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This article was originally published by City Bureau, a nonprofit civic media organization based on the South Side.

For people who have been incarcerated, monthly cash assistance could be the support they need to rebuild their lives.

“When I got out, I had to go to a shelter,” said Corey Randall, 51, who has spent years incarcerated. “Nobody helped me do anything and I’m by myself so everything I got now, I had to work for it.” 

He has struggled to find full-time employment with benefits. So, he’s focused on the jobs that he could get—temporary service jobs and minimum wage employment without benefits. He now works at a corner store in West Garfield Park, where he prices and restocks items.

Randall is not alone. Formerly incarcerated people often face discrimination when they apply for jobs, which contributes to people reoffending and going back to prison, also known as recidivism. The discrimination is more acute for Black people with a criminal record. To help change that pattern, organizations across the country are offering cash—with no strings attached. 

In Chicago, Equity and Transformation, a west-side nonprofit founded by and for formerly incarcerated people, launched the Chicago Future Fund last year with a simple idea—to alleviate the hardships of life after prison or jail by giving individuals cash for them to spend how they see best, said Rachel Pyon, the Chicago Future Fund program manager.

Under the program, 30 formerly incarcerated people are receiving $500 per month for 18 months without any restrictions or work requirements. The participants—mostly men, all between the ages 18 and 35—say they have spent the money on everything from rent to bills to Christmas presents for their kids to child support, according to Pyon and Nik Theodore, a professor of the Department of Urban Planning and Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the director of the Center for Urban Economic Development, which is evaluating the program. 

Theodore said the majority of participants in the program face multiple barriers of unemployment, economic insecurity, and hardships. Participants earn less than $12,000 per year and while a few have part-time, temporary, or full-time jobs, “a lot of folks are still pretty much in and out of the labor market and relying on informal work and hustling to try to make ends meet,” he said.

Theodore expects that the cash assistance will help stabilize participants. That stability, he said, would allow them to seek housing that better fits their needs and jobs that better fit their skills—as opposed to whatever they can get in a crisis.

“I think a big piece of this is strengthening the autonomy of individuals to start to make decisions, not based on just sheer economic necessity, but from a slightly more comfortable position where better decisions can be made,” Theodore said.

The program is widely praised as Chicago’s first privately funded guaranteed income pilot program. To select participants, Equity and Transformation, which also goes by the acronym EAT, used a randomized process for people who met criteria. 

Popular support for guaranteed income has grown since the federal government gave Americans stimulus checks to stay afloat during the pandemic. Chicago and Cook County each started their own cash-assistance pilot programs earlier this year, which are now the largest in the U.S. While neither program excludes people based on their criminal history, nor tracks their individual charge or conviction, they are not specifically for formerly incarcerated people, which is where Equity and Transformation’s Chicago Future Fund comes in. 

The idea of giving unrestricted cash to formerly incarcerated people might give some people pause. Critics argue against such programs because they believe participants will use funds to engage in illicit activity, incentivizing them to remain unemployed.  

However, Richard Wallace, founder and executive director of Equity and Transformation, said his organization follows a prison abolitionist model that focuses on the individual. The organization neither tracks the criminal charges of its participants nor sets stipulations on how the money is spent, he said. That’s because Wallace believes giving cash to Black Chicagoans impacted by mass incarceration and the War on Drugs is an essential step toward rebuilding people’s sense of community and individual dignity. 

Wallace sees guaranteed income as a solution to the recidivism and economic inequality that many formerly incarcerated people face. Unconditional cash, he said, may not solve systemic racism or rectify centuries of anti-Black oppression, discrimination, and criminalization, but it can act as a lifeline that enables formerly incarcerated people to focus on their well-being, families, and careers without worrying about unexpected expenses.

According to a 2021 press release, the first round of the Chicago Future Fund was supported by several organizations, including BLM Global Network Foundation, The Movement for Black Lives, and Black Freedom Collective. That same year, the organization reported to the federal government it received $1.6 million in gifts, grants, and contributions in its fiscal year 2020, which ended in July of 2021. 

“There are more than 100 pilots in the nation, and some of them are funded by private dollars,” said Harish Patel, director of Economic Security for Illinois and a manager of the Chicago Resilient Families Initiative Task Force, which studied the scope of the city’s guaranteed income pilot. The Chicago Future Fund “is prioritizing a certain group of people who need cash the most, and I’m hoping that there are a lot more privately funded organizations that prioritize certain groups of people who may get left behind by a massive city pilot.”

If successful, the Chicago Future Fund could provide advocates the argument they need to ensure people with criminal records have a financial safety net after being released.

Equity and Transformation plans to expand the program in the fall to service 100 additional people. The first round focused on participants from West Garfield Park. This round, the nonprofit will also focus on people who live in Austin and Englewood. The expansion is being funded by FTX, a Chicago-based cryptocurrency exchange, which promised to provide recipients with a zero-fee cryptocurrency bank account and financial literacy education—an innovation that Mayor Lightfoot lauded.

“Through this new FTX pilot, we will be able to ensure that residents from underrepresented backgrounds can access cash assistance, an innovative financial service, and financial education in one place,” Lightfoot said in a May press release announcing the expansion. “I thank FTX for partnering with EAT on this important initiative, which will ultimately make our post-pandemic recovery that much more equitable and inclusive.”

Randall, who works at the corner store in West Garfield Park, said such a program would have been life-changing when he’d been released from incarceration. He’s served nonconsecutive sentences on drug-related offenses. But he still could use the help. Randall, who plans to apply for the program when applications open in the fall, said he would use the money on “needs for my house.”

