Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Bronzeville is among five Black South Side parishes set to close at month’s end. It merges with four other churches into one new Our Lady of Africa parish.

When Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Bronzeville — and four sister Black Catholic churches on the South Side — close at month’s end, a chapter in the history of Black Catholics in Chicago closes with them.

Corpus Christi, at 4920 S. King Drive, along with St. Ambrose, St. Anselm, St Elizabeth and Holy Angels churches, will merge July 1 into one new “Our Lady of Africa” parish, under the Archdiocese of Chicago’s “Renew My Church” initiative, ongoing since 2018.

Under Renew My Church, struggling churches and schools are being closed or consolidated, to cut costs for aging infrastructure, as well as to address a priest shortage.

And while many parishes continue to struggle with challenges from the changing demographics of Catholic mass and school attendance, the sense of loss from closings and consolidations remains the same. Optimism is a seed that struggles to sprout.

“Some are resigned to the change. Some are sad. Some are mad about it, and feel like, ‘Could this not have been prevented?’ So the emotions of parishioners flow all over the place,” said Corpus Christi’s pastor, the Rev. Edmund Nnadozie.

“And I respect all those emotions. That to me is how it should be when you are talking about a church that has been here more than 120 years. There’s a whole lot of history tied up here, so it’s going to take time for people to get over it. As for me, I’m at peace with it.”

This Sunday, the church will host a parish reunion mass, and RSVP phone calls and emails from current and former parishioners have been flying for one of three masses until closing.

Courtesy of Corpus Christi

“We call it our celebratory mass. It’s not the last mass in the parish. That will be the 27^th. But what we’re celebrating, really, is us. It’s the opportunity to come and to cry and to laugh, you know, and share memories, all of that,” said Nnadozie, pastor since October 2019, and a member of the Houston-based Missionaries of St. Paul, founded in Nigeria.

“We’ll still have two more Sundays to come back and worship and have a last look, if you will. We have a a lot of people calling in about this Sunday. And I tell you, if all those people do indeed come to that service, I just hope we have enough space.”

Fortunately, the sanctuary will be able to welcome well wishers at capacity Sunday, following Friday’s full reopening of both Chicago and the rest of Illinois, based on continued improvement in COVID-19 metrics and vaccine uptake.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

In the pews Sunday will be the Williams family, part of the parish for 70 years.

Eleven siblings of parents who came up during the Great Migration — the matriarch from Rosehill, Mississippi, the patriarch from Baton Rouge, Louisiana — the family has celebrated dozens of baptisms, weddings, funerals, Holy Communions and confirmations here.

“I’m the youngest. My parents were very spiritually rooted people. And it’s just been a love affair with God and a love affair with the Catholic Church, and a cherished relationship with the Franciscan sisters and priests who ran the church and school over the years,” said Anthony Williams, 60, of Washington Park.

A brother still lives at the home they grew up in at 47th & Langley. And just two Sundays ago, two great-grandchildren, fifth generation, became the last Williams family members to be baptized here — following the lead of over 40 family members before them.

Ivy Hall

“My daughter lives in Columbia, Ohio, and she decided to get her daughter baptized here before it closed, because she was baptized here,” said one of the sisters, Katie Williams Hall.

“She then convinced her cousin, who also was baptized here and who had had her oldest child baptized here, to do a joint baptism of her younger child. It was very bittersweet.”

This year alone has brought consolidation of 13 churches and five schools in Rogers Park, Edgewater, Jefferson Park, Portage Park, Avondale and Old Irving Park, with more planned as the archdiocese continues to assess the future of its 344 Chicago-area churches.

The new parish serving the five South Side churches will be sited at the current Holy Angels, 615 E Oakwood Blvd. It’s the newest structure among them, rebuilt in the wake of a 1986 fire that gutted the home of the famed, late priest George Clements.

St. Ambrose is located at 1012 E 47th St., St. Anselm at 6045 S Michigan Ave., and St. Elizabeth at 50 E. 41st St.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

A church closing reverberates beyond its community. Corpus Christi, for example, plays host to a bimonthly mass for Chicago’s citywide Nigerian community, in their language, followed by a potluck in the church’s huge social hall.

