My current work includes civic education around the book, “Chicago Is Not Broke. Funding the City We Deserve” which lays out ways to save and generate $5 BILLION in sustainable, progressive revenues for Chicago. So that our city can work for EVERYONE. The book was published in July of 2016 after a crowd funding campaign raised $10,000 from 203 donors. We sold out of our second printing and the book has caused 66 public meetings across the city!

In 2020 I was made a member of the National Advisory Board for the Public Banking Institute which is leading the campaign for public banking in America.
In 2017, along with Jonathan Peck, I launched the POWER Institute to offer workshops in grounding and skill building for public life. We want people to fight and win for justice in Chicago! See our sister web site at www.powerinstitute.us for more information and a current schedule.Most recent civic work…

My 13th nonprofit social venture, The CivicLab operated a store front co-working space for educators and activists to meet, do research, teach and collaborate to build programs and tools for civic engagement and social justice. We were at 114 N. Aberdeen in the West Loop for two years and closed the space on June 30 of 2015. Our civic research, training, and consulting work continues.

At the Lab we created the Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Illumination Project which uses data mining, investigatory reporting, graphic design and community organizing to explore and explain the impact of Chicago’s half-billion dollar TIF program on a ward-by-ward basis. The TIF illumination Project was launched in February of 2013 and it has triggered 79 public meetings all over the city. The presentations posted to SlideShare have generated 200,000 views since then!  We’ve had over 90 stories done on our work!

Take a look at this eight-minute video (excuse the shaky camera work) of a tour of the Bucketworks in Milwaukee to get a sense of the possibilities of a creative co-working space.

In 2009 I was an organizer for the No Games Chicago campaign to derail Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Olympics. We won that fight!

In 2008 I was a co-founder of Protect Our Parks which organized and then sued to stop the privatization of Lincoln Park by the Latin School Land Grab. We won that fight!

You can download the text of the inside story of our No Games Chicago work for free here…

I’ve been involved in a quite a few civic organizing efforts…

When I learned of this terrible news I tried to stop it. I could not gin up any interest and   Hull House, founded by social justice pioneer and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Jane Addams, went out of business. You can still sign the online petition to SAVE HULL HOUSE, though.

Illinois Citizens for Public Banking was a coalition that was working to establish a public bank for Illinois like the 90-year old Bank of North Dakota. Let’s make our money work FOR us!

I helped to launch CForward which is dedicated to getting nonprofit leaders, workers and constituents active in political life. It will help elect people to office who will defend America’s nonprofits and pursue what I call a Human Agenda. Here’s a 10 minute talk I gave on November 8, 2011 at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Great Cities Institute forum on the Future of Nonprofits – calling on our colleagues to get political!
Download the text of the remarks as PDF.

Watch this video on the need for CForward – “There is no profit without nonprofits.”

I’m always interested in working with citizen activists to fight privatization and to defend the commons. Here is my assessment of the looming privatization push in Illinois. Watch a brief video explaining what is at stake…

As part of this effort, we are advocating the creation of a public bank for Illinois along the lines of the Bank of North Dakota. More information on public banking here.

I organized The Creative America Project in 2004 to inspire and elect artists, cultural workers and creative professionals to run for public office. I did training sessions in seven states. Read a summary of the speaking gigs I did and the training sessions and what participants said about them. I wrote a slim manifesto describing this work which lays out the argument for creativity as a fundamental American value and explains why I think artists and creative professionals would make excellent leaders in public life. “America Needs You!” is available as a free download here. I am now working on a documentary to extend this work and document ten creatives who have been elected to local office across America. Here is a sample with five short profiles of such creative public servants.

Listen to this eleven minute interview from 2004 where I explain why artists and creatives need to get involved in politics:

I had a column on arts and politics in Chicago’s newspaper for the performing arts, PerformInk for a number of years. Here is my first column from December of 1991, “The Artist As Citizen” – which was depressingly prophetic. Download->PerformInk_01_ArtistAsCitizen

In 2010 I was the Green Party candidate for Cook County Board President. Download a PDF document with my statement of candidacy and my platform. I was even endorsed by The Southtown Star. Here is my appearance on ABC News Chicago’s NewsViews Program: