Katie Prout
@katie_prout
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Features writer, @chicago_reader . Proud member & co-chair @Reader_Union . I believe in the Midwest. kprout @chicagoreader .com
Joined July 2013
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To say I’m thrilled is an understatement. I’ve been waiting all my life to say this, but I’m writing a book. It’s real.
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In 2022, six unhoused Chicagoans I knew died preventable deaths. My first piece in 2023 is a long story about their short lives. It’s also about the rest of us: the deaths we accept, the lives we don't, & our role in them.
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For the
@Chicago_Reader
’s Best of issue, I wrote about something I really, really care about. My fellow Chicagoans, disturbed by the presence of our unhoused brethren sleeping on the CTA—this one is for you 💋
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As Chicagoans learn abt Jordan Neely, murdered today by a fellow passenger on NYC transit for being visibly mentally ill, read abt Kevin Powell if you haven't. Kevin, who used the CTA for shelter, was asleep in his wheelchair this March when a CTA worker beat him until he died.
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Subzero temps aren’t magically safe after business hours, but 5 of Chicago’s 6 warming centers are only open 9-5. All, including the lone 24 hour center, forbid laying down or sleeping. In Feb, I wrote abt what it’s really like to try & use these centers:
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So much Chicago news covers violence *after* it's occurred, but it's just as newsworthy to report on when it's stopped, & talk about how & why. For
@chicago_reader
, I wrote abt a morning in June when CTA riders de-escalated potential violence--w/o police.
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Once a month during grad school, i walked to the food bank to get groceries & thought about how I felt like I was losing my political, personal voice in order to gain an approved literary one. I wrote about it here: via
@lithub
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On Monday, I asked for an open, on the record call w/
@Brandon4Chicago
on whether he supports safe consumption sites in Chicago. Our convo reveals a man earnestly thinking through a powerful idea that can be uncomfortable at first (but his answer is yes).
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A year of work later, my first byline in The New Republic. It was a privilege to listen to these men and share their stories now.
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Attempting to make it to Dorval Carter’s City Council appearance this AM, which will, inevitably, be about
@cta
delays, but it looks like myself & bunch of other Chicagoans are about to be late to our jobs.
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what are your favorite books abt chicago? tryna add reading back into my life diet. open to anything published whenever.
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This week's cover story for
@Chicago_Reader
is a new one from me, questioning what we really mean when we talk about public safety on the CTA:
But the story I want to share first happened this morning.
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In July,
@_KellyGarcia__
reported that Vallas spoke at a fundraiser for Awake Illinois, a far right group opposed to public school policies like accommodations for trans students, covid-safety measures, & discussion of the US legacy of systemic racism.
From the Editorial Board:
"Chicago is in need of a turnaround. In Paul Vallas, the Editorial Board endorses a smart, passionate and experienced candidate for mayor."
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What does it means if, in a country that calls itself a democracy, elected officials make life-and-death decisions without taking their constituents’ calls? For
@chicago_reader
, I spoke with dozens of people about the struggle to reach Sen Tammy Duckworth.
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The bathroom graffiti at the Empty Bottle remains undefeated
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A friend of mine who was recently released from CCJ said the water he and other incarcerated men were given to drink was gray.
Some of Chicago’s best pizza might be inside Cook County Jail. 🍕
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Apologies for getting sincere & emotional on main, but my story on the Ewing Annex Hotel made the cover of the Chicago Reader.
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And possibly my favorite quote, too long for Twitter but too good not to highlight. Read the rest here:
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John O’Korn & the rest of the U of M team have been nothing but loving and kind to my brother. Dignified, talented players with real heart.
John I love you man & I am proud of you!
Thanks John Grant Buck JT & everyone!
Thanks for letting me run out with the team & lifting me up to touch the banner JT!
It is great to be a Michigan Wolverine!
You guys make me happy, not hurt so much, feel stronger & try harder!
Love u!
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What many Chicago media stories linking violence on the CTA not-so-subtly to the presence of homeless Chicagoans on the CTA miss: people who are homeless are far, far more likely to be victims of violence than people who are housed.
BREAKING: Police say the suspect in the shootings of two homeless men in New York committed three similar attacks in Washington, D.C. All of the victims were experiencing homelessness and two died.
