This article by Robert Loerzel originally appeared in Playbill magazine in January 2011. Walking through downtown Chicago one day in 1882, lawyer Jarvis Blume spotted a shoeshine boy performing Shakespeare scenes for a small crowd of bootblacks and newsboys. Blume was amazed — especially because this 12-year-old thespian was black. He could hardly believe that this… Continue reading Early African-American theater in Chicago