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Curam Business Analyst(s)RedMane Technology LLC seeks Curam Business Analyst(s) in Chicago, IL to gather requirements & perform Fit/Gap Analysis to determine best design approach based on out of the box functionality. May require to travel/telecommute. Email resume to [email protected]; reference job code D7038-00088. E.O.E.

Caregiver Responsibilities:Assisting with personal care, Following a prescribed healthcare plan, Ensuring my Mother home is organized according to her needs. Providing mobility assistance may be required, for example helping my Mother with her motorized wheelchair, appointments, grocery. Meal and watch over. Work Schedule is 5 days a week and 5 hours per day. Salary is $26/hr. Contact by email Daniel ([email protected]) for more details.

DePaul University seeks Intermediate ERP Business/Analyst Developers for various & unanticipated worksites throughout the U.S. (HQ: Chicago, IL) to analyze & design ERP sw applications in client/server & web-based enterprise application environment. Bachelor’s in Comp Sci, Info Sys/Tech or Computer/Computational field or related field +3yrs exp req’d. Req’d skills: Exp in higher edu environment analyzing, designing, testing ERP, incl SDLC, PeopleSoft sw apps, PeopleSoft data mining, working w/ customers to analyze req’s, Oracle Server, SQL, Application Engine, .NET, JSON, web service integrations, HTML, XML, XSLT, CSS, UI Design, PL/SQL, Visual Studio, C#, SQR, COBOL. Telecommuting permitted. Send resume to: I. Savage, 1 East Jackson, Chicago, IL 60604

DePaul University seeks Instructors for Chicago, IL location to teach courses to undergrad & grad students in translation & interpreting foreign languages. Master’s in Linguistics or Foreign Language or Literature +2yrs exp req’d. Req’d skills: must have specialization in translation, interpretation, incl advising/mentoring students & dev courses; must have proficiency in at least 1 language in addition to English & Spanish. Please submit a CV, cover letter, & names of 3 references. Send resume to: K. Grublesky, REF: ES, LPC, 990 W. Fullerton Ave., Ste 4200, Chicago, IL 60614

NextCapital Group, Inc. is seeking a Software Engineer 3 in Chicago, IL to implement & perform a variety of tests by utilizing testing frameworks. Please email resume to [email protected] & ref 051794. Can telecommute up to 100% from any location in the U.S.

Rethink Ed is bidding on RFP #22-237 for Chicago Public Schools. We are looking for possible M/WBE suppliers to provide professional development for Special Education, SEL, Mental Health and MTSS. If you are interested in this opportunity, contact us via email at [email protected]

RENTALS & REAL ESTATE

Authentic German Bar-Restaurant for Sale. Established 30 years in beautiful Dubuque, Iowa. $294K Call Joe at 563-588-0361. Hate to give it up, it’s been good to me. Includes the building with living quarters above. Come out and see it.

PROFESSIONALS & SERVICES

CLEANING SERVICES CHESTNUT ORGANIZING AND CLEANING SERVICES: especially for people who need an organizing service because of depression, elderly, physical or mental challenges or other causes for your home’s clutter, disorganization, dysfunction, etc. We can organize for the downsizing of your current possessions to more easily move into a smaller home. With your help, we can help to organize your move. We can organize and clean for the deceased in lieu of having the bereaved needing to do the preparation to sell or rent the deceased’s home. We are absolutely not judgmental; we’ve seen and done “worse” than your job assignment. With your help, can we please help you? Chestnut Cleaning Service: 312-332-5575. www.ChestnutCleaning.com

LEGAL NOTICE

NOTICE OF PUBLIC SALE OF PERSONAL PROPERTYNotice is hereby given that pursuant to Section 4 of the Self-Storage Facility Act, State of Illinois, that Chicago Northside Storage – Lakeview /Western Ave Storage LLC will conduct sale(s) at www.storagetreasures.com by competitive bidding starting on August 10th and end on August 17th @ 12:00pm on the premises where property has been stored, which are located at Chicago Northside Storage 2946 N Western Ave. Chicago, IL 60618. 773-305-4000. In the matter of the personal property for the individual listed below, Chicago Northside Storage – Lakeview. H05 Cian Omahony, M13 Brian A Doherty, o06 Greg Parker, P01 Lisa Edgerton, P26 Cian Omahony, P34 Tyran Greer, Z61 Paul Odoom, CC45 David Christian. Purchases must be made with cash only and paid at the time of sale’s redemption. All goods are sold as is and must be removed at the time of purchase. Sale is subjected to adjournment.