“I don’t have much, but I try to help a lot of people and try to save because it’s hard out here,” he said.

Since 1979, an estimated 3.3 million adults in Illinois have been arrested or convicted of a crime and may be living with the stigma and limitations of a criminal record, according to Never Fully Free, a Heartland Alliance report published in 2020. The report found more than 1,000 “permanent punishment laws” in Illinois that restrict the rights of people with records. The majority of those laws prevent or hinder access to employment by, for example, requiring background checks. Research shows applicants with criminal records are about half as likely as those without records to hear back from employers. 

“We’ve seen so many people in our program actually applying for many jobs but not seeing any results,” said Pyon.

Stable employment can reduce recidivism. But because people with records have difficulty finding employment, they often end up in temporary, low-paying jobs. Pyon said unrestricted cash can help people who have been incarcerated attain some financial stability to turn around their lives and avoid reoffending.

Forty-three percent of people released from prison in Illinois recidivate within three years of their release, according to a 2018 report by the Illinois Sentencing Policy Advisory Council, a nonpartisan sentencing advisory group created by the state’s General Assembly in 2009. Recidivism is costly: Illinois taxpayers pay around $151,000 when someone reoffends and goes back to prison. In 2018, the council estimated recidivism would cost Illinois some $13 billion over five years.

Marlon Chamberlain, project manager of Fully Free, a Heartland Alliance campaign that pushes to eliminate permanent punishments in Illinois, said guaranteed income programs also alleviate the psychological burden of having to go from being incarcerated to being self-sufficient and supporting a family. 

“When most people come home from prison, they don’t have anything. They’re pretty much starting over,” he said, adding that individuals often need basic essential items such as hygiene products, bus fare, and clothing. 

Chamberlain said that knowing that there is a financial cushion gives people returning home from prison a sense of stability, more room to explore their passions and pursue work that they value.

“I think it gives you the opportunity to breathe and think about what you want to do [after incarceration] without the worry of ‘I need to take care of myself now,’” Chamberlain said. 

Leslie Hurtado and Brian Young Jr. are 2022 City Bureau Summer Civic Reporting Fellows. Sarah Conway, City Bureau’s senior reporter covering jobs and the economy of survival in Chicago, contributed to this report. You can reach her with tips at [email protected].

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This article was originally published by City Bureau, a nonprofit civic media organization based on the South Side.

For formerly incarcerated residents, accessing resources is vital to surviving when reintegrating back into society. Most face challenges when applying for jobs due to the stigmatizing effects of their criminal record. We’ve compiled a list that includes employment programs and legal aid resources to help those making a transition from incarceration to community.

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Carmen Neely in her studio Credit: Nolis Anderson

When I first set out to profile gallerist and art dealer Mariane Ibrahim, she didn’t exactly decline, but she didn’t immediately say yes, either. 

After being heavily profiled over the past couple of years—both for her curatorial style as well as her unconventional path to Chicago’s gallery scene via Seattle—the gallery’s focus was understandably on its artists and program in general, versus Ibrahim herself. Her roster of represented artists is indeed magnificence rising, and she’s been praised for “championing young artists of the African diaspora.”

In September 2019, after seven years in Seattle, Ibrahim moved her gallery to Chicago. Two years later, she inaugurated a second gallery in Paris (which is where Ibrahim lived before moving to the United States). I visited her gallery in Paris in January of this year. In reconsidering my approach to this profile, I found inspiration in the work of artist Carmen Neely, whose paintings were included in the Paris gallery’s second show, a dual exhibit of Neely’s large-scale abstract paintings alongside artist Ferrari Sheppard’s figuration works. 

I had seen Neely’s paintings online prior to making Ibrahim’s gallery a destination while in Paris, and I was immediately enamored with the writerly energy she brings to her work. Neely’s practice of collecting memories and conversations—in sweeping brushstrokes of fuschia, purple, and cyan concealing underwritten layers of journal entry and personal archives—is the purest form of storytelling. 

Carmen Neelycarmeneliz.com

Neely’s own story mirrors Ibrahim’s in many ways, which is why fulfilling the technical subject of this profile’s wish to do so through her artists and their work first and foremost is actually really easy. 

In 2020, Neely left a job in academia to pursue her practice of painting full time. 

“I came to Chicago with that goal and intention, really not knowing anything else,” she said. “I immediately put feelers out and requested support from literally anyone I knew who had any connections to anybody [here].”

All destined to become our mothers, a 2022 painting
by Carmen Neely Credit: Courtesy Mariane Ibrahim

She ended up meeting Ibrahim through some mutual acquaintances not long after arriving in Chicago.

“I had known about her gallery and sort of been following what she was doing, but it wasn’t even necessarily that I moved to Chicago for that to happen. I just felt pulled towards [Chicago] . . . in some weird universal way I was also pulled to the gallery.  I think everything that’s happened has been part of that sort of invisible attraction, because it has all felt so—sort of—seamless, and the fit feels so natural, and it’s been easily supportive and not just from [Ibrahim] and the gallery, but from the community in Chicago. Now I’ve been here for two years.”

What initially made me want to write about Ibrahim was an interview I read with her in ARTNews magazine, specifically this quote about Chicago and why she chose this city when considering where she’d relocate her gallery:

“Chicago appealed to her for its particular kind of American-ness. ‘I felt like for the first time I was in America,’ she said of her first visit a few years ago. ‘New York is so international—it’s its own country, in a way—but in Chicago I felt like, this is the capital of America, with all its history and architecture and economy and politics.’”

