Sacred City By Theodore C. Van Alst Jr. University of New Mexico Press The Teddy in Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.’s new short story collection Sacred City has a way […]
David Anthony Witter was born in Miller, Indiana—“across the lagoon from Nelson Algren’s summer home,” as he puts it—but has spent most of his life in Chicago. Growing up in […]
Bessie Smith: A Poet’s Biography of a Blues Legend By Jackie Kay Vintage Books Bessie Smith, Empress of the Blues, liked to spend money on herself and on her friends, […]
There is a street in the South Loop—Dearborn from Polk to Harrison is only one block long—that is one of the most charming blocks in the city. I say the […]
W.E.B. Du Bois’s Data Portraits: Visualizing Black America—The Color Line at the Turn of the Twentieth Century Edited by Whitney Battle-Baptiste and Britt Rusert Princeton Architectural Press Black Lives 1900: […]
A History of the Chicago Portage: The Crossroads That Made Chicago and Helped Make America By Benjamin Sells Northwestern University Press Let me tell you: I’m a huge Chicago history […]
Landscapes of Hope: Nature and the Great Migration in Chicago By Brian McCammack Harvard University Press For African Americans who took part in the Great Migration in the first half […]
Is Wisconsin the furthest state from the Mississippi Delta? Culturally, perhaps. Yet the land of butter burgers and cheese curds played a big role in preserving the blues. While 78 […]
“Lovecraft Chicago: History, Horror & Afrofutures” is the theme of Chicago History Museum’s Halloween celebration on Saturday, October 31. Virtual tours and events will focus on the HBO series, “Lovecraft […]
Geoffrey Baer’s latest “learn about where you live” offering, “Chicago by ‘L’,” premieres Wednesday, March 4, at 7:30pm on WTTW. The 130-minute special is a fantastic voyage through the bloodstream […]
American Warsaw: The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of Polish Chicago by Dominic A. Pacyga (University of Chicago Press, $27) As Dominic Pacyga notes in his fine book about Chicago’s Polonia, […]
Hey,Pitchfork Music Festival’s 2020 edition was postponed! If your looking for info on the rescheduled 2021 edition of the Pitchfork Music Festival, head over here! Festival season is approaching and […]