This spring, City Bureau tackled issues of racial inequity in maternal health in a special maternal health issue of Austin Weekly News that focused on community solutions and resilience.

We quickly learned in our initial interviews with Black mothers and birth workers that maternal mortality statistics can be grim and traumatizing — and they don’t tell the whole story. We knew that the U.S. is also the only developed nation in the world where the overall maternal mortality rate is on the rise. In Illinois, Black women are six times more likely to die of a pregnancy-related condition than white women no matter their educational background, and Black women are three times more likely to die within a year of pregnancy as women of any other race or ethnicity despite making up just 17 percent of births statewide, according to the Illinois Maternal Morbidity and Mortality Report released last October. In Chicago alone, 74 percent of maternal deaths were Black women, though Black Chicagoans make up 31 percent of Chicago’s population.

We couldn’t rely only on numbers. In order to do this project right, we needed to incorporate as many community voices as possible into our reporting and editorial direction in order to create content that fits the needs of Black women, birth workers, and the people that love them in our city. Community solutions and hope, we learned early on, needed to be a part of the story, too.

Below are some of our favorite engagement projects from the spring reporting cycle that helped us go deeper in our reporting. Here we will share our favorite aspects of each engagement activity, any challenges we faced, and its impact.

You can read our series of stories on maternal health in Chicago here.

WBEZ Morning Shift special call-in radio show for Mother’s Day

What was it: City Bureau and two birth workers (Tayo Mbande of Chicago Birthworks Collective and certified nurse midwife Lakieta Edwards) visited Morning Shift to discuss racial equity and maternal health in Chicago and to answer listener questions about Black maternal health.

How did it go:

“It felt challenging to plan and prepare for these engagement events while also ensuring I was on task with my story deadlines. A City Bureau colleague of mine even asked how my team planned these events, managed The Cord text line and reported on our stories at the same time. I later realized that holding these engagement events informed my reporting immensely because it was another opportunity to learn from the people who were a part of our stories.

“At the WBEZ radio show, I struggled with thinking of concise answers to questions I was asked. I often felt like there were either no definitive answers to why policy isn’t catching up with maternal health needs in Illinois, or I felt the answer was too complex for a 30-minute radio show. I resolved to share the information I thought was most important for listeners, in order to allow enough time for Lakeita and Tayo to share their experiences in birth work. One of the greatest accomplishments of the show was that Lakieta and Tayo were able to shift the conversation to finding solutions for maternal health issues in Chicago, instead of continuing the current trend of only talking about the devastating maternal death and complication rates. In this way, they caught a blind spot of many reporters reporting on the issue but not necessarily reporting on how communities are working to make change.” — Janaya Greene, City Bureau spring reporting fellow

• You can listen to our Mother’s Day show here.

#CoverMama photo contest

What was it: City Bureau and Austin Weekly News co-hosted a social media campaign called the #CoverMama photo contest where Black moms in Chicago tagged City Bureau in their favorite photos that captured Black motherhood for a chance to win a maternity photo shoot and to become our cover model. Our winner was Dorothy Bowser of East Garfield Park, who posed with her baby girl after winning the #CoverMama contest.

How did it go:

“I loved how throughout the cycle this team tried to think of ways to engage the community we were covering in order to best serve them. The cover mama contest was particularly fun for me because I got to work with someone who was super excited about the shoot, and we had the chance to create and execute a shared vision outside of any particular goal or story. I had so much fun collaborating with Dorothy, and I’m grateful that I was trusted to capture the connection between her and her daughter.” — Caroline Olsen, City Bureau spring photojournalism fellow

• You can read a special note from Dorothy Bowser, our Austin Weekly News #CoverMama, here.

The Cord: resources for modern mamas

What was it: The Cord is a free news and information text service for pregnant women, mothers and any other person looking to gain resources on healthy pregnancies, postpartum tips, maternal and baby news and thoughts on pregnancy and motherhood in Chicago. Subscribers asked City Bureau fellows questions about maternal health and wellness, and advised us about what expectant parents should know. Starting soon, we are proud to be handing over control of this text-message service to Tayo Mbande, a doula and cofounder of Chicago Birthworks Collective, a group of birthworkers, healers, and wellness practitioners serving Black families across Chicago.

How did it go:

“One of my favorite engagement activities this cycle was The Cord. We sent links to articles, information, videos about birthing practices, TV series on doulas and birth worker-led events in the Chicago area. It was a two-way service: not only could we send out the resources we came across during our reporting, but text subscribers could reach out to ask questions and offer feedback. This two-way channel resulted in us looking into a variety of real-life questions (insurance for newborn babies, for one) that we might not have otherwise, and it provided a point of contact between our team and the people we were trying to reach.

“Along with the positives, we experienced some challenges with The Cord. We learned that users must have a smartphone or a connection to the internet to sign up for the service, for one. Another challenge is that there’s no way for us to look at who our subscriber base is, and whether we’re doing a good job reaching our target audience. Despite the challenges, I think The Cord has served as a great way to inform individuals about and connect them with the birth work community in Chicago — as well as to learn about more birth workers and birth options in the Chicago region ourselves. I look forward to seeing it continue to be used toward that end.” — Emeline Posner, City Bureau spring reporting fellow

• You can learn more about The Cord here.

Public Newsroom 108: “Ask a Maternal Health Expert Anything!”

What was it: On May 16, City Bureau held a Public Newsroom to bring together women and local maternal health experts at New Moms in Austin. These doulas, midwives and other birth workers served as “open books” — where attendees could sit down and ask them any questions or use a question guide to get the conversation started. Our teammate Camille Powell suggested the format based on an “open book” event in Chicago she’d participated in before. We wanted to highlight community-generated, Black-led solutions to the maternal health crisis in Chicago.

How did it go:

“The Public Newsroom was a great opportunity for birth workers and attendees to have meaningful conversations around childbirth, maternal care and community. The birth workers were ‘books’ and the attendees were ‘readers,’ which created a safe space to ask questions and share experiences. Each station had its own expertise, which allowed people to prioritize where they wanted to glean information. By the end of the event, we had hosted a full-group discussion, attendees had talked to one to six other people, and we collected audio stories of people’s first-hand experiences of childbirth.

“What I really liked about the Public Newsroom was that the attendees were settled to a table of their choice with ease, and the engagements were pretty immediate. And, amongst the birth workers, I heard them mention that it was nice to match a face to a name, since many were only virtually connected before.” — Camille Powell, City Bureau spring reporting fellow

• You can read a comic on the “Ask a Maternal Health Expert Anything!” Public Newsroom by City Bureau’s Ellie Mejía here.

Support City Bureau’s reporting on topics like Black maternal wealth by donating or becoming a City Bureau Press Club member today.

Making Mamas Shine Through Engagement was originally published in City Bureau on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Last March I wrote how City Bureau was (and still is) mapping out ways to grow with integrity. Since then our team has been identifying organizational resources and practices we could employ internally.

In the last year I’ve learned so much, but an especially galvanizing moment was a workshop I co-hosted with Open News’ Erika Owens during the 2018 Allied Media Conference where we heard from dozens of practitioners who want to better the orgs they’ve inherited or the ones they’re creating. Participants kept echoing the need to eradicate a false sense of urgency that has led to unrealistic deadlines or trying to do too many things (hello, capitalism rearing its head in work that’s meant to be an antidote).

All these conversations helped me articulate two key things: I was burning out doing something I loved. And we’ve outgrown some of the initial methods we used to produce the Public Newsroom. So we’re going to embrace these growing pains as a moment to take a healthy creative reset. Because if we want City Bureau to be an organization that functions fluidly like a human, not rigidly like a machine, what’s more humane than taking time to learn or taking a break?

So we’re hitting pause on the Public Newsroom for a month and a half — from June 13 through July 25 — to identify lessons learned, evaluate what needs improvement as well as explore ways we can grow to better serve and work with our community. Our decision to take a break from weekly workshops fits into the commitments we outlined when trying to grow with integrity, especially to support staff wellness and promote internal learning and a positive work environment. Instead we’re going to focus on deepening the relationships we have built over the past 111 workshops and identifying new ones.

While we won’t be hosting PNs around the city, Ellie Mejía (the PN co-pilot) and I will be meeting with stakeholders in neighborhoods across the city to inform our next steps. We want to take time to identify month-long themes for the Public Newsroom (like we tested with our #LocalNewsContract series) and understand how to better share the materials that get generated during our workshops.

We’ll also check in with our PN partners at 14 East, Mississippi Today and Énois to hear what they’ve been learning. And, as mentioned last June, we’ll be rolling out a PN toolkit for more folks to replicate this workshop series for their communities. We’ll also have updates on our 2019 Public Newsroom Curator application.

We’ll be back August 1 to kick off a series co-designed with Chicago United for Equity around aldermanic accountability and evaluating the first 100 days of our new City Council in wards around the city.

Support City Bureau’s free and open programming around Public Newsrooms by donating or becoming a City Bureau Press Club member today.

Public Newsroom Update: We’re Taking a Break was originally published in City Bureau on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

On April 18, a modest crowd gathered in Build Coffee for our 104th Public Newsroom. This time, we invited photographer and former City Bureau fellow Sebastián Hidalgo to lead the workshop. Hidalgo, an award-winning freelance photojournalist, broke down the concept of “shock value” photojournalism and presented ethical ways to approach visual storytelling.

At the Public Newsroom, we often talk about how media coverage can misrepresent and harm marginalized communities and how we might begin to repair that. On April 2, we talked about the history of biased race reporting in Chicago and asked attendees, how could we better cover this topic? The conversation was inspired by an earlier Public Newsroom, where participants discussed how Chicago journalists could improve crime reporting.

But when we have these conversations we don’t always talk about the weight of visuals, which are often the first thing people see when reading the news.

Shock value photojournalism refers to photos — often depicting violence or bodily harm — meant to elicit fear, disgust, surprise or any strong emotional reaction from the viewer. Historically, the subjects of these types of photographs have belonged to marginalized groups. Taken together, the images can come to misrepresent entire communities, often portraying them at a deficit for the sake of manufacturing shock.

This approach is common in part because of the prestige assigned to violent or shocking photos. Recent Pulitzer-winning images feature scarred, malnourished or deceased Black and brown bodies. As Hidalgo explains, institutional reverence for these types of images signals to emerging photojournalists this is the kind of work that will make them successful, perpetuating the problem.

So how can we build better frameworks for visual journalism? Hidalgo practices and advocates for what he calls a collective visual approach, which he says focuses on “team building, trust, consistent communication, community and involvement of all parties.” Within this framework, the photographer aims to build trust with colleagues in the newsroom as well as members of the communities where they work. “We have to really understand that as journalists, reporters, editors, we’re all in this together,” he says. “If we really want to go beyond shock value in photojournalism, it takes all of us.”

To that end, he shared a few tips for photojournalists looking to try this collective approach. Hidalgo advises freelancers to look into the histories of publications they might work with, keeping an eye on the types of images they have published in the past. He also suggests photojournalists edit their portfolios to reflect their values.

If you are on assignment, Hidalgo also suggests explicitly addressing shock value with your editor at the outset, and checking in frequently throughout the process with anyone who has a hand in the story. “Have these conversations extremely continuously. Have them with your editors, your reporters,” Hidalgo says.

Outside of the newsroom, it is critical to extend the same open communication to sources. Hidalgo illustrates this with two examples from his own experience. Reporting on the suburb of Dolton, before taking photos he asked community members how they felt about being reported on and photographed, involving them in the process. On a different assignment, he was tasked with photographing an 11-year-old. He told the boy to simply raise his hand if he didn’t want his photo taken, a way of respecting his boundaries.

Hidalgo says these are small but concrete steps toward taking photos with sensitivity and respect. “This looks different in each project but… a collaborative visual approach looks for something more meaningful, respectable and necessary,” he says.

“I think a lot of people don’t realize how much thought, research, time and relationship-building and conceptualizing happens before photographers even take a photograph,” said Pat Nabong, another former City Bureau fellow and photographer who was in attendance. She stressed the importance of maintaining these practices over time. “I already apply a lot of what we talked about in my own practice, but I think that concerned process is like a muscle. I have to continue to have these thoughtful conversations among my colleagues, editors and the people I photograph,” she said.

If you want to learn more about the topic of this week’s newsroom, there are several resources out there.

• Listen to photojournalist Kainaz Amaria discuss how Western photojournalism has shaped a misrepresentative narrative of Africa.
• Check out Hidalgo’s piece on Isaac Flores, a child separated from his mother at the border, or on Dolton, Illinois, a formerly industrial suburban community facing high property taxes.
• For even more places to learn more or get involved, take a look at this take-away sheet Hidalgo compiled.

You can also listen to his presentation on our Spreaker page or check out the slides below.

Support City Bureau’s free Public Newsroom workshop series by donating or becoming a City Bureau Press Club member today.

Beyond Shock Value Photojournalism was originally published in City Bureau on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The speech and presentation below were delivered as the closing keynote of the 2019 Collaborative Journalism Summit in Philadelphia. Scroll to the bottom to see the group design activity based on City Bureau’s “Inform, Engage, Equip” framework. Notes from all of the Summit presentations can be found via the #collaborativej hashtag on Twitter.

This isn’t about City Bureau. This is about power.

Yours. Ours. And how we use it.

We say, “Information is power.” This is a truism — it’s obviously true but lacks definition. What we mean is, “Power is the ability to produce intended effects.”

Or, power “is the process of affecting the policies of others.”

Power is “the ability to employ force.”

Power is “the ability to cause or prevent change.”

As journalists, we have a lot of power. And in journalism, another word for power is “impact.”

We sometimes talk around it, we may disguise it beneath objectivity, but what we do as journalists is use our power to influence and change society — for better or worse.

But power is infinite. Eric Liu writes about the three fundamental laws of power in his book, “You’re More Powerful than You Think.” The first is that power concentrates — as does powerlessness… as does impact. The second law is that power justifies itself; it creates narratives to explain why the people who currently have power should keep it.

Fortunately, there’s the third law. There is no limit on the amount of power citizens can generate.

Don’t just inform, don’t just engage — equip people to generate power. I’m going to repeat this a few times, so I want to unpack it.

Inform. 95 percent of journalism falls into this category. Journalists inform — we connect public interests to issues, context and analysis. We’re the first draft of history, the Fourth Estate and, often, the final word.

