Cross’ eccentric, go-getter personality is what makes her who she is and it’s what has gotten her so far in her life at such a young age.

Cross, a journalism major at Columbia College Chicago with a concentration in broadcast journalism, was recently chosen, along with 15 other college freshman, from over thousands of applicants for Seventeen magazine’s “Freshman 15” correspondence. With an internship that many graduates could only dream of, at just 18 years old, Cross has already had her writing published several times before.

Taylor Jones, a close friend of Cross, said that although Cross likes to have fun, she is also very business oriented.

“[Bria] is a successful young woman who in my opinion has accomplished so much at her age,” said Jones.

Hailing from Dolton, a southern suburb of Chicago, Cross has already achieved journalistic success at a young age. She started her writing career on the yearbook staff at Seton Academy in South Holland. However, it was at her second school, Thornwood High School, that Cross was asked to write the opening section of her senior yearbook. It was also at Thornwood that Cross’ teacher introduced her to the creator of Chicago-based TrueStar magazine.

At the young age of 16, Cross began writing for TrueStar. It was her intense love for entertainment news and her ongoing persistence that landed Cross with numerous celebrity interviews, with hip-hop artists such as the New Boyz and Omarion.

“I told [TrueStar], ‘I like celebrities, so I’m going to write about celebrities’,” said Cross.

After these high-profile interviews and well-written articles, Cross landed her first cover of TrueStar within only three months of being hired.

“It gave me confidence,” Cross said.

However, it was last summer that Cross landed the correspondence that would upgrade her writing career the most.

While exploring the Seventeen magazine website this summer, Cross came across an “Apply Now” button and then spent two hours filling out an extensive application for the “Freshman 15” correspondence. After several months without hearing from Seventeen, Cross finally got the email telling her to submit a two-minute video about herself and why she would be a good addition to the “Freshman 15.”

Only days before her classes began in September, Cross received the call that informed her of her new Seventeen correspondence.

Seventeen features editor Elisa Benson said that Cross’ excitement for life and upbeat attitude is what earned her a spot on “Freshman 15.”

“We loved her right off the bat,” said Benson. “Her video was super-energetic and fun. We could tell she wanted to fully dive into the college experience and share it with readers.”

However, Cross admitted that she doesn’t know why Seventeen chose her over thousands of other girls for this correspondence.

“I don’t really know what set me apart,” said Cross, “but I’m glad I got noticed.”

Every week, Cross submits a blog, video blog and photos of she and her friends while also answering questions from readers. Cross frequently writes about parties and also of her complications with her roommates.

According to Cross’ blog manager at Seventeen, Kaitlyn Cubria, Cross has what it takes to be a great journalist.

“I think Bria has improved since her first blog/[video blog] entries,” Cubria said. “The journalism industry is tough to crack into. The fact that Bria will have all of these clips from Seventeen will give her that much of a leg up on her competition.”

Although Cross writes for both TrueStar and Seventeen, she has many different ideas for what her future career may be.

“I want to do everything,” said Cross. “I wouldn’t mind working for a PR firm, hosting TRL, or having an online blog. I want to do it all.”

For students and aspiring journalists, Cross offered some important advice: make yourself known.

“Put yourself out there, apply everywhere,” Cross said. “Don’t be scared to try anything.”

Columbia College Chicago‘s International Student Organization wants to celebrate International Education Week (November 15 – 19) in a big way. They are presenting Degrassi: Next Genration’s Shannon Kook-Chun, who plays the openly gay character Zane Park. Kook-Chun will answer questions about his diverse background and how it affects his acting experience.

This event is free and open to the public, but space is limited. Get your ticket at shannonatccchicago.eventbrite.com beforehand to make sure you get in to this free but popular event.

Shannon was born and raised in South Africa before coming to Canada to study at the prestigious National Theatre School of Canada. Upon graduating, he began working immediately. He appeared on stage at the Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People and at the Citadel Theatre in their Dora-nominated production of “The Forbidden Phoenix.” He was next seen at the Factory Theatre in the world-premiere production of “The Madness of the Square.”

Entering the world of film and television proved a natural fit for Shannon and he quickly became sought-after. In less than a year, he shot guest star roles in CBC’s “The Border,” “Being Erica,” “Crash & Burn,” “Aaron Stone” and recurring roles in “Durham County.” He is also featured in an upcoming teaser trailer for a feature entitled “Verona,” directed by Laurie Lynd.

This event is free and open to the public, but space is limited. The [email protected] has more information if you need it.

via An Evening With Degrassi’s Shannon Kook-Chun.

Related articles

• ‘Degrassi’ gets first transgender character (ontheredcarpet.com)
• ‘Degrassi’ Alum Andrea Lewis ‘Can’t Wait To Share Stage’ With Drake (mtv.com)

More info on the Museum of Contemporary Art
More info on Redmoon Theatre

How would you like to attend a radio conference featuring workshops in voiceover, audio drama, and podcasting, while also listening to panelists that include some of the most successful on-air talent, production personnel, and producers from across the nation?

Now’s your chance! Columbia College Chicago and Intercollegiate Broadcasting Systems are pleased to announce the 7th Annual Midwest Regional High School and College Radio Conference at Columbia College on Saturday, October 23, 2010.

via Columbia College Chicago : Featured News Story.

Yes Men preparing for an event in New York City. Photo by Barbara K. Iverson

Considered among the most important political artists of the last dozen years, The Yes Men are a group of culture-jamming activists who practice what they call “Identity Correction.” By posing as spokespersons for prominent organizations and powerful entities, The Yes Men create spoof websites and appear in conferences and TV shows to highlight how corporations and government organizations often act in dehumanizing ways toward the public.

They will be at Columbia College Chicago‘s Glass Curtain Gallery, 1104 S. Wabash, for a reception and appearance on Sept. 23 from 5-8 p.m. The Yes Men presentation is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.

This is the first solo exhibition of The Yes Men. And KEEP IT SLICK presents The Yes Men’s body of work, including elaborate costumes, videos and PowerPoint presentations made for their bold interventions, outrageous posters and props, scripts, sketches, research materials and selected publications and ephemera from their personal collections.

View a sample of what the Yes Men do: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dO6Oi3XUYgg&feature=related

via Columbia College Chicago: Glass Curtain Exhibition Archive.

See Carbon Nation in Chicago

The City of Chicago will host a Carbon Nation Celebration to celebrate the power of every-day climate change solutions for families, businesses and citizens.  The event will include: Performances by comedian Hal Sparks and the Happiness Club. Family activities and exhibits from the Museum of Science and industry. Celebrity appearances on the green carpet by the star of SHREK THE MUSICAL from Broadway Chicago. Inspirational speeches from the Chicago Department of Environment and director of Carbon Nation and the world premiere and free screening of Peter Byck’s Carbon Nation film.

Live entertainment starts at 7:00 p.m. and the movie at 8:15 p.m. in the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park.

Patricia Jones Blessman,  is an associate producer of the film, and Karen Weigert, Senior Vice President of ShoreBank, is one of the film’s producers.

