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Meet the Lab Host: Windy City Times

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Meet the Lab Host gives you an inside look at the innovative, creative, forward-thinking Chicago organizations hosting CIW 2014 Labs.  To learn more about 2014 programming, consult our online schedule.  Tickets go on sale to the general public September 2, 2014.

Join Windy City Times for an Alternative Journalism Lab on Wednesday, October 15 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Founded in 1985, Windy City Times provides alternative news, aiming to serve and represent Chicago’s LGBTQ community.  Over time, it has expanded to include a biweekly bar guide (Nightspots), a podcast (Windy City Queercast) and a website, in addition to its weekly print newspaper.  The local media conglomerate’s staff talked to us about why they started in Chicago, what tricks of the journalistic trade they’ll be sharing with Lab attendees and where Chicagoans can find the best park in the city.

Windy City Times‘s staff creates a paper that
“seeks to cover the entire diversity of LGBTQs.”
In three sentences or fewer, what is your organization’s manifesto or mission?
Our goal is to be the “voice of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer communities.” That is a very diverse set of people, businesses and nonprofits, so we seek to cover the entire diversity of LGBTQs. That includes through news, events, features, entertainment, sports and more.
 
Why Chicago?  Tell us why this idea or organization is based in Chicago, how you think the city has supported the project and how you think the project contributes to our city. 
Tracy Baim, co-founder of Windy City Times, is a native Chicagoan. When she returned in 1984 with a degree in journalism from Drake University, she immediately joined the gay media world as an alternative to a less welcoming straight mainstream media. That mainstream world is now far more embracing of LGBT issues, and as a result, Windy City Times is more respected within the media universe of Chicago.
 
Give us a sneak peek of what we should expect at your Lab.  What hands-on, interactive activities do you have planned for participants?  (But don’t tell us everything—keep some of your Lab a surprise!)  
You’ll create stories in a journalistic workshop using a variety of tools and media, including video, print and online. You’ll hear from our writers, editors, art director and sales manager about how the company works, and you’ll discover how a company like ours makes decisions for each weekly newspaper and daily online coverage.
 
We want to be in the know!  Name one person, place or thing that you think is one of Chicago’s best-kept secrets—a secret until now, of course.  
The Chicago Women’s Park and Gardens in the South Loop is a tiny park, but mighty in its beauty. Originally dedicated as the Hillary Clinton Women’s Park in the 1990s, it has since been beautifully landscaped, includes the Widow Clarke’s House (Chicago’s oldest house) and features the Jane Addams Helping Hands sculpture by Louise Bourgeois. As if that’s not enough, it also has a fountain and lots of varied vegetation. 
 
Q&As are edited for clarity and length.
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Erin Robertson is managing editor at Chicago Ideas.

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