Letters To Chicago

$75.00

Only one left ANYWHERE! Sold out from the publisher!

Letters To Chicago is a monograph by Sir Charles published by Almighty & Insane Books combining Sir Charles’ Chicago hand style calligraphy on historic photos of Chicago’s downtrodden neighborhoods. Limited Edition of 200.

Letters To Chicago is a 54 page, 11×14″ perfect bound softcover book with a letterpress printed cover risograph printed interior pages! “Sir Charles is a pseudonym born from the gang violence that began to plague not only the streets in his own neighborhood of Brighton Park, but also many other neighborhoods in Chicago. A drive-by shooting that occurred in 2015 at Shields Elementary School fueled his mission to combine Chicago gang lettering and culture with a personal twist of empowerment, forgiveness, and growth. This mission simultaneously documents personal struggles and battles with alcoholism and drug abuse as Sir Charles, or Life of a Busy Dad as he’s also known, started a new chapter as a sober father for his daughter that continues to this day. In this publication Sir Charles’s letters are paired with mid 20th century photographs from the archives of Chicago’s Urban Renewal Department. Documenting the process of identifying “blighted” buildings/neighborhoods, and targeting them for destruction/replacement, these photos preserve images of bygone structures in the oldest parts of the city. This initiative displaced many from their homes for the sake of municipal infrastructure projects, a new university campus, public housing, and private real estate developments. With a mind to contemporary parallels, Sir Charles’s risograph-printed letters, symbols, and messages float through this history as a disembodied voice while demonstrating a new lettering mode combining calligraphy with graffiti handstyles that is both deeply indebted to, and an integral product of, his native city of Chicago.” – Almighty & Insane Books

Letters To Chicago is Risograph printing by Flatlands Press, Chicago, IL with covers Letterpress printed by is PRESS, Denver CO, in copper metallic ink on 140# black French Speckletone paper.

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