I say “impact” is another word for “power” because impact is the ability to produce intended effects. When your story prompts a pothole to be fixed or a financial audit of local government or the mayor to be fired for corruption or the president to be impeached—that’s traditional “impact.”

Let's talk about power (yours)

Engagement is a growing field in journalism that many of us practice. The core tenets of which can be described many ways but one of my favorites is that it builds relationships with “the people formerly known as the audience.”

Engagement can lead to a variety of positive outcomes like social media engagement, listener-driven questions, attendance at your events and new relationships between your newsroom and the public, among others.

Equipping, however, is about agency. It’s about providing access and opportunities for public participation and production. Equipping is about teaching and interconnected learning. It’s about exchanging skills and resource. It’s a redistribution of power between institutions and individuals.

And it scares the hell out of people in power.

I’ll offer a bit more definition here on what equipping is not. Equipping is not the same as empowerment because, much like the phrase “giving voice to the voiceless” assumes that people are voiceless, empowerment often assumes that people are powerless.

Equipping is recognizing that there is no cap on the amount of power people can create, recognizing the power people already have and providing access to resources that build power.

The difference here is key. With approaches that equip, your community causes the potholes to get fixed, the financial audit of local government and the mayor to be fired for corruption. And, in the process of equipping people to fill the role of watchdog, trust rooted in experience can be created between your newsroom and the public.

I’m proposing a more unified vision for journalism here. As journalists, we’re great at informing, we’re getting better at engaging, but we’ve got a long way to go toward equipping. But I believe journalism that strengthens democracy will do all three.

Don’t just engage, equip. But why equip?

One reason: Journalism that serves the public is great for democracy.

There is a growing body of evidence that the loss of newspapers — the decline in the availability of journalism — has disastrous, costly consequences. We need newspapers. We need investigations, we need to know when the supermarket opens in our neighborhood and we need to know exactly which line of the subway is closed during rush hour on a workday.

But we need more than stories.

We need citizens to be equipped to navigate the world around us. Because good journalism is great for democracy but a citizenry equipped to meet the challenges of democracy is necessary for democracy.

To maintain a role in that process, we need our communities to trust us. But there is ample evidence and reason as to why they don’t.

In January 2018, City Bureau partnered with the Center for Media Engagement to conduct a study of 900 Chicagoans on their perceptions of and relationship with local media. The results confirmed many of our suspicions.

Chicagoans on the South and West sides of our city were more likely to feel that stories about their neighborhood quote the wrong people.

People in these same areas were less likely to feel that news media does a good job of showing what’s going on in their communities.

And more than half felt that stories about their neighborhoods were too negative.

Here’s where it gets more interesting: the same people who were most likely to feel they weren’t being served by local media are exactly the same people who most want to get involved in local media.

That’s because there’s a growing thirst to participate — especially from those historically left out of the public narrative. Fortunately, there are emerging systems that have the potential to accommodate that thirst. Which brings us back to power.

In their book “New Power,” Henry Timms and Jeremy Heimans lay out the characteristics of old and new power.

On the left is what journalism looks like today: We represent people in public dialogue, we compete for clicks, we literally have our own definition for the word “exclusive” — and we’re the experts.

On the right — that’s what democracy looks like. At City Bureau we believe the future of journalism looks more like this. It’s made of networks, it’s collaborative, it practices radical transparency and it equips people to be makers.

This is how we democratize journalism.

We believe that journalism can be an act of citizenship — acts co-created with citizens — but if that’s going to be true, many more people will need to be involved.

New power equips people with the tools to build power. And journalists are more well-positioned than anyone to equip (i.e. Don’t just engage, equip).

So what does it look like to equip through journalism?

It looks like City Bureau’s Documenters Program in Chicago, which trains and pays everyday people to hold local government to account in collaboration with local journalists.

Or our Editor Office Hours, where our editorial director, Bettina Chang, provides story feedback, editorial advice and free resources to freelancers and local community members each week from the cafe next to our newsroom.

It looks like Detroit’s Outlier Media, which is using text messages to deliver service journalism on demand.

It looks like Public Access TV and community radio — like BRIC in New York City, PhillyCam here in Philadelphia and many, many others offering public access to broadcast equipment, media tools and physical space.

It looks like outlets that use crowdsource tools like DocumentCloud to get people involved in journalistic processes. And those that host public workshops to teach their readers about things like FOIA, pivot tables, data-sourcing and basic skills like using a mobile device as an accountability device.

This list goes on… but it doesn’t go on long enough.

Fortunately, inspiration and frameworks for informing, engaging and equipping are plentiful. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel. We need to reimagine local journalism.

From politics and government, we have the International Association for Public Participation spectrum, which begins with inform then goes through consult, involve, collaborate and ends with empower, which in their model is the greatest among each step in the process.

Equity advocates like Chicago United for Equity remind us to center the people directly impacted by our work when it comes to indirect impact and the experience of impact.

Community organizers have refined an asset- vs. deficit-oriented approach that can and should be applied to our work as journalists. This focus on the assets of communities — rather than its needs, deficits, or problems — is a shift in mindset that journalists can bring to their work on a daily basis when defining coverage.

From the civic tech space we have Erhardt Graeff’s “Empowerment-based Design Principles”: Be inclusive, give users agency, provide opportunities for reflection, tell stories with data and anticipate breakdown.

And from youth education we have the Chicago Learning Exchange’s “Connected Learning” model, which says that programs that prioritize interests, relationships and opportunities are those that connect learners for life.

You can clearly see the impact youth education has had on City Bureau’s work.

And, lastly, from Twitter: the Galaxy Brain.

At City Bureau, we believe that journalism is not fundamentally a profession or an industry; it’s an act of citizenship, and our role is not simply to inform the public but to equip people to access the information they need to strengthen their communities.

These are frameworks — and this is just a speech — but the work they represent is a proposal, a rough draft of a new contract between the press and the public.

Let’s reimagine local journalism, together.

Thank you.

Support City Bureau mission to democratize and reimagine local journalism by becoming a City Bureau Press Club member today.

If you’d like to run the design activity we tested at the 2019 Collaborative Summit, start by drawing the diagram below:

1. Think of a story you or your newsroom produced or plan on producing. Summarize this story in the first box (Inform).
2. Think of a way you could engage your community on it — add it to the second box (Engage).
3. Then think of a way you could equip your community with a skill or resource based on or rooted in that story—add it to the last space (Equip).
4. Lastly, write out the outcome — as in, if we do these things, X thing will happen (i.e. our community will have greater access with the skills to…).

Don’t Just Engage, Equip was originally published in City Bureau on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

WHO are you and what do you do?

I am Jenny Casas. I am a Chicago-based audio recorder and producer from California. And I love Chicago and that’s why I’m here.

HOW did you come to be a part of the City Bureau Community?

I was recording at a public radio station in St. Louis and I had this giant awakening for who I was supposed to be in this media landscape because I saw so many things I really didn’t like… so, I came to a City Bureau Public Newsroom and I met Darryl [Holliday, City Bureau co-founder]. And he was like, “You seem really great,” and we all got brunch and he was like, “We’re going to try to get you to come to Chicago.”

