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American Jews have greeted the election of Donald Trump with mixed feelings. While some say they feel comforted by Trump’s pro-Israel and anti-Iran stances—and by the presence of his Orthodox Jewish daughter and son-in-law—many more say they see echoes of Germany, 1938. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate crimes, has received reports of more than 700 incidents in the past two weeks, including 60 instances of swastika vandalism. Last weekend, at the annual convention for the National Policy Institute, a white supremacist organization, the group’s president, Richard B....

UPDATE Monday, March 16: this event has been canceled. Refunds available at point of purchase. The intersection of comedy and magic has ballooned since the art form’s vaudevillian heyday. Case in point: Trent James, a 22-year-old second-generation magician who approaches the art of illusion with a whole lot of self-deprecating humor and a winking acknowledgment that magic is often little more than “elaborate misdirection.” At one point in his irreverently titled 60-minute show, Pure Lies, James attempts to contact dead twin boys who (he explains) perished in long-ago Louisiana....

When Jesus “Chuy” Garcia announced last October that he was challenging Rahm Emanuel for mayor, the incumbent had already raised nearly $10 million for his reelection bid. An affiliated political action committee, Chicago Forward, had collected about $2.5 million more, according to state records. The old Democratic machine had armies of patronage employees to deliver the vote. The new political system that controls City Hall is based on a network of wealthy campaign donors....

Indigenous was formed by guitarist Mato Nanji, along with his brother, sister, and cousin, in the 90s. As Native Americans growing up on the Yankton Sioux Reservation in South Dakota, they originally heard the sounds of blues from Nanji’s father—a musician who regularly played this style of music around the house. Though his family members eventually left the band to pursue other interests, Nanji has kept it going strong. Forty years ago, a band like Indigenous would have been considered a commercial rock group with blues elements, but in some circles today it’s considered to be a straight-up blues band....

For decades, there has been speculation as to the identity of playwright “Jane Martin.” One thing is clear after watching Martin’s atrocious Keely and Du. There’s no way anyone capable of ever needing an abortion could have written this reprehensible piece of “let’s-look-at-both-sides” false equivalency. Not even the most stellar four-person cast (director Michelle Altman’s quartet is two-quarters competent) could make this work. The plot follows antichoice terrorists Du (Mary Mikva) and Walter (Scott Olson, chewing the scenery into toothpicks) after they kidnap Keely (Andie Dae), a pregnant rape victim, from the clinic where she’s seeking an abortion....

When fledgling screenwriter Diablo Cody was nominated for an Academy Award in 2008, feature writers across the U.S. clicked their heels to learn that she’d once worked as a pole dancer. Her 2005 memoir Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper provided an easy angle on Cody and, combined with her irreverent sense of humor, helped turn her into a media darling. Inevitably she’s become an object of fun, parodied as an empty vessel on Saturday Night Live and skewered in Bobcat Goldthwait’s movie God Bless America as “the only stripper with too much self-esteem....

If you rub this bottle, Jimmy Whispers will magically emerge* and not grant you any wishes. (*No he won’t.) Chicago singer-songwriter Jimmy Whispers, who describes himself with disarmingly transparent bravado as “the greatest bedroom popper in the tri-state area,” recorded his new debut album, Summer in Pain, way back in 2011. For years he’s been holding out for the right label (and the right moment), refusing until very recently to post any music online, and on March 24 he finally releases the album through local imprint Moniker....

From 1935 until her death in 1996, Birdie Reeve Kay ran a secretarial service in the Hyde Park Bank Building. She answered phones, transcribed tapes, and typed papers for University of Chicago students. It was no secret Birdie was once a vaudeville star. Billed as the world’s fastest typist, she wowed audiences with her effortless speed and her photographic memory. Birdie once played 20 men at chess simultaneously, beating them blindfolded....

Fill your weekend with fun and festive events happening all over Chicago. Here are ten of our recommendations: Sat 6/25: The first of the Near South Planning Board’s Field Market Days takes place on the Field Museum’s South Terrace (1400 S. Lake Shore), complete with a farmers’ market and live performances from local musicians. 2 – 6 PM Sun 6/26: Chart-smashing pop star Ariana Grande makes a birthday appearance at B96’s Summer Bash (Allstate Arena, 6920 Mannheim, Rosemont) this Sunday....

