The title of Hyun Jung Jun’s exhibition reads like an incantation, as if upon entering the gallery, viewers will be instantly transformed. Fittingly, “by flame by fog,” Jun’s solo show at Goldfinch in East Garfield Park, conjures a glade, where reality is suspended and unearthly charms work a strange magic. Visitors enter through the back gallery and immediately encounter the building’s vine-adorned windows, kissed by several wax figurines shaped like winged insects....
The Block Beat multimedia series is a collaboration with The TRiiBE that roots Chicago musicians in places and neighborhoods that matter to them. Written by Arthur E. Haynes IIPhotography by Darius Griffin Video by Jiayan ‘Jenny’ ShiShot at Seek Vintage, 1433 W. Chicago The Second City’s Salute to Pride (Not Safe for WERK) A new all-queer variety show hosted by Lucy Stoole. Through 6/26: Tue-Wed 8 PM, Up Comedy Club at Second City, 230 W....
Chandler West/Sun-Times Media Rahm and his rubber-stampers promise change, but why should we believe them? On Sunday, Mayor Rahm held a press conference to pander to the voters of Chicago by announcing he was taking down 50 red light cameras that he’d previously said we absolutely, positively have to have for our public safety. Apparently, Mayor Rahm’s the only mayoral candidate in Chicago who’s allowed to pander to the voters....
One of an emerging generation of queer R&B artists, Mnek (pronounced em-en-EE-kay) takes an approach to his music that’s closer to mainstream radio pop than that of idiosyncratic performers such as Serpentwithfeet, Le1f, or even Frank Ocean. This has some downsides: on his 2018 album, Language (Virgin EMI), he defaults to pleasant but undistinguished balladry on songs such as “Paradise.” At his best, though, Mnek demonstrates that aspects of the queer experience—unspoken love, hidden passion, and ecstatic revelation included—have always been at the center of R&B....
The Reader‘s archive is vast and varied, going back to 1971. Every day in Archive Dive, we’ll dig through and bring up some finds. New World Hatters had been through a lot during Panice’s tenure, and not just the decline of the hat. The store burned down in the 1968 riots. Panice and his brother and co-owner Herman considered leaving the neighborhood, but they owed too many people money. So they scrounged for stock and equipment and within six months had reopened near Madison and Keeler....
A note from the editors about comics serials Credit: John Porcellino
As we begin to make our way into the winter months, the skies begin to grey, and the streets become windy as hell, we all begin to feel a little like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day. To escape the mundane and survive the upcoming Thanksgiving Zoom, we’ve compiled a list of 14 local bars and restaurants offering to-go cocktails for pickup and delivery, all of which are a little more imaginative than Au Cheval’s Pickleback Kit, but just as effective during your virtual holiday gatherings....
Embarrassing Theater Critic Admission: I’ve never seen Marsha Norman‘s 1983 Pulitzer Prize-winning play, ‘Night, Mother, onstage. And technically, I still haven’t. But at least I can now say that I’ve seen it, thanks to Invictus Theatre’s current livestreaming production. Norman’s play carries within its DNA a trap for actors, especially for whoever plays Jessie. If she’s too downbeat and defeated from the start, then there presumably isn’t much of a trajectory for her to explore in the 90-some minutes before the inevitable....
Late last year the Reader reported on a protest organized by more than 40 Riviera Theatre stagehands who claimed they’d been illegally fired in September 2015 by venerable Chicago-based promoter Jam Productions, which owns and operates several important local venues, including the Riv, Park West, and the Vic Theatre. The workers believed Jam was retaliating because they’d begun signing cards authorizing a union election—but unionization activity is legally protected by the National Labor Relations Act of 1935....
The country is reeling. The shooting of 11 Dallas police officers—five of whom were killed—came while they patrolled a peaceful protest against police violence. Two civilians were also wounded, according to the Dallas mayor’s office. It’s a tragic, saddening act of violence that’s likely to inflame already heated tensions over issues of race and policing. Hate crimes laws were created to stiffen penalties for crimes against individuals or groups based on immutable identities, such as race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or gender identity....
ALEXIS WILSON CASTALDI CoCoComa before they called it a day CoCoComa, one of the most exciting bands to come out of Chicago, formed in 2005 as a duo of guitarist Lisa Roe and drummer and vocalist Bill Roe (“I was forced to learn how to sing and drum,” he notes) and shortly after added Mike Fitzpatrick on bass and organ. The band became a full-fledged garage-rock powerhouse, perhaps the best Chicago has ever seen....
While sheltering at home in San Juan during Puerto Rico’s lockdown this spring, Ìfé bandleader Otura Mun wrote a new EP, The Living Dead | Ashé Bogbo Egun. The producer, composer, and percussionist, born Mark Underwood in Indiana, is also a babalawo, a priest who practices divination in accordance with the traditions of Ifá, a religion rooted in West Africa that coevolved with Christianity after it was carried to the Caribbean by the slave trade....
Veteran Chicago hip-hop activist, manager, and promoter Jamie “J. Milla” Sevier died Saturday, April 18, at age 47. As a kid, Sevier got into breakdancing and graffiti, and he’d joined Chi-ROCK Nation by the time he met longtime friend Carrico “Kingdom Rock” Sanders, founder of the Ill State Assassins crew, in the early 1990s. They’d crossed paths because both were organizing against an attempt to ban hip-hop from local radio. “Jamie has always been the bullhorn for Chicago,” Sanders says....
Second City is in denial. Donald Trump is our president, and along with that comes a host of issues regarding race, gender equality, LGBTQ rights, and police brutality, among other things. The cast of the brand-new yet already outdated main-stage revue Dream Freaks Fall From Space tackle these loaded topics by mentioning them, then moving right along. And speaking of denial, scenes break one of the most fundamental rules of improvisation—embody the spirit of “yes, and ....
Jason Wilber is known to audiences around the world for his impeccable guitar tones and tasteful playing in support of the late John Prine over the past 25 years. As Prine’s musical director, Wilber helped steer him back to the minimal sound of his records from the early 70s and, in the process, showcased that material’s lyrical and emotional weight. Throughout, Wilber also released his own impressive body of work. His latest album, Time Traveler, is his finest hour; its transfixing songs are as quiet and sparsely arranged as Prine audiences have come to expect from Wilber onstage, but the style is unmistakably his own....
This comic has been created for the Reader to document the year-long, citywide event series Chicago 1919: Confronting the Race Riots. Coordinated by the Newberry Library and funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the initiative seeks to address difficult history through community conversations across the city. v
When Bertha Garcia was a kid, she used to help her aunt sell barbacoa on blue corn tortillas at an open-air restaurant on the road just outside La Marquesa National Park. Situated between Mexico City and the satellite city of Toluca, it was a rustic, woodsy spot where they also made bone marrow tacos grilled on the plancha with marjoram, earthy epazote, or minty yerba buena. They also griddled tlacoyos, which, back then, were ovoids of the same masa azul, hand-pattied and stuffed with creamy requesón cheese and mashed fava beans, topped usually only with guajillo salsa, onions, and cheese....
Shortly after the 2006 death of James Dewitt Yancey, best known as J Dilla, Los Angeles multi-instrumentalist, arranger, composer, and producer Miguel Atwood-Ferguson began creating orchestral homages to the Detroit hip-hop producer and rapper. Though Yancey had spoken publicly about his health struggles, his passing at age 32 (due to complications from lupus and a rare blood disorder) left the musical world mourning the loss of a beloved artist and his unrealized potential....
