Chicago -
By New China TV
“The first museum dedicated solely to American writers, the American Writers Museum opened to the public on Tuesday. The museum takes up more than 11,000 square feet on Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago. Museum officials said they expect more than 100,000 visitors in the first year.”
Posted on May 19, 2017
By SIU Press
Most people do not realize it, but Chicago is home to many diverse, artistic, fascinating, and architecturally and historically important fountains.
In this attractive volume, Greg Borzo reveals more than one hundred outdoor public fountains of Chicago with noteworthy, amusing, or surprising stories about these gems.
Complementing Borzo’s engagingly written text are around one hundred beautiful fine-art color photos of the fountains, taken by photographer Julia Thiel for this book, and a smaller number of historical photos.
Posted on May 16, 2017
By Hooplaha
“Open Books is a nonprofit social venture that operates an extraordinary bookstore, provides community programs, and mobilizes passionate volunteers to promote literacy in Chicago and beyond.
“Open Books’ award-winning social enterprise model combines book donations, a retail bookstore, e-commerce, and volunteers to help support our literacy programs.”
Posted on May 11, 2017
By Katherine Mooney/The Conversation
When the horses entered the gate for the 143rd Kentucky Derby, the jockeys hailed from Louisiana, Mexico, Nebraska and France. None were African American. That’s been the norm for quite a while. When Marlon St. Julien rode the Derby in 2000, he became the first black man to get a mount since 1921.
It wasn’t always this way. The Kentucky Derby, in fact, is closely intertwined with black Americans’ struggles for equality, a history I explore in my book on race and thoroughbred racing.
From 1921 to 2000, no black jockeys competed/Wikimedia Commons
Posted on May 8, 2017
By Kelly Lytle Hernandez/The Conversation
It was not always a crime to enter the United States without authorization.
In fact, for most of American history, immigrants could enter the United States without official permission and not fear criminal prosecution by the federal government.
That changed in 1929. On its surface, Congress’s new prohibitions on informal border crossings simply modernized the U.S. immigration system by compelling all immigrants to apply for entry. However, in my new book, City of Inmates, I detail how Congress outlawed border crossings with the specific intent of criminalizing, prosecuting and imprisoning Mexican immigrants.
Posted on May 1, 2017