Mariane Ibrahim GalleryTue-Sat, 11 AM-6 PM, 437 N. Paulina, 312-877-5436, marianeibrahim.com“Theater of Dreams,” a solo exhibition from Ugandan artist Ian Mwesiga, is on view 9/17-10/29.

Ours is a city that is getting increasingly widespread attention for its gallery scene, and West Town specifically is quickly emerging as Chicago’s emergent gallery district. Mariane Ibrahim Gallery’s location at Paulina and Hubbard is a stone’s throw from the Monique Meloche Gallery and just a short walk to Chicago Avenue, i.e. “gallery row,” now home to the “Grand Dame’s” eponymous Rhona Hoffman Gallery, PATRON—all of which Ibrahim noted as galleries she admired in her ARTNews interview—ARC Gallery, and so many more. 

Now having had a presence in Chicago for three years, and in the midst of increasing coverage of Chicago’s art scene, Ibrahim said she still feels like Chicago has been the best decision for her gallery and program. 

“The city has not failed to continue to garner the gallery’s vision, while also continuing to be a key advocate for the importance of culture,” Ibrahim told me via email. 

Neely moved to Chicago from Oklahoma, “a very conservative space.”

“I felt like I was the only dark-skinned person in [my work] department and surrounding departments on faculty,” she said. “And during that time COVID really hit, and we started isolating, and then George Floyd was murdered, and I’m kind of feeling like I’m on an island . . . I came to Chicago not knowing a lot about it—just knowing that there was an arts community and that there were some really successful people who kind of built a practice there and then stayed for a long time, and I thought that must mean something.”

In the same 2019 interview with ARTNews about her move to Chicago, Ibrahim also noted the sense of community within Chicago’s art scene as a factor in her decision. When I asked her how she perceives that community now, she said the same sense of congeniality continues.

“We continue to embrace each other, in ways you don’t see in other cities,” she said via email. “It is common for dealers to have dinner, to attend one another’s openings, to recommend clients and visitors to each other’s spaces. We emphasize our success is each other’s success, it is a fluidity that attracts people to Chicago, and what the city stands for.”

Neither Neely nor Sheppard were officially represented by Ibrahim at the time of their group show in Paris. Now they both are. And when Ibrahim’s official representation of Neely was announced in late March of this year, Neely once again spoke of the community in Chicago that attracted both her and Ibrahim.

“Mariane and I both took major leaps of faith investing in this city as transplants, and have found so much support and community here,” she said in an internal press release. “It’s truly energizing to be aligned in this way. I’m excited to continue expanding with the gallery in our growth outside of this space, but there’s something that feels really special about having an anchor together in Chicago.”

“Carmen is poetic,” Ibrahim said via email. “She has an ability to express emotive energy through strokes, color and composition in a way that is esoteric, and beautiful. We are thrilled to have her in our program, and as our first local Chicago artist.”

When I spoke with Neely for this piece, she had just returned to the States after a seven-week stint in Europe, including Paris. I shared with her Ibrahim’s quote that originally inspired me, about Chicago as the capital of America.

“Especially since I’m just coming from this seven-week long stint in Paris and in Europe, which is a space in which she grew up in and was from . . . I understand maybe in this moment that particular contrast that’s resonating with her that maybe I wouldn’t have in the same way if I hadn’t just had this experience,” Neely said. 

“I understand the contrast between Chicago and Paris and how they actually work interestingly together. The fact that she has galleries in these two cities that have these very different feelings . . . it feels very balanced in a way. And . . . Mariane has mentioned to me how she also feels like she hasn’t been in Chicago for very many years, but it’s a home to her, too.”

Throughout her time in Europe, Neely journaled. She sees writing as a natural extension of her painting practice, which is not only an exercise in documenting, but translating. 

“When you’re in a space that is unfamiliar or you’re confronted by people’s interpretation of you . . . that is something that [we’re] not necessarily used to living with every day, you suddenly have this heightened sense of awareness of new things about yourself and other people. That inevitably, I think, stimulates growth, but also makes you become even more aware of the ways that you live day-to-day in the familiar space that you occupy.”

For now, and hopefully for always, Neely and Ibrahim both occupy Chicago. 

“Really just in two years I’m like, ‘I’m sure that this is the place that I should be and I want to be,’” Neely said. “And I am so excited and energized by the spirit of the arts community in Chicago.”

Neely’s first gallery solo exhibition will take place in Chicago at the Mariane Ibrahim Gallery during Spring/Summer 2023.

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Last Sunday, the Chicago Bears‘ season-opening victory over the San Francisco 49ers was an upset that started to change the narrative surrounding the team.

Entering the game last Sunday, the talk was that the Bears would be one of the worst teams in the NFL this season.

While one game is certainly a small sample size, the Bears’ performance last Sunday seemed to suggest that the team will be a much more competitive team this season than originally expected.

With the forecasted weather conditions for the Bears’ game against the 49ers, the expectation was that running back David Montgomery would solidify the idea that the offense will be run through his legs this season.

Montgomery did manage to be effective in pass protection in the Bears’ victory last Sunday but the fourth-year running back only managed 26 rushing yards on 17 attempts.

Under new offensive coordinator Luke Getsy, the Bears have shifted to a zone-running scheme and there were offseason questions as to how Montgomery would fit into the scheme.

Those questions remain after Week 1 and could force the Bears to make a change at the running back position.

Backup running back Khalil Herbert thrived in his playing time in the Bears’ opener. Against the 49ers last Sunday, Herbert rushed for 45 yards and a touchdown on 9 carries.

While the Bears certainly won’t be making a switch at the running back position this week, it certainly is a situation that is worth monitoring.

Khalil Herbert could soon force a big change in the Chicago Bears backfield.

