If life is a tapestry of experience, the threads of Juan M. Calderon’s existence are inextricably woven with Humboldt Park — and by extension, the Puerto Rican Cultural Center (PRCC). Calderon, born to a Puerto Rican father and a Mexican mother, also identifies as...
Near the corner of 71st Street and Crandon Avenue, Michael McDowell mans the flat top at Surf’s Up South Shore as he has nearly every day since 2014. McDowell, who took over the Southern seafood and wing shop franchise from his stepmother, has seen South Shore’s ups...
Cecile De Mello likes to ask questions. So much, in fact, that she once considered doing so professionally. “When I was in high school,” she says, “I wanted to be a journalist. I was very inquisitive about the way my community was set up.” De Mello was living in...
About a decade ago, Tonya Trice and her husband were talking about the future of their neighborhood. South Shore is coming back, he told her. He was sure of it. He was certain that the South Side neighborhood, home to a stunning stretch of lakefront and a large Black...