RESEARCH

Have you had an unwanted sexual experience since age 18?Did you tell someone in your life about it who is also willing to participate? Women ages 18+ who have someone else in their life they told about their experience also willing to participate will be paid to complete a confidential online research survey for the Women’s Dyadic Support Study. Contact Dr. Sarah Ullman of the University of Illinois at Chicago, Criminology, Law, & Justice Department at [email protected], 312-996-5508. Protocol #2021-0019.

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JOBS

Curam Business Analyst(s)RedMane Technology LLC seeks Curam Business Analyst(s) in Chicago, IL to gather requirements & perform Fit/Gap Analysis to determine best design approach based on out of the box functionality. May require to travel/telecommute. Email resume to [email protected]; reference job code D7038-00088. E.O.E.

Caregiver Responsibilities:Assisting with personal care, Following a prescribed healthcare plan, Ensuring my Mother home is organized according to her needs. Providing mobility assistance may be required, for example helping my Mother with her motorized wheelchair, appointments, grocery. Meal and watch over. Work Schedule is 5 days a week and 5 hours per day. Salary is $26/hr. Contact by email Daniel ([email protected]) for more details.

DePaul University seeks Intermediate ERP Business/Analyst Developers for various & unanticipated worksites throughout the U.S. (HQ: Chicago, IL) to analyze & design ERP sw applications in client/server & web-based enterprise application environment. Bachelor’s in Comp Sci, Info Sys/Tech or Computer/Computational field or related field +3yrs exp req’d. Req’d skills: Exp in higher edu environment analyzing, designing, testing ERP, incl SDLC, PeopleSoft sw apps, PeopleSoft data mining, working w/ customers to analyze req’s, Oracle Server, SQL, Application Engine, .NET, JSON, web service integrations, HTML, XML, XSLT, CSS, UI Design, PL/SQL, Visual Studio, C#, SQR, COBOL. Telecommuting permitted. Send resume to: I. Savage, 1 East Jackson, Chicago, IL 60604

DePaul University seeks Instructors for Chicago, IL location to teach courses to undergrad & grad students in translation & interpreting foreign languages. Master’s in Linguistics or Foreign Language or Literature +2yrs exp req’d. Req’d skills: must have specialization in translation, interpretation, incl advising/mentoring students & dev courses; must have proficiency in at least 1 language in addition to English & Spanish. Please submit a CV, cover letter, & names of 3 references. Send resume to: K. Grublesky, REF: ES, LPC, 990 W. Fullerton Ave., Ste 4200, Chicago, IL 60614

NextCapital Group, Inc. is seeking a Software Engineer 3 in Chicago, IL to implement & perform a variety of tests by utilizing testing frameworks. Please email resume to [email protected] & ref 051794. Can telecommute up to 100% from any location in the U.S.

Rethink Ed is bidding on RFP #22-237 for Chicago Public Schools. We are looking for possible M/WBE suppliers to provide professional development for Special Education, SEL, Mental Health and MTSS. If you are interested in this opportunity, contact us via email at [email protected]

RENTALS & REAL ESTATE

Authentic German Bar-Restaurant for Sale. Established 30 years in beautiful Dubuque, Iowa. $294K Call Joe at 563-588-0361. Hate to give it up, it’s been good to me. Includes the building with living quarters above. Come out and see it.