Tuesday, August 10 at 8:15m for Carbon Nation.  Learn and be entertained and challenged together!!

Other events include:
Mayor Daley–invited
Bill Kurtis, acclaimed documentary host and producer
Hal Sparks, actor and comedian
Suzanne Malec-McKenna, commissioner, Chicago Department of Environment
Peter Byck, director and producer of Carbon Nation
Star of Broadway in Chicago’s SHREK THE MUSICAL
The Happiness Club

Tonight, June 24, come and listen at “Birds of a radio feather flock together” for:

Third Coast Listening Room: Stories About Music
Thursday, June 24th / 7-9pm
Stop Smiling Storefront / 1371 N. Milwaukee Ave. / Chicago, IL
RSVP to attend:
Suggested donation – $8
Questions? , or call 312-948-4682.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Third Coast International Audio Competition Now Open (chicagotalks.org)

“I was the first in this country to see that list. I was supposed to introduce the president on May 1 at the Polish parade,” said Jasinski, editor-in-chief of Polonia Today.

Polonia Today, an online-only publication, dates back to 1911, when it was published in Pennsylvania. Though it has always been in English, the publication had not always been online. It was a weekly newspaper that in the 1960s made its way to Chicago, the city with the highest concentration of Poles outside of Poland.

By 1975, it became the most read Polish-American newspaper in the world and by 2007, it went online. It was trusted by its readers for being so faithful and bringing the most up-to-date news from Poland, giving the publication a new motto: “Fact Without Favor – Truth Without Fear.”

With the journalism world changing, Jasinski explains the things he is doing to keep up with the pace and the things he has had to sacrifice.

“I used to have an office and a TV studio a block away from my house, but I had to sell them because everything went to hell. Now I work from home, which is better and I don’t have a staff here anyways, ” Jasinski said, his wit already coming out.

Jasinski was brought up in Chicago with Polish parents, but, wanting to be all-American, they didn’t teach their kids any part of their native tongue. Even with that little conflict, it didn’t stop him from keeping the little staff that he did have overseas.

“I use stringers in Poland to get all of my news information. They are great writers and I can use them for my features, pay them little and they are OK with that because most of them just want their name out there,” Jasinski said.

Jasinski also mentions that he shares news articles with a major Polish agency in Poland. Though he cannot speak Polish fluently, he has taught himself enough to get by.

Growing up, Jasinski spent time with his cousins pretending to own a magazine and printing them out weekly for his family, so it came as no surprise that he would study English in DePaul University. But that’s not the degree he graduated with.

Instead, Jasinski graduated with a degree in divorce law, but he soon realized it wasn’t for him. He became a member of the Polish National Alliance and was asked to write their monthly newsletter. From there, he fell out of law and back into journalism.

He continues to write for the Alliance’s newsletter as well as various other projects. Jasinski mentions that he is a spokesman for Sobieski Vodka, has a Polka radio show and is a president in various Polish organizations.

“I’m really active in the community and do what I can. I’m a workaholic and can’t do anything until my work is done,” Jasinski said.

Stefan Koltas, a listener to Jasinski’s radio show, comments on how it differs from the online newspaper.

“Well, the radio show only focuses on polka groups in Chicago and Wisconsin, where the majority of polka groups are. I listen to the radio show usually on Sunday mornings with my family on my way to church. I don’t read Polonia Today as much because I am not an Internet person, so I was much more of a reader when it was in print,” Koltas said.

In 2007, the print edition of Polonia Today ended, mainly because subscription rates were down and the newspaper was in trouble.

“When I saw our numbers, I knew we had to do something, so we were the earliest of the ethnic newspapers to go online,” Jasinski said.

One of the online readers, Jake Kladis, weighs in on what he likes about the Web site.

“I like the online version better than the print. I only saw the print a couple of times and even though not everything is included online as it was in print, there are new links and it saves me time and money,” Kladis said.

Some new links Kladis refers to is a video or picture of the month that Jasinski himself takes. Another link is one for the Polonia Today store that opened when the print publication turned online, which has so far, succeeded.

The best advice Jasinski gave was how to become an editor-in-chief of a publication.

“Buy your own newspaper,” Jasinski said

Third Coast awards prizes for the best audio work produced worldwide in the following categories: Best Documentary (Gold, Silver, Bronze, Directors’ Choice, Honorable Mentions), Best New Artist, Radio Impact and Best News Feature. Listen to past winners and get your ideas and recorder out.

With prizes of $1,500 to $6,000 to support future creative endeavors, it’s worth considering submitting stories in to this competition.

Winning programs (and their producers!) will be celebrated at an awards ceremony in Chicago and heard by a national audience this fall in Best of the Best: The Third Coast Festival Broadcast, distributed by PRX.org.

Other outstanding entries from the competition may be presented on the weekly radio show Re:sound (on WBEZ, Chicago), on the Third Coast Web site, and at public listening events in Chicago and beyond. Entrants will be compensated if/when their work is featured.

Important Dates:

• Call for Entries opens: Monday, May 3
• Early deadline: June 23rd at noon PST
• Late deadline: June 23rd after noon PST through July 14 at noon PST
• Winners notified: Early September
• Awards Ceremony: October 30 in Chicago

via Third Coast International Audio Festival :: COMPETITIONS :: TC/RHDF Competition.

First Aid Comics in Hyde Park reigns supreme as the only comic book store on the South Side of Chicago. Although there have been some attempts to establish others in the area, they’ve failed, which raises the question: why?

“I opened my store because there weren’t shops on the South Side of the city,” First Aid Comics owner James Nurss said. He knew there were comic book readers in the area and wanted to provide for them. “People are pig-headed … I knew other owners weren’t going to do it, because they feel people don’t have any money,” he said. “I figured it would provide more business for me, so I took the opportunity others wouldn’t.”

The small store space filled to capacity as a diverse range of customers questioned Nurss about the newest issues and made purchases. A unique sense of community developed. At age 60, Nurss’ oldest customer, who everyone knows as Dock, explained how First Aid Comics made history by being the only “true” comic book store on the South Side.

“I learned how to read with comic books … and I wish I did have a store like this when I was growing up,” he said.

Dock was born and raised in Kenwood and Hyde Park and said he could recall purchasing comics from the newspaper stand when he was young. There was nowhere else to buy comic books back in his day; comic book stores on the South Side were unheard off.

“They weren’t really a necessity,” he said. “Folks probably wouldn’t have ever guessed comics would blow up into the huge industry it is today.”

All-American Comics owner Carl Bonasera has been in business since the summer of 1981 and is the longest reigning comic retailer in the city of Chicago. Although he’s owned eight stores since he’s been in business, one of his first locations was located in the Englewood community.

“I was born and raised on the South side of Chicago,” Bonasera said. “So I wanted a store located in the inner city.”

However, that location of All-American Comics only lasted three years before it went out of business. His only remaining store is currently in Evergreen Park. He said he fought to keep this particular shop open because it was close to the South Side; this way, his original customers could still get to him.

“I have customers that have been with me since I first opened,” he stated. “Now their kids and grandchildren are coming in … generations of families.”

