Hyde Park Herald

Registered nurses, joined by union allies, clergy and community activists, gathered outside the Cook County Pension Fund building Thursday to demand that the fund divest its $28 million stake in Palantir Technologies, the data analytics firm whose software is used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and hospital systems across the country. The Chicago demonstration, held at noon outside the building at 70 W.

New rules governing who can use electronic bikes and scooters, including where and how fast they go, will go into effect next year following Gov. JB Pritzker’s signature on Wednesday. Pritzker signed Senate Bill 3484 which establishes regulations on “micromobility” transportation that include age requirements, speed limits and rules on where they can be operated. The bill takes effect Jan. 1.

Here's what's going on in and around Hyde Park this week. August 27 Poetry at the Pavilion: Arts + Public Life continues its monthly poetry series featuring Chicago poet Nué Foster, followed by a guided writing session open to writers of all experience levels. Thursday, Aug. 27, 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Arts Lawn, 337 E. Garfield Blvd. Free.

After 14 years, the Chicago Theological Seminary (CTS) is leaving its Hyde Park headquarters at 1407 E. 60th St. and shifting to fully remote operations as the 170-year-old institution navigates financial difficulties and declining enrollment. CTS and the University of Chicago announced Aug. 12 that they had mutually agreed to end the seminary’s long-term lease of the university-owned building, where CTS has operated since 2012. The U. of C. will resume full stewardship of the building on Sept. 1.

For the ninth time since 2010, the Hyde Park Art Center is giving Chicago’s newest art school graduates a stage of their own. “Ground Floor” 2026, on view through Nov. 1 at 5020 S. Cornell Ave., brings together 21 artists who graduated in the past two years from one of Chicago’s five MFA programs: Northwestern University, the University of Chicago, the University of Illinois at Chicago, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) and Columbia College. The biennial, which opened Aug.

The University of Chicago Law School has banned laptops, tablets and phones from first-year classrooms starting this fall, part of a broader AI strategy the school says is meant to protect how students learn even as artificial intelligence reshapes how lawyers work. The policy, laid out in a July statement titled “Rethinking Legal Education in the AI Era,” bars devices from all required first-year courses, with narrow exceptions for note-taking "scribes" and approved classroom activities.

Eight-year-old Jonas and 10-year-old Emil, both Lab School students, faced each other across a chessboard set up in a Hyde Park Neighborhood Club classroom. They shook hands and commenced play in the first round of a four-round, no-elimination tournament. The quiet of the classroom was punctuated by the clicks of chess pieces and the murmurs of a few observers who watched the games intently.

There is no more reliable harbinger of the coming new music season than Lyric Opera of Chicago’s annual concert in Millennium Park. Currently known as “Sunday in the Park with Lyric,” the event offers a brief look at the upcoming Lyric season with orchestral and vocal excerpts from operas scheduled for performance between October of this year and April of next.

What does it mean to be human in an increasingly technological world? That's the question playwright Matthew Libby says fascinates him in a Q&A in the digital program for Writers Theatre's absorbing production of his “Sisters” in the intimate Gillian Theatre. He explores this question and its corollaries by stripping away the outward trappings of tech and forcing the audience to focus on essentials.

Amid persistent budget deficits and a battle between the two major unions representing school staff over the direction of the board and City Hall, Jennifer “Jenni” Custer wants to reform how the Chicago Board of Education operates before she tries to change much else. Custer, an elected member representing District 1b on the Northwest Side, is one of five candidates running for board president in November, when all 21 seats on the body will be up for election for the first time.