Native Chicagoan David Anthony Witter grew up in Lincoln Park in the 1970s and watched
as the community around him changed completely in less than a decade. He attended Alcott Grammar School, Lane Technical High School,
Columbia College (B.A. in writing), and Northeastern Illinois University (B.A. in education). A teacher of Special Education and
English, David has worked for the Chicago Public Schools for over 16 years. He currently teaches at Chicago's Kelly High School.
Also a freelance writer and photographer, he is a regular contributor to New City and Fra Noi. His work has appeared in the
Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Reader, Living Blues, the Chicago Blues Annual, the Bay Area Music Magazine,
and the Copley News Syndicate. His essay "J.B. Hutto and Lil' Ed Williams, Blues Legacy Through Blood and Spirit," with
accompanying photo, appear in BluesSpeak, the Best of the Original Chicago Blues Annual (University of Illinois Press, 2010).
What else might you want to know about journalist and Renaissance man David Witter? Perhaps...
- David Witter was born in Miller, Indiana, across the lagoon from the former summer home of Nelson Algren and Simone de Beauvoir.
- As a teen in the old Lincoln Park neighborhood, Witter was briefly associated with the street gang, The Insane Unknowns.
- Witter worked as a lifeguard at the Raddison Hotel, now the InterContinental. During this span he was responsible for protecting famous
swimmers including playwright Tennessee Williams, who lived in the hotel while working with the Goodman Theater, and author Sara Paretsky,
who swam there every day.
- Witter has worked as an extra, stand-in, and stunt person in over 15 films and TV shows, including Hoffa, Natural Born Killers, While You
Were Sleeping, and Class.
- Witter has one degree of separation from Kevin Bacon, as Bacon's feature film, Stir of Echoes, was partially filmed in his house.
- Witter is an amateur blues musician and songwriter who performs in small clubs and bars across the North Side.
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