Videos

Latinx Chicago Public Schools valedictorian highlights what class of 2020 must ask itselfRay Salazar, NBCTon June 15, 2020 at 5:57 pm

The White Rhino: A Blog about Education and Latino Issues

Latinx Chicago Public Schools valedictorian highlights what class of 2020 must ask itself

Read More

Latinx Chicago Public Schools valedictorian highlights what class of 2020 must ask itselfRay Salazar, NBCTon June 15, 2020 at 5:57 pm Read More »

YouTube, for over 10 years I have begged you to get rid of the racist El Negrito Tomas and El Negro MamaTron Griffinon June 15, 2020 at 6:42 pm

Keeping An Eye Out

YouTube, for over 10 years I have begged you to get rid of the racist El Negrito Tomas and El Negro Mama

Read More

YouTube, for over 10 years I have begged you to get rid of the racist El Negrito Tomas and El Negro MamaTron Griffinon June 15, 2020 at 6:42 pm Read More »

PHOTOS: Golfers share photos of themselves out on the course during social distancingChicagoNow Staffon June 15, 2020 at 7:10 pm

ChicagoNow Staff Blog

PHOTOS: Golfers share photos of themselves out on the course during social distancing

©2020 CTMG – A Chicago Tribune website –
Crafted by the News Apps team

Read More

PHOTOS: Golfers share photos of themselves out on the course during social distancingChicagoNow Staffon June 15, 2020 at 7:10 pm Read More »

PHOTOS: Patios fill up with diners venturing out in Chicago areaChicagoNow Staffon June 15, 2020 at 7:44 pm

ChicagoNow Staff Blog

PHOTOS: Patios fill up with diners venturing out in Chicago area

©2020 CTMG – A Chicago Tribune website –
Crafted by the News Apps team

Read More

PHOTOS: Patios fill up with diners venturing out in Chicago areaChicagoNow Staffon June 15, 2020 at 7:44 pm Read More »

Chicago announces reopening dates for Lakefront trail and barsCarole Kuhrt Breweron June 15, 2020 at 8:14 pm

Show Me Chicago

Chicago announces reopening dates for Lakefront trail and bars

Read More

Chicago announces reopening dates for Lakefront trail and barsCarole Kuhrt Breweron June 15, 2020 at 8:14 pm Read More »

Sunshowers, or the Tiger’s WeddingWeather Girlon June 15, 2020 at 9:40 pm

Chicago Weather Watch

Sunshowers, or the Tiger’s Wedding

Read More

Sunshowers, or the Tiger’s WeddingWeather Girlon June 15, 2020 at 9:40 pm Read More »

How Chicago artists are spreading the message that Black Lives MatterS. Nicole Laneon June 15, 2020 at 4:20 pm

I biked from McKinley Park to Humboldt Park last Friday to deliver a package to someone. A 30-minute ride up to the northwest side would be good to exercise my winter legs, although the 85-degree temperature was testing my ability to do so with ease. What I saw along the way–and what I’ve seen between the groups of folks at protests–were bright hues, large lettering, artwork, figures, and political statements adorning buildings, windows, and public spaces. These new murals have taken the place of many boarded-up storefronts, gas stations, and grocery stores, covering up the sad plywood texture with words of affirmation and strength.

A few days before my bike ride, I saw “All Lives Matter” painted in lazy black lettering on a Humboldt corner store. Now “Brown people stand with Black lives” is painted over those words. Chicagoans have been empowered by the demonstrations and those emotions are being illustrated across the city.

Enlisting more than 75 artists to work on 15 buildings around Chicago, Barrett Keithley and Missy Perkins launched Paint the City, which creates images of hope and unity on boarded-up storefronts. Its mission is deeply rooted in Black Lives Matter and the support of justice and equality, and so far the group of artists has painted ten buildings on the city’s south and west sides. Keithley explains the inspiration behind the project started because of the boarded-up abandoned buildings that have long existed in the city, prior to the recent protests, in those areas. “Once the civil unrest began, we too wanted to take a stand and use our form of art activism. We want to heal the city through art. We also identified that local businesses and artists were being affected by the pandemic to begin with, so we literally said, ‘Let’s do this!'”

Businesses contact Paint the City and are then partnered with artists who work on their storefront. Perkins and Keithley first began to e-mail chambers of commerce and a few alderpeople who sent them the names of boarded-up businesses. Some businesses have specific requests, like certain images, text, or colors, whereas others simply want to spread positivity to support Black Lives Matter. Paint the City has been working with Somos Arte Collective, an arts and education team, to help with outreach in the communities it serves. “We always make sure the businesses are aware of the murals to create a stronger bond with the artist’s community,” says Keithley. Murals can be found at small businesses like Wildwood Photography, Conexion Salon and Spa, the Denim Lounge, Cafe Cancale, Mojo Spa, and Store B Vintage, as well as larger spaces like the Petco in the South Loop and two Jewel-Osco’s on the south side.

Keithley’s background is in painting and event coordinating. He began to professionally paint six years ago, creating work based on his experiences growing up in Morgan Park. Perkins has an educational background and a master’s degree in art history and museum studies. She has curated in galleries all over Chicago and is now heavily involved in the hip-hop graffiti scene. The duo’s knowledge of curating and art-making combined with their experience working closely with Chicago Loop Alliance has provided insight into their planning moving forward with Paint the City.

