Chicago non-profit brightens new moms’ lives with candles
By Xiao Lyu The soy candles from Bright Endeavors are made with some special ingredients you can’t find in normal scented candles — the tenderness and determination of young moms. At the nonprofit organization’s pleasant-smelling manufacturing plant in West Garfield Park, new moms aged 16 to 24 learn hands-on skills of candle crafting as part […]
Pilsen gallery workshop creates grassroots artwork with a political twist
By Xiao Lyu Artist Ellen Gradman held a special workshop that combined art with activism in Uri-Eichen Gallery in the East Pilsen Sunday Afternoon. Dubbed as “Paper Protest”, the workshop taught people the technique of collage to translate their political ideas into artwork with simple tools and materials such as newspapers, art clips and computer […]
Illinois college students hold rally for grants funding (video)
By Xiao Lyu Students from about 15 colleges and universities throughout Illinois rallied at the Thompson Center on Tuesday, asking Gov. Bruce Rauner to fund the Monetary Award Program, or MAP, that thousands of students rely on to help pay college tuition.
Liberation Library empowers youth in prison with books of their own (video)
By Xiao Lyu In a temporary place on the Near West Side, a small group of volunteers made bookmarks and wrote notes for a pack of books ready to be shipped to three juvenile detention centers in Illinois. Having struggled for a while about what to write, first-time volunteer Paul Dailing chose some simple personal […]
