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A look back at the major West Side issues of 2022
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FREE Vol. 36 No. 52
December 28, 2022
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Also serving Garfield Park
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Reflecting Reflecting on the Black Panthers’ legacy, page 8
2022
PHOTOS IN REVIEW
Students of Oak Park Art League instructor Jesse Howard have work on display inside Oak Park library’s gallery By MICHAEL ROMAIN Staff Reporter
Karen Mansfield, a retired labor attorney, had never taken an art class before stepping inside of Austin native Jesse Howard’s drawing class at the Oak Park Art League several years ago. “I had absolutely no talent and I really had to push myself, but it’s something I wanted to conquer,” Mansfield said. “And I stuck with it. It’s a challenge.” The fruit of Mansfield’s artistic labor, along with the work of several other advanced students who have taken Howard’s class over the years, is on display in “Mark Making With Piccolo,” an exhibition that runs through Jan. 7 in the second-floor Main Gallery at the Oak Park Public Library, 834 Lake St. Mansfield described one of her pieces, a playful drawing of Democratic Vermont Senator and former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders at the 2021 inauguration of President Joe Biden. The famous photograph of Sanders “sitting masked, cross-legged and bundled up in a bulky coat and mittens against the frigid weather,” according to a Washington Post description, turned into a popular meme. See HOWARD on page 8
SHANEL ROMAIN/Staff
Raven Lewis, a dancer with Move Me Soul dance company, teaches a West African-inspired dance to festival attendees at the GhanAgain Festival at Austin Town Hall Park on Sept. 10. See more photos of the year on pages 4 and 5.
Kim Foxx attempts to set the record straight Cook County State’s Attorney says she and her office are ‘widely misunderstood’ during meeting in suburban Maywood
By SHANEL ROMAIN Editor
Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx visited Maywood to set the record straight about the role and responsibilities of her office, which she said are widely misunderstood, and to explain her position on charged issues like cash bail reform, which goes into effect on Jan. 1.
“People have had conversations about our justice system and some people are knowingly wrong, and some people just don’t know,” Foxx said during a community conversation held Dec. 13 at PLCCA, 411 Madison St. in Maywood. “If you watch the news, you will see an incident has happened and usually they end with saying, ‘No arrests have yet been See KIM FOXX on page 2
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