Leen Yassine

Leen Yassine covers Chicago’s arts, culture and entertainment through reported features and service-driven guides that connect people with events, venues and institutions across the city. She is arts coordinator at Block Club Chicago and focuses on arts and entertainment coverage alongside regular roundups of things to do around town. Her work brings together artist profiles, major performances, neighborhood institutions and city agencies, with clear details that make it easy for people to participate.

Covering All Things Chicago Arts And Culture

Yassine’s core coverage is Chicago arts and culture, ranging from profiles of local musicians to features on visual artists and their projects. She writes deeply reported pieces on artists such as R&B musician Manasseh, highlighting local collaborations, new albums and upcoming performances at neighborhood venues. Her work also tracks major cultural moments in the city, including the opening celebration of the Obama Presidential Center with performances by Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Jennifer Hudson, The Roots and other internationally known artists. She covers visual art and design through stories like her preview of a Block Club program with poster artist Steve Shanabruch, explaining his neighborhood poster series and the event where he discusses his process and typographic style.

Beyond individual profiles, she reports on collaborative projects such as the Chicago Media Chorus Christmas album, showing how journalists and media workers come together to raise money for local organizations and spread holiday music. Her entertainment beat extends to film and sports crossovers, including coverage of a Hallmark Christmas movie built around the Chicago Bears and its search for local extras.

Across these stories she treats arts and entertainment as part of everyday city life, rather than as a separate scene.

“Things To Do In Chicago This Weekend” And Service Journalism

Yassine has built a regular practice of service journalism, producing “Things To Do In Chicago This Weekend” roundups and other guides that point readers toward events, openings and programs.

Her event-driven coverage consistently includes practical information such as dates, times, locations and sign-up details, making pieces as useful as they are celebratory. She highlights seasonal and citywide offerings, including the Chicago Public Library’s adult summer reading program, explaining how the challenge works, the scale of participation and the kickoff events at specific branches with activities, giveaways and music. Her reporting on Old Town Pour House’s reopening in the Loop covers not only the return of a popular sports bar but also its new address, opening timeline and operating hours, framing the business as a destination for downtown workers and visitors.

She points readers to Block Club-hosted events like the Shanabruch program at the Harold Washington Library, noting registration requirements and limited seating so people can plan ahead. She also contributes to seasonal packages such as Block Club’s winter bucket list, adding arts-focused suggestions under her arts coordinator banner.

Through these pieces she functions as a guide to entertainment and culture that is specific, time-bound and immediately actionable.

Community Institutions, Animals And City Services

Alongside arts and entertainment, Yassine reports on how city institutions and services intersect with everyday life, often with a strong animal welfare and public-service lens. Her coverage of Chicago Animal Care and Control examines funding gaps, leadership vacancies and policy proposals at City Council, giving readers a clear view of how municipal decisions affect the city’s only public animal shelter. She follows the shelter’s day-to-day reality in stories about overcrowding during kitten season, documenting free adoption events, waived fees and calls from rescuers to spay and neuter pets to relieve pressure on the system.

In those pieces she lays out logistics for surrendering animals, attending adoption events and seeking support, treating the shelter as a vital city resource rather than a background institution.

Her reporting extends to public health alerts, such as coverage of the first West Nile virus-positive mosquitoes reported in the city in a given year, connecting residents with information about risk and prevention. She also writes about community programs like the library’s summer reading initiative, framing them as part of a broader network of public services that support culture, literacy and neighborhood life.

These stories show a reporter who treats animals, health and public programs as integral to the city’s cultural ecosystem.

Arts Coordinator

Yassine’s current role as arts coordinator builds on a broad grounding in hyperlocal reporting and freelance work. Before taking on this position, she interned and freelanced for Block Club Chicago, covering neighborhood crime, business openings, university affairs, coronavirus news, protests and local politics alongside her arts and events work.

That experience informs her ability to situate entertainment stories within wider civic contexts, whether she is writing about a city-funded animal shelter, a major cultural institution or a neighborhood bar. She has also worked in communications at a Secretary of State’s Office, giving her familiarity with government messaging and public information that surfaces in her clear, detail-oriented reporting on city agencies and programs. In her arts coordinator role she does more than write; she helps organize and promote Block Club events, linking editorial coverage with in-person programs that bring artists and audiences together.

Across her assignments she maintains a consistent focus on accessibility, making sure readers know not just why a show, exhibit or initiative matters, but how to see it, join it or support it.