Earlier:
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My cover story abt trying to get a psychiatrist while on Medicaid with a bouquet my friend who lives under Lower Wacker gave me this morning. The
@Chicago_Reader
is free so folks like him access invaluable news & culture writing. They also keep working class writers like me paid
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When praising Vallas for what they see as his strong experience in education, the Board skips the part where a judge in Bridgeport, CT ordered Vallas be removed as superintendent one year into the job.
From the Editorial Board:
"Chicago is in need of a turnaround. In Paul Vallas, the Editorial Board endorses a smart, passionate and experienced candidate for mayor."
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Hi, I interviewed my 91 year old upstairs neighbor about what it’s like to live on on the same street for almost a century + the best way to make a hardtack sandwich:
"I feed two copies of the Reader with my name in the masthead under the door, so she knows I’m for real, and watch them wriggle and disappear as she tugs on them from the other side. Her door between us and our masks on, we begin." |
@katie_prout
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The day after Mayor Lightfoot & 25 alderpeople ditched the City Council special meeting on Bring Chicago Home, my unhoused friend Ron died in a stairwell in the Loop.
This is the 1st time I'm hearing aldermen admit to intentionally blocking the Bring Chicago Home ordinance. From what I can tell, many aldermen blamed their absence on being busy, denying it was a coordinated attempt by the mayor to kill the ordinance.
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In October, the
@Chicago_Reader
ran my investigation into previously unreported opioid overdose deaths on the CTA. For this week's cover story, I look at one of the lives behind the numbers, & take a *very* candid late night Red Line ride with a CTA chief.
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If we don’t understand the scope of a story, we can’t change how it ends. And so, this is for Ralph, Polo, Val, Brittany, Ron, and Hope. May your memories be a blessing, and a torch of justice in the dark.
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I've been reporting on addiction & houselessness since 2020, & writing about my personal connection to addiction for longer than that. If I've learned anything, it really is this: "We are each other's harvest; we are each other's business; we are each other's magnitude and bond.”
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To wrap up my first day as staff writer for
@Chicago_Reader
(email me tips & nice tricks at kprout
@chicagoreader
.com !) allow me to tell you a painfully sincere story about this shirt
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Good morning! Easter is this Sunday, which means there’s no time like the present to read my 2022
@Chicago_Reader
feature about my passionate & pathological love for Judas (as portrayed by Carl Anderson) in the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar 🤍🪩🕊️
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I’m sharing this b/c Ken's question—“Why do that?”—is at the heart of my story. So much of the popular narrative around the CTA includes blunt answers (more K-9s, cameras, police). I think it’s time for us to ask new questions: of each other, our political leaders, & ourselves.
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Johnson's claim that he "doesn't know if it's a substantial number" of migrants being evicted on Saturday is breathtaking to me. Either you know and you don't want to tell, or you genuinely don't know, which is how kids get lost.
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Sexual minorities in the US are 2x as likely than the general population to experience homelessness, but they’re still here & still queer. For
@Chicago_Reader
’s Pride feature on trans & genderqueer elders, I interviewed Jeff, my friend & yours.
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NEW: Earlier this year, someone who shelters on the Blue Line told me a man overdosed on the train, died, and wasn't discovered until the end of the line. This wasn't the first overdose death I'd heard of on the CTA.
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I first met each person where they lived on Lower Wacker or in the Loop. Some I met once: some I knew for two years. Each of their lives was distinct, but each of their deaths, I argue, is the result of policy choices, and we're accountable for them.
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“Politicians are lying when they say that the police prevent crime. They do not. Police are a response to crime. They maintain a crime scene and pick up evidence. They are not a preventative measure.”
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I’m on my lunch break in Dearborn and a man just stepped in and paid for my shawarma because, as he said, “In Islam, you are my sister, and I want to welcome you here.”
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Hi! Have you been calling Sen Tammy Duckworth's offices lately? Were you able to speak to someone, or did a recorded message direct you to her website due to "high call volume"? Working on a story--let me know, along with which numbers you tried, at kprout
@chicagoreader
.com🍸
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For my last story of 2021, I profiled Sam, a millennial father I know who lives on Lower Wacker Drive, & the ways in which his addiction & drug-induced homicide charge have changed the lives of the women closest to him.