Named after the devilish sprite in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and established in New York in 1876 by Austrian immigrant Joseph Keppler, Puck was a German-language satirical magazine (with an English edition following in 1877) that skewered powerful people and high society for the next 40 years. “With a Wink and a Nod—Cartoonists of the Gilded Age,” now open at the Driehaus Museum, displays 74 original drawings and some 20 magazines from this pioneering publication, providing invaluable insight into how the visual and written press interpreted, elucidated, and took the piss out of events in American history in the years between the Civil War and World War I....

It’s a daunting task to try and break the mold of the high school coming-of-age film, let alone do it successfully. But every so often, a filmmaker takes the reins on the widely popular formula and dares to disrupt it without compromise, making for an unforgettable and expansive addition to the genre. Everyone in Knives and Skin has something to hide. Joanna sells her mother’s underwear to older men, including her male teachers, in order to afford college application fees....

Theater (Kerry Reid) Middle Passage Legalize Menstruation The Chicago Puntathlon

When obscure downer-folk singer Sixto Rodriguez announced his 2009 show at Schubas, I was beyond thrilled—and nearly in shock. Outside record-collector circles, hardly anyone seemed to be aware of the Detroit musician’s work. It was practically impossible to get a copy of the records he’d made in the early 70s (except for bootlegs), and rumors persisted that he’d been shot and killed years before, so hearing that he was alive was a welcome surprise....

Retractions generally aren’t fun for journalists. But the announcement last week that Mercury Theater Chicago isn’t dead after all makes me happy—even if it means that my obituary for them as one of the losses in Chicago theater for 2020 now has to be taken back in its entirety. The fact that the company is also bringing in Christopher Chase Carter as artistic director just adds to the spirit of renewal for the venue....

UPDATE Friday, March 13: this event has been canceled. Refunds available at point of purchase. Jess McLeod directs the Chicago premiere of Do You Feel Anger?, Mara Nelson-Greenberg’s trenchant 2018 satire of office and gender politics. Empathy coach Sofia (Emjoy Gavino) walks into a hornet’s nest of toxic misunderstanding and abuse when she’s hired to help a debt collection company get their act together. From the cheerful yet traumatized Eva (Sadieh Rifai) to the friendly but clueless boss, Jon (Lawrence Grimm), and alternately horrifying duo of Jordan (Bernard Gilbert) and Howie (Levi Holloway), Sofia’s got a whale of a job on her hands....

The 2020 fall arts season looks a lot different than it has in years past, for the obvious reason. But even if gallery attendance is restricted and many performance venues remain shuttered, there are a ton of great writers, performers, visual artists, and multigenre talents to catch up with, no matter what stage of personal shutdown you’re in right now. We asked some curators, along with Reader staff, to tell us what they’re excited about right now....

When I interviewed poet and soul singer Jamila Woods for the People Issue, she told me about what she tries to accomplish with her work: “I want my music to be that elixir that keeps people able to stay woke, and also stay healthy and loving themselves.” She also mentioned her forthcoming solo debut, and yesterday she announced that she’d inked a deal with local hip-hop indie Closed Sessions. Billboard broke the news and premiered her first single, “Blk Girl Soldier....

Loy Webb’s new play is subtitled “A Parable,” and on those terms, it succeeds splendidly. By framing His Shadow through the lens of sibling jealousy, there are echoes of biblical brothers, particularly Joseph. But Teeny (Charles Andrew Gardner) doesn’t want a coat of many colors; he desires a football jersey that doesn’t share a number with his NFL hero big brother, Juice (Marcus D. Moore). Teeny’s single-minded determination to prove himself on the gridiron at his small college in the “Middle of Nowhere USA” collides with the demands from Rain (Anna Dauzvardis), a campus activist, that he protest the police killing of a young Black woman....

Courtesy the artist Tinkerbelles Next month, local postpunk duo Tinkerbelles are setting out on a tour that comes with an ambitious goal: to earn a spot in The Guinness Book of World Records as the band who’s played the most shows on the shortest tour. On Friday, June 19, the band plays three shows in Chicago and one in Evanston before heading out for nine more days jam-packed with nonstop shows—they’re aiming for a final count of 40 full sets played across seven states....

The first thing to know about Orville Peck is that the Canadian country-pop crooner always wears a mask. Its top half is made of leather, and from the bottom hangs a row of long fringe, which he sometimes braids to each side to reveal his scruffy chin—his memorable look is something like a cross between the Lone Ranger and a BDSM enthusiast. Peck has risen to the top of the current yeehaw zeitgeist with his own brand of tender queer longing, and the 12 atmospheric songs on his debut album, 2019’s Pony, tell stories about fading rodeo queens, ill-fated love affairs, and the way time wears people down like an old bootheel....