Sheena Gibbs has been missing from the Rogers Park neighborhood, where she lived, since November 2021. She was due to travel to Iowa to take care of her ill mother, but no one has heard from her since November. Damon Lamar Reed (assisted by Terrence Haymer and Vel), created this mural of her currently at the Glenwood, 6962 N. Glenwood Ave.

According to statistics, Black women are missing at a disturbing rate in Chicago with many believing they don’t receive the same media coverage as white women (“Missing White Woman Syndrome”). This led to the making of a documentary entitled “Still Searching.”

The documentary centers around Damon, who has been painting a sequence of portraits of missing Black girls and women. His portraits date back to 2001 when two sisters, Tionda and Diamond Bradley, went missing. His portraits are not only intended to create awareness but to honor the missing in a beautiful way. I think it’s a lovely gesture for the family.

If you have any information about Sheena, please contact the authorities or BAMFI as noted in the flyer. Imagine if this were your loved one. Let’s bring Sheena home!

I also encourage you to explore Damon’s website to view his impressive public art, listen to his music, and much more. Thank you, Damon, for making a difference!

After eight years of operating as Chicago’s premier wholesale bakery providing specialty bread to top local chefs, restaurants, and independent retailers including Blackbird, Dove’s Luncheonette, Girl & the Goat and The Duck Inn, Publican Quality Bread (PQB) is opening a retail outlet at 1759 West Grand Avenue in Chicago’s West Town neighborhood,

The officially opening and ribbon-cutting will take place on Monday, June 6th at 7 a.m.

PBQ interior. Photo courtesy of Kelly Sandos

The expansive bakery features a grab-and-go café and retail counter offering decadent pastries, from-scratch sandwiches, and a full coffee bar.Customers will also be able to purchase an expanded selection of baker and Managing Partner Greg Wade’s signature bread, which goes through a lengthy fermentation process and has earned a reputation of being the most flavorful and sustainable bread in the region.

By day, guests can carry-out handmade baked goods like layered sweet and savory croissants, morning buns and indulgent stuffed pastries with oozy cream fillings in addition to specialty teas and La Colombe coffee drinks made to order.

Photo courtesy of Kelly Sandos. 

Fresh-out-of-the-oven baguette sandwiches will be served at a baker’s whim when hot-and-ready and available for patrons to quickly grab along with tartines and pre-prepared salads.

Headlining Wade’s new offerings is “The Big Sandwich.” Sliced and sold by weight, the loaded bite will feature a bianco Roman-style pizza base prepared according to Wade’s personal training with world-famous Italian pizza chef Gabriele Bonci, that is then piled high with mortadella, Stracciatella, arugula, Vidalia onions and Dijon before being finished with a generous smear of balsamic & sour cherry spread.

On Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, look for over-the-top weekend-exclusive specialty treats like Lemon Meringue Croix and Pistachio & Amarena Cherry-filled Maritozzi, alongside an expanded retail menu of rotating bread offerings including toasted sesame sour dough and malted rye loaves.

PQB’s retail section has a glass wall peering directly into the natural light-filled bakery that allows guests and those passing by to watch the team roll out and bake bread offerings in their massive ovens, which can now bake up to 200 loaves of sour dough at once.

Publican Quality Bread will be open Monday – Friday 7 a.m. – 6 p.m., Saturday & Sunday 7 a.m. – 3 p.m. For more information visit www.publicanqualitybread.com or call 312.605.1618.

(Editor’s note: What follows is a re-posting of the same thing posted on June 1, in order to repair format glitches which happened then.)

“We haven’t heard much from Margaret for a while,” said Agatha Christie.

“Have ye investigated, Dame Agatha?” said Robert Burns.

“I’ve seen her sitting around with a red book,” said Daphne du Maurier. “I think it’s ‘How to Write a Mystery.’ “

“It is. As if she needs that,” sniffed Agatha, “with us waiting here for her.”

“Now, Dame Agatha,” said Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, “the book’s quite up-to-date. Not old folk like us!”

“Classics, you mean,” said Daphne.

“Our successors seem to be catching Margaret’s interest,” said Robert Louis Stevenson, ensconced as usual on the Writers’ Room’s comfortable couch. “Maybe someday we’ll get to know their stories, besides each other’s and Margaret’s.”

“Let’s get her to show us what’s in the book,” said Agatha.

“Or who is,” said Louis.

“That’ll take a wee while, Louis,” I told Stevenson from outside the door. “I read today that there are contributions from 70 different authors in the book.”

“Ah, here she is!” said Robert Burns, earning himself a murmur of “Behave!” from Agatha Christie.

