It's a new week, Chicago. Start your Monday with these stories from WTTW News.
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Journalist and former Chicago Tribune jazz critic Howard Reich with family photos. His new new opera, “The Dialogue of Memories,” is embarking on a three-city U.S. tour this month that culminates at the Studebaker Theater in Chicago on May 23 and 24. (Courtesy of Verismo Communications)
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For Howard Reich, whose parents avoided discussing the Holocaust with him while he was growing up, it’s both a burden and a privilege to inherit the story he had to confront later in his life.
“It’s a burden to inherit this story and being so incapable of changing it; this happened to my parents, and I can’t fix that,” Reich said. “But it’s also a privilege. It’s a privilege to be able to tell their story as truthfully and honestly and candidly and openly as I am able to.”
A new opera from the local journalist draws from his experience of being a son of Holocaust survivors and grappling with the questions Reich couldn’t ask his parents. Also woven through the opera is Reich’s real-life discovery of his mother’s long-hidden past and conversations he had with Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel.
Reich, a former longtime Chicago Tribune jazz critic, had an opportunity to first interview Wiesel in 2012 when the writer was awarded the newspaper’s annual literary prize. They continued their conversations the next four years until Wiesel died.
The opera comes ahead of the 10th anniversary of Wiesel’s death.
“When you take words, which are already powerful, and combine them with music, they take on even greater urgency and emotional impact,” Reich said. “To me, music says what words cannot say.”
Reich said he felt relief after learning that Wiesel also struggled with many of the same questions related to coming to terms with the Holocaust and its aftermath.
He also found relief from the guilt he found himself experiencing.
“I would often feel very guilty about what my parents went through, and then I’ve got such a comparatively easy, comfortable life,” Reich said. “Though I don’t always feel that I’ve done everything I could have for my parents, to live up to this history, [Wiesel] gave me permission to not beat myself up about that.”
“The Dialogue of Memories” will be performed at the Studebaker Theater on May 23-24. For details and tickets visit www.musicofremembrance.org.
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Arnold Day speaks to the media on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2019. (WTTW News)
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Chicago taxpayers might have to pay $16.5 million in settlements. City lawyers recommended a payout of $13 million to a man who spent 26 years in prison after he was wrongfully convicted of a 1991 murder. In the second case, city lawyers recommended Chicago pay $3.5 million to the family of a man who was struck and killed by a driver being chased by Chicago police.
Wrongful conviction:
Arnold Day was 18 when he was arrested in connection with the May 1991 murder of 16-year-old Jerrod Irving in his New City apartment.
Day was convicted and sentenced to 60 years in prison in 1994 based on confessions coerced by Chicago police detectives trained by Jon Burge, a disgraced Chicago police commander, according to court records.
Twenty-four Black men have been exonerated after being convicted based on evidence developed by former Chicago Police detectives James Halloran, Kenneth Boudreau, Michael Kill, William Foley, James O’Brien and James Clancy.
All were trained by Burge who tortured and beat more than 100 Black men, from the 1970s to the 1990s, city officials have acknowledged.
Police pursuit:
Jose Almanza-Martinez, 67, died in the crash that ended the chase on Aug. 2, 2020 near 26th Street and Pulaski Road, records show. Almanza-Martinez sold garapiñados — caramelized peanuts and pecans — for 25 years outside a Little Village restaurant, as first reported by the Chicago Tribune.
Almanza-Martinez, who was married and had two adult sons at the time of his death, was walking to a nearby drugstore when he was struck and killed, according to the lawsuit filed by his family.
The City Council’s Finance Committee is set to consider both proposed settlements at a meeting today. A final vote of the full City Council could come on Wednesday.
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Central Station, circa 1900. (Detroit Publishing Co., Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division)
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In the golden age of rail travel, downtown Chicago was home to not one, not two, but six passenger train stations. These awe-inspiring buildings were more than just functional gateways. They transformed riding the rails from a practical, point-A-to-point-B necessity into an experience in its own right.
“No other city even came close to the number of terminals Chicago had,” DePaul University professor Joseph Schwieterman told Geoffrey Baer. “We are the railroad hub – times two, you might say. Chicago, particularly in the area of passenger rail, had no rivals.”
Despite their grandeur, the six stations created a bit of a headache for many travelers. Because they were all located on the periphery of downtown, any transfers between rail lines meant having to hoof it to one of the other stations. As Americans’ transportation preferences shifted to the air and the interstate, demand for passenger rail dipped dramatically by the mid-20th century. Many of the train stations below were demolished or reconfigured in the 1970s and 1980s.
“Shame on us, you might say, but in fairness the historic preservation movement gained momentum in the mid-’70s, maybe 5 or 10 years too late,” said Schwieterman.
Today, only one of the six stations is still used for passenger rail service.
Click here to read more and find out where they were.
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More From WTTW News:
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Via WTTW Playlist: An Albany Park cafe, La Casita Verde, will train, employ, and provide a space for people with developmental disabilities.
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Back in the Day: May 18, 1901 - Dr. Vincent du Vigneaud, Nobel Prize-Winning Chemist, Born in Chicago
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Dr. Vincent du Vigneaud was a pioneering biochemist who, in 1955, won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for “his work on biochemically important sulphur compounds, especially for the first synthesis of a polypeptide hormone.” His research on the primary structures of oxytocin and vasopressin was groundbreaking. On this day 125 years ago, Vincent du Vigneaud was born in Chicago on May 18, 1901, to French parents, inventor and mechanic Alfred du Vigneaud and Mary Theresa. A graduate of Carl Schurz High School and the University of Illinois, du Vigneaud obtained his Ph.D at the University of Rochester for his thesis "The Sulfur of Insulin." He died at 77 in 1978 in White Plains, New
York.
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This Week’s Civic Events and Meetings
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Every Monday, WTTW News highlights the best ways to get involved with local government.
City Council's Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights
On Monday at 10:15 a.m., the City Council’s Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights will hold a regular meeting. They’ll consider support for a call to declare Feb. 2 as Mexican American Heritage Day. For more information, click here.
Show Up Chicago
Show Up Chicago, a monthly “combination community gathering, cocktail hour and political panel show” is happening Monday evening at the Hideout. They’ll discuss housing and Gov. JB Pritzker’s BUILD proposal with guests Richard Day, newsletter writer behind “A City That Works” and state Rep Eva-Dina Delgado. To RSVP for the free event, click here.
City Council
On Wednesday at 10 a.m., a regular meeting of the City Council of the City of Chicago is scheduled. Among the orders of business are scheduled votes to ban "Sweepstakes Machines" in local businesses, a delay on the tipped minimum wage phaseout and more. For more information, click here.
Policing & Public Trust: A WTTW News Town Hall
On Tuesday, May 26 at Thalia Hall, join WTTW News for an interactive community conversation on policing, public safety, and building trust in Chicago. Hosted by Chicago Tonight anchor Brandis Friedman, the panel will feature leaders from law enforcement, community organizations, and research institutions discussing efforts to strengthen police-community relations and address crime across the city. Audience members from neighborhoods throughout the city will also have the opportunity to participate in the conversation. This event is free. Space is limited and RSVP here is required.
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What's your favorite sandwich shop in the city? Tell us what to order.
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Email DailyChicagoan@wttw.com with your responses and your answers might be published.
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Newsletter Producer: Josh Terry
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