Around this time of the year you’ll begin to hear the phrase “the giving season.” It’s the moment when donation-dependent organizations ramp up their campaigns in the hopes of being included in the gifting air that comes in on a wind of mailers, calls, and fundraisers. For the Nonprofit Issue, we thought it would be […]
Author Archives: Katie Prout
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 inNews & Politics
How many opioid overdoses occur on the CTA?
I first reached out to the CTA over email this July, asking them if they tracked opioid overdose-related deaths. I didn’t get an answer to that question until August. The answer was no. But by then, I had already started trying to figure out the numbers on my own.
Posted inNews & Politics
How the Reader calculated opioid-related overdose deaths on the CTA
Here is how I came to 158 deaths: It’s likely that 158 is an approximate, potentially conservative estimate. But it’s a place to start.
Posted inNews & Politics
Dan Bigg’s legacy of positive change
This August 21 marked the five-year anniversary of Dan Bigg’s death. As the CRA gets ready for their 2023 barbecue, I dropped by to learn more about Dan and his legacy from folks who knew him best.
Posted inNews & Politics
Anatomy of an intervention
Incidents like this happen, or almost happen, on the CTA every day, so why am I telling you about this one?
Posted inNews & Politics
Trans elders are revolutionaries
The following five profiles feature trans and genderqueer elders in Chicago as they reflect on identity and joy this Pride Month.
Posted inFood & Drink
Fishing, family, and other things that are toxic but life-giving
The fishermen of Montrose Harbor are keenly aware of the presence of PFOS and other forever chemicals in the fish. (It came up in conversation with nearly everyone I spoke to.) But what interested me was that, instead of repelling them from the water, this knowledge drew them closer to the lake.
Posted inNews & Politics
‘Why you talking to a bum?’
For a while now, I’ve no longer understood what we’re talking about when we talk about public safety on the CTA. By “we” I mean housed Chicagoans who ride the trains, but also media and local politicians.
Posted inCity Life
Best place to receive overdose prevention and response training
I learned how to administer naloxone, the opioid overdose-reversal medication, through the Chicago Recovery Alliance. In 2019, a family member had recently relapsed: though his drug wasn’t dope, that experience made me want to learn more about this miracle med I’d heard of. Most of the attendees were medical workers, but some were just ordinary […]
Posted inCity Life
Best housing case manager who takes no shit while getting shit done
In the history of human existence, there occasionally is someone who becomes so famous for excelling at what they do that they only need one name: Buddha. Beyoncé. Sylvia. Sylvia Hibbard is a case manager for the street medicine organization The Night Ministry. I’ve heard her name uttered with respect from what feels like pretty […]
Posted inCity Life
Best action to take when an unhoused Chicagoan is sleeping across three seats on the train
Nothing. Do absolutely nothing. Don’t take a picture of someone at their most vulnerable. Don’t post it online for the world to see. Don’t tag the CTA in a post of faux-compassion that reveals your panic and discomfort at having to share a public space with someone who is desperately poor. Don’t be a snitch. […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Queer gun owners are ‘American as fuck’
Dina fascinated me. So much of the national conversation around gun use and control depicts gun owners as white, conservative, heterosexual men, but here in Chicago was a trans, nonbinary musician and performer who makes songs about pussy, money, weed, and pizza, and who also conceals and carries.
Posted inNews & Politics
Brandon Johnson supports safe consumption sites
His position is nuanced, and it’s informed by family experience.
Posted inNews & Politics
‘She was somebody to us’
I’m no expert, I’ve never been addicted or unhoused, and my grief and rage are not the biggest in this city, but still, six people I know died last year. I think you should know them too.