By SANDRA TREVIÑO P. 26
06 Shop Local A lingerie line in Bronzeville
07 Modern Love Hot Potato Hearts offers IRL dating events.
08 Shangri-La Boozy tiki drinks, Cantonese cuisine, and Elvis Live! at a restaurant in North Riverside
10 Joravsky | Politics Mayors, huh?
12 Isaacs | Culture John Mossman’s new film tackles the myth of a Good Guy With a Gun
14 Ehlers | Prisons Hope is a political act.
22 Roscoe Mitchell, artist The legendary musician’s debut solo art exhibition
24 Books Thomas Beller’s essay collection captures the pure joy of street ball.
return of Alexis J. Roston as Lady Day
34 Iranian Film The Annual Festival of Films from Iran returns to the Gene Siskel Film Center.
36 Science Explore Dario Robleto’s exhibit at the Block Museum and the associated film series.
38 Movies of Note 80 for Brady is an ad for the NFL, Magic Mike’s Last Dance is proudly horny, and more.
26 Cover story | Diana Solís The artist’s return to photography
28 Voters Guide The Reader’s guide to the Police District Councils
THEATER
29 Hsiao | Sam Lewis The “accidental puppeteer” explores his family roots.
18 Brown | Gage Park The Gage Park Latinx Council brings community and resources to neighbors.
READER | FEBRUARY 9, 2023 | VOLUME 52, NUMBER 9
made manager Lyrical is an unsung hero of Chicago music.
48 Shows and Records of Note
Previews of concerts by Fran, RXK Nephew, SZA, and more, plus reviews of releases by Black Belt Eagle Scout, Cor de Lux, and Joanna Mattrey & Steven Long
51 Early Warnings Newly announced concerts and other updated listings
51 Gossip Wolf Midnight Minds drop a new album of serene and soothing ambient psychedelia, metallic hardcore band Bovice throw a listening party and launch a tour, and Chisel DJ at Big Star to celebrate a reissue of their final album.
68 Jobs
54 Savage Love Dan Savage offers advice to a wary BDSM aficionado.
32 Review A young Black woman searches for identity and romance in Alaiyo
33 Plays of Note A Chorus Line at Drury Lane; plus Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! and the
THERE’S A QUIET POETICNESS to cover subject Diana Solís’ work. The Mexico-born photographer prefers for her stills to do the talking, and doesn’t fuss about whatever recognition her pieces might garner. Being fixated on her work leaves little room for, as she puts it, adding too much crema to her tacos.
Learning more about the Pilsen resident’s approach, I see distinct parallels between her and our exiting publisher Tracy Baim. There are a lot of good things to say about Baim and her leadership, which e ectively saved this publication from shuttering. Certainly more than could ever fit in this space. The thing is, Tracy wouldn’t want for that to be my focus.
She wasn’t out for laurels in the fall of 2018 when she joined the Reader when it was at the precipice of a shutdown; a year later when she fought to reshape the operation into a nonprofit; or during a global health crisis that, along with irreplaceable human loss, saw our industry decimated. Through it all, Baim admirably kept the ship afloat, and launched as many diversified products as she could muster: cookbooks! A coloring book! And just about anything else you could think of. It was our “dancing for dollars” phase, as she calls it.
40 Meyer | Frequency Festival A concert-by-concert guide to an avant-garde blowout that tunes into music growing between methods and genres
44 Chicagoans of Note Mare Ralph, board member at Girls Rock! Chicago
46 Hernandez | Community Self-
Our little jig era gave us another industry-wide distinction, as no sta ers were laid o during the pandemic.
Last summer, when I first started flirting with this job, Baim announced her plans to step down. Being aware of her reputation, and having worked under some publishers who can be described as questionable at best, I had but one question for her during our initial chat:
“Is there anything I can do to keep you onboard longer?” She turned me down with a polite chuckle. She felt her job was done, and it was time for new blood to take charge. That’s another thing you don’t see very often among media types—knowing when to step aside in order to give space to someone else. That’s another common thread shared with Solís, who also works as an educator to inspire youth and immigrant families to create art from their distinct point of view.
Enter Solomon Lieberman, whose dynamic point of view will aid in ushering in a new Reader era. “It connects my entire life at this chapter,” Lieberman said of his new role during a recent WBEZ interview.
Welcome to the team, Solomon. You have big shoes to fill. Sensible Skechers to be exact. ENRIQUE LIMÓN
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In late August 2018, I was with my father at the hospital, where he was recovering from open-heart surgery, when I received a call from a representative of the Chicago News Guild asking if I’d like to buy the ChicagoReader from its parent newspaper, the Chicago Sun-Times. The Guild represents the Reader’s editorial union, and they wanted to save their jobs. I quickly stepped out of the recovery room to take the call.
Earlier that year, Sun-Times publisher Edwin Eisendrath had offered the Reader to me for $1 on the condition that I take it over immediately. I had said “no” because I did not have the money to shore up a legacy newspaper losing $1 million a year. But now the deal included two individuals from the Sun-Times ownership (Elzie Higginbottom and Leonard Goodman) putting up the funds—they just needed someone to run the paper. The Reader was just two days from being shut down. I was the call of last resort.
I’m a sucker for leaping off cliffs without a full plan. The next day, I met with Eileen Rhodes and Jessica Stites, who were representing the potential new owners, and I was o ered the job. Much to my shock, after working in LGBTQ+ community media since 1984, I was the new publisher of the legendary, award-winning Chicago Reader
When I took over in October 2018, I knew the challenges would be immense. There were about 18 union editorial sta and a digital director, but no one from the business side came with the deal. Morale was low, and there was a lot of cleanup to do in every aspect of the company.
I set out building a team to enhance the experienced editorial sta . We hired new editorial, sales, and business leadership. I realized by mid-2019 the Reader would have a better chance of surviving if it shifted to become a nonprofit. With the approval of the owners on February 1, 2020, I applied to the IRS to launch a nonprofit that would take over the Reader
Six weeks later, COVID-19 shut down the world. We pivoted, we danced for dollars, we put out coloring books, “best of” books, and merchandise. We did not lay off anyone due to COVID. And then, finally, in May of last year, after a much-publicized battle, we were able to gain independence to become a full nonprofit under the new Reader Institute for Community Journalism (RICJ).
I am now excited to pass the reins to our new publisher. After a six-month search by the Morten Group, LLC, the board of directors last
week announced that Solomon Lieberman will take over in mid-February. Solomon, who has experience in Chicago nonprofit media from his stints with the Better Government Association and a master’s in journalism from Northwestern University, is excited to take the Reader into a better future. I am grateful that he is up for the challenge.
It has been an honor to help save what I believe is among the most important newspapers in America. The Reader has broken new ground, covered all aspects of the heartbeat of this city, and been a critical part of our landscape for more than 51 years. I have been its caretaker, but no organization should have a single point of failure. So once we stabilized, I set out to make sure there were multiple strong people in leadership roles to ready for a transition to a new publisher.
Not only do we have a solid new board of directors, helmed by incredible friend and colleague Eileen Rhodes, we have great people who will join Solomon in leading the Reader, RICJ, and the Chicago Independent Media Alliance (CIMA, my dream baby) into the next phase.
It was a challenge to get across the finish line to nonprofit independence last year. I have confidence in this team and the newer sta to bring a fresh take on what’s next.
I want to highlight a few key people who have given me the confidence to step away.
My former copublisher Karen Hawkins , my ride or die, made these past four and a half years bearable. The Reader was lucky to have Karen in leadership for nearly four years, and I learned so much from her. Ann Scholhamer joined in 2021 as vice president of operations. I can’t even imagine surviving the past 16 months without Ann by my side. She helped me absorb the shocks of a tumultuous transition and manage the internal changes needed as we became a nonprofit.
Enrique Limón is our editor in chief, a role he jumped into last fall. I first met Enrique at the 2019 Association of Alternative Newsmedia (AAN) conference in Boulder. He has a larger-than-life personality and the drive to match his big vision of a new Reader. The editorial team he has taken over has a deep bench, some with more than three decades of experience writing and editing for the Reader. This includes editorial union unit chair and music editor Philip Montoro, plus the editors, writers, art department, and more.
Amber Nettles is our senior vice president of growth and strategy. That’s a fancy way of
saying she is and has been instrumental in our shifts to a more digital and sustainable revenue future. Amy Matheny and I have been partners in community media since this century began. She’s an incredible vice president of sales. Amy, in fact, was my first call when I was hired—I knew I couldn’t take over the Reader without her.
Salem Collo-Julin is among several staff (Amy, Karen, Terri Klinsky , and Kirk Williamson ) with whom I worked over the decades at Windy City Times. Salem has been a rock in editorial, most recently as managing editor, and she now moves on to help with our collaboration projects including CIMA and its codirector Savannah Hugueley
Vivian Gonzalez , who joined us during the tumult of early 2022, heads our terrific marketing team. Sandra Klein joined as o ce manager during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. She and I were the only ones going
into the o ce, which is still mostly the case three years later. She holds down circulation, subscriptions, merchandise, and more.
There are dozens more who make this sta amazing, plus our freelancers, contractors, and delivery crew—and many former colleagues including Ted Piekarz , Nicole Lane , Yazmin Dominguez , Leni ManaaHoppenworth , JohnDunlevy , and Patti Flynn . It would be impossible to name them all here. I am, simply, grateful.
I want to also thank our funders, donors, advertisers, and readers. Many of our funders stepped up even before we fully turned nonprofit. They did it on trust, and I know what a stretch that can be. I especially want to thank Christie Hefner , a stalwart supporter of all things media and a pioneer our city is lucky to have. She has been somewhat of a consigliere to me, and has helped us so much in our nonprofit transition. Our attorneys Brecken
Cutler and Brendan Healey have also guided us well.
Since I took over as publisher, the organization has moved to strengthen its infrastructure and has diversified its revenues, distribution, leadership, and staff. It tripled in revenue, more than doubled its employees, and expanded its print and online readership. In 2018, there was one person of color on our team. Current leadership consists of 57 percent people of color, 57 percent LGBTQ+, 15 percent disabled, and 86 percent female, nonbinary, or trans. Of the overall sta , 47 percent are people of color, 33 percent LGBTQ+, 8 percent disabled, and 67 percent female, nonbinary, or trans.