Toney Halbert, an African American and former South Side resident who used to travel some distance to purchase his own comics, feels store owners have a right to place their shops in locations they feel will make them the most money.

“There are certain areas that are just better places to have comic book stores,” he said. “I feel the urban areas of the South Side are not one of them.” As a young African-American male, Halbert added that he doesn’t know too many young blacks that actually enjoy comic books. “I can remember being teased for reading comic books when I was younger,” he said. He was called names like nerd, geek and people gave him weird looks, he said.

Amy Wainwright, a devoted comic book reader, has heard about women experiencing sexism in some comic book shops. This sparked an interest in doing research on the diversity problem in the comic industry.

“It’s institutionalized racism,” Wainwright said. “Just like there is sexism in the comic book industry, there is also racism and this is probably why there are hardly any comic book stores on the South Side of Chicago, unfortunately.”

Wainwright said this won’t change until everyone working in the industry, from store owners to their distributors, realizes there are more people reading comics than the average stereotype — “white and nerdy teenage boys.”

Halbert thinks for the South Side to see more shops, the main focus is to get young blacks interested in comics. He said movies are helping with creating that interest and only then will more stores come into the area.

As for the leading South Side store, there are big plans in the near future. Nurss said he plans on expanding and is currently looking at property downstate in Champaign-Urbana. “I’m thinking of opening a store so smaller towns in southern Illinois can have access to comics again.”

These are the facts that we read in the news — but how much do we really know about what is happening in Haiti in the aftermath of this crisis? Can we trust the news reports now coming out of this long-forgotten nation? And what does it mean about the state of journalism that we have to ask these questions?

These questions were the topic of a heated debate Thursday evening at the National Association of Black Journalists’ monthly meeting. Mary Mitchell, columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, joined state Sen. Kwame Raoul, Evanston Ald. Lionel Jean-Baptiste of the Haitian Congress to Fortify Haiti,and Patrick Brutus, co-founder of the Haitian-American Professionals Network to discuss media coverage of Haiti in comparison to other disasters.

Mitchell said she was disappointed with the immediate coverage of the earthquake, which she referred to as a disaster “unprecedented in this hemisphere.”

“We were really ill-prepared to tell the story because we had ignored Haiti for so long,” she said. “If you are not familiar with your beat, if you don’t know background, history or culture, you won’t be able to do your job.”

Jean-Baptiste said there was an imbalance in media coverage of Haiti because of who was telling the story.

“Here you have CNN, NBC and big stars like Anderson Cooper telling what they think is Haiti’s story,” he said. “It wasn’t until last week, when the black media arrived, that you got the projection of will and the resilience of the Haitian people. We need to tell our own story.”

Mitchell said the media couldn’t cover the story immediately because Haiti was off the radar for most journalists. She then held up the front page of the Sun-Times from the day after the disaster. On the cover was a story about Ron Huberman, chief executive officer of Chicago Public Schools.

It wasn’t until two days after the tragedy that the media started their blitz, but with it came front pages plastered with pictures of death. It’s these horrifying photographs that upset Mitchell, who said showing pictures of “rotting, bloated, dead people is an injustice to journalism.”

“I was disappointed in all media outlets that ran pictures of dead bodies,” she said. “Covers of papers with pictures of rotting bodies, where is the dignity in that? We didn’t do it with Katrina, we don’t do it in a war zone, but in Haiti it seemed alright to show bloated, rotting dead bodies.”

Marielle Sainvilus, spokeswoman for Illinois State Department, said the media has ignored Haiti for so long that readers have been left ignorant and afraid of the unknown.

“Anything that was negative has been put on Haiti,” she said. “As a result, any time that Haiti came up in the media in the past was negative. Therefore Haiti became this pit in the media. As a result, now that this earthquake has happened, it has uncovered this Pandora’s box of complexity of this small island that nobody knew about.”

Mitchell, at the same time she criticized some media coverage, gave journalists credit for “getting up-to-speed so quickly.”

“Haiti is no different than any subject we cover. Someone has to have a heart for Haiti,” she said. “In the newsroom someone has to have a heart for the South Side and the West Side. Someone has to have a heart for Haiti, someone has to want to cover it.”

The panel agreed on one thing: The media hasn’t dug deep enough, and there are far too many stories to tell.

Sainvilus said this is the first time that Haiti is getting the media attention they deserve. She said the media can bring light to the issues and bring attention to the history and the culture and can help Haitians rebuild.

“I appreciate the media overkill that has been given to Haiti,” she said. “It has given Haiti a platform that they have never had in the media before, it has given a platform to Haitians who have never been portrayed in the right light.”

Monday, February 1
5 – 8 pm
Columbia College College, Film Row
1104 S. Wabash, 8th Floor

Woolworth's Lunch Counter

This event is free and open to the public. Reservations are required and can be made by sending an to or by calling 312.435.1201.

Following the screening, we invite you to participate in a community dialogue which will be centered on how the history of that moment is relevant to the issues of today.

More about this event

This event is presented by The Chicago Freedom School and the Ellen Stone Belic Institute for the Study of Women and Gender in the Arts and Media at Columbia College, in partnership with The Public Square and the Chicago SNCC History Project.

Inspired by the Baristanet and MyBallard.com, Fourcher and Boylan have been planning Center Square Ledger, a hyperlocal online news site for the Chicago communities of North Center, Lincoln Square and Ravenswood Manor since October. It will officially launch on Monday, Jan. 18th. If you are taking the Brown Line on Monday, between the Francisco and Addison stops, you are likely to see some of the 10,000 fliers advertising the new site.

Stories will be uploaded on a daily basis like they are on ChicagoTalks.org. Fourcher said they will focus on businesses, restaurant reviews, events, school news and other neighborhood happenings. With Gordon Tech and Lane Tech in their target area, they have the opportunity to do some hyperlocal sports news. The site is optimized for cellphones and smartphone browsers.

Center Square Ledger aims to be a for-profit community news site for the three communities, which have about 80,000 residents according to Fourcher. Initially, there will be no paid staff. Fourcher, who was an early contributor to Chicagoist.com as well as one of the organizers of the Chicago Future of Media Conference last June, and Boylan, who is a stringer for ChicagoNow, where he blogs about hockey and the Wolves, will write and report for the site. They will be looking for other contributors, but won’t have a budget to pay freelancers at first. Volunteers can contact Patrick to get involved.

The content will be edited by Fourcher and Boylan, but contributors will be able to submit stories to the site. There is a flickr.com stream set up to share and showcase photos from the three neighborhoods. Fourcher says CSL will cover local businesses as well as civic and political organizations. They’ve met with the Chamber of Commerce from each community, and Boylan has met with several Local School Councils (LSCs). The communities are in the 40th (Ald. Patrick O’Connor) and 47th Wards (Ald. Gene Schulter), and Fourcher said they will be meeting with Ald. Schulter soon.

In the interest of transparency, please note that Barbara Iverson and Mike Fourcher worked with Scott Smith to organize the Chicago Media Future Conference.