PROFESSIONALS & SERVICES

CLEANING SERVICES CHESTNUT ORGANIZING AND CLEANING SERVICES: especially for people who need an organizing service because of depression, elderly, physical or mental challenges or other causes for your home’s clutter, disorganization, dysfunction, etc. We can organize for the downsizing of your current possessions to more easily move into a smaller home. With your help, we can help to organize your move. We can organize and clean for the deceased in lieu of having the bereaved needing to do the preparation to sell or rent the deceased’s home. We are absolutely not judgmental; we’ve seen and done “worse” than your job assignment. With your help, can we please help you? Chestnut Cleaning Service: 312-332-5575. www.ChestnutCleaning.com

LEGAL NOTICE

NOTICE OF PUBLIC SALE OF PERSONAL PROPERTYNotice is hereby given that pursuant to Section 4 of the Self-Storage Facility Act, State of Illinois, that Chicago Northside Storage – Lakeview /Western Ave Storage LLC will conduct sale(s) at www.storagetreasures.com by competitive bidding starting on August 10th and end on August 17th @ 12:00pm on the premises where property has been stored, which are located at Chicago Northside Storage 2946 N Western Ave. Chicago, IL 60618. 773-305-4000. In the matter of the personal property for the individual listed below, Chicago Northside Storage – Lakeview. H05 Cian Omahony, M13 Brian A Doherty, o06 Greg Parker, P01 Lisa Edgerton, P26 Cian Omahony, P34 Tyran Greer, Z61 Paul Odoom, CC45 David Christian. Purchases must be made with cash only and paid at the time of sale’s redemption. All goods are sold as is and must be removed at the time of purchase. Sale is subjected to adjournment.

RESEARCH

Have you had an unwanted sexual experience since age 18?Did you tell someone in your life about it who is also willing to participate? Women ages 18+ who have someone else in their life they told about their experience also willing to participate will be paid to complete a confidential online research survey for the Women’s Dyadic Support Study. Contact Dr. Sarah Ullman of the University of Illinois at Chicago, Criminology, Law, & Justice Department at [email protected], 312-996-5508. Protocol #2021-0019.

Want to add a listing to our classifieds?

See classified advertising information at chicagoreader.com/ads.

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As the national conversation around police reform has gained momentum, the general public is slowly being introduced to the massive shortcomings of the criminal justice system. The intent of the system has never truly been to rehabilitate, and that is no more acutely apparent than when incarceration intersects with folks struggling with mental illness. Filmmaker Margaret Byrne’s new documentary Any Given Day aims to shine a spotlight on this overlooked and vulnerable population. 

Produced by Beti Films, Any Given Day follows the story of three Chicagoans struggling to succeed despite mental health challenges. As the blunt instrument of the carceral system is used as an ineffective proxy for mental health care, their troubles are compounded. 

Byrne gives a short overview of the people at the center of the film—Angela, Daniel, and Dimitar, whom she observed over eight months—and shares a little bit about each of their journeys.

“Angela is a single mother of four children, two adult children and two minor children . . . Her journey is about getting custody of her son back while trying to manage life after being incarcerated.” Byrne muses, “I think that’s something me and Angela very much have in common as single moms—when you fall apart, everything else falls apart. You are essential to the well-being of other people. I think we learned that we have to take care of ourselves. And it’s a simple lesson, but it’s also a very difficult lesson, I think, for a lot of people.”

She continues, “Daniel was homeless for years. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia in Cook County. He’s in his early 30s. And it was through the mental health court program that he got into a program that NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) runs called the Moving On Program, where you can move from a residential home into an independent apartment. And then the question is, are you getting the right services to be able to maintain your first apartment?”

She goes on to describe the third person in the film. “Dimitar immigrated here from Bulgaria as a child. He also went to UIC and graduated with a degree from UIC in anthropology. It was the summer after his graduation that he had his first manic episode. He didn’t end up getting arrested until a couple years later, and that’s what led him to the mental health court. His mom, Gina, is really central to his stability, because she’s his caregiver. And so it’s also about the toll this takes on people that care for those that are struggling with their mental illness and are in crisis.”

Filming the story of any vulnerable population requires a level of sensitivity, and Byrne took care to try to respect their stories. Byrne reflects, “You know, there are definitely times where I’d show up with the camera and not film, because it just wasn’t a good time.” Garnering that level of intimate access took time and trust, leading Byrne closer; it blurred the traditional sharply defined line between filmmaker and subject. Byrne says, “I mean, I think, for me, personally, documentary filmmaking is all about building strong relationships, particularly if you are setting out to tell somebody’s story, and they’re in a vulnerable position. And, you know, we had a lot of conversations, we spent a lot of time together, in so many ways I became their advocate.”

