You don’t get a MacArthur “genius” grant just for thinking big; you get one because your big ideas work extraordinarily well. Mary Halvorson, who was awarded the grant last year, has earned hers by moving from strength to strength. Ever since she began recording in the mid-2000s, she’s projected a strikingly personal voice on the electric guitar; you only need to hear a few seconds of her fastidious fingering and extravagant pitch bends to know it’s her....

Nick Cave has taken many twists and turns during his decades-long career. Though the iconic singer-songwriter is first and foremost known for his music, he’s also delved into acting, theater, novels, poetry, and film scores. His latest venture is possibly his most startling and profound deviation yet: ol’ Nick the Stripper now runs a blog called the Red Hand Files where he publicly answers fan mail. He might discuss the sound of God’s voice, field requests from blocked-up songwriters for “spare lyrics lying around,” or reply to heartfelt questions about sexuality, addiction, and the creative process....

Norwegian noise-rock band Årabrot have undergone many personnel changes over their two-decade career, and front man, composer, and sole constant member Kjetil Nernes has brought forth a different phase in the group’s sound with every one. In recent years, his main collaborator has been Swedish-Norwegian electronic producer and singer Karin Park; they’re also a married couple, and live in an old church in Park’s home village in Sweden that doubles as their studio (though they’ve also made several recordings at Electrical Audio, including 2011’s Solar Anus, which won them a Spellemann Prize for best metal record)....

Q: As a 36-year-old straight woman with autism, I am often misidentified as lesbian because my social signaling must read as masculine. I am not bothered by this. However, it is annoying when someone who should know better thinks I would hide it if I were LGBTQ. I’m very direct and honest—sometimes to my detriment—and the idea that I would hide something so fundamental about myself is abhorrent to me. I don’t consider myself disabled; I am different than most people but not broken....

Philadelphia duo 700 Bliss is a perfect example of the kind of supergroup that can emerge from a combination of globally engaged conversation and access to affordable practice spaces. Camae Ayewa, aka Moor Mother, and Zubeyda Muzeyyen, aka DJ Haram, are a part of a smart, active community of artists of color in Philadelphia that nurtures cross-collaboration, and on last year’s Spa 700 (Halcyon Veil/Don Giovanni), they bring beats to the forefront of their noise-informed, rhythm-heavy music and channel the type of spiritual energy that can call up the dead....

Photographer Jamie M. Moore attended the Midwest FurFest at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont December 5-8, capturing the fursonas, the fur piles and, for many the premier event of the weekend, the Saturday night dance party. v Midwest FurFest 2019 Slideshow

Darryl King, who DJs and produces as King D, recently stumbled upon a relic from the past while digging through his old crates: a cassette copy of the first and only release from King D & the Struggle Unit, the 1991 EP Englewood. “I always had the old-school masters [on] two-inch tape, but with the cassettes I only had that one copy left,” King says. King had heard some hip-hop from New York, but LL Cool J and Run-D....

Giving artists a place to experiment and refine their craft is at the core of Links Hall’s mission, and the organization likewise recognizes the value of dialogue between different artists and audiences. In the past, Links has annually spotlighted a noteworthy work from a local artist who chooses an out-of-town creator for a shared presentation at Links Hall that then travels to the visitor’s homework. This tradition expands considerably with Trade Routes, which features five different pairings put together for a festival running from November 30 to December 9....

The graphic novel Map of my Heart begins with a cartoon map of Hoffman Estates: the high school, the Barrington Square Mall, a good spot to pick raspberries behind the hospital. At the bottom, everything is labeled: “Map of the Known Universe Circa 1982.” When the first issue of King-Cat Comics and Stories came out in 1989, it cost 35 cents. Porcellino was 19 years old, drawing simple stories about his surreal dreams, suburban Chicago upbringing, and the stray cats of Dekalb, Illinois....

America has shown itself capable of electing a president who’s black—but not yet capable, even eight years later, of electing a president who’s a woman. Of course, Hillary Clinton wasn’t running against a mere John McCain or Mitt Romney; her bad luck was facing an opponent with the rare gift of reminding the electorate by word and deed, and on virtually a daily basis, that women have no more worth than men allow them....

Welcome to the Reader‘s morning briefing for Friday, March 25, 2016. Have a great weekend! The Chicago area lost a lot of residents in 2015 No major metropolitan area or region in the U.S. lost more people than Chicago in 2015. The weather, crime, taxes, unemployment, and the state budget impasse are among the reasons cited by those leaving. In addition, fewer Mexican-born immigrants are arriving, and there’s been a “drastic decline” in the city’s African-American population....

Punk-spirited marching band Mucca Pazza emerged from a street protest against the invasion of Iraq in 2003, but they’ve evolved into a group with mainstream appeal. With a rambunctious crowd of more than 30 members (including their own cheerleaders), frenetic patchwork tunes, and a kitschy sense of humor, they’ve won over audiences at Lollapalooza, the Montreal Jazz Festival, and Late Night With Conan O’Brien among others in their 13 years as a band....

There’s plenty to distract you from the first presidential debate of the season. Here’s some of what we recommend:

Eric Futran On a recent Saturday night, in a house on a dead-end street backed up against railroad tracks in north Pilsen, Raul Fernandez, an ace musician and Old Town School teacher, surveyed the site of an upcoming fandango. He was doing so in advance of an event featuring Los Panaderos, a musical group from Acayucan, a city in the Mexican state of Veracruz. Large canvases of Mexican folk art hung from the house’s front porch, colorful lanterns swayed in the breeze, and two large bonfires warmed the April night....

Eight years before the pivotal summer depicted in Between Riverside and Crazy, Walter “Pops” Washington, a 30-year veteran of the New York City Police Department, sat drinking in a bar at 6 AM. Soon thereafter a uniformed officer entered the place and unloaded all six of his revolver’s bullets into Washington. Washington, who’s African-American, sued, and since then the proud, angry, preternaturally defiant man has refused multiple settlement offers from the city, because they all stipulated that no one was at fault in the shooting—and Washington insists the officer called him a nigger before opening fire, although no one can corroborate his allegation....

“I dreamed about him, dreamed I had him in the witness box, a masterly cross-examination . . . and I flung at him—’And what did you do in the Great War?’ ‘I wrote Ulysses,’ he said. ‘What did you do?’ Bloody nerve.” And it’s all based on fact. During World War I, neutral Switzerland was a magnet for Europe’s better-quality refugees: artists and intellectuals looking for a place to carry on their investigations while the old order committed suicide....

Q: I’m having an issue with my boyfriend, and I don’t know if I am the crazy, paranoid, controlling party here. We have been together for more than a year and a half. We had troubles early on because he has a low sex drive. It made me very insecure, and I think that’s why, at the time, I became extremely jealous of his friendship with his very attractive intern. I fully owned up to my irrational jealousy and decided on my own that it was my responsibility to overcome that....

An hour before BTS started Saturday’s sold-out show at Soldier Field, the stadium was already ringing with fanchants, shrieks, and sing-alongs, even though at that point the crowd had little to respond to besides the music videos playing on the giant screens flanking the stage. The BTS ARMY, as the fandom of the seven-member South Korean pop band is known, has a reputation for the intensity of its devotion, and it was on full display all night....

In a recent interview with Minnesota Public Radio host Andrea Swensson, rapper Chad Heslup (aka Longshot) talked about his history of involvement in protest movements since moving from Chicago to Minneapolis 11 years ago. He was inspired to join his first march after Minneapolis police shot and killed 24-year-old Jamar Clark in November 2015, and he returned to the streets to protest the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin on May 25....