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BOOKS
Inclusive anthology 'Halal' launches at Poetry Foundation
The Poetry Foundation was packed the night of April 11 for the book launch of Halal If You Hear Me, a collection of poems and essays by Muslims who are women, queer, genderqueer, non-binary or trans. ...
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Sheridan discusses workplace training and new book
Vanessa Sheridan, who is Center on Halsted's director of gender equity and inclusion, frequently gives public trainings about the transgender community. Sheridan's goals, she tells her audiences, are twofold: "The first is to give the best, ...
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Monica Helms discusses trans flag creation, new book, activism
In 2005, transgender U.S. Navy veteran Monica F. Helms started writing her autobiography, but eventually she set it aside, deciding that "my life was still continuing." "Last year, something in my head told me I needed ...
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BOOKS Chris Rush looks back on 1970s adolescence in debut memoir
Chris Rush was a closeted Catholic 12-year-old when he took his first tab of LSD. "My older sister introduced me to [drugs] at a very young age," the author of The Light Years said via phone ...
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BOOKS Inclusive anthology 'Halal' launches at Poetry Foundation
The Poetry Foundation was packed the night of April 11 for the book launch of Halal If You Hear Me, a collection of poems and essays by Muslims who are women, queer, genderqueer, non-binary or trans. ...
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BOOKS Queer scholar profiles Chicago house music
When Micah E. Salkind was a teenager in Kansas, he found the music that would change his life. "I went to raves and would hear Chicago house music," said the queer scholar, whose first book Do ...
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BOOK REVIEW Dugan's Bistro and the Legend of the Bearded Lady
By Owen Keehnen $17; Out Tales Publishing; 148 pages Bob Theiss contained multitudes—most under a completely different name. Known as the Bearded Lady ( or BL ) to gay Chicagoans of the 1970s and early '80s, ...
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BOOK REVIEW She He They Me: For the Sisters, Misters and Binary Resisters
By Robyn Ryle $22.99; Source Books; 400 pages Imagine being a young, queer or curious child with a lot of questions, but not a lot of resources on gender, sexuality, and terminology that come without judgement ...
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Library foundation president named
The Chicago Public Library Foundation ( CPLF ) announced that Brenda Langstraat is its new president. Langstraat comes to the Library Foundation after seven years as CEO of Working in the Schools ( WITS ). WITS ...
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Women & Children First marks 40 years with 20 best-sellers
Turning the page, Women and Children First ( W&CF )began its 40th anniversary programming with a panel discussion on March 24. People gathered into the store to see the panel, which featured W&CF co-founders Ann Christophersen ...
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BOOKS Trans author talks 'layered identity' in new memoir
"I wanted to be two things when I grew up: a writer and a boy." Life has never been easy for Nate Cannon. Diagnosed with major depression and bipolar disorder at 12 years old, the trans ...
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BOOK REVIEW Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls
By T Kira Madden $27; Bloomsbury Publishing; 304 pages Anyone who came of age in the late 1990s and early 2000s knows the name Steve Madden. Trendy and chunky, the shoes were lusted after by many ...
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BOOK REVIEW Dugan's Bistro and the Legend of the Bearded Lady
By Owen Keehnen $17; Out Tales, Publishing; 148 pages Bob Theiss contained multitudes—most under a completely different name. Known as the Bearded Lady ( or BL ) to gay Chicagoans of the 1970s and early '80s, ...
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Clarence Darrow Symposium in Chicago on March 13
CHICAGO—The annual Chicago tradition marking the anniversary of the death of famed Chicago attorney Clarence Darrow will take place Wed., March 13—and will mark the 95th anniversary of the Leopold-Loeb murder case, which raised profound and ...
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Gerber/Hart hosts Black Lesbian Archives stop
Kru Maekdo is a 26-year-old creative director, archivist, and artist. She is the owner of Maekdo Productions, a multimedia production and event programming company serving women's art's and community within the LGBTQ community. On Feb. 23, ...
