Joseph Erbentraut

Last year, Truck Farm Chicago was born.

A mobile farm that travels to schools, festivals and farmers markets, Truck Farm Chicago brings urban agriculture to areas of the city with the hope of educating children about the benefits of good food and showing them how such food is...

In the weeks since New Orleans artist Candy Chang's "Before I Die" interactive public art installation made its Chicago debut earlier this year on the city's North Side, the project has expanded via several newly installed walls.

"Before I Die" walls have been installed in recent...

Chicago loves to put things on wheels. Despite the city's well-publicized attempts to thwart the growth of its small food truck community, many of the businesses have continued to soldier on.

Given the popularity and perseverance of Chicago's mobile food vendors, other types of businesses have also turned...

Think of it sort as an updated take on "Hoop Dreams," except that its basketball-playing dreamers use wheelchairs. And they live in Afghanistan, not the Windy City.

Jess Markt, originally from the Portland, Ore. area, is the American whose story is at the center of "The League of Afghanistan," a...

When I first caught wind of World Book Night US, it was via the Tumblr feed of Uncharted Books, a used bookstore relatively recently opened in Logan Square, the Chicago neighborhood I call home.

Sign up for the chance to spend one night distributing 20 free...

The mother of a 15-year-old boy with autism who was fatally shot by police in the family's Calumet City, Ill. home earlier this year has filed a lawsuit against the Chicago suburb and the officers who killed her son.

Danelene Powell-Watts, mother of Stephon Watts, has named William Coffey and...

Life in a city as large as Chicago comes with plenty of oft-heralded perks, namely a seemingly endless plethora of dining, nightlife and cultural options to explore, but urban living comes with a serious downside for nature lovers: Not so much in the way of green space.

Recognizing a shortage...

When it launched in the 1990s, Chicago radio station Q101's Jamboree played host to some of the most thrilling acts to emerge on the post-Seattle alternative scene. In its early years, acts ranging from Beck, Cypress Hill, Echo & the Bunnymen, No Doubt, Garbage, the Flaming Lips, Veruca Salt and...

When it comes to Chicago-based drag queen DiDa Ritz, what you see is, more or less, what you get.

The popular Logo reality competition series "RuPaul's Drag Race" has become virtually synonymous with the sort of side-eyed spiciness stereotypically ascribed to the modern drag performer's persona. Its...

CHICAGO -- In a district that covers much of Chicago's West Side, two Democrats are embroiled in a nasty battle for an Illinois Senate seat that has already seen its fair share of dramatics.

Squaring off in the 5th District Democratic primary on March 20 are Patricia Van...

A gay bar in Chicago's LGBT-centric Boystown neighborhood is under investigation by the state's Department of Human Rights based on reports that it bans female customers during its busiest hours.

The bar, named Wang's, is the latest of several establishments in the area under fire as a result of allegations...

A gay bar in Chicago's LGBT-centric Boystown neighborhood is under investigation by the state's Department of Human Rights based on reports that it bans female customers during its busiest hours.

The bar, named Wang's, is the latest of several establishments in the area under fire as a result of allegations...

For self-professed "movie addict" and long-time Chicago-based film critic Richard Knight, Jr., it was probably only a matter of time until he put down the pen -- or laptop, as it were -- and took up the craft himself.

And in his latest project, Knight has done just that. In...

In Chicago public schools, black students receive harsher punishments for in-school infractions than white students, a fact that mirrors a nationwide trend, according to data released by the U.S. Department of Education Tuesday. The report paints a startling picture of racial disparities in how students are disciplined...

On the morning of Feb. 23, Chicago band Carbon Tigers woke up to a devastating revelation: Overnight, a van containing all of their guitars, amps, drums and other equipment -- worth an estimated $30,000 -- had been stolen.

And just like that, everything got much, much harder for...

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 forever impacted the lives of every American -- but for Muslim Americans, their lives changed more than they could have expected.

The experience of Muslim Americans in a post-9/11 nation -- one often marked by scapegoating, prejudice and fear -- inspired Khurram...

When synth-goth musician Nika Roza Danilova, better known as Zola Jesus, broke out in 2009 with her debut album, "The Spoils," its darkly romantic contents reflected the environment within which it was crafted: "In the womb of a Wisconsin winter," the Midwest-raised artist explained on the sleeve.

In the two...

When long-time Chicago lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender activist Kelly Cassidy was appointed last spring to the Illinois Statehouse of Representatives, a saga between rivals began.

Cassidy won the seat following a well-attended public meeting last April, where the 48th Ward Democratic committeewoman, Carol Ronen, chose her to fill a...

In a moment of journalistic synchronicity, Rolling Stone and The New Yorker recently published in-depth stories digging deep into a handful of the spate of suicides of LGBT youth that, in the fall of 2010, served as a stern reminder of a very serious problem that persists in the shadows...

Despite the city's reputation for brutally cold winters, deep-seated political corruption and deep-dish pizza bellies, Chicago has also been home to some of Hollywood's most iconically romantic, and often sexy, scenes to have ever graced the silver screen.

Over the years, the likes of Cruise and Roberts, Franco and Bullock...