click to enlarge Ngui-Ngon appears on Tiers Monde Cooperation s debut LP.
If you follow me on Twitter, you know I m a fan of avant-garde Ugandan labels Nyege Nyege Tapes and Hakuna Kalala. And now and then I ve written in the
Reader about current African artists, among them Nihiloxica, Kirani Ayat, and Muthoni Drummer Queen. But I ve long listened to older sounds from the continent soukous, juju, mbalax, highlife, mbaqanga, apala, benga, fuji and I don t often have a timely reason to post about them in Chicago.
Fortunately, sharing music that s decades past its press cycle is one purpose of this column. The Listener is for whatever we like, and that s the only rule as Salem Collo-Julin demonstrated last week by writing about a collection of vintage in-store music mixes from Kmart.
Steve Walters in his studio in 2016, holding an artwork he screen printed for a client. Greg Ayer
Steve Walters, 57, is a Chicago artist and screen printer. In 1991 he founded Screwball Press, which he still runs today; it s come to be recognized as a pioneering and influential local institution in the business of screen-printed rock posters. He creates original art for bands and venues and does production printing for other artists projects. This past fall he opened Burgoo, a shop and gallery space in Rogers Park.
As told to Salem Collo-Julin
I drove down to Atlanta this week to pick up my daughter, and then I ll bring her back next Tuesday. She s going to college there. I think all of her classes this semester were online. I think she s been tested for COVID like four or five times over the semester.
Eviction Since March, the federal, state, and local versions of an eviction moratorium have kept thousands in their homes. While typically there are some 20,000 eviction cases filed every year, as of December 14, only about 6,600 eviction cases have been filed against Chicago residential and commercial tenants and 65 percent of those cases were initiated before the governor issued his first moratorium. Landlords are still allowed to file cases if there s an emergency, but they have to prove that a tenant is a danger to neighbors or is destroying the property. However, the vast majority of eviction proceedings here, as everywhere in the country, start because tenants are behind on their rent, not because they re in violation of their lease.