Sometimes leadership is about knowing when to move on. I am now 60 years old and 39 years into my community media experience. I started at GayLife in 1984 when I was 21, cofounded Windy City Times in 1985, and
In the midst of history a decision was made
to create a Creature so powerful it wasn’t even God fearing. Because it looked too much like him.
more moon than magnifying glass, it stands proudly in the face of the Sun because it isn’t afraid to burn.
This is for the creatures who talk slick under they tongue. Who hearts beat harder than feet
Making music that sounds like polyryhtms in they sleep. Creature has gunshots for lullabies.
Creature be trapped in his own skin
Creature be boxed in, Creature be wind in a box
Creature be Terrance
Creature be Magic
Creature be Mensa
More mortar than martyr more body than babylonian Creature be framed from victory but killed for sport
and told to conform.
As they turn Creature dirt
By Kai WrightTurn Creature scum, twisting under boot Turn Creature spit split him
between tongue and cheek, between the buckle & the shield, drive his identity to the back of they throat
And leave it to rot cough him up convict or contradiction for their convenience
Creature be running like the wind with nowhere to go. His life be treadmill with false horizons, they telling him you can catch up if you just pull them boot straps up
telling Creature he conjured his own catastrophe from swallowing mediocrity until he became it
tell him he can’t float that he needs to be tree stuck in one place only to uproot him.
Kai Wright is a published poet and creative writer from the west side of Chicago, studying screenwriting and production at Syracuse University. Kai uses her creative voice to uplift, inform, inspire, and connect people.
have loved all aspects of journalism since I was a child growing up in a journalism family.
It has been a great honor to helm this legacy newspaper and launch CIMA. And I am very excited about what is next for RICJ, CIMA, and the Chicago Reader . I will stay in their orbit and help where I can.
Please welcome Solomon and continue to support the Reader as we deepen our work across Chicago, all while keeping the paper free for all.
P.S.: My dad is still doing well more than four years after his surgery. v
Poem curated by Justus Pugh. Justus is a poet, writer, and technologist born and raised on the South side of Chicago. As an artist, his work is guided by the idea that our imagination is our ancestor’s wildest dreams, inherited. And this imagination comes through writing his “Afrotranscendental” poetry, writing culinary fiction with Village X Magazine, and, now and today, storytelling.
A biweekly series curated by the Chicago Reader and sponsored by the Poetry Foundation.
Free Programming from the Poetry Foundation!
Hours
Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday: 11:00 AM–4:00 PM Thursday: 11:00 AM–8:00 PM
Celebrating the Visiting Teaching Artists of Forms & Features (Online)
Join us for a virtual reading featuring recent teaching artists for Forms & Features, the Poetry Foundation’s series of free online creative writing workshops for adults. Thursday, February 16, 2023, 7:00 PM
—Tracy Baim, publisher @TracyBaimWCMGLearn more at PoetryFoundation.org
The Bronzeville-based Queendom by Romance sells sexy pieces in an array of sizes.
By ISA GIALLORENZO
How about a hot sex tip for Valentine’s Day? In one word, lingerie. The gift that keeps on giving, to both the giftee and possibly (hopefully!) the gifter. It might seem obvious, but it’s so true: the right pieces of intimate apparel can boost your self-confidence and your sense of play—which can make you very sexy.
Local designer Romance Anastasa, 34, is well aware of that power and has created and sold quality intimate apparel since 2015. She founded her company Queendom by Romance “after noticing that the local area was an undergarment dry zone,” as she writes on the brand’s website.
Born and raised in Bronzeville, Anastasa says she has found her calling. “From a young age, I always knew that I wanted to be an entrepreneur—it was in my blood! My great-grandmother owned taverns in the neighborhood,” Anastasa tells me. “I always wanted to be a boss like her but hadn’t quite found my passion yet.”
Since her own fi rst name wasn’t enough of a hint, Anastasa stumbled on her dream ca-
reer while working her way through school at Macy’s, where she started as a sales associate in the lingerie department and was shortly promoted to lingerie specialist.
“At that time I began planning to open my own lingerie store one day. After working as a nurse and health care sales executive for over five years, I took the leap and successfully opened the first brick-and-mortar location in Bronzeville on 47th Street . . . We o ered free bra sizing regardless of purchase upon fi rst opening, and I had the pleasure of sizing a lot of the women in my community. It was through these intimate moments that my customers began to tell me about the other types of products they wanted to buy, so I began to make them. What makes Queendom by Romance so special is because it was all truly born out of love,” she says.
But love is not all lace and roses. Anastasa admits that becoming an entrepreneur has been a “wild roller coaster ride.” “I have lost it all and rebuilt at least twice,” she reflects.
“But I strongly believe that everything happens for a reason. Every single moment has
prepared me for the future, and I wouldn’t change a thing,” she says.
What happened during COVID illustrates Anastasa’s point. “I had built my success around foot traffic and community engagement. When the pandemic hit, I was forced to close my doors and pivot to e-commerce.
It was extremely hard for me, but pivoting to e-commerce helped me develop myself more as a designer because it allowed me to really focus on my passion. It also allowed me the time to become a designer-in-residence with the Chicago Fashion Incubator,” she reflects. Anastasa holds the organization in high regard: “I have been with CFI for a little over a year now and will probably be with them until they kick me out! My experience with CFI has been invaluable,” she says.
Though there’s always so much to learn, Anastasa has an innate talent for design and selects incredibly sexy lingerie for an extended range of sizes for her shop. Her small yet well-curated collection features lots of color and fun details, oftentimes in pieces that don’t need to be an exact size to fit (wink,
wink, gift size problem averted) but still wear comfortably. Special mentions to the lingerie set Rose & Thorn ($42.99), which comes in a “queen” size option and to the Janet babydoll and G-string set ($41). Both sets could work beautifully for any body type.
With two size options (S/M or M/L) and ribbons that can create multiple combinations, the hot pink Farah lingerie set ($39.99) is also a lovely choice. Besides lingerie sets, Queendom by Romance o ers bustiers, bras, bralettes, and a few accessories, such as the must-have mesh Onyx Opera gloves ($24.99).
Though her line is very a ordable (prices start around $29.99 for lingerie items), Anastasa says that quality really matters to her. “It is very important for me that Queendom creates a safe place and community for those that not only love quality things but also have a love for every single inch of themselves,” she says. With the added benefit of this being a Black-owned and local business—what’s not to love?
@chicagolooks
Hot Potato Hearts is building a space for finding new friends and partners.
By ANSON J. TONGIn the red-hued darkness of the California Clipper in Humboldt Park, a few dozen speed daters chatter on a damp Tuesday evening. Some arrived alone, others accompanied by friends or coworkers. They sit with name cards that get the basics out of the way: name, pronouns, sexuality. People lean in to hear over the noise or perhaps to flirt.
How to meet new people and form meaningful connections outside of work and school is a ubiquitous and challenging social question. Katie Conway has identified one potential answer through creating Hot Potato Hearts, a series of speed dating and friend-making events occurring at neighborhood Chicago bars.
After a conversation with a friend last year about wanting to try out speed dating but finding limited options in the area, she went ahead and made a potato-themed speed dating Instagram account. “I created the Instagram, and I just started emailing bars that I knew and liked and felt comfortable in,” recounts Conway. “And I was like, ‘Can I host a speed dating event?’ and some bars responded and said, ‘Yes!’ and I was like, amazing, let’s do it!”
She expected fewer than ten people to show up to the fi rst event, perhaps just supportive friends and people she already knew. When
the time came, 24 people attended after hearing about the gathering on Instagram or Eventbrite. Hot Potato Hearts addresses a need that many might not fully realize they’ve been missing, Conway herself included. “After my fi rst Hot Potato Hearts event, I came home, and I was just like, I feel so much more like myself than I have for the past two years. It was really a rming that not only did other people want it but how much better it made me feel to be back in my element.”
Inclusivity and intentionality are vital to the success of Hot Potato Hearts: the events are explicitly LGBTQ+ friendly and eschew the awkward seriousness people may associate speed dating with. It bills itself as “a space for all genders, all sexualities, all races, all abilities,” with four straightforward requirements: “be 21+, single or ethically nonmonogamous, open-minded, and looking to meet cool new people.”
Conscious of the ongoing pandemic, all events require vaccination and recommend masks. Conway brings extra masks in case people forget. When it’s warm enough, events are hosted outdoors. The caring, considerate nature of the community she’s built comes into play here; when people feel sick before an event, they’ll let Conway know so she can transfer their ticket to a later event, keeping
everyone safe and happy.
Meeting and chatting up strangers in a bar is a situation we’ve all become a little less accustomed to, but Conway emphasizes that people are actually very open to the idea of speed dating. She encourages a casual and inviting environment, saying, “I don’t just push romantic relationships, but platonic ones as well. And also just enjoying a conversation with someone else. You can just talk to someone else for five minutes and enjoy the conversation and not have to interact with them again.”
Nerves are the number one concern people tend to voice beforehand. Once they get going at an event, however, Conway says the anxiety tends to diminish. Participants are also free to take a break or leave at any point if they feel overwhelmed, and Conway makes sure to reach out later to check in.
The structure and culture of Hot Potato Hearts set the tone in many ways. Rotating across five-minute conversations with people who also opted to be there, with question-laden index cards on the tables if you need a starting topic, many of the uncomfortable aspects of approaching or being approached at a bar are removed or smoothed over. Fostering this vibe has been purposeful and quite successful, according to Conway: “I think my online community and marketing do a really good job of pulling the right people to my events. All the people at my events always have warm and welcoming energy, and they’re just there to enjoy their night.”
After the series of five-minute conversations, participants write down the names of the people they’re interested in connecting with on the backs of their name tags. If the match is mutual, Conway shares contact information with both parties. She has heard updates from a few success stories, platonic and romantic, that have emerged from this endeavor.
Hot Potato Hearts has been received positively, with an approximate count of 694 people across 23 events as of the beginning of December. Conway estimates that usually about a third of the people who come to her events are regulars or repeat participants, while the majority are fi rst-timers. The age range of the group tends to hover around mid-twenties to early thirties for the most
part, but Conway notes that she has also had older participants as well. Regarding the potential for events specifically targeting an older crowd, Conway acknowledged that, “All of my friends’ divorced parents have been like, ‘When are you doing one for me?’ So it’s on the vision board.”
