A compact solo exhibition at MICKEY presents the remarkable range of Michelle Grabner’s three-decade career. A celebrated figure in local and national art scenes, Grabner has done it all. Adjacent to her dedicated studio practice, Grabner’s pioneering curatorial platform The Suburban—an experimental gallery established in Oak Park in 1999 with her husband Brad Killam—has championed the ingenuity of artist-run spaces. Additionally, Grabner has taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for over twenty-five years, leaving an indelible mark on the city’s artists and creative ecosystem. 

Entering the first gallery, one can appreciate the scope of Grabner’s trademark domestic vernacular applied across painting, sculpture, and photography. However, this survey is far from comprehensive. “A Minor Survey” hinges on a swiftly spoiled joke: all works on view were made in 2022. The motifs are largely recycled: two monumental, oil-on-burlap gingham paintings reprise Grabner’s signature checkered series, debuted in 2015; and three oil-on-canvas works, resembling bleached cloths, recall both textile paintings from the nineties and a recent series of pastel pictures adorned with white enamel globs. This may be Grabner’s first solo presentation in Chicago since 2013, but what differentiates her recent interventions from ideas honed over the past ten years? Look past the titular punchline, and the show could be brushed off as same old, same old.

But Grabner succeeds at iterating upon presumed old hat with novelty and aplomb. Some forms remain the same. For instance, a recent tondo painting—comprising a black, gesso-coated panel drawn over with graphite rays—replicates a form initiated over a decade ago. Nevertheless, the meditative icon, elegantly rendered with mechanical precision, emanates a timeless quality illustrative of Grabner’s enduring brand of abstraction. 

Other works test the limits of past ideas in new configurations. A particularly compelling patinated brass blanket breaks with Grabner’s previous textile sculpture idioms. Unlike earlier metal-cast cloth works, which appear vertically suspended from two points, this crocheted knit lays loosely folded on the floor. The uneven appearance of the blanket’s corners, not quite lined up, summons the labor required to fold linen uneasily handled by a single person. A simple chore can be a heavy order without the help of others. 

Despite her focused engagement with abstraction, Grabner’s appropriation of household accessories, from jam jars to dish towels, is perhaps too easily read as social critique—invoking second-wave feminist rhetoric espoused by the Wages for Housework movement and simultaneously vulnerable to casual sexism—as demonstrated in a 2014 New York Times review that conflated her artistic output with the efforts of a soccer mom. The tendency for viewers to extrapolate class and gender discourse follows not only from the artwork’s domestic content and the geographic context of the suburban midwest, but also from Grabner’s parallel success as a curator, critic, and educator. Unpacking the social terms of her interdisciplinary career in a 2012 interview with critic Barry Schwabsky, Grabner stated, “…curating, writing, and teaching are super social endeavors, and they often evoke various critical positions. But yes, my studio is not social.” Unlike past institutional surveys that included bibliographic videos, collaborations, and work by other artists, MICKEY’s presentation conspicuously omits Grabner’s more social endeavors, focusing on the scope of her aesthetic strategies. 

While the artwork cannot entirely escape external associations, the present survey approximates the routines underpinning Grabner’s studio methodology. It’s a conceptual and self-referential practice where nothing goes to waste; ideas are repeatedly executed to the point that all possibilities are exhausted—or so you might think. Clarity and wit sprout from her sustained engagement with monotony. 

Look at a delicate wall-mounted sculpture, composed of bronze rods and flowering plants burgeoning at the joints. Resembling a canvas stretcher, the work is based on an arcane double entendre—“mullions” and “mulleins”—the former a term for a window frame divider and the latter a type of perennial plant. It’s a cheeky pun, perhaps originating from extended time spent mulling things over.  

Michelle Grabner, “Untitled”, 2022, silver on steel, dimensions variable. Credit: Courtesy of MICKEY and the artist

Nearby, an assortment of cans and tins coated in silver leaf lay atop a plinth. Their lids are peeled back but largely intact, as if the artist’s phantom hand was suspended in motion. The veneer—an ornamental redundancy, in which metal adorns metal—belabors a sense of being worked over. But these pieces also espouse a lightness. Rid of their utilitarianism, these containers are open-ended and permeable. They preserve nothing.

