This Ain't Chicago: Race, Class, and Regional Identity in the Post-Soul South

Do you believe Chicago is broke? Me, neither. I set out to prove by assembling a great team of Chicago experts to write short articles on how can can save and generate MAJOR revenues for Chicago. Revenues that are progressive, sustainable and NOT wrung from those who can least afford to pay. Our goal is to influence the discussions around Chicago's budget and her future. All the details are at www.wearenotbroke.org.I published this via the CivicLab (which I co-founded in 2013) in the Summer of 2016. Since then we've been invited to present at 65 public meetings all over the city! "Tom Tresser's latest book is essential reading for all who have an interest and investment in the future of our city, from City Hall to the residents of each of Chicago's 77 neighborhoods. This book offers solutions, not only for the city to dig itself out from where it is, but for taxpayers, legislators, and concerned Chicagoans, to learn about the financial state of the city, and provides a progressive and responsible path forward." - Cook County Clerk David Orr "There are only a few people courageous enough to sift through the lies and tangled webs that proves Chicago isn't broke, but the politics are. Most people won't take the time to do the research, but Tom Tresser and his team have and this book should be on your list." - Karen Lewis, President, Chicago Teachers Union

The Not For Tourists Guide to Chicago is a map-based, neighborhood-by-neighborhood dream guide that divides Chi-Town into sixty mapped neighborhoods from Gold Coast and Lincoln Park to Wrigleyville and Lakeview. Designed to lighten the load of already street-savvy locals, commuters, business travelers, and yes, tourists too, every map is dotted with user-friendly NFT icons that plot the nearest essential services and entertainment locations, while providing important information on things like kid-friendly activities, public transportation, restaurants, bars, and Chicago’s art scene. Need to find the best deep-dish pizza hideouts around? NFT has you covered. How about a list of the top sports attractions in the famously sports-crazy city? We’ve got that, too. The nearest beach, jazz club, coffee shop, or bookstore—whatever you need—NFT puts it at your fingertips. This book also features: • A foldout highway map • Sections on the North Side, Near North Side, Near West Side, the Greater Loop, the South Side, and Greater Chicago • More than 150 neighborhood and city maps It’s the only key to the Windy City that Rahm Emanuel can’t give you.

The Not For Tourists Guide to Chicago is a map-based, neighborhood-by-neighborhood dream guide that divides Chi-Town into sixty mapped neighborhoods from Gold Coast and Lincoln Park to Wrigleyville and Lakeview. Designed to lighten the load of already street-savvy locals, commuters, business travelers, and yes, tourists too, every map is dotted with user-friendly NFT icons that plot the nearest essential services and entertainment locations, while providing important information on things like kid-friendly activities, public transportation, restaurants, bars, and Chicago’s art scene. Need to find the best deep-dish pizza hideouts around? NFT has you covered. How about a list of the top sports attractions in the famously sports-crazy city? We’ve got that, too. The nearest beach, jazz club, coffee shop, or bookstore—whatever you need—NFT puts it at your fingertips. This book also features: • A foldout highway map • Sections on the North Side, Near North Side, Near West Side, the Greater Loop, the South Side, and Greater Chicago • More than 150 neighborhood and city maps It’s the only key to the Windy City that Rahm Emanuel can’t give you.

"Billy Boy Arnold, born in 1935, is one of the few native Chicagoans who both cultivated a career in the blues and stayed in Chicago. His perspective on Chicago's music, people, and places is rare and valuable. Arnold has worked with generations of musicians-from Tampa Red and Howlin' Wolf and to Muddy Waters and Paul Butterfield-on countless recordings, witnessing the decline of country blues, the dawn of electric blues, the onset of blues-inspired rock, and more. Here, with writer Kim Field, he gets it all down on paper-including the story of how he named Bo Diddley Bo Diddley"--

Experience music history with this memoir by one of the last of the genuine old school Blues and R&B legends, the Grammy-winning dynamic showman Bobby Rush. This memoir charts the extraordinary rise to fame of living blues legend, Bobby Rush. Born Emmett Ellis, Jr. in Homer, Louisiana, he adopted the stage name Bobby Rush out of respect for his father, a pastor. As a teenager, Rush acquired his first real guitar and started playing in juke joints in Little Rock, Arkansas, donning a fake mustache to trick club owners into thinking he was old enough to gain entry. He led his first band in Arkansas between Little Rock and Pine Bluff in the 1950s. It was there he first had Elmore James play in his band. Rush later relocated to Chicago to pursue his musical career and started to work with Earl Hooker, Luther Allison, and Freddie King, and sat in with many of his musical heroes, such as Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed and Little Walter. Rush eventually began leading his own band in the 1960s, crafting his own distinct style of funky blues, and recording a succession of singles for various labels. It wasn't until the early 1970s that Rush finally scored a hit with "Chicken Heads." More recordings followed, including an album which went on to be listed in the Top 10 blues albums of the 1970s by Rolling Stone and a handful of regional jukebox favorites including "Sue" and "I Ain't Studdin' Ya." And Rush's career shows no signs of slowing down now. The man once beloved for performing in local jukejoints is now headlining major music/blues festivals, clubs, and theaters across the U.S. and as far as Japan and Australia. At age eighty-six, he is still on the road for over 200 days a year. His lifelong hectic tour schedule has earned him the affectionate title "King of the Chitlin' Circuit," from Rolling Stone. In 2007, he earned the distinction of being the first blues artist to play at the Great Wall of China. His renowned stage act features his famed shake dancers, who personify his funky blues and his ribald sense of humor. He was featured in Martin Scorcese's The Blues docuseries on PBS, a documentary film called Take Me to the River, performed with Dan Aykroyd on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and most recently had a cameo in the Golden Globe nominated Netflix film, Dolemite Is My Name, starring Eddie Murphy. He was recently given the highest Blues Music Award honor of B.B. King Entertainer of the Year. His songs have also been featured in TV shows and films including HBO's Ballers and major motion pictures like Black Snake Moan, starring Samuel L. Jackson. Considered by many to be the greatest bluesman currently performing, this book will give readers unparalleled access into the man, the myth, the legend: Bobby Rush.

The Not For Tourists Guide to Chicago is a map-based, neighborhood-by-neighborhood dream guide that divides Chi-Town into sixty mapped neighborhoods from Gold Coast and Lincoln Park to Wrigleyville and Lakeview. Designed to lighten the load of already street-savvy locals, commuters, business travelers, and yes, tourists too, every map is dotted with user-friendly NFT icons that plot the nearest essential services and entertainment locations, while providing important information on things like kid-friendly activities, public transportation, restaurants, bars, and Chicago’s art scene. Need to find the best deep-dish pizza hideouts around? NFT has you covered. How about a list of the top sports attractions in the famously sports-crazy city? We’ve got that, too. The nearest beach, jazz club, coffee shop, or bookstore—whatever you need—NFT puts it at your fingertips. This book also features: A foldout highway map Sections on the North Side, Near North Side, Near West Side, the Greater Loop, the South Side, and Greater Chicago More than 150 neighborhood and city maps It’s the only key to the Windy City that Rahm Emanuel can’t give you.