Zahara Bassett fell on the floor of her best friend’s house exhausted from a long day of making $9 an hour and barely getting by. She was working as a housing monitor for TransLife Care at Chicago House, a transitional housing program for transgender people who have nowhere to stay or are reentering society. All […]
Author Archives: DMB (Debbie-Marie Brown)
Posted inChicagoans of Note
Izzi Vasquez, music-adjacent multimedia artist
Izzi Vasquez is a multimedia artist who has helped some of Chicago’s most celebrated musicians with the visuals for their visions. Vasquez has created animations and designed album packaging for the likes of Kaina, Sen Morimoto, Nnamdï, and Kara Jackson. In their art, Vasquez gives new form to the lessons they learned from their grandmother, […]
Posted inFeature
The Reader’s 2023 Holiday Gift Guide
1 Chicago stepping lessons from award-winning south sider Shaun Ballentine of Effortless Stepping. —Salem Collo-Julin Open group lessons Wednesdays at 7 PM, Effortless Stepping Studio, 1850 E. 79th. $20 per person, 21+ only. For private lesson rates or information about having Ballentine do a stepping class at your event, message through Instagram or Facebook. 2 […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Howard Brown and Berlin Nightclub workers escalate fights for fair contracts
Editor’s note: On November 21, the union representing Berlin workers announced that the bar’s owners told the union on November 20 of their intent to permanently close, effective November 19. “The boycott is happening as long as it takes. It will continue until we get a contract that is what we’re looking for, and that […]
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 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 inChicagoans of Note
Manae Solara Vaughn, sound engineer, musician, and cofounder of Oux
Manae Solara Vaughn is a young Chicago-based multi-instrumentalist and sound engineer who put down roots in the local music scene much earlier in her life than most of her peers. Daughter of Chicago house-music royalty DJ Lady D, Solara Vaughn grew up immersed in her parents’ community of music legends. She recently left her job […]
Posted inCity Life
Celebrating the drag makers and nightlife impresarios
Update as of 4:00 PM on Tuesday, September 26, 2023: Abhijeet’s name was previously misspelled in several places in this article and has since been corrected. And the Vanguard Awards were previously categorized as posthumously awarded; this is not entirely the case as several awards will be given to living people. The Reader regrets the […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Gratuity included
Editor’s note: On September 20, the Workforce Development Committee voted 9–3 to advance the ordinance ending Chicago’s subminimum wage to the full city council. A proposed ordinance moving through the complicated world of city council committees would require businesses to pay their tipped employees—like bartenders, bussers, and servers—at the statewide $15.80-per-hour minimum wage instead of […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Lose your car, but keep the debt
It feels like something I don’t have much power to prevent. Like an occasional mosquito bite that you can’t control, it’s just in the air. Except that mosquito sucks $100 from you here and there. Eric Hoskins Eric Hoskins has never owned a car in Chicago. The slew of expenses car ownership incurs in the […]
Posted inNews & Politics
‘That land was promised to us’
One morning in late August, 20 renters and public housing advocates marched in a circle in front of the Chicago Housing Authority’s (CHA) headquarters, holding signs and chanting to protest the agency’s recent decision to sell land meant for public housing to private companies. “Mayor Johnson!” the chant-leader yelled through a megaphone. “Stop CHA!” responded […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Drag performers join Berlin Nightclub employees in protest
At 8:30 PM on the first Friday of August, prominent drag performer Irregular Girl was putting on her lashes, making a home cocktail, and waiting for her boyfriend to pick her up for her monthly event, Strapped (Berlin Nightclub’s premiere dance party catering to lesbians of all genders), when she decided to cancel the show. […]
Posted inNews & Politics
’People of all generations healing together’
Being a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) in Chicago means that you are allowed to open a private practice and bill insurance for your clients’ sessions. It also means that you have attained your master’s degree in social work, completed 3,000 hours of clinical work under a licensed supervisor (including unpaid but graded hours of […]
Posted inChicagoans of Note
Molly Compton, founder of Ur Mom Records
Molly Compton is a scene mom and mentor who founded the independent label Ur Mom Records in December 2021, using her savings and support from family. Compton is a recognizable face in the local DIY music scene: she hosts twice-monthly COVID-safe house shows for local and touring acts, either at her place or in her […]
Posted inCity Life
Best three-day-long workers strike from employees of one of the nation’s largest LGBTQ+ organizations
From January 3 to 5 this year, the freshly unionized members of Howard Brown Health Workers United (HBHWU) staged day-long strikes at seven different Howard Brown clinic locations in the city. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was an excess of government funds that LGBTQ+ -focused health system could access, but as those […]