In addition to speed dating, Conway has begun to branch out and build community in a variety of potato-themed ways. The bi-monthly “Book Spuds” book club read the novel Nevada by Imogen Binnie in November and discussed Janelle Monáe’s The Memory Librarian at their January 29 gathering at Dorothy.
Then there’s Perfect Mash, a live dating show that now takes place monthly at Schubas Tavern. Three contestants, nominated by themselves or friends, are featured in a mix of activities like trivia and other games. Audience members take a compatibility quiz and the most compatible receive the opportunity to chat with the contestants on stage. Once they fi nd their “perfect mashes,” pairs can go on a date sponsored by local venues like Lincoln Hall, Avondale Bowl, and Bernice’s Tavern.
The project has already spawned relationships, friendships, and group chats, and has become extensive enough that Conway has been able to hire a part-time assistant to help out and bounce ideas o of. Future plans include growing Perfect Mash, designing more recurring events at bars, hosting sober events, partnering with nonprofits for more fundraisers, promoting healthy relationships and safer sex resources, and engaging with local artists in the city.
And how exactly do potatoes relate to speed dating? “Potatoes work on many levels because they’re not gendered the way some fruits and vegetables are. And speed dating is kind of similar to the hot potato game ’cause you’re moving around the room as the hot potato,” Conway explains. “But also I just love potatoes, and I refer to myself as a hot potato. Or if a friend sends me a photo where they look cute, I tell them, ‘You’re one hot potato!’”
As a self-professed potato-lover, Conway recommends a very thinly sliced potato slathered in paprika, ginger, a little bit of chili, and olive oil, roasted until nice and crispy. Or for a fancier option, sweet potato gnocchi. And french fries are excellent for any occasion, perhaps shared with a friend or romantic interest met at speed dating.
@ansonjtong
The eccentric North Riverside restaurant Chef Shangri-La has been a staple for generations, and the owners hope it’s here to stay.
By MAXWELL RABBThe parking lot is full, illuminated by a fading yellow sign adorned with a tiki drink and a palm tree. Unassumingly tucked away in North Riverside, just west of Chicago, Chef Shangri-La is preparing for a lively night—not uncommon for the suburban mainstay. The entire restaurant is bustling, packed with families that fill the festively decorated, tiki-inspired dining room. Specialty cocktails and massive portions of Cantonese
classics line the tables as customers fill the restaurant with astonishing energy. And to keep the place running smoothly, the owners, Dr. Lisa and Irv Abrams, are fixed to the host stand, inviting customers into their 47-yearold restaurant.
Even though boozy tiki drinks like the Mai Tai or Dr. Fongs and the expansive Cantonese menu alone could justify the crowd, the main attraction begins shortly after 7 PM. Elvis has
entered the building. The restaurant is suddenly quiet and the King himself serenades the tipsy dining room. The live entertainment occurs within the crowd, facilitating an intimate, far more engaging experience than an onstage performer. Suddenly, it’s clear why Chef Shangri-La upholds its distinctive, timeless legacy and why customers keep coming back.
Chef Shangri-La opened in 1976 when Lisa’s parents, Paul and Susie Fong, decided to leave
their original Chinatown eatery. The Fong family purchased this modest corner building in North Riverside, despite a significantly smaller kitchen and dining room. Still, Paul hoped the new building would give him the opportunity to create his perfect restaurant. Somehow in this limited kitchen, Lisa remembers her father cooking some of her favorite meals—occasionally a 14-course spread.
“Prior to the opening, they set out to make this the ‘chef Shangri-la,’ interpreted by my father as the ‘chef’s utopia’ of what heaven was like for a chef, and designed it with Hawaiian decor, because who doesn’t like Hawaii?” says Lisa. “My mother really liked the idea because her grandmother was originally Hawaiian.”
Paul’s recipes continue to live on at Chef Shangri-La, filling a massive menu that features beloved items such as Shrimp La Fong and Tahitian Mango Passion Pork. The Fong family has also crafted an impressively creative boozy drink list with the specialty Dr. Fongs at the top, humorously named after Lisa when she had yet to complete her doctorate. When Paul passed away in 2012, Susie and her children ran the restaurant alone until she fell ill in 2019, leading her to approach Lisa’s husband Irv to take over the restaurant.
“The absolute reason we came to take over the Chef is my mother,” says Lisa. “She had wanted to have the restaurant continue, and her wish, as it had been for many years, was she wanted to leave behind a whole extended family to be able to return to the Chef to have holidays and birthdays and anniversaries together and to keep the Fong family traditions alive and well.”
The Fongs carved out a family legacy in North Riverside, but Chef Shangri-La’s impact is embedded in the community due to its generational footprint. Guests are made to feel special. Simply by visiting, it’s apparent that you’ve entered a well-established, emotionally rich cornerstone. Beyond the drinks, the food, the retro atmosphere, and the performance, there is a real history that lives on—and that’s the true accomplishment for any restaurant that stays open for more than a decade, let alone nearly five.
“My favorite part of running the restaurant is hearing stories about how great a chef Paul Fong was and how families continue to dine
with us over the last 46 years,” says Irv. “Lisa and I can carry out Mom’s wishes to deliver a great product and allow our customers to feel like they are on a tropical vacation.”
Chef Shangri-La’s live performances originated as fan dances, hula routines, and other Hawaiian-inspired shows, but in 2013, Elvis impersonators became a regular attraction. The longest-standing Elvis performer is Michael St. Angel, who performs on the fourth Friday of every month. St. Angel started performing when Chef Shangri-La first introduced Elvis to the lineup and feels a special and familiar connection to his performances there. He dances and sings between the tables, greeting newcomers, birthday celebrators, and die-hard regular customers—which ties the knot on a memorable experience.
“I am proud to say that the first year they
began o ering live entertainment, I was one of the first, if not the first, solo performer who entertained there,” says St. Angel. “To date, the Fong family and I have been together since early 2013, so we’re celebrating our ten-year anniversary together.
“Overall,” he continues, “the crowd at Chef Shangri-La is energetic, and people are there to have a good time. It’s a great vibe there—Hawaiian/tiki themes, powerful tropical drinks, good food, etc. Toss in Elvis and you have the recipe for a memorable night, for sure. Since I’ve been performing there for so long, I have met many friends and fans from this one spot who not only have followed me elsewhere but also make a point of returning to Chef Shangri-La when I am there, which makes my performances all the more special and familiar.”
By 2019, Chef Shangri-La acquired a lineup
of several other performers, including Billy Joel, Michael Jackson, and Tina Turner impersonators, among others. For several years before the pandemic, the family hosted Fong Fest—an annual music festival held in the restaurant’s parking lot. This year, Fong Fest will finally return in September, complete with more than 50 tropical drinks and Chinese appetizers. The Abrams family intends to carry on Paul and Susie Fong’s legacy, and so far, Chef Shangri-La remains the comforting “utopia” it set out to be. Maybe it’s the booze, but when you visit Chef Shangri-La, you want to stay a while. And you’ll likely return with friends, no matter how long the drive is out to the suburbs.
“My mother is always with us in spirit and in the restaurant, and she wants us to continue to the next generation,” Lisa said. “Many
others want to demolish this old building and turn it into condominiums or apartments, like the current community is also hoping, I think, but we’re hanging in there strong as ever.”
During the pandemic, Irv and Lisa managed to keep Chef Shangri-La alive thanks to outdoor dining and entertainment. Plus, Irv and Lisa began bottling Dr. Fongs and the other signature drinks by quarts and gallons for customers to enjoy at home.
Lisa continued, “I want the customers to come with their families, young and old, friends, and colleagues to enjoy good Cantonese food like they are in Hawaii, get more happy with our fancy tropical drinks, and have a great time. I also want them to leave here and say, ‘When can we come back again?’”
One of the more revealing scenes in City
So Real —Steve James’s insightful documentary about Chicago politics, takes place in a Gold Coast penthouse.
It’s 2019. And James, chronicling the last mayoral election, is filming a dinner party hosted by Christie Hefner.
They’re talking politics and one of the guests—Norman Bobins, a retired banker— opines that no matter who wins the upcoming election, he hopes we don’t return to the days of Mayor Harold Washington.
Too much chaos, he explains.
To her credit, Hefner pushes back, pointing out that “the chaos” of Council Wars was instigated by a pack of white aldermen who tried to sabotage Washington’s administration at every turn.
I suppose I should appreciate that in his bluntness, Bobins revealed what you could call the corporate attitude toward democracy, which goes a little like this . . .
It’s OK in principle, but let’s not let it get in the way of grownup stuff, like electing all-powerful mayors and rubber-stamp alderpeople who know how to get things done. Even though the things they get done have at best only a trickle-down benefit for most of the people who live here.
It’s good to reflect on that salon scene as we head into the final month of what will most likely be the first round of the mayoral election, as no candidate will likely capture more than 50 percent of the vote.
At the moment, we seem to be heading in the opposite direction of corporatocracy. That is, we seem to be at least experimenting with the concept of democracy and the diminishment of the mayor’s authority. In February, for instance, we will hold the first-ever elections of police district councils that will have a say in policing decisions.
This is partly a result of the cold-blooded execution of Laquan McDonald by a police
officer in 2014. And the subsequent coverup by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who sat on the incriminating evidence for 13 months until a Cook County judge ordered him to release the videotape of McDonald’s murder.
We’re also only a few years away from electing a school board, which is the by-product of years of grassroots activism that mayors (and their corporate friends) generally abhor.
So many times over the last ten or so years, school activists thought they had the statehouse votes to pass an elected school board bill. Only to see the sure thing evaporate in the final moments of the legislative session— killed at the behest of the mayor by Illinois senate president John Cullerton or former Illinois house speaker Michael Madigan, who purportedly supported the bill. Ah, the games that Madigan played.
There’s also a movement toward democracy in, of all places, the City Council, where alderpeople Sophia King and Matt Martin have led mini rebellions against the mayor’s control of council chairs.
Few things expose Chicago’s indifference toward democracy as the city custom of allowing the mayor to determine who gets to chair a committee.