Two other sculptures appropriate the visual language of DIY crafting projects. Repurposing salvaged wood slabs, Grabner cuts out shallow circular beds to house assorted lid-like objects—some readymade, others trompe l’oeil. The reliefs, evocative of her mobile sculptures, emulate salon-style hangs of Grabner’s various material strategies. Paintings, metal castings, and found objects lay side-by-side like spare parts of a whole practice. But for all their succinctness and poetry, these wood board assemblages could run the risk of falling flat. The quirky yet refined conceit exists precariously, calibrated just enough to avoid the pretense of triteness. 

Grabner has articulated boredom as a critical measure in her process and an unlikely defense against her work turning stale. To better understand the capricious conditions of her practice, one might look to artist Dick Higgins’s seminal 1968 essay, “Boredom and Danger,” published in the Something Else Newsletter. The text appraises a shift in art’s production and accompanying terms of engagement; describing danger as a crucial element in successful works, he remarked, “…a sense of risk is indispensable, because any simple piece fails when it becomes facile. This makes for all the more challenge in risking facility, yet still remaining very simple, very concrete, very meaningful.” Embracing the possibility of failure, Grabner’s work exists at the edge of easy. An ode to looking hard and looking harder at the simplest of conceits, “A Minor Survey” revels in the stunning patience of Grabner’s gaze.

 “A Minor Survey”Through 12/18: Tue-Thur 12-6 PM, Fri-Sat, 12-4 PM, MICKEY, 1635 W. Grand, mickey.online

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When it comes to the Houston Astros, most baseball fans can agree that it’s easy not to like the reigning World Series Champions. For Chicago Cubs fans, that sentiment might only grow here in the near future.

Sure, it doesn’t matter if you’re a Cubs fan or not. There is a simple reason to dislike Houston, and obviously that’s due to the cheating scandal in which the Astros were found guilty of stealing signs over a couple of season.

Now the current Word Series Champions, the Astros just leave a bitter taste in most fans’ mouths. And as for the Cubs, that taste could get even worse.

According to a report this week, the Astros are in discussions with Contreras and plan to meet with the All Star catcher at the winter meetings.

Willson Contreras could soon be leaving the Chicago Cubs to join the World Series champs.

If the 30-year-old catcher does indeed leave the Cubs during free agency, it wouldn’t necessarily be a shock. After all, the Cubs have been in full-on selling mode for a while now and haven’t shown much loyalty to players they have groomed in-house over the last few years.

To go along with that point, the Cubs and Astros were also in agreement on a deal last season to send Contreras to Houston. But, manager Dusty Baker and owner Jim Crane weren’t in agreement with the deal. Neither one of them liked the idea, therefore it didn’t go through.

The trade would’ve sent pitcher Jos? Urquidy back to the Cubs in exchange for Contreras. Fortunately for the Astros, they were able to keep one of their better pitchers and ended up winning it all anyways.

But now, Houston could land Contreras without having to give up any assets. The 3-time All Star catcher has played his entire 7-year career with the Cubs and was of course part of the World Series team just a few years back.

It would be sad to see Contreras go, but at this point, not much of a surprise. Hopefully, the Cubs can turn their mindset into more of being a spender, as some reports have suggested. The fans deserve better, and hopefully they receive just that.

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CHICAGO — Today, Public Narrative relaunched the Chicago Media Guide. In partnership with Public Narrative, the Chicago Independent Media Alliance (CIMA) also launched the Chicago Independent Media Directory. Together, these resources will connect outlets, journalists, funders, advertisers and the audiences they serve with the full breadth of Chicago’s local media ecosystem.

Public Narrative, a Chicago-based nonprofit that has been elevating community voices in journalism for more than 30 years, has produced the Chicago Media Guide since 1995. The guide now provides a centralized and personalized platform of robust contact information for more than 5,000 media outlets, journalists, writers and more in Chicago — and now greater Illinois and beyond.

This resource provides free and paid subscription models that allow users to quickly discover and obtain media contacts in order to build relationships with journalists and media entities for their own work.

Explore databases for outlets and individual journalists by name, city, coverage topics, language and more. You can also make and place selections of the entities and the reporters’ contacts that you need into your own media list and export them to keep for future use.

