Max Blaisdell

2 weeks ago | hpherald.com | Max Blaisdell

Two more vendors are claiming they were never paid for their work at the 2023 Hyde Park Summer Fest, bringing the total debt of the popular South Side music festival to more than $1 million. The vendors, a porta-potty rental business and a company that specializes in special events management, alleged that the festival's co-founder, businessman Jonathan Swain, owes them at least $55,000 for services rendered during the final year of the neighborhood's hip-hop festival.

3 weeks ago | hpherald.com | Max Blaisdell

Dozens of organizations and nearly 100 individuals, including legal scholars, civil rights groups and elected police district councilors, have signed an open letter calling on Cook County State's Attorney Eileen O'Neill Burke to end a controversial pilot program that allows police to file felony gun possession charges without prosecutorial oversight.

4 weeks ago | hpherald.com | Max Blaisdell

Latrell Garnett, the owner of Conscious Plates, wasn't planning to become a restaurateur when he began cooking alkaline vegan meals out of his cousin's kitchen in 2018. "There wasn't a vision," he said. "I was homeless. It was just to bring in some money, and people happened to like the food that I was making." Seven years later, his Woodlawn restaurant Conscious Plates, 820 E.

1 month ago | hpherald.com | Max Blaisdell

Marking the February release of Eve L. Ewing's latest book , "Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism," fans gathered on Zoom last Thursday for a conversation between the University of Chicago professor and another writer, Ta-Nehisi Coates. Hosted by the Family Action Network, the event reunited the longtime friends and explored how schools have historically functioned as instruments of racial control.

1 month ago | hpherald.com | Max Blaisdell

“Tonight’s conversation opens up a lot of wounds for me,” said Ald. Jeanette Taylor (20th) at a packed Tuesday evening community meeting in Woodlawn. “Imagine learning to jump rope, your first best friend, your first bully. Imagine a teacher teaching you something you didn’t learn at home. Now imagine not being able to go back.”Speaking at Harris Park Fieldhouse, 6200 S.