That necessary closeness meant that Byrne was also forced to look inward at her own personal mental health struggles. During the course of the film, the subject matter triggered her own mental health crisis, and she had to decide whether or not to include herself in the story or not. Byrne shares, “It became relevant, you know. It really became about all of us, and my intention in telling their stories was to help destigmatize mental illness. And so I felt that if I didn’t include something of myself, and my own history of mental illness, that it wouldn’t be honest, and it wouldn’t be doing the work. I worked with a wonderful editor, Liz Kaar, who really helped to direct those parts of the film and make all that make sense.”

When asked how anyone can support those struggling with mental health, and how we can strengthen the fabric of our communities, Byrne says, “I think the film shows that little things make a huge difference, you know, just to pick up the phone for somebody, even though you’re tired—I’m going to show up for this person. And that’s a decision you have to make for yourself, but I think you just can’t look away from the things that are difficult and challenging, because that’s how people slip into crises. I think when you isolate, when you’re not in contact with other people—and I think that’s another lesson in the film is that being connected to other people really is important for everybody’s mental health.”

Though the film highlights the lack of resources for mental health, there are also some lifelines for those in crisis. In July the 988 health crisis number launched nationwide, a connection to the National Suicide Prevention Hotline. When the number is dialed, instead of dialing the police, callers will be connected to trained mental health counselors at the NAMI chapter in Chicago. Additionally, NAMI offers a helpline for those seeking support and resources, including housing and legal help. NAMI can be reached at 833-626-4244.

Any Given Day will air on Thursday, September 8, at 7 PM on America Reframed on the WORLD channel. A free streaming window will be activated September 8-22 at worldchannel.org/episode/america-reframed-any-given-day/

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At 74 years old, being the third-generation owner of Central Camera Co. is the only job Albert Donald Flesch—Don to his customers—has ever known. When he watched his 123-year-old store burn down amidst the civil unrest that swept the city in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, he had one reaction: “We’re going to rebuild it and make it just as good or better.”

On the evening of May 30, 2020, the pandemic raged on without an end in sight. Confrontations between police and demonstrators had escalated, and the Loop became the scene of riots and looting. Central Camera Co. wasn’t spared. Don perched on a metal fence wrapped around a patch of grass across the street from Central Camera, near the entrance of DePaul University’s College of Computing and Digital Media, and turned on the flash of his camera. He took pictures of the scene unfolding before him until the roll of film ran out. He reached into his pocket for his phone to take a few more, only to find that its battery ran out because of the countless calls he’d received earlier about a break-in at his store while he was at his home in suburban Skokie. So he did the only thing he could do that night. He sat and watched.

Don looked on as people smashed the storefront windows and walked out with bags of valuable inventory that generations of his family had dedicated their lives to collecting and selling. He watched as black smoke billowed through the front door. And he watched as everything but the store’s vintage neon sign that read “Since 1899” in big bold neon letters went up in flames.

But Don says that as thousands of people marched through the Loop, he wasn’t angry with the demonstrators or what happened to his store. He was just upset about what enraged them in the first place: George Floyd’s murder.

When the fire trucks arrived, more than two dozen firefighters worked for hours to extinguish the blaze. In a corner of the store’s shattered storefront window, Don saw the first camera his grandfather had ever sold was still on display, flipped over on its back. It was an antique Kodak folding camera, sent back to the store years later in a box with a note from a customer who explained that his father had bought the camera for him from Don’s grandfather. As Don inched closer, a fireman warned him to keep away. Breathing in the smoke was dangerous, and the fire was still burning. He needed to create a diversion to reach in and grab it. “I said, ‘Oh, what’s that?’ And [the firefighter] turned and looked up, and I grabbed it and stuffed it under my armpit,” Don recalled, laughing at the success of his distraction.

Don snuck in every day during the week after the fire to search for family belongings and items that would help the business bounce back, such as the phone books. The floors were destroyed, the walls blackened, and the tiles in the back office so damaged that a misstep would send someone slipping through them. He searched unsuccessfully for the diary his grandfather, Albert Flesch, who founded the store, carried with him when he immigrated from Hungary to Chicago at only 13 years old. Though Don had the diary translated, copied, and distributed to the rest of the family years before, the original copy was lost in the fire.