Image via Wikipedia

The Community Arts Assistance Program (CAAP) was created in 1987 through funding provided by the Illinois Arts Council Access Program. The goals of CAAP are to discover, nurture and expand Chicago’s multi-ethnic artists and nonprofit arts organizations, and to foster new and emerging individual artists and arts groups by providing grants for professional, artistic and organizational development to those who have had limited access to funding in both public and private grants programs. CAAP grants provide financial assistance to individual artists and to nonprofit arts organizations with incomes under $150,000. The maximum grant request is $1,000. Funding priority is intended for applicants who have not been previously funded through the CAAP Program or have not had access to traditional funding programs such as grants, fellowships and art commissions from the National Endowment for the Arts, Illinois Arts Council, corporations or foundations.

From the City of Chicago website:

WHAT WE FUND

Individual Artists

Professional development in the areas of Artistic, Management and Technical/Artistic Services including:

• Creation of high quality artistic projects (e.g. development or completion of a work of art)
• High quality training programs (non-credit master classes, workshops, etc.) which develop professional artistic skills
• Technical assistance in the form of a consultant to help with publicity, proposal writing, marketing, financial management, etc.
• Portfolio development: slides, resumes and audio and video presentations for funders and galleries, etc.
• Exhibition expenses which may include mounting, framing and installation (may not include gallery rental or reception costs)
• Nonprofit Arts Organizations

Organizational Development including:

• High quality training programs aimed at developing administrative and organizational skills
• Technical assistance in the form of a consultant to help in publicity, fundraising, board development, planning, marketing, audience development and bookkeeping
• Documentation of cultural activity through photography, slides, brochures, annual reports, audio and video which will assist the organization in presentations to funders or promotion to attract new and broader audiences
• Assistance for seeking 501(c)(3) status (must contact Cultural Grants staff for separate application instructions)

REQUIREMENTS

Individual applicants

• Must be 21 years of age
• Must be practicing artists with demonstrated ability in their artistic discipline
• Must be a City of Chicago resident with a Chicago street address (no P.O. boxes accepted)
• Must be Chicago resident for at least six (6) months prior to the application deadline
• Must have a social security number

Nonprofit arts organizations

• Must be incorporated and located in the city of Chicago
• Must have acquired, or be in the process of applying for, or seeking funds to apply for Federal 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status
• Must have a valid Federal Employer Identification Number

APPLICATION ASSISTANCE WORKSHOPS

All applicants are strongly encouraged to attend one of the Application Assistance Workshops. Pertinent information regarding the application process and helpful grant writing information will be discussed.

DEADLINE: The 2010 Community Arts Assistance Program grants are currently being accepted. Applications are due on Monday, January 25, 2010 at 5:00 p.m.

For more information, check out the City of Chicago/CAAP website:

Kelsey Duckett interviews Todd Stroger at the event (Photo: Thom Clark)

Cook County Board President Todd Stroger has spent the majority of his time over the last year clearing up what he considers misinformation about his platform and defending himself from what he said are daily attacks by the media, as well as attacks by his Democratic competition.

Stroger, who was elected as board president on Nov. 7, 2006, hasn’t been the most popular political figure in Chicago since he approved the penny-on-the-dollar sales tax hike in February 2008.

He has defended the tax since the 10-7 vote of approval by the Cook County Board of Commissioners, but has been criticized every step of the way.

“Everyone is talking about how they want to rollback the tax, but no one talked about how they are going to keep the government running,” he said. “No one said, ‘I am going to fill that $2 million hole with something else.’ They are offering no plans on how they are going to fill the void that would be created if they rollback the tax.”

Stroger said the Cook County budget hasn’t been increased during his time in office, and he said he has been forced to make difficult cuts. But he said rolling back the tax is a mistake.

“We have to look at this realistically and not just go for the emotional jolt that you can get from the newspapers when you say, ‘I am going to rollback taxes,’” he said.

It’s these same newspapers that Stroger said are being “biased and unfair” in their coverage of the race. He said he is “constantly being portrayed in a negative light.”

“The media has most definitely had me out in a negative light by saying sales tax, sales tax, sales tax,” he said. “They aren’t running the mayor’s face when he’s raising property taxes. They have treated me in a totally different fashion, and I am upset. They don’t have their facts straight on most issues; I work hard, and they only tell half the story.”

Stroger also said he is upset by the lack of support by the Democratic Party, specifically Mayor Richard M. Daley. He said there is no reason for the mayor not to “sign on in full support.”

“The mayor should say the county is running well,” Stroger said during the Jan. 9 debate, saying that county finances are in good shape. “If you look at the history of politics when an incumbent has done what I have done, which is balance the budget and make sure the services are intact, they have always endorsed the candidate for re-election.”

Defending and defining have become Stroger’s main objectives in this heated political race, and when asked about his plans if re-elected, he smiled, as if he hasn’t had the opportunity to answer this question in some time.

“We want to continue to bring new efficiency to the government,” he said. “I have put together a new committee that is working with an outside vendor to go into every department to find at least two percent of an efficiency rating out of their offices. Two percent doesn’t sound like a lot, but two percent out of $3 million is a lot of money.”

He said the biggest thing he will fight for is health care. He vows to make sure the “health care system stays intact.”

“Unfortunately it is always under attack, and part of it has been that the larger media doesn’t report the system as the safety net it is for people,” he said. “We need these clinics and hospitals to keep their doors open, and we need funding to provide them with the staff and equipment they need to provide the best treatment.”

The third point on his agenda is to continue to work towards reducing the jail population.

Stroger was clear in stating he has a solid agenda that has worked. He said there are no new ideas being put on the table by his competitors, and he is ready to serve the county for the next four years.

“When I look at county government in Chicago, I look at a government that is doing well,” he said. “We made significant changes during my first three years, and I am ready to get to work and continue to make positive changes for a better government in the next four years.”

Read Chicago Talks’ coverage of the Jan. 9 Cook County Board president candidates forum here.

Election websites of Stroger’s Democratic challengers:

Dorothy Brown, clerk of the Cook County Circuit Court

Terrence O’Brien, president of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District

Toni Preckwinkle, alderman from Chicago’s 4th Ward

Andrew Bird at Fourth Presbyterian Church, by Joshua Mellin

Along a frozen Michigan Avenue, amongst towering skyscrapers, a Bird’s somber whistle fills a golden trimmed wood cathedral. This Bird, however, is not of the feathered flock.

Just a few years ago you may have heard him whistling down a Logan Square street, yet this year alone he’s played grandiose venues around the city, from the Civic Opera House to the Art Institute’s new Modern Wing and the 94th floor of the Hancock Observatory.

This time around, Chicago native Andrew Bird chose the Fourth Presbyterian Church to showcase his series of sold out “Gezelligheid”-themed shows. Dutch for “social cozy,” the four night home stand helped bring a calming end to a whirlwind 2009 tour to support his fourth studio album Noble Beast.

“What I hope to do with these shows is adapt my music completely to the atmosphere of the space and the season,” Bird said, describing how he envisioned the shows.

“I want the audience to be both lifted and comforted as we head into another cold and dark winter. I feel the space should be sacred so the audience can experience my music in a different atmosphere.”

