Year: 2020

Berwyn Public Art Initiative (BPAI) and the City of Berwyn unveiled and dedicated a new mural that inspires hope and the vision for a world built on love, justice, and equity. The unveiling was held on Wednesday at City Hall in Berwyn. A team of 17 African-American and Latinx artists were hired to create a visual interpretation of takeaways and highlights collected from a series of community listening sessions hosted by BPAI in collaboration with the City of Berwyn. “I want to thank the Berwyn Mayor’s Office,” said Darryl E. Allen, Professor, The Mentorship Institute, “for being courageous enough to seek honest feedback from its Black and Brown citizens. Honest feedback is often difficult to hear.” Professor Allen’s work is guided by LaSierra University’s Center for Conflict Resolution and Dr. Frida Rundell at the International Institute for Restorative Practices (IIRP).  BPAI leverages public art to provide the community with perspective and ways to envision a better world.  For more information about the BLM mural project, please visit: https://www.berwynpublicartinitiative.org/blmmural

Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot and the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) announce the new Performing Arts Venue Relief Program to help performing arts venues which have lost significant revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Applications open this week, and the program will provide $10,000 grants to up to 120 for-profit and nonprofit Chicago-based performing arts venues who have been closed to performances. The 2020 City of Chicago Performing Arts Venue Relief Grants Program was created, with support from the Walder Foundation and the Arts for Illinois Relief Fund and in partnership with Accion, to support this critical arts and culture sector with the challenges they face from the pandemic. Eligible entities must be located in Chicago, have a PPA (Public Place of Amusement) or Music and Dance license, and primarily produce or present performing arts programming – including theatre, dance, performance art, and/or live music or live mixing by DJs. Complete eligibility criteria and applications are available at chicago.gov/artsvenuerelief. Completed applications must be received by October 23 for consideration and grants will be distributed on a lottery system to qualified recipients. 

Downtown Glen Ellyn is site of a new mural honoring artist Frida Kahlo. Work began Thursday, Sept. 24 on the 14-foot-high and 28-foot-wide mural gracing the wall of Olive ‘n Vinnie’s, located at 449 N. Main Street. The mural is scheduled to be completed later this week. The mural was designed by Glen Ellyn’s own Geoff Bevington and is being painted primarily by Bevington with some assistance by other artists and local residents, including children. The project is made possible thanks to the Village of Glen Ellyn, McAninch Arts Center, National Endowment for the Arts and Tim Elliott for their sponsorship of the mural. Bevington, a resident of Glen Ellyn, has pursued art, comics, design and mural painting as an avocation for nearly 35 years. He has painted more than 100 murals across the U.S. and France, most in support of literacy efforts as a 30-year member of Cartoonists Across America. Mural sizes have ranged from small paintings to the side of a 53-foot tractor-trailer that was painted in front of and in cooperation with the Library of Congress. For more information, visit www.frida2021.org.

Photo: Chip-Miller

By: Ashmar Mandou

Steadfast in her resolve to highlight the achievements and contributions of the Latino community across Chicago, award-winning ABC 7 News Anchor and host of The ñ Beat Stacey Baca serves as a torchbearer of positivity, resiliency, and compassion to so many across the city. Hailing from Colorado, Baca’s career spans decades of reporting on a wide range of stories: education, politics, military news, and immigration, among others from Virginia to California. Although this particular year brought on an array of challenges for several newsrooms across Chicagoland, Baca’s determination for empowering the Latino community through pertinent information never wavered. We sat down with Baca to discuss her love for journalism, her personal struggle during the Covid pandemic, and The ñ Beat.

Lawndale Bilingual Newspaper: The Latino community is so nuanced. It’s diverse, it’s vibrant, it’s multicultural, it’s dynamic. Do you ever feel the weight of the community on your shoulders?

Stacey Baca: I am so much a part of this community that I don’t even think about it in some ways. It is me and I’m it. I feel at home with the people around me. It’s how I was raised and that’s how I grow up. It’s my family and it’s the cultural values we all share. When I think about being a representative of the community, I just think about being me and I just try to be the best Stacey Baca I could be. It’s such a diverse world and in every single culture, no matter what part; maybe it’s South America, maybe it’s Central America, maybe it’s Mexico, maybe your roots are just last generation, or maybe five generations ago, you just take that influence of your life and do what’s absolutely best for it. I think about my own grandparents and how hard they worked on the fields, and how my grandfather worked on the railroads, and just the amount of work they had to do. I feel blessed to be in the situation where I am, and I feel extremely proud to call myself Latina because that’s who I am.

Lawndale Bilingual Newspaper: We all know COVID-19 impacted newsrooms across the country and posed many challenges. How were you able to deliver news that remained truthful and helpful to the Latino community?

Stacey Baca: I think about The ñ Beat and what the show coming up is doing. It’s highlighting the best of the best in our community and those are essential workers. Those are people who are, maybe more disenfranchised, and that’s what I love about this because we are the workers. We are out there doing the work. I have such tremendous respect for the Latino community because everyone knows that sometimes it’s not just one job, it’s two jobs, or three jobs, everyone in your household is working. Sometimes your abuelita is living with you, it’s multigenerational and I think our stories are sometimes different. For example, with the COVID impact, there are multi-generations living in the same house. If one becomes sick, all of us become sick, it’s a challenge. So what I’m trying to say is that it’s important to understand that the Latino community are essential workers, they are multigenerational, we are all in households where things are happening. We need to realize in this time, there are challenges to COVID-19, the mortality rates, the case rates that Latinos have gone through during this time. It’s really about being true to what those stories are and I think with the episodes coming up on The ñ Beat we do just that.

Lawndale Bilingual Newspaper: As we are in the midst of celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month, what does this time signify to you, especially during this year of challenges?

Stacey Baca: I think because of 2020, I think because there is a spotlight on what we do as a community, this is a special moment in time. It’s a challenging moment, it’s incredibly difficult. Yet, in these circumstances, how many people get up, go to work, and do those essential jobs from the Latino community? How many people get up and tackle what they need to do, making sure their kids are taken care of, making sure they are getting online for classes, and still doing the work that needs to be done? It’s the resiliency part that I look at and I think to myself, they’re resilient. We are very strong. We are resilient.

Town President Larry Dominick and the Town of Cicero Board of Trustees Clerk Maria Punzo-Arias, Supervisor Joe Virruso, Assessor Emilio Cundari, Collector Fran Reitz, and Trustees Larry Banks, Victor Garcia, Bob Porod and John Cava are proud to join Cicero Fire Chief Dominick Buscemi in announcing Cicero Fire Prevention Week Oct. 4 through Oct. 10, 2020 with a focus on preventing Kitchen Fires & Cooking Safety. “There is a need for the public to be careful while cooking. Kitchen accidents involving cooking are far too common but are preventable with caution and education,” said Chief Buscemi. “We’re asking the public to make this issue our awareness through this week to help reduce the number of accidents that take place in the kitchen. We all need to be aware.” Based on annual averages:

• Cooking equipment is the leading cause of home* fires and fire injuries, causing 49 percent of home fires that resulted in 21 percent of the home fire deaths and 45 percent of the injuries.

• Two-thirds (66 percent) of home cooking fires start with the ignition of food or other cooking materials.

• Unattended equipment is a factor in one-third (31 percent) of reported home cooking fires and half (48 percent) of the associated deaths.

• Thanksgiving is the peak day for home cooking fires, followed by Christmas Day and Christmas Eve.

For more information, visit this link https://thetownofcicero.com/cooking_safety/