Two years after the fire, Don stands in the store’s original location, wearing his signature black beanie, a camera perpetually hanging from his neck. Renovations aren’t completed yet, but he reopened the store out of necessity. It’s a clean slate: a white-walled warehouse that is starkly different from the crammed, vibrant time capsule of a store that once was. He glazes over some variation of the events that unfolded to curious customers several times a day, offering glimpses of the devastation the store endured. Days after the fire, the staff set up two tables on the sidewalk and talked with customers. They relocated to a temporary spot next door in November 2020. The store set up a GoFundMe campaign for the repairs and raised about $35,000 in the first hour. “Although this is a tough time for the store, it doesn’t compare to the loss of George Floyd’s life and the countless other Black lives lost,” the page says.

Central Camera Co. is from 10 AM to 2 PM Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. Carolina Sanchez

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Last Sunday, stuffed with antibiotics, numbed by painkillers, and facing a date with an oral surgeon the next morning, I made my way to the International Museum of Surgical Science for an artist’s talk by James R. Wilke.

It’s not the best way to visit this unique repository for the medical devices of yesteryear, but it did result in heightened attention to the skulls of folks who had their headaches cured by drilling holes in them, braces straight out of medieval torture chambers, and mural-sized artworks commemorating antique C-sections and amputations, blood and all. This very interesting place, housed in a 1917 landmark mansion on DuSable Lake Shore Drive, is not for the faint of heart.

“Pox Americana”Through 8/28 at the International Museum of Surgical Science, 1524 N. DuSable Lake Shore Dr., Mon-Fri 9:30 AM-5 PM, Sat-Sun 10 AM-5 PM, imss.org, $18 ($14 seniors, students, educators, and military with ID, $10 children 4-13, children under 3 free)

Wilke, a multifaceted artist—actor, singer, composer, lyricist, puppeteer, director (with a regional Emmy on his résumé), producer, miniaturist—but primarily a writer, was the museum’s spring artist-in-residence this year. Sunday’s lecture (served up with wine and a demonstration of his mellifluous baritenor) was the capstone event of his residency projects, which included the completion of a play, a novel, and the creation of an exhibit, with smallpox as a common focus. The exhibit, “Pox Americana,” up through August 28, occupies two rooms of the museum. On the main floor, it consists of a series of handsome text panels laying out the long, global history of the disease. The second room, up three flights of stairs and through a warren of galleries on the fourth floor, has more text panels, fleshed out with art and artifacts like 19th-century etchings making it clear that anti-vaxxers are nothing new.  

The parallels to COVID were top of mind from the beginning, Wilke says, though he aimed for viewers to come to that conclusion themselves: “I didn‘t want to hit them over the head with it.” But he had no way of knowing, when he started work on the residency projects in February, that another virus would soon make the subject of smallpox directly relevant.

That’s because there’s no vaccine exclusively developed for MPV, which both the World Health Organization and the Biden administration have declared a public health emergency. The two used for it are smallpox vaccines. And of those two, ACAM2000, which the U.S. had stockpiled in mass quantity, turned out to not be the safest for the population with the most monkeypox cases so far—men who have sex with men, a significant number of them dealing with HIV.

The other vaccine, Jynneos—which requires a two-shot regimen, 28 days apart—is suddenly in such high demand and short supply that, earlier this month, the U.S. government authorized cutting the dose to one-fifth of what it had been. The reduced dosage is said to be effective if injected in the skin instead of the layer of fat beneath it—a procedure also said to be more difficult to execute.

In his talk last weekend, Wilke said smallpox, which we know has been around since roughly 10,000 BC, “may have been the most deadly disease in human history,” decimating America’s Indigenous population and killing a half billion people in just the final 100 years of its long reign. Thanks to vaccination, WHO declared the world free of it in 1980, making it, Wilke says, “the first-ever globally eradicated human disease.”  

