Your Guide to Chicago's Northcenter, Lincoln Square and Ravenswood Manor.
Author Archive
Craft Beer Week: What’s on Tap Around the ‘Hood
In just its third year, Chicago Craft Beer Week has become such a popular event, seven days can’t contain the excitement. The “week” now runs for a whopping 11 days, May 17-27, and that still isn’t enough time to hit up the more than 200 participating venues and special events. Lincoln Square has been lumped [...]
Stoke up the Grill: Ribfest Announces Bands, Food Vendors
You can almost taste the barbecue, can’t you? With Ribfest, June 8 – 10, fast approaching, organizers have just released the entertainment lineup and list of food vendors that’ll be slinging everything from shortribs and pulled pork to funnel cakes and fried root beer floats. That’s right, we said fried. On Friday, June 8, check [...]
Public Forum on Education: There’s More to Reform Than a Longer School Day
In organizing Sunday’s upcoming public forum, “Critically Thinking About Chicago Public Schools,” Lisa Tacke-Pucylowski had one goal in mind: “I’d like [people] to walk away having at least heard a different side, perspectives that have not been told as actively in the news.” The struggle over implementing a longer school day has dominated Chicago’s mainstream [...]
The NATO Protesters Are Coming! The NATO Protesters Are Coming!
And you thought you were going to escape all the NATO shenanigans by avoiding downtown. Forgot that the mayor lived in the ‘hood, didn’t you? On Saturday, May 19, the Mental Health Movement, which has been protesting Mayor Emanuel’s decision to shutter half of the city’s mental health clinics, is calling on its NATO sisters [...]
Square Roots Fest Announces Eclectic Music Lineup
Anyone worried that the inaugural Square Roots Festival, July 20 – 22, would be a tribute-band shadow of the beloved Folk & Roots Fest can now breathe a sigh of relief. Organizers just released the music lineup and it’s plenty eclectic, ranging from Afro-Colombian world fusion to orchestral folk. We’d say there’s something for everyone, [...]
Meet Dogfish Head Founder at Fountainhead’s Dogfish Fest Tonight
Chicago Craft Beer Week doesn’t officially start until Thursday, but we haven’t heard any complaints that Fountainhead, 1970 W. Montrose Ave., is jumping the gun by hosting Dogfish Head owner/founder Sam Calagione at a mini-fest tonight, featuring some of Dogfish’s greatest hits. Featured in his own Discovery Channel series, Brew Masters, and a New Yorker [...]
Bikers Gather for Memorial for Crash Victim
Members of Chicago’s motorcycling community gathered last night at a makeshift memorial for Phillip Pfister, the 30-year-old biker killed early Monday morning in a crash near the intersection of Lawrence and Damen Avenues. Two others were injured in the accident between a car and two motorcycles. Neighbors described a somber sight, as more than 100 [...]
Lane Tech LSC Chooses New Principal, Promotes From Within
After interviewing three candidates over the course of a two-hour closed-door session Monday night, Lane Tech’s LSC reconvened in open session, and the council’s chairman, Gary Gruenewald, moved to approve the selection of a new principal. “Motion to offer a four-year contract to Dr. Christopher Dignam,” said parent representative Deborah Taus-Barth. To a unanimous chorus [...]
Irving Park Streetscape Construction Enters Phase 2
How is the Irving Park Streetscape like an Oreo? CDOT went for the filling first. Phase 1 of the project encompassed the stretch of the thoroughfare from Western to Damen. Now CDOT is rolling out Phase 2 along two sections of Irving Park that sandwich Phase 1: Rockwell to Western, and the Lincoln/Damen intersection to [...]
‘Hugo,’ ‘Smurfs’ Headline Summer Movies in the Park
The city may be broke but you’ve got to hand it to the bean counters: They know not to mess with our free Movies in the Park. For the twelfth year, the Park District will present a mix of classics like Vertigo and The Wizard of Oz along with recent hits including Moneyball and Captain [...]
School Spotlight: Support Ravenswood Students’ Walk-a-Thon for the Arts
Ravenswood Elementary, 4332 N. Paulina St., is designated a Fine and Performing Arts Magnet Cluster School by CPS. “You know what comes along with that?” asks Natalie Waechter, parent of three students and a member of Friends of Ravenswood School (FORS). In terms of curriculum expectations: plenty. In terms of funding from CPS: “Nothing.” That’s [...]
School Spotlight: Courtenay Planting Seeds in Community
With an enrollment of fewer than 200 students, Courtenay Language Arts Center, 1726 W. Berteau, is the little elementary that could. “We’re a great school that just isn’t recognized,” says Cassandra Vickars, mother to a third- and fifth-grader at the school, and one of the founders of the newly formed Friends of Courtenay group. Recent ISAT [...]
Chicago School Teaches Mosaic as Art, Not Craft
As students sit nearby hammering pieces of glass or stone, Karen Ami works on a colorful mosaic of yellow, green and orange that she’s designing in conjunction with Columbia College. As she talks, she fits in pieces, remarking on how the color gradually changes and the way the fluid lines go beyond simple stick-and-glue approaches. [...]
North Side To Play Guinea Pig for Grid-Based Garbage Collection
It makes so much sense that it’s hard to believe grid-based garbage collection is actually happening. The Department of Streets and Sanitation announced today that several wards on the city’s North Side will be the first to switch from the current system, which follows non-linear ward geography, to grid-based routes bordered by main streets and [...]
Pop Up Shop Great for Last-Minute Mother’s Day Gifts
Don’t lie to us. We know you waited until the last minute, again, to pick up a Mother’s Day gift (hint, it’s Sunday). Instead of slapping together yet another coupon book for free hugs, check out the Chicago Art Girls Pop Up Shop, May 12. More than 35 artists have gathered to sell one-of-a-kind handmade [...]