“There’s some anxiety there. They’re feeling, ‘What’s going to happen to us?’ And I’m not sure that is resolved. They still have to find their ground, and when you’re stepping into a new place, there’s the question of, ‘How will I be received?’” Nnadozie said.

“But they already know they need to find a space. They will go to that new place and make it a home, and hopefully it will work out. It always does,” he said.

Parishioner Larry Cope, 61, of The Gap neighborhood, agrees with his pastor on the inevitability.

The Cope family has been members since his parents came up in the Great Migration to live with aunts who owned a greystone at 45th & Prairie, chopped up into kitchenette apartments, as was the norm in what was then known as the Black Belt.

Like all 11 Williams siblings, Cope and his four brothers and sisters all attended Corpus Christi Elementary, now long shuttered. And all siblings went on to attend Catholic high schools, the boys matriculating to Hales Franciscan High, run by the same order.

Courtesy of Corpus Christi

“Three of us remain members of the church. My wife and I were married here, and I’m actively involved in the parish council,” Cope said.

“Whenever you close a church, it’s like a death in the family. But I have prepared myself for this eventuality, because the writing was on the wall. We had low membership. We had debt and we had an aging church, which costs so much money just to maintain and repair.”

So there’s the resignation.

The seed of optimism must follow. The new church opens July 1.

“I have to remind people over and over that what we are closing is the structure, not the church. The structure can go down, but the people of God keep on moving,” Nnadozie said.

“Just as I told those gathered at the last baptism of Williams family, we thank God that we are receiving this last one into this structure, but we hope it’s not the last we will receive into the house of God.”

Ivy Hall

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Samantha Cerrone, a sophomore at New Trier High School, decided to walk along the Purple Line tracks with a friend

A 16-year-old girl, out for a walk with a friend during a sleepover, died after falling on the electrified third rail along CTA tracks in Evanston early Wednesday.

Samantha Cerrone, an incoming junior at New Trier High School, stumbled and fell just north of the Central Street station around 2:30 a.m., according to Evanston Police Cmdr. Ryan Glew.

Cerrone, of Winnetka, was taken by paramedics across the street to Evanston Hospital, where she was pronounced dead nearly an hour later, Glew and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.

Cerrone had a friend sleeping over when the two decided to walk along the Purple Line tracks early in the morning, Glew said. They started near Isabella Street, where the tracks are at ground level, he said.

After Cerrone fell, her friend tried to pull her off the third rail and suffered minor injuries, Glew said.

Autopsy results have not been released.

An online obituary for Cerrone notes that she “lived to not be ordinary and encouraged others to have the confidence to do the same.

“She loved music and self-expression. A true goal setter. She was an advocate for others and had an impactful spirit across all age groups,” her obituary reads. “Samantha valued her time and strived to live life to the fullest each day. She will forever be missed by all that knew her.”

New Trier Winnetka Campus Principal Denise Dubravec announced the death to students and staff in an email Wednesday.

“It is with a heavy heart that I share the news that one of our students, sophomore Samantha Cerrone, has passed away following a tragic accident,” Dubravec wrote.

“Our thoughts, prayers, and love go out to her parents and all of her friends and family during this extraordinarily difficult time,” she said.

Greg Hartman, Cerrone’s club swim coach, described her as a tough competitor with an “electric smile” and a “quirky sense of humor.”

“She really did a good job embracing her friends and made a couple very close friends on this program that were directly impacted by her death,” Hartman said. “As a community, we’re trying to rally with this because we know that Samantha valued that so much.”

Though Hartman only coached Cerrone for the past couple years, they forged a close bond. “I feel like I lost one of my own,” he said.

Hartman said flowers are now being laid close to her home “to honor her and the life that once was.”

A visitation is scheduled for Saturday at Donnellan Family Funeral Home in Skokie. Cerrone’s obituary notes that “an act of kindness towards one another is requested each day in Samantha’s memory.”

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With Nick Madrigal’s serious hamstring injury that landed him on the 60-day disabled list Thursday, one third of what was supposed to be the Sox’ Opening Day lineup will miss most of the season.

How much more can the White Sox withstand?

With Nick Madrigal’s serious hamstring injury that landed him on the 60-day disabled list Thursday, one third of what was supposed to be the Sox’ Opening Day lineup will miss most of the season.

