Today Niala talks with Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson about the Great Migration. We explore the role of the library in light of the Waukegan Public Library’s National Medal for Museum and Library Service award. Then a look at Chicago’s theater and waterfront scenes.

Afternoon Shift: Isabel Wilkerson, libraries and Chicago theater

Today Niala talks with Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson about the Great Migration. We explore the role of the library in light of the Waukegan Public Library’s National Medal for Museum and Library Service award. Then we talk Chicago’s theater and waterfront scenes.

Storified by · Mon, May 13 2013 10:19:33

Isabel Wilkerson: Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson joins us to talk about The Warmth of Other Suns; the One Book, One Chicago selection about the Great Migration. We pose the question: if your family came here during the Great Migration, do you consider yourself immigrants?

Isabel WilkersonFrom World War I to the 1970s, some six million black Americans fled the American South for an uncertain existence in the urban North and…

Great MigrationDid You Know? Context and Causes of the Great Migration After the post-Civil War Reconstruction period ended in 1876, white supremacy was…

Latest One Book, One Chicago: ‘The Warmth Of Other Suns’The latest iteration of the Chicago Public Library’s One Book, One Chicago, which features discussions, performances, lectures, and other…

Libraries: The Waukegan Public Library won this year’s National Medal for Museum and Library Service award for a program that uses volunteers both to promote the library to Hispanic residents and ask what services people need. Founded in January 2012, the library has started conversational English classes and pre-GED programs—far beyond the traditional library task of lending books and offering a quiet space to read. Waukegan Library Executive Director Richard Lee joins our conversation with Patricia Saldana Natke, founding partner of UrbanWorks, a Chicago architecture firm that has been leading design discussions on how the library of the near future will function. What do you want your library to be? 

Waukegan Public Library gets national award at White House ceremonyAt a White House ceremony Wednesday, first lady Michelle Obama honored the Waukegan Public Library for setting goals more ambitious than …

Even in the Digital Age, Many Library Patrons Say Traditional Uses Are ImportantAbout seven-in-ten of those who used a library over a 12 month period did so to borrow print books or to browse the shelves. The internet…

What’s a Library?GET UPDATES FROM Michael Rosenblum Library under construction — along with a 50 story hotel and condo… I live across the street from …

Social Media: Libraries Are Posting, but Is Anyone Listening?This is the fourth in a series of articles in which Nancy Dowd will examine the results of an exclusive survey of library professionals f…

Chicago River: The Chicago River is now the focus of major attention. Mayor Emanuel has made physical improvements along the river’s Main Branch a priority in his first term. And the river has been the subject of several studies, including one in 2011 that has called for undoing the engineering that famously reversed the river more than a century ago. A new study from the organization Friends of the Chicago River and the conservancy group Openlands indicates a cleaner and improved river would be a multi-billion economic engine for the region. What’s the Chicago River’s future? What should it be and what stands in the way of needed progress?

Report: Drop money in the river, watch it float backThe glitzy towers of downtown Chicago are filled with offices that boast impressive financial returns, but their biggest cash flow may be…

Environmental Groups Tout Financial Benefits Of Cleaning Up, Improving Chicago River”Water quality makes a tremendous difference in how we can interact with the river, but also provides us jobs; it provides us business re…

The Chicago River Is Now Running in the Opposite DirectionHeavy rain in Chicago has maxed out storm water storage facilities and caused officials to ” re-reverse” the Chicago River into Lake Mich…

Robert Sickinger: What can off-loop theater learn from its past? With the death of Robert Sickinger, the unofficial founder of off-loop theater, we look at what was built and how it has sustained over the years. 

Robert Sickinger dies, brought grassroots theater to ChicagoRobert Sickinger came to Chicago in 1963 as director of Hull House theater on Chicago’s north side. But in six short years, he gave…

Sorry to hear about Robert Sickinger passing, but grateful for all he contributed to Chicago theater: http://trib.in/11WcszTGoodman Theatre

Remembering Robert Sickinger, a pioneer of off-Loop theaterAnita Evans/courtesy Columbia College Chicago I’ve been trying to figure out what to say about former Chicago theater director Robert Sic…

Watch & Listen

Robert SickingerBob Sickinger was one of the greatest directors I’ve ever known. He worked in the Hull House settlement house, at Broadway and Belmont in…