Illinois news

• Dorothy Brown could be first Black woman Mayor of Chicago

  21-04-2018 17:36 via The Chicago Defender
  A Black woman is making a play for Chicago’s mayoral office. Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown announced her decision Thursday to run in next year’s race and oust the city’s Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the Chicago Tribune reported.
  Brown’s decision has gained attention for several reasons.
  Dorothy Brown, court clerk whose office is under federal corruption investigation, will run for mayor of Chicago https://t.co/ohRZ2vYhtd pic.twitter.com/3VCf5h9CwR
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• Why Trump wants to take healthcare and food from mouths of babes

  21-04-2018 17:29 via The Chicago Defender
  Blatant Demagoguery
  With the mid-term elections fast approaching, President Trump is moving quickly via Executive Orders to appease his political base. This election season the entire Congress is up for grabs for both political parties, and the voting to decide which candidates will run in November—the primaries—begin in most states very soon. Therein lies Trumps chance to offer red meat to the folks who elected him. But his methods and tactics are totally misguided since America&rsq
  
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• Actor’s Express announces Season 31

  20-04-2018 21:43 via The Chicago Defender
  Actor’s Express announces its 31st Season. The season opens September 1 with A Doll’s House, Part 2 by Lucas Hnath, a co-production between Actor’s Express and Aurora Theatre, directed by Actor’s Express Artistic Director Freddie Ashley (The Crucible, Angels in America). It is followed by the World Premiere of Reykjavík by Steve Yockey, directed by Melissa Foulger. In the fall, Actor’s Express will produce the Obie Award-winning An Octoroon by Branden Jacobs-
  
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• These photos should get you in the mood to clean and green on Earth Day

  20-04-2018 20:56 via Chicago Reader
  Volunteer in Austin, Humboldt Park, Garfield Park or along the lakefront this weekend.How are you going to make a difference this Earth Day, Chicago?  Here are some ways you can help out on Saturday, April 21 and Sunday, April 22:…
  
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• Earth Day 2018: These photos should get you in the mood to clean and green

  20-04-2018 20:56 via Chicago Reader
  Volunteer in Austin, Humboldt Park, Garfield Park or along the lakefront this weekend.How are you going to make a difference this Earth Day, Chicago?  Here are some ways you can help out on Saturday, April 21 and Sunday, April 22:…
  
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• Criminal Charges In Eric Garner Chokehold Killing Are Left Up To Jeff Sessions

  20-04-2018 20:51 via The Chicago Defender
  The good news is we’re on step closer to getting justice for the police killing of Eric Garner in 2014.
  The bad news is that the decision to charge the cowardly cop who killed him with an illegal chokehold will be left up to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, whose past of racial discrimination has been well documented.
  The federal prosecutors for the Justice Department (DOJ) who investigated the brazen, broad daylight killing have recommended that the officer who choked the unarmed Garn
  
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• There's something ugly about I Feel Pretty

  20-04-2018 20:50 via Chicago Reader
  In the new Amy Schumer comedy, the road to empowerment leads straight to the cash register.Up to this point, comedian and actor Amy Schumer has been known as a boundary pusher. The best sketches on her Comedy Central series Inside Amy Schumer (2013-'17) called out and rejected the ways in which women are expected to adhere to certain beauty standards and behavioral norms in consumer society.…
  
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• Entrepreneur Aims To Raise $10 Million To Fund Black Tech Companies

  20-04-2018 19:47 via The Chicago Defender
  A Black entrepreneur is looking to use his business as an avenue to fund tech companies created by African-Americans, Black Enterprise reported.
  Marceau Michel—creator of Black Founders Matter—is aiming to raise $10 million for visionaries of color in the tech industry. Initially, Michel’s company started off as a retail line created to inspire and empower Black entrepreneurs but his own experiences as a Black man in the tech space motivated him to take his company beyond the s
  
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• Timothy Cunningham Remembered By Morehouse College

  20-04-2018 19:14 via The Chicago Defender
  On February 12, Timothy Cunningham vanished after leaving work early because he reportedly didn’t feel. Cunningham worked for the Center For Disease Control. For nearly two months authorities searched for him and on April 5, the Atlanta Police Department confirmed the body of Cunningham was found in the Chattahoochee River, which is located in northwest Atlanta. The primary cause of death is believed to be a drowning based on the autopsy, but authorities have not been able t
  
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• R. Kelly’s Senior Staff Quits — But What Took So Long?