Sir Arthur opened the dark wooden door, since its pebbled glass window with the lettering “Imaginary Writers’ Room” is not much good for looking out.

I walked into the room carrying my copy of the red book, with the white letters “HOW TO WRITE A MYSTERY” on it.

“I had to read all those legal documents,” said Louis. “Let me have a keek, Arthur.”

“Take your time, Louis,” I said. “Look all you like. It has quite an index.”

“As big as –”

“Nae, Louis, not like the one I invented for… one of my characters,” said Arthur. “Go on, tell everyone.”

“Well, the index is 12 pages long,” I said. “There is also an essay called ‘About the Contributors,’ and that’s 18 pages long.”

“It seems well edited,” said Arthur.

Oh, he wasn’t going to like this much, but I had to tell him.

“It is,” I said. “It was edited by two fine writers, Lee Child and Laurie R. King.”

All around the table and over to the sofa, the writers were looking for explanations, so I charged ahead. “Lee Child writes thrillers about a man named Jack Reacher.”

“Thrillers,” said Daphne du Maurier, “as in we know who did it, but we don’t know what will happen next?”

“So I understand,” I said.

“And Mrs. King?” said Daphne.

I took a deep breath. “She writes stories about a young lady who’s half-American, half-British, and a theological scholar,” I began.

“And she edited this book about mystery writing? In the theological sense, then?” said Sir Arthur.

“Well, no,” I said slowly. “In the investigating sense. Mrs. King’s theological scholar carries out investigations along with her husband… Sherlock Holmes.”

I unconsciously moved back toward the door, but I had nothing to fear. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had plopped into his seat at the head of the committee table. Agatha Christie was pouring him a drink from the pitcher of water on the table.

“Her husband, Margaret?” said Arthur.

“Yes,” I said, looking him straight in his twinkling eyes. “I’ve just finished re-reading her whole series of their adventures, and they’re wonderful.”

“You believe them?”

“I believe them. Sometimes I have to decide whether I’d like a Holmes-and-Watson story or and Holmes-and-Russell story. That’s his wife’s name, Mary Russell, ” I added.

“Well. Does she contribute to the writing ideas in the book as well?” said Arthur.

“Yes,” I said. “Her essay’s called ‘The Art of the Rewrite,’ and I read it again today. She starts out by describing the rewrite as “where the fun lies” for some writers.

Agatha Christie and Daphne du Maurier were exchanging shocked looks when I glanced at their side of the table. Louis Stevenson, on the other hand, was settling in deeper on the sofa, sensing I had a good story to tell.

“When Mrs. King has described two methods of rewriting, mapping it out before you even begin and ‘plunging into the dark with a flashlight,’ she stops to ask us, her readers and writing students, ‘Q. Which is the Right Way? A. The one that keeps you writing.’”

Robert Burns chuckled. “I could hear your capital letters there, Margaret. Reciting poetry helps you.”

“Aye, it does,” I told him, smiling.

Louis Stevenson had started laughing when I read the Q and A. “That sounded a bit like a legal case, there,” he said.

“Well, this keeps me writing,” I said, “so QED.”

I looked around the dark paneling and furniture and the comfortably low light of the Writers’ Room, one of the favorite corners of my mind. How much like home it felt, with even more books than my apartment — which I might as well call the Real-Life Writer’s Room, singular.

“There’s one more thing I’d like to say about the book,:” I said, “as long as there’s time.”

“Here,” said Arthur gently, “there’s always enough time.”

‘There’s another modern writer I was reading today,” I told the committee, “Louise Penny.”

I glanced at Daphne and Agatha again. This time, they were grinning.

“She wrote about ‘Building Your Community,” I said.

“You mean rooms like this?” said Louis.

“Not exactly,” I said. “I mean — Louise Penny means — communities of present-day writers and readers. I have one like that for my blog, ChicagoNow, where this is going to be posted.”

Stevenson looked at Conan Doyle for confirmation. “Made public,” said Arthur.

“Yes,” I said. “It’s all done by computers now, and I’ve posted my adventures with you for a long time now… even when we had temporary guests.”

“Do you think that nice Mr. Milne will come back, Margaret?” said Agatha.

“Perhaps I can get him to,” I said.

“But meanwhile, Louise Penny was writing about how writers can build communities now through meeting their readers.”

“Meeting?” said Arthur. “Then the pandemic is finished?”

I shook my head. “I doubt it,” I said. “I don’t need a mask in here with you, but I wear one to go to the shops and to church, and definitely on buses.”

Stevenson had sat up attentively, but he fell backwards now. “Well, stay safe, lass.”

“I do,” I said, “I assure you all. But I meet fellow readers and writers over my computer now.”

