John the Barber: beats odds to cut hair again, even from a wheelchair
By Hannah Gebresilassie Getting shot six times and becoming paralyzed from the chest-down didn’t stop John “So Icey John” Sharp from becoming one of the best barbers in town. “I got shot up being at the wrong place at the wrong time,” Sharp, 28, says, adding he wont let the circumstances prevent him from continuing […]
KAOS youth club uses sports, mentoring as alternative to Chicago’s chaotic streets
By Hannah Gebresilassie Ty Young is giving back to the streets that put a bullet in his son. While Young, a pharmacy tech, couldn’t keep his son from being shot in 2013, he could do something about the South Side youth culture that created the perilous landscape in the first place.
Spike Lee brings “Chi-raq” discussion to Evanston
By Tim Rosenberger and Valerie Lapointe Director Spike Lee did not shy away from addressing the controversy surrounding his film “Chi-Raq” at a recent screening of the film at Northwestern University. That was a good thing because his audience was vocal about the movie’s take on racism, representation of women and gun violence during the […]
Third graders get real about race and guns in school program
By Jasmine Cen With so much on the news about violence and crime in Chicago, it’s difficult to shield young people from hearing about it. But psychologists say parents and teachers should not ignore the issues, and children need to talk about what’s happening in their communities, even at a young age. That’s the spirit […]
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 […]
