A family like his

Medill Reports: Chicago

Kijan Jonovich is a natural musician. Though he’s not old enough to talk much, he scoots his toddler-sized racecar across the wood floor and sings along as it plays “The Wheels on the Bus.”

But the batteries in the car are dying and as he turns the big yellow key that plays the song again and again, rolling his hands over each other at the part that goes “round and round,” the wheels on this bus sound like they’re melting. The sound becomes more and more garbled and strained and it seems Kijan’s little friend needs a jump. Mom decides that’s enough.

Two doors down, two different worlds

Medill Reports: Chicago
Story by: Abby Sewell
Video production: Jessica Krinke



It’s dusk on West Lawrence Avenue, and Wafeeqa Saadeh is preparing to close up shop for the night.

Saadeh, a Palestinian immigrant who settled in the neighborhood in 1978, runs the El-Jeeb Hijab and Gifts with a handful of relatives, including her sister, niece and nephew. Her small, family-owned store in Albany Park is crowded with embroidered robes and head scarves imported from Jordan. It’s one of a handful of spots in Chicago that specialize in Muslim women’s clothing. The family has also owned a grocery store in the neighborhood for 25 years.

Two storefronts down, behind an unobtrusive façade bearing the legend “Admiral Theatre,” in a high-ceilinged lobby done up in blue and gold, cashiers are setting up for the night. Scantily clad Egyptian sirens watch them from the paintings on the walls. In a little while, tourists, businessmen, sailors and college boys heading out for a night on the town will begin lining up for another show at Chicago’s oldest strip club.

Chicago's changing face of HIV

By: Camille Doty and Jessica Krinke

(Please view the companion video by Camille on Medill Reports!)

Cited in: Chicago Now

Yvette Williams, courtesy her facebook page.

Yvette Williams prepares for the holidays by decorating her home with Christmas lights. Her welcome mat plays "Joy to the World," and every holiday season brings more joy than the last since she was diagnosed with HIV.

Williams said that feeling sorry for herself was never an option and her diagnosis was an opportunity to learn. "It's not a death sentence. You can live with it or die from it. You only stop living when you choose to." The 42-year-old ministry assistant embraces a healthy lifestyle with exercise and a well-balanced diet.

Williams represents the changing face of HIV. According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, almost 2,500 black women in Illinois are living with the virus – and the numbers continue to climb as the leading cause of death for African-American women between the ages of 25 and 34.

Windy City Horrors

For my second quarter interactive class, my main project was designing a website based on a long, in-depth profile. I chose the culture in Chicago around horror movies and horror-themed social events and clubs. The website doesn't quite exist anymore since it was designed around the URL's of the class's website (that disappears at the end of every semester) so I have to rebuild it someday. However, I don't want all the reporting and work to go to waste so here's the parts of it I can share here.

Giving voice to the silent 'T' in LGBT

Christina Kahrl is the Transgender liaison for Center on Halsted.
She is a sports writer and a transgender woman. 

Medill Reports: Chicago

Republished in: The Primrose

Transgender individuals still face many hurdles, even within the LGBT world. And the photo identification policy at northwest suburban Hunters Nightclub has come to represent some of them.

Hunters is a popular gay bar in an unincorporated area near Elk Grove Village that has come under criticism recently for tightened ID policies that some in the transgender community say is discriminatory.

Claiming that their liquor license was in danger, the establishment no longer admits patrons who don’t look enough like the photo on their IDs. The policy has come to be known as the “Two Faces, Two ID’s” rule and makes it necessary for gender variant people to obtain a second valid photo ID.

Science never tasted so good

By: Amy Enchelmeyer and Jessica Krinke
(Please view Amy's companion video on Medill Reports!)

Hundreds of hungry home cooks crowded every floor of the four story Borders on Michigan Avenue for a chance to meet their favorite TV chef.