I was on a road trip in Louisiana and I was trying to figure out what I was going to do because I really didn’t like the station I was at, and he [Darryl] was like, “Come to Chicago, we want you to be a team leader for a fellowship cycle.” And it was the first time in my career that somebody had seen me and said, I see the potential in you and I know that you can do this. Like, I want to cultivate you to be the best version of yourself that you can be. And I have just never had that before… so I came straight to Chicago.

WHAT are you working on right now?

I am a team lead for the [current fellowship] cycle again. This is my third cycle. It’s been such a joy to be back because I feel like I am so much better than I was before. I am sitting in myself now and collaborating with my team members in a way that is not about ego. And so City Bureau has always been a central place for me to figure out where my power sits.

But I always end up back here. I think it’s extremely unique. I have never been in an environment like it before. And not because of the structure of the fellowship so much as the people that are involved and who is allowed to make decisions and what types of skill sets are important or valued.

WHAT is it about this space that works for you, next to those more traditional spaces?

Many parts. The first part is the foundational value; I think nobody comes into City Bureau thinking they can speak for other people… and if they do, it leaves them pretty quickly. I think two, the makeup of the space; I’ve never been in a newsroom where there are so many people of color, in big roles or little roles. The overwhelming whiteness of media spaces is so exhausting. Even just that makes a huge difference. And then a third part, it’s low pressure but high support. And that is what helps create really, really, wonderful content and this ability to focus on the process of reporting—which is what [reporting] is, and I think too many media outlets focus on the end product.

WHEN did you know you wanted to be a storyteller?

Maybe eighth grade. I had this idea of what made a journalist and that’s what I wanted to be. I loved these long, overly-writerly, magazine pieces. I wanted to be a longform magazine writer. I just remember feeling like it was a really good way to communicate information.

A big part of my mom’s side of the family doesn’t speak English and have various documentation statuses. There was information I wanted to communicate to them, and information from them I wanted to communicate to the outside world. Journalism seemed like a righteous way to do that information transfer. There was something about it that seemed very ethical.

WHERE are you now in your creative and/or professional life?

That’s a great question. I don’t know, I feel adrift in a lot of ways. But also, there’s a lot of solidness that I didn’t have last year. I feel like I have my tool kit, now where am I going to go build? I have all the materials I just don’t know, where am I going to set down the house? It’s nice in some ways because I get to choose the projects I want to work on as a freelancer and that feels really positive.

WHY do you believe an equitable and inclusive approach to storytelling is important?

Our connections to communities are stronger when our sources feel like they are collaborators more than people who are being picked on. It’s undeniable that journalism is going through this tumultuous crisis: Who are the power brokers and why do people get all of their news from x, y and z news outlets? I think journalists too often get into this idea that they are giving a service to somebody—that they are the keeper, the one who decides what gets disseminated. And if we are not constantly questioning, why am I the person who gets to hold the microphone? Then we’re actually not serving anybody. I think I still believe that journalism is a service and I always try to push myself and my work to be in service of the public

Support City Bureau’s network of community builders by becoming a City Bureau Press Club member today.

Between Friends: Jenny Casas was originally published in City Bureau on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

WHO are you and what do you do?

I’m Felicia Holman, director of Links Hall’s Performance Rental Program, also known as the Linkage Partnerships program. I’m a native Chicagoan, a freelance interdisciplinary artist/facilitator and a co-founding member of Chicago’s Honey Pot Performance. In each of my “artrepreneurial” roles, I create, support and present innovative interdisciplinary art which centers community & critical thought.

HOW did you come to be a part of the City Bureau Community?

Through my work at Links Hall over the past couple years, specifically [fostering] racial and cultural equity in Chicago’s arts media coverage, I was the guest presenter for Public Newsroom #59 on problematic art reviews. I’ve also [supported] other City Bureau events such as the Office Warming Party, the Soap Box Ball and their first Documenters Summit.

WHAT modes/ mediums do you use to tell stories you think need to be told? What are you working on right now?

Conversation, writing (primarily essays) and performance, also known as “embodied storytelling.” At Links Hall, I’m working on transitioning from Communication Director into my new role as rental director and lead programmer of the organization’s 41st performance season. In my solo artistic practice, I’m in grant and residency submission mode for a project that unpacks the interpersonal experiences & narratives of a Gen X-er Black woman who was homeschooled on Chicago’s South Side. In my freelance lane, I’m guest blogging and facilitating workshops on varied topics, from audience development to masturbation.

WHEN did you know you wanted to be a storyteller?

Well, let’s see, I was born dancing; started reading at age two; started journaling at six; grew up watching programs like Masterpiece Theater, Great Performances and the Clio Awards on PBS. I wrote a short mystery, versus taking an entrance exam, for admission into my private middle school. Was a mainstay on my high school’s scriptwriting and drama and dance teams and won a Performance of Literature award in college. Post-college is when I decided to pursue storytelling as a career path.

WHERE are you now, in your creative and/or professional life?

I’m transitioning professionally into my new role as lead programmer of Links Hall’s 41st season. Artistically, I’m submitting applications for the development and presentation of my solo writing and performance project. As a freelancer, I’m blogging and presenting and actively seeking opportunities to do more of both.

WHY do you believe an equitable and inclusive approach to storytelling is important?

Because, bottom line, everybody has a story to tell and we’re too late in human history, especially in the arts and media, for the powers that be to continue to not honor this fact! Agency, autonomy and mobility are sacred quality-of-life pillars to me: Diversity, equity and inclusion is essential to my own interdisciplinary creative practice and to my intersectionally marginalized creative community’s [practice] as well.

Support City Bureau’s network of community builders by becoming a City Bureau Press Club member today.

Between Friends: Felicia Holman was originally published in City Bureau on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

One hundred years after Illinois’ deadliest race riot exposed how news media can exacerbate racial conflict, City Bureau is drafting a campaign to learn from past wrongs and ensure more equitable media for the future.

On April 4, 2019, we partnered with Chicago’s Newberry Library for our 102nd Public Newsroom about news coverage of the 1919 riots and what, if anything, has changed in today’s media. An intergenerational group of nearly 100 people from across the city gathered at our South Side newsroom to hear from myself (City Bureau co-founder and News Lab Director); Ethan Michaeli, author of The Defender: How the Legendary Black Newspaper Changed America; and Angela Ford, founder and executive director of the Obsidian Collection. More importantly, they stayed for guided, small group conversations on local news and information.

In their groups, attendees crafted 30 declarative sentences to describe their thoughts and feelings for what equitable local news should look like based on their lived experiences and in-person conversations. These “declarations” got us off to a great start (see below for more), but we think more people should have the opportunity to draft a new contract for local news.

In May our Public Newsroom team will host two more free, public “Local News Contract” conversations that follow up on discussions at past Public Newsroom events and a piece I wrote in June 2018, “Reframing the Monitorial Citizen: A New Contract for News Media.”

“A new contract is needed: a commitment that reframes the traditional consumer-producer relationship into one of co-creation, with journalists and communities working together to produce this essential public good…The new contract between journalists and the public will frame journalism as an act of citizenship rather than an entity for and separate from citizens.”

