Resettled refugees face challenges in U.S. education system

refugee students in the US

By Marisa Endicott With the Syrian refugee crisis intensifying in Europe and debate stateside over the deportations of Central American asylum seekers, it is easy to get wrapped up in the ideological and political rhetoric instead of getting to know the day-to-day experiences and obstacles resettled refugees face. Access to education is a main hurdle. […]

Undocumented students fight for funding amidst state education crisis

Student ACCESS Bill

By Marisa Endicott An undocumented immigrant, Carla Navoa left the University of Illinois at Chicago during her junior year after anxiety and depression over her financial limitations and uncertain future became overwhelming. Her parents, immigrants from the Philippines, borrowed from friends and worked extra hours to help Navoa and her two sisters pay their tuition, […]

West Side organizations empower a new generation of media makers

Westside Writing Project headquarters

By Marisa Endicott Recently, Channing Dungey was named head of ABC entertainment, making her the first African-American president of a major network. But the appointment highlights the continued lack of diversity in mainstream media. This inequity is just as pervasive in the news media. Minorities accounted for 12.75 percent of the workforce at daily newspapers in […]

Musical celebrating Chicago’s black cultural history to debut at the Chicago Theater

"Bronzeville The Musical" at the Chicago Theater

By Marisa Endicott For one night this Saturday, Bronzeville is taking over the Chicago Theater. “Bronzeville The Musical” tells the story of the Great Migration, the exodus of African-Americans from southern states to northern cities during the greater part of the 20th century. The musical, an original production by the Chicago-based Mahdi Theatre Company, celebrates the arrival […]

An unconventional approach to Chicago’s misunderstood gun violence

By Marisa Endicott January saw its highest death toll from gun violence since 2000 in Chicago this year. There have been over 416 shootings in 2016 to date, 32 of them over this past weekend. The numbers highlight the deep roots of gun violence in Chicago and the city’s inability to combat the problem. While overall crime […]

First Chicago Black Restaurant Week celebrates community and brings in new business

By Marisa Endicott The first annual Chicago Black Restaurant Week concluded Saturday. Seventeen restaurants from the city and suburbs participated in the event launched by social media specialist Lauran Smith. Smith chose the second week in February to correspond with Negro History Week, the precursor to Black History Month founded by Carter G. Woodson. “It […]

Chicago festival celebrates hip-hop arts’ positive impact

7th Annual Winter Block Party for Hip Hop Arts

By Marisa Endicott Some might claim that “hip-hop is dead,” but the 7th Annual Winter Block Party for Chicago’s Hip Hop Arts this Saturday suggested otherwise. “If you go to the spaces, if you go to the open mics, it is alive and well,” said Damon Williams, a performer and activist emceeing for the event. […]

Seniors still feel impact of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Chicago Cares MLK breakfast

By Marisa Endicott Imam Dawud Yemani remembers exactly where he was when Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. He was in the Booker T. Washington community center in Erie, Pennsylvania, when a girl came running down the stairs shouting that Dr. King had been shot. “I had a lot of bitterness in me against the […]

Going door-to-door: protecting Albany Park residents against immigration raids

OCAD Training Session

By Marisa Endicott Almost 70 people chose to spend Saturday’s wet and dreary afternoon walking door-to-door in Chicago’s Albany Park neighborhood. Volunteers turned out in response to the deportation campaign launched by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that targets recent Central American immigrants with deportation orders. Organized Communities Against Deportations (OCAD) held the door-knocking campaign […]

Latinos demand equal access to affordable housing

By Marisa Endicott While the great majority of public housing residents in Chicago are African-American, Latino leaders are looking to public and subsidized housing to alleviate displacement and gentrification pressures in neighborhoods with a strong Latino presence, like Pilsen and Logan Square. With increasing attention on the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA), there are more calls […]