The council, remember, is supposed to be a legislative check on the mayor’s power. But since Mayor Daley was elected in 1989, it’s been a mayoral rubber stamp in part because the mayor controls the flow of legislation by controlling council chairs. The mayor chooses council chairs as a reward for their past subservience and a promise that they’ll use the power of the chair to kill legislation the mayor opposes.
This tradition continues, as we saw last November when Mayor Lightfoot stifled the attempt of leftist alderpeople to approve, or even hold a meeting to consider approving, the Bring Chicago Home ordinance. That ordinance would pay for the construction of low-income housing by slapping a tax on the sale of high-priced real estate.
The traditional argument for all-powerful mayors is that they know how to get things done. But in the case of the Bring Home Chicago ordinance, it’s more like they know how to keep things from being done—even if that
means more homeless people living in tents under viaducts.
As to Alderperson Martin . . . he was the vice chair of the councils’ ethics committee, when its chair, 43rd ward alderperson Michele Smith, suddenly resigned last summer with about nine months left in her term. By retiring, Smith enabled Mayor Lightfoot to name a successor—Timmy Knudsen—who now has the advantage of “incumbency” in the February election.
Not sure what’s ethical about any of this.
Martin proposed that he be named council chair, as he was the vice chair. Mayor Lightfoot resisted on the unstated grounds that Martin’s never been a rubber stamp, so why should he get any privileges?
On January 23, Martin convened an ethics committee meeting anyway, as though he actually were the chair. Mayor Lightfoot sort of looked the other way—apparently too busy with her reelection campaign to try to block Martin.
By chance, I recently moderated a forum in the 30th ward, where four candidates are running to replace Alderman Ariel Reboyras, who by virtue of his loyalty to the last two mayors, got to be a committee chair. I asked the candidates what I called “the Matt Martin question.” That is—did they believe alderpeople or the mayor should select council chairs?
All of the candidates said they sided with Martin.
I was impressed by their dedication to democracy until skepticism set in. My guess is that council democracy is like TIF reform—a concept candidates know enough to endorse when they’re running for office. Once in office—well, that’s another thing.
So, I can’t predict where these currents of democracy will eventually lead us. I can easily see Chicago going back to the old ways, with future mayors—cheered on by future Norman Bobins—acting as though democracy was just too chaotic to abide by.
Instead, they’ll say we need a powerful mayor and a rubber-stamp council, like in the good old days. Even though those days really weren’t so good for ordinary Chicagoans. v
@bennyjshow
John Mossman has a scary new movie, but he’s not just trying to scare us. Good Guy With a Gun (not to be confused with a 2020 short with the same title) is a feature-length drama/thriller slated for a regional premiere February 27 as part of the Midwest International Film Festival at the Gene Siskel Film Center.
A gun owner and hunter who favors “commonsense gun control,” Mossman says his goal for the film is to open a more nuanced discussion about firearms and the dangers of America’s macho-mythic gun culture.
I’ve seen it and can report back: I am scared. Mossman, an actor, director, writer, producer, and teacher of those trades, grew up in the circus town of Baraboo, Wisconsin. In 1998, he and actor/director Kathy Scambiatterra (who’s also his wife), cofounded the actor-centered Chicago theater company, The Artistic Home, where he’s still an ensemble member and she is artistic director. A self-described “citified redneck,” he considers the NRA “a terror-
ist-enabling organization” and says outrage over the January 6 insurrection prompted him to make this movie. But its origins go back a decade.
“Ten years ago, I had a dream of being a shooter,” Mossman says. “I had never had that dream before, and I’ve never played any of those games where you do that, but I was walking through some sort of suburban rolling wooded area shooting people. And after I’d done that, I realized there was no answer for my deeds, no redemption, and I was going to have to kill myself. It was a terrible dream.
“I hadn’t written in six months, but I woke up and went downstairs at 4:30 or five o’clock in the morning. I tried to write something . . . but I couldn’t do it. I was trying to figure out, from that dream, how could you represent the mind of someone who does that, without making them a demon the entire time? Two and a half hours later, I hear my wife upstairs crying. I said, ‘What happened?’ and she said, ‘Someone just shot 20 kids in Sandy Hook.’
“I was so traumatized, I couldn’t tell her that I had that dream. I didn’t tell anyone for years. I felt, somehow, like I had penetrated some crack in time or in the universe. I’m the son of an engineer, show-me people, so I didn’t believe in that sort of thing, but it was so upsetting that I didn’t tell anybody.”
Mossman says he tried, for years, “to find a way to work that out of my system.” Then, when January 6 happened, “I sort of combined those two [events]. To be honest, this [film] is a bit of an exorcism.”
Good Guy With a Gun (shot in less than a month in Chicago and Lockport) packs a lot of Chicago talent, including Mossman, who, in addition to writing and directing, cast himself as one of the film’s two villains, and Scambiatterra as a church lady—a minor role with a major message. Steppenwolf’s Ian Barford is a neighbor with benefits, John LaFlamboy shows up as a shrewd cop, and Joe Swanberg—oh, spoiler alert.
It would be a disservice to the jarring turns and ramped-up tension in the last half of the film to divulge too much of the plot, but it follows a bereaved mother (deftly played by Tiffany Bedwell) and her teenage son, Will (Beck Nolan), on a sojourn from Chicago to a small midwestern town where Will makes a friend (Jack Cain) and falls under the influence of what appears to be the town’s prevailing tough-guy-with-a-gun culture.
There are many realistically awkward moments in this film; they struck me as one of
its strengths. And its opening scene of urban violence could have literally been pulled from our daily headlines. But the evil forces here— Dan Waller as the racist, sexist, homophobic Duke, and Mossman as his equally warped buddy, Riggs—are so grotesquely extreme and demonic that someone needs to take them out. This may or may not work at cross-purposes with Mossman’s main intention, which is to take on “the simplistic idea implied by ‘good guy with a gun’ philosophy”—the idea that “someone could take another’s life and then be OK with it for the rest of their life.” This is false, Mossman says: “You’re not asking them to be a savior, you’re asking them to be a sacrifice. They will never be the same. To pretend that they are is a cheap betrayal of the human spirit that the gun industry shamelessly embraces.”
Mossman is trying to book film festivals in red and purple states and wants to see what the reaction will be there. But he says the greatest interest in the fi lm is coming from outside of the U.S. He thinks that’s because the rest of the world is “just trying to unravel this weird phenomenon that is America and its love a air with, and worshipping of, firearms.”
I’m afraid it’s because they think it’ll confirm the image of America they already have: gun-besotted, dangerous, and despicable. That’s scary. v
@DeannaIsaacs
and Brown communities. I am sympathetic to his son having been killed. I can’t imagine the hurt and pain he must have. But it sounds like he wants to use the city’s resources for vengeance. This, more than anything else, should be disqualifying.
By ANTHONY EHLERS
Like most Chicagoans, I’ve only been half-heartedly following the race for mayor. So on January 31, I settled in to watch WGN’s mayoral debate and see who the best candidate was.
An hour and a half later, I was both outraged at some of the things I heard and relieved that it was over. I was saddened at the prospect of Chicago’s future with the possibility of some of these candidates at the helm. Overall, it was a poor night for Chicago.
I heard a lot of the same old tried-and-failed ideas. Many candidates promised more police and tougher penalties. We hear these same things every election cycle. And how is that working out? Illinois has some of the strictest gun penalties in the country. If an individual possesses a firearm, discharges one, or discharged one to cause the death or serious injury in the commission of a felony, judges are required to add 15, 20, or 25 years, respectively, to their sentence. Despite that, Chicago still has violent crime and high rates of murder. Doesn’t it seem like this strategy has failed? It’s lazy politics. Candidates can shout for tougher penalties and longer sentences all they want, but this only expands mass incarceration. It does nothing to stop the violence and crime. It’s a good sound bite, but a failed policy.
Some candidates would have you believe
that the violence is widespread in Chicago. While violence can and sometimes does spring up anywhere, the highest concentrations of violence are in neighborhoods like Little Village, Englewood, West Garfield Park, and Fuller Park. It’s concentrated in mostly Black and Brown neighborhoods, which experience many forms of disadvantage, from poverty to segregation, food and job deserts, and high unemployment.
When Paul Vallas talks about putting 500 new cops out there, I wonder if he’s talking about these neighborhoods. He certainly isn’t walking down the streets of any of these neighborhoods in his commercials.
Willie Wilson’s comments were particularly distasteful. He likes to say, “Take the handcu s o the police.” It’s tone-deaf. Most people, especially in Black and Brown communities, are afraid of having interactions with the police. Yet he evokes the image of someone slipping the leash o an attack dog.
Wilson said that the police should go after criminals and “chase them down like rabbits.” What kind of Chicago does he want to preside over? We have laws, and people have rights.
We don’t hunt people down like animals in this country. We don’t need this kind of rhetoric. People who break the law are human.
The police Wilson wants to uncu will be invading disadvantaged and underserved Black
I was also interested to listen to Chuy García and see if he had any new ideas. He didn’t. He said, “Downtown is the engine that runs the city,” and called Loop investment, “building a more equitable Chicago.” Is that what equity means to him—investing in the richest parts of the city, when a quarter of the city does not have rail service, or when neighborhoods like Englewood are struggling to hold on to even one grocery store? Our policy cannot be one of neglect and disinvestment.
Politicians love the status quo. Punishment is the most consistent response to urban crime, violence, and poverty. All you have to do is look at the nightly news to see that these policies have failed.
Black and Brown Americans are less likely to live in communities with strong institutional support. Exclusionary housing policies and discrimination pushed Black Americans into segregated neighborhoods. The government and the private sector neglected these communities, leaving them with underfunded schools, food deserts, lack of quality healthcare, unemployment, and poverty.
We need to understand the harm caused by widespread disinvestment and abandonment. We need to focus on poverty, segregation, disinvestment, and the widespread availability of guns to people who shouldn’t have them.
I only really heard one candidate speak about investing in neighborhoods and that was Brandon Johnson. He spoke about workforce development and investing in small businesses. He seems to understand the need to shift from punishment and focus attention on the policies that create and sustain poverty in the first place.
Johnson spoke about crime anxiety in Chicago, and he is correct. Community violence translates into fear of public spaces and leads families to leave their neighborhoods if they can a ord to. In many of these neighborhoods, large numbers of adults are currently incarcerated in the justice system. This overwhelms the adults and institutions that remain and leaves young people who live there vulnerable to the violence of others.
