CHICAGO — Arionne Nettles has the soul of the city inscribed in her DNA.
She spent her summers riding her bike and scraping her knees on her Englewood block.
She learned how to sew and chop wood in a Chicago Park District field house, and completed book reports and Black History Month projects at the Woodson Regional Public Library in Washington Heights.
She sold sweet treats from her grandmother’s candy house and dug her toes in the sand at Rainbow Beach.
So when it came time to tell a story the Chicago Way, Nettles — a journalist, author and lecturer at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism — didn’t have to look far.
The story was already within her, Nettles said.
After a year of locking herself in her office at night, Nettles emerged with her city tale, “We Are The Culture: Black Chicago’s Influence on Everything” (Lawrence Hill Books). It hits shelves Tuesday.
Nettles’ debut is an ode to the city that raised her, and a history lesson in the culture that molded her and the world, she said.
She explores moments that shaped pop culture worldwide, not just in Chicago, from the “Oprah Winfrey Show” to the founding of “Soul Train” and Drill music. There are sections dedicated to Chicago’s Black Media Powerhouse, fashion and haircare.
In the chapter entitled “Sports Cool,” Nettles dives into the universal impact of “pop culture sensation” Michael Jordan and the popularity of the White Sox hat in rap music.
Nettles’ message is clear: There is no Chicago without the contributions of the Black people, and Black Chicago’s influence is imprinted on global culture everywhere you look.
“This is a love letter to us, for us, about us and what we experience in this beautiful culture that we have and created through blood, sweat and tears,” Nettles said. “I hope that people walk away seeing all that we have accomplished in spite of. It’s a positive book. This book is a celebration.”
The Average Black Chicago Family
The legacy of Black Chicago thrums through Nettle’s veins.
Her grandmother, the great Queen Bea, migrated to Chicago from Greenwood, Mississippi, and built a life on the South Side.
Her grandfather, Narvel “Cadillac Baby” Eatmon, was a showman at a Blues lounge. Together, the duo ran Bea & Baby Records and Cadillac Baby’s Show Lounge on 47th and Dearborn.
Nettles explored her grandparents’ history in a WBEZ Chicago piece about their influence on the local Blues scene.
It was one of many personal stories that piqued her interest in Black Chicago’s history and laid the foundation for what would become “We Are The Culture,” Nettles said.
“My family is the average Black Chicago family. If I could find these significant connections to these big pieces of history, it just shows how so many of us and our grandparents are influential and extraordinary,” Nettles said.
‘I’m Just A Chicago Girl’
Reading “We Are The Culture” is like gathering for a dinner discussion at Nettles’ home. Each section of the book begins with a short, personal essay connecting her life to a lesson in Black Chicago history.
Readers learn how she first saw Chicago footwork on TV while homesick at college in Florida and grew up getting her hair pressed with a hot comb at her grandmother’s house.
There’s the time she was struggling as a new mother and received guidance from the “Oprah Winfrey Show” or tried for years to get on WGCI’s Bad Boy Radio’s Birthday Line.
“As a journalist, you’re always told not to put yourself in the story. But I was connected to a lot of these things, and I think it’s important for people to know why I might have landed on certain themes,” Nettles said. “I’m just a Chicago girl, and I think my experiences I talk about in my essays are very familiar to so many other Chicagoans I know.”
When readers close “We Are The Culture,” they should feel proud, Nettles said.
She strived to include as much history as she could, but still, ‘it’s not everything,” Nettles said. That proves how influential Black culture is, Nettles said.
And for those new to Chicago, or with a skewed view of the city and its people, hopefully, “We Are The Culture” proves “we’ve got it going on,” Nettles said.
“People don’t realize that they are letting certain people’s views of our city — and especially Black people in our city — make them think certain things. I hope that this helps them widen that aperture,” Nettles said. “I hope this makes them realize that we have a lot going on, we’ve always had a long going on and we will always have a lot going on.”
Block Club’s Atavia Reed will interview Nettles in the latest edition of the Block Club Book Club, 7 p.m. April 22 at Women & Children First, 5233 N. Clark St. in Andersonville.
The event is free, but attendees must register in advance: Click here to register. Masks required.
More information is available at the Women & Children First website.
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