Category Archives: Community

Community of Urbana-Champaign Cooperative Housing to Reduce the Post-Pandemic Youth Housing Divide

Posted on 08/27/2023 by Marilena Prisco

Housing cooperatives have a long history in the US. In university towns like C-U, those laboratories of young people assume new importance in the post-pandemic city. Escaping the logic of a typical landlord-tenant agreement, members self-manage and maintain the houses … Continue reading →

193 total views, 1 views today

Posted in Community, Cooperative, Homelessness, Housing, Students, Voices, Youth Services | Tagged community, cooperatives, homelessness, housing, housing crisis, student housing, youth housing divide | Comments Off

Who’s Your Family?

Posted on 02/10/2023 by C. Owen

Having just survived the winter holidays, the stressors and supports brought about by family could not be more present in our minds. However, for some of us in the American workforce, even the discussion of our loved ones at home … Continue reading →

684 total views

Posted in Community, Human Rights, LGBTQ, Politics, Section | Tagged community, family, human rights, LBGTQ+ | Comments Off

Remembering David Monk

Posted on 02/10/2023 by Glen Martin

David Monk, 91, died on December 2, 2022. For a detailed account of his life and accomplishments, refer to the News-Gazette article published on July 13, 2022, soon after he went into hospice care. It is not easy to summarize … Continue reading →

1,381 total views, 1 views today

Posted in Community, Environment, Environment, Section | Tagged activism, environment, local community, prairie preservation | Comments Off

Sola Gratia Farm Grows Good in CU

Posted on 12/31/2022 by Fiona Munro

Here in Central Illinois, we’re surrounded by prime farmland—miles and miles of crops, primarily corn and soy, growing on some of the most fertile soil in the world. And yet, approximately one in seven adults and one in five children … Continue reading →

309 total views

Posted in Community, Environment, Food Insecurity | Tagged community gardens, Food, food security, sustainable agriculture | Comments Off

Kathryn J. Oberdeck (January 18, 1958–June 8, 2022)

Posted on 09/18/2022 by Jim Barrett

Kathy was a passionate fighter against all forms of inequality. She combined an unwavering commitment to the highest intellectual standards with a selfless dedication to community and family. She was a prolific historian of poor and working-class people, particularly their … Continue reading →

370 total views

Posted in Community, Education, Remembering, Women | Tagged education, In Memoriam, local activism | Comments Off

Juneteenth 2022 at Randolph Street Garden

Posted on 09/18/2022 by Public i

Seitu Ken Jones, a multidisciplinary artist who believes in the power of public art to link the past and present, spent 2020–21 as a visiting artist at the UIUC Center for Advanced Study. He returned this past June to work … Continue reading →

Posted in African American, African American history, African Americans, Community, Local Arts, Voices of Color, Youth | Tagged African American history, Juneteenth, local community, youth | Comments Off

The Public i: Countering Hegemonic Mass Media Narratives

Posted on 06/25/2022 by Fatou Jobe

I have always wondered how the Public i, which operates under one of the few Independent Media Centers (IMCs) that still exist in the United States—the UCIMC—has been sustainable for two decades despite the growing dissolutions of Indymedia centers worldwide. … Continue reading →

536 total views

Posted in Community, Corporate media, IMC, Media, UCIMC | Tagged alternative media, corporate media, Indymedia, Public i, UCIMC | Comments Off

The Congolese Community of Champaign County

Posted on 02/09/2022 by John Matanda Tshipama

We are the Congolese Community of Champaign County. The estimated number of Congolese living in Champaign County is more than 6,000 persons. Our mission is to support each other and help our children learn about the country, as well as … Continue reading →

1,209 total views

Posted in Champaign County, Community, Immigrants, Immigrants, Voices | Comments Off

A Conversation with Urbana Poet Laureate Ashanti Files

Posted on 11/12/2021 by Public i

The Public i recently talked to Urbana Poet Laureate Ashanti Files Please tell our readers a little about yourself. “I am a wife, mother, and registered nurse. I currently work in mental health and addiction services. I enjoy reading, writing … Continue reading →

714 total views, 1 views today

Posted in African Americans, Arts, Community, Local Arts, Poetry, Voices of Color, Women | Comments Off

