In the Loop

Many believe that the gaps in America between rich and poor, black and white, progressives and conservatives are so large that we can’t even communicate with each other. U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith has been touring the country for the last 2 years using poetry to break down that belief. She’ll be in Chicago this weekend as part of Poetry Fest. And after more than 50 years, Stanley’s Fruit and Vegetable Market has closed its doors. A victim of competition from larger nearby grocery stores, many believe its demise is also tied to the Lincoln Yards development, just blocks away and recently given the green light by City Council.

When he took office 8 years ago, Mayor Emanuel promised to turn Chicago into a “green” city. 3 people deeply involved in environmental issues look at what’s been done, and tick off a series of priorities for Mayor-elect Lightfoot. Plus we dive into the world of climate change fiction, or Cli-Fi, a genre that’s gaining a lot of attention as readers become more interested in stories about our shifting environment

Writer Damon Young writes about race and culture for the site he co-founded, Very Smart Brothas.com.  His new book “What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker” is filled with sometimes funny, sometimes heartbreaking essays about himself, his family, and what it means to be a Black man in America.  Plus you’re invited to add to WBEZ’s calender of cool things to do this summer

The 6 new Democratic Socialists on Chicago’s City Council may not have a majority, but they just might be able to change how the city does business. Plus Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx continues to deal with blowback from how she and her office dealt with the Jussie Smollett case. Political reporters A.D. Quig and Dan Mihalopoulos break down those stories and more on our Friday news roundup.

Over a 20 year period, 51 African American women have been found strangled and dumped on Chicago’s South and West side Earlier this week we spoke to an expert who believes it’s the work of a serial killer or killers. But community activists have been raising alarm bells for years. And the reaction of the police has essentially been “nothing to be seen here”. We talk to 3 activists who have had extensive contact with the police and the victim’s families. Plus, many Chicago suburbs use what’s known as “auxiliary police”. But few know what police powers they have, or don’t have. And some are wondering if their presence causes more harm than good.

Chicago voters wanted change, and they got change. And despite a number of long-time aldermen holding on to their seats, a real “throw the bums out” vibe pervaded the recent municipal election. That vibe is most clearly embodied in the 6 new aldermen that ran as Democratic Socialists. We talk to 3 of those new members of City Council. Plus WBEZ Political Reporter Becky Vevea updates the final final tallies from the election, and offers insight into how the new alderman will work with the old aldermen, and with the new mayor.

Retired investigative journalist Thomas Hargrove is the founder of the Murder Accountability Project.   The data he’s collected has led the Chicago Police Department and the FBI to look into the possibility that a serial killer has been murdering women on the South and West Sides over a 20 year period. And the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, has won a special posthumous Pulitzer citation prize  "for her indelible contribution to American music and culture for more than five decades”

NYC announced congestion pricing for Manhattan beginning in 2021. Could Chicago follow suit? And would it be for the environment, or to raise revenue? NIU’s Michael Peddle talks about the pros and cons.   And the new Youth Poet Laureate of the U.S. is in the house. We talk to Kara Jackson about her poetic road from Oak Park to the Library of Congress.

After the success of the Emmy-nominated web series Brown Girls, Fatimah Asghar and Sam Bailey return to Chicago for the world premiere of another collaboration: Damaged Goods.The two were executive producers for the new web series, which follows the lives of four young adults of color grappling with the loss of their identity while living in Chicago. The show was written by Vincent Martell, Zac Payne and KB Woodson. Damaged Goods is part of new cycle of pilots and series presented by Open Television, a Chicago-based web platform for local artists. Asghar and Bailey join Morning Shift to talk about their experience working on the new show, their latest projects in Chicago and LA, and the importance of representation and intersectionality in media and the arts.What kind of show is Damaged Goods and what was it like producing it?Sam Bailey: It’s really just kind of this like love letter to black and brown queer communities in Chicago, and it’s a community that we feel really attached to and are a part of and active in. So they made a show that kind of explores all of these different relationships and friendships and chosen family between these four roommates. And we got brought onto it early last year as creative EPs to help guide them as they were going through the web series process.On the importance of authentic, intersectional storytellingFatimah Asghar: I think it’s really important for people of color to just have really nuanced humanities, and I think that’s something that Vince and Zac and KB really, really wanted to do — to show the struggles that exist in our communities in a very real way ... the writers wanted to convey a sense of realness and the authenticity when it came to these characters, which means not shying away from some of these darker topics.Odette Yousef: These shows touch on intersectionality of multiple identities, as did Brown Girls … but in such an edgy and raw kind of way. What’s your take on why that’s the right approach?Bailey: I don’t know if there’s a right or wrong approach, I just think it’s true to our aesthetics … we want to do something that feels very real but also has a bit of surrealism and play, because we’re still experimenting as artists. So not only are we telling this story about a bunch of these different identities, but I also want to give these creators room to play in their filmmaking. So I think that’s the reason why it’s raw and edgy, because it is 100 percent them … and if you stay true to it, there’s a level of authenticity that can’t be matched in Hollywood.Breaking boundaries, reaching audiences through web seriesAsghar: I think that the idea of a web series and the digital platform offered a sense of freedom. It was a way in which we didn’t have to ask permission for the stories we were telling … and really, it was because there was no other way. It was like we wanted to make content, we wanted to connect with our audiences, we wanted to get that out here.And when we made Brown Girls, there was no kind of concept of we are making this in the hopes that Hollywood see it. We were making it in the hopes that our communities would see it. And so, I think that the priority has just been different. It’s not been a thing of like, we’re using the digital space to get into Hollywood. It’s been, we’re using the digital space to be its own platform and its own sense of authorship and ownership. On their latest works in Chicago and LABailey: Fati has another book out, Halal If You Hear Me, which I love. And I think we're trying to figure out the balance between being in LA and and being in Chicago and creating more 'mainstream' work and creating our independent work, which is very difficult. But it seems like every time I do, I lean more into the independent stuff ... so, I think there's a lot of projects in the making right now and hopefully we'll be able to share that w

It’s Friday, and that means it’s time for Morning Shift's Friday News Roundup, where we break down some of the biggest local stories of the week.In this week’s roundup, we’ll pick apart the City Council’s decision to sign off on billions in public subsidies for two mega developments in Chicago.Also on the agenda today: Chicago’s inspector general slamming the police department over its gang database. And we'll also discuss the police board deciding whether to fire four officers in connection with the Laquan McDonald shooting. What else happened this week? You'll have to press "PLAY" to hear.  Our panel includes Daily Line managing editor and City Hall reporter Heather Cherone, Sun-Times columnist Mary Mitchell and ProPublica Illinois reporter and columnist Mick Dumke.