Welcome to our highlights of events and entertainment in Chicago at our city’s best museums and galleries. Bookmark this page and check back for updates on the latest activities.

‘Romanticism to Ruin: Two Lost Works by Sullivan & Wright’

Photo by unknown photographer, Richard Nickel at the Garrick Theatre in midst of an interview with unidentified journalist, c. 1960.Ryerson & Burnham Libraries, Art Institute of Chicago

When: Sept. 24-Dec. 18

Where: Wrightwood 659, 659 W. Wrightwood

What: This two-part exhibit explores long-gone architectural masterpieces: Louis H. Sullivan’s Garrick Theatre in Chicago and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Larkin Building in Buffalo, New York. Included are 3D models and digital re-creations of the original edifices; salvaged architectural ornaments and artifacts; original furniture; historical documentation of the design, construction and demise of the buildings and archival photographs taken by noted preservationist Richard Nickel. Tickets: $15, available online only.

More information: For updated information regarding the gallery’s COVID-19 vaccination and/or mask policies, visit wrightwood659.org.

‘Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You.’

Barbara Kruger. Untitled (Truth), 2013. Digital image courtesy of the artist

When: Sept. 19-Jan. 24

Where: Art Institute of Chicago, 111 S. Michigan

What: The Art Institute presents a major solo exhibition devoted to the work of Barbara Kruger, a conceptual artist known for combining images and type that raise questions about our relationship to consumerism, society and more. The exhibit includes early work and rarely seen paste-ups of the early 1980s, which reveal her process, to her digital productions of the last two decades. Admission: $14-$25. (Also Art on the Mart is projecting a selection of Kruger’s work on the facade of the Merchandise Mart through Nov. 25.)

More information: For updated information regarding the museum’s COVID-19 vaccination and/or mask policies, visit artic.edu.

‘Chicago Avant-Garde’

Dancer Katherine DunhamSun-Times file

When: To Dec. 30

Where: Newberry Library, 60 W. Walton

What: This interesting new exhibit puts the spotlight on five women whose lives and careers embodied a uniquely Chicago style of avant-garde creativity in 1930s-1950s: artist Gertrude Abercrombie, poet Gwendolyn Brooks, dancers Katherine Dunham and Ruth Page and curator Katharine Kuh. “All five women challenged social constraints — based on their gender, their race, or both — to subvert convention and find beauty and freedom in their art,” says curator Liesl Olson. The exhibit includes paintings, photographs, posters, dance costumes and rare video footage. Admission is free.

More information: For updated information regarding the museum’s COVID-19 vaccination and/or mask policies, visit newberry.org.

The Neon and Light Museum

When: Through Oct. 31

Where: 325 W. Huron

What: This pop-up features an immersive exhibition of nearly 70 neon and light-based sculptures. Among the highlights are John Bannon’s 14-foot-tall neon sculpture “Breathe,” Monika Wulfer’s installation “Circle’s Edge” and an iconic neon self-portrait by John Lennon. Other artists include feminist neon artist Zoelle Nagib, pop sign artist Jason Pickleman, projected light specialist Gary Justis, abstract artist sculptor Michael Young and more. Tickets: $40+, reservations required.

More information: For vaccination and/or mask policies, visit neonandlightmuseum.com.

‘Frida Kahlo: Timeless’

(C) 2020 Banco de Mexico Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F. Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

When: Through Oct. 15

Where: https://theccma.org/ticket-information

What: Though it closed Sept. 12, the not-too-miss art exhibit of the summer can still be seen on a virtual tour. Dolores Olmedo’s collection of paintings and works on paper by Kahlo were on view at the newly expanded Cleve Carney Museum of Art in Glen Ellyn. Curator Justin Witte and executive director Diana Martinez offer commentary during the virtual tour. Also featured are a multimedia timeline that offered a framework of Kahlo’s life, more than 100 photographs, a Kahlo-inspired garden and a family-friendly children’s area featuring a replica of Kahlo’s Casa Azul in Coyoacan, Mexico. Tickets: $18.

‘Dias de Muertos: A Time to Grieve & Remember’

George Rodriguez, “Mictlantecuhtli Offering,” 2020, ceramic installation, is featured in the exhibit “Dias de Muertos: A Time to Grieve & Remember.”Courtesy of the artist

When: Sept. 10-Dec. 12

Where: 1852 W. 19th

What: This year’s Day of the Dead exhibition at the National Museum of Mexican Art pays tribute to and remembers the many individuals from Mexico and the U.S. who have died from COVID-19. An annual time-honored tradition in Mexico, the Day of the Dead offers a way to join together to grieve and celebrate the lives of loved ones. The exhibit is a way to contemplate this moment via artworks and installations by artists from both sides of the border. Among those creating installations are Sandra Cisneros, Hector Duarte, Alejandro Garcia Nelo, Enrique Garcia and the Yollacalli Arts Center. These colorful displays sit alongside artwork by a long list of Mexican and Mexican American artists. Admission is free.

More information: For vaccination and/or mask policies, visit nationalmuseumofmexicanart.org.

‘American Epidemic: Guns in the United States’

“Untitled (Death by Gun),” by Felix Gonzalez-Torres (1990)Provided

When: Sept. 10-Feb. 20

Where: 600 S. Michigan

What: The Museum of Contemporary Photography presents an exhibit that brings together work by nine artists who examine the past three decades of gun culture in the United States. Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Carolyn Drake, Zora J Murff, Stephen Foster, Renee Stout, Hank Willis Thomas, Kambui Olujimi, Nancy Floyd and Andres Gonzalez use photography to approach the topic from a wide range of perspectives. “We hope this exhibition lays bare the persistent epidemic of gun violence in this country,” said Karen Irvine, MoCP chief curator and deputy director. “These artists point us towards nuanced ways of reckoning with this tragic — and uniquely American — plight.” Admission is free.

More information: For vaccination and/or mask policies, visit mocp.org.

Future Fossils: SUM

A “Future Fossils: SUM” piece by Lan TuazonCourtesy of the artist

When: Sept. 7-Nov. 13

Where: 5020 S. Cornell

What: This is the final sculpture installation in Lan Tuazon’s decade-long trilogy of work that visualizes the lifespan of our material goods. The Chicago artist calls her process “documentary sculpture.” Common packaged goods, tchotchkes and household items are accumulated, dissected and layered to give an accounting of the unseen byproduct of consumption. Tuazon offers visitors an encounter with a future house — one constructed solely with recovered materials — built to scale and exhibited from inside the two-story gallery at the Hyde Park Art Center. Admission is free.

More information: For vaccination and/or mask policies, visit hydeparkart.org.

‘Bani Abidi: The Man Who Talked Until He Disappeared’

Bani Abidi’s watercolor “The Man Who Talked Until He Disappeared.”Courtesy of Kiran Nadar Museum of Art

When: Sept. 4-June 5

Where: Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E. Chicago

What: Two decades of the work of multidisciplinary Pakistani artist Bani Abidi are brought together for this exhibition. Informed by her upbringing in Karachi and experiences in cities including Chicago, where she studied at the School of the Art Institute, Abidi, a master storyteller, uses video, photography, sound and installation to uncover the influence of cultural and political power struggles on everyday life. Admission: $15.

More information: For vaccination and/or mask policies, visit mcachicago.org.