Last week, they launched a GoFundMe campaign to support the artist community that has also been hit hard due to the pandemic. Although the project is already launched, Keithley and Perkins are asking folks to donate so artists involved in Paint the City can be compensated for their time and supplies. Keithley says, “The initiative is also the beginning of our continuous effort to connect local businesses with artists and to beautify our city’s abandoned properties.” And Paint the City hopes to prolong their support of local artists. This ongoing project has the intentions to help fellow artists and to stimulate the local economy through art and entertainment.

In places like New York City, murals are being painted over as they are considered “vandalism.” However, Chicago’s shops and neighborhoods are thriving with support as locals spread their message with art–for now. This is what makes these canvases so precious–they are ephemeral. Because businesses will eventually remove these boarded up walls, the plywood canvas will take the artwork with it. And this is something that all major cities are seeing across the U.S. Arts initiatives are being taken to the streets and to the storefronts lining those streets filled with people seeking justice for the murder of George Floyd and the numerous stolen lives of Black folks around the world. v

If business owners are interested in participating in the initiative, they can email [email protected].

Read More

How Chicago artists are spreading the message that Black Lives MatterS. Nicole Laneon June 15, 2020 at 4:20 pm Read More »

Dwayne Kennedy is the voice of ChicagoSalem Collo-Julinon June 15, 2020 at 6:30 pm

Comedian, writer, and actor Dwayne Kennedy is truly a comedian’s comedian. He has appeared on screens and stages since the 80s, getting his start in Chicago at the open mike at Zanies on Wells Street. He’s had guest spots on sitcoms like Seinfeld and Martin, and his TV debut itself wasn’t too shabby: in 1989 he guest starred on the show 227 playing opposite fellow visiting actor Halle Berry.

After years of work in the clubs, he won the 2002 Best Comedian award at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival, and appeared during that era on the Late Show With David Letterman. He’s also written and produced for television (FX’s Totally Biased With W. Kamau Bell, the 2013 Arsenio Hall Show reboot). Last year, Kennedy won an Emmy award as the supervising producer for fellow comedian Bell’s CNN series United Shades of America.

He’s probably the most successful Chicago comedian you’ve never heard of, and I think everyone in this city needs to buy his new album Who the Hell Is Dwayne Kennedy? (Oak Head Records) and pick up his 2016 EP Oh No! It’s Dwayne Kennedy and sing his praises alongside me. Here’s why:

His home base is still Chicago

Kennedy grew up both on the south side and in the south suburbs, and frequently works into his comedy the kind of analysis about the city-state and community development that longtime Chicagoans can relate to. On the new album (a comedy set edited from three live nights at the Punchline in San Francisco in 2018), he talks about summertime in Chicago, a beautiful time but also “shooting season . . . I don’t know what it is about the warm weather.” He continues, “I’m glad when it becomes wintertime in Chicago and gets to like 39 degrees below zero, because all the gangsters got to go in the house . . . which I feel bad for anyone in the house now getting their ass whupped.” He pauses, then jumps in with precise timing, “but at least now I can walk to the grocery store and get that wheat bread that I’ve had my eye on all summer!”

He’s at the ideal corner of smart and funny

Kennedy’s words on violence, race relations, and social justice are nuanced and thoughtful, and sometimes a train barreling into you that you didn’t hear coming. A recent joke that didn’t make the album (but which Oak Head Records issued on YouTube as a video preview): “I used to let white folks have it . . . let me tell you man, your pathological greed and compulsive need for control has been the single most source of pain and misery for people of color throughout this world for generations! But I try not to say things like that anymore . . . because I’ve found once you have said something like that to a white person . . . you almost never get a second date.”

Other comedians regularly sing his praises

W. Kamau Bell met Kennedy in 1994 in Rogers Park. “It was at one of the open mikes up at No Exit Cafe,” Kennedy told me on a phone call last month. “Kamau was about two weeks into comedy, and I was coming back after a break. I had been there the week before, and he came up and introduced himself and we found some similar sensibilities . . . we’ve been friends ever since.” In 2012, Bell suggested that Kennedy be hired for the writing staff on his FX political talk and variety show Totally Biased With W. Kamau Bell, and comedian Chris Rock (the show’s executive producer) readily agreed when heard Kennedy’s name, saying that Kennedy was funnier than everybody else when they both were performing at the same clubs in New York City in the late 80s.

He’s consistent . . . and did I mention he’s hilarious?

The new album includes a track titled “The Dog Don’t Bite Unless . . .” in which Kennedy dreams up a seemingly endless loop of ridiculous scenarios where a dog owner is laying down the rules for a new person meeting their big, vicious dog, including “the dog don’t bite unless your heart rate rises above 120,” and “the dog don’t bite as long as you don’t do yoga in front of the dog … don’t do downward dog in front of the dog, because dogs feel like they invented that and they’re not receiving any financial compensation.” Kennedy’s Facebook and Twitter feeds are always a testing ground for snippets of material, and he stays on current topics. Just in the last few weeks, he’s shared his take on the intersection of the Black Lives Matter movement and social liberation alongside musings on the pandemic, and sometimes all in the same biting post (he attributed the quote “No Lives Matter” to “COVID-19” in one, and quotes “White Supremacy” as saying “Black lives matter? What’s next, giving the Indigenous (peoples) their stolen land back?!”). Kennedy is the voice that Chicagoans know and the voice that the rest of the world needs to hear. v

Read More

Dwayne Kennedy is the voice of ChicagoSalem Collo-Julinon June 15, 2020 at 6:30 pm Read More »