The unsung legacy of Margaret Burroughs: ‘We called her mama’
Margaret Burroughs was a force to be reckoned with. An artist and a poet in Chicago from the 1920s until her death in 2010, she was also a teacher, an organizer, and the founder of the DuSable Black History Museum. Her birthday is November 1. Curious City and the Burroughs Legacy Project at the Invisible Institute tell the story of one of her lesser-known passions: educating people incarcerated in Illinois.
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Chicago is a jazz city, but where are the jazz radio stations?
The city is home to a vibrant jazz scene and the Chicago Jazz Festival. But WDCB is the only all-jazz radio station in the region. Why isn't there more jazz programming on the local radio dial?
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How a group of volunteers saved a rare Illinois wildflower
The Kankakee mallow is one of the rarest plants on the continent, according to the Smithsonian Garden in Washington D.C. It’s a pink flower that grows on tall stalks and is native to just one small island in the middle of the Kankakee River, about an hour south of Chicago.
But when botanist Rachel Goad paddled over to take a look back in 2014 with a group of native plant enthusiasts, instead they found an island overgrown with invasive honeysuckle.
Was this special native plant gone for good?
Perhaps, if not for the efforts of a small group of volunteers, initially led by conservationist Trevor Edmonson.
“Hearing the phrase that the Kankakee mallow only grows on this island — anywhere in the world, like that is the extent of its remaining natural habitat — is such a draw for anybody, especially someone early on in their career,” Edmonson said.
Today, reporter Claire Keenan-Kurgan from the Points North podcast at Interlochen Public Radio guides us on this floral rescue mission.
Points North is a podcast that tells great stories from the Great Lakes. For more stories like this one, go to pointsnorthpodcast.org.
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What’s that dead zone in the 19th Ward?
There’s a hole in the map of Chicago. It turns out, it’s a cemetery. But there are many other cemeteries in Chicago that don’t show up as holes on the map, so what’s up with this one? We take you to the 19th Ward and explore the history of this dead zone.
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The tale of the two-flat
You know the building: Two stories, an apartment unit on each floor, usually with bay windows and a facade of brick or greystone.
But how did the two-flat become so popular, and who was it originally built to serve?
In our last episode, we looked at the types of places Chicago’s single women lived in at the turn of the 20th century.
In today’s episode, we explore the Bohemian origins of the humble Chicago two-flat. As it turns out, the advent of the two-flat mirrors the development of the city’s middle class.
“Our design No. 144 is a two-family flat designed for a money making proposition,” begins a 1915 ad enticing homebuyers to build a two-flat. “Anyone wanting a comfortable home and at the same time a good income on the investment will do well to consider this proposition.”
Plus, we answer another housing-related listener question: why are Chicago fire escapes distinctively wooden (read: flammable) and are they actually effective during fires?
This episode was reported by Chris Bentley and was originally published in 2014.
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