Somehow, some way the Sox have maintained their grip on first place in a very winnable American League Central and are, in the view of many, the team to beat in the entire AL.

But Madrigal’s loss will be felt. He was playing his best baseball of the season and “is a big, big part of our club,” manager Tony La Russa said.

If the Sox do meet their goal of getting to the World Series they might have to get there without the two-strike hitting master who swings “a magic wand” as La Russa puts it, but won’t be able to use it because of a proximal right hamstring tear.

With a complete tear of a tendon connected to the hamstring and a partial tear of another tendon, season-ending surgery is possible. It will be a week before a path to Madrigal’s recovery can be determined.

“We’re exploring options,” Hahn said.

Outfielder Brian Goodwin was called up from Triple-A Charlotte, which will allow outfielder-infielder Leury Garcia to play more second base. Danny Mendick played second in Thursday’s game against the Blue Jays, and the pair will split time, La Russa said.

Hahn will also explore trade options. The Pirates’ Adam Frazier, the Rangers’ Brock Holt and Tigers’ Jonathan Schoop are just three names that could be available from teams in sell mode as the July 31 trade deadline approaches. Hahn would have been in talks to improve the team anyway, but Madrigal’s injury shifts the focus to new area of need.

“It’s June 10,” Hahn said. “This is still a little bit early for things to be getting done, but the talks will become a little more focused here.

“We could well have an interesting next few months leading up to the trade deadline.”

Madrigal’s is the latest in a series of impactful injury blows to the Sox, who are playing without left fielder Eloy Jimenez (torn pectoral muscle), center fielder Luis Robert (hip flexor strain) for most of the season. Getting them healthy and sharp in time for the postseason is a possibility that keeps the Sox in good stead.

“Their trajectories are both good and we remain optimistic on both returning at some point this year,” Hahn said.

With neither cleared for baseball activities yet and several weeks away from rehab assignments, late August or September are the most optimistic return projections, however.

“Only when they are headed for a rehab assignment am I going to give a satisfying answer when can we expect them back,” Hahn said.

In the meantime, the Sox trudge along in first place with a four-game lead in their division entering Thursday.

“What we’re dealing with is a first place team that has overcome numerous challenges already this season,” Hahn said.

“We’ve proven we can handle it,”La Russa said. “Play as hard as we can and as good as we can with the guys we have.”

Even without Jimenez and Robert, the Sox rank second in the majors in weighted runs created. Their starting pitchers led the majors with a 2.98 ERA and the bullpen ranks among the best.

Put it all together and you have a Sox team that, at 37-24 through Wednesday, was off to its best start since 2006 (38-23).

Plowing ahead without Madrigal, a No. 4 overall draft pick in 2018 who was batting .305/.349./425 and playing his best baseball of the season offensively and defensively, presents the next challenge.

Madrigal was batting .359/.412/.551 with nine extra-base hits and 10 RBI over his last 21 games before he got hurt running out a ground ball.

“Never give in, never give up,” La Russa said. “Look at the lineup today, that’s a quality starting lineup. Quality starting pitcher, quality bullpen. I’m really more concerned about somebody who enjoys the game so much who’s not playing. Same thing with Eloy and Luis and to a lesser extent Michael [Kopech]. It’s harder on them than us.”

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Last year, Luis Centeno remembered, he thought a weeklong shutdown of his gym was a good thing if it meant saving lives and mitigating the spread of COVID-19.

“Everyone thought it was going to be just a one-or-three-week lockdown. Then it turned into a month. Then, almost a-year-and-a-half later, and we are just barely coming out of it,” said Centeno, founder of Fit Results.

On Friday, Chicago will end a year of restrictions on crowd size, indoor gatherings and the like caused by a global pandemic which has claimed millions of lives, including nearly 600,000 in the United States.

But reopening doesn’t mean an end of the pandemic or a complete return to normal. Artifacts of a pandemic world will remain, such as mask-wearing in certain settings, hand sanitizer pumps at business entrances or clear plastic guards in separating customers from store cashiers. But it will mean people can freely gather en masse.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot said moving to unrestricted crowd size should be welcomed as a sign of the sacrifices made to keep people safe. It was time, she said, to rebuild and support the local economy.

