Chicago Reader

Composer and sound artist Norman W. Long got hooked on experimental music in the 1990s as a student at Illinois State University.

Ron Camacho, 69, is an artist and organizer who participated in community activism primarily in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood in the 1970s.

Katia Pérez Fuentes moved to Chicago ten years ago to get a BFA in studio arts at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and have since worked as an arts worker for citywide museums and art spaces.

This year Alan Mills plans to step down from the executive director role of the Uptown People’s Law Center (UPLC), a position he has held for a decade following over 20 years as UPLC’s legal director.

Oluwaseyi Adeleke, graphic designer and founder of streetwear brand Prgrssn, makes clothes for and about Black people.

Zel Hizó is a prolific zinemaker, where she details her interests from Freddie Mercury to her dream dog to her favorite stuffed animals.

Roberto Herrera teaches students—beginners and beyond—how to dance cumbia, salsa, bachata, and guaracha at Latin Techniques Dance Studio.

This is the ninth People Issue, and like last year and every year before it, it’s truly a labor of love.

Taryn McFadden (she/her) is a Chicago Reader culture editor who oversees film and TV, food and drink, and other feature stories.

Sometime the summer before last, the Reader team gathered in person for an all-staff event organized to review our guiding policies and mission statement, take staff photos, and welcome new team members. Among longtime staffers who hadn’t seen each other since the start of the pandemic, there was a palpable mix of awkward excitement about reconnecting face-to-face, along with the equally awkward giddiness of finally meeting new colleagues we’d only known through their work or brief Zoom appearances.