BLACKlines and En La Vida, two specialty publications covering Chicago’s Black and Latine LGBTQ+ communities, are making comebacks as monthly Windy City Times newsletters.

The two community newspapers, which ran monthly from 1996-2004, will be revived as free monthly newsletters, launching in February for BLACKlines and March for En La Vida. 

Sign up now to receive these newsletters when they start. 

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.

“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.”

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.

Throughout their run, BLACKlines and En La Vida covered a range of topics involving Chicago’s Black and Latine communities, including profiles of organizations including Affinity, Amigas Latinas, and ALMA; profiles of key activists and other community leaders; and LGBTQ+ participation in events like the Bud Billiken and Puerto Rican Day parades.

As newsletters, BLACKlines and En La Vida will offer deep-dives into the publications’ archives, as well as coverage of current events, issues, arts and more. Their contributors will include a mix of former BLACKlines and En La Vida writers, as well as new contributors.

“Subscribers will have an expertly curated swath of stories from folks who know what’s going on right now in the Black and Latine LGBTQ+ communities,” Simonette said. “But BLACKlines and En La Vida will also highlight articles and photos offering meaningful historic perspectives on those communities as well.”

The BLACKlines and En La Vida newsletters are made possible by grants Windy City Times received from Press Forward Chicago and Press Forward national. Press Forward is a funder collaborative led by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation that is dedicated to strengthening and sustaining local news.

Windy City Times was among 13 local news organizations to receive a grant from Press Forward Chicago, a local chapter of the initiative housed at the Chicago Community Trust. Windy City Times also received a grant from Press Forward’s national organization. Windy City Times cofounder Tracy Baim started Jan. 2 as executive director of the local Press Forward—after the local grant was awarded.

BLACKlines and En La Vida will join Windy City Times’ growing suite of free newsletters, which includes Chicago Social Butterflies and News on Q. 

Chicago Social Butterflies, which launched in February 2024, is a weekly newsletter and website rounding up LGBTQ+ events across Chicago and the suburbs. In its first 10 months, the newsletter has surpassed 6,000 subscribers.

News on Q, which launched in August 2024, is a weekly newsletter rounding up LGBTQ+ news and features from Windy City Times and outlets across the country.

“BLACKlines and En La Vida have storied histories reflecting the diversity of Chicago’s LGBTQ+ community, making them great additions to Windy City Times’ growing newsletter operation,” said Jake Wittich, managing editor of Windy City Times. “We hope that we’ll recapture the publications’ spirit in the years ahead.”

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