After injuring his ankle opening night, a grizzled Bird hobbled to the stage and took a seat underneath a giant fuzzy hat. “Man-on-hat, is there a term for that?” he asked the audience. “I’m sure there is.”

Deciding against setting up a PA system to highlight the acoustics of the cathedral walls, the shows were marked with interference from radio station WNUA, broadcast directly across the street from John Hancock’s radio antenna. Intermittently the audience could swear they heard Bill Wither’s “Ain’t No Sunshine.”

Amplified by only his trademark spinning double speaker horns swirling behind him and four custom made Specimen speaker sculptures, Bird invited the audience into his cozy musical inner sanctum.

Lit by only ambient light, he presented rare gems such as a live rendition of “The Barnyard Tapes,” a track he originally recorded at his second home, a farm three hours west of the city. “It’s missing the crickets and cicadas,” he said, “but they’re out of season.”

Also featured was the rarely played “Carrion Suite,” a playful take on Sesame Street classic “I in the Sky,” and a solo version of his latest single “Fitz and the Dizzyspells.”

Known for his generally awkward stage presence, Bird managed to crack a smile. “I’ve wanted to do this for a long time,” a visibly comfortable Bird confessed before closing the night with a somber version of Bob Dylan’s “Oh, Sister.”

As the crowd scurried back out into the frozen tundra of a mid-December Michigan Avenue, their hearts were warmed by the looping melodies that “accidently fit the season.”

• “The Internet Must Not Become a Segregated Community”
• “Network Neutrality, Universal Broadband, and Racial Justice”

Are you planning on attending the meeting? Send us your impression of the meeting, or look for Chicagotalks’s Barbara Iverson at the meeting, to tell us what you think.

Image via Wikipedia

The Federal Communications Commission is holding a public hearing in Chicago on Monday, Dec. 21 on the future of the Internet, specifically on the development of the National Broadband Plan. The FCC has a site about the National Broadband Plan; it’s on Twitter, too. In a press release the FCC said:

“The Federal Communications Commission will hold a field hearing at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business focusing on how broadband technology can help small businesses spur growth and reach new markets. The public is encouraged to attend and participate. The agenda will be announced shortly.”

Post your photos of the event on Chicagotalks and call in a live report to 312.436.1820.

The hearing will focus on the Internet’s benefits and advantages, with an emphasis on how the Internet can help small businesses, like the many startups that are vital to jobs and economic recovery in Chicago. In the past, the public registered to speak in person, but the FCC is adapting to the way we communicate today. You can Tweet your questions during the session to panelists from Twitter @fcc. Use hashtag #BBwkshp to have your question asked during the workshop. You can  questions and ideas for discussion during the workshop. And you can just Share Your Ideas on how to develop the National Broadband Plan with the FCC.

This is part of a series of meetings where the public can give feedback on the FCC’s proposed National Broadband Plan. FreePress.net, a media watchdog group, advises us to get our ideas about how we need a fast, affordable and open Internet for everyone in Chicago to the FCC before it is too late.

Here are the details:

What: FCC Field Hearing on Broadband and Business
When: Monday, Dec. 21, 1:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Where: Gleacher Center, University of Chicago
450 North Cityfront Plaza Drive
Chicago, IL 60611
Online:http://www.fcc.gov/live/

Post your photos of the event on Chicagotalks and call in a live report to 312.436.1820.

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• FCC Lauches a Blog, Joins Twitter Stream (gigaom.com)
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• FCC Steps It Up Online (blogs.wsj.com)

At a Hackathon people who share common interests come together to get things done. In the  open source software world, they are held to add a major new feature or finish a new release. The real-time interaction provides focus and improves relationships between folks who may know each other mostly via the internet. Being somewhere, with a bunch of other people, working on a project becomes the modern equivalent of a barn raising.

The folks at Sunlight Labs have been pushing the idea of adapting the hackathon spirit to civic technology and open government activism.

The hackathon isn’t all about computers and tech, and Germuska says that folks could write a manifesto or develop an action plan, or come to design a flyer campaign. People could collaboratively critique a government website and draft a recommendation about how it could be better. They could research grant funding opportunities, or just make time for a personal research project. Joe’s example is a visualization of  county-by-county data on a map (http://flowingdata.com/2009/11/12/how-to-make-a-us-county-thematic-map-using-free-tools/).Think of it like a rent party where you contribute ideas instead of your money.

If this sounds interesting, check out the wiki http://opengovchi.pbworks.com/Great-American-Hackathon-2009.  Whether you have a project in mind, or would like to help with a project, the hackathon might be a good place to start.

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• White House Website Switches To Open Source (news.slashdot.org)

ESPN's Bill Simmons

“This isn’t going to be worth it.”

I grumbled to my roommate as we sat in our apartment. He, an Italian, is unfamiliar with Bill Simmons and has little interest in American sports. I, on the other hand, am an aspiring sportswriter and a hot-dog-eating, apple-pie-munching, red-blooded American sports fan.

Simmons, a nationally recognized member of ESPN.com‘s writing staff, recently began a book tour to support his latest effort, The Book of Basketball, a monstrous undertaking weighing in at a hefty 700 pages.

It’s not that meeting Simmons would be a big hassle. In fact, he is a major reason why I decided to switch my major to journalism and move to Chicago in the first place. Big dreams require big places, and a great sports town like the Windy City fits the bill. Still, I asked the question: Would it be worth it?

I asked my roommate repeatedly if I should reconsider going to his book signing in the city’s near North Side. A pile of homework and readings awaited me on the table as I held my head in my hands.

How would I make this decision? What could I possibly say to him to make it worth my while? Was there something I needed to get off my chest? Or did I think myself so important that he should be honored to meet one fan from a sea of hundreds?

So I flipped a coin.

I grumbled to myself some more as I strode to the nearest book store to pick up my copy. I grumbled again as I shelled out $30 for his cinder block of a book. I grumbled more as I arrived at Ohio St. and saw the line stretching around the entire city block containing the ESPNZone.

As I stood in line and made my way inside, however, I began to think: Why wouldn’t this be worth it? Why would I ever want to pass on a chance to thank one of my heroes in person? Isn’t this the kind of thing I moved here to do?

I made my way through the line. Two and a half hours in and I finally could see Simmons himself. He had spotlights on him that shone brighter than those on the face of Chase Utley on the screen behind him, facing a pitcher’s count against A.J. Burnett.

The usher brushed me forward with a sweep of her hand. I gave my book to the usher next to Simmons, and she gave it to him.

I stood there, unsure of what to say. How do you go about something like this? After all, this man is responsible for my wanting to become a sportswriter in the first place.

Do I thank him? Do I shake his hand and smile without a word? Do I leap across the table and slap him on the back?

He stood up to stretch his back. I asked him if he was feeling alright, noticing the discomfort on his face. “It’s killing me,” he responded with a grimace.

Simmons took his seat again and put his pen to my book, scrawling a simple message and a signature. However, he paused for a moment and looked up excitedly as the crack of Jason Werth‘s bat seemed to startle him. The Phillies had just taken the lead.