The city must find ways to invest in these
disadvantaged communities. It must help Black and Brown small businesses get o the ground to help build a sense of community and employ people from the neighborhoods. The city also must incentivize developers to build in underserved communities. We need to push for a ordable housing. Many vacant lots can be bought cheaply and developed. As heavily taxed as the city is, we need to offer tax credits to developers who come to these communities.
Fifty percent of all 911 calls are for nonviolent issues. These calls should not be handled by the police but by certified experts and community members. This would allow for more police presence in the areas that need them and allow members of the community to be treated as something other than suspects. We need to find alternatives to police for nonviolent calls. We have to explore what can exist rather than what does exist.
We also need more mental health clinics. We cannot discount the significance of community issues, addiction, and undiagnosed mental health issues. We need services for trauma related to community violence and we need to develop strategies to shift funding to culturally competent providers of treatment and healing.
The next mayor needs to reach out to Chicago’s youth. Young people want to be politically active. We need to help them form community organizations that interrupt violence and empower young people to lead change e orts in their schools and communities. The youth need understanding and simply to be heard. The mayor needs to listen—not just to understand the root causes but also the root consequences of exposure to them. How can anyone feel like our leaders really care about us when they won’t even take the time to listen?
Lastly, Ja’mal Green said that “hope is not a plan.” In and of itself, that is true. But hope is also an important form of resistance, both political and personal, and it rea rms what is possible and what is worth fighting for.
Hope is a political activity and a large part of what will inform voters’ choices for mayor. There is hope that they will follow through on their promises, hope that they will listen, hope that they will not follow failed policies but build communities, especially in the most underserved communities.
Hope must be a part of everyone’s plan. v Anthony Ehlers is a writer incarcerated at Stateville Correctional Center.
@prisonjourn
In 2014, the Illinois Lottery launched the nation’s first specialty lottery ticket benefiting the Special Olympics, the world’s largest sports organization for individuals living with intellectual and physical disabilities. While funds raised from most Illinois Lottery specialty tickets are distributed through grants awarded to numerous organizations working in a specific area, such as veteran’s relief or breast cancer care, the Illinois Lottery specialty ticket in support of Special Olympics Illinois (SOILL) is different in that 100 percent of profits are allocated directly to the non-profit organization, which redistributes them to Special Olympics programs throughout the state. To date, the specialty ticket has raised over $7 million dollars supporting some of Illinois’ most dedicated athletes.
The instant ticket costs two dollars and is available at more than 7,000 Illinois Lottery retailers statewide. With its fun design and this year’s “Fat Wallet” game, in which players can win up to ten times for prizes up to $20,000, the Illinois Lottery specialty ticket in support of Special Olympics Illinois makes a great gi for anyone 18 and over who values inclusivity, teamwork, and supporting local athletes. Visit the Illinois Lottery website for more information about this specialty ticket and others, and read on to learn more about Special Olympics Illinois.
The Special Olympics was founded by Eunice Kennedy Shriver in 1968, inspired partially by her sister, Rosemary Kennedy, who lived with disabilities throughout her life. Driven by her desire to break stigmas, build community, and improve opportunities for individuals with intellectual disabilities, Kennedy Shriver launched Camp Shriver, a summer camp for children with intellectual disabilities, at her Maryland farm in 1962. The resounding success of that endeavor led her to expand the concept, and on July 20, 1968, 1,000 athletes from the U.S. and Canada assembled at Soldier Field for the world’s first Special Olympics competition.
Today, the Special Olympics supports year-round athletic competitions for more than five million athletes living in more than
170 countries around the world. Special Olympics Illinois remains a vital part of that international network, with more than 21,000 athletes participating in 19 sports in 11 regions throughout the state. Athletes ages eight and up are encouraged to apply, and there is no maximum age limit. In addition, the organization offers a Young Athletes program for 9,000 children ages two through seven with and without intellectual disabilities, introducing kids to sports while building their self-esteem and social skills.
Thanks to SOILL’s fundraising efforts, which include its partnership with the Illinois Lottery, the organization can provide its athletic programming at zero cost to the athletes or their families. SOILL COO Kim Riddering says that funds raised from the specialty ticket help supply much-needed equipment, uniforms, buses to regional and state competitions, and more (individual teams and programs can apply for funds directly through SOILL on an as-needed basis). They also help fuel initiatives such as the Urban Strategy program, which focuses on athletes and outreach in the Chicago area; MedFests, where athletes can receive free physicals; and Healthy Athletes, which provides six types of health screenings, including vision and dentistry.
“When I first did Special Olympics back in my freshman year, it was amazing for me because I like how I communicate with my
team, and [we] try to work together as a team and win games,” says George McDay, a student-athlete at Vaughn Occupational High School in Chicago’s Portage Park neighborhood, which serves grades nine through 12 and offers continuing education to students up to 22 years old.
Now in his seventh and final year at Vaughn, McDay has participated in Special Olympics’ basketball, soccer, so ball, track and field, flag football, and Unified Sports (a competition that includes basketball, flag football, soccer, and bowling)—though he says bowling is his specialty. In his junior year, his basketball team placed 1st in regionals, which meant he was invited to the State Championships, which includes Opening Ceremonies, complete with a torch run with first responders, and an overnight stay in a college dorm with his fellow athletes.
“I really like helping students to interact with teammates [or athletes] from another team. We just help each other out.” McDay says.
Vaughn teacher Deb Yarovsky, who is also the school’s athletic director, says that participation varies depending on the sport but that the school typically has between 80 to 120 students participating in its most popular programs, which include basketball, soccer, and track and field. “I feel like it’s such an incredible program,” she says of Special Olympics Illinois. “It’s something This sponsored content is paid for by Illinois Lottery
super near and dear to my heart. In addition to the athletic competition—I think George could talk about this too—it’s just the friendships that have formed, the social opportunities, and the communication, not just with the Vaughn students. Still, when we go to those competitions, they get to interact with other athletes from Chicago and with other athletes from the state.”
For many SOILL athletes, the benefits of playing go far beyond the playing field. McDay plays in a north-side bowling league with his friend Ian, who he met while competing in Special Olympics, and he and his parents are talking with local coaches about ways he can pursue his interests in sports a er graduation.
SOILL also has an extensive Athlete Leadership program, which offers a variety of ways for athletes to develop new skills, express their voices, and pursue interests in coaching, fundraising, governance, and more. “We have athlete leaders that sit on our board of directors—technically, they’re my boss,” Riddering says. “They work at [companies such as] United Airlines, Amazon Fresh, and Amazon, but they have a say on what goes on within their own program. And this is their program. We’re just the people putting it on for them.”
Riddering says the COVID-19 pandemic hit the Special Olympics particularly hard, as health concerns, school closures, and strict state guidelines on group homes and state-run institutions
meant that, for a time, athletes couldn’t participate in their usual activities. In some cases, athletes moved between facilities due to closures or moved in with family members, leaving SOILL without their updated contact information.
In response, the organization is building an outreach plan to reconnect with those athletes and get them back in the game. “This is a lifestyle, Special Olympics Illinois, I absolutely believe that with my whole heart. And when you pull a lifestyle away from an athlete, that’s tough. So it is our mission to get them back and provide them with everything they need to get going again,” Riddering says.
Beyond purchasing lottery tickets or making individual donations, the public can support SOILL by volunteering or simply attending a competition. “It’s such an incredible opportunity,” Yarovsky says. “It’s one thing to hear about Special Olympics or read about it. But being there to be able to see the interactions of these athletes is—this might be a stretch—but for me personally, it’s life-changing to see the effort that [the athletes] put in their hard work and the relationships they build. It’s really touching.”
For more about Special Olympics Illinois, visit soill.org
This sponsored content is paid for by Illinois Lottery
By DEBBIE-MARIE BROWN
Nestled on the southwest side near 51st and California, the Gage Park Latinx Council’s Community Cultural Center is housed in a red brick storefront with shiny reflective windows that bear the organization’s acronym “GPLXC” in purple. The organization was founded in 2018 by Samantha Alexandra Martinez, Antonio Santos, and Katia Martinez.
Inside, accent lamps and LEDs illuminate black, pink, and beige walls. Potted plants, shelves filled with multicolored YA books, games for children, photos of community members, motivational messages, and student artwork make up the bulk of the center’s furnishings. Deeper in the space’s interior,
sparkly purple tinsel curtains hang from two walls—the remnants of a Euphoria-themed Pride party organized by teens in the center at the end of “Queer Riot” last September, one of GPLXC’s summer programs for young adults.
Diego Garcia, 20, sat across from me on one of the many sleek gray couches arranged inside Gage Park’s community-led cultural center, which turned two years old last fall.
“I first entered the Gage Park Latinx Council February of 2021. One of their organizers had asked me if I wanted to volunteer with them to distribute . . . I think it was 1,200 pounds of food on a weekly basis. And I was like, yeah, like, that’s a lot of food. You guys need help,” he said and laughed.
The space was empty besides the two of us
and one other young sta er, who sat at a table in the back, working on a laptop. It’s here, sitting on the couches, where Garcia detailed how he became program manager of the fiveyear-old community mutual aid experiment slash nonprofit.
Garcia gestured to donated items on shelves.
“We distribute COVID tests, masks, soap, and toothbrushes because we know that these are the necessities people need on a daily basis. And also we acknowledge that the work we do is just a band-aid to the issues that are happening in the neighborhood, but this work is still needed.”
GPLXC describes itself as a queer, femme, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals
(DACA), and Latinx-led grassroots organization rooted in abolition and mutual aid. They provide programs that range from a culturally specific food pantry to children’s art classes, summer organizing internships, and more— all to fill the gaps in community programming and resources that they see their southwest-side neighbors experiencing.
Garcia smiles a lot when he talks and speaks about his history of Gage Park organizing as if it were just another after-school extracurricular that a kid might fall into, like basketball or clarinet.
“I started organizing when I was 16 years old” out of a church, he said. “That was the only space I had. So we would register people to vote.”
When Garcia realized there wasn’t a safe space for youth like himself to congregate, he volunteered at Immaculate Conception Church, sweeping the floor to pass the time. Soon he started meeting other young folks in the church, and they would organize fundraisers for victims of violence. One time they raised $6,000 in a day for a five-year-old.