Montgomery is in the final year of his rookie contract with the Bears. Much like the situation with linebacker Roquan Smith, the Bears first want to see how Montgomery fits within the new regime before deciding whether or not to bring the running back after this season.

History is not on Montgomery’s side. The shelf life of a running back in the NFL, outside of the running backs in the elite tier, is not kind to the player.

As such, the wise business decision for NFL teams without a running back in the elite tier is to always let the rookie contract of their current running back play out and then draft their replacement.

The Bears drafted Montgomery’s likely replacement last year in Herbert. Before Herbert can solidify his position as the next starting running back for the Bears, there are areas in his game he will need to address.

Particularly, Herbert needs to be better in pass protection. However, if he continues to be the more effective running back on the field for the Bears, a change in that position is very likely.

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It’s a fool’s exercise, listing the Chicago theaters that have come and gone over the past quarter century. I tried but gave up when I hit 24 at 17 years in. From Angel Island to Zebra Crossing, it’s a list that speaks to the ephemeral nature of both the art form and the waves of artists that come and go in a brutal business. 

Then there’s Northlight Theatre, launched in 1974 by Northwestern grad student Gregory Kandel, whose final thesis—as Northlight’s artistic director B.J. Jones remembers it—essentially required him to create an Equity theater from scratch. 

Actor Mike Nussbaum (please take a moment to google if you do not know this name) served as artistic director in the early days of the then-named Evanston Theatre, which found a home at Evanston’s Coronet movie theater. 

But the Coronet was razed years ago, and for the past 25 years, Northlight Theatre (recollections vary as to when the name changed) has been a tenant in Skokie’s North Shore Center for the Performing Arts. Its next 25 years are hinged on its pending move back to downtown Evanston. 

After five years in the works, plans seem to be falling together. This summer saw the demolition of a long-vacant Thai restaurant on the 87,500-square-foot parcel at 1012-16 Church Street where Jones plans to build the new Northlight, a three-story building slated to start construction in October 2023. 

But new construction is hardly the only building driving Northlight’s Evanston-based endeavors. The theater’s teaching artists and educators have spent years building connections with Evanston, tending the theater’s local roots even as its brick-and-mortar presence remained out of town. 

“We don’t have a conservatory. We don’t teach acting to professionals. Our programming is about helping people use theater in everyday life,” says Christina Lepri-Stringer, Northlight’s director of education and community engagement. 

By the theater’s count, outreach efforts engaged some 4,000 people in 2021, including hundreds of students from Evanston’s public schools through programs ranging from playmaking workshops in elementary school classrooms to creative writing classes for grandparents. 

“If you’re not engaging with your community as a theater, you’re a tourist attraction. And those are great, but that’s not who we are,” says Jones, an Evanston resident of over 30 years who took on the artistic director’s position in 1998, just as the theater moved to Skokie. “Theater as civic engagement. It’s a concept that goes back to the Greeks.” 

Meeting the ideals of ancient Greece will be easier when your theater is within a block of the el and the Metra stations, something Northlight has lacked since it moved to Skokie. From the Loop, you’d need at least an hour and a transfer to get close enough to the North Shore Center to walk the final blocks, which include a heavily trafficked intersection that has proven extremely hazardous for pedestrians in the past.

“We’re looking at a time when the next generation doesn’t have, doesn’t want, cars. So moving right next to the el is a big, big deal in making theater more accessible to more people,” says Jones. 

He’s also keen to run his own box office and autonomously schedule the season’s programming. Northlight is the Center’s official resident company, but its schedule must accommodate other North Shore Center tenants who use the same space the theater does. 

But frustrations with scheduling and box office transit haven’t dimmed Northlight’s attempts to engage. The company is now in its fourth year working with the Evanston Scholars program, wherein Evanston Township High School juniors apply to join a multiyear program aimed at helping them navigate the process of applying to college, then college itself, and ultimately the transition to the working world. 

Northlight’s teaching artists have been crucial toward helping students succeed in college and beyond, says program director Demisha Lee. 

“Folks might wonder how a theater artist can help with the college process. They can help with everything—how to use your voice in an admission interview. How to meet new people, how to deal with roommates,” Lee says. 

“I’ve seen students on the quieter side realize they could speak up, talk loudly, even talk to a stranger, and get through it. We’re about to launch these students into a whole new world, and the teaching artists make a space where they prepare for that in a way,” Lee adds. 

It’s a two-way street, says Lepri-Stringer, who began her career with Evanston’s Mudlark Theater. Some of her work at Northlight involved the Grandmothers Raising Grandchildren group, which is offered through the Levy Senior Center in Evanston. 

“When I taught that class—no, taught isn’t the right word. When I facilitated that class I remember being intimidated walking in, wondering what I could possibly teach people who had so much more life experience than me,” Lepri-Stringer says.

“I was humbled by the life stories these individuals were willing to share. And it wasn’t about crafting a perfect scene or plot. It was more about opening a room where they could write and thankfully present feedback to each other.”

Northlight artistic director B.J. Jones (left) and executive director Timothy Evans. Courtesy Northlight Theatre

On Church Street, Jones and Northlight executive director Timothy Evans envision a home where classroom space is available for seniors and students alike, where concerts and TED talks light up dark nights, and meeting rooms turn the place into a community hub. 

The theater will reportedly generate an eye-popping $56 million within five years of completion, according to a financial study done by Hunden Strategic Partners. That figure includes everything from a year’s worth of construction work to an uptick in nearby dining, Evans says. The city stands to benefit as well, to the tune of some $644,000 in increased local tax revenues, according to the Hunden study. 