Each workshop will be on a different side of the city, partnering with a different local outlet as a beginning to shape this contract. We want the Public Newsroom to be a space where residents across the city can reimagine local news and put those ideas into action, either individually or as coordinated campaigns.

Read on to see how we arrived at our first event campaign, after more than 100 civic media workshops, by way of the race riots that irreparably altered our city.

Listen to the livestream, see our slideshow, explore our resource list and see our first set of declarations here.

Can’t make it to one of out Local News Contract events? Ready to weigh in now? Add your declaration for local news below and we’ll add it to our list.

Remembering Chicago’s 1919 Riots

On July 27, 1919, a 17-year-old Black boy named Eugene Williams was swimming with friends in Lake Michigan when he crossed an unofficial barrier between the city’s “white” and “Black” beaches. Eugene was floating on a railroad tie when a white man began to throw rocks at him and other boys to drive them away from the beach. Eugene was struck in the forehead and drowned.

The ensuing riots escalated when police refused to hold white attackers accountable at the beach, instead they chose to arrest a Black man. The riots lasted nearly a week, spreading from the beach around 29th Street across what was, at the time, Chicago’s Black Belt.

Thirty-eight people died and over 500 were injured when white Chicagoans beat, shot and burned Black bodies, pulling people from cars, homes and public spaces. Today, we can see the riots in the context of what was happening nationwide: Chicago’s riots are considered the worst of the “Red Summer,” when race riots spread across the country in at least 25 cities. In Chicago, the riot came from a confluence of racial factors, including the white supremacist backlash to the rapidly rising Black population; an influx of returning veterans from World War I which created competition for political power, housing and employment; police inefficiency leading to unpunished crimes against Black Chicagoans; and news media lies about urban crime, according to former NAACP leader Walter F. White, who wrote about the riots in October 1919 for The Crisis magazine.

Local mainstream newspapers—owned and run by white people—often exacerbated racial tensions and sided with white perpetrators. In White’s words, “many wild and unfounded rumors were published in the press, incendiary and inflammatory to the highest degree.”

Today: Coverage Is “Biased, Racist and Unfair”

News ethics have no doubt improved over the years, but journalism’s racist past has not yet been exorcised, as presenters showed during our Public Newsroom.

Instead of scandalous headlines demonizing non-white communities, stories use coded language and editorial decisions stem from racist practices that have never been critically examined. We see it in recurring reports of “wilding” that criminalize youths of color in public spaces; we see it in visuals, like mugshots — typically sent directly from police stations to newsrooms ahead of judicial convictions — that depict a skewed view of local crime; and we see it in the makeup of newsrooms that are disproportionately more white than the communities they cover, ensuring a single, dominant narrative remains uninterrogated in newsrooms.

At City Bureau’s Public Newsroom event, we used the digital tool Mentimeter that allowed every attendee with a smartphone to reply to prompts and polls then display results in real time.

Among all respondents, 34 percent hailed from Chicago’s South Side, 34 percent were from the North Side, 9 percent from the West Side and 22 percent from the suburbs and out of town.

We asked attendees to describe local, race-related reporting in three words. The top responses were “biased,” “racist,” “unfair,” “incomplete” and “uninformed.”

When asked how much reporting on race has changed since 1919, 55 percent of responders said it has only changed “somewhat,” with 8 percent saying it hasn’t changed at all and another 8 percent saying it has changed a great deal.

Audience Feedback: Local News Needs…

After unpacking the above, we directed attendees into small groups to discuss how they’d reimagine local news with regard to race. Each of the 10 groups was to produce three “declarations” with prompts such as:

• What can newsrooms do to improve coverage of Chicago communities?
• What code of ethics should newsrooms operate on?
• What should the demographic make-up of a Chicago newsroom be? Should local newsroom reflect local demographics?
• What are the historical facts we need to acknowledge when considering reporting as it relates to race?
• How and why should newsrooms engage with the public?

We offered some suggestions on how to begin a declaration:

• “We expect local newsrooms to . . .”
• “In the past local news has ______; In the future local news must ______.”
• “News needs…”
• “Information should be…”

We asked each group to open up with introductions — no small thing in a room full of strangers, but part of creating a “brave space” means getting uncomfortable, and we found our guests were willing to follow us on the journey. Then participants drafted ideas by sharing experiences and talking through topics.

We broke into 10 groups formed around five issues: local news coverage, newsroom hiring, journalistic ethics, community engagement and historical reckoning. Here are some of the results:

“We expect local reporters to be more accessible at the hyperlocal level.”

“When covering marginalized groups and people, local news shouldn’t be afraid to let them propose solutions to the problems they are facing. Too often, news features let real people tell stories about their own suffering, then pivot to experts to propose constructive solutions. People living inside problems are often the best experts on those problems.”

“We expect diversity and representation to be prioritized throughout every level of leadership.”

“Transparency in funding is essential for building ethical newsrooms.”

Produce “more multi-lingual reporting.”

“Hire LOCAL contributors and writers.”

“We would like local news to foster communities”

Read a full list of declarations here.

What’s Next?

We’re starting off with the 30 declarations created by Chicagoans at our newsroom, but we’re not stopping there. On May 23 we’ll continue the conversation in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood in collaboration with Austin Weekly News and in Back of the Yards with The Gate Newspaper on May 30, culminating in an actionable Local News Contract project based on input from news constituents across Chicago.

Sign up for our twice-a-month newsletter for event RSVPs, updates and outcomes.

Support City Bureau’s work to reimagine local news by becoming a City Bureau Press Club member today.

What’s in Your Local News Contract? was originally published in City Bureau on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

By Emeline Posner, Camille Powell, Janaya Greene and Sarah Conway

This spring, City Bureau is examining disparities in maternal and infant health in Chicago. While maternal mortality rates declined across other developed nations, it is on the rise in the U.S. According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, more women die from pregnancy-related conditions today in the U.S. than any other developed country.

The racial equity gap in maternal mortality is stark: Black women across socioeconomic lines are around four times as likely as white women to die in childbirth. In Illinois, Black women are six times as likely to die of pregnancy-related conditions compared to white women, and 70 percent of those deaths are preventable, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

We visited two neighborhoods on Chicago’s West Side — Green Tomato Café and Nichols Tower at Homan Square North Lawndale and Bridge Café and the Kedzie Green Line “L” stop in Garfield Park — to talk with residents about maternal wellness and what issues mothers are facing during pregnancy and birth.

What is your current knowledge about maternal health? What else do you want to know?

