OK, here we go: I’m writing an op-ed to defend rats. Not a popular stance, I am aware. In my practice as an artist concerned with climate change and biodiversity loss, I suggest that we must move beyond human supremacy if we are to come back into alignment with a world pushed dangerously out of […]
Tag: Rats Issue 2023
Posted inOn Politics
Chicago rats
When my editor, Salem, asked if I’d write a column on rats in Chicago, I said, “Hell, yes!” I immediately created a top-three list of Danny Solis, John Christopher, and William O’Neal. Then I realized—wait! Salem meant rats of the four-legged variety. Which, by the way, I could write a book about, having encountered one, […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Ratso To-Go-Go
South-sider and lifetime teen Ratso is most known for cohosting the beloved dance party Chic-A-Go-Go with his companions (Reader contributor and Roctober zine creator) Jake Austen and Mia Park on Chicago’s public-access channel CAN TV since 1996. With his signature disheveled style, floppy ears, love of punk music, and squeakily delivered humorous observations, it’s easy […]
Posted inArts & Culture
My love affair with rats
My love affair with rats came imperceptibly, without ready origins. Certainly, it didn’t start with a youthful embrace of pet rats—my friend Will had a few, and their furry bodies scampering around his bedroom only unsettled me. A decade ago, in my first fall at Northwestern University, my friend Ramona slipped a plastic rat into […]
Posted inNews & Politics
There’s a mouse in my house
The week I moved into my first one-bedroom apartment in Rogers Park, I was excited to have a space of my own. Unfortunately, the mice that infested the building were just as excited about my arrival. Three days into my move, I unlocked my front door to find a mouse jumping at my trash can, […]
Posted inOn Culture
Maus in wartime
It’s common knowledge in the book business that a well-publicized ban can lead to a short-term spike in sales. Take Art Spiegelman’s two-volume graphic novel Maus for example, which tells the story of his parents’ experience in the Holocaust, as told to him much later by his father. After it was banned by a Tennessee […]
Posted inColumns & Opinion
Editor’s note: rats!
When I was around five years old, my mother and I were standing on Canal Street near what is now called the Ogilvie Transportation Center. I had my back to the street, eyes on my mom. There was a rumbling under the ground and I remember watching the aglet from my shoelace shake a little. […]
Posted inNews & Politics
For decades, Scabby the rat has stood for workers’ rights
What does a 20-foot-tall inflatable rat have to do with the long history of public expression in the labor rights movement? The answer: a lot more than you’d expect.
Posted inNews & Politics
Target: rats
My hair is neatly combed these days, no longer the “rat’s nest” my mom affectionately called it when I was a child. But, as I enter Harold Washington Library on a recent autumn day, I still feel an affinity for the creature multiple mayors have identified as Chicago’s top public enemy. I’m here to look […]
Posted inTheater Preview
Rats—now and forever
Rats run rampant on Chicago streets, but on Chicago stages? Not so much. Kids’ productions of Charlotte’s Web may shine a light now and again on Templeton, the sneaky (but ultimately praiseworthy) barn rat who helps save Wilbur’s life, as well as Charlotte’s progeny. Some versions of The Nutcracker go with a Rat King instead […]