Northlight has raised roughly half of the $25 million capital campaign it needs to complete construction, but the theater’s opening isn’t projected until 2024. Before the pandemic, community resistance derailed initial plans for a theater inside a 37-story building on Sherman Avenue. Northlight returned in 2019 with plans for the Church Street address.

The building designed by Eckenhoff Saunders includes rehearsal rooms, community rooms, a 300-seat thrust theater, and no condos. (The Barn Steakhouse, an upscale eatery located on an alley that borders the property’s southern edge, remains in place.) Evanston’s city council signed off in April 2019. Everything was on track—until it wasn’t. 

“When the pandemic hit, of course, we put all that on the back burner. The priority became surviving,” Evans says. Now, the focus is expanding back to include building. In April, Evanston awarded Northlight $2 million toward the move from its $43 million in federal pandemic relief money.

Lee has high hopes as well for the future of her young scholars.  

“I see the difference the teaching artists can make. You see the scholars at the beginning of the day and the end, and you can tell something’s been shaken loose. They’re more open. We get a lot of tickets for them too, and that’s wonderful. Having a building right here where they can access that theater—that’s going to make a difference.”

Read More

It’s a fool’s exercise, listing the Chicago theaters that have come and gone over the past quarter century. I tried but gave up when I hit 24 at 17 years in. From Angel Island to Zebra Crossing, it’s a list that speaks to the ephemeral nature of both the art form and the waves of artists that come and go in a brutal business. 

Then there’s Northlight Theatre, launched in 1974 by Northwestern grad student Gregory Kandel, whose final thesis—as Northlight’s artistic director B.J. Jones remembers it—essentially required him to create an Equity theater from scratch. 

Actor Mike Nussbaum (please take a moment to google if you do not know this name) served as artistic director in the early days of the then-named Evanston Theatre, which found a home at Evanston’s Coronet movie theater. 

But the Coronet was razed years ago, and for the past 25 years, Northlight Theatre (recollections vary as to when the name changed) has been a tenant in Skokie’s North Shore Center for the Performing Arts. Its next 25 years are hinged on its pending move back to downtown Evanston. 

After five years in the works, plans seem to be falling together. This summer saw the demolition of a long-vacant Thai restaurant on the 87,500-square-foot parcel at 1012-16 Church Street where Jones plans to build the new Northlight, a three-story building slated to start construction in October 2023. 

But new construction is hardly the only building driving Northlight’s Evanston-based endeavors. The theater’s teaching artists and educators have spent years building connections with Evanston, tending the theater’s local roots even as its brick-and-mortar presence remained out of town. 

“We don’t have a conservatory. We don’t teach acting to professionals. Our programming is about helping people use theater in everyday life,” says Christina Lepri-Stringer, Northlight’s director of education and community engagement. 

By the theater’s count, outreach efforts engaged some 4,000 people in 2021, including hundreds of students from Evanston’s public schools through programs ranging from playmaking workshops in elementary school classrooms to creative writing classes for grandparents. 

“If you’re not engaging with your community as a theater, you’re a tourist attraction. And those are great, but that’s not who we are,” says Jones, an Evanston resident of over 30 years who took on the artistic director’s position in 1998, just as the theater moved to Skokie. “Theater as civic engagement. It’s a concept that goes back to the Greeks.” 

Meeting the ideals of ancient Greece will be easier when your theater is within a block of the el and the Metra stations, something Northlight has lacked since it moved to Skokie. From the Loop, you’d need at least an hour and a transfer to get close enough to the North Shore Center to walk the final blocks, which include a heavily trafficked intersection that has proven extremely hazardous for pedestrians in the past.

“We’re looking at a time when the next generation doesn’t have, doesn’t want, cars. So moving right next to the el is a big, big deal in making theater more accessible to more people,” says Jones. 

He’s also keen to run his own box office and autonomously schedule the season’s programming. Northlight is the Center’s official resident company, but its schedule must accommodate other North Shore Center tenants who use the same space the theater does. 

But frustrations with scheduling and box office transit haven’t dimmed Northlight’s attempts to engage. The company is now in its fourth year working with the Evanston Scholars program, wherein Evanston Township High School juniors apply to join a multiyear program aimed at helping them navigate the process of applying to college, then college itself, and ultimately the transition to the working world. 

Northlight’s teaching artists have been crucial toward helping students succeed in college and beyond, says program director Demisha Lee. 

“Folks might wonder how a theater artist can help with the college process. They can help with everything—how to use your voice in an admission interview. How to meet new people, how to deal with roommates,” Lee says. 

“I’ve seen students on the quieter side realize they could speak up, talk loudly, even talk to a stranger, and get through it. We’re about to launch these students into a whole new world, and the teaching artists make a space where they prepare for that in a way,” Lee adds. 

It’s a two-way street, says Lepri-Stringer, who began her career with Evanston’s Mudlark Theater. Some of her work at Northlight involved the Grandmothers Raising Grandchildren group, which is offered through the Levy Senior Center in Evanston. 

“When I taught that class—no, taught isn’t the right word. When I facilitated that class I remember being intimidated walking in, wondering what I could possibly teach people who had so much more life experience than me,” Lepri-Stringer says.

“I was humbled by the life stories these individuals were willing to share. And it wasn’t about crafting a perfect scene or plot. It was more about opening a room where they could write and thankfully present feedback to each other.”

Northlight artistic director B.J. Jones (left) and executive director Timothy Evans. Courtesy Northlight Theatre

On Church Street, Jones and Northlight executive director Timothy Evans envision a home where classroom space is available for seniors and students alike, where concerts and TED talks light up dark nights, and meeting rooms turn the place into a community hub. 

