“Being black, being born black, being raised black…. I came into it when I first started breathing,” said Elder John Johnson of the Blues. It was his last conversation with me before his death in November at age 84. He was a dear friend.
People & Places
In memoriam – Charles Daas
Charlie was a dear friend, a rare friend, one who cared about his friends and everyone in a deep way. I think all his friends remember him like this. He was a friend who thinks mostly of you rather than himself. I felt he was actually grateful to know me. He was thankful for our friendship. He asked with open interest about my comings and goings. He cared deeply about me as he cared for all his friends. So the loss of him leaves a deeper, more melancholy void. There are not many friends like Charlie. He can’t be replaced. His caring came with...
Seiter family of Scranton and Conway
This family history tells about three generations of Seiters on their farm in Arkansas. It comes from my mother, Mary Magdalen Mammoser née Seiter, who told me many of her memories of childhood and life on the farm…
Calumet area vision
For more than 2 years I led an environmental advocacy org in the industrial Lake Calumet area…I stitched together the city’s plans and added a few ideas of my own, assembling a regional strategy on an illustrated map…
Local and sacred
In late 2004 I received a Journalism Fellowship from the German Marshall Fund. Due to work responsibilities, however, I couldn’t leave until a couple years later…
The Polish pâtisserie
I met Dobra Bielinski in a history colloquium at UIC and saw she is a person of many talents. After graduate history studies she opened a bakery, my now favorite confectionery Delightful Pastries on W. Lawrence Ave…
Rhythm in motion
One night I went to a party in an artist's apartment in Pilsen. It was a little basement apartment crowded with people and the guy's paintings. A dancer came from behind curtains. Stepping onto a little carpet, she went into a long, slow, strange, gyrating dance. I liked it so much I wrote Rhythm in Motion about her.
What I learned at Terra Madre
I received a journalism fellowship in '04 to traverse Europe's farm markets, but I couldn't break away til the autumn of '06. I saw cows, goats and pigs in five countries and talked to farmers who let boar eat acorns in the forest. I learned about chestnuts in Italy. I produced little journalism from the trip, just a couple essays, one called What I learned at Terra Madre, the other Local and Sacred.
Fazenda Fortaleza
I visited the estate several times while working in Sâo Paulo during autumn '04 (spring in Brazil). It's a big, old coffee estate that Marcos Croce was striving to return to old organic ways of cultivating coffee. And even to improve the forest and the farm with new knowledge. I found the place fascinating and wrote Fruits of a forest farm for Américas.
Island Grove Afternoon
A ‘first person’ essay, Island Grove Afternoon was published in Illinois Issues, November, 2001. Alvin later told me he thought the story needn’t seem so sad. My original text, more complete, follows…
In memoriam – Bill Lavicka
Bill Lavicka was one of those rare fearless people that every democracy needs. He was the indispensable ingredient, the spice that brightens up the dish. There was no dull moment with Bill around…
Requiem for Maxwell Street
The Final Days of Maxwell Street… It’s hard to believe, but a little bit of Maxwell Street still stands in 2001. The city and UIC have done away with most of it…
Images of Calumet
In 2007, I was director of a small environmental advocacy organization in Chicago… So in early spring that year, friend Greg Lochow and I set out to make a couple short films about the southeast side, the so-called Calumet area…