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BOOKS Chicago author talks space opera, queer representation
Chicago author/Hollywood stuntwoman SL Huang ( author of the science-fiction novel Zero Sum Game ) has recently teamed with fellow authors Becky Chambers ( The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet ), Yoon-Ha Lee ( ...
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BOOKS Kimberly Dark's 'Daddies' issues
Writer and raconteur Kimberly Dark plucks the fig leaf off the patriarchy in her latest work. In The Daddies, writer and raconteur Dark excavates layers of man culture and custom that have saturated everyday life. As ...
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BOOKS Sissy Pride, Talking With Gender Activist and Author Jacob Tobia
Sissy: A Coming of Gender Storyis a smart, compelling, honest and very funny new memoir by Jacob Tobia. In the book, the activist, writer and co-producer/host of the MSNBC television series Queer 2.0 shares the personal ...
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SHOWBIZ Tyler Blackburn, Ellen Page, Isaac Mizrahi, Annie Lennox
Former Pretty Little Liars actor Tyler Blackburn recently talked with Entertainment Weekly about the same-sex relationship his character, Alex, has on the new CW show Roswell, New Mexico with extraterrestrial jaded genius Michael. In part, Blackburn ...
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Women & Children First March events include noted authors
Wednesday, March 6 at 7 p.m. Am I Man Enough? Storytelling Show & Podcast ( This is the rescheduled date due to the January weather cancellation. ) Am I Man Enough? is a storytelling show ...
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Five Worth Finding: Emotional book, Studio Three and more
—The Truth About Aaron: This book about the late football star/convicted murdered Aaron Hernandez, written by brother Jonathan, is a warts-and-all account of the sometimes brutal childhood Aaron had. Among other things, Jonathan discusses Aaron's talent, ...
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The Best Party of Our Lives: Stories of Gay Weddings
By Sarah Galvin $18.95; Sasquatch Books; 226 pages Your summer is filling up quickly. It starts with graduations and confirmations. You've already got a pile of "Save the Date" cards for a bunch of weddings, and ...
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NATIONAL Gay-club owner, HIV/AIDS news, Nashville feat, Roxane Gay
The proprietor of a gay nightclub in El Paso, Texas, is under fire for attending a rally in support of President Trump, then posting photographic evidence on his Instagram page, Yahoo! News noted. Johnny Alcantar—one of ...
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New biography details secret gay life of Eisenhower advisor
President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed Executive Order 10450 in April 1953, effectively banning gay people from working in the federal government. While thousands of gay men and women lost their jobs in what's now known as ...
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Symposium to explore Clarence Darrow's Leopold and Loeb defense 95 years ago
New two-location format, Wednesday, March 13
The annual Chicago tradition marking the anniversary of the death of famed Chicago attorney Clarence Darrow will mark the 95th anniversary of the Leopold-Loeb murder case, which raised profound and disturbing questions about social class, criminal ...
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Patricia Nell Warren, author of first gay novel on NYT Best Seller List, dies
LOS ANGELES - Patricia Nell Warren, age 82, died on Saturday February 9th at the UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica, California after a long battle with cancer. Warren is best known for her groundbreaking novel ...
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Library foundation president named
The Chicago Public Library Foundation ( CPLF ) announced that Brenda Langstraat is its new president. Langstraat comes to the Library Foundation after seven years as CEO of Working in the Schools ( WITS ). WITS ...
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Gerber/Hart Library History of LGBTQ Activism lecture and other dates
A four-part series of talks on the history of LGBTQ activism will be given by LGBTQ historian John D'Emilio on the four Thursdays of February, 6:30-8:00 pm at Gerber/Hart Library and Archives. The first talk, on ...
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Peter Shinkle, author of Ike's Mystery Man, Feb. 11 at Pritzker Military Library
Peter Shinkle, Ike's Mystery Man: The Secret Lives of Robert Cutler, is a view into the inner workings of the Eisenhower White House and the indispensable contributions and sacrifices made by patriotic gay Americans in the ...