“Our city cannot fully bounce back from the pandemic until the cultural, retail and financial engines that power our economy are able to return at full capacity,” Lightfoot said Thursday.

Closing streets to keep businesses open

The city is taking every opportunity to celebrate the reopening.

On Thursday, it announced the Central City Recovery Roadmap to help revitalize downtown businesses. That includes working with private groups to boost foot traffic with occasional closings of Michigan Avenue, LaSalle Street and State Street.

“Meet me on the Mile,” is intended to lure residents and tourists to shop, dine and check out “Instagrammable” installations along the Magnificent Mile. “Lunch on LaSalle” will create pop-up dining for downtown workers, residents and visitors on the street with the iconic view of the Board of Trade building.

The previously-announced “Sundays on State” will close that street to vehicles, from Madison to Lake streets, for live music and other performances every Sunday, starting July 11.

Also, the city is partnering with museums to stay open late on Friday.

Opportunity Insights’ Economic Tracker has monitored the impact of COVID-19 on local economies since the pandemic began. It reported that at the end of May, the number of small businesses open in Chicago dropped by 40% since January 2020.

For Centeno, “it’s about time” the city ends those restrictions, because he’s seen businesses around him collapse. He is ready to return to how his gym operated before the pandemic, with packed workout classes.

“We aren’t ever getting rid of hand sanitizer and we have this full airflow system we installed and will keep using,” Centeno said. And he will still require customers to wear masks in his facility, “but if they show us their card that they’re vaccinated, then they don’t have to wear a mask.”

Mask-wearing, Centeno said, shouldn’t be stigmatized, since it is customary in many other countries.

Get the parties started

Gabriel Dellatorre, owner of Grand Terrace Banquets, 6010 W. Grand Ave., has hosted only three events over the last year, with quinceaneras and weddings on hold. His venue has two rooms — one holds 300 people, the other 200 — but those three parties were limited to just 40 people each.

“We are packing our space to capacity if we can and we are ready to do it safely,” Dellatorre said. “I am booked every week for the rest of the year, with most if not all of the events originally scheduled for 2020.”

“We need this badly. We need to make money,” Dellatorre said.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Humboldt Park restaurant owner Zoraida Rivera-Tanon said the reopening couldn’t come at a better time.

“We are going full capacity but we will keep the requirements for wearing a mask when not eating or drinking,” said Rivera-Tanon, who owns La Bruquena. “I’m really excited about this because it feels like New Year’s Eve for me. I’m anxious to see how things look after Friday.”

At churches, stores some changes will linger

Churches also will adjust, with limits on crowd size removed and many practices returning to normal.

The Archdiocese of Chicago announced churches will ease most restrictions, welcoming full-capacity Mass without a mask mandate for vaccinated people.

Parishioners can also begin receiving Holy Communion on the tongue again but wine still will not be shared from a cup. Hand sanitizer will still be available and its use will be encouraged.

Grocery shopping will change, as well.

At Jewel, for instance, shoppers will see the return of hot bars, wing bars and bakery items sold in bulk. Also returning are seating areas for those food bars and Starbucks locations in stores will also reopen.

Those floor decals promoting social distancing and one-way aisles also will be going away.

A staple of pandemic life that will remain at Jewel and likely at other stores are the sneeze guards separating cashiers from customers.

Not in a rush

But not every Chicago establishment is rushing to a full reopening.

Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center is in Hermosa, an area hard-hit by COVID-19 and one where at times, both infection rates and deaths led the city. The center promotes Latin American art but during the pandemic, it was used for COVID-19 testing and later as a vaccination site for the community.

“I can tell you, we are in no rush to fill our space,” said Omar Torres-Kortright, executive director of the center, 4046 W. Armitage Ave. “We appreciate the city giving us that option to do so but we want to make sure we are safe and putting the needs for the community first.”

Torres-Kortright said the center can hold over 230 people for theatrical shows, but this summer, he doesn’t expect more than 60 people will gather for any inside events. Their focus, he said, is providing a more intimate experience for indoor shows while putting together more outdoor shows and events.

