The life and times of the Harold Washington Library chicagoreader.com/city-life/pe...

News Night! Wednesday at Mouse :-)

Why the roses in the title of our newest podcast episode?  thepolycrisis.org/demand-destr...

a must-read on the most vital institution in chicago: the harold washington library, from @morleymusick.bsky.social chicagoreader.com/city-life/pe...

Morley is best-in-category here imo , was v looking fwd to this one & unsurprisingly it rocks bsky.app/profile/morl...

For @chicagoreader.com , I interviewed regulars at the Harold Washington Library, including: a man who copies reference books by hand, the lawyer who patented the Pringles can, a young woman banned from the library six times. Davon Clark's amazing pics in thread. chicagoreader.com/city-life/pe...

The “general response to Midway Blitz [was] an aggrieved, futile attempt to correct someone who has violently misinterpreted reality.” Over and over, Chicagoans pointed “to the normality of life as a defense against the menacing accusations” of ICE and CPB www.nplusonemag.com/issue-53/pol...

NYC! Chicago! n+1’s own Miss Translation, aka Bela Shayevich, is hosting two mixers / mini-workshops next week for “translators and the translation-curious,” including one at the n+1 office on Tuesday, May 19. Do NOT miss this opportunity to meet your soulmate!! www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/...

And in a brilliant and humane reported essay, frequent n+1 contributor @morleymusick.bsky.social investigates ICE’s Operation Midway Blitz and tells the stories of Chicagoans dealing with the fallout from the assault. www.nplusonemag.com/issue-53/pol...

For @nplusonemag.com, my essay about Operation Midway Blitz. I wrote about the apartment building that ICE raided, a young woman in ICE custody, asylum seekers and phone games, Silverio Villegas González & the owner of the hot dog restaurant where he worked. www.nplusonemag.com/issue-53/pol...

One of @nplusonemag.com's very best issues ever is almost here, featuring journeys to mountaintops, artificial islands, fish processors, William Gass's interior life, and much more. Subscribe to read it as soon as it's out—20% off w/ discount code EXCURSIONS. www.nplusonemag.com/subscribe/

Chicago April 16

This is one of the best food courts in the city and its tenants are threatened with rental increases that could could force them to close. The landlord in question (Jiazhao "Frankie" Chen) is $65m in debt and facing foreclosure on 37 properties. His staffer told me he is in China.

Frankie Chen, landlord of Chicago's main Chinatown food court, has threatened to nearly double the rent on its tenants. Chen is $65m in debt and faces foreclosure on 37 properties. Tenants say they'll leave if the rent increases. My latest, for @chicagoreader.com chicagoreader.com/city-life/ch...

On Sunday, Mayor Brandon Johnson visited Sheridan Correctional Center to hear from incarcerated Northwestern University students. news.wttw.com/2026/03/16/m...

NEW: Four Illinois sheriff's offices defied state sanctuary law by transferring people into DHS custody in 2024. That, according to a report released from the IL AG on Dec 23. news.wttw.com/2026/01/08/f...

a year of news night!

In January, my partner, friends and I will be opening up a cultural club in an old bank in Bridgeport: the Mouse Arts and Letters Club. We'll host News Night, a citywide newsroom, screenings, translation + ecology events & more. We'd love you to join us. Sign up for updates: mouseartsandletters.org

a year of news nights! november 13!

NEW: I found 17 sheriffs in Illinois that have contracts to detain people for ICE through U.S. Marshals Service contracts. IL law explicitly prohibits these types of intergovernmental service agreements. news.wttw.com/2025/10/22/d...

I spoke with Maria Gaspar, who collected bars from demolished Cook County Jail cells and turned them into a xylophone. news.wttw.com/2025/07/24/h...

Each classification room in the prison was decorated with an astonishing density of Disney paraphernalia. Men with grief-lined faces sat in front of Mickey Mouse reliquaries, mini princess figurines arranged in rainbow tiers on top of metal cabinets. www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/...

The Median Time in Restrictive Housing in Illinois Prisons is 1 Week. But Some Assigned More Than 600 Days news.wttw.com/2025/07/15/m...

I wrote a dispatch for @nplusonemag.com about attending a corrections conference in Orlando while violently ill. The prison I saw was filled with Disney paraphernalia. I make heavy use of @blairpaddock.bsky.social 's previous reporting (www.thenation.com/article/soci...).

Come hear me talk about my job as an architecture critic and the role of politics in imagining a better future! (along with some really fantastic journos and writers working more deeply in city planning and local Chicago politics!

NEW: Illinois State Police keeps a gang database. ICE has access to it. This, despite the state's TRUST Act prohibiting data sharing agreements between the two. news.wttw.com/2025/06/02/i...

NEW: Post-conviction petitions are a vital resource for those incarcerated alleging injustice. But those filing don't have the right to an attorney and face "egregious" delays -- some cases taking a decade. news.wttw.com/2025/05/27/e...

Our world crisis of ecology, economics, and empire, has continued to metastasize. It is shaking confidence in established worldviews & ruling elites everywhere. @iliasalami.bsky.social & @danieldenvir.bsky.social & I chatted about @thepolycrisis.bsky.social thedigradio.com/podcast/glob...

Illinois is pitching to build two new prisons for $900M. But some aren’t sold as the state is seeing a declining prison pop + bed vacancies. Instead, they see an opportunity to decarcerate + consolidate. news.wttw.com/2025/03/10/i...

extreme cruelty

News Night #3!

Lawmakers + COs have called for a ban on a paper mail in IL prisons, being seen as a source of drugs. But it's unclear if that's the predominant way they're entering facilities. John Howard says there needs to be conversations on who they say main source is: staff. news.wttw.com/2025/02/03/p...