The theater will reportedly generate an eye-popping $56 million within five years of completion, according to a financial study done by Hunden Strategic Partners. That figure includes everything from a year’s worth of construction work to an uptick in nearby dining, Evans says. The city stands to benefit as well, to the tune of some $644,000 in increased local tax revenues, according to the Hunden study. 

Northlight has raised roughly half of the $25 million capital campaign it needs to complete construction, but the theater’s opening isn’t projected until 2024. Before the pandemic, community resistance derailed initial plans for a theater inside a 37-story building on Sherman Avenue. Northlight returned in 2019 with plans for the Church Street address.

The building designed by Eckenhoff Saunders includes rehearsal rooms, community rooms, a 300-seat thrust theater, and no condos. (The Barn Steakhouse, an upscale eatery located on an alley that borders the property’s southern edge, remains in place.) Evanston’s city council signed off in April 2019. Everything was on track—until it wasn’t. 

“When the pandemic hit, of course, we put all that on the back burner. The priority became surviving,” Evans says. Now, the focus is expanding back to include building. In April, Evanston awarded Northlight $2 million toward the move from its $43 million in federal pandemic relief money.

Lee has high hopes as well for the future of her young scholars.  

“I see the difference the teaching artists can make. You see the scholars at the beginning of the day and the end, and you can tell something’s been shaken loose. They’re more open. We get a lot of tickets for them too, and that’s wonderful. Having a building right here where they can access that theater—that’s going to make a difference.”

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Comedian, author, and volunteer ambulance driver Chris Gethard may be a fully Boylan-blooded New Jerseyan, but he’s not shy about the extent to which his improv and stand-up DNA has been imprinted by the comedy scene here in Chicago.

“Years ago, I was booked to host a stage at Lollapalooza,” remembers Gethard as we talk, ahead of his back-to-back stand-up and live podcast recording shows next month at The Hideout. “I stopped by The Annoyance to see what was on, and it was The Holy Fuck Comedy Hour. It was Conner O’Malley, John Reynolds, Carmen Christopher, Gary Richardson, Annie Donley,”most of whom went on to contribute to The Chris Gethard Show in one form or another after moving out to New York during the late-night variety show’s formidable run. “That Chicago influence was really heavy on my show. It’s one of my favorite cities to perform in.”

The storyteller and comic gained mainstream visibility with his critically-acclaimed 2016 solo show Career Suicide—a frank, funny, and challenging monologue that laid bare his lifelong relationship with mental health crises—and as a standout talking head in Seth Porges and Chris Charles Scott III’s hit 2020 documentary Class Action Park. But for those in the know, Gethard, now 42, has been a prominent fixture of the alt comedy scene and a Pied Piper of punky weirdos for nearly two decades. 

Chris GethardSat 10/8: Beautiful/Anonymous taping 7 PM, stand-up set 9 PM, the Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia, 773-227-4433, hideoutchicago.com, $20 ($30 both shows)

Following a multiyear run at New York’s now-defunct Upright Citizens Brigade, The Chris Gethard Show became a rebellious, inventive, sometimes anarchic Wednesday night Manhattan public access television staple (eventually picked up for a multi-platform, multi-season cable hinterlands cult run) that featured call-in segments, musical guests, characters, games, sketches, and the sort of laidback, uninhibited, sometimes unhinged conversation that felt like an early hangout podcast or a midnight improv set. It served as a revolving door of upcoming talent and—just as importantly—a test-range comedy hub that made New York feel smaller and the improv nerd community feel bigger.

“When I look at my work, and I look at the stuff people have responded to the most, if I’m being honest, I’ve spent a lot of my life feeling very alone, very much like I’m living in my own head,” says Gethard, “And I think a lot of the stuff that I’ve done has kind of appealed to other people who feel that same way.” Stuffed with more bodies than could fit in frame in any given shot, TCGS was a full house both literally and in its programming, featuring no fewer than a half dozen gags or threads or inside jokes to cut away to or introduce at any given moment. And, for Gethard, most of them involved pushing himself or others outside their comfort zone.     

“Back in my old public access days, I felt really compelled to, you know, hire a kickboxer to come beat me up on TV. See what the crowd thinks of that. Do stuff that put me in harm’s way, stuff that made people uncomfortable. Definitely, you know, some Andy Kaufman in there. Definitely some David Letterman in there. Like, let’s just shake it up. See how they deal with it.” Even during the show’s earnest, character-breaking 100th episode celebration, the cast delivered teary-eyed heartfelt testimonials to one another under the headphone duress of a Speech Jammer that added a comedic, gently humiliating wrench in the feels.

Now married to longtime collaborator Hallie Bulleit, living in the New Jersey suburbs, and the father of a three-and-a-half-year-old, Gethard’s work has adopted a stripped-down but still raw sense of risk, both in his stand-up and the Beautiful/Anonymous podcast, where unnamed callers have an organic, uninterrupted or edited chat about whatever is on their mind. A woman in Canada plans a wedding. Foster parents discuss the emotional maturity necessary to live in a state of uncertainty. A woman in the midwest prepares to turn herself in to federal prison. A barber talks cowlicks and says hey. Even though the one-on-one form of the podcast is a complete 180 from TCGS’s carousel of madness, the heart of intimacy, authenticity, and risk is the same. 

“Beautiful/Anonymous has been so empowering to me. I think listeners often feel empowered because they get a platform, but I actually feel like it’s kind of released me from some of the more gross, ego-driven sides of comedy. I’m able to let that attention go. So, a lot of that is just because I wound up in this project where it asked me to prioritize listening more than talking. And the long version of that is, it asked me to prioritize other people over myself.” 