He had not made eye contact with me, which made me nervous and uncertain of my next action. I didn’t want to bother him if he was uncomfortable or tired. All of the things I had thought to say as I stood in the brisk Chicago night just sat in a stiff lump in my mind.

I couldn’t come up here, ignoring all of my prior committments and standing in line for hours to say nothing at all.

So I was honest.

I leaned across the table, across the booming commentary of Joe Buck on the glittering HD screens around me and I put out my hand.

“Thank you for making me want to become a sportswriter.”

Simmons looked up from the book and accepted my handshake firmly.

“Oh, thank you. Good luck,” he said with a nod, seemingly in surprise. After all, from what I could tell from the line, I was the only fan under the age of 25 there. Lots of fantasy football fathers and aging baseball bachelors. I nodded a thank you back to him, I took my book and I left.

As I sat on the southbound El train, I felt my cheeks growing hot. Was I blushing? Was I really that nervous to meet him?

I think I felt relieved that he was genuinely happy to hear a genuine thanks. I think I felt relieved he didn’t dismiss me as just another fan.

Not to say I think I hit some sentimental, deeply personal note with Bill Simmons. To keep it in perspective, he receives thousands of e-mails and millions of hits on his articles every day. I am no more important than the next reader under the scrutinous eye of the ESPN machine.

But in meeting him and thanking him, I felt reassured that this is what I want to do. This is what sports do, actually. They bring people together in ways that other forms of entertainment cannot. To have a personal hero like Simmons is, to me, as natural as having a favorite player, except I will never be able to run a 4.3 40-yard dash.

But I can sure learn how to write a story.

As I returned to my apartment, my phone began buzzing. It was my roommate. “How was it,” he asked. I replied promptly.

“Worth it.”

Bill Simmons’ ESPN page (http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/simmons/)

Excerpt from The Book of Basketball (http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/book/091027)

If you plan to attend, please take some photos and call in a report about how the conference is going. Call 312 436-1820 (our Google Voice number.) and leave a message about the conference, speakers, and media and democracy.

$10 general adm. / $5 sr & student / whatever you can afford
An interesting event that is sponsored by a very diverse group of organizations is convening a panel to celebrate and mark Media Democracy Day. You can join them and learn more about this crucial part of our democracy and freedom.

Date/Time: 1-4 pm, November 7, 2009
Location: Grace Place, 637 S. Dearborn Ave, Chicago
www.chicagoprogmedia.org

Keep Media Free and Representative

Chicago area media professionals and activists share ideas on how to create a responsible democratic media system.

This is the place to share ideas with Chicago area media professionals and media activists on how to create a media system that informs the public on important issues, and provides media access to all segments of society.

Panelists
(with organizational affiliations for identification):
Veronica Arreola, educator, blogger (vivalafeminista.com);
Mike Barr, documentary filmmaker;
Jeremy Gantz, Web Editor, In These Times;
Karen Bond, National Black Coalition for Media Justice;
Larry Duncan, Labor Beat;
Jeannette Foreman, Youth Media Justice Project;
Kevin Gozstola, documentary filmmaker, Columbia College student;
Robert Koehler, syndicated columnist;
Kevin O’Donnell, SEIU Local 1;
Mitchell Szczepanczyk, Chicago Media Action;
Tim Wais, HumanThread;
Harvey Wells, Webnews Corp., Vice President, WCPT820 AM;
Antonio Zavala, freelance journalist.

Co-sponsors update, Nov. 4, evening:

Metropolitan Chicago Progressive Media Network
Chicago Against War and Injustice
Chicago Digital Access Alliance (CDAA)
Chicagoland E-Democracy Initiative
Chicago Media Action
Chicago Net Tuesday Meetup Group
Community Media Workshop
College of Complexes
Ecojustice Collaborative
Henry George School of Social Sciences
HumanThread
Illinois Ballot Integrity Project
Illinois Coalition for Justice, Peace and the Environment (ICJPE)
Illinois Green Party;
Illinois Singlepayer Coalition
International Socialist Review (NFP)
In These Times
Media Burn
Media Geek Radio Show, mediageek.net
National Black Coalition for Media Justice
National Writers Union – Chicago Chapter
Near West Citizens for Peace and Justice
Nicaragua Solidarity
North Shore Coalition for Peace, Justice and the Environment
Progressive Democrats of America (Chicago)
Resources Unlimited Hey Neighbor Project
WCPT820 AM
World Can’t Wait – Chicago

*** *** *** *** *** *** ***

Chicago Media Action meets on the second and fourth Tuesday of the month at 7:00PM.

All are welcome. Contact us at: [email protected]

This is an email from Chicago Media Action, a Chicago activist
group devoted to media issues.

Chicago Media Action, P.O. Box 14140, Chicago IL 60614-0140
Call toll-free: 1-866-260-7198

Web: http://www.chicagomediaaction.org
E-mail: [email protected]

On Tuesday, Oct. 20 at 1:30 p.m., Clarence Page, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Chicago Tribune columnist, will appear with Alan C. Miller, founder of the News Literacy Project and a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter formerly with the Los Angeles Times, Andrew J. Mooney, executive director of LISC/Chicago, and Paul O’Toole, principal at Marquette School, to announce the News Literacy Project in Chicago.

The News Literacy Project (www.thenewsliteracyproject.org) is a partner with the Chicago office of LISC, a national not-for-profit organization that provides capital and other resources to support the comprehensive development of healthy, stable neighborhoods with this project.

Marquette teacher Courtney Rogers will pilot the curriculum to teach sixth grade students how to distinguish verified information from unfiltered messages, opinion, advertising and propaganda. Marquette is one of five inner-city middle schools that LISC is engaged with through the Elev8 program, which brings integrated services, including health care and after-school opportunities, to middle-school students. Contact , 312-822-0505, or , 773-706-7199, for more information.

Meanwhile, the public is invited to meet downtown for the Launch Party of the teen-written magazine r_word on Thursday, Oct. 22. Attendees are invited to discuss the issues important to a group of high school schoolers who use words instead of weapons to detail the challenges they face. Columbia’s Links program reaches out to teens and the public via its webpage and Facebook.

“We’re really excited about the publication of our latest r_wurd,” said Curtis Lawrence, an assistant professor in the Journalism Department at Columbia College Chicago. “In addition to the contributions from our teen reporters who focused on how unemployment and a spiraling increase in violence impacts them, there’s a special section dealing with environmental racism,” Lawrence said.

Lawrence co-founded the journalism skills-building program for Chicago Public Schools students and teachers with Journalism Department Chair Nancy Day.

“Thursday’s event, where award-winning investigative journalist Renee Ferguson will lead a discussion with our students, will be an excellent opportunity for those interested on a teen perspective to a number of key urban issues,” Lawrence said.

Lawrence and Day said they were especially thankful to the McCormick Foundation and the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund for their financial support of Columbia Links projects.

Columbia Links is a journalism skills-building and leadership development program for youth and teachers in Chicago Public Schools, housed at Columbia College Chicago. Through workshops, mentoring and the creation of youth-produced publications, Links works to build expertise, relationships, skills and opportunities that connect students, teachers and volunteers through journalism, while revitalizing youth media in Chicago.

