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3 weeks ago | 
wbez.org | Justin Bull |Maggie Sivit
Note: A previous version of this story ran on Feb. 29, 2024. The Chicago area has one of the most progressive feral cat policies in the nation. That’s in large part because Cook County is one of just a handful of large metropolitan counties in the U.S. where Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) is legal and residents can become recognized caretakers of feral cat colonies.
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2 months ago | 
wbez.org | Erisa Apantaku |Erin Allen |Justin Bull |Micah Yason
Robert Johnson was 16 years old in 1996, when police took him from his grandmother’s brick two-flat on the South Side of Chicago without her permission. Although Johnson never confessed to any crime, police coerced two teenage boys — co-defendants — into implicating him. Despite no physical evidence or eyewitness testimony, Johnson was convicted of murder, home invasion and armed robbery and sentenced to 80 years in prison.
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2 months ago | 
wbez.org | Erin Allen |Justin Bull
Chicago is a city of food as much as it is a city of neighborhoods and cultural communities. Last episode, we talked about how Chicago may not have a concentrated Filipino enclave, in the way neighborhoods like Chinatown and Humboldt Park are cultural hubs. But the community comes together and supports each other nonetheless. And Filipino food in Chicago is definitely a part of that.
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Oct 10, 2024 | 
chicago.suntimes.com | Matt Moore |Mary Norkol |Erin Allen |Justin Bull
In today’s newsletter, we’re heading to West Town to meet tattoo artist Tetiana Zakaliuk in her studio. Six years ago, Zakaliuk emigrated from Ukraine. She’s since fashioned her studio and work into sources of comfort for clients — and herself. Plus, we’ve got reporting on preparations for Sunday’s Chicago Marathon, a new exhibit from Theaster Gates celebrating Ebony and Jet magazines and more community news you need to know below.
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Sep 26, 2024 | 
chicago.suntimes.com | Erin Allen |Justin Bull |Sofie Hernandez-Simeonidis
Chicago artist Theaster Gates got the call around the time the Johnson Publishing Co. closed its Michigan Avenue headquarters in 2011. On the other line was Linda Johnson Rice, the daughter of John and Eunice Johnson, the founders of the historic publisher. “She asked me if I was willing to be the kind of caretaker of the things within that building, [including] the photographs, so the library, the furniture.
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Sep 25, 2024 | 
wbez.org | Erin Allen |Justin Bull
Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary art has billed itself as a space where new ideas are shown and tested since its inception in 1967. “What many people don't know is we also have a 300-seat theater in the basement of the museum,” said Laura Paige Kyber, the performance curator at the MCA. The museum will put that theater to use this weekend with the return of its third annual “Chicago Performs.” “Chicago Performs is a mini-festival,” Kyber said.
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Sep 23, 2024 | 
wbez.org | Erin Allen |Justin Bull
Black women are “superlative participators in American democracy,” according to Northwestern professor Sally Nuamah, yet they remain underrepresented in national politics. “Post-Reconstruction, we've had two elected Black women senators,” Nuamah said. “And at the gubernatorial level, we've had no Black women governors. And then we obviously have had no Black women presidents.
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Sep 23, 2024 | 
wbez.org | Mike Davis |Emmanuel Camarillo |Erin Allen |Justin Bull
It was another Friday night for Pulse Theatre Company, and the cast of the three-hour play Beneath the Willow Tree was prepared to walk onstage at The Den Theatre in Wicker Park. Only something was off: Two understudies were swapping in for lead actors out with COVID. Missing, too, was the show’s director, and the company’s artistic director, Aaron Reese Boseman. He also had COVID.
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Sep 20, 2024 | 
wbez.org | Erin Allen |Justin Bull |Nudia Hernandez
Vocalo and WBEZ are hosting a party tonight in Millennium Park and, obviously, we hope you check it out. “This concert is kinda more than a concert,” said Vocalo’s Nudia Hernandez, who’s co-hosting the event. “I feel like it is a Chicago homecoming for a lot of artists.”The lineup features DJ Lady D, KAINA, Marquis Hill, Pivot Gang and some surprise special guests. Co-hosting alongside Hernandez is Stephen Bekoe, the founder of iLLANOiZE Radio, a platform that showcases Chicago’s creative talent.
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Sep 19, 2024 | 
wbez.org | Erin Allen |Justin Bull |Sofie Hernandez-Simeonidis |Jake Wittich
Chicago artist Theaster Gates got the call around the time the Johnson Publishing Company closed its Michigan Avenue headquarters in 2011. On the other line was Linda Johnson Rice, the daughter of John and Eunice Johnson, the founders of the historic publisher. “She asked me if I was willing to be the kind of caretaker of the things within that building, excluding the photographs, so the library, the furniture.
