Chicago hosted the 12th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates April 23 - 25, to promote empowering youth to activism and action. The three day summit was co-chaired by former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, former Mayor of Rome, Walter Veltroni and Mayor Rahm Emanuel served as the honorable chair.[kml_flashembed publishmethod="dynamic" fversion="10.1.8276" useexpressinstall="true" movie="https://columbiachronicle.com/soundslides/Wo...

From the intimacy of his bedroom to the runways of Paris Fashion Week 2012, multidisciplinary artist Ojay Morgan, better known as Zebra Katz, has seen his career transform in a matter of months.Now the Brooklyn resident will be performing at parties for the Chicago International Movies and Music Festival, an event from April 12–15 showcasing films, bands and live performers from many backgrounds and genres.This year, the fest...

It’s a Wednesday afternoon in Chicago’s Portage Park neighborhood and the streets are quiet. But inside the area’s local cineplex, the Portage Theater, 4050 N. Milwaukee Ave., children from North Park Elementary happily buzz around, spilling popcorn in their wake. The interior’s ornate decoration and vintage architecture call to mind the theater’s glory days in the 1920’s. But no matter the evident wear and te...

“F--k it, I’m going to be a writer.” That’s what Shawn Shiflett, associate professor in the Fiction Writing Department, recalls telling himself while eating a Big Mac, two large fries and a soda at a McDonalds in the early 1970s after losing the chance to follow his other passion, baseball.Shiflett, who shared this memory on Feb. 28 with Columbia students, alumni and faculty, described himself as an average student w...