Mavis Staples

There is art therapy where the results aren’t necessarily art.  But for Blake Lenoir and the other artists I visited at Project Onward at the Chicago Cultural center… the therapeutic benefits are undeniable.  But so is the quality of the art.

A portrait of Tyrone King, as he works the streets of downtown Chicago asking for money.

Chicago is certainly a big sailing town. But if you have a disability, you may think that you can’t participate — except as a passenger. Several years ago, I met some people who would like to prove you wrong. They’re at the Judd Goldman Adaptive Sailing Program in Burnham Harbor.

Judd Goldman Sailing Center is located at Burnham Harbor (one block West of Planetarium), 1362 S. Lynn White Drive, in Chicago.

The tattoo on Regina's back used to be the name of her abusive boyfriend. Now it is roses and tinkerbell.

We go behind the scenes of the popular NPR show, Wait! Wait! Don’t Tell Me!

A Chicago woman transforms a tragic loss into a unique mentoring program for adult students.

This is an account of a 1908 murder in Chicago. But is also the story of what may be the most bizarre newspaper photo ever published (that's Averbuch's corpse in the photo at left). Lazarus Averbuch was an 18 year old immigrant from Ukraine. One morning he went to the home of Chicago's police chief. The police chief shot the young man dead in his doorway. Was it self defense, as the chief claimed?

The City of Chicago as seen through the lenses of homeless photographers. I met them through a Catholic Charities program called "Visions of my Life."

Vivian Maier was a Chicago nanny whose masterful street photography appeared only after her death. Some 100,000 negatives were purchased by Chicago realtor John Maloof.

A Chicago man is determined to get ping pong out of our basements and onto ESPN.

Bob Herskovitz is the guy who runs 21 miles to work once or twice a week, despite the disease he contracted during the first gulf war.