How Poverty Found a Home in the Chicago Suburbs
The changing geography of poverty in Illinois and across the country.
Protesting ICE Immigration Raids in Chicago
Thousands gathered in Chicago's Daley Plaza to protest migrant imprisonment and planned ICE raids in major U.S. cities.
The Enduring Legacy of the 2010 Kalamazoo River Oil Spill
Nearly a decade after one of the largest inland oil spills in U.S. history, the landscape has changed.
The Rippling Effect of Baron Walker
In 2015, a study found Milwaukee's 53206 ZIP code imprisoned sixty-two percent of Black men under the age of thirty-four. Baron Walker was one of them.
“Out of the Closets and Into the Streets”
Queer Midwestern communities were politically active in the pivotal years leading up to Stonewall.
Gambling on Hemp
Illinois began accepting applications to grow industrial hemp at the end of April. But the first legal crop in more than eighty years is accompanied by a lot of uncertainty.
Tying the Green New Deal to Environmental Justice in Chicago
The youth-led national Sunrise Movement made a case to local organizers.
A Complicated Heritage of Coal
In southern Illinois, one community’s complex relationship with the industry on display.
Inside the St. Louis Rent Strike of 1969
“It touched everybody all over the country who lived in public housing.” [From "The St. Louis Anthology"]
Oral Histories of the 1969 Cuyahoga River Fire
The events of June 1969 have come to define both Cleveland and the river. Some Clevelanders have a different story.
Remembering WOXY and the Modern Rock 500
A Memorial Day tradition that chronicled the music of an era.
Birdwatching at Indiana Dunes National Park
The Indiana Dunes Birding Festival and the art of paying attention.