Helen Shiller in conversation with Annie Howard

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Join us as we welcome legendary Chicago city council member and community activist Helen Shiller for an event in celebration of her new memoir Daring to Struggle, Daring to Win. Helen Shiller will be in conversation with organizer and journalist Annie Howard. Daring to Struggle, Daring to Win tells the fascinating true story of Helen Shiller, a radical organizer turned independent politician, and her 40-year struggle for justice in Chicago. Helen Shiller went from radical anti-war activist in Wisconsin, to a white ally of the Black Panther Party in Chicago, building community coalitions that led her to ultimately win a seat on the city council, while helping to break the back of the racialized opposition to Harold Washington, Chicago’s first Black mayor. Shiller participated, when few others did, in the historic fight against the gentrification of a unique economically and racially mixed Uptown community on Chicago’s Northside. With insight into community organizing and political battles in Chicago from the 1970s through 2010, this book details the many policy fights and conflicts in Chicago during this time, illuminating recurrent political themes and battles that remain relevant to this day. Helen Shiller, raised by migrant Jewish parents, was radicalized by the anti-war and civil rights movements. Shiller was in a collective of whites aligned with the Black Panther Party in Chicago. Beginning in 1987, Shiller was a radical Chicago alderperson for 24 years. Annie Howard is a historian, journalist, and urbanist based in Bridgeport. Day-to-day, Annie is a housing organizer, fighting to pass the Just Cause for Eviction ordinance, which would prevent people from being displaced without reason. Her writing has appeared in a variety of outlets, and she's compiled her favorite works into three zines that can be purchased at Pilsen Community Books and other purveyors of self-published works across the city of Chicago.