WBEZ | Natalie Moore

Future of Chicago Housing Authority in flux after resignation of CEO Lewis Jordan

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 13:58:00 -0500

The Chicago Housing Authority is looking for new leadership. On Tuesday, CEO Lewis Jordan stepped down amid scrutiny over the way he used a city credit card. Jordan wrote to CHA board Chairman Jim Reynolds, saying the issue was becoming a "impediment" to his job performance. Jordan also says his spending is consistent with CHA and federal housing policy.

WBEZ’s South Side bureau reporter Natalie Moore joined Eight Forty-Eight to discuss the present and future of the CHA.

Music Button: The Poets of Rhythm, "The Jaunt", from the CD Discern/Define, (Quannum Projects)

May headlines in review: Mayor Rahm Emanuel arrives and Oprah departs

Tue, 31 May 2011 13:49:00 -0500

The summer season may not yet be official, but Memorial Day Weekend had plenty of folks arriving and departing. That was the theme throughout the month of May. Chicago's new Mayor Rahm Emanuel arrived at City Hall and Oprah departed, leaving a huge vacancy in Chicago’s field of media queens. Never mind all the extra comings and goings at the Dirksen Federal Building, with two major trials underway.

To sort out all of the news that was, Eight Forty-Eight was joined by a panel of esteemed journalists who spend their days in and out of the office.

Kristen McQueary is state government reporter for WBEZ and the Chicago News Cooperative, Natalie Moore is WBEZ’s South Side bureau reporter and Ammad Omar is WBEZ's News Desk Editor.

Music Button: Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra, "Brazilian Glam Slam", from the CD Miles of Styles, (Ubiquity)

Students flaunt their flair for fashion at annual show

Fri, 06 May 2011 13:39:00 -0500

On Thursday, fashionistas of all stripes made their way to Millennium Park. They were there for The Walk, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s annual fashion show. It was the largest show in The Walk’s 77-year history. Spectators saw designs from junior, sophomore and senior students in the school’s fashion program and got a glimpse of the latest in Chicago’s fashion aesthetic.

Host Alison Cuddy visited the show with WBEZ’s Natalie Moore and provided a review.

Adulture Music Button: Philly Cream, "Cowboys to Girls" (Adulture edit)

Exploring the historic connection between Chicago and Libya

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 13:50:00 -0500

On April 5, 1986, Libyan agents bombed a Berlin disco frequented by U.S. soldiers. Two Americans were killed and more than 50 servicemen were injured. Several days later President Ronald Reagan ordered a series of airstrikes on Libya.

The U.S. has a long and complex history with Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi. But what's not well known is the connection between Chicago and Libya.

WBEZ’s Natalie Moore wrote about Chicago’s connection to Libya in her new book, The Almighty Black P. Stone Nation: The Rise, Fall, and Resurgence of An American Gang. She joined Eight Forty-Eight to talk about it.

On April 14, Moore and co-author Lance Williams will discuss the book at Roosevelt University Library.

A Chicago gang history snapshot

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 21:00:00 -0500

When WBEZ’s South Side bureau reporter Natalie Moore tried to find a good book about the history of black street gangs in Chicago she was shocked to find that none existed. So like the great entrepreneurial journalist that she is, she decided to write her own.

Moore teamed up with academic Lance Williams to research one particular South Side gang, and the resulting book is the recently published The Almighty Black P Stone Nation: The Rise, Fall, and Resurgence of an American Gang.

Moore and Williams’ examine Woodlawn's Blackstone Rangers and the much broader cultural and political forces of the era, both local and national: LBJ’s War on Poverty, the Civil Rights movement, and the Great Migration, to name but a few.

The book also unearths and examines several episodes in Chicago history that might otherwise be lost to the dustbin of history.

One meaty example Moore and Williams explored at a recent speaking event was a federal prosecution that led to the conviction and imprisonment of Blackstone Rangers co-founder, Jeff Fort.

In 1967 the U.S. federal government gave a $1 million job training grant to the Woodlawn Organization, a South Side non-profit cozy with the Rangers. Fort and other Rangers who helped organize the job training were accused of embezzling the money for their own purposes, and were prosecuted and convicted. The fund’s administrators, like the late Bishop Aurthur Brazier, were never accused of crimes.

In this audio excerpt taken from their recent talk, Williams and Moore discuss the incident and talk about whether justice was ever truly served.

Dynamic Range showcases hidden gems unearthed from Chicago Amplified’s vast archive of public events and appears on weekends. Natalie Moore and Lance Williams spoke to an audience assembled by the Society of Midland Authors in February. Click here to hear the event in its entirety, and click here to subscribe to the Dynamic Range podcast.

