Scenes of Chicago

I have not forgotten what I learned from my first American exile about the other aspects of Chicago. Blues and jazz pushed me to follow the magazine Ebony; “ebony” refers to both the ebony tree and the color black. It was one of the most well-known American magazines dealing with the life of African-Americans, their culture, arts and creativity in different fields. I do not know if Ebony is still published today, but I remember that it was my gateway to American and black culture, from which I have never exited. I follow African-American culture, and today it has taken on more weight and become increasingly important in every field, to the degree that it has become impossible to understand American culture without its black face — turning brighter and brighter thanks to affirmative action, a law that imposed positive effects year after year until one of these black people became president of the United States. It was not easy: Eradicating discrimination was a long and tough endeavor. The roots of discrimination today still permeate the mind of some white extremists.

My interest in African-American culture made me curious about their cuisine, which is characterized as piquant and spicy. I discovered ribs* restaurants in Chicago’s black neighborhoods, which serve either small ribs, known as “baby ribs,” or bigger ones, just called ribs, of veal or lamb. The restaurant specialized in the type of ribs soaked in a chili sauce all night, and then grilled and served. The first time I ate ribs, I felt a blazing heaven burning in my stomach that could not be extinguished except by strong beverages. However, the taste of these damned ribs was so tempting that stopping by these restaurants became a fixation on every visit to Chicago.

I still have beautiful memories of Chicago in my mind, including that day when I spent time looking for a magazine called Poetry. It inspired the Syrian poet Yusuf al-Khal, who gave its name to his own magazine based in Beirut. He hoped that it would play a role similar to the one played by the American magazine, which played a part in modernizing American poetry. Poems by Eliot, Pound and others that became landmark poems in the history of English-language poetry were published by the magazine. The same story happened to the Beirut-based magazine; it followed the same path and highlighted the poems of Adonis, al-Maghut, Ounsi el-Hage, al-Sayyab and other contemporary Arab poets.

When I visited Chicago, I also did not fail to experience the cultural pleasures of visiting museums and the Sears Tower, which rises to more than 200 levels to compete with the Empire State Building in New York.

*Editor’s note: The original article spelled all instances of “ribs” as “rips”; the correct spelling is used in this translation for clarity.