When Mildred Jenkins found a home at Deborah's Place, it was one of the best things that ever happened to her. After a year in the shelter, she got her own furnished apartment through the nonprofit's Permanent Supportive Housing program — a bed, a dining table, access to food and health services.

What happens when teen rom-com tropes collide with coming out narratives? 🌈📽️💕 Our latest video essay examines how queer coming-of-age movies frame coming out through the lens of the "teen movie hero’s journey." 🎬 Watch at bit.ly/constructcomingout or our link in bio 🎬

Last week, federal agents crashed into a bystander’s car and arrested a man in the streets in Albany Park. ~150 neighbors filled Horner Park the next day, demanding ICE leave their communities for good. Photos + reporting from me for @blockclubchi.bsky.social. blockclubchicago.org/2026/06/04/a...

Chicago author Veronica I. Arreola penned a children’s book about activism hoping to spark conversations about injustice in the world. Her book, “J is for Justice,” just landed on a list of most banned books in US schools. More 🖊 from me from @blockclubchi.bsky.social. blockclubchi.co/4ej772S

i made my favorite video essay last year on coming out narratives in coming-of-age media and this funny thing that happens when tv and movies do both! reupping since it's pride month 🌈 i can't believe the script was +12,000 words 😎 ~ anyways ~ here are some BTS 📸 🔗 bit.ly/constructcomingout 🔗

"A testament to what speculative fiction can do by making the psychological physical." @reemasabrina.bsky.social's review of “Sublimination” by Isabel Kim (@torbooks.bsky.social) is out now. chireviewofbooks.com/2026/06/08/s...

🎉 i'm old 🎉 ☀️ 28 years around the sun ☀️

🎉 i'm old 🎉 ☀️ 28 laps around the sun as of may ☀️

by @reemasabrina.bsky.social. Protesters Want ICE Out After Chaotic Albany Park Arrest: ‘Midway Blitz Is Over, But ICE Has Not Left’ blockclubchicago.org/2026/06/04/a... via @blockclubchi.bsky.social

An emergency protest will be held Wednesday night at Horner Park a day after federal immigration agents crashed into a woman’s car, dropped a loaded magazine in the street and confronted neighbors with weapons while arresting a man. blockclubchicago.org/2026/06/03/i... via @blockclubchi.bsky.social

i indie book crawled (and biked 🚲) my way through chicago, somehow did a shift at work, and got my 10/10 book stores for my 10% off 📖 next time, a 15% discount will hate to see me coming 🙌🏽

🌸 love them Jackson Park cherry blossoms thank you Japan 🌸

Hey look! Chicago Headline Club's Lisagor Awards finalists are out! And Victor Hilitski and I are there for Environment and Climate Change reporting for @blockclubchi.bsky.social! Very proud of how we dove (only metaphorically) into the river's environmental turnaround over the past 100 years 🌊

Over the moon to be working as an apprentice for @raceandequityproject.org this year! It's been a month learning the ropes, but I'm excited to dive more into investigative and data reporting 🗞️🎙️✍🏾

Mayor Brandon Johnson debuts our new Chicago Snowplow “Abolish Ice” 🪏🧊 Video from ABC7’s livestream

"In an era dominated by short-form videos, rapidly declining attention spans and instant gratification, Brennan’s slow, steady approach to publishing is a welcome anomaly." Read @rachellayown.bsky.social's interview w/ @tortoisebooks.bsky.social's Gerald Brennan! chireviewofbooks.com/2026/03/20/i...

I wrote about Project 2052, the new lit journal from writers @genderhorizon.com & @emanabdelhadi.bsky.social, which opens up the world they created in their novel Everything for Everyone. Check it out via @chicagoreader.com chicagoreader.com/books/lit-fe...

community meetings are special 2 me bc they're the only place where it's societally acceptable to haze an architect

Some cool press highlights for On an Inland Sea, our Great Lakes anthology! Thanks to @chicagoreader.com @iprnews.bsky.social @emilymcclanathan.bsky.social

illinoisanswers.org/2026/03/13/p... My latest about the Polymarket CEO giving a UChicago freshman $20k to start a campus prediction market club, Coinbase suing Illinois while donating $20k to House and Senate Dems, and the prediction markets running wild in defiance of state gambling regulators

2.5 weeks ago, I emailed the proposal to Parks Superintendent Ramirez-Rosa, Chief Homelessness Officer Soto, and Department of Family & Support Services Commissioner Green and asked for comment. After a nudge, I received the attached. "The closure will proceed on March 17 as planned."

We believe the grounds for our member’s termination are retaliatory and intended to send a chilling message: that, though TRiiBE leadership claims to support “workers’ rights to unionize,” they don’t actually mean it.

Corli Jay, The TRiiBE’s community investment reporter was terminated by TRiiBE leadership on March 9 alleging that she had broken nonexistent company ethics rules.

We were BUBBLING with excitement (get it, like water? Or a Great Lake?) to celebrate the release of @mbwwelch.bsky.social's anthology ON AN INLAND SEA at RoscoeBooks last night (thank you RoscoeBooks!!) with contributors Kristin Idaszak, Lina Tran, @rsdeeren.bsky.social and @dawnburns.bsky.social!

I wrote an essay about how freeways divide our urban fabric (largely inspired by my personal experiences living a couple blocks from the Kennedy) pencillingout.substack.com/p/life-next-...

"There’s something about being in nature and being alongside something that feels so much bigger than you that makes you turn inward." Out now: @celldeathvic.bsky.social's interview with @mbwwelch.bsky.social on "On an Inland Sea” (@beltpublishing.bsky.social). chireviewofbooks.com/2026/03/10/g...

Happy Pub Day to @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social editor-in-chief @mbwwelch.bsky.social. If you're in Chicago, the launch party for ON AN INLAND SEA is tonight at 6:30 pm at @roscoebooks.bsky.social.

After her mother died, Cheia Myers found an apartment in one of Uptown's last remaining SROs. But when her landlord sold the building, it forced tenants to look for affordable housing in a neighborhood where it's vanishing. 🖊️ More from me in @blockclubchi.bsky.social. blockclubchi.co/4swmTfk

🖊️ On this edition of "I learn how taxes work, so you don't have to," I wrote about changes to the state and local tax deduction for @chicago.suntimes.com. chicago.suntimes.com/taxes/2026/0...

We're so thrilled about this! This is a FREE panel via @storystudiochicago.bsky.social's incredible Pub Crawl and all you have to do is register, which you can do right here: us06web.zoom.us/meeting/regi... See you on Zoom next week! 🤩

It's @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social's 10th anniversary! And I'm excited to talk about all things book coverage with my fellow editors at @storystudiochicago.bsky.social. We'll talk about the writers and work behind the curtain—and how to become a contributor. 📅 Fri, Feb 27 📍 Zoom ⏰ 6 PM

chatgpt and whatever image generator that conservative commenters seem to prefer have dealt immeasurable damage to the social media accounts i manage rip

this bitch is off insulin ‼️‼️‼️

@storystudiochicago.bsky.social's Pub Crawl is in full swing, and we wanted to invite you to our FREE panel on 2/27 w/ CHIRB editors @reemasabrina.bsky.social, @rachellayown.bsky.social, and @gregzimmerman.bsky.social, moderated by @mbwwelch.bsky.social—sign up below! us06web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

do you think that in KPop Demon Hunters when the boys performed Idol, it was televised and ppl in other countries were like wtf is happening in Seoul rn?

This year's been tough, but we found plenty of joy, too.

And just like that, I finished editing one of our last @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social reviews of the year! ...which also reminded me: it's been a year since I joined the masthead as a daily editor. What a joy to edit writers you adore and be part of the @storystudiochicago.bsky.social community!

am realizing i follow city council in the way other folks follow sports 🙂‍↕️

While we already ran a list of the best books we read in 2025 last week, it pains us to leave so many out. Sooo we’re offering another “best of 2025” list—introducing the best debuts we read in 2025. chireviewofbooks.com/2025/12/22/t...

In a basement in Bridgeport, Aidan Anne Frierson and Dave King are turning wet, squelchy pulp into handmade paper. Together, they founded their studio, Chicago Pulp, to make pulp and papermaking accessible to everyone 📜

What are the best books we read this year? Always a hard question, but @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social has compiled them all! 📚

Wooohoooo! Check out the @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social's editors list of the best books they read this year. Perfect for last-minute gift ideas for the reader in your life. buff.ly/D9rhbzs #books #booksky

An affordable housing development may replace a vacant building in Rogers Park. "We kind of look at this affordable deal as a place that will allow existing Rogers Park residents to basically age in place," said reps with 5T. More from me in @blockclubchi.bsky.social. blockclubchi.co/4rZn5E2

NEW: Without USAID funding to help buy food for refugees, the World Food Program rushed to prioritize families based on need, determining that only half the population would get food. Refugees learned which half they were in from a number stamped on the back of their ration card.

another sro falls (at least temporarily)

SROs are a valid form of housing and necessary for cities to prevent homelessness. Inventory continuing to decline is bad, even when closures like this are needed

One of Uptown's last single-room occupancy buildings, the Northmere, closed on Friday, leaving many tenants scrambling to find new housing. After the building failed 13 inspections in the past few years, a judge ordered residents to vacate, with tenants being given $2,500 for relocation expenses.

My friend Reema’s most recent story. @reemasabrina.bsky.social chicagoreader.com/visual-arts/...