“We have to work all this out still with our community to see what is best for everyone, so we aren’t rushing into anything,” Torres-Kortright said. “Maybe by the end of the summer, when we can no longer hold outdoor events and the pandemic is really behind us, we will revisit going back to normal.”

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Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has been a blight on the already-beleaguered U.S. Postal Service from the moment he took office a year ago this month.

The Trump appointee slowed mail delivery during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, then — in a bid move to help his boss’s re-election changes — yanked mail sorting equipment and refused to seek federal funding to help the postal service deal with the deluge of Democratic-leaning mail-in ballots expected in last November’s presidential election.

What followed was a disaster of delay, affecting both the election and Christmas season deliveries. A full third of first-class mail was late over the holidays, with packages piling up in distribution centers.

That alone, as we have argued before, should have been enough to send DeJoy packing. And now comes word the FBI is investigating DeJoy’s political fundraising activities at the North Carolina company he owned and operated before becoming postmaster general.

President Joe Biden lacks the legal authority to dismiss DeJoy. Only the postal service’s board of governors can do that. But in light of the FBI investigation — on top of everything else — getting rid of DeJoy is important enough that Biden should exercise the nuclear option that would allow him to appoint new governors committed to replacing DeJoy.

An FBI probe

The FBI is looking into allegations that current and past employees of New Breed Logistics, a now-defunct company once owned by DeJoy — a prolific GOP fundraiser — were reimbursed with on-the-job bonuses for donating to Republican candidates.

If proven true, that’s a federal crime. DeJoy has been subpoenaed by the FBI, and investigators are interviewing New Breed employees.

Through a spokesman, DeJoy denies any wrongdoing and is cooperating with the probe.

However, the allegations seem to fit a pattern. Last year, the Washington Post reported that New Breed employees said they had been encouraged by DeJoy or his associates to make political donations and attend fundraisers at his North Carolina home in return for bonuses or reimbursement from the company.

Given that DeJoy was unqualified to be postmaster general, his ownership and management of New Breed was used by his supporters and enablers to justify his appointment to lead the postal service. But now the agency is on fire, and it looks as if smoke is coming from his old company as well.

“For nearly a year, I have been clear that Postmaster General DeJoy would not be in his job if he worked for any other company,” U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-New York, a DeJoy critic, said this week. “If these allegations are true and Postmaster General DeJoy violated campaign finance laws, he must resign immediately or the [postal service] board of governors must remove him.”

Housecleaning needed

But DeJoy is not likely to resign. “Get used to me,” DeJoy told his critics at a congressional hearing earlier this year.

And the postal governing board, which solely has the power to fire DeJoy, supports him.

“Right now, I think he’s the proper man for the job,” Board of Governors Chairman Ron Bloom, a Democrat appointed by Trump, told The Atlantic. “He’s earned my support, and he will have it until he doesn’t. And I have no particular reason to believe he will lose it.”

The Senate has approved three Biden nominees to fill vacancies on the board, but that’s not enough. Bloom and the five other board members who stood silent as DeJoy wreaked havoc over the past year should be out, too. Under law, they can be dumped for grave dereliction of duty; we would argue that allowing DeJoy’s actions would fall under that category.

And the first order of business for the new board should be to bring in a new postal service boss who has a better plan to improve the $4 billion agency.

Until then, we’re all stuck with a floundering and ineffectual postal service.

And one that will grow worse and more expensive to customers as long as DeJoy is in charge. The postmaster has unveiled a 10-year plan that includes raising postage costs and lengthening delivery times.

An absolute housecleaning is needed. And fast.

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A man who refused to wear a mask over his face on a CTA bus allegedly threatened to kill the driver before opening fire Tuesday evening on the Far South Side.

Fred White told the driver, “I’ll blow your f—— head off” as he was kicked off the bus in the 300 block of West 119th Street in West Pullman, Cook County prosecutors said Thursday.

White then fired three shots from a 9mm gun he had been carrying in a black plastic bag, striking the bus twice as it pulled away, Assistant State’s Attorney Kevin DeBoni said. He missed the driver and the only passenger on board.

The confrontation began around 10:50 p.m. when White, 38, boarded the bus without wearing a mask, DeBoni said. The driver asked White to put on a mask, and White allegedly took one out of his pocket and placed it near his face but didn’t cover his nose or mouth.

