Roseanna Ander, the founding executive director of the University of Chicago Crime Lab and Urban Education Lab , has dedicated her life to solving problems related to poverty and urban violence. She’s also my cousin. We sat down to chat about her work, what inspires her and her freakishly high energy. CC: When did you start the Crime Lab? […]
Posted inMusic, Reviews
40 Albums/Songs Every Woman Should Own
A certain someone who shall remain nameless (cough, cough, Karen!), turned 40 recently and dared ask the question, “What 40 albums by female artists should every self-respecting lady own?” Not being one to shy away from a challenge, I humbly suggest these 40 albums and/or songs all touched by a femme for your listening pleasure. […]
Posted inRebellions
Paula Poundstone on Her Love of Stand-up and Performing in Chicago
Since starting out in comedy at the tender age of 19, Paula Poundstone has provided insightful, discerning jokes at every turn. Whether she is interacting with audience members – something Poundstone loves to do – sharing homemade web videos or discussing politics with some of the greatest minds of today on NPR’s “Wait Wait…Don’t Tell […]
Posted inColumns
The day I got this gig, I’d been suicidal for three days.
The day I got this gig, I’d been suicidal for three days. My bipolar mind had convinced itself that this world could not be saved. I’d grown tired of staying alive because people didn’t want my literal dead body to be something else they had to process. I woke on the wrong side of the […]
Posted inRebellions
Think You’ve Got it Bad? Imagine Being a Black Woman in Norway Being Asked About Trump
In U.S. presidential races, the bickering between candidates gets ugly and this year, it’s been downright disgusting. As an American living abroad, it’s been plain embarrassing. Even though many of us Americans don’t follow the politics of other countries, the rest of the world watches ours. My friends here in Norway are monitoring this election […]
Posted inMovies
Review: ‘Hannie Calder’ Gets Her Gun – and Restoration
Olive Signature Films just released a new High-Def digital restoration of Burt Kennedy’s 1971 cult western “Hannie Caulder” featuring Raquel Welch in the title role. As a frontierswoman back in the 1800s, Hannie expects a life of liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Her prospects look good since she’s married to an entrepreneur who owns […]
Posted inPluck
The One Thing I’m Not Doing
I realized that it was one – ONE measly thing, and suddenly I felt so much better. In another installment of “things I know but somehow hadn’t yet articulated for my own benefit,” I just pulled myself out of a months-long funk. Well, not me alone. My epiphany happened over a playground bench-coffee session with […]
Posted inMile-High Club
Journalism: My First Love
I can’t remember how old I was the first time I interviewed someone. Seven? Eight? The subject also remains fuzzy, but it was undoubtedly one of my grandparents, graciously answering my nosy questions with a feigned formality that made me feel, even then, like a real reporter. What I also can remember is […]
Posted inRebellious Women in Poetry
Hafizah Geter’s ‘paula’
As a somewhat curmudgeonly 28-year-old, I’m not sure if I’m a Millennial, a Gen X’er or Y’er, or just lost between them all. I am a child of the 1990s, though, and so is this poem. I first heard “paula” in a hot room full of cold poets, the winter night drained from the sky […]
Posted inPluck
Don’t breastfeed in public! There’s an app for that.
Moms in Chicago are furious after a local TV anchor compared breastfeeding in public to nose picking. Three FOX Chicago anchors discussed a viral video on Thursday’s morning show where a mom breastfeeding her 16 day-old baby is told to cover up for the sake of “decency” while she waited for her daughter to finish dance class at the […]