

BURKE: For us, it’s just incredibly frustrating. We should see the quote. We’re not talking about redecorating a bathroom, we’re talking about a school. They’re citing a quote, a bid that’s part of the reason they want to close our school—displace 406 students. We should know why we’re being closed.

Burke says she’s sure of one number at this point: her trust in the school district is at zero.

Linda Lutton reports on education for WBEZ. Follow her @WBEZeducation

District estimates of capital need at schools (or of potential capital savings if the school is closed) have shifted. Parents, teachers, principals and elected officials have complained that CPS is inflating repair costs in an effort to enlarge the apparent savings the district would achieve by closing schools.

Closed school	Year last assessed	Capital needs from last assessment	Updated capital needs (based on CPS estimates) Provided to parents at many closing schools on March 21	New capital "cost avoidance" (savings) estimates, May 2
Armstrong	2008	$1,754,000	$6,003,000	$4,265,963
Attucks	2008	$7,621,000	$20,995,000	$17,373,599
Bethune	2006	$3,044,000	$10,526,000	$6,943,674
Bontemps	2012/2013	$3,898,651	$6,639,000	$6,093,701
Buckingham	2008	$1,087,000	$4,308,000	$2,807,745
Burnham	2010	$2,705,000	$8,634,000	$5,626,138
Calhoun	2012/2013	$8,113,601	$13,438,000	$10,308,651
Canter	2010	$3,081,000	$10,812,000	$7,731,838
Courtenay	2008	$1,028,000	$6,380,000	$4,328,883
Dett	2010	$3,305,000	$9,869,000	$8,134,383
Dodge	2009	$931,000	$2,846,000	-$643,069
Drake	2010	$7,960,000	$21,015,000	$16,499,767
Earle	2009	$4,944,000	$16,318,000	$11,524,026
Emmet	2010	$3,977,000	$11,452,000	$7,336,482
Ericson	2009	$1,873,000	$9,579,000	$5,744,363
Fiske	2008	$4,271,000	$11,749,000	$8,227,960
Garvey	2012/2013	$3,327,796	$6,288,000	$3,718,877
Goldblatt	2008	$4,644,000	$15,536,000	$12,308,197
Henson	2012/2013	$4,475,496	$9,279,000	$6,670,546
Jackson, M.	2010	$2,655,000	$8,456,000	$5,319,582
Key	2010	$3,824,000	$13,593,000	$9,067,065
King	2010	$3,128,000	$11,231,000	$7,816,301
Kohn	2010	$8,053,000	$22,722,000	$16,666,895
Lafayette	2010	$7,713,000	$22,076,000	$14,075,796
Leland	2007	$1,494,000	$4,799,000	$3,016,785
Mannierre	2008	$3,936,000	$13,105,000	$10,038,918
Marconi	2010	$1,610,000	$4,143,000	$1,208,841
Mays	2008	$2,916,000	$11,097,000	$8,327,097
Melody	2007	$3,607,000	$10,580,000	$8,892,749
Morgan	2010	$4,711,000	$12,404,000	$10,547,756
Near North	2010	$3,038,000	$12,267,000	$8,154,564
Overton	2009	$5,846,000	$17,396,000	$13,656,255
Owens	2008	$2,814,000	$8,830,000	$7,829,797
Paderewski	2008	$3,078,000	$6,862,000	$3,855,599
Parkman	2008	$4,653,000	$14,686,000	$10,721,712
Peabody	2010	$3,319,000	$11,512,000	$8,159,542
Pershing East	2010	$1,382,000	$12,819,000	$2,549,545
Pope	2012/2013	$3,660,445	$9,220,000	$5,855,495
Ross	2008	$5,588,000	$17,156,000	$13,323,873
Songhai	2008	$5,512,000	$18,041,000	$13,125,745
Stewart	2010	$5,046,000	$16,425,000	$11,263,090
Trumbull	2010	$4,893,000	$16,258,000	$10,988,138
Ward, L.	2008	$3,318,000	$9,801,000	$8,800,621
Wentworth	2010	$5,053,000	$17,583,000	$11,275,670
West Pullman	2012/2013	$8,816,347	$14,919,000	$11,011,397
Woods	2010	$3,894,000	$13,234,000	$9,192,860
Yale	2008	$3,471,000	$8,943,000	$5,847,222
Von Humboldt	2010	$10,748,000	$24,687,000	$18,320,455