He said he would place it over his face after paying his fare, DeBoni said.

But he paid his fare and sat down near the driver, still without wearing the mask, DeBoni said. The driver and White continued arguing until the driver demanded he exit the bus.

When White stepped off the bus, he allegedly took out a handgun and opened fire. One bullet hit the front door of the bus and exited a window, lodging in a fence. Another shot hit the front door, DeBoni said. The third missed.

Police responded to a call of gunfire and found White nearby, DeBoni said. Officers allegedly saw him throw a 9mm handgun over a fence and arrested him. Three shell casings were recovered from a sidewalk.

The bus driver identified White as the shooter, and the shooting was captured by surveillance video, DeBoni said. White had a valid FOID and concealed carry license.

White has eight children, lives with his girlfriend in Chicago and is unemployed, his defense attorney said.

Judge Arthur Wesley Willis denied White bail on an attempted murder charge. White also has an ongoing aggravated DUI case from April.

White was expected in court again June 16.

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Chris Lanuti of the Sox in the Basement podcast joins the GGTB crew to discuss the White Sox holding onto the AL Central lead after a series win over the Toronto Bluejays. They discuss all things Soxs, including if Chicago can ever become a Sox town.

The post Good Guys Talk Back: A White Sox Podcast – Ep. 106 – Unapologetically White Sox first appeared on CHI CITY SPORTS l Chicago Sports Blog – News – Forum – Fans – Rumors.Read More

The College Football Playoff is expanding in the near future to 12 teams. What does this change mean for Notre Dame and their independence and access?

The post College Football Playoff Expansion: What Does It Mean for Notre Dame? first appeared on CHI CITY SPORTS l Chicago Sports Blog – News – Forum – Fans – Rumors.Read More

In the Heights, the new Jon M. Chu film adapted from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hit musical, is the movie of the summer, largely thanks to its massive musical numbers and impressive cast. One member of that cast is Corey Hawkins; best known for theater and projects like Straight Outta Compton and 24: Legacy, Hawkins shines in this film as Benny, the friendly radio dispatcher and Washington Heights homebody.

I had the chance to talk with Hawkins about his favorite parts of the film, his connection to Benny and the Heights, and the well-timed release of this vibrant summer hit.

Taryn Allen: I’m curious if you saw In the Heights as a stage musical before making the movie.

Corey Hawkins: Funnily enough, In the Heights was the first musical I ever saw on Broadway. So full circle moment.

Meant to be!

Yeah, I got to watch Chris Jackson do his thing as Benny, and I just remember being like, Whoa, this is what Broadway musicals are. And then I saw a few that . . . didn’t quite add up to In the Heights, that weren’t quite as groundbreaking I should say. But yeah, to now be a part of this is just dope. It’s special.

Was that a strong enough memory that you were pulling things from that show, or from Chris’s performance, when you did this?

I mean, I remember Chris’s performance vividly. I remember, there’s one particular, like, dance move. [laughs] I don’t know. Chris just had swag. And I wanted Benny to have some swag too. I think Benny has that. But Chris also can just sing his ass off. Chris Jackson is just incredible. I remember seeing him at the Tonys a few years back and just being like . . . kinda starstruck, you know? He’s cool now. But I was just in awe of him. And you know he got to be in this film too, which is great.

How much knowledge did you have about Washington Heights and about New York City immigrant culture before you did this film? What did you learn from the people that you worked with?

So because I went to school there, I actually lived in the Heights for a short period of time. Just off of 168th, that was my train stop. And then I moved further up town, to Inwood, and then ultimately sort of settled in Harlem. So I sort of ran the gamut from the upper west side, downtown, also in Brooklyn.

But yeah, it just . . . wasn’t even a thing, like I never felt outside of it. I never felt unwelcome, you know? Because I was walking down the street and I honestly saw people who look like me–Black and from the Latinx community–and we all were just trying to get through together. And particularly, those Sunday mornings where you wake up and it’s the “mm mm mm chicka mm mm mm,” like the window’s open and the hydrants are open . . . You know all of that was just a beautiful memory for me, living there, because those were some of my formative years, as I was shaping who I was as an artist. And then to be able to work on this movie with this incredible cast who I now call family. Just the gift, you know. They call me an honorary Latino, and I’m like, I don’t know if I’m worthy, [laughs]. But I take it and I’m grateful. There’s just a ton of gratitude.