  20-04-2018 18:42 via The Chicago Defender
  R. Kelly is famous for being an R&B singer, but he is just as known for alleged sexual misconduct with women and underage girls. Earlier this month, his former girlfriend Kitti Jones claimed in a BBC3 documentary that she was groomed by him, and forced to have sex with him and others at least 10 times in a “ex dungeon.” She said, “I was introduced to one of the girls, that he told me he ‘trained’ since she was 14, those were his words. I saw
  
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• Dorothy Brown Could Be The First Black Woman Mayor Of Chicago

  20-04-2018 18:03 via The Chicago Defender
  A Black woman is making a play for Chicago’s mayoral office. Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown announced her decision Thursday to run in next year’s race and oust the city’s Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the Chicago Tribune reported.
  Brown’s decision has gained attention for several reasons.
  Dorothy Brown, court clerk whose office is under federal corruption investigation, will run for mayor of Chicago https://t.co/ohRZ2vYhtd pic.twitter.com/3VCf5h9CwR
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• James Comey Memos Show How He Really Felt About President Obama, Eric Holder And Loretta Lynch

  20-04-2018 17:58 via The Chicago Defender
  While the president was busy tweeting that recently revealed government notes proves his innocence, one key aspect of James Comey’s leaked memos seemed to fly under the radar: the former FBI director’s feelings about key Black folks in Barack Obama’s administration, including the 44th president himself.
  Comey characterized the nature of Obama’s relationship with then-U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder – also known as the first Black person to ever hold that este
  
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• How Presidential: Trump Won’t Attend Barbara Bush’s Funeral But Obama Will

  20-04-2018 17:52 via The Chicago Defender
  Barbara Bush ,  the wife of former President George H. W. Bush, died on Tuesday, April 17 due to congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The funeral is tomorrow in Houston, Texas, and Donald Trump will not be in attendance. He’ll be at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, but guess who will be there? Barack and Michelle Obama.
  SEE ALSO: Ben Carson Tells A Black Woman To Escape Poverty She Needs To Get Married
  CNN.com reports, “To avoid
  
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• Politician Says Jamaicans Have ‘Low Productivity’ Because Of Marijuana

  20-04-2018 16:26 via The Chicago Defender
  Today is 420 so many people across the globe are celebrating all thing cannabis. However, like always, you have people who still associated weed with Jamaicans. In reality, according The Guardian, the biggest weed smoking country in the world is Iceland — Jamaica is actually number 22 on the list.  This makes a comment from a Nova Scotia politician even more ridiculous.
  SEE ALSO: Calls For Starbucks Boycott After The Company’s Weak Apology For A Racist Arrest
   Eli
  
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• Stevante Clark, Brother Of Stephon Clark, Arrested On Thursday

  20-04-2018 16:17 via The Chicago Defender
  Stevante Clark has been in the news since the killing of his brother, 22-year-old Stephon Clark, on March 18 in Sacramento, California. Stephon was fired at over 20 times in his backyard. Police thought he had a gun  in his hand but it was a cell phone. There  have been protests all over the country and Stevante has participated in many of the protests in Sacramento. Unfortunately, Stevante, 25, was arrested yesterday.SEE ALSO: White Man Ran The Biggest ‘Black Lives Matter&r
  
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• Old Habits is bar food reborn

  20-04-2018 13:00 via Chicago Reader
  The kitchen at Avondale’s Ludlow Liquors is so good it gets its own name.The phrase "permanent food installation" sounds like the result of an unpleasant medical procedure. But in Avondale at a new cocktail bar called Ludlow Liquors, it's what's used to describe the activity in the kitchen, its food, and its chefs—Nick Jirasek and his sous chef and collaborator Eric Valdivia, who go about their business under the rubric of Old Habits.…
  
