Chicago's Next Voices

From Archer Heights to downtown Chicago, Chicago's Next Voices columnist climbed that steep ladder

Southwest Side native Valery Pineda writes of how she never thought the doors of the downtown skyscrapers would be open to her — and how she got there and found her career.

By Valery Pineda

Chicago’s Next Voices

What's your Chicago story? We want to hear it.

We want to hear from diverse voices from across the city to be part of our Chicago’s Next Voices and tell stories of their personal experiences.

By Mary Mitchell

Young man sits in chair facing wall with scribbles and question marks.

Chicago’s Next Voices

Are fragility and anxiety closing the door on college students' resilience?

Higher ed’s constant accommodation of students’ discomfort leaves them unprepared for what’s coming tomorrow, Chicago’s Next Voices columnist writes.

By Maham Khan

Chicago’s Next Voices

Unofficial parking cops, consider unseen disabilities before tattling, Chicago Next Voices columnist writes<br/>

Being falsely accused of faking an impairment for a parking spot shows the need to raise awareness that disabilities can take many forms, Chicago’s Next Voices columnist writes.

By Effie Koliopoulos

Bally’s Chicago casino is slated for the current site of the Chicago Tribune printing plant at 777 W. Chicago Ave.

Chicago’s Next Voices

City can’t ignore new casino’s impact on people struggling with gambling, Chicago’s Next Voices guest columnist writes

The permanent Bally’s casino promises an escape, but Chicagoans should look to the 1915 Eastland disaster as a cautionary tale of a promised respite from the dreary and mundane.

By Derek Helling

The Chicago skyline. Chicago remains what it was built to be: a center that draws people to work and live, agree and disagree, suffer and strive, to appreciate art and music and beauty, to feel something, question everything and imagine what’s possible.

Chicago’s Next Voices

This city dares us to stick around and make it better, Chicago’s Next Voices guest columnist writes

My parents educated the next generation here. My grandfathers laid bricks and pounded nails here. My grandmothers answered phones at the Sears Tower and stitched patterns to clothe the nation. Let’s stay in this city that gave us our history and make it new — again.

By Emily Dagostino

Chicago’s Next Voices

Aging brings creaks and groans but also grace and joy, Chicago’s Next Voices guest columnist writes

Seniors face challenges in getting around and, ah, getting it on, Randi Forrest says, and need an outlet to share concerns — including how to get by in a world geared to younger people.

By Randi Forrest

Chicago’s Next Voices

Life hacks can offer all of us a way forward even when opportunities are scarce

Chicago’s Next Voices columnist Lashaunta Moore: Hard work and life hacks can open doors and unleash talent, especially for those from underserved communities.

By Lashaunta Moore

Columnists

In one 1977 front-page photo at Southwest Side school, the human story of school desegregation era

Protests had erupted in Chicago as minority students were bused to majority-white schools. Amid all of that, two young girls, one white, one Black, sat together as new friends. One was my daughter.

By Nancy Osness

Cameron Bell, 3, plays with a toy car along the edge of a sand box earlier this month at Bixler Park in Hyde Park.

Columnists

Neighborhood playlot a fleeting wonderland of old toys, young faces, treasured moments

We could only spend the winter dreaming of the coming spring. “New” old toys would appear. Bixler would again fill with little kids, coming from blocks and miles and neighborhoods away to run and yell and be together.

By Lucy Biederman

Introducing Sun-Times’ new guest columnists, winners of our Chicago’s Next Voices contest

By Mitch Dudek