Journalists, community members, nonprofit leaders and small business owners, among others, can rely again on the Chicago Media Guide as a trusted, comprehensive and up-to-date resource staple of the country’s third-largest media market and more. Media outlets and journalists interested in being added to the contact lists or wanting to provide an update to their existing contact information can email Olivia Obineme, Public Narrative’s director of journalism and media engagement, at [email protected] to learn more.

In partnership with Public Narrative, the Chicago Independent Media Alliance (CIMA) — a project of the Reader Institute for Community Journalism linking more than 60 community media entities representing more than 80 outlets — has created the free Chicago Independent Media Directory. Featuring outlet statistics and audience demographics, this media directory features Chicago-area, independent, local media outlets in one central website. 

Businesses, government, foundations, and other entities can use the Chicago Independent Media Directory to find local media outlets to advertise with, give grants to, or support in other ways. Users can filter their search by community area of coverage, audience, language, beats, and much more to easily find outlet statistics and export a list of outlets with their contact information. Chicago-area outlets interested in being added to the Chicago Independent Media Directory can contact CIMA co-director, Savannah Hugueley, at [email protected] to request the form.

The partnership between Public Narrative and CIMA has been essential in advocating for independent community media in the city, including by bringing in new resources. This media directory is one element of this partnership that will be critical to linking small, local outlets with advertisers and new sources of revenue.

The guide and directory were revamped and created simultaneously with local media advocating for equitable advertising by government agencies. In October 2020, CIMA began the work of replicating a study of New York City governmental advertising conducted by the Center for Community Media at the City University of New York (CUNY) Newmark Graduate School of Journalism. The New York project resulted in an Executive Order signed by Mayor Bill de Blasio in mid-2019. In 2020, the first year of full implementation, there was a multi-million-dollar shift to community and ethnic media. 

Advocacy by CIMA and other local media outlets culminated on October 26, 2022, when Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot signed an Executive Order designating that City of Chicago departments allocate at least 50 percent of their annual advertising spending to community media outlets. As part of the Executive Order, the Office of the Mayor will maintain a list of local media that exemplify Chicago’s interconnected communities. Agencies will also be able to utilize the Chicago Media Guide and Chicago Independent Media Directory in order to access an up-to-date, comprehensive list of outlets throughout the city and their contact information.

CIMA’s Chicago Independent Media Directory: cimadirectory.org

Public Narrative’s Chicago Media Guide: publicnarrative.org/the-guide/

On Wednesday, December 7, 6-7:30 p.m., Public Narrative and CIMA will host a conversation about the history and future of community media collaborations, including Chicago’s recent Executive Order. This virtual event, “What’s Next? The Future of Community Media Collaborations”will feature Jhmira Alexander, president and executive director of Public Narrative, and Tracy Baim, publisher of the Chicago Reader and founder of CIMA. It will be moderated by Maple Walker Lloyd, director of development and community engagement for Block Club Chicago. Register here to join.

About CIMA

The Chicago Independent Media Alliance (CIMA) is a coalition of 62 independent, local, and community-driven media entities covering communities throughout the Chicago area, representing more than 80 outlets. Through regular collaboration and the creation of new revenue streams, CIMA uplifts the ecosystem in order to amplify the voices of Chicagoans. Since its founding in 2019, CIMA has helped direct more than $700,000 in funding for its members, through an annual fundraiser, matching foundation funds, and collaboration grants. Founded in 2019, CIMA is a project of the Reader Institute for Community Journalism, publisher of the Chicago Reader. See indiemediachi.org/about/.

About Public Narrative 

Public Narrative is Chicago’s premiere cultivator of narrative change and supporter of community-oriented journalism since 1989. It facilitates training, programming and resource building focused on cultivating media literacy, uplifting community voices in media, and shifting narratives around public health, public safety, and public education. Public Narrative supports more than 200 community and ethnic news outlets and for-and not-for-profit organizations through its initiatives. And it builds meaningful relationships among stakeholders to shift existing community narratives and amplify more inclusive and complete storytelling across Chicago, greater Illinois and beyond. See publicnarrative.org.