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• Natural Affection hints at cracks in America’s postwar idyll

  20-04-2018 13:00 via Chicago Reader
  Eclipse Theatre kicks off its season-long tribute to William Inge with one of his lesser works.Eclipse Theatre kicks off its season of William Inge plays with this game attempt at one of his lesser works. Sue's life is turned upside down when the son she sent to an orphanage as a teenage mother shows up at her doorstep and topples the fragile existence she has constructed as a career woman living with a failure of a younger man who won't marry her.…
  
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• Donizetti’s Il Pigmalione and Rita demonstrate two versions of love

  20-04-2018 13:00 via Chicago Reader
  And there are clowns.Chicago Opera Theater's double bill of two rarely performed one-act operas by Gaetano Donizetti presents the composer's first work,Il Pigmalione (written in 1816 when he was 19 years old), and one of his last, the farce Rita (written in 1841). They're both about love—one idealized, the other gone wrong—and COT has attempted to link them with a tough-to-pull-off intermission performance by members of the 500 Clown troupe, who also function as a silent, comic choru
  
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• Trombonist Ryan Keberle puts up political resistance on Find the Common, Shine a Light

  20-04-2018 11:00 via Chicago Reader
  When New York trombonist Ryan Keberle and his band Catharsis performed at the Hungry Brain in March 2017, it was clear that he had the intolerant policies and posturing of the Trump regime on his mind. Though his group was supporting the 2016 album Azul Infinito (Greenleaf)—a reflection of Keberle’s appreciation of and engagement with the music of South America—they also played several new pieces from their then-forthcoming album of protest songs, June’s Find the Common,
  
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• Nashville’s Lost Dog Street Band make ragged-but-right folk music

  20-04-2018 11:00 via Chicago Reader
  Nashville’s Lost Dog Street Band mixes old-timey music with touches of contemporary Americana, but what most distinguishes the group is the voice of front man Benjamin Tod Flippo. He’s not a powerhouse singer—his delivery wavers somewhere between high lonesome bluegrass and Bob Dylan-style talk-singing.…
  
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• Joan Shelley transforms a variety of folk and country songs on Rivers and Vessels

  20-04-2018 11:00 via Chicago Reader
  It took me a couple of listens before I realized that Louisville singer Joan Shelley was tackling Nick Drake’s singular ballad “Time Has Told Me” on her new six-track covers EP, Rivers and Vessels (released as a benefit for the antipollution advocacy organization Kentucky Waterways Alliance). Shelley’s honeyed, weightless voice can express both pain and empathy; it’s so distinctive that her interpretations of songs have a tendency to utterly remake the source materi
  
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• Jaden Smith effortlessly covers the hip-hop spectrum on his debut album, Syre

  20-04-2018 11:00 via Chicago Reader
  Long before I realized Jaden Smith was carving out a rap career, I found his weirdness endlessly entertaining. The 19-year-old son of superstar couple Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith has been blowing up the world of Twitter since age 12, sharing his deep thoughts and musings on topics as disparate as Illuminati conspiracies and chance encounters with Owen Wilson.…
  
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• Guitarist and oudist Gordon Grdina adapts to shifting contexts but always sounds like himself

  20-04-2018 11:00 via Chicago Reader
  One of the things that sustains my admiration for Vancouver jazz guitarist Gordon Grdina is that he places himself within a seemingly endless variety of contexts. Plenty of musicians who compartmentalize different sides of their work can appear to suffer from split personalities, but Grdina has a distinctive knack for sating his curiosity in many projects while always sounding like himself.…
  
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• Folk-rock veteran John Prine retains his wisdom and wit in his first original songs in more than a decade

  20-04-2018 11:00 via Chicago Reader
  John Prine’s new record, The Tree of Forgiveness (Oh Boy), is his first album of original material in a decade. He underwent surgery for lung cancer in 2013, and his characteristically cracked voice is a little worse for wear, but he’s as avuncular, funny, and wise as ever—a poet of the everyday.…
  
