The Chicago Comic: Present and Future
Dressed in a green floral skirt, with a long gray sweater, and no taller than 4’11, Katie McVay, 25, walks into the Gallery Cabaret bar in Bucktown that’s as big as a garage. McVay waves to Johnny the bartender who looks like a cowboy from head-to-toe in his blue denim jeans and Stetson hat. McVay […]
Mobile Tailoring and 3-D Body Scans, the Future of Men’s Fashion
From the slim wool blazers that fit the Mad Men gentlemen like a glove, to the hem of Nate Reuss’ trousers being so high, it looks as though he’s always in immediate danger of a flash flood. It’s obvious that men are going to great lengths to express their style through the tailoring of their […]
Chicago’s Seapunked Digital Sea: Tales of Contemporary Chicago Nightlifers
Every Wednesday night the Chicago Beauty Bar hosts a party called Mainframe that flies under the banner of an internet movement known as seapunk. If one were to walk by the venue, located a stone’s throw from the city’s Blue Line Chicago stop, he or she might encounter a rogue group of oddly familiar cigarette […]
Struggle for safety: EPA commits to resolving Pilsen pollution
After being stonewalled by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railway company, the EPA will be seeking a warrant from the courts to clean up toxic land on the railway’s property that tested for lead content as high as 23,000 parts per million, the highest level of lead contamination seen in Pilsen yet and more than […]
Chicago street artist’s struggle continues
On May 7th, at 11 a.m. in front of Macy’s on State St., artists and friends will hand out postcards commemorating the late street artist activist, Chris Drew. This follows a memorial for Drew, who died a year ago, that was held on April 28, and is prior to the release of a documentary about […]
For Refugees, Freedom Isn’t Free and Isn’t Easy
A fragile sense of security often robs Zuhair Sulaiman of the luxury of good night’s sleep. “The fear is embedded inside,” he said in Arabic at a meeting at Arab American Family Services in Bridgeview. Along with more than 700,000 Palestinian Arabs, who abandoned their homes, his family fled to Iraq when Israel was created […]
Haute Tech Brings Science Fiction into Fashion
Is there any room for fashion in technology and can technology be fashionable? Thanks to movies such as “Revenge of the Nerds,” a certain stigma is attached to the word technology that instantly evokes an image of flooded trousers, pocket protectors and intense glasses frames. The current “hipster” trend does a wonderful job recreating Robert […]
Ticket Prices Make It Hard For Fans to See Favorite Artists
The most popular band in the United States is coming to Chicago. The concert is supposed to be the best one of the year and everyone is saving up the money to go. Tickets go on sale in just two minutes and people across Chicago are sitting in front of their computers, anxiously waiting to […]
Tiger Fighting Dragons Games: A Tale of Two Cities
Making a video game is a lot like playing one. There are rules to follow, screw-ups to make, objectives to meet, and in order to finish these objectives, communication is necessary. That last part was especially true for five college students, who lived in two cities yet enrolled in the same game design course. They […]
Abolishing Anxiety and Achieving Alleviation: How to Overcome College Worries
There are only a couple of minutes until the end of the testing period. Despite only having about three hours of sleep, Edward Cabrera’s stomach is jittery and his hands are shaky. There’s a lump in his throat because of the one question he does not quite understand. It could be the question preventing him […]
Chicago Bosnian Community Says ‘No Peace Without Justice’
Samir Biscevic doesn’t sign his paintings, because they’re never finished. Nor does he seemed finished with his paintings that keep him locked into his home country, Bosnia, and the atrocities that spilled much blood and left deep scars. “My paintings are not beautiful. There is no beauty here,” Biscevic said as he surveyed about 70 […]
Air Force Academy High School Sets High Bars For Students
With hands clasped behind them, the cadets line up in formation. On the gym floor of Air Force Academy High School, students report to the cadet chief master sergeant, and he reports to the cadet commanding officer. They turn as a squadron to face the American flag and say the pledge of allegiance. In the […]
Walmart Warehouse Workers Protest Poor Working Conditions
A regional warehouse rights movement made its way to Chicago on Friday when a protest group convened at a Walmart in the South Loop to demonstrate against poor working conditions. Members of the Warehouse Workers for Justice gathered in front of the Walmart Neighborhood Market, 570 W. Monroe St., to deliver a 100,000 signature petition […]
Mexican Dance Ensemble Mesmerizes Chicago
Bold red lipstick along with the colorful big dress skirts of whites, reds, greens, and yellows is the first thing that captures the audience. The skirts seem to flow on and on, and the audience’s eyes are glued to the patterns of the skirts when they’re twirled back and forth. But if that wasn’t enough […]
People with Disabilities Fighting Budget Cuts, Loss of Independence
Several years ago, Henry Williams was sitting in wheelchair under a tree outside of a nursing home. While sitting there, a woman who helps people with disabilities move out of nursing homes called his phone. Williams followed up on the phone call and eventually found his own place to live in the community. “I would […]
The Greek Crisis Hits Chicago
Although Athens is nearly 5,500 miles away, the effects of the economic crisis in Greece reach all the way to Chicago in a variety of forms. Family, friends, dual citizenship and financial interests keep the eyes and ears of American Greeks turned anxiously east. When asked if she had family or friends in Greece, Kyriaki Rotta, […]
ChicagoTalks Answers: What is NATO?
What is NATO? NATO was formed in the wake of World War II as a defensive alliance against the then-superpower Soviet Union. It was a “child of the Cold War,” according Richard Longworth, a senior fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, who spoke to students at Columbia College Chicago. A widely referenced portion of the […]
Teen Homelessness in Humboldt Park
Many teens walk through the city with the brightest of smiles on their faces, but with uncertainty just beneath the surface. Some young adults in Chicago don’t know where the next meal is coming from, consider survival a priority, and finding a place to rest becomes a responsibility. Inconsistency is daily living. In the Humboldt […]