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A compact solo exhibition at MICKEY presents the remarkable range of Michelle Grabner’s three-decade career. A celebrated figure in local and national art scenes, Grabner has done it all. Adjacent to her dedicated studio practice, Grabner’s pioneering curatorial platform The Suburban—an experimental gallery established in Oak Park in 1999 with her husband Brad Killam—has championed the ingenuity of artist-run spaces. Additionally, Grabner has taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for over twenty-five years, leaving an indelible mark on the city’s artists and creative ecosystem. 

Entering the first gallery, one can appreciate the scope of Grabner’s trademark domestic vernacular applied across painting, sculpture, and photography. However, this survey is far from comprehensive. “A Minor Survey” hinges on a swiftly spoiled joke: all works on view were made in 2022. The motifs are largely recycled: two monumental, oil-on-burlap gingham paintings reprise Grabner’s signature checkered series, debuted in 2015; and three oil-on-canvas works, resembling bleached cloths, recall both textile paintings from the nineties and a recent series of pastel pictures adorned with white enamel globs. This may be Grabner’s first solo presentation in Chicago since 2013, but what differentiates her recent interventions from ideas honed over the past ten years? Look past the titular punchline, and the show could be brushed off as same old, same old.

But Grabner succeeds at iterating upon presumed old hat with novelty and aplomb. Some forms remain the same. For instance, a recent tondo painting—comprising a black, gesso-coated panel drawn over with graphite rays—replicates a form initiated over a decade ago. Nevertheless, the meditative icon, elegantly rendered with mechanical precision, emanates a timeless quality illustrative of Grabner’s enduring brand of abstraction. 

Other works test the limits of past ideas in new configurations. A particularly compelling patinated brass blanket breaks with Grabner’s previous textile sculpture idioms. Unlike earlier metal-cast cloth works, which appear vertically suspended from two points, this crocheted knit lays loosely folded on the floor. The uneven appearance of the blanket’s corners, not quite lined up, summons the labor required to fold linen uneasily handled by a single person. A simple chore can be a heavy order without the help of others. 

Despite her focused engagement with abstraction, Grabner’s appropriation of household accessories, from jam jars to dish towels, is perhaps too easily read as social critique—invoking second-wave feminist rhetoric espoused by the Wages for Housework movement and simultaneously vulnerable to casual sexism—as demonstrated in a 2014 New York Times review that conflated her artistic output with the efforts of a soccer mom. The tendency for viewers to extrapolate class and gender discourse follows not only from the artwork’s domestic content and the geographic context of the suburban midwest, but also from Grabner’s parallel success as a curator, critic, and educator. Unpacking the social terms of her interdisciplinary career in a 2012 interview with critic Barry Schwabsky, Grabner stated, “…curating, writing, and teaching are super social endeavors, and they often evoke various critical positions. But yes, my studio is not social.” Unlike past institutional surveys that included bibliographic videos, collaborations, and work by other artists, MICKEY’s presentation conspicuously omits Grabner’s more social endeavors, focusing on the scope of her aesthetic strategies. 

While the artwork cannot entirely escape external associations, the present survey approximates the routines underpinning Grabner’s studio methodology. It’s a conceptual and self-referential practice where nothing goes to waste; ideas are repeatedly executed to the point that all possibilities are exhausted—or so you might think. Clarity and wit sprout from her sustained engagement with monotony. 

Look at a delicate wall-mounted sculpture, composed of bronze rods and flowering plants burgeoning at the joints. Resembling a canvas stretcher, the work is based on an arcane double entendre—“mullions” and “mulleins”—the former a term for a window frame divider and the latter a type of perennial plant. It’s a cheeky pun, perhaps originating from extended time spent mulling things over.  

Michelle Grabner, “Untitled”, 2022, silver on steel, dimensions variable. Credit: Courtesy of MICKEY and the artist

Nearby, an assortment of cans and tins coated in silver leaf lay atop a plinth. Their lids are peeled back but largely intact, as if the artist’s phantom hand was suspended in motion. The veneer—an ornamental redundancy, in which metal adorns metal—belabors a sense of being worked over. But these pieces also espouse a lightness. Rid of their utilitarianism, these containers are open-ended and permeable. They preserve nothing.

