Other News

Seasons of Life in a Commune

Seasons of Life in a Commune

One of my dearest friends sat in the chair across from me. He’d just verbalized ideas I thought of as the perfect article for this blog. I said so… and his response took me off guard. I’ll paraphrase some of how I remember that conversation. “We’re getting older,” he began, with a half-smile at the obvious comment. “I don’t think […]

Read more ›
Maggie’s Culottes and My Usefulness to God

Maggie’s Culottes and My Usefulness to God

Maggie huddled on the hallway floor, tears running down her face. Her sobs were audible. As I came around the corner into the small niche formed by a secondary school exit, she seemed to squeeze herself more closely together. “Are you okay,” I said — surely the stupidest question that moment on planet earth. Maggie began turning away from me, […]

Read more ›
WILD HISTORY (Literary Aside #3): Henry Justin Smith’s “Down the Shore to ‘Uptown’”

WILD HISTORY (Literary Aside #3): Henry Justin Smith’s “Down the Shore to ‘Uptown’”

Yet again! Wilson and Sheridan Avenues draw some less than wholly complementary (if not wholly critical either) attention from a lion of literature… or more properly in Henry Justin Smith’s case, journalism. Mr. Smith, along with having written some dozen books (the majority of them addressing the art of journalism), was also managing editor of the no longer extant (1875-1978) […]

Read more ›
WILD HISTORY (Literary Aside #2): “Home Girl” by Edna Ferber, 1922

WILD HISTORY (Literary Aside #2): “Home Girl” by Edna Ferber, 1922

  (Edna Ferber, left, in 1922.) This article continues our “Wild History” series about 931-939 Wilson, now the Wilson Abbey, as well as the neighborhood directly around it.   East of Wilson and Sheridan Avenues’ intersection in 1922, the eighteen story Sheridan Plaza Hotel had existed on the north corner for one year; a few doors east on Wilson toward […]

Read more ›
Wild History (Literary Aside #1): Ben Hecht’s “Nirvana”

Wild History (Literary Aside #1): Ben Hecht’s “Nirvana”

Could Ben Hecht — famous newspaperman, novelist, Hollywood Screenwriter, and for a time a Chicagoan — have visited a tavern at 931-39 Wilson and been inspired to write a story as a result of that visit? (See “Wild History” Parts 1 and 2, and JPUSA’s “official” Wilson Abbey page.) It would hardly be fair to claim outright that the “cabaret […]

Read more ›
Wild History, Part 1: JPUSA’s Wilson Abbey From Auto Dealership to Strip Club to New Uptown Gem

Wild History, Part 1: JPUSA’s Wilson Abbey From Auto Dealership to Strip Club to New Uptown Gem

The newly-named “Wilson Abbey” at 935 W. Wilson will soon open its doors to our Uptown neighborhood with everything from a fascinating coffee shop to a massive multi-purpose meeting room, concert venue, medium-sized theater, recording studio, rentable office space, and much much more. To say we’re excited about this fresh expression of creative energy in the heart of Uptown would […]

Read more ›
Wild History Repurposed (pt 3): Wilson Abbey Rises as Coffee Shop, Community Center, Theatre

Wild History Repurposed (pt 3): Wilson Abbey Rises as Coffee Shop, Community Center, Theatre

From its inception in 1917 as an auto dealership (Wild History pt 1) to its lengthy misuse as a strip club and gambling joint (Wild History pt 2), Uptown Chicago’s 935 W. Wilson Avenue has been resurrected. Jesus People USA purchased the building in the early 1980s, but as a community of Christians not only serving the poor but living […]

Read more ›
Wild History (Part 2): JPUSA’s Wilson Abbey now, but was once Uptown’s Vice Palace

Wild History (Part 2): JPUSA’s Wilson Abbey now, but was once Uptown’s Vice Palace

[Before reading part 2, did you read Wild History: Jesus People USA’s Wilson Abbey from Auto Dealership to Strip Club to New Uptown Gem Part 1? Jesus People USA, the intentional Christian community located in Uptown Chicago, has finished a gut rehab of an historic building located just across the street from their 920 W. Wilson headquarters. This is part […]

Read more ›
A Million Gods on an Elevator: How Going Up Turned Metaphysical

A Million Gods on an Elevator: How Going Up Turned Metaphysical

The 1993 100th Anniversary of the World Parliament of Religions… it would be, said friend and New Religions scholar Elliot Miller, a mix of everything from soup to nuts religiously speaking… The gathering place for thousands of worshipers of millions of gods. And it was right in my home town at the Palmer House in Chicago. I suggested meeting up […]

Read more ›
The Rising Circle: Thoughts on Love and Obedience

The Rising Circle: Thoughts on Love and Obedience

(A Message by Jon Trott at Jesus People USA Evangelical Covenant Church)   O Lord, remember in David’s favor all the hardships he endured; how he swore to the Lord and vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob, “I will not enter my house or get into my bed; 4 I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber […]

Read more ›