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But with accountability, there's possibility, and freedom. Addiction and houselessness don't have to be a death sentence, if we and this city are brave.
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This is my brother.
I got to be a real Wolverine! I love the pads & how they made me look like grant John buck chase. I look like my team! I look just like all my football friends & i never knew i could! I look like a football player!
I am grateful & thank you Aaron & JT & Sonny & Jim and everybody!
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My brother & his wife found out today that their baby is facing serious complications that will require surgery, & if all goes well, a transplant down the road. If you’re able to share or donate to help cover their bills, the link is here.
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Slowly searching through Johnson's transition team report & I'm as interested in what's *not* in there as what is. No mention, so far as I can find, of: opioids, overdose/overdoses, naloxone, narcan, fentanyl, syringe, or the words drug/drugs.
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"Regular commuters," police, social services, are quoted in these stories. Who isn't? Folks who actually sleep on the train.
& so, for
@Chicago_Reader
I asked 4 Chicagoans abt their experience sheltering on the CTA.
It turns out they have a lot to say
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"I’m a little woman, so [everything thinks] I'm going to be a nurturing mother figure. But I’m not. I’m the father figure."⚡️
For
@chicago_reader
's first People Issue since 2016 (!), I profiled Noble Square's endlessly quotable dressmaker, Julia Needlman.
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I worked longer on this essay longer than I have on any other I’ve published. Language fails us, family history haunts us, but love is present and real. I wrote about addiction, the limits of language, and writing myself closer to knowing my brother and myself for
@Longreads
"'Addict,' I say, and the faces of the people I’m speaking to grow still in sympathy; 'alcoholic,' I say, and their faces are blank."
@katie_prout
(Illustration by
@ericPetersenArt
)
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“I didn’t expect to be escorted off the premises of the city’s only overnight warming center on a 28-degree evening, though perhaps I should’ve.” After all, I’d heard abt the centers’ barriers from those who need them most. My latest for
@Chicago_Reader
.
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This Veterans Day, I’m thinking about all the veterans I know living with untreated PTSD on Lower Wacker & in the Men’s Hotel, many of color, most of whom the VA appears to have left behind.
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Hey
@GoodmanLen
. If you don't allow the
@Chicago_Reader
to transition to nonprofit status, I won't be able to pay rent in June. We've been working under your dreadful conditions since January. Enough is enough.
#FreetheReader
.
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I wrote about how
@chicagosmayor
’s ban on lakefront parking impedes people with disabilities from accessing the lake for
@streetsblogchi
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My first piece since joining
@Chicago_Reader
is out! For our Drinks issue, I wrote about why I choose to drink when my family has a history of alcoholism + how cool my sister
@_mollyprout1
is. Read it here:
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Listening to a story abt the NYC transit shooting on All Things Considered last night, the reporter & interviewee twice mention funding "homeless services" as violence prevention. Yes, services need more $$, but not as a measure to protect "us" from "them." 1/
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Anthony Ehlers, an incarcerated writer who now contributes a regular opinion column to
@Chicago_Reader
, wrote abt what it's like to try & seek mental healthcare in Stateville Correctional Center. If you haven't read it yet, you must.
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The responses from people who’ve reached out to me & said my food bank essay made them feel less alone have meant the world to me. The person who wrote and said they were upset with my use of the word “farting” holds a special place in my heart also.
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Links:
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Naloxone, the opioid overdose reversal medication, was approved for over the counter access earlier this year. You can trace that lifesaving milestone directly the work of harm reduction legend Dan Bigg, Chicago’s own son, who died 5 years ago this week.
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My youngest brother
@coobles321
needs all your funny cat videos, cute cat pictures, elephants being adorable, and capuchin monkeys helping people videos sent his way, please. And love, all the love.
Tomorrow is my 104th surgery. I'm having biopsies on my kidneys cuz my kidneys are bleeding in me. I feel nervous but hope this won't turn bad. I want to know what's goin on in of me & praying they don't find bad things. Can you say prayers please? Thank you everybody. Larry jr
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People who know me well know three things: I’m a recovering Catholic, an anxious little freak, & a passionate devotee to Carl Anderson as Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar.
