[click to enlarge] BARACK OBAMA President of the United States MICHELLE OBAMA First Lady DAVID MANILOW Executive producer, Check, Please! When Manilow needed guests in the show’s early days, he tapped Barack, then a “lively, articulate” state senator, who taped an episode in 2001. ALPANA SINGH Host, Check, Please! She wasn’t hosting when Barack appeared—and … Read more
Simeon Wright visits his cousin Emmett Till’s grave at Burr Oak Cemetery. It’s achingly difficult to dig up what you have spent a lifetime trying to push down. In recent years, Simeon Wright has moved slowly, steadily, inching his way toward revelation. He has faced what he wanted to put behind him, recalling the events … Read more
The “pre-eminent literary chronicler of the technological age” probes happiness
Chicago’s Hyde Park has hosted a world’s fair, nurtured a great university, pioneered urban renewal, and served as both home and crucible for Barack Obama.
Playwright Ifa Bayeza didn’t set out to write about Emmett Till. Then Emmett reached out to her, she says, and refused to let go.