‘Chicago Works: Caroline Kent’

The Museum of Contemporary Art presents “Chicago Works: Caroline Kent,” the first solo museum exhibition of work by the multidisciplinary Chicago-based artist. Nathan Keay, (C) MCA Chicago

When: To April 3

Where: 220 E. Chicago

What: The Museum of Contemporary Art presents the first solo museum exhibition of work by the multidisciplinary Chicago-based artist. In this site-specific installation, Kent explores the abbreviated forms of communication that develop in intimate relationships such as those between sisters. Inspired by the experience of communicating with her own twin, she transfers her visual language to painting, sculpture and installation. Admission: $15.

More information: mcachicago.org

‘Origins’

Paul Nicklen, “Face to Face,” Svalbard, Norway, 2008.Courtesy the artist

When: Aug. 27-Oct. 2

Where: Hilton/Asmus Contemporary, Morgan Arts Complex, 3622 S. Morgan

What: The work of National Geographic photographers, filmmakers and marine biologists Paul Nicklen and Cristina Mittermeier are featured in this new exhibit. Nicklen, one of the world’s prominent nature photographers, has spent the last 20 years documenting the beauty and the plight of our planet. Mittermeier, whose work documents the conservation movement, is globally recognized as an influential wildlife writer and conservationist. Admission is free.

More information: Hilton-asmus.com

‘The Art of Banksy’

Banksy’s “Flower Thrower”The Art of Banksy

When: To Oct. 31

Where: 360 N. State

What: The identity of the artist known as Banksy has for years been the art world’s most intriguing mystery. But while we don’t know the man, we do know the art. The English-based street artist has created some of the most iconic images of the past few decades. A new exhibit brings more than 80 of these original works to Chicago. World-famous pieces from private collections including “Flower Thrower,” “Rude Copper” and “Girl with Balloon” will sit alongside other works rarely seen by the general public. As the artist-provocateur Banksy says: “Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.” Tickets: $40, $30 for 16 and younger.

More information: banksyexhibit.com

‘Helmut Jahn: Life + Architecture’

“Helmut Jahn – Life + Architecture”Chicago Architecture Center

When: To Oct. 31

Where: 111 E. Wacker

What: Chicago Architecture Center presents a new exhibit honoring the late Chicago architect, which highlights his designs ranging from signature early projects like the Michigan City Public Library (1977) and the James R. Thompson Center (1985) to the Sony Center in Berlin (2000) and the Pritzker Military Archives Center, currently under construction in Somers, Wisconsin. Photography, models and sketches illuminate each project and explore the collaborative design and engineering process, while personal imagery, video and recollections by those who knew and worked with Jahn underscore his flair for the dramatic and zest for life. Admission is $15.

More information: architecture.org

‘Mimi Cherono Ng’ok: Closer to the Earth, Closer to My Own Body’

“Untitled” by Mimi Cherono Ng’ok(C) Mimi Cherono Ng’ok

When: To Feb. 7

Where: Art Institute of Chicago, 111 S. Michigan

What: This new exhibit features the work of a photographer who travels extensively across the tropical climates on a mission to understand how natural environments, botanical cultures and human subjects coexist and evolve together. In this solo exhibit, she presents photographs and a film in which she tracked flowers and floral imagery across varied contexts and a range of hidden associations. Admission: $14-$22.

More information: artic.edu

Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum

When: Ongoing

Where: 2430 N. Cannon Dr.

What: The Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, where children of all ages can connect to nature and science, reopened July 8. Exhibits include “Without a Trace,” selections of photographs by Zbigniew Bzdak; “Patterns in Nature: A Bridge between Art and the Natural World,” mixed media work by artist Katherine Lampert; “Judy Istock Butterfly Haven,” “Birds of Chicago” and many more. Admission: $6-$9, children under 3 free.

More information: naturemuseum.org

‘Toward Common Cause: Art, Social Change and the MacArthur Fellows Program at 40’

Toba Khedoori’s “Untitled” at the Smart Museum of Art.Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner and Regen Projects, Los Angeles (C) Toba Khedoori.

“Toward Common Cause — Art, Social Change and the MacArthur Fellows Program at 40” is a multi-museum venture organized by the Smart Museum of Art that explores the current sociopolitical moment, challenging questions of inclusion, exclusion, ownership and rights of access. In its gallery, the Smart Museum features works by Mark Bradford, Mel Chin, Nicole Eisenman, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Jeffrey Gibson, Toba Khedoori, Inigo Manglano-Ovalle, Julie Mehretu, Fazal Sheikh and Xu Bing. From July 15-Dec. 19 at Smart Museum, University of Chicago, 5550 S. Greenwood. Admission is free. Visit smartmuseum.uchciago.edu; for a list of participating museums visit towardcommoncause.org.

Stony Island Arts Bank’s contribution is “Towards Common Cause.” The group show features work by Carrie Mae Weems, Kerry James Marshall, Gary Hill, Whitfield Lovell, Trevor Paglen, Deborah Willis, Dawoud Bey, Fred Wilson and Nicole Eisenman. From July 18-Dec. 19 at Stony Island Arts Bank, 6760 S. Stony Island. Admission is free. Visit rebuild-foundation.org.
The reopened DuSable Museum of African American History, 740 E. 56th Pl., participates with an exhibit of “Presenting Negro Scenes Drawn Upon My Passage through the South and Reconfigured for the Benefit of Enlightened Audiences Wherever Such May Be Found, By Myself, Missus K.E.B Walker, Colored,” a signature black silhouette installation from the artist Kara Walker. Admission: $3-$10 (Sundays free), children under 5 free. Visit: dusablemuseum.org.

Hyde Park Art Center

Mel Chin’s Fundred Dollar Bill ProjectProvided/Courtesy of the artist

When: July 25-Oct. 24

Where: 5020 S. Cornell

What: Mel Chin’s Fundred Dollar Bill Project as well as works by LaToya Ruby Frazier and Fazal Sheikh are on display at the Hyde Park museum as part of “Toward Common Cause: Art, Social Change and the MacArthur Fellows Program at 40.” Chin’s 13-year-project, here titled “Chicago Fundred Initiative: A Bill for IL,” invites people to create their own “Fundred,” a form of currency that affirms the right of each maker to equal protection against lead contamination; Frazier’s film “Flint is Family” uses her photographs and voiceover by Flint, Michigan, resident Shea Cobb to understand the Flint water crisis; Sheikh’s landscape photography examines the connection between desertification, colonialism, and the displacement of Bedouin communities from ancestral lands in Israel’s Negev desert. Admission is free.

More information: hydeparkart.org

Weinberg/Newton Gallery

“My Friends are Picking Flowers,” by Salvador Gomez JiminezWendy Ewald Collection

When: Sept. 24-Dec. 18

Where: 688 N. Milwaukee

What: As part of the Smart Museum’s ongoing initiative “Toward Common Cause: Art, Social Change and the MacArthur Fellows Program at 40,” the gallery presents work by Wendy Ewald and Amalia Mesa-Bains, whose projects focus on Latinx migration in Chicago. Ewald’s exhibit includes photographs and writings from a workshop where young students expressed their dreams and concerns about contemporary migration as well as photographs and a film made in Chiapas, Mexico, in 1991. Mesa-Bains offers an installation that is a personal and historical meditation on migration through the lens of her own family. Admission is free.

More information: For updated information regarding the gallery’s COVID-19 vaccination and/or mask policies, visit weinbergnewtongallery.com.