The Nest Postpartum Support

Posted on 09/22/2021 by Paige Raab

Five years ago, my world turned upside down after the birth of our first son. What should have been the happiest day of our lives turned into one crisis after another, a transfer to a hospital two hours away, and … Continue reading →

619 total views

Posted in Community, health care, Voices, Women, Women | Comments Off

The Ubuntu Project and the Need for a Progressive Shift in Policing

Posted on 09/22/2021 by Alex Horton

Ubuntu is a term that originated with the Zulu people and roughly translates to “humanity” in English. The term emerged as a political concept following apartheid’s disintegration in South Africa. Now a collective of local community members, scholars, clergy, and … Continue reading →

1,249 total views

Posted in African Americans, Community, Justice, police accountability, Police Brutality, Policing, Voices of Color | Comments Off

Supporting Women, Girls and Families: An Interview with Stephanie Cockrell

Posted on 05/26/2021 by P. Stewart

Women are praised for being pillars of strength in their families and communities, but this same strength might lead them to be overlooked when designing services to meet the needs of a community. Women also need therapeutic activities that help … Continue reading →

Posted in African American, African American Women in Champaign-Urbana, African Americans, Community, Voices of Color, Women | Comments Off

Remembering: Jenny Barrett

Posted on 04/04/2021 by Public i

Emma Goldman, anarcho-syndicalist, union organizer and general hellraiser, once affirmed, “If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution.” Though she was arguably a gentler soul than Goldman, these words nevertheless apply well to Jenny Barrett, … Continue reading →

Posted in Community, Women | Comments Off

Remembering: Claire Szoke

Posted on 04/04/2021 by Public i

We were very saddened by the passing of our friend and dedicated worker for social justice, Claire Szoke. Claire grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a major in Spanish and journalism. In … Continue reading →

Posted in Community, Women | Comments Off

Chalk It Up to Protecting Property Over People

Posted on 09/06/2020 by Lance Pittman

In July Michael Long, owner of the Rogue Barber Co. in downtown Champaign, implemented a discriminatory “membership only” policy. The issue came to public attention on July 23, when a female Champaign resident shared screenshots on social media of a … Continue reading →

Posted in Alt-Right, bigotry, Community, police accountability, Policing | Comments Off

We Don’t Live in a Food Desert, We Live under Food Apartheid: Interview with Dawn Blackman

Posted on 07/17/2020 by Fatou Jobe

Dawn Mosley Blackman, a Chicago native, moved to Champaign in April, 1993. She is the current steward of the Randolph Street Community Garden and a pastor at the Church of the Brethren. As a military wife she lived in Europe … Continue reading →

Posted in African Americans, Community, Food Insecurity, health, Poverty | Comments Off

Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center Offers Digital Venue Space and Community with its Sounds Like Community Web Series

Posted on 06/04/2020 by Nick Goodell

The UC-IMC has always been a popular venue space for performances of all kinds, from spoken word poetry to live music, to art shows, plays and much more. But when the pandemic struck, the IMC Board of Directors was forced … Continue reading →

798 total views

Posted in Arts, Community, Section | Comments Off

FirstSteps Community House

Posted on 09/20/2019 by James Kilgore

“Our community needs a transitional house … we’re gonna reach out and help people get employment, help them bond back with their families and be able to give back to the community.” — Casandis Hunt, peer mentor at FirstFollowers, talking … Continue reading →

Posted in African Americans, Community, Housing, incarceration | Comments Off

Faith in Place: Twenty Years Protecting the Earth and All Who Depend on It

Posted on 06/13/2019 by Cindy Shepard

At the dedication of a community garden, in a smallish county seat, I met Robyn, whose high school class had sown and nurtured the vegetable seedlings that we planted that day. She told me: “My special-needs students learn so much … Continue reading →

Posted in Community, Environment, Food Insecurity, Justice, Land, solar energy | Comments Off

The value of community

Posted on 05/09/2019 by Molly Zupan

By Molly Zupan, representing UIUC Urban Planning 478 Spring 2019 students This spring semester, a group of urban planning and architecture students from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have collaborated on creating visual, physical and written representations of the … Continue reading →

Posted in bigotry, Community, Food Insecurity, incarceration | Comments Off