Chicago Global Artist: Zimbabwean filmmaker and novelist Tsitsi Dangarembga

Mon, 06 May 2013 16:41:00 -0500

Chicago’s rich and lively arts and culture scene is due no doubt to our deep bench of homegrown talents.

However, our city has also been marked in significant ways by artists from around the world.

Many of their contributions have been grandly public. The Picasso sculpture in Daley Plaza and Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate are notable for their trajectory from daunting sculptural objects to beloved playground-style icons.

More ephemeral projects include Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s 1969 project to wrap the Museum of Contemporary Art, a move which made art history and elevated the reputation of both the artists and the MCA.

But we can’t always see the ways global artists work in Chicago. Some come for very brief spells. And as artists in residence at small cultural organizations or universities, their opportunities to meet with a broader public can be limited, or fly under the radar.

In an effort to give more visibility to their work and to provide opportunities for you to interact with these artists, we’re launching a new global arts initiative on WBEZ’s international affairs show Worldview. Every few weeks I’ll profile an artist who has made her way to Chicago, for a brief or longer spell.

First up: Tsitsi Dangarembga.

Dangarembga came to Chicago about four years ago, to give a talk at Northwestern University. Based on that appearance, along with raves from some of his graduate students (who said her novels changed their lives), Reginald Gibbons invited her back, as the 2013 Spring Writer in Residence at the Center for the Writing Arts.

Dangarembga’s career can be measured by a number of firsts. Her debut novel Nervous Conditions, published when she was only 25, was also the first novel written in English by a black Zimbabwean woman.

When she moved on to filmmaking she also broke ground. Neria (1992), based on her screenplay, became the highest grossing feature in Zimbabwean history. And when Dangarembga made her own film, Everybody’s Child in 1996, she became the first black Zimbabwean woman to direct a full length feature.

None of this came easy. Nobody in Zimbabwe would publish Dangarembga’s novel, apparently because her coming of age tale, about the treatment of women in a newly independent Zimbabwe, wasn’t deemed representative of African women.

And Dangarembga’s style is challenging. Take a look at the trailer for her film Kare Kare Zvako (Mother’s Day). The ‘folk tale musical’ is a fantastical tale with a lively soundtrack of an abusive man who attempts to satisfy his greedy soul by consuming his wife.

Still, Dangarembga continued to make art. Nervous Conditions, which is widely considered one of the greatest African novels, proved to be the opening salvo in what is now a trilogy. The second volume The Book of Not was published in 2006 and Dangarembga’s looking for a publisher for the final volume Chronicle of an Indomitable Daughter.

She’s also continued to develop an international presence. Dangarembga gave a Tedx talk in Harare, in which she used her cat’s behavior as an opportunity for an amusing take on the rather depressing state of Zimbabwe - and human nature more generally. And Kare Kare Zvako screened at Sundance in 2005.

But most importantly, she’s done a little institution building in Harare. After forming her own film company Nyerai, she merged it with Women Filmmaker of Zimbabwe to create a platform for women filmmakers. Since 2002, they’ve hosted the International Images Film Festival for Women.

That Dangarembga has been able to do that with the very limited means and opportunities available in Zimbabwe, is instructive as we ponder the role of artists in Chicago, and wonder if we’re creating the conditions which allow art to flourish.

By the way I’d love to hear your suggestions if you know of any global artists who are new to Chicago and working here on a temporary or permanent basis. Email me acuddy@wbez.org

Alison Cuddy is WBEZ’s Arts and Culture reporter. Follow her @wbezacuddy, on Facebook and on Instagram.