Part of the brilliance and bravery of Beautiful/Anonymous, like Gethard’s stand-up, is a willingness to let reality breathe a little, to favor authenticity over airtightness. “What I’ve noticed is a lot of times, when people call up, they have a little bit of an outline that they’ve gone over in their head, right? I think sometimes it’s actually been very cathartic for people to realize, like, ‘Oh, you called up, and you want to tell me about something that caused great trauma in your life, and it didn’t even fill an hour.’ Isn’t that kind of an encouraging thought?” Often, that format translates to the caller vocalizing the most pressing issue of their lives, feeling a bit lighter, and then engaging in a more truly off-the-cuff, in-the-moment conversation.

And if that sounds like it might get a little boring sometimes: yes. And that’s OK.  

“There’s this idea out there [that] it’s a lot braver to be boring onstage than exciting all the time. With those boring moments, it can be pretty intimidating. You can feel the crowd’s restlessness, but, if you can push through them, you might get something pretty great on the other side that’s not going to be dominated by this desperate need to make sure everybody’s doing great all the time. 

“In fact, some of my happiest moments are the moments where I’m most bored, because it means there’s no drama in my life. It means that there’s no worries. It means that my to-do list isn’t running over, and I’m not dropping the ball and stuff. Being boring is actually, oftentimes, a reflection that things are going well. I’ve lived through a lot of excitement. It was my 20s and 30s. Now? Boring feels awesome.”

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Comedian, author, and volunteer ambulance driver Chris Gethard may be a fully Boylan-blooded New Jerseyan, but he’s not shy about the extent to which his improv and stand-up DNA has been imprinted by the comedy scene here in Chicago.

“Years ago, I was booked to host a stage at Lollapalooza,” remembers Gethard as we talk, ahead of his back-to-back stand-up and live podcast recording shows next month at The Hideout. “I stopped by The Annoyance to see what was on, and it was The Holy Fuck Comedy Hour. It was Conner O’Malley, John Reynolds, Carmen Christopher, Gary Richardson, Annie Donley,”most of whom went on to contribute to The Chris Gethard Show in one form or another after moving out to New York during the late-night variety show’s formidable run. “That Chicago influence was really heavy on my show. It’s one of my favorite cities to perform in.”

The storyteller and comic gained mainstream visibility with his critically-acclaimed 2016 solo show Career Suicide—a frank, funny, and challenging monologue that laid bare his lifelong relationship with mental health crises—and as a standout talking head in Seth Porges and Chris Charles Scott III’s hit 2020 documentary Class Action Park. But for those in the know, Gethard, now 42, has been a prominent fixture of the alt comedy scene and a Pied Piper of punky weirdos for nearly two decades. 

Chris GethardSat 10/8: Beautiful/Anonymous taping 7 PM, stand-up set 9 PM, the Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia, 773-227-4433, hideoutchicago.com, $20 ($30 both shows)

Following a multiyear run at New York’s now-defunct Upright Citizens Brigade, The Chris Gethard Show became a rebellious, inventive, sometimes anarchic Wednesday night Manhattan public access television staple (eventually picked up for a multi-platform, multi-season cable hinterlands cult run) that featured call-in segments, musical guests, characters, games, sketches, and the sort of laidback, uninhibited, sometimes unhinged conversation that felt like an early hangout podcast or a midnight improv set. It served as a revolving door of upcoming talent and—just as importantly—a test-range comedy hub that made New York feel smaller and the improv nerd community feel bigger.

“When I look at my work, and I look at the stuff people have responded to the most, if I’m being honest, I’ve spent a lot of my life feeling very alone, very much like I’m living in my own head,” says Gethard, “And I think a lot of the stuff that I’ve done has kind of appealed to other people who feel that same way.” Stuffed with more bodies than could fit in frame in any given shot, TCGS was a full house both literally and in its programming, featuring no fewer than a half dozen gags or threads or inside jokes to cut away to or introduce at any given moment. And, for Gethard, most of them involved pushing himself or others outside their comfort zone.     

“Back in my old public access days, I felt really compelled to, you know, hire a kickboxer to come beat me up on TV. See what the crowd thinks of that. Do stuff that put me in harm’s way, stuff that made people uncomfortable. Definitely, you know, some Andy Kaufman in there. Definitely some David Letterman in there. Like, let’s just shake it up. See how they deal with it.” Even during the show’s earnest, character-breaking 100th episode celebration, the cast delivered teary-eyed heartfelt testimonials to one another under the headphone duress of a Speech Jammer that added a comedic, gently humiliating wrench in the feels.

Now married to longtime collaborator Hallie Bulleit, living in the New Jersey suburbs, and the father of a three-and-a-half-year-old, Gethard’s work has adopted a stripped-down but still raw sense of risk, both in his stand-up and the Beautiful/Anonymous podcast, where unnamed callers have an organic, uninterrupted or edited chat about whatever is on their mind. A woman in Canada plans a wedding. Foster parents discuss the emotional maturity necessary to live in a state of uncertainty. A woman in the midwest prepares to turn herself in to federal prison. A barber talks cowlicks and says hey. Even though the one-on-one form of the podcast is a complete 180 from TCGS’s carousel of madness, the heart of intimacy, authenticity, and risk is the same. 

“Beautiful/Anonymous has been so empowering to me. I think listeners often feel empowered because they get a platform, but I actually feel like it’s kind of released me from some of the more gross, ego-driven sides of comedy. I’m able to let that attention go. So, a lot of that is just because I wound up in this project where it asked me to prioritize listening more than talking. And the long version of that is, it asked me to prioritize other people over myself.” 