“I think that maternal care is really vital and important. I have three kids of my own, and it’s definitely something that should be offered and available for every woman.” — Trishanna Rosevurr, 23, Garfield Park

“Currently, on a national scale, our maternal health system is trash. It doesn’t really care for the woman or the child. It is more about money. For me, my biggest issue with it is that maternity leave isn’t present for every job, and that’s just terrible that some women are forced to go back to work so quickly after giving birth. Also, the birthing techniques used in our country are not conducive to a healthy birth experience always and they are used so that doctors can get paid. For example, scheduling c-sections around a doctor’s vacation when it isn’t necessary. God equipped us to give birth naturally with what we already have. We don’t need all these procedures necessarily. I don’t have kids of my own but I am over cynical about it because it isn’t great.” — Jenna Artis, 27, Albany Park

“I love the work that [Black doulas] do, and it is definitely needed and necessary. Basic hospital visits can become mundane, and work, and a doula helps with being patient, understanding and gracious toward her clients. I love the work and if it puts mothers at ease then I am all for it. I wasn’t surprised at all that Black women have higher maternal mortality rates because there are systems in place that are oppressive towards people of color. It happens in incarceration and in schools, so when I heard about it in maternal health I wasn’t surprised at all.” — Jasmine Sims, 28, Garfield Park

“I have heard that it is easier for women to get health care when they are pregnant. There is more offered. I think that it is good but it is all about whether the person wants to get it or not.” — Bianca Turner, 34, Garfield Park

“[I want to see] more of putting doctors’ names out there … Like midwives, they tell you, ‘She specializes in this, this, this.’ [Doctors] don’t do that at hospitals.” — April Robinson, 38, North Lawndale

Where would expecting mothers go to get maternal care in the area or nearby? Where do they give birth?

“Cook County… and they got the center right here, too — the Lawndale Christian Health Center. A lot of girls go there to have their babies.” — Hazel, 54, Homan Square

“They go to the hospital because of this pipeline knowledge that that is where you are supposed to go. People don’t know there are other options like birthing centers, midwives or doulas.” — Jenna Artis, 27, Albany Park

“My kids go to the doctor here and bring their kids to the doctor here [Lawndale Christian Health Center]. My first daughter that had her baby, she was going to St. Anthony’s at the time. But all their appointments are here for the doctor or whatever. My second daughter was always going here. I didn’t really have any concerns. This is where my sisters, my kids and the majority of the people I know come to.” — Zarina Stroger, 45, North Lawndale

“Rush is fine, but when I had a Medicaid and was going to Mount Sinai I feel like it was a rush. They diagnosed me like, bam!, and that’s it, bye. My daughter’s face had broken out really bad one time and I feel like they diagnosed her too fast, then it got worse and we had to go back again. I think they didn’t take their time with it at Mount Sinai.” — April Robinson, 38, North Lawndale

“It [home birth] was comfortable. The [Mount Sinai] hospital wasn’t comfortable. I could move around in my bed the way I wanted to. I didn’t know I was that far along in labor. I could move around, I could stretch out, but when you’re in the hospital you kinda can’t.” — April Robinson, 38, North Lawndale

“[I would expect pregnant women to get care from] the hospital… I was born at [Advocate] Bethany. And I would say Stroger’s, too.” — Brian Blake, 51, Garfield Park

What health issues do expecting mothers face? Who is best to solve those issues?

“I had postpartum [depression] with all of my children. I sought treatment and found that Zoloft helped tremendously.” — Trishanna Rosevurr, 23, Garfield Park

“In complicated births, it is a question of whether the mother will survive or the child will survive. Some people may be dealing with the stress of what they eat, or the stress of work, or relationships, or just life. Financially a lot of people are struggling. I read a survey about how millennials will have fewer children because of the financial burden that we have. I couldn’t imagine being pregnant right now. I know some people turn to the state for help but that only goes so far and often doesn’t cover your full needs.” — Jenna Artis, 27, Albany Park

“I think it is based on people’s personal health issues, but I think people best equipped to solve them are doctors and women. Maybe even some people who aren’t necessarily doctors but midwives. Doctors go to school and they are trained but my dad always said it is “practicing medicine for a reason.” We should look at other countries and see how they do things to really make a change. For the most part, however, your body knows. We need to listen to women because giving all your power to doctors is a dangerous position to be in.” — Jasmine Sims, 28, Garfield Park

“People use the public aid office. There are WIC (Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children) and Department of Human Services (DHS), and some of the clinics, but nowadays if you don’t have insurance you might be unfamiliar with the medical system. Some women will wait all the way to the end instead of being proactive. It depends if you have help or support. If you don’t know, you won’t grow.” — Bianca Turner, 34, Garfield Park

“I had good health. My sister, her kidney failed when she had her pregnancy. Now she’s on dialysis. It started after her pregnancy.” — April Robinson, 38, North Lawndale

“With the women I’ve known, it would probably be they had issues with their eating habits … and it was hard for them to change their habits. They couldn’t get the diet that they wanted or needed.” — Brian Blake, 51, Garfield Park

“I know, I believe there’s [something[ called preeclampsia. I know there’s postpartum[depression]. I know there’s sometimes issues with the pregnancy. I know that there’s a lot of changes the body undergoes. You know when you’re having the baby, you can have constipation, it could be like normal things. I know it’s a difficult situation, it’s not necessarily an easy pregnancy for everyone.” — Jennifer Quinn, 43, Berwyn

Do you feel represented when you go to your health care provider?

“Yes and no. I feel like I am represented on an emotional scale, but often things they prescribe are for their financial gain and that upsets me. For example, it could be a prescription that I don’t really need but my use of the drug will benefit them in some way. It’s like, if we can sell that prescription to her. That’s just upsetting because it isn’t about my health entirely anymore but your profit.” — Jenna Artis, 27, Albany Park

“I think here at Lawndale Christian I do [feel represented].” — Jasmine Sims, 28, Garfield Park

“Not at Mount Sinai but at Rush I do [feel represented]. It’s a lot of African-American physicians at Rush Hospital, more than I ever seen at Mount Sinai.” — April Robinson, 38, North Lawndale

“Yeah, I do… I feel like for now, the knowledge I have, I feel fine, like they would do a good job, helping me through those decisions.” —Jennifer Quinn, 43, Berwyn

Where do you go for more information or news on this topic or community information in general?

“I’d go online for that. And I read the paper… the Sun-Times.” — Hazel, 54, Homan Square

“I’d go to my doctor’s office [at Lawndale Christian Health Center], or else research online. I Google everything.” — Trishanna Rosevurr, 23, Garfield Park

“I’m not sure. I would probably Google search and see what comes up, and try to find as much information as possible and maybe look to popular news outlets. Honestly, I don’t know much about my community outside of elections. I was thinking about that the other day because my sister just gave birth. If I was in that position, I would want to do an at-home water birth. I have no idea even where to begin to look for that information. I’m grateful I’m not pregnant now because looking for that information is intimidating, to begin with.” — Jenna Artis, 27, Albany Park

“I trust my friend who is a doula, so I would just listen to what she says.” — Jasmine Sims, 28, Garfield Park

“It’s easy to do your research if you know how to, but if you are unaware and you don’t know some of the details it can be difficult. It all depends on your mind frame.” — Bianca Turner, 34, Garfield Park

“We pretty much always got our information from Lawndale Christian, the little pamphlets they have on the wall and stuff like that. At the clinic up the block, it’s like they really wasn’t knowledgeable about stuff. I’d ask them something and they really didn’t know theyself so you really couldn’t help me out.” — Zarina Stroger, 45, North Lawndale

“I go to [my job’s] union health and they refer me to other places. They’ll tell me different resources or what I can go to. What dentists I should go to and stuff like that.” — April Robinson, 38, North Lawndale

“Actually, [from my] family — it seem like the family people pick up more, and you can get as much [information] as you want. … I get my news from the television… I like Channel 9….or the radio, WGCI.” — Curtis Calhoun, 52, Southeast Side

“I’d probably go online [for more information]. I’ve always been a Sun-Times guy. [For community information] I probably get most of it through word of mouth.” Brian Blake, 51, Garfield Park

“That’s a really good question, I would assume their doctor, I don’t know if they’re asking girlfriends. I would get my information from reading a book or a doctor or a website or something.” — Jennifer Quinn, 43, Berwyn

Want more info about maternal and infant health? “The Cord: Resources for Modern Mamas” is a free text-message service from City Bureau reporters about pregnancy and motherhood on the West Side. Sign up here.