WBEZ's bureau reporters discuss the Aldermanic runoff elections

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 13:44:00 -0500

Chicago’s runoff election is right around the corner –Tuesday, April 5, to be exact. Voters in 14 wards will decide who they want to represent them on City Council. So, it seemed like a good time to get a ground-eye’s view of the races.

Joining host Alison Cuddy from WBEZ's West Side bureau studio in Chicago’s Humboldt Park were a few of the reporters who are all over these races: Chip Mitchell from the bureau in Humboldt Park, Odette Yousef from WBEZ's North Side bureau on Devon Ave. and Natalie Moore who covers the South Side as WBEZ's bureau reporter in Englewood. WBEZ's political reporter Sam Hudzik also joined the team for this conversation.

Music Button: Latin Soul Syndicate, "Mi Dia Bonito", from the CD Latin Travels 2, (Six Degrees)

The Weekly Guide: Natalie Moore's picks

Fri, 04 Mar 2011 14:06:00 -0600

Most of Eight Forty-Eight's guests for The Weekly Guide are pretty well-rounded. When Natalie Moore isn’t reporting on Chicago’s South Side, she’s writing books, signing books, or sometimes teaching or mentoring.

In other words, her work card is full! So to figure out how she manages to squeeze a little fun into all that work, Eight Forty-Eight Alison Cuddy talked with Moore to share her plans for the weekend.

Natalie Moore's latest book is The Almighty Black P Stone Nation: The Rise, Fall, and Resurgence of an American Gang.

Natalie's list for the weekend:

Friday, March 4: "The Shaping of Black America"

Saturday, March 5::

Samuel J. and K at Steppenwolf Theatre Company

Bilal at The Shrine

Sunday, March 6:
Maria’s Packaged Goods and Community Bar

WBEZ's Natalie Moore offers her take on Libya

Wed, 23 Feb 2011 17:45:00 -0600

Very few Western media outlets have been able to enter Libya since the protests erupted last week. Today, the country’s deputy foreign minister said that journalists who enter the country illegally will be considered outlaws and arrested if they don’t surrender to authorities. WBEZ’s Natalie Moore reported from Libya this summer as a fellow for Columbia College-Chicago’s Institute for the Study of Women and Gender in the Arts and Media on the country’s nascent women’s movement. Natalie offers her perspective on the protests and Colonel Muammar Qaddafi’s violent crackdown.

New book profiles the Black P. Stones gang in Chicago

Wed, 09 Feb 2011 15:01:00 -0600

In the 1960s the Blackstone Rangers—later known as the Almighty Black P Stone Nation—dominated Chicago’s South Side. The street gang was something of a paradox - a mix of both legal and illegal activity. They managed to attract federal funding for social work but they also engaged in shakedowns and other acts of violence. These two sides of the gang would eventually come into conflict and send Black Stone leader Jeff Fort to his first of many prison stays. Fort remains in prison today but the legend and legacy of his gang continue.

The new book The Almighty Black P Stone Nation: The Rise, Fall and Resurgence of an American Gang is an effort to delve into that legacy. Eight Forty-Eight's Alison Cuddy sat down with its co-authors, gang expert Lance Williams and WBEZ's South Side reporter Natalie Moore.

Williams and Moore will be at 57th Street Books in Hyde ParkThursday evening for a book signing.

Music Button: Barrett Martin, "The City Slithers", from the CD The Painted Desert, (Fast Horse Recordings)

Mayor Monday: WBEZ's bureau reporters break down some of Chicago's aldermanic races

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 14:41:00 -0600

On this week's Mayor Monday, the show's tearing its eyes off the big prize to take a look at the men and women of Chicago’s city council. Mayor Daley may have a lock on colorful turns of phrase. But the council has its own cast of characters: The 50 city council members of Chicago meet once a month and vote on everything from municipal money matters to zoning issues. They also approve some of the Mayor’s major appointees. Under Daley, some say the council has been pretty much a big old rubber stamp of approval. But this spring could bring the biggest city council turnover in decades.

To find out what that means for city politics, "Eight Forty-Eight" gathered WBEZ's bureau reporters to discuss the races they’re following in and around their communities: Chip Mitchell reports out of the West Side bureau, Natalie Moore heads up the South Side bureau in Englewood and Odette Yousef keeps an eye on the North Side in WBEZ's Devon Ave. location.

A correction has been made to this story:

One of our guests mistakenly referred to a 2007 municipal runoff in the 46th Ward race in Chicago. Actually, the current alderman, Helen Shiller garnered 53 percent of the vote, enough to make a runoff for the seat unnecessary.

Music Button: Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra, "Dirty Birdy", from the CD Music and Rhythm, (Ubiquity)