Part of the brilliance and bravery of Beautiful/Anonymous, like Gethard’s stand-up, is a willingness to let reality breathe a little, to favor authenticity over airtightness. “What I’ve noticed is a lot of times, when people call up, they have a little bit of an outline that they’ve gone over in their head, right? I think sometimes it’s actually been very cathartic for people to realize, like, ‘Oh, you called up, and you want to tell me about something that caused great trauma in your life, and it didn’t even fill an hour.’ Isn’t that kind of an encouraging thought?” Often, that format translates to the caller vocalizing the most pressing issue of their lives, feeling a bit lighter, and then engaging in a more truly off-the-cuff, in-the-moment conversation.

And if that sounds like it might get a little boring sometimes: yes. And that’s OK.  

“There’s this idea out there [that] it’s a lot braver to be boring onstage than exciting all the time. With those boring moments, it can be pretty intimidating. You can feel the crowd’s restlessness, but, if you can push through them, you might get something pretty great on the other side that’s not going to be dominated by this desperate need to make sure everybody’s doing great all the time. 

“In fact, some of my happiest moments are the moments where I’m most bored, because it means there’s no drama in my life. It means that there’s no worries. It means that my to-do list isn’t running over, and I’m not dropping the ball and stuff. Being boring is actually, oftentimes, a reflection that things are going well. I’ve lived through a lot of excitement. It was my 20s and 30s. Now? Boring feels awesome.”

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The Chicago Bears pulled out a stunning win over the San Francisco 49ers last weekend. They found a way to win a football game under less-than-ideal conditions. They looked bad in the first half but they came back and earned a huge victory.

Now, the Bears are preparing for a huge game against the Green Bay Packers on primetime television. In the meantime, the Bears can learn a lot from watching Thursday night’s game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Chargers.

This is a marquee matchup in the NFL right now as you get two very good teams led by two very good quarterbacks that know how to make some explosive plays.

Patrick Mahomes and Justin Herbert are very good players that can impact a game as much as any player in the entire league. At this point, they are both top-five quarterbacks.

The Chicago Bears can learn a lot from the Thursday Night Football game.

In particular, Justin Fields can learn a lot from watching these two. Patrick Mahomes came into the NFL and had success right away in terms of both stats and wins. Justin Herbert, however, has the stats to back up how good he is but the wins haven’t been there in bunches as a result.

Fields can learn from both of them because of this. From Mahomes, he always finds a way to win a football game no matter how he does it. There are times when he needs to look like a superstar and there are times when he just needs to be smart.

From Herbert, there were a few things to take away. For one, he knows how to play well despite his team around him needing to improve. That is something that Justin Fields is going to have to deal with.

Secondly, Herbert was also injured during this game but he didn’t come out. Obviously, he is tough enough to stick it out as he was desperately needed. Fields can learn how to deal with some issues to be there for his teammates.

No elite quarterback in the league right now feels amazing all the time. You just have to battle through. That ability was on full display for both of them in this game but especially Herbert late.

It should also be noted that neither team got off to a great start in the football game. That is something that is going to happen to the Bears’ offense from time to time. How both quarterbacks dealt with it in this game is something that Fields can take away.

Not only can Fields learn from that, but the coaches and rest of the players also can. This is a very hard league to play in and you have to learn how to deal with the ups and downs that you face.

This was a great game that the Kansas City Chiefs barely pulled out in the end. We can only hope that these two continue to put on tremendous battles for years to come.

It would be nice to see the Chicago Bears eventually get on this level because it is amazing to watch. There is a lot to learn from them.

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2022 has been an incredibly hard year for the Chicago White Sox. They came in with World Series expectations but it just hasn’t gone their way for most of the year. There have been injuries, bad play from certain players, and horrid managing all year long.

With that in mind, the White Sox are not dead yet. However, it wasn’t more than a few days ago that they looked like they were done. The 2022 White Sox always finds a way to pull people back into thinking they have a chance right after it looks over.

A few weeks ago, they were swept by the Arizona Diamondbacks and it looked like they were so done. The 2023 MLB Draft looked more enticing than the 2022 postseason. Then, Tony La Russa left with a medical issue and they went on a run with Miguel Cairo.

Despite going 5-2 on a seven-game road trip, the team they trail in the Cleveland Guardians also stayed hot. Because of a few games in hand, they even gained some ground on the White Sox during that hot streak. It started to make the season feel all but finished.

The Chicago White Sox keep finding ways to make it seem like they have a chance.

Things got even worse when the White Sox were defeated on Wednesday by the lowly Colorado Rockies. Games like that happen but the circumstances made it feel much worse. With the Guardians getting a win on the same day, the deficit in the division became 4.0 games.

Once again, the White Sox seemed to be dead. However, the Sox and Guardians had a makeup game on Thursday. Lance Lynn pitched well and the offense showed up to get the White Sox a big win. The deficit is back down to 3.0 games and they have 3 more with the Guardians next week.

That series is going to be extremely important but they have to go through this weekend series with the very bad Detroit Tigers. Honestly, getting a three-game sweep over them is something that should be considered a must.

It is important for the White Sox to keep winning but it would also be nice to see them get some help from the opponents of the Cleveland Guardians. That hasn’t really happened over the last week or so but there is no better time for it to start happening than now.

The point of this all is that the White Sox just won’t die in 2022. They keep reeling people back in every single time that they appear to have no chance. It is good because they aren’t giving up but it would be nice to see them finally get in first place and stay there.

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