Support City Bureau’s reporting on topics like Black maternal health by becoming a City Bureau Press Club member today.

What’s the State of Maternal Care on Chicago’s West Side? was originally published in City Bureau on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

By Max Herman, Caroline Olsen and Youngrae Kim

On a recent Saturday this April, City Bureau’s photo team stopped by the Chicago Cultural Center to find out how people are feeling about photos in the news. Talking with both Chicago residents and visitors, we asked about the importance of captions, what images have had an impact on them and how they would like to see their community portrayed visually. We heard a lot of skepticism about the media as a whole and also some strong ideas of how neighborhoods can be represented in a more positive light.

Angel Ang, 27, Hong Kong

How do you feel Hong Kong is displayed in the news?

I feel like newspapers sometimes are controlled by the government so what you’re seeing is not really what happened or maybe there’s politics behind it… especially in China.

And do you feel like that affects how you value the photos you see?

Yes, definitely… photos speak more to what is actually happening.

If you were a photographer, how would you portray Hong Kong?

If you really want to show Hong Kong, I would show more local people because that’s the most real thing to do.

Daniella Antilla-Porter, 32, Uptown

What’s a photo that you saw in the news that you remember for whatever reason?

Probably one of the most impactful for me were some of the initial ones of Obama in the White House, especially bent over the desk in the Oval Office because it was such a historic moment, and I love the idea that I was part of that moment in history because, you know, I voted for him. So just that idea of being a part of something that is going to be talked about in every history book ever.

What do you think about photo representation of Chicago as a whole?

I think that it’s usually very idealistic. Especially of a life most Chicagoans don’t get to lead, like downtown life and the glamour of the tall buildings that most people don’t get to work in.

If you were representing Uptown as a photographer, what would you show?

I would probably try to capture some of the little shops along Broadway, because honestly, a lot of them are hiding gems and I like the idea that it may not look impressive but it is.

Rashid Chapeyama, 30, Ukrainian Village

What value do you put in photos when you’re looking at a news story?

I just think it’s capturing the true meaning behind that photo. Cause you know, with photos people can take things out of context. You never really know what’s really happening with that photo — there’s always multiple sides to a story than what they’re saying in an article or in the media.

Can you think of an image in the news that stood out to you from any neighborhood you lived in or that you called home?

I lived in [Pilsen] for four years and I remember moving to Chicago and every time I saw images of Pilsen in the media they were always negative… they all said there was lot of gang violence there. And I lived over there for four years and I didn’t see a whole lot of that — it was just a lot of families trying to make a living. And then now you see Pilsen as just gentrified. It’s a lot of 5-star restaurants, you know fancy stuff, but I just think if you’ve never been to Pilsen, you see images of Pilsen as just negative — like gangs, a bad neighborhood, low income and that sort of thing. But there’s a lot of culture and family.

So if you could see Pilsen portrayed differently, would you focus more on families?

It was my favorite neighborhood that I’ve lived in. There’s a lot of culture and families and kids there — a lot of schools and a lot of culture and history — more than any neighborhood I’ve been to. From looking at images of the neighborhood, you wouldn’t really get that I guess.

Jaida Croaker, 18, Fargo, N.D.

Can you think of a photo that stands out to you that you saw in the news recently?

You see so much every day that you’re desensitized to the amount of photos and politics and everything that the world throws at you that I don’t even remember.

Can you remember the last time you saw North Dakota represented in the news?

Usually it’s all crime rate stuff in North Dakota.

If you were a photographer representing your own community in North Dakota what would you show?

When you go from an area like Fargo, North Dakota, to Chicago, like you just notice the kindness and hospitality of people in North Dakota is so different as opposed to here. Not that people are mean here but, so much more standoffish. So I would show the kindness of the people and the outdoors and all the snow. I mean I wish there could be more positive portrayals instead of the media always focusing on the drama and the bad stuff.

Amy Luna Manderino, 53, Wood Dale, Ill.

Can you think of any really impactful image that you saw in any news story or feature story?

I thought of the recent picture of the mother being separated from her child at the border — Mexican border — which really sort of humanized that story. I think of stories of natural disasters where you can see the fires in California. I used to live in California so seeing that, I can really put myself in the story and really felt empathy for the people involved and I think it helps with humanitarian efforts as well.

I did have another comment about media: If it’s a scene of people being active, people being sporty or rescuing people, it’ll be men. And if it’s the arts or something pretty or something fashionable, it will be women. Like you really don’t see women rescuing people or in those strong pictures. And of course in a lot of the world, women are prohibited from doing those things, which is even more of a reason when women do do that, to feature it.

But it’s amazing to me how in our media we’re very conscious about being diverse. Like when we show men, we want to show all different kinds of men — we want show Black men and Muslim men — I call it the ‘rainbro’ because it’s different types of men. Or with women I call it ‘diverse sexy,’ which is diversity but ‘all women can be sexy’ instead of really challenging the gender roles and showing women doing what we would historically call masculine things and vice versa.

Another comment I wanted to say about captions — this is a big thing too. The media will show a picture of a crowd and they’ll say, “Egyptians.” Like during the Arab Spring, they would show these crowds and say “Egyptians” when the crowd was 95-percent male but when the crowd was 95-percent female, like when the Italian women were protesting against Berlusconi, it was “Italian women.”So it’s like the default citizen is still male. And [you should] point out the fact that females aren’t in public in these countries. I’ve traveled a lot in the world and it’s always horrific to me when I go to countries and then I get looked at very differently by the men because I am in public. So it’s something that I’ve experienced.

Rose Houston, 86, Rogers Park

How much do you value images when you’re reading an article?

I read the newspaper daily, cover to cover, and I watch a fair amount of television so the photos are important.

And what about the way Rogers Park is portrayed visually in the news. How would you like to see it portrayed differently?

Well Rogers Park has been named one of the outstanding places in the country to live. So I think we’re quite happy with the way we’re being portrayed right now. Now unfortunately we had a shooting, or a murder, in the neighborhood last year and that of course wasn’t good but we don’t have those that often and we’re thought of as a safe community.

So you don’t feel like there’s too many negative stereotypes associated with Rogers Park?

I don’t think so. It’s not a hot area. You probably don’t read about it as much as some areas but it’s just a good place to live. And to be honest I was very disappointed that my alderman [Joe Moore] did not make it [in his reelection campaign] because we had an excellent alderman.

Ray Feran, 29, Lakeview & Stephanie Mater, 29, Wicker Park

How much importance do you place on photo captions?

Feran: I don’t put a lot of emphasis in it. It can be harmful depending on the context. I just think that the journalist is then telling their own story with it. It could be out of context.

Mater: I don’t really read captions a whole lot. I guess I’ve looked at captions mostly for, like, data location, to make sure that I know what I’m looking at.