Wilke’s other residency projects include a young adult novel, Spiritania, intended to be the first in a series (it’ll have a launch at the museum November 17), and a play he wrote that’s an adaptation of Toni Morrison’s 2008 novel, A Mercy. Wilke, who once gave up a life in art for a career as a CPA, noted that Morrison’s story, set in the 17th century, tells of Africans in America who brought with them the knowledge of inoculation—the introduction of a small amount of matter from a smallpox pustule into the bloodstream—the technique that eventually led to the invention of vaccines.

But with the eradication of smallpox in the 20th century, routine vaccination for it was abandoned. The result: several generations of humanity more vulnerable than their grandparents to monkeypox.

In June, when Wilke had to finalize his text for this exhibit, he had a question: “Are we on the cusp of yet another serious pandemic from monkeypox?” He didn’t foresee, he says now, how quickly whatever he wrote then would be out of date.

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A guard came to my cell this morning and asked me if I wanted to hear a joke. Without waiting for me to reply, he said “women’s rights,” and burst out laughing.

I didn’t find it very funny at all.

June 24 was a sad day in the history of our country. The day they overturned Roe v. Wade, the day they took away an established constitutional right. They didn’t change it, they didn’t curtail it, they simply . . . took it away. Anytime our rights are stripped from us, it should be concerning to every American.

It’s the Supreme Court that’s the joke! Politics isn’t supposed to have any place in law. When you become a justice of the Supreme Court, you’re no longer a Republican or a Democrat; your duty isn’t to one party, but to the law. Previously, the Supreme Court struck down a New York law restricting concealed weapons, saying in part that “no state can make a law restricting a constitutional protection.” Then, they turn around and do the exact opposite, saying it’s up to the states to do away with constitutional protections altogether! How can you trust this Court? It’s not the Supreme Court of the United States; it’s the Republican Supreme Court.

We are hearing that these justices are originalists, which means that they take the Constitution literally, and hold only to what is in the original document. That view is extremely shortsighted, and ignores the fact that our Constitution was written 250 years ago. The country has grown and evolved, the population has grown, our morals have evolved (for some of us), so why do we insist on sticking dogmatically to the originality of 250 years ago? It seems counterintuitive that our country can evolve but our beliefs can’t.

Let me be clear: I am pro-choice. I think that a woman has the right to do with her body what she chooses. It’s not my personal business, and it certainly isn’t the government’s business! Some people feel differently, and that’s fine; in America we are all entitled to our own opinions. But one of the biggest problems I have with the pro-life movement is that it’s fundamentally a Christian religious belief. According to the very Constitution they so love to hold to, there is supposed to be separation of church and state. There are many people in this country who are not Christians, and they shouldn’t be forced to live according to the Court’s religious dictates.

The reasoning of the Supreme Court to overturn Roe was that the right to abortion was not expressly written in the Constitution, and therefore it isn’t a right! It’s a ridiculous line of reasoning. There are many rights we have that are not expressly written into the Constitution. The Constitution itself makes allowances for that. The Ninth Amendment states, “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.” But in its opinion overturning Roe, the Supreme Court is effectively saying that if a right isn’t written into the Constitution, you don’t have it.

In recent weeks, states have made their true intentions known. It’s not just abortion rights that are affected. States have proposed, passed, or implemented many restrictions that go beyond abortion: banning mail-order medication, criminalizing sharing information about abortion, and even banning librarians from using the word “abortion” in conversations with patrons. In some states, fellow citizens have been formally empowered, offered bounties, or afforded whistleblower protections for helping enforce abortion laws. This legalizes the stalking and harassment of pregnant women and medical personnel.

Most people aren’t familiar with the Comstock Act. This was federal legislation that was instituted in the 1870s. The act outlawed not just contraception but literature that contained information on preventing pregnancies. These laws actually led to raids on bookstores! Rights to privacy and free expression guaranteed by the First Amendment were considered “secondary rights” behind the right of the government to control women’s reproductive choices. With Roe overturned, we may see similar laws back on the books.

America is becoming an Orwellian “Big Brother” state. The force of law protects people who watch you, restricts your movements and even your conversations. All we’re waiting for now is a Bureau of Abortion Investigation to kick doors in. Make no mistake, it’s coming.

