Windy City Times has recruited two talented storytellers to lead its BLACKlines and En La Vida newsletters, marking a comeback for the two specialty publications that covered Chicago’s Black and Latine LGBTQ+ communities in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Anna DeShawn, founder and CEO of E3 Radio and the Qube, will serve as newsletter coordinator for BLACKlines, which launches Feb. 26 and will come out the fourth Wednesday of every month.
Lu Calzada, a Windy City Times fellow who studied journalism at Northwestern University’s Medill School and Loyola University, will be newsletter coordinator for En La Vida. That newsletter launches March 12 and will come out the second Wednesday of every month.
DeShawn and Calzada will serve as the voice behind the free BLACKlines and En La Vida newsletters. They’ll be in touch monthly with the latest news, arts and features centering Black and Latine queer people.
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“We are thrilled to have Anna and Lu on board and leading the return of BLACKlines and En La Vida,” said Jake Wittich, managing editor of Windy City Times. “Their mix of journalism knowledge and life experience as engaged members of the communities they’ll be covering make them a great fit to coordinate these monthly newsletters.”
DeShawn, whose pronouns are anything respectful, has won multiple awards for her work as a podcast producer and host. She is also a Chicago-born social entrepreneur who has dedicated her work to building streaming platforms that celebrate BIPOC, queer and trans people.
In 2009, DeShawn founded E3 Radio, which is an online radio station dedicated to playing queer music and sharing LGBTQ+ news through an intersectional lens. She later expanded her reach by launching the Qube, a podcast production company curating shows by BIPOC, queer and trans creatives.
DeShawn said she looks forward to building on this work through BLACKlines.
“BLACKlines holds a unique place in Chicago’s journalistic history, and I’m deeply honored to steward this vital publication for a new generation,” DeShawn said. “It’s an incredible opportunity to amplify Black LGBTQ+ voices and stories at a time when they’re needed most.”
DeShawn’s role in leading the BLACKlines newsletter will also open the doors for more collaboration and cross-promotion between Windy City Times and E3 Radio.
“This collaboration between WCT and E3 Radio is a perfect synergy,” DeShawn said. “Both organizations have a long-standing commitment to centering LGBTQ+ lives in Chicago and beyond. By combining WCT’s print expertise with E3 Radio’s audio reach, we can create a powerful, multi-platform experience that amplifies our community’s stories in innovative and impactful ways.
Calzada, whose pronouns are they/them, is currently a fellow with Windy City Times through Northwestern Medill’s Local News Accelerator and a Digital Equity Fellow with Comcast NBCUniversal.
As a Windy City Times fellow, Calzada helped organize the launch of Chicago Social Butterflies, Windy City Times’ weekly LGBTQ+ events newsletter that launched in February 2024. As a freelancer, Calzada’s work has also appeared in Block Club Chicago, La Raza, Chicago Sun-Times and People.
“I’m excited to take on this role for En La Vida because growing up and during my time studying journalism, I never realized this type of role existed or was even possible,” Calzada said. “I’m looking forward to connecting with people in the Latine LGBTQ+ community during what is currently a difficult time for us in the U.S., as well as the opportunity to share important news stories as well as features on spectacular folks in the community.”
Calzada has been preparing Windy City Times for the launch of BLACKlines and En La Vida by diving into both publications’ archives and preparing excerpts from them that will be featured in the monthly newsletters.
“It’s been fascinating,” Calzada said. “It’s heartwarming to see the progress we’ve made and read about those who fought for our rights and visibility in decades past. It also was oddly haunting to see how, in some ways, we’re back to fighting for the same things they were in the 1990s and early 2000s. I’m excited to share these archives because Black, Latine and queer history is often glossed over in education.”
BLACKlines and En La Vida were published by Outlines newspaper when launched, and then merged into Windy City Media Group when Outlines purchased Windy City Times in 2000.
BLACKlines started in February 1996 to fill a void left by the death of writer Robert Ford, a Black gay man who created Thing, a revolutionary ’zine covering Chicago’s Black queer community. Months later in July 1996, En La Vida started printing amid calls from Chicago’s Latine community to have a similar publication.
Both newspapers ran for eight years before merging into Identity, a monthly magazine covering all aspects of identity, including race, gender, HIV status, spirituality, age, disabilities and more. But Identity eventually folded as well.
“We’re really excited to bring back BLACKlines and En La Vida in this new format,” said Windy City Times Publisher Matt Simonette. “These newsletters centering Black and Latine LGBTQ+ Chicagoans will put the spotlight both on current news about those communities and—thanks to our organization’s archives covering some four decades of news—their rich histories.”
Read more about our upcoming BLACKlines and En La Vida newsletters here.