next saturday! come talk about the quantum campus with us and your neighbors and eat free pastries and drink free coffee

@katieprout.bsky.social also chronicled the fight against time and against the city to save a community facing eviction. it’s a hell of a piece.

You know, the Chicago Park district that is one of the largest providers of free summer meals to children and affordable out of school time care for their families...

Politicians make choices “without knowing what it is to be here,” said Carmen, one unhoused elder. “How the hell the people in power could make that decision when it comes to our life? It’s not their life, it’s our life.” chicagoreader.com/news/legion-...

but from their housed neighbors, who were confused about park policies around encampments, especially the propane tanks residents used to stay alive in winter. Propane tanks were supposed to be against park rules, but housed residents could see fires from their windows.

not just from unhoused Chicagoans, who were only living in this part of the park because the district, along with DFSS, told them they could–

Ramirez-Rosa is right: sweeps occur with the support of multiple city depts. Of those, the Park District is the most visible, which is perhaps partially why Ramirez-Rosa was catching the most heat–

But the residents didn’t want temporary shelters: they wanted to stay in their community until they had homes. Finally, Ramirez-Rosa explained the call to stop the sweep wasn’t his to make: it was a careful decision made with multiple departments and resources that might not come around again.

In response, Ramirez-Rosa recalled the 2021 actions he was part of, reciting the chant. He said what was happening in Legion Park wasn’t a sweep, but a closure, and he implored the residents to accept any housing opportunities the city offered them. www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/park-policies

A week before the sweep, unhoused residents of Legion park confronted Ramirez-Rosa at a board meeting. They demanded he meet with them about their alternative proposal, which would allow them to live in the park while they waited for permanent housing.

But when the city swept Legion Park in 2026, none of the displaced 20 unhoused Chicagoans had keys in hand for a home. And according to his schedule, Ramirez-Rosa, who helped coordinate the sweep with other city leaders, was taking a personal day.

Before he was superintendent of the Chicago Park District, Carlos Ramirez-Rosa was alder of the 35th ward. When the city tried to sweep an encampment there in 2021, Ramirez-Rosa chanted “Give us a home or leave us alone,” alongside those unhoused residents.

Odd Showers (1870) — An odd little book about frogs and fishes raining down from the sky and the reasons why they do so: https://buff.ly/3o3tHCg

From the 'Shared Sky' exhibition, 'Jupiter and Ten Moons' by Indigenous Australian artist Barbara Merritt #WomensArt

After all, why shouldn’t I feed my child the food he threw onto the floor?

Before he was superintendent of the Chicago Park District, Carlos Ramirez-Rosa was alder of the 35th ward. When the city tried to sweep an encampment there in 2021, Ramirez-Rosa chanted “Give us a home or leave us alone,” alongside those unhoused residents.

A month before the camp was destroyed, I distributed disposable cameras in Legion Park so residents could tell this story from their perspective. Below are the photos they took of the people, belongings, and spaces that made their encampment home. chicagoreader.com/city-life/so...

On March 17, the city evicted 20 unhoused Chicagoans from their tent homes in the freezing cold in Legion Park. Lots has been written about the encampment's closure, but the story of the fight to stop the sweep has been largely untold, until now. chicagoreader.com/news/legion-...

this is a tragic, messy, moving story, with lines that aren’t clear-cut, but that’s why it’s so important it be told. so often, we want to see the black and white. @katieprout.bsky.social does well to remind us that life is colored in shades of gray.

On March 17, the city evicted 20 unhoused Chicagoans from their tent homes in the freezing cold in Legion Park. Lots has been written about the encampment's closure, but the story of the fight to stop the sweep has been largely untold, until now. chicagoreader.com/news/legion-...

you get surveillance tech, and you get surveillance tech, and you get

new: since she took office in december 2025, cook county state’s attorney eileen o’neill burke has made a concerted effort to keep more people behind bars while awaiting trial. advocates accuse her of deliberately trying to undermine the pretrial fairness act. via @djbyrnes1.bsky.social

We won the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting @chicagotribune.com! Our entire newsroom covered Midway Blitz with everything we had. I’ve never been prouder of the Tribune or its commitment to the truth. It’s an honor to be part of this team.

Only took damn near 8 months

Bright triangle object drops flares out of the sky to the earth

THERE IS NO PLACE FOR US, a compassionately reported account of five working homeless families, won the 2026 Pulitzer for nonfiction. I interviewed author Brian Goldstone last fall. "What do I do as a journalist?” he said then. "What do I do as a human being?” chicagoreader.com/books/there-...

for some reason, looks like the main account's post escaped the censors so please admire the fabulous art for this story

new: we've heard a lot about the quantum computing campus in south chicago. but who exactly is involved? and what exactly are these organizations planning to do? @chicagoreader.com contributor grey lucas answers those questions and more in this comprehensive guide: chicagoreader.com/news/explain...

We get a firsthand account of the violent raid, arrest and detention of members of the Global Sumud Flotilla, after Israeli forces intercepted the humanitarian mission in international waters Thursday.

Current* conditions near Gary, IN:

The Reader's Savannah Hugueley wrote a brief history of May Day, which got its revolutionary start in Chicago, and complied a list of solidarity events throughout the city today & this weekend. Rallies, performances, readings, bike rides, & more: 🌹❤️‍🔥 chicagoreader.com/city-life/re...

I read this yesterday and woke up thinking about it still. Rigorous reporting on an enraging topic, humanely and thoughtfully done. If you haven't read it yet, make it your weekend long read. By @danhinkel.bsky.social www.injusticewatch.org/project/deny...

I wrote a piece about the origins of may day a few years ago. About the immigrants and a formerly enslaved woman who built a movement to abolish their oppressors: the state and capitalism. www.tangledwilderness.org/features/hur...

happy may day! every right you have as a worker was written in blood ❤️

My story on Cook Co. prosecutor Eileen O'Neill Burke battling exonerated people who want declarations of their innocence. Tyrece Williams, freed after 20 years in prison, said he wants to give his certificate of innocence to his 4 kids, as an acknowledgment that what happened to them was wrong.

There's no shortage of horrors in this country right now, but here's something hopeful: tenants in two Montana trailer parks just voted to authorize the first rent strike there in nearly 50 years, following steep rent hikes. People are organizing, fighting back.

Folks are not asking for enough on any level. To me, we should be demanding 2500 NEW well-funded public libraries across the country by 2050. We need to be making ACTUAL demands for MORE.

Something that more people need to embrace about the importance of public library organizing is that it's a good foundation to organize for other public goods. We need to explicitly connect library organizing with parks organizing as just one example and so on and so forth...

Thinking about @gulabjammin.bsky.social today. "What we need are possibilities, not certainty." - Amisha Patel, beloved Chicago organizer May 30, 1975 - April 24, 2026

In the weeks prior to her death, Amisha wrote this.

holding compassion for those who believe this weekend's shooting was staged because 1) we live in an extremely fractured wasteland & reporting on this so far has been messy & 2) if JD Vance went down in a mysterious plane crash I would go publicly crazy bc I do believe the Pope has shooters

Dress designed by artist, designer, painter Sonia Delaunay, France, 1925-28 #UnravellingWomensArt

truth coming out of her cup noodles to shame mankind

While we have your attention about the safety of journalists in harm’s way… Say her name: Amal Khalii. She was killed by US-Israel this week. She is one of 14 Lebanese journalists killed, and among nearly 300 killed in the Middle East since 2024.

Current* conditions near Chicago, IL:

ICE in Chicago this morning at Elston and Kennicott—a masked agent tells a witness (on the sidewalk) not to get in front of his car. Feds are continuing kidnappings across the city & burbs after increased activity this month. No flashy CBP caravans, just a steady stream of covert ICE arrests.

Younger is excellent, hell yeah.

Pretty frustrating that the New York Times is crediting AP with uncovering the existence of Aadam’s archive when I reported on it 15 months prior. chicagoreader.com/music/gossip...

My sister-in-law Claire is raising money to care for her brother Sam, a 38 year old autistic father who has recently been diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer. So far, they’re at $1,760 of a $2,400 goal. Can you help get them to the finish line? www.gofundme.com/f/samuel-jrs...