Dilpreet Raju, author at Chicago Reader

A man in a trench coat is seen standing onstage in dim light. A green wooden box is in front of him.

John Michael teaches us how to time travel with the Neo-Futurists

by Dilpreet Raju October 30, 2023November 3, 2023

Solo performer John Michael returns to Chicago’s stages this week with a new interactive show and, this time, he’s bringing 500 “time machines” in the form of naloxone to the Neo-Futurist Theater. Spank Bank Time Machine, his tenth show, is an ode to loved ones John Michael has lost to overdose, an experience he says […]

Outreach worker Keith Davis holds up two naloxone packets

News & Politics

Narcan for everyone

by Dilpreet Raju September 15, 2023September 15, 2023

Despite a precipitous drop in the overall number of opioids prescribed in Illinois, the number of accidental overdoses—both fatal and nonfatal—have continually risen over the last decade, according to the Illinois Prescription Monitoring Program and the Illinois Department of Public Health’s (IDPH) opioid data dashboard. Since 2017, overdose deaths in Illinois have exceeded the state’s […]

Ed Richardson wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses sits behind a folding table set up outside on Pulaski Road in Chicago. A sign taped to the table reads I Have Narcan and provides information about the outreach programs that do public programs for opioid users

Feature

‘Just trying to help him stay alive’

by Dilpreet Raju July 24, 2023August 5, 2023

Sheila Haennicke was woken up around 2 AM on November 16, 2021, by an Oak Park policeman who informed her and her husband that their 29-year-old son was found unresponsive and his body was at Ascension Resurrection Hospital. In the hours before, Sheila Haennicke’s son, David Haennicke, died of an accidental overdose on the CTA […]

An illustration mixes images of Mexican food (elotes, tacos, enchiladas) with images of calaveras, with a white cartoon smile in the center of the circle.

Food & Drink

Best taco restaurant for vegans on Clark Street

by Dilpreet Raju April 5, 2023April 12, 2023

Chicago has a reputation as a foodie city to uphold. For vegans and vegetarians, it’s no different. As more vegan options pop up on menus, Penelope’s Vegan Taqueria decided to open up a second location, this time in Andersonville. Penelope’s has a long enough menu that most vegans would find it cumbersome to look through […]

A group of Black people seated around a long rehearsal table. There are scripts and water bottles scattered about. Several of them are masked. In the near foreground, a woman with close-trimmed blonde hair, wearing a green sweater and gold hoop earrings, with her hand held in front of her, appears to have just been making a point.

Arts & Culture

Medical racism

by Dilpreet Raju March 8, 2023March 8, 2023

In 1932, Green Adair was one of 399 Black men in Tuskegee, Alabama, just east of Montgomery, who tested positive for “bad blood.” He and over 600 other Black men were deceived by the U.S. Public Health Service and enlisted to participate in a study originally called the “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the […]

News & Politics

Illinois extends curbside pickup for medical patients to January 31

by Dilpreet Raju January 13, 2023January 13, 2023

The extension came swiftly after department issued notice about policy expiry in late December.