A class of women not often talked about are those detained in jails and prisons. We all know the horrible case of the ten-year-old rape victim in Ohio who was forced to go to another state in order to have an abortion. Incarcerated women have nowhere they can go. Barriers to abortion access in the community are amplified among women who are incarcerated. Abortions are already more difficult to obtain for people of color, those living in rural areas, and low-income individuals—and many of these same people are more likely to be incarcerated.

Access to abortion during Roe v. Wade was severely limited anyway; now, post-Roe, pregnant women in jails and prisons across the country will be forced to continue unwanted pregnancies, facing harsh birthing conditions from being shackled while giving birth, to receiving poor prenatal care.

“Denying incarcerated women access to abortion, and thereby conscripting them to carry pregnancies while being incarcerated, subjects them to, depending on where they are, potentially unsafe and harmful conditions,” Carolyn Sufrin, a researcher and associate professor of gynecology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, told NBC News in June. “This makes the case for why we shouldn’t be incarcerating pregnant women in the first place, if we’re conscripting them to conditions where they will have no say in their pregnancies and limited abilities to access the care that they need.”

There are women in jail who have been raped, and others who have been raped while they were in custody. In states where abortions are illegal, women will be forced to carry their rapists’ babies to term. People don’t often think about abortion as connected to criminal justice, when oftentimes, incarcerated people are ground zero for having their rights stripped away.

“[T]heir rights are going to stand or fall with the rights of the people in the state who aren’t incarcerated,” Alexa Kolbi-Molinas, deputy director of the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, told NBC News. “If there’s no federal protection, if there’s no state constitutional protections, and a state makes it illegal, that’s probably going to be the end of it.”

This is why it’s more important than ever that we vote. We need to codify Roe v. Wade, and do the same for same-sex marriage. We need to stem the tide of these “Big Brother”-type laws, or this may just be the beginning of the end for many of our rights!

Anthony Ehlers is a writer incarcerated at Stateville Correctional Center who contributes a regular column to the Reader.

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After COVID quashed touring for much of 2020 and 2021, we seem to have collectively agreed that anyone celebrating a significant album anniversary could do their victory lap whenever they damn well pleased. Of course, Berlin-based Canadian musician and artist Merrill Nisker has never asked for or needed anyone’s permission, not even before she dropped her 2000 debut album as Peaches on the indie scene 20 (ahem) years ago. The Teaches of Peaches stood out for its unrelenting sexual frankness and became one of the defining documents of the electroclash boom of the late 90s and early 00s; “Fuck the Pain Away” and “AA XXX” straddled the underground and mainstream to make dance floors in clubs of every caliber horny and hazardous. Defiantly filthy, sly, and playful, The Teaches of Peaches was a statement for a generation shaped by riot grrrl, homocore, and Queer Nation. Move over, cock rock—the clit is it.

Peaches has continued to push boundaries in her songwriting and in finding new ways to combine her passions for music, performance, and sexual freedom. In Berlin in 2010, she debuted her one-woman show Peaches Christ Superstar (a stripped-down spin on the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical that’s as loving and earnest as it is campy and subversive), and in 2012 she released the semi-autobiographical musical Peaches Does Herself. She also sells a signature massage oil via her website. Her sixth and most recent full-length, Rub (2015), features guest appearances by the likes of Kim Gordon and Feist, and it’s as raunchy as anything Peaches has done, holding its business open like a sheela-na-gig—she refuses to fade into invisibility and decorous middle age. Last year, she took on the pandemic and U.S. politics with the hilarious single “Pussy Mask” (Third Man), which she released with a ridiculously fun animated video that has to be seen to be believed.

On her Teaches of Peaches anniversary tour, Peaches performs the record in its entirety with a jaw-dropping visual spectacle. Twenty-plus years since its release, the album doesn’t just hold up as entertainment—I’d argue it’s more important than ever. Peaches lit the torch for so many artists who’ve emerged since, and the hysterical overreaction to Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s 2020 hit “WAP” proves her music still has the capacity to shock. Right-wing culture warriors will always attack reproductive autonomy, protections for sex workers, and the right of self-determination for everyone across the gender spectrum, but with her message to live freely, authentically, and sexually in one’s own body, Peaches drowns that shit out.

  Peaches Sophie Powers opens. Sun 8/21, 9 PM, Metro, 3730 N. Clark, $35-$149, 18+

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