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Women & Children First to host Chloe Benjamin, Anne Elizabeth Moore
Women & Children First is feeling the love this February at Women & Children First with two Valentine's Day event and a With Love from Andersonville supporting Chicago Books to Women in Prison. Feb. 14 through ...
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Northwestern authors launch new Black woman-centered titles
Just as Chicago's record-cold spell began to let up the evening of Jan. 31, community members filled Women & Children First Bookstore to standing-room-only capacity to launch books by Northwestern University scholars E. Patrick Johnson and ...
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BOOKS Chicago writer explores feminist accountability
One of the biggest struggles within activist movements is that they tend to emulate the institutions and power structures they are trying to change. For instance, within the feminist movement, organizations tend to be led by ...
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'Great Believers' author talks early AIDS crisis at Howard Brown event
AIDS affected many, including a budding young author home sick from school who was watching a Donahue episode featuring Larry Kramer. "I was 7 years old at the time the book starts," Rebecca Makkai said of ...
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Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Mary Oliver dies
Poet Mary Oliver—who wrote of nature and won a Pulitzer Prize—died at her home in Hobe Sound, Florida, from lymphoma, according to Deadline.com. She was 83. Oliver authored more than 15 poetry and essay collections, focused ...
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Gerber/Hart, Howard Brown to host 'Great Believers' discussion
On Wed., Jan. 16, 6-8 p.m., Howard Brown Health Clark and Gerber/Hart Library and Archives will host a discussion on The Great Believers with author Rebecca Makkai and Howard Brown Health President/CEO David Ernesto Munar, followed ...
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BOOK REVIEW Growing Up Queer
Growing up is hard. Most sentient adults would agree, and decline a chance to 'teen again; between changing bodies, mean girls, bullies and facing adulthood, it's enough to have endured it once. But for kids who ...
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DiFranco book out May 7
On May 7, Viking will publish No Walls and the Recurring Dream, a memoir from longtime singer/songwriter/poet/activist Ani DiFranco. According to a press release, "DiFranco is one of the most prolific indie artists of the last ...
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Johnson/Nash book release party Jan. 31
A joint book release celebrating E. Patrick Johnson's Black. Queer. Southern. Women: An Oral History and Jennifer Nash's Black Feminism Reimagined: After Intersectionality will take place Thursday, Jan. 31, at Women & Children First, 5233 N. ...
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Gerber/Hart seeks board members
The Gerber/Hart Library and Archives, 6500 N. Clark St., is seeking new board members in 2019, as a number of its current members are rotating off at the end of their terms, according to a press ...
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Novelist's fascination with history comes alive on stage
Novelist Emma Donoghue has had a long and rewarding relationship with Regency historical figure Anne Lister. Lister created a series of coded diaries that documented her love affairs with women while operating as part of the ...
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The Rest of It, Hustlers, Cocaine... 1976-1988
Parts of your life are missing. Maybe you've forgotten, purposefully or by accident. You were overwhelmed and didn't look, too influenced by love, anger, or adult beverages to take full notice. Sometimes, you wonder what's missing ...
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Gay couple talk relationship, new Oak Park bookstore
When gay couple Bill Fletcher and Don Moss moved from suburban Seattle to a 100-plus-year-old house in Oak Park, Illinois, six months ago, they brought thousands of books with them. There were so many books the ...
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Women & Children First bookstore events include Shout Your Abortion
Women & Children First Loves Chicago Books to Women in Prison Donation Drive January 2 through February 14 We're kicking off the new year by partnering with one of our favorite non-profits, Chicago Books to Women ...
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Best books of 2018
Everybody, it seems, has a best of 2018 List out for the year—best vacation, best TV shows, best movies, best place to eat. So here are the Absolutely Can't Miss, Don't Pass Them By, Wipe Your ...
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Book chronicles local gay disco scene
The new book Dugan's Bistro and the Legend of the Bearded Lady, by author/activist/grassroots historian Owen Keehnen, is a folklore-bio of the local disco era—a time that was key in the evolution of Chicago's LGBT community. ...