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• Clarinetist Ben Goldberg and keyboardist Michael Coleman bring new perspectives to work by experimental jazz composer Steve Lacy

  20-04-2018 11:00 via Chicago Reader
  Bay Area clarinetist Ben Goldberg thrives in sparse settings, where the sere bite of his melodically fluid lines can stand out in stark contrast to surrounding silence. He’s got a keen sense of time, and some of his strongest efforts have been drummer-free projects, such as his new duo recording with New York cornetist Kirk Knuffke.…
  
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• Chicago rockers Peel breathe new life into old sounds on Never Not Dead

  20-04-2018 11:00 via Chicago Reader
  Chicago foursome Peel play the kind of swashbuckling rippers that demand to be called “rock ’n’ roll” (don’t even think about using the whole “and” in there) and that sound like they could’ve poured out of a jukebox four or five decades ago, depending on the tune. At least, that’s the case on their new self-released EP, Never Not Dead, which they celebrate tonight.…
  
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• Chicago psych band Post Animal soak up rock’s stylistic history on their debut album

  20-04-2018 11:00 via Chicago Reader
  If there’s anything I dislike more than Stranger Things, it’s the eagerness with which commercial enterprises and media outlets have flocked to the Netflix show in hopes of monetizing its afterglow. I’m willing to make an exception for Post Animal, a Chicago psych-rock outfit that happens to count Stranger Things actor Joe Keery as a member.…
  
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• As Anteloper, Jaimie Branch and Jason Nazary push in a bruising, electronics-kissed direction

  20-04-2018 11:00 via Chicago Reader
  Former Chicago trumpeter Jaimie Branch was one of last year’s big success stories in jazz. Her long-overdue debut as a leader, Fly or Die (International Anthem), captured her protean strength and melodic vision with stunning concision and soul, and synthesized some of her many musical interests into a cogent postbop direction that allowed for plenty of free expression.…
  
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• American Pleasure Club changed their name but left their heart-wrenching indie-rock intact

  20-04-2018 11:00 via Chicago Reader
  In a Track Record essay published just before American Pleasure Club dropped February’s A Whole Fucking Lifetime of This (Run for Cover), front man Sam Ray wrote about the process of changing the band’s name from Teen Suicide. In the piece he described the group’s effort to retain their fervent cult following while shedding that name, which they’d matured beyond—their decision to flood the Web with new material, a la Lil Wayne during the lead-up to Tha Carter I
  
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• Print Issue of April 19, 2018

  20-04-2018 06:59 via Chicago Reader
  The Pot Issue
  
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• A Rebuke to Trump, a Century in the Making

  20-04-2018 02:38 via Illinois
  With a man in the White House who helped set off a new women’s movement, the Equal Rights Amendment has a chance of being ratified.
  
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• Happy #420Day, Chicago

  19-04-2018 23:57 via Chicago Reader
  Weed Day coverage: a Chicago zine devoted to cooking with pot, how to take a weed bath, dealing with stoned drivers—and more. …
  
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• Entertainment lawyer Jay B. Ross fought for the people who made the music he loved

  19-04-2018 23:57 via Chicago Reader
  An expert negotiator, he went to bat for stars as big as James Brown and Muddy Waters, but he also clawed back royalties for countless forgotten artists who’d never gotten their due..embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; } Video by Scrappers Film Group…
  
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• 4/20 in Chicago

  19-04-2018 23:57 via Chicago Reader
  The latest on the push to legalize recreational marijuana, a chef offering culinary cannabis, how to take a weed bath, and more …
  
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• HAUTE OR NAUGHT: Tiffany Haddish Does A Haute Couture Shoot For W Magazine

  19-04-2018 22:18 via The Chicago Defender
  Tiffany Haddish covers W Magazine for their latest issue. The star made headlines for wearing her Alexander Wang dress to both the Girls’ Trip premiere and the Oscars. She teamed up with W Magazine for a haute couture shoot.Haddish serves avant-garde style, rocking head to toe Valentino. Her black sheer tights are by Falke.The entire shoot serves bold looks, like this Valentino haute couture gown and sandals.Our Style and Beauty Editor, Danielle James, loved the above shot of Tiffany.
  