You really get that sense from watching the movie–I feel like it captures that pretty well. I’ve never been to New York City, and I’m white, but I watch it and I’m like, “Wow, I just feel like part of this neighborhood.” It’s really cool!

You’ve never been to New York!?

No, I grew up upstate but I’ve never been!

Whoa! We gotta get you to New York, Taryn!

Yeah, I know!

Well, you been there because you watched In the Heights [laughs].

The film was obviously made before the pandemic, and before this global reckoning for Black Lives Matter, and the musical was written a while ago. But how do you feel like a release this summer is going to land, in this moment?

Everything sort of happens in its own timing. And everything happens for a reason. I’m a strong believer of that. Getting out of the way and allowing the universe to sort of do its thing. This movie was talked about being produced and made years ago, years ago. Right after it’d won Tonys on Broadway [in 2008]. And for whatever reason, it didn’t happen then. And then we finally shot it in that beautiful summer [of 2019]. And then the pandemic.

You know, we were starting to ramp up for press, and then the pandemic just leveled us. And I think we all just took a collective breath and we were wondering–I think Warner Brothers was also wondering–how to release it, whether or not we should wait, and [director] Jon [M. Chu] and [creator] Lin[-Manuel Miranda] and [screenplay and book writer] Quiara [Alegria Hudes] were all on board to just wait. You know, the Broadway show still resonates to this day, so the movie is gonna resonate a year later. And that’s a testament to the film, too, because it’s resonating now just like it would have last year, just like it will 20 years down the line, 50 years down the line, whenever.

Especially going through what we went through–we watched this country sort of cry out, and we watched people stand up and try to be seen, and again the pandemic was the great leveler. We all had to sit at home, and sit with ourselves and think about who we are, and where we are, and how we operate as a country and as people, when we finally come back together.

And now, literally, as this movie is coming out, we’re finally coming back together. And this film is all about community. So what better way than a big old, huge musical that’s like, hella fun and just a good time, but also reminds us about how important it is to look at each other and see each other and just feel each other, and understand those differences and the beauty in those differences. So I’m just thankful that it’s coming out right now. Couldn’t be a better time, right? Also to bring people back into the theaters, which is where you wanna see this movie.

Is there a specific scene or aspect of it that you’re most excited for audiences to see? What are you most proud of?

Ahh that’s hard. That’s a hard one. I don’t know. Every scene.

“Carnaval [del Barrio]” was just the craziest scene to shoot because of that energy of the New York dance community–and shout-out to our incredible choreographers, led by Chris Scott, [associate choreographers] Ebony [Williams], Emilio [Dosal], Dana [Wilson], [associate Latin choreographer] Eddie [Torres Jr.], [assistant Latin choreographer] Princess [Serrano]–they all were our rocks. Really the choreography throughout the whole film. The New York dance community, I think that’s a huge point of pride. Because they hadn’t really been seen.

Sometimes it’s just one form of dance, like this form of dance or that one. I mean, we were doing Busby Berkeley in the pool, we were doing hip-hop over here and flamenco over here and a little salsa, merengue, and all these just melded into these beautiful numbers. “96,000” showcased that.

But my favorite favorite favorite to shoot was probably “When the Sun Goes Down,” on the side of a building.

What kind of preparation did you have to do for all that dancing, and for your role in general? So many of those numbers had so many people and so much going on at once.

Yeah it was a big vision from Jon at the beginning. I remember him saying, “No harnesses. We’re gonna actually be on the side of the building.”

I’m like, “Hmm, I can’t wait to watch the doubles do that.”

He’s like, “What doubles, you doing this. You and Leslie [Grace] about to be up there doing it.”