Alton Brown, star of The Food Network’s “Good Eats” signed copies of his new book based on the hit show, “Good Eats: The Early Years,” for 500 fans late into the night on Oct. 15.

Sex ed. with Dr. Drew

Medill Reports: Chicago

It’s not often Drew Pinsky, popular radio advice doctor, gets a chance to answer questions about himself. The host of the long-running syndicated relationship forum, Loveline, and VH1’s Celebrity Rehab, did just that while in town last Friday for a live edition of his radio show before a Chicago audience.

True 'Spirit' of Halloween haunted by profits?

Geoff Graves plays "Kitty Zombie" at Chicago horror events.

Medill Reports: Chicago

POLL: Should the date change?

While Halloween has become arguably the most commercial party holiday of modern American culture, does it warrant an entire Hallow-weekend? One costume company thinks so.

Spirit Halloween, owners of  many Halloween stores that vanish as mysteriously as they materialize in strip malls across America come Nov. 1, has launched a proposal to permanently change the date of All-hallows Eve to the last Saturday in October instead of Oct. 31.

Elementary school spooks and goblins eagerly await Saturday Halloweens, but not everyone in the Chicago Halloween and horror industry hopes this year’s weekend Halloween will be permanent.

'Can't get no satisfaction' might be a health risk

Medill Reports: Chicago

Two new studies link sexual fulfillment and overall wellness for women. One researcher describes the lack of awareness women have about their bodies, while another reminds us that satisfaction doesn’t always mean having more sex.

'Toilet Theater' transgresses the limits of gender

Jason Hosking/CORBIS

Medill Reports: Chicago

The bar is crowded and music assaults your poor, inebriated ears. That last beer is nagging you not so quietly toward the bathroom, but there’s a painfully long line. The opposite sex’s door swings open, taunting you with its emptiness.

Would you use it if you knew you’d be alone? Would you if you knew you wouldn’t be? Or are you just going to stand there hopping up and down like a fool while there’s a perfectly good toilet with no one using it.

Education is a community effort for Lovett Elementary

African Americans in Chicago’s North Side Schools have made significant gains in Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) scores from 2004 to 2008. Joseph Lovett Elementary School in western Logan Square and the surrounding community could serve a model for success in elementary education.

The percent increase in African Americans meeting or exceeding ISAT scores for 40 Chicago’s North Side schools is 53.9 percent from 2004 to 2008, according to analysis of data collected in Chicago Public Schools Office of Research, Evaluation and Accountability research data.

Lovett Elementary at 6333 W. Bloomingdale Ave. is made up of 89.9 percent African Americans. It could be a model example of the gains that African Americans have made in ISAT scores.  The percent increase of African Americans meeting or exceeding ISAT scores was 75.3 percent, from 2004 to 2008.


View Lovett in a larger map

The ISAT is administered to students in grades three through eight and tests reading, math, science and writing.  Science and writing are administered only in certain years, but reading and math are tested all six years.

Behave! Chicago's queer burlesque queen

Brian C. Janes/ Ms. Bea's flickr

I sat down Thursday night for sushi with “The Great Chicago Fire,” Ms. Bea Haven. Haven is the producer of Girlie-Q, Chicago’s only all-queer burlesque troop, that performs on the city’s Northwest Side.

So, why burlesque?

My then-partner started directing queer burlesque shows in Chicago. I was not in the show because I was too nervous to take off my clothes. I didn’t want to do it, I wanted to read some sexy poetry or something like that. They were like, "Here’s burlesque. This is what we’re doing. Go."

Recession may be good for print media

When times are bad, Northwest Siders say books and reading are things they won’t do without.

In an informal poll of about ten people at the LincolnVillage shopping center in West Rogers Park Thursday afternoon, Northwest Side residents said that if they were to lose everything due to the economy they would take advantage of free options to entertain themselves.

Mexican Muralist Oscar Romero

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NOTES:

A video profile for Medill methods, the very first I have ever done (as if that wasn't obvious).

