south side weekly
The South Side Weekly is a nonprofit newsprint magazine written for and about neighborhoods on the South Side of Chicago. We publish in-depth coverage of the arts and issues of public interest alongside oral histories, poetry, fiction, interviews, and artwork from local photographers and illustrators. Started as a student paper at the University of Chicago, the South Side Weekly is now an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting cultural and civic engagement on the South Side, and to providing educational opportunities for developing journalists, writers, and artists.
Editor-in-Chief Bea Malsky
Managing Editor Hannah Nyhart
Deputy Editors John Gamino, Meaghan Murphy
Politics Editors Osita Nwanevu, Rachel Schastok
Education Editor Bess Cohen
Music Editor Jake Bittle
Stage & Screen Olivia Stovicek
Editor
Web Editor Sarah Claypoole
Contributing Editors Maha Ahmed, Lucia Ahrensdorf, Emma Collins, Lauren Gurley
Photo Editor Luke White
Illustration Editor Ellie Mejia
Layout Editors Adam Thorp, Baci Weiler
Senior Writers Jack Nuelle, Stephen Urchick
Staff Writers Olivia Adams, Christian Belanger, Austin Brown, Amelia Dmowska, Mark Hassenfratz, Maira Khwaja, Emily Lipstein, Jamison Pfeifer, Wednesday Quansah, Kari Wei, Arman Sayani
Staff Photographers Camden Bauchner, Juliet Eldred, Kiran Misra, Siddhesh Mukerji
Staff Illustrators Lexi Drexelius, Wei Yi Ow, Hanna Petroski, Amber Sollenberger
Editorial Interns Denise Parker, Clyde Schwab
Business Manager Harry Backlund
The paper is produced by an all-volunteer editorial staff and seeks contributions from across the city. We distribute each Wednesday in the fall, winter, and spring, with breaks during April and December. Over the summer we publish monthly. Send submissions, story ideas, comments, or questions to editor@southsideweekly.com or mail to:
South Side Weekly
1212 E. 59th Street
Ida Noyes Hall #030 Chicago, IL 60637
For advertising inquiries, contact: (773)234-5388 or advertising@southsideweekly
Read our stories online at southsideweekly.com
Cover art by Jean Cochrane, words by Bea Malsky. Story continued on page 9.
IN CHICAGO
For Mike Brown
Had Michael Brown survived the summer, Monday, November 24, would have been a calm, snowy night. It wasn’t. It was a night on which the people of Chicago gathered in solidarity with the people of Ferguson, and made clear that a fundamental problem demands radical justice. An indictment of one man would not have been sufficient.
At 6:30pm, a crowd began to gather outside the headquarters of the Chicago Police Department, at 35th and Michigan, where at least a dozen officers stood guard. The decision of the Michael Brown case was not expected until 8pm, but there was more than enough to talk about in the meantime.
“It’s important for us, in this country, to understand how many people have been targeted by the state on a regular basis,” Mariame Kaba, one of the organizers of the Chicago event, explained to the crowd. Protestors were a mix of old and young. One older woman pushed past me to ensure her sign would be seen from the road. And, after a few scattered chants of “all lives matter,” We Charge Genocide
continued on page 17
IN THIS ISSUE
It’s a hearty burst of noise, one the tavern last heard fifty years ago.
open forum, soon peter xu...4
It is a lazy abdication of responsibility to pretend that all problems can be solved simply through self-improvement. the case for ta-nehisi coates christian belanger...5
toward self-determination maha ahmed...6
“I have had dirt kicked in my face, I have been stabbed everywhere except the bottom of my feet.”
Later on in the clip, a weary-looking man appears, adjusting the reels. The circles seem more alive.
kinosonik #1 lucia ahrensdorf...8
noise before music bea malsky and jean cochrane...9
“When I’m having my fun, I wait for the heavens to strike me down.”
a liberating force
“If you don’t help someone, you in trouble yourself.”
emeline posner...13
“Isolation and disconnection and trauma—these things fuel violence.”
humanity incarcerated julia aizuss...14
remembering jane byrne mari cohen...15
“It’s a basic rule of Chicago politics: clear the snow, clear the snow.”
“I had never seen such a machine. The rest of the room and I were unable to turn away for too long.” art in all dimensions sammie spector...16