‘Chicago: Where Comics Come to Life (1880-1960)’

A 1954 “Brenda Starr” panel at the Chicago Cultural Center exhibit.DCASE

When: To Oct. 3

Where: Chicago Cultural Center, 77 E. Randolph

What: This exhibit looks at Chicago’s significant role in the development of the early comic strip. Curated by artist-author Chris Ware and the City of Chicago’s cultural historian emeritus, Tim Samuelson, it focuses on comics in popular publishing, African American cartoonists, the first women cartoonists, the first daily comic strip and more. Admission is free. (The exhibit is a historical companion to “Chicago Comics: 1960s to Now,” the survey of contemporary Chicago comics at the Museum of Contemporary Art.)

Visit: chicagoculturalcenter.org

National Museum of Mexican Art

“We the People” by Chaz BojorquezNational Museum of Mexican Art Permanent Collection, gift of Chaz and Christina Bojorquez

When: Ongoing

Where: National Museum of Mexican Art, 1852 W. 19th street

What: After being closed for 15 months, the museum has reopened with a handful of exhibits. “Spotlight on Chaz Bojorquez and Enrique Alferez” features the museum’s newest acquisition, “We the People,” a painting by Bojorquez, and Alferez’s iconic bronze sculpture “La Soldadera.” Plus “Adlateres and the Unexpected Journey: Works by Carmen Chami” features paintings inspired by Mexican Baroque painting and figurative style. Admission is free.

More information: nationalmuseumofmexicanart.org

‘Toward Common Cause’

“Mother and Child,” Njideka Akunyili Crosby (2016). Courtesy the artist, Victoria Miro and David Zwirner.(C) Njideka Akunyili Crosby

When: To Nov. 21

Where: National Public Housing Museum, 625 N. Kingsbury, and at the Minnie Riperton Apartments, 4250 S. Princeton

What: The National Public Housing Museum partners with the Chicago Housing Authority to display artwork by MacArthur Fellow Njideka Akunyili Crosby as part of “Toward Common Cause,” a multi-site exhibition organized by the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago in conjunction with the 40th anniversary of the MacArthur Fellows Program. Crosby uses acrylic, colored pencil and photo collages to create her distinctive portraits of African American life. “I almost want people to feel like the door is open and they’re walking by a scene into someone else’s life,” she says, “because that really is what I’m doing… mining my life to tell a story that is global but really wanting people to feel like they’re getting a glimpse into my world.” Crosby’s artwork installation is displayed on 70-foot banners on the sides of two buildings.

More information: nphm.org

‘Drawn to Combat: Bill Mauldin & the Art of War’

Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Bill MauldinCopyright the Pritzker Military Museum & Library

When: Through spring 2022

Where: 104 S. Michigan

What: Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Bill Mauldin, who studied at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and was a cartoonist for the Chicago Sun-Times, is the subject of a retrospective at the Pritzker Military Museum & Library. “Drawn to Combat” covers Mauldin’s career as a wartime cartoonist focusing on soldiers’ experiences and as a political cartoonist. The exhibit draws from more than 5,000 cartoons and objects donated to the museum by the Mauldin family. Tickets: $8, $10, children under 12 free.

More information: pritzkermilitary.org

‘Chicago Comics: 1960s to Now’

Nick Drnaso’s painting for the cover of his graphic novel “Sabrina” in “Chicago Comics.”Provided

When: To Oct. 3

Where: Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E. Chicago

What: A new exhibit celebrates Chicago’s pivotal role as a national and innovative center for comics and cartooning. With a focus on rediscovering the work of women and BIPOC comic artists, this major exhibition presents the last 60 years of the city’s artful cartooning history, showing how comic art is a democratic medium that allows artists to speak directly to people in relatable ways. Over 40 cartoonists are featured including Lynda Barry, Lilli Carre, Daniel Clowes, Nick Drnaso, Edie Fake, Emil Ferris, Nicole Hollander, Charles Johnson, Kerry James Marshall and Chris Ware. On display are comics, graphic novels, zines, original drawings, dioramas, commissioned films, installations, rare ephemera and books. Admission: $8, $15.

More information: mcachicago.org

‘Vivian Maier: In Color’

Vivian Maier, “Three Highland Park firemen,” Highland Park, August 1964, inkjet print. Gift of Jeffrey Goldstein/(C) The Estate of Vivian Maier

When: To May 8, 2023

Where: Chicago History Museum, 1601 N. Clark

What: Much has been heralded about street photographer Vivian Maier’s black-and-white photographs in exhibits, books and films. Now this multimedia exhibit features 65 color images made during her time as a suburban Chicago nanny from the 1950s to 1970s, many of which have never been seen before. Maier, who died in 2009, was a bit of a character and always had a Roloflex camera around her neck as she walked the streets snapping images of women, children, the old, the poor, the abstract. While her motives remain elusive, her photographs continue to speak volumes. Tickets: $17, $19.

More information: chicagohistory.org

Polish Museum of America

The Paderewki Collection at Polish Museum of America.Courtesy Polish Museum of America

When: Ongoing

Where: 984 N. Milwaukee

What: The museum, since 1935 a repository for a wide variety of materials pertaining to Poland and the Polish-American community, has reopened after being shuttered for more than a year. Among the many permanent exhibits are “Polish Chicago 1850-1939,” “Folk Art Collection” and “The Paderewski Collection,” which documents the life of Polish pianist and composer Ignacy Jan Paderewski. Tickets: $6-$10.

More information: polishmuseumofamerica.org

The Hartwell Memorial Window

The Hartwell Memorial Window bears a design attributed to Agnes F. Northrop of Tiffany Studios.The Art Institute of Chicago

When: Permanent

Where: Art Institute of Chicago, 111 S. Michigan

What: A magnificent stained glass window made by Tiffany Studios in 1917 is now on permanent display at the Art Institute. The Hartwell Memorial Window, attributed to Agnes F. Northrop, Tiffany’s leading landscape window designer, was originally commissioned for a church as the gift of Mary L. Hartwell in memory of her husband Frederick W. Hartwell. It consists of 48 different panels, and is a scenic view of Mount Chocorua, a peak in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. The window, located near the museum’s entrance, is one of the most ambitious landscape window projects produced by Tiffany. Museum admission: $14-$25.

More information: artic.edu

McCormick Bridgehouse & Chicago River Museum

Gears that open the bridge.Friends of the Chicago River

When: Ongoing

Where: 99 Chicago Riverwalk

What: This five-story museum celebrates the Chicago River and its world-famous movable bridges. Visitors explore a historic bridgehouse, watch the massive gears of a moving bridge and learn about the history of the Chicago River. Plus from the top floor, there’s a 360-degree view of the city and river. Find the museum at 99 Chicago Riverwalk. Admission: $5, $6; children 5 and under free.

More information: bridgehousemuseum.org

Read More

Nearly 600 United Airlines employees are set to be fired for opting not to get vaccinated against COVID-19, the company announced in a memo sent to employees Tuesday.

In early August, Chicago-based United announced all U.S.-based employees must be vaccinated by Sept. 28, and 99% of the airline’s employees did so, according to the memo, sent from United CEO Scott Kirby and President Brett Hart.

But for the 593 employees who did not comply, United has “started the process to separate them from the company,” an airline spokesperson said in an email.

“This was an incredibly difficult decision,” executives said in the memo, “but keeping our team safe has always been our first priority.”

United extended the deadline for religious and medical accommodations because of a pending court case, according to the memo.

“This is a historic achievement for our airline and our employees as well as for the customers and communities we serve,” the memo said. “Our rationale for requiring the vaccine for all United’s U.S.-based employees was simple – to keep our people safe.”

Read More

A man was fatally shot Tuesday night in Chicago Lawn on the South Side.

