Gapers Block published from April 22, 2003 to Jan. 1, 2016. The site will remain up in archive form. Please visit Third Coast Review, a new site by several GB alumni.
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Wednesday, January 22
Eat your heart out, Oprah. While the daytime talk show queen attends to affairs at The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa, a musical group made up of ex-political prisoners from that country will tour the Chicago Public Schools. Yes, the kind of schools where students only care about sneakers and iPods. "The Robben Island Singers" were imprisoned with Nelson Mandela during Apartheid. They travel the world riffing on social justice and human rights. The singers will perform at Kenwood, Whitney Young and Roosevelt, among other CPS schools, throughout the first half of February. And a film crew will accompany them for a DVD.