Real Men Charities
The parent nonprofit. Programs, mentorship, and family work.
Visit → About the Magazine About
About
South Side Drive.
South Side Drive Magazine is the editorial home for Black Chicago's South Side. For more than thirty years, we have chronicled the people, places, and ideas that make up the Good Life on this side of the city. We are published by Real Men Charities, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 1989 by Bing Edwards and the original Real Men Cook fathers. We circulate in print and digital across fourteen South Side communities.
Our mission is plain. We tell the truth about this neighborhood, beautifully. We center the people whose work has built it and the people whose work is keeping it alive. The Good Life is not a brochure. It is a living record. This magazine is part of that record.Yvette Moyo, Founder & Publisher
The Family
Three organizations. One mission.
The Magazine sits inside a family of three organizations. Real Men Charities is the parent nonprofit and runs the wellness, mentorship, and family programs that anchor the work. South Side Drive Magazine is the publication that tells those stories and the stories of the wider community. The Quarry Event Center, at 2423 East 75th Street, is where many of those stories happen in person. The three are independent in operation and joined in purpose.
Programs of Real Men Charities
The work that anchors the writing.
- Real Men Cook The longest-running Father's Day celebration of its kind in America. Founded 1989.
- Real Women Cook Wellness through recipe, kitchen, and community.
- Food Wellness Nutrition education and pantry partnerships.
- Mental Wellness Men's mental health programming and group support.
- MOBE Symposium Moving Our Boys to Excellence. Twenty-four years running.
History Marker
A thirty-year arc, in four chapters.
- 1995 Founded in print as a community broadsheet.
- 2007 Relaunched as a full-color monthly.
- 2020 Expanded to a digital-first cadence.
- 2026 Distributed across fourteen South Side communities.
Distribution Territory
Fourteen South Side communities.
- Auburn Gresham
- Bronzeville
- Chatham
- East Chicago
- Englewood
- Greater Grand Crossing
- Hegewisch
- Hyde Park
- Park Manor
- Roseland
- South Chicago
- South Shore
- Washington Park
- Woodlawn
With gratitude to our funders
We proudly acknowledge support from the Chicago COVID-19 Journalism Fund (A McCormick Foundation Fund).
The MacArthur FoundationThe Chicago Community TrustProvidence Bank & Trust