Come and talk with teens who care about their neighborhoods:

• 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 22
• Journalism Department of Columbia College Chicago, Second Floor, 33 E. Congress Parkway, corner of Wabash.
• Program begins at 6 p.m. in room 219.
• RSVP at or call 312-369-8993 for more information.

But Chi-Town Daily News’ Geoff Doherty told the rest of the story on his site, writing, “We’ve concluded that, as a nonprofit, we cannot raise the money we need to build a truly robust local news organization that provides comprehensive local coverage.”

He continued, “The Daily News needs $1 million to $2 million per year to do a great job of covering a city as sprawling and complex as Chicago. And despite hundreds of phone calls and letters to foundations, corporations and individual donors over the past four years, we’ve never come close to that.”

Another Knight News Challenge grant awardee, Dave Cohn, aka DigiDave, of Spot.Us weighed in on Chi-Town Daily News’ abrupt ending, noting that Doherty did not demonstrate much transparency, though there were some signals the organization was in trouble. Dave notes that any organization is a reflection of its founder, a statement that I would have to agree with in my role as co-founder of Chicagotalks.org. Here is Dave in his first video post:

Chicagotalks.org has been working with its core of student reporters and won two  prestigious investigative awards. We are now moving into a new phase of development and are actively looking to connect with passionate community residents who are writing about their neighborhoods as residents, not as pro-type journalists. We would like to add voices from people talking about the world they live in to our professionally covered stories. Our vision of the future is to stay true to local, citizen-focused and citizen-generated news. We have had the support of funders and Columbia College Chicago, but we believe the outlines of new ways to generate revenue are starting to be visible.

WE WANT YOU, so register, send us your pitch, or just call us and tell your story using your cell phone. Contact us at 312 436-1820 (or use the handy widget on this page) Bloggers are welcome, too.

More on the melt-down of Chi-Town Daily News:

Fernando Diaz, former staffer at Chi-Town Daily News, weighs in at ChicagoNow:

“As with the majority of news organizations today, Chi-Town was undone by the management. The Daily News sank because of Dougherty. But it rose because of the scoops and dogged reporting of the talented journalists who briefly called it home and the citizens, a diverse group of people who cared about their communities, who would drop by the newsroom after a hard day’s work to cover their corner of the world for the rest of us.”

“Dougherty’s inability to accept help from these hungry reporters who believed and still believe in the importance of journalism, admit when he was wrong and delegate the basics of running a business simply caught up to him,” Diaz writes via Chi-Town Daily News: Confessions of an ex-staffer – ChicagoNow News & Opinion.

Volunteer coordinator for Chitown Daily News, Frank Edwards, in Gapers Block:

“Personally, I’m pretty disappointed. I wish we’d known about this sooner, I wish we had more details. I’ve put a lot of work into this organization, and have built the volunteer program from the ground up, and would hate to see it just vanish. We found out about this on Wednesday, so it’s still pretty fresh. I wish we’d had more time to digest this and prepare for unemployment.”

“At C-BOM, we discussed ways to diversify our funding streams and work together as a community to achieve long-term sustainability (find detailed notes from the event here.) One of those ideas was to create a local blog ad network, pooling our page views to attract larger advertisers and sharing revenue. I sincerely hope Chicago’s blogging community–my community–follows up on the ideas we explored that day,” he writes via BREAKING: Chitown Daily News Shutting Down – Chicagosphere.

From Crain’s: In an interview with Crain’s earlier this year, Mr. Dougherty said he expected demand for his site to grow as other newspapers cut staff. He said his goal was to build a $2-million business funded equally by foundations, advertisers and individual contributors, but he acknowledged he was finding it hard to win the support of philanthropies.

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• Chi-Town Daily News Finds No Benefit In Being Non-Profit (paidcontent.org)
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The public is invited to the Opening Reception of this dynamic show on Saturday, August 22nd from 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. at the Hyde Park Art Center, 5020 S Cornell Ave. in Chicago.

Call 773-862-5331 for more information. Sponsors include: After School Matters, Illinois Humanities Council, Lloyd A. Fry Foundation, Leo S. Guthman Fund, National Endowment for the Arts and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

July 28, 2009 - WCRX, 88.1 FM, Columbia College Chicago’s radio station has received the Gold World Medal in the student station awards category from New York Festivals. The 52-year-old international competition recognizes excellence in Radio and Television in the areas of programming and promotion. Entries are judged by industry professionals from 25 countries.

“This award is a testament to the quality of work developed and produced by our talented students,” said Cheryl Morton-Langston, long-time director of WCRX. “We are thrilled to receive this recognition.”

For its winning 2009 entry, WCRX submitted a 30-minute audio montage of public service announcements and programming that included live presidential election night coverage, the station’s multi-platform public service broadcast promoting Green initiatives, and broadcast of the “Holly Jolly Trolley” annual fundraiser for Greater Chicago Food Depository. Earlier this year the station also won 2009 Communicator Awards in two categories for the Holly Jolly Trolley broadcast. Over the years, WCRX has won nearly 80 national and international awards.

“While we are in a period of rapid change for all media, the climate for radio broadcasting and audio media is excellent,” said Barbara Calabrese, chair of Columbia’s Radio Department. “Radio now encompasses terrestrial stations as well as satellite and limitless internet opportunities. Audio and radio podcasting are being used as marketing and communications tools by numerous industries. Highly trained employees with a vision for the future are in demand, and higher education is a must in order to gain access to the most creative and lucrative job opportunities. As this prestigious recognition demonstrates, Columbia students can meet the challenge – meeting the needs of both the public and private sectors in creative programming and public service.”

Columbia has long ties to Chicago’s dynamic radio scene and the program has always emphasized hiring working professionals to teach the next generation of radio talent. Just some of the household names currently teaching in the department are: Terri Hemmert, Dave Berner and Cheryl Raye-Stout. In keeping with the Columbia hands-on, minds-on approach to professional undergraduate education, all Radio majors get a spot on WCRX. “The station,” emphasizes Calabrese, “is fully integrated with the department’s curriculum.”

Cheryl Morton-Langston, director of WCRX, notes that the station needs news anchors and UIC play-by-play sports announcer for the fall. They will debut a news magazine program in the NPR-style feature reporting that will be looking for reporters and contributors, as well. Generally, you must be a student at Columbia College Chicago to work for WCRX. You can get more information from the Radio Department at Columbia College Chicago.

Writers, publishers, bookmakers and bookworms of all types will come together for food, drink, mingling, and to celebrate the darker side of writers’ lives – by trebuchet catapulting their rejection letters and literary works down the block.

From 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. tonight at Jupiter Outpost (1139 W. Fulton Market), the Chicago Underground Library will host its first ever “Science of Obscurity” event. All are welcome and admission is free to this official lead up to the Printers’ Ball, July 31 at Columbia College’s Center for Book and Paper Arts.

Local, national and international writers will also be stopping by to give some insights (serious, lighthearted and otherwise) into their work.

