Susan DeGrane – Page 11

Sugar cookies, baked and decorated by volunteers to look like skulls for Celebration of Life, were sold Sunday during a Day of the Dead-style celebration at Edna White Memorial Garden.

On Day of the Dead, a public garden offered an opportunity to gather and remember people lost, because ‘community can be family too’

November 3, 2020 at 1:43 p.m.

Sharp shadows cut across the withering vegetable plants, wildflowers, and herbs gone to seed Sunday at Edna White Memorial Garden in Chicago's Morgan Park neighborhood. Amid Catrinas — skeleton figures...

From left, master gardeners Nancy Thorson of Midlothian, Carmen Holmes of Harvey, Phyllis Warsen of Lansing and Monica Gonzalez of Chicago Heights plant an onion garden recently at Sandridge Nature Center with Nancy Kreith, University of Illinois Extension educator.

Plantings for the people: Two Southland master gardeners honored at state level for work in community

October 28, 2020 at 2:52 p.m.

The growing season may be winding down, but that hasn't stopped Carmen Holmes and Phyllis Warsen from gardening. Just last week they were busy planting garlic, shallots and wild onions...

Mayor Domingo F. Vargas plays a guitar from Paracho, Mexico, in a corner of his office at Blue Island Village Hall alongside a Day of the Dead mask and other mementos.

Ghost stories? Mysterious happenings seem to haunt Blue Island City Hall, mayor says

October 16, 2020 at 1:22 p.m.

Something strange happened one late-summer afternoon four years ago at Blue Island City Hall. As Mayor Domingo F. Vargas stood talking with Marisol Barrera, his administrative assistant, a heavy wooden...

Lisa Mulcrone, assisted by Sioban Clancy, conducts a cooking lesson via Zoom recently with Chicago Special Olympics Chicago athletes and their families.

Special Olympics Chicago athletes gather virtually for online cooking class: ‘It became a family thing’

October 3, 2020 at 1:00 a.m.

Around 5 p.m. on a recent Wednesday evening, Lisa Mulcrone assembles ingredients for dinner in the kitchen of her north Beverly Home. Along with the cans of green chilies, enchilada...

Dale Fast, a retired St. Xavier biology professor and amateur photographer, displays his poster showcasing doorways of homes and other locals in Beverly and North Beverly. The artwork has raised more than $3,000 for A New Direction, an organization serving victims of domestic violence.

Beverly artist’s fundraiser calls attention to increase in domestic violence: ‘The message is that no one is safe behind closed doors’

October 1, 2020 at 1:00 a.m.

Driving home the point that domestic violence occurs behind closed doors, regardless of socio-economic status, culture, religion, race or gender, Jessica McCarihan, executive director of A New Direction, seized on...

Elaine Miller stands next to a canvas painting of the Dan Ryan Woods in fall to be displayed at the Beverly Arts Center starting Friday.

Blue Island artist features beauty, blemishes of Southland’s ‘urban forest’

September 20, 2020 at 1:00 a.m.

When it comes to portraying nature, Elaine Miller is all about delivering the beautiful with the ugly, the waxing with the waning, the living with the dying away. "That's kind...

Gardeners explore the backyard of the 2020 Chicago Bungalow Association Garden Contest winner during a Garden Walk on Sunday in the area around Chicago's Beverly neighborhood.

Flowers, fairies and purple peppers highlight Beverly group’s tour of area gardens

September 18, 2020 at 3:58 p.m.

After canceling a Memorial Day parade and run, a bicycle race and a tour of homes, Beverly Area Planning Association officials decided its only communitywide event for 2020 would be...

Beverly Arts Center opens in-person classes, offering option of ‘positive distraction in arts environment’

September 12, 2020 at 11:07 a.m.

Artist Kat Huddleston often works with fused glass, a process involving high temperatures, but the reaction of her students to her teaching efforts over the summer resulted in a different...

Electrify America chargers at Evergreen Marketplace, 9200 S. Western Ave., Evergreen Park still have plastic coverings on their charging cables at the end of August after being recently installed.

With electric vehicles, the road to the future still has bumps

September 7, 2020 at 1:00 a.m.

When Nnedi Okorafor of Flossmoor approached her condo association about installing an outlet for charging her 2019 Tesla Model 3, she was met with staunch resistance. "Suddenly I'm being yelled...

Debbie Parks, a guitarist and music teacher, spends a quiet moment recently in the courtyard of the Beverly Art Center.

‘Music has no color’: Debbie Parks won’t let pandemic get in the way of bringing people together through song

September 1, 2020 at 9:49 a.m.

Growing up in Chicago's Englewood neighborhood, Debbie Parks' favorite movie as a preteen was "Sunshine," a 1973 docudrama about a pregnant divorcee who falls in love with a musician. The...

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