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Bonni McKeown

Bonni McKeown co-authored Stepson of the Blues: A Chicago Song of Survival, the autobiography of Chicago blues singer and drummer Larry Hill Taylor. Her writings on African-American music history have been published in Metro Valley magazine, Charleston WV; and in Big City Rhythm and Blues Magazine in Detroit where she is also a copyeditor. With Gallery Communications she wrote and helped design a tourism map brochure for the Potomac Highlands of West Virginia in 1999. Bonni has long been active as a citizen on arts, environmental and transportation issues. She is the author of the Vietnam War biography Peaceful Patriot: the Story of Tom Bennett (Mountain State Press 1980). Her poems appear in the 2004 West Virginia anthology Wild Sweet Notes and she was a contributing writer to the West Virginia Encyclopedia, published by West Virginia Humanities Council in 2006. She is also a blues piano player.

Community

West Side musician releasing new album, performing at blues fest

By Bonni McKeown | June 4, 2023

Chicago blues musician Larry Taylor unveils a new album this month and will perform with some of his family at the Chicago Blues Fest and at Fitzgeralds.

Opinion

Blues can help black Chicago revive, relate

By Bonni McKeown | April 11, 2019

West Side resident Bonni McKeown says Chicago’s world-famous blues music can be a powerful cultural symbol to encourage appreciation of African-American culture. The city would greatly benefit from a blues revival, she says.

News

Garage sale Saturday will benefit Sistas of the Hood

By Bonni McKeown | August 18, 2011

The group is raising money to help women serving life sentences at Dwight Correctional Center.

News

Austin siblings solve business puzzle

By Bonni McKeown | August 1, 2011

The brother-sister duo, part of a five-member team, placed second in a national contest.

News

Fresh Moves bus making stops in Austin

By Bonni McKeown | May 31, 2011

Food Desert Action brings produce to the West Side each week. Check out where you can shop next.

News

Musicians will play at West Side school this week

By Bonni McKeown | May 3, 2011

The Chicago School of Blues will perform Wednesday at Spencer Tech Elementary.

News

Musician digs West Side’s hidden blues treasure

By Bonni McKeown | March 28, 2011

Larry Taylor will talk about his new book and his band will perform April 4th at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

News

  • Expungement, record sealing event helps West Siders get jobs after leaving prison

    Austin resident Anthony Jefferson has been working over the past six years to expunge his criminal record. With help from the Monroe Foundation, he's moving toward the clean slate he wants to achieve to secure employment.

  • Get free groceries, other help from these Austin groups

    On a recent Thursday, volunteers from What About Us Charitable Enterprises spent the morning filling dozens of grocery bags with fresh food and staples that soon filled the arms of West Side residents in need. Dorin “Pastor Mac” McIntyre, executive director and co-founder of What About Us Charitable Enterprises and pastor of Mount Olivet Missionary Baptist Church, is one of many helping Austin residents struggling with food insecurity.

  • 29th Ward residents invited to holiday events on Tuesday

  • 29th Ward residents invited to propose how to spend $450,000

    Austin residents are invited to participate in this year's participatory budgeting cycle. The annual process lets ward residents ages 14 and up decide how to spend a portion of the aldermanic menu money.

  • Forty Acres Fresh Market marks important moment this week in bringing store to Austin

    Austin moves one step closer this week to getting a new grocery store with the groundbreaking of Forty Acres Fresh Market in the heart of the Soul City Corridor. Another effort to expand food offerings on the West Side continues with the Austin Community Food Co-op, which held a virtual info session last week on its efforts to bring a grocery store to the area.

  • Healing in nature workshop set for Saturday

    The Westside Cultural Alliance continues its "See, Feel and Heal" nature series Saturday at Garfield Park Nature Area, 100 N. Central Park with a workshop on making memory boxes. The workshop sessions focus on art and nature as vehicles of healing through art therapy, which provides wholistic healing for the body, mind and spirit.

  • Illinois residents can apply for help with paying gas, electric bills

    Applications are now open for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) for qualified residential customers who are over the age of 60, have a disability or have children under the age of 6 to receive financial assistance to pay their energy bills. LIHEAP is a federally funded bill payment assistance program that helps low- and fixed-income families pay their utility during the winter heating season.

  • West Siders turn out for chili cook off in Austin’s Soul City

    Over a dozen local chefs competed in the second annual "It’s Getting Chili in Soul City" event on Saturday. A team of five who make up the Austin African American Business Networking Association board – Malcolm Crawford, Shirley Fields, Sharmine Rickett, Ronald Smith and Marshawn Felton – created the chili contest last year.

  • Chicago Marathon runner raises money for West Side girls

    Over the last 20 years, Ashley Graham has run 56 marathons - including the Chicago Marathon five times. Several of those marathons she raised money for charity - and this year was no different.

  • Stop by Austin farmers market this week

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