I’ve been writing this essay all my life. This Holy Week, here it is for you.
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Why did the Chicago Mothman leave his breakfast on our car, feels personal
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On Monday, a West Loop encampment was "cleaned" by the city. Officially, the reason was sanitation, but the residents who were displaced said something else. “They’re cleaning to get rid of us, get rid of the bad things. We symbolize bad things.”
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New arrivals to Chicago, some of whom were provided only one meal a day until recently, are digging in the trash for food while the city houses them in CTA buses.
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Working from bed today, snuggled up while I read
@Chicago_Reader
's RATS issue from cover to cover. This is a special one: proudly Chicago, uniquely the Reader. Soon as you get the chance, I suggest you do the same 🐀
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That’s it. In a time when media is so often used to dehumanize Muslims, I wanted to use my own small platform to tell a different story, one that is true. Two strangers had a short, sweet interaction that left them both feeling good. And the shawarma was delicious.
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For
@Chicago_Reader
's food & drink issue, I interloped on a March salmon run at Montrose Harbor, where the fishermen taught me how best to prepare & eat the forever-chemicaled fish. Diet Dr. Pepper, Marlboro Lights 100, & tamales also make an appearance:
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Sharing this whole section like a nut because I think it’s worth highlighting in particular, and I love when someone I’m interviewing asks me difficult questions in return.
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This is my brother Larry.
Our guy Larry Prout Jr. (
@coobles321
) is set to receive the Pete Schmidt Courage Award at next week’s All State Banquet of the Michigan Chapter of the National Football Foundation & the College Football Hall of Fame.
An extremely well-deserved honor!
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In 2022,
@econhardship
&
@theintercept
produced a short doc based on my
@Chicago_Reader
story about fighting to find a psychiatrist who accepts Medicaid. It’s out now, as part of “Insecurity,” a 3 part series on women struggling to get what they need:
“Katie had long struggled with mental illness and now faced a serious hurdle: finding mental healthcare on Medicaid.”
In Part 3 of “Insecurity” we meet writer
@katie_prout
.
Produced with
@theintercept
. Video by
@RaySuarezNews
,
@KarlaMurthy
,
@monaisk2010
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The
@Chicago_Reader
is one of a handful of news outlets in the city that’s FREE, in print and online, period. Is
@Goodman_Len
really going to take this resource away from poor & working class people?
#FreetheReader
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Thank you to
@WBEZreset
for inviting me in yesterday to discuss my
@Chicago_Reader
investigation into CTA overdose deaths (linked in the retweet below). You can listen to our conversation here:
NEW: Earlier this year, someone who shelters on the Blue Line told me a man overdosed on the train, died, and wasn't discovered until the end of the line. This wasn't the first overdose death I'd heard of on the CTA.
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For 2 months, I’ve interviewed people who use opioids & make their homes in Chicago’s Tent Cities, harm reduction workers, & ER docs abt what life’s like at the intersection of the city’s two pandemics—covid-19 & opioid dependency. This is what they say.
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Thank you to
@Longreads
for highlighting my most recent
@Chicago_Reader
story on who gets to be the public in public safety, and who doesn’t.
"Not every person who is homeless is mentally ill or uses drugs, and having one of those traits — or all three — doesn’t make you dangerous; it makes you vulnerable."
@katie_prout
@Chicago_Reader
#longreads
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Happy birthday to
@coobles321
, the kindest, most loving, deeply funny little goblin of a brother a sister could ask for. The big 17! Soon he’s going to be old enough to buy chew, consort with loose women, and gamble 😧
Guess what today is it is my birthday iam glad to be alive because life is a gift!
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“[Being forced to continue an unwanted pregnancy is] more likely to affect the health of their existing children, they’re more likely to be in abusive relationships, they’re more likely to develop chronic health problems and worsening of serious medical conditions.”
We’ve heard countless stories about women almost dying when hospitals denied them emergency abortions.