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• Real Times Media hires marketing and business executive Tracie Howard to lead its Atlanta region

  19-04-2018 18:39 via The Chicago Defender
  (DETROIT) – Corporate executive, marketing consultant, and award-winning author, Tracie Howard, joins Real Times Media (RTM), a Detroit-based multimedia company focused on media, marketing, and entertainment expressly for urban audiences, as its new senior vice president and group publisher for the Atlanta region. In her new role, Howard will manage the business operations of Atlanta Tribune: The Magazine, AtlantaDailyWorld.com, Who’s Who In Black Atlanta, and all other Real Times Me
  
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• Idris Elba Lands New Netflix Comedy Series ‘Turn Up Charlie’

  19-04-2018 17:45 via The Chicago Defender
  As Netflix continues to add to its slate of original programming, actor Idris Elba is getting into business with the streaming giant. It has just been announced that he will star in the upcoming comedy series Turn Up Charlie.
  .@IdrisElba to exec produce, star in new @Netflix comedy series, 'Turn Up Charlie' https://t.co/OZhbXXLqC0 pic.twitter.com/MshQUaawkT
  — Shadow and Act (@shadowandact) April 18, 2018Some of the best black TV shows come courtesy of Netflix and Idris Elba is hoping that
  
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• Three women fight back against sexual harassment—1970s style—in 9 to 5 the Musical.

  19-04-2018 13:00 via Chicago Reader
  Firebrand Theatre produces an uplifting and of-the-moment musical comedy based on the 1980 film.Firebrand Theatre, which calls itself "the world's first Equity musical theatre company committed to employing and empowering women on and off the stage," closes its inaugural season with an incredibly uplifting and of-the-moment musical comedy based on the 1980 film. Penned by Patricia Resnick, with music and lyrics by Dolly Parton, the show had a short run on Broadway in 2009.…
  
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• Here’s what happened when I took a weed bath

  19-04-2018 13:00 via Chicago Reader
  Can you get high from soaking in a tub full of pot-infused bath salts? I discovered marijuana-infused bath products on a hazy trip to Portland in 2016.…
  
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• Facility Theatre presents an intricate, complicated Little Match Girl Passion

  19-04-2018 13:00 via Chicago Reader
  Composer David Lang and director Dado turns Hans Christian Andersen's tragic fairy tale into a performance installation.In Holy Trinity Church School's massive basement, rendered whimsically creepy by cheap Christmas lights, tangled tree branches, utilitarian scaffolding, and immense translucent plastic curtains, veteran Chicago director Dado turns David Lang's Pulitzer-winning choral work—based on Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Match Girl"—into an ethereal, decentered perform
  
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• Chicago Palestine Film Festival: past versus present, neighbor versus neighbor

  19-04-2018 13:00 via Chicago Reader
  Tensions between Palestinians and Israelis, tradition and modernity mark the 17th edition of the long-running festival at Gene Siskel Film Center.In this year's eclectic Chicago Palestine Film Festival, two themes dominate: the tension between tradition and modernity, and the uneasy, often tragic relations between Palestinians and Israelis. The opening-night film, Annemarie Jacir's crowd-pleasing Wajib (Sat 4/21, 8 PM), stars real-life father Mohammad Bakri (Since You've Been Gone, HBO's The Nig
  
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• Chappaquiddick: How to spin a movie about spin?