The 39-year-old was sitting in a gangway about 9:30 p.m. in the 6200 block of South Campbell Avenue when someone approached and opened fire, striking him in the shoulder and torso, Chicago police said.

He was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he died, police said. His name hasn’t been released yet.

No one was in custody.

Read More

The 17-year-old was near an alley about 8 p.m. in the first block of South Parkside Avenue when he was struck by gunfire, police said.

By

Sun-Times Wire

Sep 28, 2021, 8:56pm CDT

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Weather impacts on fishing for shoreline and tributary salmon and trout around southern Lake Michigan, the opening of snagging for Chinook and coho at select Illinois spots on Friday, the closing dates for cooling lakes, and early catch-and-release trout are in this sprawling raw-file Midwest Fishing Report.

Mike Norris emailed the photo at the top of Brian Murphy of Oswego with a nice smallmouth bass from Big Green Lake in Wisconsin. When I saw the photo, I marveled at the size of the belly and replied to Norris. He answered with a typically erudite answer:

Yes I wish I had taken a shot of the stomach. From the shape of it he must of ate a bluegill and it wedged in perpendicularly so the stomach was really wide. The amazing thing about my lake compared to Geneva is our fish are fat. Geneva fish are long and skinny. You will see the difference in the photos. Our bluegills are the same

SHORELINE/TRIBUTARY SALMON/TROUT

The winds really altered conditions last week.

CHICAGO: Stacey Greene at Park Bait at Montrose Harbor texted:

Good morning Dale. Those big winds in the middle of the week really stirred the lake up it was pretty dirty for quite a few days but it did push from what I heard salmon into Diversey and Belmont harbors, Montrose has been a little slower. Before the big winds one of my regular customers was using medium roaches and got a nice little Rainbow so I have a feeling the trout are going to start being around also. All in all is so far been a decent salmon season. Have a great week.

WAUKEGAN: Capt. Dan Leslie at the Salmon Stop said salmon/trout picked up and more are being caught days on spawn sacs (5 feet under a bobber) or Rat-L-Traps and some big stickbaits; at night it is back to big glow spoons.

Capt. Scott Wolfe of School of Fish Charters emailed:

. . .

In the harbor the hot water is taking its toll. Fishing was slow and the fish inactive. Most anglers are still casting but they need to fish skein or sacks in these conditions. The fish are not active enough to chase lures now.

Unfortunately, winds look to be East almost all week, which won’t help. Hopefully cold water currents will migrate in and spark some action.

Capt. Scott Wolfe

School of Fish Charters/Manipulator
630-341-0550
schooloffishcharters.com

NORTHWEST INDIANA: Capt. Rich Sleziak at Slez’s Bait in Lake Station texted:

Tributaries have what salmon we are getting in them now skein,spawn sacks and spinners best baits

SOUTHWEST MICHIGAN: Staff at Tackle Haven in Benton Harbor said some straggler coho are in the river and up at Berrien Springs; no report. Paddle and Pole hosts the Berrien Springs Fish Ladder Camera.

SOUTHEAST WISCONSIN: The better reports seem to be coming from Kenosha, Racine (such as the FOTW) and Milwaukee.

SALMON SNAGGING

Here are the details from the IDNR:

4) Snagging for chinook and coho salmon only is permitted from the following Lake Michigan shoreline areas from October 1 through December 31; however, no snagging is allowed at any time within 200 feet of a moored watercraft or as posted: A) Lincoln Park Lagoon from the Fullerton Avenue Bridge to the southern end of the Lagoon. B) Waukegan Harbor (in North Harbor basin only). C) Winnetka Power Plant discharge area. D) Jackson Harbor (Inner and Outer Harbors).

d) Disposition of Snagged Salmon and Paddlefish. All snagged salmon and paddlefish must be removed from the area from which they are taken and disposed of properly, in accordance with Article 5, Section 5-5 of the Fish and Aquatic Life Code.

TROUT SEASON

Early catch-and-release season for trout opens Saturday, Oct. 2 at select spots, closest is Rock Creek at Kankakee River State Park. The regular fall trout season opens Oct. 16.

ILLINOIS FROG SEASON

Illinois’ bullfrog (only) season runs through Oct. 15. A fishing license is required. “Bullfrogs may be taken by hook and line, gig, pitchfork, spear, bow and arrow, hand, or landing net.” Daily bag limits eight, possession limit 16.

LAKEFRONT PARKING

Chicago Park District’s parking passes for the fisherman’s parking lots at DuSable and Burnham harbors are on sale at Henry’s Sports and Bait in Bridgeport and Park Bait at Montrose Harbor.

Readers suggest SpotHero app downtown. Otherwise, here are some basics: Foster (free street parking or pay lot); Montrose (now a mix of metered and free street parking); Belmont (pay lots on north and south sides); Diversey (pay lot or street parking); DuSable Harbor (pay lot or fisherman’s lot); Northerly Island/Burnham Harbor (meters, pay lot or fisherman’s lot); 31st/Burnham (meter parking between McCormick Place and 31st Street Harbor); Oakwood/39th (meters); 63rd Street/Casino Pier (pay lot); Steelworkers Park (free street parking at east end of 87th); Cal Park (free parking).

AREA LAKES

A few more crappie reports trickle in.

Ken “Husker” O’Malley with a fall largemouth bass.Provided

Ken “Husker” O’Malley emailed:

Hey Dale,

Here is a recap of this past weeks fishing.

Area lakes-some much needed rain has temporarily helped with water levels. Colder overnight temps have water temps coming down to slowly start fall patterns.

Bass are still in the weeds so search baits are productive to find active bass. Top water poppers in the morning and evening hours has been productive. Follow up misses with senkos.

Crappie are becoming active. They are scattered but a few can be caught twitching minnow baits over the top of weeds.

. . .

TTYL

—

Ken “Husker” O’Malley

Husker Outdoors
Waterwerks fishing team

Dicky’s Bait Shop in Montgomery reported better fishing for bluegill and largemouth with the cooling temperatures.

BRAIDWOOD LAKE

BoRabb Williams messaged from earlier in the week, “a few small cats… Bass were slow too”

Open daily 6 a.m. to sunset. Oct. 19 is the final day of fishing.

CHAIN O’LAKES AREA

Arden Katz said yellow and white bass with a few crappie and perch mixed in were good in 10-12 feet on Maria, trolling at .5 mph; he was rip-jigging while his boat partner was using a double Mini-Mite rig. Water was 67.

I was out Friday with Phil Piscitello and Mike Jackson. Piscitello had us on lots of white and yellow bass on wind-blown points, we also caught a few other surprise species, including a beautiful crappie and 17-inch walleye. He has us casting small rattlebaits.

NOTE: Check updates on water conditions at foxwaterway.com or (847) 587-8540.

NOTE 2: The Stratton Lock and Dam is open 8 a.m. to midnight through Thursday, Sept. 30. Beginning Friday, Oct. 1, hours go to 8 a.m.-8 p.m.

CHICAGO RIVER

Jeffrey Williams with a Chicago River carp with a story.Provided

Jeffrey Williams messaged the photo above and his on Friday:

10 lbs 28 in Shout out to IDNR for helping me with this brown torpedo

On Monday, he followed up with the photo below and this:

big boi 17 pounds 32 in, gave me a 35 minute fight

Jeffrey Williams with a Chicago River carp.Provided

DELAVAN LAKE, WISCONSIN

Dave Duwe emailed:

Delavan Lake 9/27/21 through 10/4/21

We had a week of warm, consistent weather that produced some great fishing opportunities.

