Charles waits for his order of Giordano's pizza in Chicago, Illinois on July 30th, 2024. (Eleazar Yisrael/NABJ Monitor)
‘If you really want to see Chicago, come during the summer; you’ll see Chicago at its best’
Photos and text by Eleazar Yisrael
Enjoli (left) and Cliff Hinton (right) stands for a portrait on the shoreline of Lake Michigan in Chicago, Illinois on July 29th, 2024. They are husband and wife and both first responders, Enjoli being a police officer and Cliff being a firefighter for the city of Chicago. (Eleazar Yisrael/NABJ Monitor)Enjoli and Cliff Hinton take a selfie on the shoreline of Lake Michigan in Chicago, Illinois on July 29th, 2024. They are husband and wife and both first responders, Enjoli being a police officer and Cliff being a firefighter for the city of Chicago. (Eleazar Yisrael/NABJ Monitor)A plate of chicken sits from Harold’s Chicken Shack in Chicago, Illinois on July 30th, 2024. (Eleazar Yisrael/NABJ Monitor)Charles waits for his order of Giordano’s pizza in Chicago, Illinois on July 30th, 2024. (Eleazar Yisrael/NABJ Monitor)A swing carousel swings at the Navy Tier in Chicago, Illinois on July 30th, 2024. (Eleazar Yisrael/NABJ Monitor)Stefan O’Neill, a barber, cuts the hair of a man at Chicago’s Hyde Park Hair Salon in Chicago, Illinois on July 30th, 2024. Former president Barack Obama used to get his hair cut there. (Eleazar Yisrael/NABJ Monitor)Delores Walker (middle), Keith Walker (left), and Tenisha Tidwell converses and laugh outside of the Walker’s home in Chicago, Illinois on July 30th, 2024. (Eleazar Yisrael/NABJ Monitor)Winifred Haun & Dancers, DANCE FOR LIFETenisha Taylor Tidwell eats a Chicago hotdog from Relish Chicago Hot Dogs in Chicago, Illinois on July 29th, 2024. Tenisha was born and raised in Chicago, so was her parents and grandpaerents, etc. (Eleazar Yisrael/NABJ Monitor)A man sits to rest on a bench on the shoreline of Lake Michigan in Chicago, Illinois on July 29th, 2024. (Eleazar Yisrael/NABJ Monitor)
For most of the year, Chicagoans endure the cold, keeping people indoors longing for warmer days. Summertime Chi, a term made popular in Kanye West’s song, “Good Life” with T-Pain, is when Windy City residents come outside and relish all that their city has to offer.
“Summertime Chi runs in my blood,” said Tenisha Tidwell, a Chicago native and “NABJ Baby,” who completed NABJ’s Student Multimedia Project in 1997.
Eric, a chef at Harold’s Chicken and Waffles 88, a favorite restaurant among Black residents, welcomes summer but warns people about the crime that comes with it, a trend the University of Chicago Crime Lab confirms.
“I love Chicago, don’t get me wrong,” he says. “Kids is just getting out of hand.”
Tidewell, whose father was killed on the Southside and who has been the victim of gun violence, says that does not dampen her love of the city. She got married on Navy Pier and comes home from Atlanta frequently. She gives back to Chicago through the Ezekiel Taylor Scholarship Foundation she started for young Black men who are affected by gun violence.
“I will always have a special place in my heart” for Chicago, she said.
Eric agreed. “It’s a good city; it’s just the people that you deal with,” he said.
Michael O., a resident from Ghana who declined to give his last name, said summer brings tourists, but that’s not what makes Summertime Chi.
“During the winter you don’t see people out like that. You know everybody’s mostly indoors,” he said. “If you really want to see Chicago, come during the summer, you’ll see Chicago at its best.”
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