  19-04-2018 13:00 via Chicago Reader
  A new drama about the Ted Kennedy scandal seeks a mass audience in a politically polarized climate.Is there a mass audience for Chappaquiddick? John Curran's new drama about the 1969 scandal involving Massachusetts senator Ted Kennedy opened April 6 on 1,560 screens across the U.S. but so far has grossed only $11.8 million and appears to be fading at the box office.…
  
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• Another Jungle badly misunderstands Upton Sinclair’s original

  19-04-2018 13:00 via Chicago Reader
  But the hanging cow is a highlight.With designer Angela McIlvain's six-foot-long stuffed cow dangling from ameat hook at center stage for almost the duration of the show, how badcould this adaptation of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle fromCloudgate Theatre possibly be? Stupefyingly bad, unfortunately, a dumpsterfire on stilts.…
  
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• 33 to Nothing’s speakers go up to 11

  19-04-2018 13:00 via Chicago Reader
  Grant James Varjas's new play is a band rehearsal in real time—and it gets really loud.Grant James Varjas's 33 to Nothing begins with a warning: This isa show about a rock band's real-time rehearsal, and it gets very loud in ARed Orchid's tight space. The production kicks off with an explosion ofsound as the musicians immediately get to work before putting each otherthrough intense emotional labor.…
  
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• Chicago official compares Obama to slave at auction

  18-04-2018 22:12 via The Chicago Defender
  The  Chicago Department of Water Management has been under investigation for reported sexist and racist behavior. The findings are deeply disturbing with several racist emails, especially about former President Barack Obama. According to Herald & Review, Inspector General Joseph Ferguson has recommended seven employees be disciplined.
  The investigation began in 2016 when Inspector Ferguson began looking into the possibility of gun deals being conducted through a city email acc
  
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• New Designer Creates Accessible African Fashions

  18-04-2018 20:11 via The Chicago Defender
  Music thumped throughout the room as strobe  lights dispersed rainbow hued beams around the space as the audience shuffled to fill chairs that outlined the perimeter of the makeshift runway.
  Nerves coiled in Designer Odunuyi’s stomach as she stood with baited breath waiting for the first model of her Spring Fashion show to emerge onto the stage.
  This was it.
  After months of hard work and having her clothing featured in other designers’ fashion shows Odunuyi would finally get the
  
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• New game app created by Chicagoan benefits HBCUs

  18-04-2018 19:20 via The Chicago Defender
  I’ll be honest, the creators of Tipoff should thank their lucky stars for Jason, my co-worker, whose ingenuity and tireless persistence, on a Sunday no less, finally got the word-guessing app store game to work. Because this review could’ve gone a totally different way.
  After everyone got a hang of how to play it, the room dissolved into laughter and jovial good-spirited (if not somewhat aggressive, sorry Jason) crap talking. Me and Eron were  able to emerge the heavyweight cham
  
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• Atlanta residents report strong satisfaction with Fulton services

  18-04-2018 17:29 via The Chicago Defender
  Survey conducted by Kennesaw State shows residents’ approval improvingThe Fulton County Strategy and Performance Management Office released the results of a poll of residents, which indicated more than 80 percent of those surveyed were pleased with the customer service provided by County agencies.  The polling was conducted with the assistance of Kennesaw State University’s A.L. Burruss Institute of Public Service & Research and was taken to measure the effectiveness of the
  
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• Victory Gardens's Lettie is a blood-curdling masterpiece

  18-04-2018 13:00 via Chicago Reader
  Playwright Boo Killebrew has written one of the great Chicago plays of our generation.By a despicable margin, America has the highest rate of female incarceration in the world. Only in the past few years have the nation's criminal justice institutions begun to acknowledge how decades of draconian sentencing practices have positioned the United States as a despotic outlier among nations of the developed world when it comes to "correcting" its criminal offenders—and the unfriendly environmen
  
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• Victory Gardens’ Lettie is a blood-curdling masterpiece

  18-04-2018 13:00 via Chicago Reader
  Playwright Boo Killebrew has written one of the great Chicago plays of our generation.By a despicable margin, America has the highest rate of female incarceration in the world. Only in the past few years have the nation's criminal justice institutions begun to acknowledge how decades of draconian sentencing practices have positioned the United States as a despotic outlier among nations of the developed world when it comes to "correcting" its criminal offenders—and the unfriendly environmen
  
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