Northern Pike fishing was really good all week, except for Sunday when the cold front moved in. They have again been off the weedline in 20-25 ft of water. I’ve found that the larger the sucker the better. I’ve been lindy rigging 8 inch suckers. The best location is by the gray condos or by Willow Point. 30% of the fish have been legal. Once the weather stabilizes, the pike will bite up to turnover and then go on a feeding frenzy until ice up. Turnover is approximately 3 weeks away depending on the weather.

The walleye have been sporadic. The most success has come while trolling deep diving crankbaits in 22-25 ft of water or by lindy rigging nightcrawlers on the weedline. The best colors for the crankbaits are fire tiger or pearl. I’ve been catching about one out of five fish that are legal. The best location has been by the Village point and the Oriental boat house.

Bluegills are in the 12-15 ft depth range. They are not as easy to catch as they were in the past few weeks. However, with a little perseverance a limit is possible. The best bait is leaf worms straight lined beneath the boat or on slip bobbers. Good success is coming from the Browns Channel area or west of Willow Point on the flat.

Largemouth bass that I’m fishing for are coming off the deep weedline. I’m moving around a lot. There is no rhyme or reason as to their location. I just move down the weedline fishing nightcrawlers on a split shot rig. The best location seems to be from the Village Point down to the Oriental boat house. Once the water cools to about 60 degrees, I will switch from nightcrawlers to fathead minnows.

Good luck and I hope to see you on the water. For guide parties, please call Dave Duwe at 608-883-2050

DOWNSTATE

LAKE SARA: Art Costa messaged about his champion dog and added this:

I was with the Village Sportsman Club out of Alsip fishing in Lake Sara in Effingham , Thursday and Friday was slow with the wind , Saturday crappie and strippers were starting to hit but the catfish 3 to 6 # were hungry

POWERTON: Hours are 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. through Friday, Sept. 30. On Friday, Oct. 1, winter hours–8 a.m.-4 p.m.–return. Last day for boat fishing is Oct. 24. Bank fishing runs through Oct. 29.

EMIQUON: Access permits and liability waivers are again required. They are available Tuesday to Saturday at Dickson Mounts Museum, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

SHELBYVILLE: Check with Ken Wilson of Lithia Guide Service. SOUTHERN ILLINOIS: Check with Jason Johns of Boneyard Fishing.

HENNEPIN-HOPPER: Closed for the season.

FOX RIVER

Dicky’s Bait Shop in Montgomery reported more anglers fishing with cooler temperatures; the river is very low and dropping; some of the larger flatheads started to be caught and some big muskies below the dams.

Pete Lamar emailed:

Hi Dale

All moving water for me this week-I really wanted to catch smallmouths.

I did get to practice some two-handed casting on the Fox last night (at some point, Wisconsin is going to get enough rain to draw salmon and steelhead into the tributaries, isn’t it? I want to be ready if it ever happens). There was barely any flow where I was. I might as well have been casting on a pond.

We did get some rain late last week, but it didn’t affect water levels much. Outings on the Fox tribs reminded me of trout fishing in the central sands of Wisconsin, the water was so clear. I stayed out of the water as much as possible; when I did need to wade, it was upstream-only in order to avoid spooking fish. I did catch fish on minnow patterns, but nothing memorable in terms of size. It was a bright afternoon and the fish were holding in any shade they could find.

Pete

GENEVA LAKE, WISCONSIN

Dave Duwe emailed:

Lake Geneva 9/27/21 through 10/4/21

The yellow perch are everywhere in 12-16 ft of water. You need to sort through a lot of the small ones to catch quality fish, however you can use the small ones as bait for the bass. The best presentation is a leaf worms or a small piece of nightcrawler. I’ve been straight lining with a single hook and a split shot beneath the boat for the maximum success. You could try slip bobbering with small minnows, that may actually produce some bigger fish.

Smallmouth bass fishing has been great. It’s probably a month later than normal but the bass are finally schooled up on the deep weed points in 25-35 ft of water. This is my favorite time to fish for both size and numbers. I’ve been averaging at least 3 fish over 18 inches every trip out. I have been lindy rigging small yellow perch or lindy rigging nightcrawlers. I use a 1/8 oz walking sinker and a 24 inch leader. Good locations are by Knollwood and by the Military Academy.

Northern Pike are off the thermocline and again cruising the shallow weedlines. The best location is by Linn Pier or by Trinkes Bay. Most of the success is coming off of large white spinner baits or by trolling crankbaits like the Bandit Shallow Walleye. Fire tiger has been producing most of the success.

Rock bass and bluegills are again in the 12-14 ft depth range. They can be caught on nightcrawlers fished on a split shot rig. Some of the best success has been by the Military Academy and by Knollwood. Some of the sunfish I caught last week were in excess of 10 inches.

There are some walleyes being caught at night trolling large crankbaits. Most of the success is coming off of large Rapalas or deep diving Walleye Bandits. Chrome/Blue or Chrome/black are the best choices. Try for the fish in Williams Bay or Trinkes Bay.

Good luck and I hope to see you on the water. For guide parties, please call Dave Duwe at 608-883-2050

GREEN LAKE AREA, WISCONSIN

Guide Mike Norris emailed:

Fishing Report – 09/24/2021

Mike Norris

Big Green Lake – Cooler weather last week brought the surface temp on Big Green down to 63 degrees. Fishing for smallmouth bass with tubes and drop shots along weed edges and cribs has picked up as they begin to feed more with the cooler water temperatures. Largemouth bass are under docks and in shallow weedy areas with healthy vegetation. Try skipping jigs under the docks and Senko’s in the weed pockets. Windy and rainy days late last week hampered fishermen, but with dry weather and lighter winds this week, fishing should be outstanding. The crappie bite is also picking up as is muskie fishing. Lake trout fishing is now closed until January 1.

Little Green – With cooler water temps fishing has picked up on Little Green Lake and now is the time to try fishing for muskies. Work bucktails along weed edges and in the bays. Crappies remain good in the basin and perch can be found along the shoreline.

Fox Lake – Largemouth bass remain active along the shoreline rocks and around the islands. Try swim jigs and Senko’s. Crappies are starting to bite on jigs and minnows in the basin, but you must keep moving to find them.

To book a guide trip reach out to me via my Facebook page at mike.norris.7773 or email me through my website at www.comecatchsmallmouth.com

GREEN/STURGEON BAYS, WISCONSIN

Click here for the Wisconsin DNR weekly report.

HEIDECKE LAKE

Open 6 a.m. (6:30 bank fishing) to sunset. Oct. 12 is the final day of fishing.

KANKAKEE RIVER

Bob Johnson with a good fall smallmouth bass on the Kankakee River.Provided

Bob Johnson emailed the photo above and this:

Hi Dale -Another great day on the river. Fall conditions are setting in water temps at 63 and water mostly clear. Caught these smallmouth on surface lures and finesse baits. The earlier the better on the surface lure bite. The big smallmouth was 19″ at 3.5 lbs, good river bass!

LAKE ERIE

Click here for the Ohio DNR Report.

LAKEFRONT

Salmon/trout report for the shoreline is at the top.

Capt. Bob Poteshman of Confusion Charters said they fished reefs out of North Point on Sunday and found good lake trout off the reef in 140-160 with some kings, too. The wind and waves have made Chicago fishing slow.

