Chicago Public Schools officials are proposing a back-to-school plan for the fall that includes in-person and remote learning. But with the COVID-19 crisis far from over, students and parents are mixed about a return to the classroom.
Host: Mary Dixon...
Chicago's entertainment venues have been shut down in the coronavirus pandemic. And now the owners of many small music clubs are banding together to ask Congress for help riding it out.
Host: Mary Dixon
Guest: Katie Tuten
Servers at Chicago restaurants say customers are risking their health every time they walk in the door. Governor J.B. Pritzker says if cases go up much more, indoor dining and bars could be first to go.
Host: Mary Dixon
Reporter: Vivian McCall
Police say they are working on a plan to return the bikes, but lawyers worry protesters could “implicate themselves” by showing up in person.
Host: Mary Dixon
Reporter: Monica Eng
The Chicago History Museum acquired more than five million images and negatives that belonged to the newspaper. In a new exhibit over 80 years of Chicago history is on display, as captured by photographers at the Chicago Sun-Times.
Host: Mary Dixon
R...
As the electric utility Commonwealth Edison pays a $200 million fine, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan has denied wrongdoing. "He has never made a legislative decision with improper motives," a spokeswoman said.
Host: Melba Lara
Reporter: Tony ...
CPS released a plan Friday, days after the Chicago Teachers Union said it wanted remote learning only this fall. Most students will be in schools two days a week and, on the other three days, learn remotely or work on assignments from home.
Host: Melb...
A few years ago, a mutual friend introduced Haley Fitzsimons to the man who would later become her husband. She talked to Kevin for StoryCorps Chicago about meeting in person for the first time.
Producer: Bill Healy
School districts in suburban Chicago are releasing their reopening plans for the fall, and it’s clear things won’t be the same. Plans vary from in-person instruction to going fully remote for the start of the year.
Host: Mary Dixon
Reporter: Susie An
Today marks the 158th birthday of journalist, activist, and civil rights icon Ida B. Wells-Barnett, born into slavery in Missouri on July 16, 1862. Wells, posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize earlier this year for her “outstanding and courageous reporting on the horrific and vicious violence against African Americans during the era of lynching,” left a legacy that endures today alongside the continued fight for racial justice. Nearly a century after her death, her work, rather than echoing the past, holds a mirror to contemporary society. She continues to teach us about the hard work of social change and the long road that still lies ahead. As Eve L. Ewing writes in the foreword: “Generations after the passing of Ida B. Wells, her battle continues. We still fight in defense of Black people’s basic humanity, our right to a fair application of the laws of the land, and our right to not be brutally murdered in public. In light of this continued struggle, maybe we don’t need more moving oratory or another inspirational fable about mythological people. Maybe we just need the whole truth.” Today, in celebration of her birthday, we offer “The Tide of Hatred,” an excerpt from Crusade for […]
The post Read an Excerpt from “Crusade for Justice” by Ida B. Wells, Born on This Day in 1862 appeared first on The Chicago Blog.
Soon after the pandemic hit Illinois, numerous nurses and doctors told WBEZ that a chaotic and stressful work life was harming their emotional well-being. We check back in with a few of them to see how COVID-19 has changed their lives since.
Host: Mel...
The Press was sad to learn of the passing of Chicago author and master musician Cosmas Magaya this week of COVID-19. Below, ethnomusicologist Paul F. Berliner offers a remembrance of his coauthor, longtime collaborator, and friend. On July 10th, 2020, coronavirus took the life of one of the world’s great musicians, mentors, and cultural ambassadors, Zimbabwean mbira master Cosmas Magaya. In North America, Europe, and Africa where he performed, he was universally loved by his following not only for his inspired virtuosity and expressivity, but for his generosity of spirit. A virtuoso from an early age, Cosmas was a key player in the renowned mbira ensemble, Mhuri yekwaRwizi, led by singer Hakurotwi Mude. He performed both for Shona religious ceremonies and for the concert stage. Initially sponsored to the USA by the Kutsinhira Cultural Arts Center (Eugene, OR) in the 1990s, Cosmas subsequently traveled widely and regularly to perform and teach. Countless students and musicians had the privilege of learning from him in university classrooms, at mbira camps and workshops, and in private lessons. His talents were first showcased internationally in the 1970s on the recordings The Soul of Mbira and Shona Mbira Music, and subsequently, on the independently produced […]
The post Remembering Cosmas Magaya (1953–2020) appeared first on The Chicago Blog.
The extended University of Chicago Press family has recently mourned the passing of two former colleagues, Duke Hill and Bob Wallenius. In memoriam, retired Marketing Director Carol Kasper offers her remembrances. One thing I had always appreciated about working at the University of Chicago Press was that my colleagues were like family. I saw them almost every day. We worked and played together. I watched them grow and mature, and I was a little sad but glad for them when they went on to promising new opportunities. Lately, I’ve found myself saying final farewells to more than a few of these folks. Just last week I learned that two of marketing’s extended family members passed on. One was Duke Hill. Duke was a sales rep when I started as a student worker at UCP back in 1981. He always had a smile and a store of supportive words for a newbie like me. He later became Chicago’s sales manager. Duke was old school. He hung out at Jimmie’s. Cigarette in hand, he sat at sales meetings, nodded briskly, and said “piece of cake” when asked if one of our scholarly books could sell 2000 copies. And they did, back in […]
The post Carol Kasper Offers Remembrances of Two Former Colleagues appeared first on The Chicago Blog.
Universities are preparing to welcome students back for on-campus learning but one professor says schools aren’t doing enough to protect the health of the host communities.
Host: Mary Dixon
Guest: Sheldon Jacobson
Threewalls gallery in Humboldt Park awarded $32,000 to seven Chicago artists and one duo to develop projects that address racial justice issues where they live.
Host: Mary Dixon
Reporter: Carrie Shepherd
An estimated 1,200 people are kept behind bars in Illinois every year even though they’ve completed their sentences. With COVID-19 spreading in prisons across the country and the state, the problem has taken on new urgency.
Host: Mary Dixon
Reporter: ...
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfood is ordering travelers coming from 15 states where COVID-19 cases have increased drastically to quarantine for 14 days.
Host: Mary Dixon
Reporter: Adriana Cardona Maguigad
Can We Fill Our Empty Streets?: Brian Ladd on the Role of Streets in City Life
With social distancing protocols in place and many businesses temporarily closed, the current pandemic has drastically changed the public lives of our cities. Eerie videos of cities like New York show a world with fewer cars, cyclists, and pedestrians, while many of us wonder how and when public interactions might resume. Brian Ladd, author of The Streets of Europe, considers not only our current state of lockdown, but also the history and future of city streets, looking at the ways they have changed from pedestrian hubs to high-speed thoroughfares and how we might reconsider their role in city life. In our coronavirus quarantines, many of us miss not only particular people, but also people in general. Pictures of empty streets remind us that we cannot, like the French poet Charles Baudelaire, “melt into the crowd” to “take a bath of multitude” with its “feverish ecstasies.” Will our current feelings of deprivation renew an enthusiasm for the daily throng? Only if we don’t succumb to fear of city life. This pandemic does make it easy to believe that the proximity of other people is primarily a threat. When will it be safe to gather in public again? Never, say pundits who […]
The post Can We Fill Our Empty Streets?: Brian Ladd on the Role of Streets in City Life appeared first on The Chicago Blog.