But we’re not grappling with the thousands of people unable to get abortions and forced to give birth. Those are also horror stories. Me in
@Jezebel
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Yes, we ALL need to wash our hands, practice social distancing, & prepare for the long haul. Those actions can & will save live. But the emphasis on the importance of individual actions from some govt officials / media / ppl I know alternately infuriates me & breaks my heart.
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i've read & loved Wild Hundreds (Nate Marshall), The Warmth of Other Suns (Isabel Wilkerson), Native Son (Richard Wright), Devil in the White City was fine, working thru The Man With the Golden Arm rn (Nelson Algren)
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I bought ten tickets for Barbie & my credit card company texted to make sure it wasn’t fraud lol
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Happy election day, Chicago😅 ICYMI, while you're in line at the polls, check out my conversation with
@Brandon4Chicago
on the role safe consumption sites have in Chicago's struggle to reduce overdose deaths for
@Chicago_Reader
.
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Ken has been staying on the Blue Line at night. I asked him what it’s been like. “White people are afraid of Black people,” he replied frankly. “They film us now on the train. If we smoke crack, they film us. Why do that?”
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She worked up until the very last minute. She deserved more than holding it together for the rest of us.
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I wish I had taken more pics of my thesis defense outfit but I just slipped into something more comfy so I could make love to this carnitas burrito. Anyway, passed my thesis defense today: Katie Prout, MFA.
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Per the Southern Poverty Law Center, Awake Illinois has a history of opposing LGBTQ-inclusive ed & smearing queer community events as dangerous for kids. But at their fundraiser, “Vallas spoke about school choice … which he called ‘the civil rights issue for this generation.’”
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Happy Chicago Mayoral Inauguration Day to all who celebrate! I for one will be keeping a keen eye on what happens w/ Mayor Johnson's stated support for safe consumption sites, first shared in an interview w/ me for
@Chicago_Reader
, now that he's in power.
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Meet Erin Briggs & her son PJ. Today was the fall launch of Starbucks’ pumpkin spice latte, but Erin & her union are on strike after what they allege are a pattern of unfair labor practices & unjust corrective action. And PJ? “I wanted to come help support my mom.”
@SBWUChicago
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I keep seeing & hearing reports like this: casually linking the increased presence of homeless/unhoused ppl to a perceived increase in violence in public spaces. This is incredibly irresponsible, data-deprived reporting at best. At worst, it's dangerous for the unhoused.
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When men say “my body my choice” and tell me about their friend of a friend whose baby died of vaccine in the breast milk I feel very calm and relaxed as I lactate Chicago lead pipe water
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I wrote about what it’s like to try and get a psych evaluation while on Medicaid for
@Chicago_Reader
&
@econhardship
!
"I’m not alone. Americans, particularly if they’re low-income, elderly, young, and/or a minority, are both seeking and struggling to find mental health care in record numbers." |
@katie_prout
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@TimOBrien
“The reports of unsafe and unsanitary conditions at Clint and elsewhere came days after government lawyers in court argued that they should not have to provide soap or toothbrushes to children.” These monsters.
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Free idea: someone shld run a publishing series like
@333books
, except instead of albums, it’s all 77 Chicago community areas, & each book is written by someone who lives / grew up there
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“459 followers,” I thought to myself. “One more and I’ll be at 500.”
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He told me that Islam values kindness and when he was hard up, the restaurant he was in used to feed him for free. He said he hoped that, in buying my sandwich, he could show me that Muslims are kind, and not like “what the media says.”
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I pitched this to various Chicago media over the years—some twice—and never heard back. I’m really glad that
@belt_magazine
exists & was interested in Mary’s story & songs, & that Belt compensated BOTH Mary & I for our work!
Chicago media has only told Mary Lane’s story in connection to how she knows male Blues legends like Buddy Guy. This woman is a force and she’s been largely ignored.
@katie_prout
spent years with Mary. And now you get to know what you’ve been missing.
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Is this thing on? Took a month off from Twitter to turn 36 in Tokyo, read summer cabin fiction, & let my brain breathe. It ruled.
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On his way out the door, he asked me to pray for him—he’s on his 8th retinal transplant because, as he told me, a woman in Yemen put a bad curse on him, & he’s been fighting it ever since. Now, he has one blue eye and one brown, which he liked. “It makes me look like a husky.”
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