Capt. Scott Wolfe of School of Fish Charters emailed:

The big NE blow last week really, really hurt the fishing. Until then we hade been getting limits of trout in under two hours with some big steelhead and small salmon to go with them in 105 to 140. We had 46 degree water 100 feet down. After the wind it’s 65 degrees top to bottom on the tops of the reefs, 120 down. We have been getting about 8 fish per trip, a mix of lake trout and 2 and 3 year old kings 125 to 160 down on downriggers. Magnum spoons in yellow and Aqua like Warrior UV Lemon Ice and Hey Babe have been best. Until cold currents come in, fishing will likely be slow.

In the harbor the hot water is taking its toll. Fishing was slow and the fish inactive. Most anglers are still casting but they need to fish skein or sacks in these conditions. The fish are not active enough to chase lures now.

Unfortunately, winds look to be East almost all week, which won’t help. Hopefully cold water currents will migrate in and spark some action.

Capt. Scott Wolfe

School of Fish Charters/Manipulator
630-341-0550
schooloffishcharters.com

LaSALLE LAKE

Open daily 6 a.m. to sunset.Oct. 15 is the final day of fishing.

MADISON LAKES, WISCONSIN

Click here for the update from D&S Bait.

MAZONIA

Both units are open for fishing. Oct. 19 is the final day of fishing; but Monster stays open all year.

MINNESOTA

Tim Potoczny with a nice smallmouth bass from Mille Lacs.Provided by McQuoid’s Inn

Justin Lederer emailed the photo above and thisfrom McQuoid’s Inn in Isle, Minn.:

Justin Lederer checking in from McQuoids Inn Lake Mille Lacs. The boss and I managed to get out the last couple days and chase smallmouth. This little pig was caught in 7′ dragging suckers on a Lindy rig. It’s a good sucker bite right now you want to get 3″-4″ suckers if possible. Work the tops of the reefs and if your not finding them slide off a little deeper. They are starting to stack up and have the fall feed bag on. Some walleye are being caught in the same area’s using the same technique. The Fall colors are starting to pop. Come on up and enjoy the beautiful scenery on atvs or by boat the trails are awesome right now and the fishing is great.

NORTHERN WISCONSIN

Kurt Justice at Kurt’s Island Sport Shop in Minocqua emailed:

A bit of a long, stretched out cool down. Water temps hanging in the low to mid 60’s despite some night time lows in the upper 30’s, afternoon warm spells averaging things out.

Largemouth Bass: Good-Fair – Best in live green weeds in water of 5-8′. Swim baits, Wacky worms. Most action subtle, not a lot of aggressive action.

Smallmouth Bass: Good-Fair – Same a last week, big fish (19″+) in shallows, inside weed edges on Whopper Ploppers and spinner baits with Colorado blades. Off shore humps and coontail edges providing action fish (10-14″) on drop-shot rigs.

Northern Pike: Good-Fair – Most action on spinner baits and 4″ swim baits. Wind blown shores providing best action.

Crappie: Good-Fair – Still scattered, but starting to find some small concentrations in around wood of 12-16′. Medium fats under slip-floats best.

Walleye: Fair – Bite best on lakes with depth. Walleyes being picked up along transition areas of hard to soft, with mud flats in 20-30′ producing for anglers jigging large fat heads or 1/2 crawlers.

Bluegill: Fair – Some big Gills (9″+) being found deep in 14-18′ around wood being used by Crappies

Yellow Perch: Fair – Same as Gills on Flowages. On lakes Perch found scattered along weed flats of 6-10′.

Musky: Fair – Shallow weeds still best with top-water, swim baits and large fluted bladed buck tails. With water temps in low 60’s, the sucker bite isn’t far away.

Gonna have some very nice weather this week, too nice for us anglers, but by the weekend things should cool and improve into October.

Kurt Justice

Kurt’s Island Sport Shop
Like us on Facebook

NORTHWEST INDIANA

Capt. Rich Sleziak at Slez’s Bait in Lake Station texted:

Tributaries have what salmon we are getting in them now skein,spawn sacks and spinners best baits

Crappie decent in the evening at lake George in Hobart using crappie minnows around the bridges.

Rosser lake still giving up catfish on triple s stink bait.

Musky suckers in stock now here at Slez’s.

Christina Petrites at Stan’s Bait & Tackle Center in Hammond emailed:

Hi, Dale! The recent up-down weather has certainly proven a fishing challenge! Here’s what’s been going on, & hopefully the upcoming beautiful conditions will prove fruitful.

Due to high winds last week, trolling & Perch fishing was very slim last week.

Anglers did get out on the rivers & inland lakes-river anglers caught some nice Walleye & Smallmouth, with a few Catfish mixed in. Those on the inland lakes lake caught some nice catches of Bluegill. This week’s forecast looks much better.

ROOT RIVER, WISCONSIN

Click here for the Wisconsin DNR’s report, usually on Tuesday or Wednesday.

SHABBONA LAKE

Concessions are going. Site hours through Oct. 31 are 6 a.m.-10 p.m. daily.

SOUTHEAST WISCONSIN LAKEFRONT

Click here for the southern Lake Michigan reports from the Wisconsin DNR.

SOUTHWEST MICHIGAN

Staff at Tackle Haven in Benton Harbor said some straggler coho are in the river and up at Berrien Springs; no report from the lake or for perch.

Paddle and Pole hosts the Berrien Springs Fish Ladder Camera.

WISCONSIN DELLS

Hook-and-line sturgeon season in Wisconsin runs through Thursday, Sept. 30. Click here for the details. Click here for the harvest areas. River’s Edge reported its first registered sturgeon last week (62 inches, 65 pounds); otherwise the river is low and the white bass are going by the dam.

WOLF RIVER, WISCONSIN

Guide Bill Stoeger in Fremont texted:

Conditions haven’t changed much. Water temp is in the low 60’s. Crappie are still the best bite.

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I heard it a zillion times at Barack Obama campaign rallies, Stevie Wonder’s hit, “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours.”

So it made a lot of sense, for those following the arc of the Obama story all these years, that it was the walk-off tune played after a bit of dirt was symbolically shoveled at the end of the ceremonial groundbreaking for the Obama Presidential Center on Tuesday. The song connects Obama’s past with Obama’s present.

“We can’t wait to see this place come to life,” said Obama at the ceremony, back home with former first lady Michelle on Monday and Tuesday. I’m told they spent Monday night at their Greenwood Avenue house in Kenwood; it’s been a long time since they’ve been there.

The Obama Center in historic Jackson Park is a big — but not the only — piece of the post-presidential life of Barack and Michelle Obama.

The Obama Center will serve as their base for carrying out their vision of training succeeding generations of global leaders. Obama is working on another book. Obama and Michelle are also Hollywood moguls. Their company, Higher Ground Productions, has a bunch of projects in the works in partnership with Netflix. They do politics and some causes but are very picky about giving up their time.

They also seem to be having some fun. The daughter of working class South Siders and the son of a white woman from Kansas and a Black father from Kenya live a lifestyle far removed from their days as a young couple in a Hyde Park condo. They have an oceanfront mansion in Martha’s Vineyard and a large home on an upscale block in D.C.

Building an Obama Center on the South Side has been in the works since 2014, when the University of Chicago led the drive for it to be located near their Hyde Park campus.

Though a formal competition was held, statements made by Obama since made it clear there were always two thumbs on the scale for his legacy project to be on the South Side — not New York, Hawaii, the West Side of Chicago or any other place in the city.

Being from the South Side is so central to the Obama story that it was always inconceivable their center would be anyplace else.

I think I have written this before, but in this context it bears repeating. Michelle Obama is a South Sider by birth. Michelle Obama grew up at 7436 S. Euclid Ave.