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BOOK REVIEW Ladies Lazarus
By Piper J. Daniels $16; Tarpaulin Sky Press; 128 pages Piper J. Daniels is many things: a Columbia College Chicago graduate, a Michigan native, a queer intersectional feminist, and a professional ghostwriter. Impressive bio and city ...
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Historian Batza talks gay clinics' origins at book launch
On Jan. 4, Women & Children First welcomed a standing-room-only crowd for the launch of Before AIDS, historian Katie Batza's book about gay health clinics in the early 1970s. Singles, couples and even children hung on ...
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Gary Sinise book event Feb. 18
Steppenwolf Theatre Company has announced a special event as part of co-founder Gary Sinise's book tour promoting his new book Grateful American: A Journey from Self to Service. Sinise will reflect on his book in a ...
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They, A Biblical Tale of Secret Genders
What if you could meet a secret society of welcoming misfits—omitted from patriarchal biblical history—just because they are not in keeping with gender norms? With They: A Biblical Tale of Secret Genders, author Janet Mason posits ...
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BOOK REVIEW The Pants Project
By Cat Clarke $16.99; Sourcebooks; 272 pages Mom said you're growing like a weed. It's true: you've outgrown your favorite sweater, your best shirt, and all your summer shoes. The only thing that fits is ...
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Dugan's Bistro and the Legend of the Bearded Lady
New book chronicles Chicago's early gay disco scene
Before Studio 54… Dugan's Bistro was the hottest gay disco in Chicago. From 1973-1982 the sign above the door and on the club's matchbooks read: "Dugan's Bistro, the Home of the Bearded Lady." A Chicago nightlife ...
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A Cradle Song Part Ten
by Mark Zubro; Illustrated by W.S. Reed
A Cradle Song, written by Mark Zubro and illustrated by W.S. Reed, debuts in the Windy City Times as the new holiday classic. Filled with travail and woe, warmth and great joy, it is a story ...
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Gerber/Hart unveils AIDS-awareness stamps
On Dec. 13, Gerber/Hart Library and Archives unveiled a new exhibit among its collection of LGBTQ historical records: Red Ribbon for AIDS awareness stamps. This marked the 25th anniversary of the stamps' circulation in the United ...
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Trans author talks 'gender outlaws,'prison breaks in novel
The New York Times called Jordy Rosenberg's debut novel, Confessions of the Fox, "[a] mind-bending romp through a gender-fluid, 18th-century London … a joyous mash-up of literary genres shot through with queer theory and awash in ...
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A Cradle Song: Part Nine
by Mark Zubro; Illustrated by W.S. Reed
A Cradle Song, written by Mark Zubro and illustrated by W.S. Reed, debuts in the Windy City Times as the new holiday classic. Filled with travail and woe, warmth and great joy, it is a story ...
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BOOK REVIEW Honor Girl/Lost Soul, Be at Peace
By Maggie Thrash $14.99; Candlewick Press; 267 pages ( Honor Girl ), $18.99; Candlewick Press; 190 pages ( Lost Soul, Be at Peace ) There is no loneliness like teenage loneliness. Even those who experienced their ...
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MOMBIAN's LGBTQ children's book gift guide
It's time for my annual roundup of some of this year's best LGBTQ-inclusive children's and middle-grade books! This is one of the first years when ( happily! ) there were more books published than I can ...
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BOOKS Thom Bierdz talks about sex, and a lot more, In 'Young, Gay & Restless'
In Young, Gay & Restless: My Scandalous On-Screen & Off-Screen Sexual Liberations, Thom Bierdz—an actor/artist/advocate who is probably best known for portraying heir Phillip Chancellor III on the daytime drama The Young and the Restless—literally lets ...
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Fiction round-up, LGBTQ+ YA fantasy
As winter blows into Chicago—and freezing temperatures with it—the temptation to curl up in front of the fire with a good book is strong. As the world burns with political dissent, the desire to escape to ...
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She Wants It
By Jill Soloway $27; Pegasus Random House; 241 pages Jill Soloway can tell a story. Celebrity memoirs are a dime a dozen, and often require one of two elements to be legitimately good reads: a specific ...
