Before the days of social media and the internet, Weeds Tavern’s host and bartender Sergio Mayora attracted a loyal, diverse, and eclectic crowd to the bar with his unique and vibrant collage poster art promoting the tavern.  These advertisements were singular cut-and-paste works of art. From 1988’s “Weed’s Pollution Night� to 2004’s poetry night “Making America Safe in the War Against Censorship,� many of Mayora’s posters predicted the world we are living in today.  Echoing the bright colors and catchy phrases of Mayora’s poster art, Weeds Tavern: Poster Art of Sergio Mayora collects over 40 of these iconic posters that once adorned the phone booths and streetlamps of Chicago’s streets. Featuring text by celebrated Chicago journalist Dave Hoekstra and a foreword by award-winning actor and Weeds patron Michael Shannon, this book is sure to delight both those who frequented Weeds and those who wish they could have been part of the magic. 

Community journalism has long been a part of the lifeblood of America, but never have the stakes been so high for the people behind it. In Beacons in the Darkness, award-winning journalist Dave Hoekstra interviews the people trying to keep the lights on at community newspapers across the country amid buyouts, declining revenues, fake news, and a pandemic. This book is not another account of the death of local journalism-but rather a celebration of the community ties, perseverance, and empathy that's demonstrated in community newsrooms from Hillsboro, Illinois, to Charleston, South Carolina, to Marfa, Texas. Hoekstra recounts the sometimes-scandalous but always-industrious stories of the families who built these newspapers and passed them down through generations. Modern publishers and owners describe in their own words their struggles and experiments to stay alive in the digital age, not just for their businesses and their families but also for the communities they serve and the neighbors whose stories they tell in their reporting. Beacons in the Darkness provides an intimate view inside the organizations that still publish photos of the local bowling league and the outlandishly large mushrooms on the edge of town, leaving you with a rekindled fondness for your own community paper-and a renewed appreciation of what we all stand to lose without one.