Obama is a South Sider by choice, coming to the South Side from New York to begin a career as a community organizer. After leaving for Harvard Law School, he returned to the South Side to launch his political career, and you know the rest of the story.

Michelle Obama talked about her vision for the center at the groundbreaking — and how the city needs to even the score between the North and South Sides.

“For us, the Obama Presidential Center means a lot more than just creating a space to house memories from our eight years in the White House,” she said, referring to the museum.

“This substantial investment in the South Side will help make the neighborhood where we call home a destination for the entire world. But more importantly, this project, as the governor and mayor have said, will be a vital resource for the people who live right here.

“The OPC will be a place where folks could find work; where kids can learn and grow and envision bigger lives for themselves; where families can walk and ride a bike, or have a reunion in the grass; where everyone can find calm and beauty and peace and safety.”

Michelle Obama recalled as a little girl, “We didn’t have a lot of places like that in our own backyard.

“I remember that whenever me, my mom, dad, my brother wanted to do something special — to see art, to hear music, take in a new museum exhibit, we had to get my dad’s Buick 225, take Jeffrey Boulevard to Lake Shore Drive and head north to downtown.

“…And even as a child I understood this disparity. I understood that whenever there was a huge investment of resources in the city — new park or infrastructure improvements, or any other beautification effort — It just rarely happened in our neighborhood.”

Jackson Park, while it did have the Museum of Science and Industry, “It just didn’t call to us.”

The location, in Jackson Park, designed by the famed landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, remains controversial because it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Though Washington Park was an alternative, in the end, the center is in Jackson Park because that’s where the Obamas wanted it to be. A federal court case is pending on appeal challenging locating the center in Jackson Park. It is a long shot.

The Obama Center. For now, it’s Signed, Sealed And Delivered in about four years.

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Jose Abreu said he had reached his limit when he was hit by a pitch Monday in Detroit.

It was the 21st time this season, and while Alex Lange’s 0-2 fastball was nowhere near his head when it got his unpadded left elbow square, adding yet one more bruise to the Sox slugger’s arm, he reached a tipping point.

“If you get hit badly, your career can end,” Abreu said through translator Billy Russo said Tuesday. “Your life can end.”

What this one started was a display of anger by Abreu never seen before, but not until he slid hard into second base moments later and words were exchanged. Benches cleared, and Abreu had to be restrained.

Manager Tony La Russa’s beef with his players getting hit — the Sox were hit 76 times compared to opponents hit by Sox pitchers 50 times Monday — is that too many pitchers rely on velocity and not command and therefore become dangerous when they pitch inside.

“It’s become more of a problem with young guys getting in the big leagues ahead of time, really relying on their stuff,” La Russa said. “There is a difference between pitching in and throwing in. Throwing in means you’re aiming it there but you’re not really sure where it goes. … That’s why the answer, ‘Hey we hit him but we were just trying to get the ball up and in we didn’t mean to hit him,’ well, if you don’t have command then you’re being irresponsible. That’s really the key.”

When order restored, a Sox team that wears FAMILY across its chests on gameday T-shirts jumped on a plane for home, bound together. It also might have added an edge to a team that wants to keep one in the week and half leading to the postseason.

La Russa called the win one of his top moments of the season.

“I think he was referring to how strong and unified we are as a team,” Abreu said. “It took us at that moment when I slid into second and the benches cleared, it was a really nice moment even for me to see the support of my teammates, everybody on the field trying to protect me. That meant a lot. It wasn’t the best moment or the best action, but that’s something that made me feel good and showed everybody how unified we are.”

Abreu, in fact, seemed embarrassed by his actions after seeing replays.

“That’s not the kind of action you want to see from a baseball player, especially since a lot of kids follow me,” Abreu said. “I don’t want them to think that’s how you play the game. It’s not.”

But Abreu couldn’t contain himself “because even when he hit me, he didn’t apologize or say anything. And that’s fine, but then I slid into second base and he started chirping. That’s not good, you don’t do that. You didn’t [apologize] and then you start talking to me? That’s not the way that we play baseball.”

Meanwhile, Abreu is playing baseball in pursuit of a few individual feats in the final week. With 113 RBI, he trailed Royals catcher Salvador by four RBI for the American League lead. He is looking to join Cecil Fielder (1990-92) as the only players to lead the AL in RBI in three straight seasons.

And he needed one home run to join Frank Thomas (eight) and Paul Konerko (five) as the only players in Sox history with five seasons with 30 home runs and 100 RBI. The numbers, though, take a backseat to “being at peace with myself.”

“Enjoy the game and keep working hard to bring joy to the fans and to the White Sox,” Abreu said. “Be ready for the playoffs. To be in for the second straight year is a huge accomplishment. The only prediction I can make is we won’t quit and we won’t rest. We are going to do our best.”

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The block of tall trees and modest homes was quiet Monday evening as 8-year-old Demetrius Stevenson played in the front yard — as he often did since his family moved to Markham less than a year ago.

Across the street, two people hid behind a fence planning an ambush, according to police and neighbors. They had come from Chicago to settle a gang dispute with a man standing in the boy’s yard.

One of them, in a white hoodie, peeked around the fence and backed away, according to surveillance video. The other man, in a black hoodie, stepped up and fired six .45-caliber shots.

He missed his target and hit Demetrius in the head, killing him.

The sound of gunfire brought Demetrius’s mother running downstairs. “When I looked down, I saw my baby’s head hanging in that door and I screamed,” said LaTonya Stevenson, 43.

She grabbed a sweatshirt and placed it over her child’s wound. “And then I ran away because I couldn’t take it no more,” she said, crying.

Her older son grabbed Demetrius and placed him in a car to get him to a hospital, but he had already stopped breathing. “When they made it around the block, my baby died,” Stevenson said.

“He shot my baby in the head — my 8-year-old baby,” she said. “Why would you do that? Why?”

A neighbor in the 15700 block of Homan said he saw someone in a black mask shooting from the fence along his home. Then, from across the street, he saw Stevenson at the doorway screaming.

“That’s too bad, a small child like that,” the neighbor said.

Several neighbors said they saw the older son place the wounded boy in a car and drive off, only to return minutes later and lay him in the middle of the street.

By then, paramedics had arrived but Demetrius was pronounced dead at the scene.

The neighbors spoke the day after the shooting. Bullet holes could be seen in the front of the home near the door, where there was a pool of dried blood. Gauze and a medical bandage wrapper lay in the front lawn.

Demetrius’ mother said the attackers had followed a friend of her older son to the home and were aiming at that man. She said Markham officials were wrong to say her older son was the target.

“The news and Markham city police are lying about my son,” she said. “He was not the target. They’re trying to say my baby is in a gang. My baby ain’t in no gang.”

The older son was taken into custody after the shooting on a separate warrant, according to city administrator Derrick Champion. Officials reported no one in custody for the attack.

Demetrius was in the third grade and was looking forward to the new school year, Champion noted “The school year just started and now classmates have to mourn,” he said.

Markham has recorded three other homicides this year, according to data from the Cook County medical examiner’s office. Last year, the town reported eight homicides.

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PITTSBURGH — Right fielder Jason Heyward has been battling a concussion for the last two weeks and as he tries to recover, manager David Ross announced before Tuesday’s game that Heyward’s 2021 season is officially over.

Heyward has been on the seven-day concussion injured list since Sept. 11 after taking an inadvertent knee in the side of the head from Giants’ shortstop Brandon Crawford sliding into third base.

The Cubs’ right fielder traveled with the team to Pittsburgh and met with a local concussion specialist, who also helped Ross when he went through his bout with concussions in his career.

