2022 in Review: A Lit Retrospective
What was 2022 like in the world of Chicago, Illinois, and Midwest letters? I’ve asked the Lit section writers to share their favorite reviews and stories of the past year. […]
Review: The First Amendment Lives On Celebrates Hugh Hefner’s Commitment to Free Speech
How do we know if the First Amendment is working? Karen Tumulty, deputy editorial page editor for the Washington Post answers, “If it makes us uncomfortable—and more importantly, if it […]
Review: The Last Stand, Beacons in the Darkness: Hope and Transformation Among America’s Community Newspapers, by Dave Hoekstra
Dave Hoekstra has loved newspapers since his boyhood in west suburban Naperville. He understands the important role newspapers play in the life of a community, and how a newspaper—the best […]
Review: A Soldier in the Struggle: Daring to Struggle, Daring to Win, by Helen Shiller
Helen Shiller—a longtime radical activist and the new alderman in Chicago’s 46th ward—turned 40 on November 24, 1987. Two days later, she went to City Hall for an 11am meeting with […]
Review: Chi Boy: Native Sons and Chicago Reckonings, by Keenan Norris
Chi Boy: Native Sons and Chicago Reckonings by Keenan Norris may be the perfect book for the Halloween season. And not because its stories of racial discrimination and poverty are […]
Review: Gay Old Times, Last Call Chicago, by Rick Karlin and St. Sukie de la Croix
Last Call Chicago is not a narrative book. Rather it is an extensive listing with brief descriptions of 1,001 LGBTQ and LGBTQ-friendly bars and such. But it is also a […]
Interview: Making Fun—Jeffrey Breslow’s 30+ Years of Toy and Game Making
Some jobs don’t sound like work. A perfect example: Jeffrey Breslow’s decades-long career as a designer, developer, and partner at one of the most successful toy- and game-making companies of […]
Review: Henry Gerber, Father of the Gay Rights Movement—An Angel in Sodom, by Jim Elledge
As a title, An Angel in Sodom is evocative and a bit ambiguous. The subtitle of Jim Elledge’s book is much more direct: Henry Gerber and the Birth of the Gay […]
Review: The City in Your Pocket, AIA Guide to Chicago
Chicago is so much more than its buildings…still they’re hard to miss. Ever since Jean Baptiste Point Du Sable built his home on the Chicago River’s banks, structures have risen […]
Review: Natkin: The Moment of Truth Is a Gorgeous Tribute to the Music Photographer’s Four-Decade Career
Paul Natkin learned the moment of truth before he began photographing musicians. Working along with his father, Robert Natkin, a photojournalist and one of the first photographers for the Chicago […]
Interview: Feeling Beatific—Jerry Cimino of the Beat Museum/Beatmobile
Jerry and Estelle Cimino are on the road, spreading the Beat Gospel to the world. As founders of the Beat Museum in San Francisco, they’ve made a mission of keeping […]
Interview: Tim Samuelson and the Intangible of History
When Timothy Samuelson stood in the center of his windowless, crowded studio, surrounded by gorgeous artifacts of the past, I thought he might break into song. “Nothing in here doesn’t […]