By 2020, Garcia and GPLXC’s small team were already collaborating before he was a bona fide member. They organized a march of over 3,000 people for Black Lives Matter in the summer of 2020 by hanging a few flyers and posting online. Local artists and activists flooded the streets with them, and a Blackowned vegan restaurant from Little Village started distributing free food.
Garcia started helping GPLXC run its weekly food market not too long afterward. “I just showed up, and I volunteered for a couple of weeks. And that’s when they opened their arms to me.”
Gage Park sits in the middle of Brighton Park, Back of the Yards, and West Lawn. Its population is just shy of 40,000 residents and is primarily made up of Mexican American working-class families living in multigenerational homes (mostly bungalows). The neighborhood’s restaurants, auto shops, hair salons, government services, pharmacies, and other businesses are concentrated along 51st from Kedzie to Western and Kedzie between 51st and 59th.
Gage Park has been heavily Catholic for about the last century, when, in the 1920s, the
neighborhood attracted Anglo-Slavic immigrants enticed by the southwest side’s several newly established national Roman Catholic churches. The land is also surrounded by three railroads, so bustling businesses like World’s Finest Chocolate, the Royal Bottling Company, and Central Steel and Wire Company settled in the area, attracted by the nearby transportation. But in 1966, Gage Park made national headlines as part of the first open housing experiment for Black residents when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led a march from Gage Park High School to Marquette Park for integration. White residents and visitors attacked the march, throwing rocks and bottles and spitting on marchers. In the months after, the American Nazi Party organized a series of protests and a “white people’s march.” As white flight spread in the 1960s and 70s, the neighborhood’s middle-class—predominantly made of European immigrants from Germany, Poland, Lithuania, and Ireland—transitioned to 91 percent Latinx and working-class, and today it is the second largest Latinx neighborhood in Chicago outside of Little Village.
Despite feeling gratitude that integration allowed Mexican immigrants to make a home in the area, the organizers running GPLXC said that they still lived in the shadows of the white Europeans who built Gage Park and then fled.
“[We saw] that when white people left, resources also left,” Martinez said.
Gage Park is rich in public and charter schools, but their scarce public amenities otherwise reflect the level of divestment locally.
“The Gage Park Field House is a big building that could potentially be a community center. But it’s not; it looks quite abandoned,” Martinez said. The fieldhouse used to house the Chicago Public Library, but the library was downsized to a small storefront in the 90s when the neighborhood transitioned to mostly Black and Brown. “We’ve gone inside that building, it’s pretty deteriorated,” Martinez said. “Our park is also very deteriorated.”
On Western, she continued, there’s a government agency where WIC and SNAP recipients go for food support. “But every time I pass outside during the summers, there’s a long line of people just waiting there.”
The past two decades of Chicago news headlines about the neighborhood detail shootings and intermittent gang violence. Today, many residents of the southwest side face food insecurity, gun violence, and negative health e ects from nearby factory pollution.
GPLXC originated in 2018 when a group of youth who grew up in the neighborhood organized art and literacy programs in the Gage Park Library after it went without a children’s librarian for five years.
“I grew up in this neighborhood, and one of the few things we could do for free, coming from like a single mom household, was going to the library and storytime, games and all that,” Santos said. “That disappeared for many years.”
The group started occupying space at Gage Park Library and led art projects for youth aged six through 12 rooted in social justice or
Latinx identity and culture, and spaces quickly filled. “We had 70 youth consistently showing up to a small storefront.”
And that’s where it all started, Santos said. From there, they grew and started to see more in their community, particularly about how city resources are unfairly distributed.
Take their mercadito, for example. In 2020, some people from outside the community did weekly food pantry pop-ups for a couple months and then stopped when government funding ran out. But the pop-ups had already become a food source community members relied upon, 51 percent of who live below the poverty level. “People are still hungry. People have always been struggling to access food,” Santos said.
The organizers connected with Grocery Run Club, a community-driven fresh produce initiative, soon after the funding ran out. They started receiving 50 boxes of food weekly in a local parking lot. As of fall 2022, the Run Club has provided 200 boxes of food weekly for GPLXC to distribute. GPLXC expanded their partnership to include the Pilsen Food Pantry and even secured a $25,000 grant for the market. They used the money to purchase groceries directly from a neighborhood momand-pop grocery store, making sure fresh items like tortillas and vegetables are available every week. GPLXC has distributed food to over 20,000 families in the past three years.
Now, their goal with the program is to help the community create local systems of food.
“So it started o as like, ‘Oh, cool, we don’t
have a children’s librarian,’” Santos said. “And then it was like, ‘Oh, we also don’t have a food pantry. We also don’t have a queer space. We also don’t have art programming. We also don’t have X, Y, and Z.’ And that’s how our programming developed pretty organically into what it is today.”
The sheer scope of programs GPLXC o ers is a reflection of how dynamic the space is. Martinez said that when it comes to stories of violence and other difficulties faced by those on the southwest side, they generally aren’t told by the residents who live there. So Martinez wanted the center to be a space where community members could articulate new narratives, educate their community, and facilitate self-expression.
When formal government entities provide community services, it’s usually more of a transactional experience than a relationship. The patron arrives seeking a specific type of support, and if they meet certain criteria set by the agency then they’re granted it. GPLXC did not want to replicate that sterile experience of receiving aid and has made a point to invest in neighborhood relationships and demonstrate community consistency.
The center’s annual summer art club serves middle schoolers and brings in local artists from similar cultural backgrounds and distinct artistic mediums (like screen printing or sculpting) to introduce students
to another way of thinking about themselves and the world. “[We] not only do art as a way to learn about art and be artists but also as a way to process emotion, to process some of the grief and some of the pain that might have come up from the pandemic,” Martinez said.
For a while, GPLXC also ran a mural project with local teens and young adults. Gage Park is very industrial and, because of it, giant gray buildings dominate the skyline and take up space that might otherwise be used for public expression. GPLXC leveraged their power as an organization to convince business owners to trust them and their students with public walls and space. Because of that, the group has painted ten murals over the past two years in their community.
The mural project beautified the neighborhood and let young residents assert their cultural and queer pride locally with vibrant colors and political messages.
Another program of theirs called Documentografia runs in partnership with the Chicago History Museum, where ten young people come in every summer to learn photography skills and capture their community through their eyes, all to be archived at the museum.
This program started when the museum was “called out” by Gage Park youth for not having any Latinx representation in the museum’s neighborhood archives, only records of the European immigrants who were there before, or records about the violence against Black people. There weren’t stories about Black and Latinx families currently living there.
“[So we said,] we’re gonna capture our own images,” Santos said. “We’re gonna do our own oral histories, we’re gonna ask our own grandparents to sit down and have the oral history recorded so that we can get these stories collected. Because obviously, the museum hasn’t been doing that for the last 50 years.”
The young adults have documented things like young queer friends in love. Santos points out that while we all have access to a lot of cultural images of white, heterosexual, cisgender teen romance, the moment that gaze is focused on a Black or Brown queer youth, the topic is shrouded in more mystery, and images of it aren’t as readily available in their communities.
In GPLXC’s Queer Riot summer internship program, teens spend a few weeks learning about Black and Brown queer history in Chicago. During the latter half of the program, they’re given a budget to throw whatever
event or organize any action that moves them.
Last year, the group held a sex education program for high schoolers in partnership with University of Chicago medical students from the Latinx association.
The organizers also coordinate regular all-ages family occasions like board game
nights, slime parties, art markets, and other well-attended family-friendly events.
Although space is limited for each of these events, the siblings of any student who participates in a program will automatically be invited to enroll.
Santos feels that their model of sharing
public history and education on queerness and more is slowly radicalizing their community.
“The 55-year-old grandmother coming into the food pantry sees our Pride flag on top of the building and sees the ‘defund the police’ sign in the window and is forced to kind of come face to face with these things that are of-
Feb. 13: Super Bowl/Valentine’s Day bye week
tentimes propaganda,” he said. “And the way that these things are taught to our communities . . . there’s a lot of communal unlearning that we’re trying to do.”
The organizers say Gage Park’s families have been more than receptive. The center has a good reputation among young people because of how they prioritize giving young people autonomy and power; so youth essentially recruit themselves by word of mouth. Youth often reach out to the center on their own to inquire about what programs are available. Once they release an application for any program, they have no trouble filling up those spots.
Not everyone in the programs is from Gage Park; they draw participants from all across the southwest side: from Englewood, West Lawn, Back of the Yards, and Brighton Park.
The group was introduced to grant writing in their second year, and the center is run by four full-time sta members, a local contracted photographer, contracted artists, college interns, and community partners. They pride themselves on catering to such a wide age range of folks.
The youngest person they served was a three-year-old who attended their art program. During different workshops or the weekly market, grandparents come out to receive food.
“I think that’s something super beautiful that I haven’t seen any other organization do in the southwest side,” Garcia said. v @debbiemarieb_
Feb. 20: Original cheese crust Taco Sublime @tacosublimechi
Feb. 27: Jamaican defrost with Be Irie @beirierestaurantchi
the Reader’s weekly chef pop-up series, now at Ludlow Liquors. Follow the chefs, @chicago_reader, and @mikesula on Instagram for weekly menu drops, ordering info, updates, and the stories behind Chicago’s most exciting foodlums.
March 6: Indigenous foods initiative with Jessica Walks First of Ketapanen Kitchen @ketapanenkitchen
March 13: The return of Pink Salt @pinksaltkitchens
March 20: Central-Texas-style barbeque savant Knox Ave BBQ @knoxavebbq
March 27: You better believe it’s Better Boy @betterboychicago
April 3: Irreverent cheese + charcuterie with Immortal Milk @_immortalmilk
R“KEEPER OF THE CODE: PAINTINGS 1963-2022”
Through 3/ 11: Tue-Sat 10 AM- 5 PM, Corbett vs. Dempsey, 2156 W. Fulton, corbettvsdempsey.com
senses with their unexpected combinations, optical sensations, and almost bricolage-like two-dimensional figurative dynamism that pop and fizz and reveal new elements the longer you spend time with them. The paintings gathered and exhibited this way combat the individuality of each work, putting them in a relation-scape that crafts a collaborative sentiment between all the works, regardless of their creation dates.
