You are driving up Western and stop at the redlight at Devon and look at the folks in the next car.  Wonder what they are listening to on radio? Or, say, you are wandering along West Belmont and there’s a storekeeper staring into space and listening to a radio station. I’ll bet they are listening to voices [...] […]

You see the signs everywhere: Why Wait ? Get Your Tax Refund Now. But there’s a good reason to wait and there’s a very good reason why this is a story that the immigrant and minority news media needs to do before April 15. That’s because large numbers of the working poor are the ones who take [...] […]

We  journalists tell stories and the ones that often click with us are those that show life’s turns. And when the turns land someone on the better side of things, they are usually the most compelling. Here is the start of such a story from the latest issue of EXTRA by Stella Nichols, one of our interns. [...] […]

Before we hand out these statues tonight, we want to stop and say a few word about where these shining Oscars come from – Chicago. That’s right, the statues that millions of people around the world are ogling were born at the R.S. Owens & Co. factory on Chicago’s Northside. They have been made there for [...] […]

Schools are being shut down in Chicago because of their crippling failures. But are they the only ones who have failed? Who else is accountable? Who else needs to come to their rescue? What else needs to be done? Few stories matter as much as these school closings to communities and this is the time for the ethnic [...] […]

When the government launched its pitch to the ethnic news media last year, it was very attractive. We want you. Want you to help us. Want to help you. Want you to help us reach people who are unreached. That is how the mantra went. The lure of advertising dollars rang in the ears of ethnic news [...] […]

Valeria Fernandez shares a story about the Mexican workers who craft the Oscar, Tupac Saavedra followed Bolivian president Evo Morales during his election campaign in On the Road with Evo, and Executive Director David Evan Harris talks about his Global Lives Project. […]

Manuel Ortiz talks about the escalating drug violence in Sinaloa, Mexico, Patricia Sullivan writes about the early days ofthe NAACP in Lift Every Voice, and Paula West names several of her favorite jazz musicians. […]

The freedom to make music – to sing it, play it, record it and distribute it – is something most people take for granted. On March 3, Freemuse – the global organisation committed to freedom of expression for musicians and composers worldwide – is celebrating Music Freedom Day with a concert in Stockholm’s Concert Hall. The [...] […]

The sixth African Soul Rebels tour of the UK takes place February 18-March 3 with three more diverse acts from across the length and breadth of the continent. The headline act is one of the great women of Malian song, Oumou Sangaré. Her most recent album Seya [reviewed in #58] was nominated for a Grammy [...] […]