We had rehearsed and rehearsed, and we’d learned whole combinations that never ended up in that piece. The music ended up having to change based on how Leslie and I were feeling in the moment. And again, we’d shoot it all–we would start on the fire escape. As they’re going down, I have to hold my weight as if I’m standing upright, but I’m literally parallel to the ground. But the way he shot it, in VR–he planned it in VR, so he could get his angles and stuff–you’d see VR me dancing and VR Leslie dancing. So we had to be a part of that, which was incredible. And then yeah, the building goes down, you come off of it, and you dance all the way back onto it, and then you slide down–we were sliding down as it was going back up–and the kiss. I mean it was just . . . When I think back on it, I’m like, Oh man, we were Cirque du Soleil!

But it was a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. Literal blood, sweat, and tears in the rehearsal room, because we felt the pressure to get it right and to do it right, and we felt that we owed it to not only this community, but Lin and Jon and Quiara, and just doing justice to these characters.

Yeah, my brain was like, What kind of movie magic wizardry is happening . . . It’s so cool.

It was great [laughs].

Had you worked with Leslie before? What was it like building up your chemistry for that role?

Leslie and I, funnily enough, the first time we met was on the street, right near Bernie Telsey’s–our casting director, our awesome casting director, shout-out to him, because the way he put this together was incredible. We met right outside of the building, we put our hands on the door. I kid you not, she was coming from this way, I was coming from that way. We were both walking down the street and we put our hands on the door handle at the same time and were like “. . . Hey.”

It’s always awkward before a chemistry read or a test, you know you meet people that you don’t know, but you do know, from their work. Like of course I know Leslie from her music. So we ride the elevator up together, and from then on it kind of felt like we knew. Once we went into the room and read, it was just great to lean on her.

And I watched this movie unfold through her eyes, because it was her first film. So I got to be like, reminded of the magic of what we do. Like sometimes we get so . . . It becomes like work instead of the gift that it is to go to work every day. And I was just thankful for that because she sort of brought that innocence out of me again. To be able to lean on each other was great. Especially in the studio, because I was nervous as hell.

What about this story and Benny’s character do you connect with on a personal note?

I love Benny–he’s just rooted. He’s just a good time. Like I was saying with Chris Jackson, I just remember watching and seeing everybody else wanting to sort of run away from home, and Benny’s sort of standing there like, “Guys, this is home. Where you going?” And Benny, he says it at the very beginning, he says, “When you’re home, everything’s better. And it doesn’t matter where you go, you take home with you. You can go back to Stanford, Nina, but you will still take this piece of who you are with you, when you’re in those spaces, when you feel like you have to code-switch or you feel that impostor syndrome sort of sneaking in.”

So we talked through a lot of those things as we were building the characters and just working through it, but I just love his rootedness and I love that he reminds people that home is where your greatest dreams are. That stays with me, because it is, it’s true. v

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‘Love always wins,’ ‘Chicago together,’ and ‘proud ally,’ were some of the messages written on a new community mural unveiled Thursday in Wrigleyville to spread some happiness during Pride month.

Zeye One, a Mexican American queer tattoo artist, said the mural was an ode to the city’s diversity and inspired by those who come together to celebrate their differences.

Though interrupted by rainy weather, it took the Chicago-based artist two and a half days and a half to complete the mural, working from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.

“I painted nonstop, my hands were literally numb after I got home. But I don’t mind, I love what I do so much,” Zeye One said.

Brian Rich/Sun-Times

State Sen. Sara Feigenholtz was first to sign the mural. “This is a really important time. June is Pride month, and we celebrate in this community every single day,” Feigenholtz said.

The mural will stay at 3524 N. Clark St. until the end of June so pedestrians can grab a colored marker and share some uplifting messages on the mural’s bottom blue section.

In early July, it will be donated to the Center on Halsted, the LGBTQ community center, and installed in the third floor reception area.

“There’s so much love to give in Chicago and it doesn’t really matter who you are, it’s that we have to come together as a community and be supportive of each other,” said Kiana Chan, a commercial strategy analyst at Cresco Labs, who wrote “One Love” on the mural.

Cresco Labs’ Good News cannabis brand commissioned the mural. Good News will donate $5 to the Center on Halsted for each message written on the mural up to $15,000.

Modesto “Tico” Valle, the Center’s CEO, said the donation will go toward the center’s Open Gym Program that serves as a community space for recreational sports and gatherings.

“They are supporting our community programs and our health and wellness around gymnasiums, sports, basketball, volleyball [and] hockey,” Valle said.

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