Two other sculptures appropriate the visual language of DIY crafting projects. Repurposing salvaged wood slabs, Grabner cuts out shallow circular beds to house assorted lid-like objects—some readymade, others trompe l’oeil. The reliefs, evocative of her mobile sculptures, emulate salon-style hangs of Grabner’s various material strategies. Paintings, metal castings, and found objects lay side-by-side like spare parts of a whole practice. But for all their succinctness and poetry, these wood board assemblages could run the risk of falling flat. The quirky yet refined conceit exists precariously, calibrated just enough to avoid the pretense of triteness. 

Grabner has articulated boredom as a critical measure in her process and an unlikely defense against her work turning stale. To better understand the capricious conditions of her practice, one might look to artist Dick Higgins’s seminal 1968 essay, “Boredom and Danger,” published in the Something Else Newsletter. The text appraises a shift in art’s production and accompanying terms of engagement; describing danger as a crucial element in successful works, he remarked, “…a sense of risk is indispensable, because any simple piece fails when it becomes facile. This makes for all the more challenge in risking facility, yet still remaining very simple, very concrete, very meaningful.” Embracing the possibility of failure, Grabner’s work exists at the edge of easy. An ode to looking hard and looking harder at the simplest of conceits, “A Minor Survey” revels in the stunning patience of Grabner’s gaze.

 “A Minor Survey”Through 12/18: Tue-Thur 12-6 PM, Fri-Sat, 12-4 PM, MICKEY, 1635 W. Grand, mickey.online

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At 3-9, the Chicago Bears do not have a whole lot left to play for this season. But, on Sunday, they’ll have one thing and one thing only: pride.

This Sunday is an all-important matchup in the most stories rivalry in the history of the game. It’s Green Bay Packers week.

This time, the Bears host the Packers in a game that has a couple of question marks when it comes to the quarterback position. For Green Bay, Aaron Rodgers has been playing with a broken thumb — and the veteran has stated he’s going to play against the Bears.

As for Chicago, it’s Justin Fields who has been sidelined the past week with a separated shoulder. After sitting last week in favor of Trevor Siemian getting the start, Fields’ status for Sunday’s game against the Packers is unknown. However, one particular Bears insider believes he knows the eventual status.

Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields will play against the Green Bay Packers, according to one of the most respected names in Chicago media.

Brad Biggs of The Chicago Tribune appeared on 670 The Score’s Mully and Haugh Show on Thursday morning and had some pretty direct words when asked about Fields’ status for Sunday.

“I think he plays.”

Biggs also added that he is more optimistic of Fields playing this weekend than he was last week against New York.

It’s risky business for Fields to consider playing this weekend, considering the Bears’ season is all but over in terms of any postseason hope. Not to mention, Fields has taken quite the beating all year long. He’s been beat up enough in the last few weeks that even newly-acquired wide receiver Chase Claypool has noticed the young quarterback’s resilience.

“I’m seeing the type of resilience you don’t get from every quarterback, you know?” Claypool said Wednesday. “He is getting beat up and he’s bouncing back on his feet every single time. I think that just shows the kind of leader he is because he wants to see his team win and do well and he knows he’s a big part of that, but he also knows that he has to be smart. There’s a give and take with that.” (via NBC Sports)

Prior to injuring his shoulder against the Atlanta Falcons, Fields was enjoying a breakout for the ages. He was taking the league by storm, predominantly with his legs. Fields set multiple NFL records this year, one for the most rushing yards by a quarterback in a game (breaking MIchael Vick’s previous number) and another for most rushing yards by a quarterback within a 5-game span.

Fields even still finds himself in the top 10 in the NFL in rushing, overall, even after missing a week and starting the season slow. He’s got 834 rushing yards this year, which is nearly double what he had all of last season as a rookie. Should he return soon, Fields will become the first-ever Bears quarterback to rush for 1,000 yards in a season.

Should Fields return on Sunday, fans will be understandably weary of the decision. Risking even more injury to your franchise’s quarterback of the next decade is not an ideal scenario.

But, on the flip side, fans have to admire the fact that Fields wants to play. The fact that he knows this is a rivalry game, and though the season is effectively over, the guy still wants to play. He wants to be out there.

Regardless of risk, you have to respect it.