“He came today and there’s a specialist here that I’ve seen, [Michael] “Mickey” Collins, who does phenomenal work,” Ross said. “Saw him today. Really good feedback. He’s got a plan moving forward. I think he got a lot of information today and I think everyday has been better. I think he got a good rehab setup today from Mickey and I think that’ll be really good for him to bounce back pretty fast.”

The Cubs’ right-fielder had been dealing with some of the more serious side effects of his concussion, including nausea and dizziness. Those symptoms have subsided as the weeks have gone, but there have been some lingering effects that he is still dealing with as he tries to .

“I think [there are still] small symptoms, but I think that’s part of the process to get back,” Ross said. “It’s gotten better every single day. Sleeping better. Headaches, dizziness and fatigue is all kind of waning towards being non-existent.

“I know I talked with the trainers about today went, but I haven’t talked to him specifically. I’ve got a lot of questions, just because I know what that routine he had to go through today is like. I want to see what some of his thoughts and feelings [were] after going through that.”

Heyward finishes the season slashing .214/.280/.347 with eight homers and 30 RBIs in 104 games.

Heyward wasn’t the only player who’s season officially came to an end on Tuesday as the team decided to shut down right-hander Keegan Thompson and placed him on the 10-day injured list.

Thompson went on the IL with the same injury earlier this month before returning on Sept. 19 against Milwaukee. But following his most recent start on Sunday, the shoulder didn’t respond like the team would have hoped.”

“He’s got a little bit of some shoulder stuff. After that last start, just a little bit of soreness,” Ross said. “I think we’ll probably err on the side of caution and shut him down.”

It wasn’t a smooth transition for Thompson after pitching successfully in the team’s bullpen during the first half. He had a 7.11 ERA in five second-half starts and struggled with his command. But he closed his season on a high, striking out a career-high seven batters on Sunday – giving him something positive to go into the offseason with.

“Being able to talk to him today and just knowing that was going to be it, I thought there was a lot of power in there,” Ross said. “For him to go out and prove himself, knowing where he was, listen to some of the things he was going through mentally was very eye opening. And proving to himself that, ‘I can have success as a reliever and I can have success as a starter’.

“I thought it was really good stuff he showed his last start and to get him back to throwing the baseball the way we believe he can and going into the offseason with that confidence is huge for us.”

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The year: 2000.

The place: Borders, at the corner of Clark and Diversey.

 The time: Thursday evening.

The scene: A Chicago Reader truck pulls up to the curb. The driver unloads hundreds of fat, four-section broadsheets, building a miniature battlement of newsprint in the lobby. By Saturday morning, they’ve all been snapped up, tucked under the arm of every ‘L’ rider on the way home from an office job in the Loop, and into the backpack of every thrift-store dude on a one-speed bike.

At the turn of the century (we can now use that phrase to refer to 2000), the Reader was the newspaper of record for Chicago’s underground scene: the source for music listings, apartment classifieds, and personal ads. Starting on the cover, and winding through the ads, was a long, reported-to-the-pencil-nub tale about a Patti LaBelle superfan or corruption in the Tollway Authority. It was so hip that the movie High Fidelity featured a Reader music critic named Caroline Fortis.

“You’re Caroline Fortis?” John Cusack says, incredulously, when she walks into his Wicker Park record shop. “I read your column. It’s great. You really know what you’re talking about.” He’s so smitten, he makes her a mix tape.

The Chicago Reader turns 50 this week, an age I never thought it would achieve. I feel the same way about that birthday as I did when the Rolling Stones turned 50: You ain’t what you used to be, but when you were what you used to be, you were the best.

The Reader was launched in 1971. At the time, the paper’s lakefront stronghold was populated by a mix of gays, artists, musicians, actors, and young professionals skeptical of the first Mayor Daley’s political machine. The so-called Lakefront Independents were key swing voters during Harold Washington’s 1983 campaign to become Chicago’s first Black mayor. Right before the election, the Reader published an article aimed at reassuring white voters about Washington’s credentials. Widely copied and stuffed under apartment doors, it helped him squeak to victory. Throughout the Council Wars between white aldermen and Washington’s minority allies, the Reader remained in the mayor’s corner. Its star reporter, Gary Rivlin, went on to write Fire on the Prairie, the definitive book on that divisive era in Chicago. John Conroy’s decades-long investigations of police torture helped lead to the conviction and imprisonment of Detective Jon Burge.

In its heyday, the Reader was the finest publication I’ve ever read, or written for. I first picked up a copy in 1993, when I was a newspaper reporter in Downstate Illinois. On the cover was Lee Sandlin’s “The American Scheme,” a 20,000-word essay on how the post-war quest for success consumed and killed his father. As soon as I finished Sandlin’s story, I decided I was going to move to Chicago and write for the Reader, which seemed like a place where a journalist could write about any subject, at any length, in any style. 

Four years later, I broke in with a long narrative about learning to play the horses from a professional tout at Sportsman’s Park. Eventually I worked my way up to staff writer, turning out only-in-the-Reader pieces on a teenaged Frank Sinatra impersonator, a man who sold socks by the freeway, and the “callers” who drummed up business outside hip-hop boutiques in Roseland. I was also sent to the South Side to check out a state senator with a funny name who was running for Congress against Bobby Rush. That cover story became the basis of a book, Young Mr. Obama: Chicago and the Making of a Black President.

By the time I left in 2005, the Reader’s heyday was over. The paper wasn’t thriving in the internet era. Craigslist poached its lucrative classified ads, taking over the Reader’s role as the place to find a job, a date, or an apartment. The advent of blogs was changing the definition of “alternative journalism.” When the Reader was founded, it was the alternative to the Sun-Times, the Tribune and the Daily News. Now, it was one of dozens of voices, competing with the likes of Pitchfork as the city’s definitive outlet for music criticism.

When a potential new audience was moving onto the internet, the Reader declined to post its stories there. In 2004, the Reader came out with a new design that finally brought color to the front page. The Trib’s media critic snarked that it brought the paper “into the late 1990s.” On the day the new cover debuted, I handed out copies at the Fullerton ‘L’ stop. Gray-haired men and women rushed to grab copies. No one under 30 was interested.

In 2000, the average 28-year-old Chicagoan would tell you: “The Reader is my Bible!”

In 2010: “I haven’t read the Reader in awhile.”

In 2020: “I’ve never heard of the Reader.”

The Reader’s hippie founders sold out to an alternative newspaper chain called Creative Loafing, which fired four staff writers who specialized in long-form journalism. The model of turning a reporter loose to spend months investigating a story — the heart and soul of the classic Reader — had become “economically unsustainable.” In the years to follow, the Reader was passed around to the Sun-Times, then to a consortium headed by former Ald. Edwin Eisendrath, a group led by the publisher of the Chicago Crusader, before finally establishing itself as a non-profit 501(c)3 known as the Reader Institute for Community Journalism.

Despite the Reader’s 21st Century struggles, it has outlasted many of its alt weekly peers: Boston Phoenix, Village Voice, Minneapolis City Pages. Although its corpus has been reduced from a fat broadsheet to a slim tabloid, the Reader continues to occupy its own indispensable niche in Chicago journalism. Last year, it published a lengthy article by Maya Dukmasova about ex-cops evicting a problem tenant in Rogers Park. Part investigative journalism, part personal essay, it was the kind of story that could only appear in the Reader, the kind of story that would make a young reporter think, “Wow, you can do that in print? I want to do that, too.”

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