What neighborhood or town are you from and what was an example of a recent photo you saw that documented your community?

Feran: I live in the Lakeview, and I’ve seen pictures of the newly elected mayor. That was powerful and exciting to see.

Mater: I’m in Wicker Park. I used to live in Logan. So I get this isn’t like recent but I liked seeing the before and after pictures of those neighborhoods as they’ve been redeveloped.

Considering news photos that you have seen of your community, how would you portray your neighborhood differently?

Feran: In terms of just seeing photos of the newly elected mayor, just seeing more excitement and joy of celebrating the diversity of our city.

Mater: I feel like the photos, at least at the northwestern neighborhoods, usually tell the same specific story of yuppies coming and changing the neighborhood or what new businesses are opening or what’s closed because of that. So I guess maybe getting more in terms of like the community that’s always been there versus the new entrants.

Kevin Smith, 25, Logan Square

How much importance to do you put on the captions that go with the photos?

Usually the captions add a lot of context to the images that I’m looking at and sometimes I don’t have enough time to look at or read up on anything so the caption and the photo is all I have to make a quick judgment on what it is I’m looking at.

Can you think of an example of a really impactful photo you saw that was in correlation with a story?

Being younger during 9/11, the iconic images of the Twin Towers being hit by the airplanes and then being mass produced in newspapers and throughout the media — that’s been pretty impactful. It’s the only one I can think of off the top of my head.

Can you think of an example of a photo from your neighborhood and what you saw and how that documented your community?

I haven’t really seen too many photos or images of Logan Square recently to be able elaborate any more than that.

But if you had a say in how Logan Square was represented to you, how would you like to see it portrayed visually?

Visually, some of the smaller and surrounding neighborhoods in Logan Square, some of the things not necessarily off of Milwaukee Avenue and the smaller neighborhoods — the blue collar-ness of the people that are still working there.

Support City Bureau’s reporting on topics like building neighborhood narratives by becoming a City Bureau Press Club member today.

What Value Do Photos Have in Everyday News Consumption? was originally published in City Bureau on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

by Malik Alim, Jenny Casas, Juanpablo Ramirez, Irene Romulo

In 2016, the Archdiocese of Chicago decided to reconfigure six Pilsen churches. News was delivered to parishioners that St. Ann would be merging with St. Paul and Providence of God with St. Procopius. It was also announced that St. Adalbert, which needed millions of dollars worth of repairs, would be closing down. The Archdiocese cited demographic changes in the area, decreasing Mass attendance and a lack of priests as reason for these changes.

These churches are only a few blocks away from each other. Still, long-time parishioners are committed to their churches and remain upset that the archdioceses decided to scale back the six churches to three in 2016

Most services at these churches have stopped, but Sunday Mass is still celebrated at St. Adalbert’s where parishioners have staged a legal battle against the Archdiocese to save the church. St. Procopius still holds regular service and also runs a dual-language elementary school as well as a food pantry for people experiencing homelessness. Similarly, St. Pius continues to hold regular services, a school and a variety of social service programs for the community.

We went out to St. Pius, St. Adalbert and St. Procopius to talk to community members about their fondest memories of these churches, their thoughts about the closures and the changing demographics in Pilsen.

See below for a transcription of the audio piece.

Support City Bureau’s reporting on topics like neighborhood change by becoming a City Bureau Press Club member today.

Irene (City Bureau): Cuál es su nombre?
Rafael Viera: Rafael Viera
Dolores Sullivan: Dolores Sullivan

Irene (CB): And your age again?
Dolores Sullivan: 79

Juanpablo (CB): Cuál es su nombre?
Teresa: Teresa

Juanpablo (CB): Y cuánto tiempo llevas en la comunidad?
Teresa: Recién desde el 2000. Pero anterior de eso vivía yo aqui en Chicago

Irene (CB): What’s your name?
Carlos: Carlos
Irene (CB): Do you live in Pilsen?
Carlos: Yeah, I do.
Irene (CB): How long?
Carlos: Probably about 20-plus years

Virginia Mendoza: Virginia Mendoza
Irene (CB): Usted vive acá en Pilsen?
Virginia Mendoza: Si, tengo 8 anos de vivir aquí, y 8 años de estar viniendo a mi iglesia de San Procopio.

Lupe Hernandez: My name is Lupe Hernandez, I’m 61 years old — I’ve been living in Pilsen for about 51 years.

— music out —

Teresa: Pues este, que los sacerdotes tienen que dar más servicio porque quieren que los laicos están haciendo todo. Y el sacerdote pues casi ni lo vemos. Y yo no sé porqué. Porque ellos son los que deben dirigir a toda la comunidad. Y no los ayudantes, o los laicos.

Dolores Sullivan: Well, there’s not enough people. So it doesn’t, we don’t even have our own priest anymore.
Irene (CB): Oh, I didn’t know that.
Dolores Sullivan: No, so we have visiting priests. And we have, we are combined with St. Paul, it’s that way. You can see the twin towers. So, there’s not enough priests. That’s, well, that’s one big problem why there’s- churches are closing because we don’t have the priests to run them.

Irene (CB): Ha notado usted algunos cambios en Pilsen en los últimos años?
Rafael Viera: Sí, sí que todo lo modernizaron, ya no hay gangas. Está bien, hay muchos restaurantes, hay mucho güero. También los güeros traen problemas pero no, no igual que nosotros los Mexicanos.

Lupe Hernandez: And now, you know, they look at us like we’re the visitors, that’s what I’m saying.
Juanpablo (CB): Who’s they?
Lupe Hernandez: I mean all the white people. They look at us like, you know, what’re we doing here. Like, little by little, like, they sneak in at night or something like that. The next morning you see more and more of them, you know.

Carlos: So, like I pretty much grew up in a Catholic church.
Irene (CB): How did you find out that they were going to close them down and what did you think about that?
Carlos: Knowing that so many churches closed down is just like, it just pushes a lot of people. Like I don’t agree with the fact that it’s pushing a lot of people out from the community to go to other churches which they’re more comfortable with, but at the same time if, you know, they can’t financially support it to keep it up, you know, I mean you can’t do nothing but close it down.

Asia: I have, first of all I never forget how I open door this church and I can’t even breathe. I am travel everywhere and I saw so many churches and I stopped breathe. How people not take care this church? How Chicago is a city not thinking what kind history we have? Not just only the Polish people, Mexican people, Irish people etc., etc., etc.

Lupe: What is it? Sixteenth place by Paulina, I don’t know why they closed that one down. Now they’re sending everyone to St. Paul’s or over here to Providence of God. You know people are used to going to that church, you know? That’s the church they’ve been going to, you know, even their kids. And now they gotta go somewhere else. They don’t really feel comfortable I don’t think, going somewhere else. It’s just like they gotta go out their neighborhood now. It’s still Pilsen but it’s you know, couple of blocks away and stuff. It’s still not the same.

Virginia: Pues yo le pido a Diosito que siempre nos ayude para tener nuestra santa casa. Qué es lo único que tenemos para vivir felices y contentos. Y que la paz del señor esté con todos aquí en Pilsen y en el mundo entero. Gracias Dios.

What Happens When Churches in Pilsen Close? was originally published in City Bureau on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.