“You do?” said Agatha, her head tilting slightly from the weight of the idea.

“Yes,” I said. “It’s like a telegraph machine on my desk. I can type messages to all sorts of people. Trouble is, they can type messages to me without my knowing them,” I began.

“Conceal yersel’ as weel’s ye can frae critical dissection,” Robert Burns said.

“But keek through every ither man wi’ sharpened, sly inspection,” I replied, finishing one of my favorite parts of his “Epistle to a Young Friend.”

“So what Louise Penny was writing about in the book,” I said to them all, “is making a community of friends — ‘Building a Literary Home,’ she called it in her essay.”

“Is there any other kind worth having?” said Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

“It’s a mystery to me,” I replied.

by Edward Shanahan.

48 years ago, I was exploring the haunted Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery or as many make the claim today, like them, I was ‘Investigating’ the location (it was actually just called ‘ghost hunting’ back in those days).

I was doing this at the age of 16 when you could drive back to the cemetery. It had it’s stories of the location being very haunted, and the location along with the stories were made famous by Mr. Richard Crowe, the individual that could be called the originator of Chicago Ghost Stories, Chicago Haunted Locations and Chicago area paranormal tours.

He had the stories that others chose to use of Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery and many more locations that Mr. Crowe first made public to the Chicago land area.

I would always try to listen to his interviews on the radio as Richard Crowe is the person that made the haunted locations in Chicago famous and was the first to create the concept of ghost tours in the area. I had my first haunted location experience at Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery.

(c) 2003 Edward Shanahan

It is that time of year again at Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery with Spring being here and the coming of Summer. Teenagers from mainly the S.W. Suburbs will again venture back there for enjoying the day there as teenagers as I did and my kids did as teenagers.

(c) 2003 Edward Shanahan

I hope the teenagers in 2022 enjoy exploring Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery as I did 48 years ago.

Have fun by walking up to some of the ‘older’ adults ‘paranormal investigating or ghost hunting’ and just look at them, when they say “Hi” or “What do you want?” Some may actually be hanging around to pass out their card with a website to get you to go there, blow their mind and say “You see me? Wow!”

Same with the ghost tours wandering around at times in there, follow them and if asked what you are doing, say to them that you want to hear the stories also, as it is a free location and part of the Cook County Forest Preserves, and you have all rights to be there also.

(c) 2003 Edward Shanahan

When you go there, do not go alone! Bring some of your teenage friends and go as a group. Bring a camera with you, use your phone recorder, stick together and do your own investigations.

See if it is something that interests you, or if there are more enjoyable things to do as a teenager? It is an abandoned cemetery, but the rules are set by the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, so be out of there by sunset.

(c) 2003 Edward Shanahan

Any and all vandalism is unacceptable, including the moving of headstones.

In recent photos of Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery that I have seen on the Internet, the headstones seem to be lined up in a row. I can tell you and you can see by way of the photos in this article that I took in 2003, that was not the case then. But it does make it easier for the paranormal investigators, ghost hunters and their photo ops.

(c)2003 Edward Shanahan

Many of the adults at the house parties I work, bring up that they have gone to Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery in the past couple of years, are claiming it is not living up to expectations that have been put out there by many of those in the Chicago paranormal field and tour guides.

As you see in these photos that I did in 2003, it had its own feeling back then as one would explore the location. Today I considered that feeling is gone, and the location ruined, as it does not look anything like the photos here.

No individual has any type of ownership or squatter’s rights to Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery. Matter of fact if you or your parents own a home in Cook County as I do, then the Forest Preserve District is something you or your parents and I pay into with our taxes.

Yes, I am part of the Paranormal Field and have been in a public way since 2000 and exploring locations since 1974. I have lived all my life within 10 minutes of Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery, in a S. W. Suburb (most haunted areas), and know there are spirits there in Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery since the first day I wandered around there. But I do not have an obsession with the place or any other paranormal locations.

(c) 2003 Edward Shanahan

I welcome the Spirits as part of our world, as we are surrounded by them. With every location that I have visited in the Chicago area S.W. Suburbs, no location is any more special than any other location, expect with the location(s) that can get individuals noticed on the Internet on a regular basis.

There are many more locations then just Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery in the S.W. Suburbs and all are free. Here is a Pinterest Board that will give you exposure to all the locations in the S.W. Suburbs of Chicago. It is called the: Chicago Haunted Tour Locations of Archer Ave and more.

Enjoy your Summer!
Edward Shanahan
Web site – Awarded Best Chicago Psychic (house parties and private readings), Spirit Communications, Paranormal Explorer and Author..

New Book by Edward Shanahan published April 2022.
Book is at Amazon.