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The January-February 2018, issue of Illinois Heritage invites its readers to celebrate the state’s bicentennial.  Adventures around the Prairie State take us on a veritable road trip around the state without leaving our hearth.  Art and literature are celebrated with a look a Pulitzer Prize-winning authors Carl and Mark Van
Doren and the art of Irma Rene Koen. Traveling the state with authors Stephen Leonard and Keith Sculle will surely jog a reader’s memory of their own trips.  Finally, be sure not to miss our state’s bicentennial time travel in the first installment of “Illinois in Time.” 

On the Cover: A young visitor to the Lincoln Tomb in Springfield considers the price of citizenship in a nation "of the people, by the people, for the people." Photo by Jody Kienzler

To our Readers:

The leaves have turned and fallen, and the mercury continues to dip below the comfort zone. As of the writing the Illinois General Assembly and Governor Rauner are frozen solid with no thaw of the state budget in sight. For many state employees and service providers, it looks like the winter of discontent is already upon us.

On the Cover: "The Chicago Bean," symbol of the city's growth, rebirth, and regeneration. Photo courtesy City of Chicago.

This issue of Illinois Heritage is chockablock with interesting snapshots of the "City of Neighborhoods," as Chicago is sometimes known. Sherry Williams offers and account of growing up African American in the Englewood neighborhood during the tumultuous Civil Rights era. Speaking of "two Chicagos, one black, and one white, separate and unequal," Christopher Ramsey details the ups and downs of the Chicago Lawn neighborhood, commonly known as Marquette Park. And Devin Hunter adapts his Laoyola University dissertation on Uptown to share with us what he's learned about on of Chicago's more intriguing neighborhoods. Just north of Uptown is Andersonville, an old Swedish neighborhood that today is home to one of the largest gay and lesbian communities in all the Midwest. Peter Ellertsen tells us about this neighborhood - then and now. Ray Hanania examines the history of Arabs - Christian and Muslim  - both in the city and suburbs. Last, William Fury takes the reader on a sensory-filled tour of Chinatown.

As always, happy reading... Bill Kemp (Guest Editor)