In addition to the print publication, AREA occasionally develops edited collections of content (essays, interviews, studies, report-backs or visual/media contributions) around a specific topic or theme. These features may be connected to a print issue or may be exclusive to the web.
By — Proximal of the body or the point of attachment. from the Latin proximus – ‘nearest’ + al. 2. v. (trans.) to make someone or something remote or far off in position or nature, to distance one self. from the Latin distare – dis- ‘apart’ + stare ‘stand.’ Distance adj. situated nearer to the center of [...]
By — An earlier version of this essay was written in May 2011 for a “Pedagogic Notebook” edited by Sitesize (Spain), but was revised in March 2012 for publication in areachicago.org. “Healthy social movements need spaces for learning and experimentation, healthy democracies need wise citizens to make wise decisions about resources and politics, and healthy people need [...]
By — The 1st Latin American Guitar Festival Chicago took place in December 2011 in Pilsen. It offered recitals, lectures, master classes and workshops for people interested in Latin American music. The idea to create a Latin American guitar festival is born out of the commitment to inspire art and culture in the Latino immigrant community and [...]
By — From Pilsen, Chicago to Juchitán, Mexico, we talk about how Calles y Sueños (CYS) serves as a crossroads for cultural hopscotch, but also as an intersection for geography, language, art, space and economics.
By — The Neighborhood Writing Alliance (NWA) provokes dialogue, builds community, and promotes change by creating opportunities for adults in Chicago’s underserved neighborhoods to write, publish, and perform works about their lives. Neighborhood adults come together each week in our free, ongoing workshops to dialogue and write about their personal histories, everyday experiences, and reflections on their [...]
By — The sun peaks through the woodland canopy as I gaze upward and see a red-tailed hawk soaring just above the trees. As I walk through the woods the lack of car alarms and police sirens make it almost seem quiet except for the occasional falling dead tree branch and the cacophony of woodland birds and [...]
By — Amidst the newly constructed condos of the West Loop, the requisite Starbucks, and high end restaurants serving haute cuisine, is the Randolph and Des Plaines intersection. Here, on a damp evening on 4 May 1886 at around 10:30 pm, a bomb exploded, thrown by an unidentified hand. This is the site of Haymarket. The bombing, [...]
By — Christopher Drew fought two battles at the end of his life. One, a very public and ultimately victorious First Amendment struggle with the State of Illinois. The other a private battle with cancer, known only to those closest to him. For 25 years Chris ran the Uptown Multi-Cultural Art Center and offered free screen printing [...]
By — I teach art at Bowen High School, the Alma Mater of white Chicago police commander Jon Burge, whose officers tortured false confessions out of over 100 African-American men over a span of 25 years. Bowen is now a predominantly African-American high school on the southeast side, near Burge’s infamous Area Two station. Our Spring 2010 project [...]
By — Recently, Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, wife of Prince William, made her first public appearance and wrote her own speech for the occasion. In England, it was, of course, a major event. It was also a major event for the parents and relatives of children suffering from terminal illnesses. The occasion was the opening of [...]
By — Home The word conjures up images of chicken soup and stale bread, joyous family life and crippling alienation, boredom and invention, brotherly love and sibling rivalry… . Perennial and immanent, local and metaphysical, nostalgic and future-oriented, the images and memories of home are a conglomerate of emotion-laden things, spaces, visions, and the people and gods [...]
By — This is a story about a collective learning experiment at Mess Hall in Roger’s Park, Chicago. But it has to start with a question.
By — Against Equality, a radical queer editorial collective, engages with a rich, dense queer history where queers and many allies fought for justice and against war, the confines of gender norms and marriage, and the prison industrial complex.
By — I first met Angela Rivers in May of 2009. A group of us at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign had gotten a small grant to bring Angela from Chicago to campus as an artist-in-residence after Sam Smith, the engagement director at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, had met Angela in Fall 2008 [...]
By — 3rd Rail, its members remaining anonymous, decided the CHAnge campaign would be the target of their intervention, which they called CHAos: a counter-narrative about what had happened to public housing in Chicago through the lens of five power-brokers who had in some way benefited from the changes: Mayor Daley, Terry Peterson, Dan McLean, Alphonso Jackson, and Daniel Levin of the Habitat Company. After seven years and 13 issues of AREA, the organizers of the CHAos project thought it would be worthwhile to reflect on this ambitious project by asking trusted allies familiar with the work to pose challenging questions related to the legacies of CHAos and CHAnge.
By — The full issue is scheduled to appear in print in March 2013. Please see "Web Features" drop-down menu for a sampling of some of the contributions, edited together as a special web preview. Issue 13 explores the contested ground where we live and have lived: the history and current state of “housing” in Chicago and the political, personal, and imaginative meanings that accompany these physical spaces and the struggles for them. This sampling of pieces to appear in the print issue reflect the issue’s broad themes, including stories and histories of housing in Chicago; the CHA’s Plan for Transformation and its ongoing aftermath; current struggles in Chicago around foreclosure and eviction, detention, and uneven development; housing alternatives and the labor of care; and the effects of gentrification in the Pilsen neighborhood. Issue 13 explores the contested ground where we live and have lived: the history and current state of “housing” in Chicago and the political, personal, and imaginative meanings that accompany these physical spaces and the struggles for them. This sampling of pieces to appear in the print issue reflect the issue’s broad themes, including stories and histories of housing in Chicago; the CHA’s Plan for Transformation and its ongoing aftermath; current struggles in Chicago around foreclosure and eviction, detention, and uneven development; housing alternatives and the labor of care; and the effects of gentrification in the Pilsen neighborhood.
By — Opening Reception: Friday, February 15 from 6 to 9 p.m. at Art In These Times, 2040 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago (we regret this venue is not wheelchair accessible) Encampments, Occupations and Tent Cities, curated by Jayne Hileman as part of AREA #13, examines historic actions such as the Fayette County Tent City, the occupations of Alcatraz and the Mad Houser hut cities. Espacios Ocupados: Defining 99%, an exhibit curated by Jesus Macarina-Avilaby for Instituto de Nuestro Cultura, features work from contemporary Caribbean, Latin American and Latino/a artists that explores shifting cultural identities in a post-occupy world. Artists/projects: Alfonso Fernández Acevedo, Celia Alvarez-Munoz, Eric J. Garcia, Jose Guerrero, Pedro Lasch, MadHousers, Atlanta and Chicago, Occupied Chicago Tribune, Sarah Jane Rhee, Love + Struggle Photos, Nyki Salinas Duda & Sydney Stoudmire, and more…
By — Housing Matters: Gentrification, Detention and the Foreclosure Crisis in Chicago Saturday, March 9 2013 – 4:30 PM-6:30 PM DePaul Art Museum, 935 W Fullerton Ave Join us for a discussion about efforts to re-think and re-shape Chicago. Will also have a sneak peek at AREA Issue #13 “Home Fronts, Housing Struggles”, coming out in early [...]
By — Please join us to launch AREA Chicago Issue #13, Thursday, April 4 at the Jane Addams Hull House Museum, 800 S Halsted St., Chicago *5-6 PM Museum open hours and special tours of “Unfinished Business: Home Economics in the 21st Century” *6-7:30 PM Issue #13 readings and celebration AREA Issue #13: Home Fronts, Housing Struggles [...]