Reflections from Puerto Rico: Rebuilding, Resilience and Resistance
By the Medill Explores Puerto Rico Team Medill Reports In February 2020, Medill MSJ students reported across Puerto Rico about the impacts of the island’s colonial status and debt crisis; recent earthquakes and 2017 hurricanes Maria and Irma; environmental injustice; and the island’s imperiled infrastructure and electrical grid. Throughout the reporting, the resilience and resourcefulness […]
Black history trivia night celebrates Chicago HBCUs
By Roderick Diamond II Medill Reports Chicago’s black history boasts famous personalities such as the late comedian Dick Gregory, founder of the Chicago Defender Robert Abbott and Dr. Margaret Taylor-Burroughs, who launched the DuSable Museum of African American History. The list goes on, but the city also has deep roots with alumni communities of historically […]
This Chicago entrepreneur’s biggest insecurity became her entire business
By Neena Rouhani Medill Reports During her high school years, Merl Kinzie felt embarrassed about shopping for second-hand clothes. Today, the 35-year-old designer and entrepreneur has turned her adolescent insecurity into an eco-conscious business. Kinzie’s Pilsen vintage shop, The Shudio, feels like the home of an eccentric aunt — the one who never married and […]
Transportation group president says Rebuild Illinois Act is ‘long overdue’
By Jackson Elliott Medill Reports This year, Illinois will kick off road repairs, funded by the Rebuild Illinois Act, which Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed in 2018 to improve the state’s infrastructure. The act proposes $23 billion in spending on road repairs alone. The total budget of $41 billion will be partly funded by taxes on […]
CPD’s ongoing battle with mental health calls
By Emine Yücel Medill Reports CHICAGO — In September 1987, answering a 911 call, Memphis police officers found a man stabbing himself more than 100 times with a butcher knife at LeMoyne Gardens, a public housing project. When police approached, they said, the man swung the knife towards them and they shot and killed him. […]
Eris brings Chicago a new brewery dimension with first female-owned cider taproom
By Sally Ehrmann Medill Reports Eris Brewery and Cider House, Chicago’s first female-owned cider taproom, celebrates two years in business this winter. The cider house serves Chicago’s craft beer scene with specialty brews, bites and a rotating draft of about eight flavored hard ciders such as cherry, pear or coffee. After years of planning, Eris […]
Return trip?: Q&A with Evanston Township High coach Mike Ellis on his love of basketball and getting back to the state finals
By Dan Moberger Medill Reports Tucked away down the hall from Evanston Township High School’s orange and blue gymnasium, Mike Ellis’ office looks like an equipment closet. Ellis, 49, doesn’t have any windows to the outside world — or even a window to the hallway. But that allows the coach more wall space to tack […]
Q’s on the Quad: Clemson University
By Samone Blair and Emine Yücel Medill Reports When asked if they could name five presidential candidates, the majority of Clemson University students surveyed before the South Carolina primary could only name former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders. All the students Medill School’s Q’s on the Quad talked to had questions they […]
One person’s trash may hold another person’s treasure
By Jake Holland Medill Reports Eleanor Ray weaves through rows of picture frames, thread, yarn and oil paints as she walks through her shop, pointing to miles of fabric, a mountain of art supplies and decorations for all seasons. Her store, the WasteShed, 2842 W. Chicago Ave., sells the fixings of any arts-and-crafts store, along […]
Meet the Mexican-American artist challenging transphobia one performance at a time
By Shreya Bansal Medill Reports Three years ago, 30-year-old Vicente Ugartechea moved from Texas to Chicago, where he felt like he could express himself as a transsexual artist for the first time. Today, his paintings and performances are displayed in museums and centers in Chicago, New York, Vancouver, Finland, Berlin and Amsterdam. Some of his […]