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Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky riffs on the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty, and interviews politicians, activists, journalists and other political know-it-alls. Presented by the Chicago Reader, the show is available by 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays at chicagoreader.com/joravsky—or wherever you get your podcasts. Don’t miss Oh, What a Week!–the Friday feature in which Ben & producer Dennis (aka, Dr. D.) review the week’s top stories. Also, bonus interviews drop on Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays. 

Chicago Reader podcasts are recorded on Shure microphones. Learn more at Shure.com.

Chicago Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky discusses the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty on The Ben Joravsky Show.

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Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky riffs on the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty, and interviews politicians, activists, journalists and other political know-it-alls. Presented by the Chicago Reader, the show is available by 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays at chicagoreader.com/joravsky—or wherever you get your podcasts. Don’t miss Oh, What a Week!–the Friday feature in which Ben & producer Dennis (aka, Dr. D.) review the week’s top stories. Also, bonus interviews drop on Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays. 

Chicago Reader podcasts are recorded on Shure microphones. Learn more at Shure.com.

Chicago Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky discusses the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty on The Ben Joravsky Show.

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Pretrial justice reform was sorely needed in Illinois to address the harm the money bond system has caused Black, Brown, and poor communities. As former public defenders and current clinical law professors, we know firsthand how the money bond system created an unfair, constitutionally-suspect, wealth-based approach to pretrial jailing outcomes.

Legislators took a major step in the right direction by passing The Pretrial Fairness Act in 2021. The legislation, set to go into effect in January, is aimed at reducing incarceration by ending the money bond system in Illinois. The purpose is simple: to ensure that people are not held in jail simply because they cannot afford to buy their freedom. But now, state legislators are considering amendments to the Pretrial Fairness Act that would undercut the purpose of the legislation and exacerbate the very issues the Act is meant to address. 

The Pretrial Fairness Act allows people charged with serious crimes to be detained if they pose a flight risk or risk to public safety while limiting the scenarios in which people charged with low-level crimes can be jailed. The Illinois State’s Attorney’s Association has seized upon confusion created by a multi-million dollar misinformation campaign paid for by fringe political advocates to propose changes to the law. Provisions in the proposed amendments would remove the guardrails set up to achieve the law’s goal of reducing pretrial jailing while protecting public safety. The result of adopting these changes would be devastating; they would increase pretrial jailing, worsen racial disparities, and make our communities less safe. 

Under the Pretrial Fairness Act, prosecutors are required to show that release would pose “a specific, real, and present threat” to a person or persons. But the proposed amendments allow prosecutors and judges discretion to incarcerate people for indefinite periods of time, based on vague, broad standards that a person poses a general threat to the community.

An essential check on prosecutorial power is limiting which charges are eligible for pretrial detention. Under the current law, as it has existed for years, prosecutors do not have unlimited power to hold people without bail. Holding people without the possibility of monetary release is limited to only the most serious charges. 

But if the Illinois State’s Attorney’s Association has its way, people who are charged with low-level crimes and legally presumed innocent could be held in jail for months or even years. Prosecutors would be empowered to ask a judge to jail any person, irrespective of the crime for which they are charged. This is an authority that prosecutors have never had even under the state’s current cash bail system. 

Taken together, the expansion of the number of charges eligible for detention and the weakening of the legal standards needed to prove dangerousness would result in a dramatic increase in the number of people detained pretrial, undermining the primary purpose of the Act.

Research confirms that the kind of broad prosecutorial and judicial discretion contained in the proposed legislation would disproportionately impact Black and Brown people and exacerbate racial disparities in Illinois jails.  

Studies show that in large urban areas, Black people are over 25 percent more likely to be held pretrial than their white counterparts; young Black men are 50 percent more likely to be detained than whites. According to 2017 data, Black people constituted nearly half of Illinois’ jail population despite making up only 15 percent of the state population. Brown people are also significantly more likely to be detained pretrial than their white counterparts.

The incalculable human cost of pretrial incarceration would make our communities less safe. In addition to producing wrongful convictions, coercive and unfair plea deals, and longer sentences, pretrial detention disrupts interpersonal relationships and community ties and increases the likelihood of future arrests. 