The Chicago Underground Library houses independent and small-press literary treasures from local authors. Books, magazines, zines, journals, newspapers, art books, broadsides and more call the Underground Library home.

ChicagoTalks sat down with Nell Taylor, the non-profit’s founder and director. Here’s what she had to say about today’s writers, getting her library off the (under)ground, and the Science of Obscurity event:

Q. How did the Underground Library get started?

Volunteers Brendan Denison (left) and Kimberly Sessoms catelogue the collection at the Chicago Underground Library. By Erica Christoffer

A. It was totally by accident in 2006. I had the idea for a little while. My boyfriend and I sent an e-mail to some of our friends to see if they wanted to get together at a coffee shop and talk about it. Well, one of his friends works for Gapers Block and posted it on that site, then the Reader picked it up and the Chicago Journal. We ended up with 40 people at our first meeting. It was a vote of confidence for what we wanted to do.

Later that year we moved into our first space in a coffee shop at Belmont and Elston, which has since closed. Like every non-profit, we had our ups and down and bumps in the road getting started. We moved into a temporary location, but there were problems with the building and things preventing us from promoting it the way we wanted to.

We moved in with AREA Chicago and InCubate into the current space (2129 N. Rockwell) back in December. We are kind of rebuilding from scratch again after moving around and being off the map for a while. But we had a shorter distance to go this time.

Q. What is your background and how did you become a lover of all things literary?

A. I went to Columbia College and was in the film and video program (2003 grad). I was interested in doing film archiving at one point. But I had always loved libraries and had worked in a library in high school. I was doing a lot of writing and drawing, but up to that point in time I wasn’t really feeling my own work. So, the library has been a good way, as a dormant writer and artist myself, to keep up with what’s going on. I’m sort of the Chicago literary cheerleader at this point.

Q. After opening up a second time this past December, did you noticed a difference in the Chicago media climate with so many more unemployed writers, freelancers and journalists, than after your initial opening in 2006?

A. It’s been really fascinating to me because when we opened in 2006, we called ourselves the Underground Library, but I really saw ourselves as trying to draw a bridge between the mainstream and the underground by selecting academic publications and longstanding independent publications as well as zines. At that point there really was more of an obvious distinction and more lines clearly drawn between the professional writer and the amateurs and the people who were underground by choice.

At this point, there has been a larger shift in culture due to changes in technology. I know a lot of people think it be stills the death of the professional writer with all the community and citizen journalism projects that have sprung up. But I think it presents more of an opportunity. What I see happening is that the culture of sharing and the proliferation of content that’s developed online has made people, in general, more accepting of non-professional and amateur content as something that’s viable and something that’s worth paying attention to. In some ways it might be harder to make a living at it. But there is no better time than now if your true goal is just getting your message heard and getting your voice out there.

We do try to follow the Internet model in terms of the breadth and depth of the variety of things we cover, rather than trying to make any kind of editorial or curatorial stances in terms of what we collect.

The Underground Library contains a variety of magazines, books and zines by local Chicago writers and artists. By Erica Christoffer

Q. Would you say the library is like a living Internet?

A. Yes, in a lot of ways. As I’ve grown with the project, and as loose as it is, and with as many problems as that’s caused, it’s allowed the project to work extremely well. We’ve come a long way in terms of our mission and who we serve and the best ways to serve them. It is much more driven by the theory of technology that it was in 2006.

Ideally, I’d like to see more of these local libraries created. I’m moving to Los Angeles next year and I’m starting one there. And if we can multiple ones going around the United States, you’ll be able to look very deeply into different regions and different community. We may aggregate through traveling exhibitions and research to show how movements have developed at a grassroots level, because we have all this stuff that would have otherwise thrown away.

Q. Can you give some examples of the kind of work you have in the library right now?

A. We have issues of the Chicago Review, the Journal of Ordinary Thought from the Neighborhood Writing Alliance, Fractal Edge Press, Poetry Magazine, Punk Planet – those are the kinds of things we have that people may of heard of.

In the middle realm of obscurity, we have zines from the 1980s that were made by people who are very successful writers now or critics. We have a lot of In These Times, Venus, Dumpster Land, Trading Punches with Grandma, zines that people of a certain generation from Chicago would know. We’ve got books of poetry, handmade art books, things made in small numbers where one or two copies exist. What binds it all together is its all Chicago specific.

We’re open 1-5 p.m. Saturdays at this point, but we do take appointments.

Local-centric works show history of grassroots efforts. By Erica Christoffer

We’re starting to do a lot more events now. We do a series called Orphan Works were we have people who aren’t writers – musicians, film maker, sound artist, graphic designers, visual artist – we have them reinterpret works from our collection. It gets them into a wider audience and shows that (the library) is not just a repository, but it can be even more of a living organism and encourage the production of new works. For something like that we bring out a “pop-out” library to the event so people can actually see it and lay their hands on it. We’re looking to start doing that at other events – for instance, someone who is giving a lecture on some sort of Chicago history – we can come and bring a series of books that relate to that and expand on what’s being discussed as a resource.

Q. Are you expecting a good turnout for Science of Obscurity tonight?

A. We are expecting a big turnout. I’m really keeping my fingers crossed because it was a combination of four different ideas we had for events. We have people participating all over the map. It’s a great way to do a literary event that’s more inclusive. We have a lot of people from the performance community or art community.

Q. How are you actually going to launch the books?

A. On a trebuchet. It’s going to be outside, and at the end of the night we’re shredding everyone’s rejection letters and we’re going to ball them up and launch them down the street as well. I’m really looking forward to it.

June 12, 2009 – Media activists say Friday’s conversion to digital television is likely to go relatively smoothly — though some viewers may still be left in the dark, and larger issues of broadcasters’ public obligations remain to be addressed.

The Obama administration helped smooth the conversion, said Mitchell Szczepanczyk of Chicago Media Action, by postponing it and devoting stimulus funding to subsidizing consumers’ conversion costs. In addition, new FCC leadership that took public outreach on the issue much more seriously, he said.

Rainbow-PUSH is among community groups providing conversion assistance to Chicagoans, particularly the elderly, said Brandon Evans of the group’s international trade bureau. FCC staffers have been conducting twice-weekly digital conversion clinics there, he said.

Chicago had the highest rate of distress calls of any media market in a test run of the conversion last month. About 14 percent of Chicago viewers rely on over-the-air signals and must have digital TVs or converter boxes. Nationally some three million households could be unprepared for the conversion, according to an estimate from Nielsen.

A 2007 petition by 28 public interest groups led by the Benton Foundation called on the FCC to issue rules spelling out public interest obligations for digital broadcasters, including local programming, support for media access, and enhanced campaign coverage. It’s still pending, but the new acting chair of the commission, Michael Copps, has spoken in support of the groups’ concerns.

Local cable agreements requiring channel capacity and funding for public access television centers provide a model that could be applied to digital broadcasters, said Barbara Popovic of CAN-TV.

To help build the public leadership skills in congregations throughout the Chicago metropolitan area, the Community Renewal Society is conducting free trainings to help congregations take effective and meaningful action to shape public policy in our state.via News.