Panoply, with its complex, seemingly endless layers of repetition, details, and textures seems to attempt to try and capture everything—space, time, matter—all at once. This creates the impression that this work is not just about recapturing/defining space or evoking some kind of universal response to color combinations but rather about redefining the operation of a work of art in general.
VISUAL ART
In his first solo art exhibition, the legendary musician presents not a constellation of ideas but the universe itself.
By CHRIS REEVESBells, recorders, and watering cans craft a sound environment alongside more conventional instruments (trombone, saxophones, trumpet) on the title track of Roscoe Mitchell’s debut LP, Sound . The first record gathering together an iteration of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), Sound , and especially “Sound,” was crafted, according to Mitchell, “[for] musicians to create an improvisation based on sound instead of notes following notes to create a melody.”
In short, Mitchell (like his AACM cohorts) is interested in provoking an exploration in what a sound does, how it punctures natural silence and fills that seemingly empty space with a given color, feeling, or power. Although
created nearly 60 years ago, Sound marks both a starting point for the expansive and unparalleled solo and collaborative musical activity in Mitchell’s long career and also has a visual corollary in his stunning new exhibition of paintings, “Keeper of the Code: Paintings 1963-2022” at Corbett vs. Dempsey.
The first solo exhibition of Mitchell’s solely focused on his visual art, “Keeper of the Code” is a massive retrospective, with over 60 paintings, hung salon style, in the main room of the gallery alone. While Mitchell’s prolific output in this exhibition can initially seem daunting to the viewer, this density of experience seems to be something of the point. Much like his musical work, these paintings are meant to be encountered with patience, rewarding the open
Part of this relational impulse between paintings is by design. Mitchell’s paintings from the last six years (including one that couldn’t be photographed for the exhibition catalog because it had been created just before the opening and was still wet) are loosely themed around the notion of time. One such painting, The Code 3 , is an exemplar of this series, its visual character landing somewhere between Imagist (Hairy Who, etc.), Bridget Riley, and pseudo-Masonic glyphs of secret knowledge, but without a particular obvious debt to any of these. The bulk of the painting is made up of a central masked figure, their body a rich repeating pattern of red, gray, and black isometric cubes. Near the figure’s left and right shoulders are two other characters, both holding what look almost like circular Dutch hex signs, their features and clothing blending into the collapsing and stylistically rendered, brightly-colored checkerboard landscape that seems to optically shift as it surrounds them. The bottom of the painting features three open eyeballs separated by three more circular symbolist objects. It’s an enigmatic work, but one that nonetheless playfully oscillates between vertical and horizontal ground, upending any sense of linearity and Western spatial anchors such as perspective. Time, constructed as it is in our society to mandate order, is put to visual scrutiny in this painting, suggesting instead that time might be textured, more out of sync than it seems, and graspable but confounding in its reality.
One benefit of the retrospective framing of “Keeper of the Code” is the permission to witness Mitchell’s own evolution as a painter. A 1967 painting, Panoply , lives up to its title, a dense, almost mosaic-like collection of shapes, colors, and lines that emanate from what looks like a space-helmeted head in the work’s upper middle. Like The Code 3 , this painting formally evokes a number of art historical antecedents and precedents (Cubism, abstraction) but nonetheless exceeds those occasionally narrow categories too, like other aesthetically similar late-1960s Black arts movements (such as AfriCOBRA).
While somewhat more modest than Panoply, a very recent (2022) Mitchell work, Brogans, seems to continue Mitchell’s restless pursuit to present not a constellation of ideas but the universe itself as discreetly compartmentalized shapes and dots that coalesce to piece together a figure, something possibly human, in a series of interconnected pieces. This is, of course, a central feature of Mitchell’s music, the carving through the various spaces that surround us with the possibility of new sounds, but it also gets to what AACM member George E. Lewis posited in his book about the group, A Power Stronger Than Itself : “We must bring spiritual awareness (not as a ‘thing’—a way to cash in on the cosmics) to the center of the stage . . . Steps must be taken to show that all art is one.” For sixty years, Mitchell seems to have worked through this notion, manifesting the joys of the complexities of feeling at the center of the universe in his visual and musical work.
The correlation between Mitchell’s visual and musical work is made most literally manifest here with the presence of his massive, assembled percussion collection, The Cage . Filled with gongs of all sizes, wind chimes, bells, hand drums, cymbals, bike horns, and my personal favorite, two small squeaky toy animal heads, The Cage is an exemplar of a functional sculpture, a borderline case between a music-making object and a dense three-dimensional parallel to the paintings that fill the exhibition. The exhibition’s opening performance, as packed with people as Mitchell’s paintings, gave viewers a chance to witness Mitchell (with SPACE trio and Robert Dick) bring this new iteration of The Cage to life, and it was here where all the exhibition’s formal and thematic concerns seemed to converge. To bring the imperceptible and kaleidoscopic—in sound and image—into view is one of Mitchell’s great gifts, and while a seemingly impossible feat, he comes as close as any in sharing his attempts to wrangle the mess of ecstatic combinations of the universe together in this exhibition. v
Sexual violence impacts every age group, gender, and community, but for survivors of sexual assault, harassment, or other abuse, finding support can be challenging and, at times, unsafe. That’s where organizations like the YWCA can help. Through its Sexual Violence and Support Services program and the Chicago Rape Crisis Hotline (CRCH), the nonprofit provides counseling services, a vast network of essential resources, and in-person advocates who assist survivors as they navigate criminal justice, medical, and educational systems.
This year, the YWCA is expanding its network of volunteer advocates, and you’re invited to apply. No prior experience or education is required. All you need is compassion, reliability, tolerance, an open mind, and the ability to commit eight to ten hours a month to the cause.
“We meet the survivors where they are and allow them to guide the conversation in a way that will make them feel comfortable and empowered,” says the YWCA’s manager of crisis lines and dispatch services Nitrisha Lee. “We are all trained in crisis intervention and are prepared to support
survivors in acute crises with whatever needs they may have at that time.”
As a YWCA volunteer, you’ll be provided with a free, 40-hour training program through the YWCA. Upon completion, our volunteers answer our 24/7 CRCH offering survivors of sexual assault a caring voice, emotional support, referrals, and information about their options. Additionally, volunteer advocates assist survivors at the hospital during a sexual assault exam.
Operated on a 24/7 basis, the CRCH is key to the YWCA’s Sexual Assault and Support Services. Launched around a Logan Square kitchen table in 1998, the CRCH has helped tens of thousands of survivors of sexual assault access information about sexual violence and find support through some of the most challenging times in their lives.
For more information or to apply today, visit ywcachicago.org/svss.
If you have experienced sexual violence and are in need of support, call the Chicago Rape Crisis Hotline at 888-293-2080 today.
Funding provided in whole or in part by the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority
Volunteer as a sexual assault victim advocate, and make a difference in people’s lives when they need it the most.
The YWCA and Chicago Rape Crisis Hotline support Chicagoland’s sexual assault survivors
RLOST IN THE GAME: A BOOK ABOUT BASKETBALL by Thomas Beller Duke University Press, paperback, 240 pp., $22 95, dukeupress.edu
BY MAX BLAISDELL
“We go to the playground in search of our fathers. We didn’t find them but we found a game and the game served as a daddy of sorts,” the novelist John Edgar Wideman wrote in his book Hoop Roots. This quote is a fitting epigraph for Thomas Beller’s Lost in the Game: A Book about Basketball, a nonfiction collection of essays by a New York City kid who lost his father at the age of nine and found meaning and lessons on manhood through the sport.
Lost in the Game includes several humorous, psychologically probing profiles of the NBA’s biggest luminaries—Kyrie Irving of the Dallas Mavericks, Anthony Davis of the Los Angeles Lakers, and Zion Williamson of the New Orleans Pelicans, to name but a few—but also of some of its obscure, near-forgotten players, like Bol Bol of the Orlando Magic and Kerry Kittles, a pre-Brooklyn New Jersey Net.
“The Jokic Files” merits mention for anyone who even casually follows the NBA. These “files” contain precise descriptions of the Joker’s hands, gait, and nose as if his physical traits could be broken down and added back up into the basketball oddity that the pudgy, almost seven-foot, two-time–MVP-winning Serbian is.
Unfortunately for fans of the hapless Bulls, this collection contains no elaborate descriptions of DeMar DeRozan’s inestimable pull-up jumpers from either elbow or his slinking drives to the basket that defense stoppers nevertheless fail to block or disrupt.
Nor does it dwell much on the college or high school game, although there is brief mention of Beller playing Division III basketball at Vassar and at a private school while growing up in New York City.
Beyond the NBA chapters, what is of most interest for those of us past our primes or, at the very least, no longer full of hoop dreams, are his tales of being a “late bloomer,” someone who came into his own only as an adult, and for his attention to the peculiar lingo and unspoken rules of street basketball.
The first thing I did when I moved to Chicago during the pandemic was search out the nearest basketball hoop. The ones at Kozminski Community Academy nearest my apartment were shorn of their rims—they still are—the white backboards attached to long gray poles looked like enormous metal swans with their orange beaks removed.
Beller writes about playing on a court in New Orleans just like Kozminski in the early days of the pandemic, where he plunked shots o the backboard, imagining that a hoop and net were there. That, for me, is a cheap facsimile of what it’s like to shoot. But maybe if I had been desperate enough, I would have too.
Instead, I found courts, rims miraculously intact, at the playground on 49th Street and Drexel Avenue, with the vibrant mural by Bernard Williams dedicated to the civil rights leader Rev. Jessie “Ma” Houston as a backdrop.
Fortunately for Chicagoans, Mayor Lightfoot only shut down courts on the lakefront during the pandemic, and select wards had rims removed by order of their respective alderpeople, unlike in New York City, where the Parks District disabled 138 rims to discourage people from gathering to play or even shoot around.
Games on that court during the summer of 2020 featured an eclectic, unlikely mix of folks, young kids like Shaggy and gray beards like David from the adjacent housing projects as well as undergraduates and sta from the university in Hyde Park. Every day there were full-court, five-on-five games, with guys milling around on the sidelines waiting for next.
About the dynamics of outdoor basketball, which apply equally well to my experience in Chicago, Beller writes, “It wasn’t personal, but it was. It wasn’t racial, but it was, a little. It was about talent but also about physical grace and personal style . . . Street ball is a place where triumphs and defeats are only partly about basketball.”
As I’m guessing it was for many, basketball was a lifeline for me during that period of so-
cial isolation and physical inactivity.
“Like a heavy drinker attuned to the moment in the afternoon when it is acceptable to make the first drink, my afternoons were—and are—always punctuated by a moment when I am suddenly aware that going to play basketball is an option,” Beller writes. These words capture something I have long felt, including that summer.
My basketball education came on the asphalt courts of New York and San Francisco, where I played almost every day from June through August. In those pickup games at Riverside Park and the Panhandle, I was fouled hard and smacked down many times while going for a layup or a rebound, got up bleeding from my chin or mouth, with jammed fingers or skinned knees, but, nevertheless, kept running and hustling until the game was through. And I kept coming back for more, some insane, masochistic impulse driving me.
A more positive spin to my basketball passion has been its role as a source of male bonding. I’ve made lifelong friends, one after an intense mano a mano game against a guy from my freshman dorm, played in the middle of a furious downpour from Hurricane Sandy, and another by simply showing up one day to play at a sandy gym in the middle of the Moroccan desert when I was serving in the Peace Corps.
This past summer, Coach “Tree,” a twotime Illinois state championship-winning assistant coach for Hales Franciscan High School, with the rings to back it up, approached me while I was shooting on a halfcourt riven with cracks outside Ray Elementary on 57th Street.
He talked my ear o from the get-go about the history of Chicago basketball. Because I grew up there, I knew a bit of New York’s history, but I knew next to nothing about the Windy City’s storied past. Tree filled me in.
The world-famous Harlem Globetrotters hailed not from the streets north of Central Park but from the south side of Chicago, play-
ing at the Savoy Ballroom, a crowd-pleasing prelude to the dances hosted there.
“Look that up if you don’t believe me,” Tree said.
I did. He wasn’t kidding.
Tree learned how to shoot not on a flawless hardwood indoor court like the hoopers of this generation but on the fenced-in court on the west side of Washington Park.
There he played with the likes of Mel Davis and Porter Meriwether, guys who had their summers o from pro ball, worked a second job during the off-season, and came to the courts to teach kids like Tree the ins and outs of the game.
That said, the state of pickup basketball is perhaps on the decline, at least according to Beller’s and my own limited observations.
The culprits: gentrification, the pre-professionalization of the sport (there’s money made in organized basketball, whereas there’s none in street ball), the lure of sports like soccer or video games, and the dangers outside of gun violence or police brutality for young men of color.
For lovers of the game, that’s a tragedy.
What was once normal in places like Chicago, New York City, San Francisco—where all-time greats like Isiah Thomas, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Bill Russell practiced their skills on outdoor courts for all to see and for those foolhardy enough to compete against— is today unimaginable.
And with the commodification of exercise, meaning indoor recreation spaces for only those who can afford it, and public school closures leaving once teeming gyms vacant, it may be getting harder for young people without the means to find spaces to pick up the game.
Few, if any, will reach the summit of the sport and go pro, but if Beller, Tree, or I o er an example, perhaps they’ll find a lifelong passion that cuts across racial, cultural, and generational divides. v
Being in the spotlight isn’t something multidisciplinary artist Diana Solís ever sought, despite capturing influential socio-political movements through her camera for decades. But now, having just turned 67, and with the release of her new book of photography, Luz: Seeing the Space Between Us, the spotlight on her has never been brighter or so deserved. It’s a new kind of attention, unexpected and abundant, and Solís is grateful.
“I’m often quiet about what I do and lately, I’ve gotten a lot of attention,” Solís says about the overwhelming support she’s received after publishing Luz. “It’s been a little di erent, but normally I don’t talk a lot about the projects I’m working on.”
In Pilsen and beyond, Solís has been capturing the lifeblood of the community since the late 70s. Her visual artistry embodies Mexican, Chicano, and Latine cultures. Her work inspires rumination and curiosity. She is a visual storyteller who contemplates identity and inclusion through her portraits, murals, and photographs. As a multidisciplinary artist, she also explores painting, printmaking, comics, and photojournalism.
Solís took some time o from teaching last year so she could produce and work on Luz The idea for the book began during the initial stages of the pandemic when Solís decided her early morning walks would include photos she’d take on her iPhone. “A month after we
were on lockdown, I was walking the streets in Pilsen at six in the morning. I realized that even though there were people on the streets, what I was seeing was something I haven’t seen for a long time, which was the community in this very di erent light. The community is, like most of us, always on the go, and we don’t really slow down. So I felt this was amazing, this was great, I could photograph forever,” she says.
“I think the book is bigger than me in the sense that this latest project was about my return to photography, and about a love letter to my practice of photography and my community. I think the book holds not just the images, but the sense of COVID, the gentrification process, and the community. The changes that are portrayed in the book, it’s about the place and people. It’s more portraiture, not photojournalistic. It goes beyond my personal journey, you know, what got me started on this book,” she explains.
“What this has done for me is enabled me to go back to photography in a way that I didn’t even think about years ago. It’s always been there, I just wasn’t photographing for 20-plus years.”
Solís contemplated taking a break from photography after graduating from the University of Illinois, Chicago in 1997 because she wanted to dedicate herself to painting and drawing. After a brief trip to Europe, she returned to
R LUZ: SEEING THE SPACE BETWEEN US by Diana Solís, Flatlands Press, paperback, 120 pp., $ 45, flatlandspress.com
Chicago and focused on this new art form.
“Little by little I sold my equipment. It didn’t happen overnight, but it was something I was thinking about when I went back to school,” she says. “I think I still took a couple of photos here and there up until 2000, but I went into the mode of how to be an illustrator.”
“It’s not like I had a traumatic experience with photography. I never let it go in the sense that I always kept up with photography shows, I bought photo books, supported photographer friends, and it was something I’ve always been interested in, something that’s been a part of my life for such a long time. But I was really happy pursuing drawing, painting, and illustration. I started doing abstract work, which I still do from time to time, but not too much because photography has kept me so busy. That’s the thing, it’s hard to balance two very demanding subjects, like photography and illustration/drawing. But the fact is if I want to do work, or gigs in illustration for freelance, it’s really hard.”
It takes a special kind of artist to pick right back up where they were decades ago as if time had stopped. It’s amazing to see Solís so e ortlessly pick up the camera after so many years away from it. It says so much about her creative mind and passion.
“I’ve been working quietly for many, many years. In the sense that, sure I talk sometimes about what I do, I’m not afraid to talk or give a lecture. But I’m not one to put a lot of crema on my tacos,” she laughs. “Or constantly say ‘look what I’m doing’ or ‘look what I’ve done.’ I feel like I need to just do the work more than anything.”
Solís was born in Monterrey, Nuevo León, in 1956 but grew up in Chicago where her family moved when she was a few months old. She grew up in Pilsen and Little Village, surrounded by family, books, music, and community.
By the early 80s, Solís was traveling—first to Peru, then eventually living in Mexico City where she attended Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
“I was part of a summer session and it was very eye-opening. The school was very radicalized and politicized, and we were right in the thick of things.” She became involved with student movements, protests, and marches and documented all of it on her camera. She also got involved with queer community activism through groups like FHAR (The Homosexual Front of Revolutionary Action) and OIKABETH (Ollin Iskan Katuntat Bebeth
Thot which translated means “movement of women warriors paving the way and scattering flowers”).
These were some of the first public queer organizations in Mexico, along with Ácratas and Lesbos, that formed just before the first national Lesbian & Gay Rights March in Washington, D.C., in 1979. Solís captured all of these historic movements through her lens. Her archives are massive, so she is working with Nicole Marroquín, a professor at the School of the Art Institute, to organize thousands of negatives of moments she’s captured along the way, including visits to Paris, Spain, Peru, and from across the U.S.
While in Mexico City, Solís worked at Televisa, one of the country’s leading multimedia companies, doing what she calls paparazzo work. “Part of my job at Televisa as a staff photographer was working on telenovelas and the studio sets where they filmed. I always knew in the back of my mind that this was not what I wanted to do for the rest of my life,” she explains. However, the opportunity felt like a way of legitimizing what she did, learning how to do that type of photography and how to deal with people. “It was very painfully clear to me that this was an industry that perpetuated entrenched racism, and I experienced it firsthand trying to get jobs. The color of my skin, and the way I look—I have a lot of Indigenous ancestries—so I just bristled all the time with all these things. It was horrible, and it continues to be the same thing today.”
In 1983, also during her time in Mexico, Solís cofounded and literally built Cuarto Creciente, a co eehouse and feminist space where she became the cook, even though she didn’t know how to cook at the time. Because of the combined connections of the four founders, the cafe was an instant success. The space was able to feature legendary writers like Cherríe Moraga, Sandra Cisneros, and Norma Alarcón.
“I have photographs of all of them performing at the Cuarto Creciente. It was a night of Chicano and Mexican writers together. Those are the kind of things I did at the co eehouse, besides having to go once a week to the Central de Abastos to buy all the food and vegetables and learn how to cook.” The cafe was only around for two years because it was housed in a historic building, and it was eventually seized by the government in an act of gentrification.
When she returned to Chicago, Solís again made her home in Pilsen, reactivating her involvement in the burgeoning art community and photographing artists and poets.
Gregorio Gomez, the poet who graces the cover of Luz , met Solís through a mutual friend when he was the managing director of the Latino Chicago Theater Company in the 90s. Although Gomez knew very little about Solís when they first met, he noticed she was always carrying a camera around. “She was very personable and could hang with anybody and so she fit right in with the poets and she fit right in with the theater company, so she just became part of the family.”
Solís began attending the open-mike poetry nights Gomez led at Weeds, which was one of the longest-running poetry nights in Chicago, and captured the poets and spoken word artists sharing their work. Gomez says Solís was hardcore about taking photographs and wonders if at any point she knew that the people she captured on camera would become known in their respective art worlds.
“I don’t know if she knew she was photographing leaders of our movement at the time,” he says. “She captured a movement and community, Latino and LGBTQ, and how each one of those worlds were swirling around each other and making an impact on the city of Chicago, even though sometimes we didn’t even know we were doing that.”
One of those leaders is fellow artist Marroquín, whom Gomez says encouraged Solís to do something with her collection of photos. