Chicago -
By SDPConference
Michelle Alexander, author of the groundbreaking new book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, talks about long-term impact of Black male incarceration on families, communities, Black women and economic infrastructures. She is speaking to conferees at the 8th annual Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference in Chicago.
Posted on April 11, 2011
By The Poetry Foundation
The Poetry Foundation is pleased to announce an exciting array of literary events and programs in celebration of National Poetry Month, April 2011.
Poetry
More than 20,000 free copies of Poetry’s April issue were distributed to 3,000 reading groups around the world in celebration of National Poetry Month.
The magazine introduced the giveaway program last year and has already seen a tenfold increase in participation.
In the April issue, Poetry readers will find new translations of Arthur Rimbaud by John Ashbery, as well as work from Averill Curdy, W.S. Di Piero, Atsuro Riley, C.K. Williams, Laura Kasischke, Karen An-hewi Lee, and more.
Readers can celebrate poetry, and find inspiration for talking and thinking about it, in the April issue’s discussion guide and with the Poetry podcast, which recently won a National Magazine Award in Digital Media. The current issue of the magazine is available online.
Posted on April 6, 2011
By In These Times
David Sirota is a Senior Editor of In These Times, a radio host, bestselling author and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist. On a recent visit to Chicago, he talked to us about his new book, Back To Our Future, what 80s TV shows like The A-Team and even Highway to Heaven have in common with today’s political culture, and why he went on Fox & Friends.
Posted on April 5, 2011
By biggdamndawgg
Chicago Humboldt Park native tells you his life story and struggle on how he came to know the dog game.
Posted on March 28, 2011
Compiled by Steve Rhodes
With the Rev. Michael Pfleger once again facing reassignment from his beloved St. Sabina, now is an opportune time to dip into Robert McClory’s Radical Disciple: Father Pfleger, St. Sabina Church, and the Fight for Social Justice
The Billboards
“At the end of one unproductive meeting he asked a billboard official if he would ever consider saturating the Chicago Gold Coast or the affluent North Shore with the kind of concentrated advertising accorded the minority communities.
“‘No,’ said the official, ‘they wouldn’t allow us to do that.’
“‘Then neither will we!’ said Pfleger as he left the meeting.”
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See also: City Balks As Billboards Overrun Poor Areas
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“Standing Up, Taking Back organized a two-day sit-in at the Midwest office of the Lorillard Tobacco Company, the manufacturer of Newports, in the upscale Chicago suburb of Naperville. More than one hundred protesters milled around the company grounds for the better part of two days, demanding that Lorillard cease inundating the minority community with ads and stop distributing caps and T-shirts that linked Newports with good times. ‘Bouncing balls, skates, happy people – that’s the image they give of cigarettes,’ said Pfleger. ‘They should be showing coffins instead.'”
Posted on March 21, 2011
By Nancy Simon and Steve Rhodes
Collective bargaining consists of negotiations between an employer and a group of employees so as to determine the conditions of employment. The result of collective bargaining procedures is a collective agreement. Employees are often represented in bargaining by a union or other labor organization. Collective bargaining is governed by federal and state statutory laws, administrative agency regulations, and judicial decisions. In areas where federal and state law overlap, state laws are preempted.
– Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School
Though the term collective bargaining was not officially coined until 1891 by the English economist and socialist reformer Beatrice Webb, its presence in the workplace dates back to the legalization of trade unions in 1886.
“In the United States, the formation of the American Labor Union in 1886 was the seminal event in the legalization of collective bargaining,” according to the Business Dictionary.
Posted on March 16, 2011
By augustted
“Using knives, tweezers and surgical tools, Brian Dettmer carves one page at a time. Nothing inside the out-of-date encyclopedias, medical journals, illustration books, or dictionaries is relocated or implanted, only removed . . .
“Dettmer is originally from Chicago, where he studied at Columbia College. He currently lives and works in Atlanta, GA.”
Posted on March 7, 2011
First in a series
1. From Spin Cycle: How The White House And The Media Manipulate The News, the 1998 book by Howard Kurtz.
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“Senior adviser Rahm Emanuel assumed Stephanopoulos’s role of behind-the-scenes press handler.”
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“The morning papers had strikingly different takes on the [tobacco negotiations]. The Washington Post quoted unnamed sources as saying the administration ‘refused to intervene’ in the tobacco talks until both sides agreed on a final package. The New York Times, however, cited ‘a top Clinton administration official’ in saying ‘that the White House might be willing to play a more active role if negotiators were not able to produce a completed plan.’ The reporters had obviously relied on different administration leakers.
“Rahm Emanuel, the ever-intense presidential assistant who was assuming a larger role in dealing with the press, stuck his head in McCurry’s office. ‘I had my headline in the Washington Post; Bruce [Lindsey] had his in the New York Times,’ he said. It was a rare instance of two White House aides pushing their competing views in public, and Emanuel felt lucky that no journalist had called them on the contradiction.”
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“[O]n a different story, [Wall Street Journal reporter Michael] Frisby found himself pointedly excluded. Rahm Emanuel had passed the word to USA Today that Clinton had decided to ask the Federal Election Commission to outlaw the use of ‘soft money,’ the large, unregulated donations that filled both parties’ coffers. As other reporters picked up on the buzz, Emanuel also leaked the story to the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times. Even though it was not much of a story – the odds that the FEC would take such action were slim – Frisby immediately called Emanuel when he realized he had been bypassed.
“‘I’m going to fuck you,’ he declared.
Posted on February 28, 2011
By The Beachwood Blasphemy Affairs Desk
“The perfect musical for everyone who has ever worked a day in their lives!”
Posted on February 11, 2011