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A Cradle Song, Part Eight
by Mark Zubro; Illustrated by W.S. Reed
A Cradle Song, written by Mark Zubro and illustrated by W.S. Reed, debuts in the Windy City Times as the new holiday classic. Filled with travail and woe, warmth and great joy, it is a story ...
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Historians looking for survey participants
Writers/historians Sukie de la Croix and Owen Keehnen are collaborating on an upcoming project, tentatively called "Tell Me About It," and are looking for folks to answer 10 questions each. NOTE: Participants can sign their full ...
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Women & Children First Books plans holiday season events
The holidays have arrived at Chicago's Only Feminist Bookstore. Care for Real Toy Drive Nov. 30 to Dec. 14 Come support Care for Real, a wonderful local organization making a difference for families in our community. ...
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SHOWBIZ 'Handmaid,' Kristen Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Viola Davis
Margaret Atwood is currently writing a sequel to her best-selling dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale, TheWrap.com noted. Due out in September 2019 from publishers Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, The Testaments is set 15 years after Offred's final ...
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BOOK REVIEW Death Checks In
By David S. Pederson $18.95; Bold Strokes Books; 235 pages It's a nice little getaway. That's all you wanted: two days alone, just you and your amour, with nothing to do but follow your whims. ...
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Ripe. Letters, by Alan Semrow, seeks to redefine relationships
People live in a world of relationships. When one hears "relationship," that person may think boyfriend, spouse or girlfriend. Alan Semrow's latest book seeks to expand one's understanding of what a relationship actually is. Ripe: Letters ...
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Remembering Harvey Milk
Excerpt by Cleve Jones
Nov. 27 marked the 40th anniversary of the death of Harvey Milk. Below is an adapted excerpt friend and activist Cleve Jones sent to Windy City Times from Jones' book, When We Rise, to mark the ...
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Feminism meets coffee-table books in 'HERstory,' 'Revolution'
The Revolution is Female Author: Kristen Blush. $61; Blush; 128 pages Modern HERstory Author: Blair Imani, $17.99; Ten Speed Press; 208 pages What does Trump's America mean for feminism? For one, the rise of activism ...
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Howard Brown editors publish 'holistic' resource on TGNC health, aging
A new book edited by professionals from Howard Brown Health aims to make information on transgender and gender nonconforming people as they age more accessible to healthcare providers. Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Health and Aging, which ...
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WORLD Chinese writer, Nigeria suit, anti-trans attack, archbishop's statement
A Chinese author has been sentenced to 10 years in jail for writing and selling homoerotic novels, prompting backlash and comparisons to lighter sentences for more serious crimes committed in the country, like sexual assault, NewNowNext.com ...
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A Cradle Song, Part Seven
by Mark Zubro; Illustrated by W.S. Reed
A Cradle Song, written by Mark Zubro and illustrated by W.S. Reed, debuts in the Windy City Times as the new holiday classic. Filled with travail and woe, warmth and great joy, it is a story ...
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10 Questions with Vic Featuring Branden Wellington
As an Emmy Award-winning writer, the New York Mets' in-game host, or "Jarod Young" on Netflix's hit show Orange is the New Black, Branden Wellington's talents and accomplishments are vast and diverse, and he is just ...
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A Cradle Song: Part Six
by Mark Zubro; Illustrated by W.S. Reed
A Cradle Song, written by Mark Zubro and illustrated by W.S. Reed, debuts in the Windy City Times as the new holiday classic. Filled with travail and woe, warmth and great joy, it is a story ...
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Poet Marty McConnell to celebrate book launch at The Whistler
Chicago poet Marty McConnell's book when they say you can't go home again what they mean is you were never there, winner of the 2017 Michael Waters Poetry Prize from Southern Indiana University Press, was published ...
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Sukie de la Croix weaves real-life 'Fairy Tale'
Sukie de la Croix made such an indelible mark on Chicago's LGBTQ scene when he lived in the Windy City from 1991-2014 that the Chicago Sun-Times proclaimed him "The Gay Studs Terkel." During his time here, ...
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