Increased incarceration creates devastating collateral consequences for individuals, families, and communities. People experience an average of 34 days of pretrial incarceration in Illinois, with many jailed for far longer, leading to the loss of jobs and housing. If and when people are released, they have been stripped of the means they need to support themselves and their families. 

More than half the people held pretrial are parents of young children. Parental detention causes financial hardships for families and forces children into the foster care system. It traumatizes children due to the effects of family separation on par with divorce, domestic violence, and abuse. We have long known that incarceration does not make us safer; if it did, the United States would be the safest country in the world.  

The proposed changes are not “clarifications” or “tightening language.” Instead, they seek to gut the law’s core mechanisms—aimed at reducing the harm the money bond system has caused Black, Brown, and poor communities—and replace them with measures that would increase the power of prosecutors and judges to incarcerate people awaiting trial.

We stand behind the Pretrial Fairness Act, not just because the proposed amendments will lead to increased incarceration and devastation for our communities, but because pretrial justice works in Cook County and in jurisdictions across the country. It is clear to us that the Pretrial Fairness Act is the path to a fairer, safer justice system.

Craig Futterman and Herschella Conyers are clinical law professors at the University of Chicago Law School.

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Each week “Lucky” and “Pam” Seuamsothabandith walked the floor of the Seaford Clothing factory in Rock Island, Illinois, taking egg roll orders. The plant, which once famously made suits for Barack Obama, was where the couple (Phiengvilay and Phengphanh, respectively) found work after fleeing Laos in the late 70s.

When she was a kid, Stacy Seuamsothabandith woke up at 4 AM each Friday to the sizzle of her parents’ side hustle. “My mom was constantly working,” she says. “It was a nine-hour day in a really hot factory, then coming home to make a hot meal. I would sit down at the kitchen table with her to get two minutes with my mom first thing in the morning. She would always fry me a couple of egg rolls and I would go back to bed.”

Pam’s egg rolls. Credit: Laos to Your House

Pam passed away seven years ago, and the Seaford factory now sits empty, but her egg rolls live on in the family’s Lucky’s Eggrolls food truck, sustaining Quad Cities farmers’ market strollers and late-night bar goers since the late 90s. They arrived here in Chicago last June, when Stacy, her brother chef Keo Seuamsothabandith, and husband Byron Gully launched Laos to Your House, a biweekly virtual restaurant that reps Chicago’s only Lao food.

And now, on December 5, Laos to Your House is cooking live at Monday Night Foodball, the Reader’s weekly chef pop-up at the Kedzie Inn in Irving Park. Over the decades Chicago has had only rare opportunities to taste Lao food made to order, and though Pam’s egg rolls are now legendary, they only scratch the surface of this undersung Southeast Asian cuisine.

The LtYH crew will emerge from their new HQ at The Hatchery to assemble their signature Lao Bento Boxes and Laocuterie boards, featuring an assortment of grilled meats (brisket, sausage, chicken wings), sauces, and sticky rice; plus kua mee, sweet, caramelized wok fried rice noodles with pork and fresh herbs; nam khao, a crispy rice salad with tangy fermented pork, coconut, and red curry; and of course, Pam and Lucky’s beef egg rolls.

They’re also featuring a trio of specials you won’t typically find on their regular menus: the yellow chicken and potato curry gang garee gai, with a side of French bread to soak it all up; goong hom pha, whole shrimp swaddled in wontons and deep fried; and gingery sweet or spicy chicken wings.

“Keo, he learned to cook from Stacy’s mom,” says Gully. “She always wanted to have a restaurant, so every time we cook in that kitchen, it really feels like a tribute to her.”

There’ll be a limited number of walk-in orders available, so place your preorder right now. It all goes down beginning at 5 PM, Monday, December 5 at 4100 N. Kedzie.

Meanwhile check out the remaining Foodballs on the 2022 schedule below. New 2023 lineup coming soon.

Phengphanh “Pam” Seuamsothabandith and Phiengvilay “Lucky” Seuamsothabandith on their wedding day, Laos, 1975

December 12: Kimski rumspringa with Won Kim @revisecmw

December 19: First night of Hanukkah with Zeitlin’s Delicatessen and Schneider Provisions @zeitlinsdelicatessen @schneider_provisions

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