Mospratt Street: True Stories in a Flash!

Tangible Used Bookstore opened about four months ago and brings new charm to Bridgeport.  It's owned by Joseph Judd and his wife Lisa. Judd, whom we interviewed for the podcast, has the kind of optim…

Brittany Matthews opened Haus of Melanin Beauty Bar in Bridgeport last June, mid-pandemic, after the 28-year-old waved goodbye to her job at the Illinois Tollway with money in the bank and a dream in…

Today we have a discussion with Charlotte Piwowar of the Bridgeport Alliance, a neighborhood grassroots organization. Charlotte talks about the success of getting the 31st Street bus permanently back…

I met Ryan Lavery when I was 12 and had befriended his older brother Chris at the start of junior high. Ryan was eight. As my friendship with Chris grew, I’d go over to the Lavery house and Ryan woul…

Juan Antonio Andres, who goes by Tony, is a sous chef at Chicago's Eataly. He started cooking as a teenager in his father's Hammond, Indiana, pizzeria and never looked back. He hopes one day to open …

Charly Garcia and his wife, Stephanie Manriquez, are a Bridgeport power couple - disrupters, creators, activists, preservers, youth advocates – who pump lifeblood through Chicago’s Hispanic community…

Autumn Ganza once halted a demolition of a hoarder house by taking on a private company and Bridgeport Alderman Patrick Daley Thompson. She broke into the building through a boarded-up window and car…

Robert Valadez is a painter and muralist from the Pilsen neighborhood in Chicago, with a studio in Bridgeport. Erika and Andrew met him there to discuss his choice of medium, the history of mural pai…

On our last episode, Jason Keller relayed his father Neal's memories and hopes for the record store, Let's Boogie Records and Tapes, he opened in Chicago's Bridgeport neighborhood in 1976. This episo…

Let’s Boogie Records and Tapes at 3321 South Halsted, Bridgeport’s legendary record store, is the perfect Insta retro photo-op. It looks like Gen Z staged a record store and shot it with a Tokyo filt…

What was Bridgeport like in the mid-1940's, and from a child's perspective? What was it like to be the child of Polish immigrants, and to be 14 years younger than one's sibling? Did you know Stanley …

Humankind makes plans and the gods laugh. In early November, Andrew got a bad breakthrough case of Covid-19, despite taking every known precaution. As a result, we were forced to improvise this episo…

On this first official episode of Mospratt Street, Erika and Andrew speak with Won Kim, the chef, artist, and DJ who is partner in two restaurants on 31st Street in Bridgeport. 

You’ll hear:

• Why he…

In this prelude to Mospratt Street, Erika Hobbs and Andrew Gregory Krzak discuss the goals and inception of the project. What did the Bridgeport area of Chicago's fabulous south side mean to the peop…