Having never seen the film or previous stage productions of Arsenic and Old Lace, I was in a great position to see it fresh at the Beverly Arts Center (BAC) in its short run that ends October 15. I confess part of the reason I went was to take my dad because several of his […]
Author Archives: Tracy Baim
Posted inNews & Politics
An online refuge for care workers during the Ukraine War
Content note: some of the names in this story have been changed to protect anonymity. Editor’s note (added November 6, 2023): the writer, Tracy Baim, is related to Clark Baim, who is a main subject in this story. It’s Sunday morning in August 2022, and midway through an online group therapy session, Mariia, in Kyiv, […]
Posted inFeature
Chicago church part of Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument
Content note: this story includes details of a violent hate crime against a teenager. From the first World War to the 1970s, more than six million African Americans migrated from the Jim Crow south to cities including Chicago. As documented by The Warmth of Other Suns author Isabel Wilkerson, the Great Migration “was not solely […]
Posted inTheater Review
A Raisin in the Sun comes home to the south side
Racial covenants that kept Black people out of certain neighborhoods of Chicago, and across the U.S., are not just a thing of the past. Today, there are organizations including Chicago Covenants still trying to un-do them, and the harm they caused. Chicago-raised playwright Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun is perhaps the best known […]
Posted inStaff notes
Publisher’s note
In late August 2018, I was with my father at the hospital, where he was recovering from open-heart surgery, when I received a call from a representative of the Chicago News Guild asking if I’d like to buy the Chicago Reader from its parent newspaper, the Chicago Sun-Times. The Guild represents the Reader’s editorial union, […]
Posted inAnnouncements
The Chicago Reader will be fully nonprofit
It is with excitement that we are able to (finally) announce that the Chicago Reader is transitioning fully to its nonprofit status under the Reader Institute for Community Journalism!
![[Chicago Reader Nonprofit Guide cover detail]](https://i0.wp.com/chicagoreader.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/nonprofit-guide-cover-teaser.jpg?resize=1200%2C900&quality=89&ssl=1)
Posted inStaff notes
Changing Directions
Thanks to a tremendous staff, support from our owners and donors, and generous readers and foundations, we were able to make it to our 50th anniversary this year. But the future for all media is still tenuous. Our pivots have worked, but we need to continue to be nimble, and responsive to changes.
Posted inColumns & Opinion
A note from the publisher about upcoming Reader events
Our fall event card is full.
Posted inNews & Politics
Not Into Outing
To the editors: This letter serves in part as a response to the letter “Out Rage” in the May 24 Reader. That letter, by Michael Flores, was in response to the May 10 Hot Type column on writer John Schmid’s use of a pseudonym in writing for Nightlines. Flores compares this use of a pseudonym […]