Nara Schoenberg – Page 18

Rachelle Zola during her hunger strike Monday, June 14, 2021, outside Cosmopolitan United Church in Melrose Park. Zola began the 40-day all-liquid hunger strike to support H.R. 40, a House bill that would set up a commission to study reparations.

73-year-old Chicago woman completes a 40-day hunger strike for slavery reparations: ‘My voice is just getting stronger.’

June 28, 2021 at 6:02 p.m.

After 40 days without solid food, Rachelle Zola ended her hunger strike for slavery reparations with a few small bites of yogurt Saturday. Zola, 73, of Chicago, said she lost...

A crowd cools off in Lake Michigan at 31st St. Beach in Chicago on June 5, 2021.

Why can’t Johnny swim? Chicago parents say cost of lessons, lack of time and lack of access are barriers

June 24, 2021 at 6:49 p.m.

Experts have long pondered why over 40% of American children lack basic swim skills, but a new study goes right to the source. Researchers at Lurie Children's Hospital asked Chicago...

Brian Rock, of Elevated Pie Co., makes free pizzas for residents after driving his mobile pizza oven truck to Darien from Merrillville, Indiana, on June 21, 2021, as neighbors and utility workers cleaned up damage from an overnight tornado. Rock said he works farmers markets and puts the money toward helping neighbors in need like after last year's derecho storms in Iowa.

After the tornado, a stranger came to town with a red pickup, a wood-fired oven and a message of hope: Free, hand-tossed pizzas for everyone

June 23, 2021 at 8:54 a.m.

Brian Rock has a vision: He wants to make pizzas for people at natural disaster sites. So when Rock, 29, of Merrillville, Indiana, heard about the tornado that tore through...

Rachelle Zola during her hunger strike, June 14, 2021, outside Cosmopolitan United Church in Melrose Park. "This is phase one, and I'm not going away," she said.

She’s white. She’s 73. And she’s on a 40-day hunger strike for slavery reparations: ‘Am I willing to die for this?’

June 17, 2021 at 12:50 p.m.

Rachelle Zola had never been to Chicago. She didn't have friends or family here. But in summer 2019, she bought a 1969 Mercury Sable with no heat and an oil...

People march in the second annual Drag March for Change.

Drag queens lead hundreds through North Side streets in a Black Lives Matter protest calling for an end to racism and police brutality

June 13, 2021 at 7:37 p.m.

Hundreds of protesters poured through Chicago's largest LGBTQ neighborhood Sunday in a Black Lives Matter march against racism, transphobia and police brutality. The second annual Drag March for Change, led...

Drag performer Jo Mama joins activists protesting outside Ald. Tom Tunney's Ann Sather restaurant May 23, 2021, calling for Tunney to act on community control of policing. Jo MaMa has organized the second Drag March for Change, to be held Sunday.

Chicago drag queens announce a follow-up to their Black Lives Matter march of 2020, which drew thousands of protesters to the North Side

June 8, 2021 at 2:06 p.m.

Chicago's drag queens of color stepped up after George Floyd's murder last year, quickly organizing a Black Lives Matter protest calling for more inclusion at majority-white LGBTQ entertainment venues, as...

Moody Bible Institute's Crowell Hall on LaSalle Street in Chicago on June 3, 2021.

Lawsuit alleges LGBTQ discrimination at Christian colleges, including Chicago’s Moody Bible Institute: ‘I felt so unwelcome, and it hurt so much to be there’

June 3, 2021 at 6:00 p.m.

Megan Steffen had completed all her college coursework at Moody Bible Institute and was at home with her parents in Michigan, waiting to graduate, when she got an email from...

Devlyn Camp, one of the authors of a petition calling for a name change for Chicago's Boystown neighborhood on July 9, 2020.

Boystown, the nickname dropped by business leaders in Chicago’s premier gay neighborhood last year, is still going strong: ‘It’s always going to be Boystown to me’

June 8, 2021 at 10:29 a.m.

You could be forgiven for thinking this neighborhood is called Boystown. Up until a few days ago, the banners lining the main north-south artery, Halsted Street, still blared the catchy...

Brave Space Alliance executive director LaSaia Wade on May 27, 2021 at their Hyde Park offices.

A year after the George Floyd protests, Chicago transgender activist LaSaia Wade has someone new to fight for: Her 8-month old son

May 28, 2021 at 11:16 a.m.

LaSaia Wade doesn't take much comfort in the murder conviction of Derek Chauvin, the police officer who killed George Floyd. Black people are still dying at the hands of police,...

State Sen. Robert Peters at Chicago State University on Feb. 22, 2021. Peters is sponsoring a bill that eliminates the possibility of criminal penalties for transmitting HIV.

Illinois legislators approve bill that would decriminalize HIV transmission

May 25, 2021 at 7:33 p.m.

The Illinois Senate on Tuesday passed a bill that would repeal a law that left HIV-positive people open to felony charges for failing to disclose their health status to partners...

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