Congress Theater's beauty is on the inside

Tenants of the Congress Theater complex don’t have to go far to work. Many of the employees who set up for shows such as the upcoming “Stimulate This! Tour” live right in the building.

These employees devote their days to setting up for shows and fixing the constant problems that arise in a nearly century-old building, said Max Wagner, who handles community relations for the 83-year-old theater.

“The place was largely ignored for the better part of 50 years,” Wagner added. But no longer. The new management has plunged millions of dollars into The Congress. Most of the improvements are not directly related to entertainment, and include much-needed infrastructure upgrades in the form of new bathrooms and a re-tuned ventilation system.

North Side arts groups band together in hard times

For the Lifeline Theater, in Rogers Park, Gov. Pat Quinn’s $1 billion in budget cuts came as a serious blow.

In the midst of the economic downturn, as consumers cut back on entertainment and other discretionary spending, “We realize we do not have a stable product. We’re not selling widgets here,” said Allison Cain, Lifeline managing director.

Quinn’s 50 percent cut in state spending for the arts in 2010 to $7.8 million,  will mean Lifeline will need to reduce its operating costs and band together with other local theater groups to save money.

New 400 Theater bring affordable movies back to Rogers Park

Residents of Rogers Park now have a way to see first run movies for only a few dollars right in their neighborhood. The Village North Theater, somewhat affectionately referred to by Rogers Park residents as the “ghetto-plex,” has had a much needed facelift and is now The New 400 Theater.

The facility had fallen to disrepair and closed at the beginning of 2009. The building dates from 1914 when the theater was originally called The 400.

The theater, which re-opened its doors this July after three months of remodeling, is now equipped with $400,000 of renovations including brand new screens, new carpeting and rebuild 35 millimeter projectors.

Kuma's Corner

My very first slideshow for Medill Methods. Looking back, I maybe let it go a little long at the end, but I was trying to go for a bit of a fade out effect like you were walking away.

Skokie funeral debate overshadowes town development plans

Chicago Jewish Funerals Ltd. will get another chance to argue before the Skokie Village Board for permission to build a new facility in the village.

The board approved the motion to reconsider on Monday after the funeral home’s lawyer, Mark Gershon, requested one on behalf of his clients. Board members emphasized that reconsideration doesn’t guarantee and easy victory for the funeral company.

G-Fest XVI

Luke Fuentes, 5, waits patiently as his yellow bug eyes are switched on. He grabs a pair of spiny praying mantis claws made of paper mache and begins roaring and destroying a four foot tall Japanese city of cardboard and duct tape.

A job well done, he looks back at his dad and giggles.

Luke and about 1,300 fans of Godzilla and other monster films gathered at the Crown Plaza Chicago O'Hare Hotel & Convention Center this past weekend to celebrate their favorite sci-fi genre. The event was the 16th annual G-Fest.

Northwest Side residents wary of Olympic gamble

Most Chicago residents informally surveyed in Albany Park on Friday do not want the city to host the Olympic Games in 2016, citing fears about higher taxes and congestion.

In a time of economic uncertainty, many are wary of betting so much on a gamble of Olympic proportions. About 10 out of 14 people surveyed are opposed to inviting the world to the city.

Tragic Plots: Malfeasance at Burr Oak Cemetery

Soundslides lesson from Methods.

Store 2032 brings the gift of literacy to foster kids

Each year, Barnes & Noble 2032 in Deer Park, Illinois sets out on an important mission for the holidays: to put a brand new book in the hands of every foster child in their area. Since Deer Park straddles both Lake and Cook Counties, that makes for a large community. Cook County, incidentally, is home to the City of Chicago and most of its surrounding suburbs, making it the second most populous county in the U.S. Combining the two includes over five thousand children under the care of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

Deer Park CRM Michelle Schmitz holds a special place in her heart for foster children because she used to be a foster parent herself. “I just understand the need and I’ve seen the amount of kids in this area that could use some help.”