Events, Interviews, Lit, Nonfiction

Dialogs: 2020 CHF Event—Discussing MLK and Malcolm X with Dr. Peniel E. Joseph

Reported by Carr Harkrader “Whoever heard of a revolution that came out singing, and not swinging,” Malcolm X asked about the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.’s nonviolent civil rights strategy. […]

Guest Author /
Lit, Nonfiction

Review: All-American Party Girl: “Dirty Helen” Autobiography Is Steamy Biopic Fodder

Good Time Party Girl: The Notorious Life of Dirty Helen Cromwell, 1886–1969 Helen Cromwell & Robert Dougherty Originally published in 1966, Good Time Party Girl is the life story of […]

Terry Galvan /
Lit, Nonfiction, Reviews, Uncategorized

Review: A Long-Ago Blaze That Echoes the Pandemic, Chicago’s Great Fire, by Carl Smith

Chicago’s Great Fire: The Destruction and Resurrection of an Iconic American City by Carl Smith Atlantic Monthly Press Devastation is devastation, whether brought about by fire or pandemic. The Great […]

Patrick T. Reardon /
Lit, Reviews

Book Review: From Black Boy Lane to Anson Place, The Address Book, by Deirdre Mask

The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth and Power by Deirdre Mask St. Martin’s Press In her introduction to The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal […]

Patrick T. Reardon /
Art & Museums, Essays, Lit, Sculpture

Kill Yr Idols—A Chicago History of Statue Desecration, Part 1

Note: As a pleasant side effect of the BLM protests, several statues of slavers, traitors, and genocidal invaders have been defaced, toppled, or removed from public view worldwide. Thus far, […]

Dan Kelly /
Comics and Graphic Novels, Lit, Reviews

Book Review: Banned Book Club—By Kim Hyun Sook, et alia

Banned Book Club By Kim Hyun Sook, Ko Hyun-Ju, and Ryan Estrada Iron Circus Comics Alongside guns, flags, and cats, few things spark people’s passions more than books. And why […]

Dan Kelly /
Interviews, Lit

More Than a Golf Course—Author Susan L. Kelsey on Billy Caldwell/Chief Sauganash

Like many Chicagoans, Susan Kelsey was likely familiar with Caldwell Woods and the Billy Caldwell Golf Course on the northwest side, but her first introduction to the historical figure behind […]

Dan Kelly /
Chicago history, Lit

Book Review: American Warsaw—The Story of Poles in Chicago

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, […]

June Sawyers /
Beyond, Chicago history, Lit, Reviews

Book Review: Chicago’s History and Her Story, The World of Juliette Kinzie: Chicago before the Fire, by Ann Durkin Keating

Picture of the author

The World of Juliette Kinzie: Chicago before the Fire Ann Durkin Keating University of Chicago Press, 280 pages, $27.50 When 27-year-old Juliette Kinzie settled with her husband John, the local […]

Patrick T. Reardon /
Lit, Reviews

Book Review—Binga: The Rise and Fall of Chicago’s First Black Banker

Picture of the author

Binga: The Rise and Fall of Chicago’s First Black Banker By Don Hayner Northwestern University Press, 312 pages, $24.95 Reviewed by Patrick T. Reardon A hallmark of the black nationalism […]

Guest Author /
Lit, Reviews, Uncategorized

Book Review—In the Neighborhood of…—The Chicago Neighborhood Guidebook

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The Chicago Neighborhood Guidebook Edited by Martha Bayne Belt Publishing Chicago’s neighborhoods are one of its most distinct yet indefinable elements. Despite what those ubiquitous neighborhood maps in every other […]

Dan Kelly /
Art & Museums, Lit, Museum, Museums, Reviews

Review: The Three Escapes of Hannah Arendt by Ken Krimstein

The Three Escapes of Hannah Arendt: A Tyranny of Truth By Ken Krimstein Bloomsbury Publishing Am I intelligent enough to critique the life’s work of philosopher and political theorist Hannah […]

Dan Kelly /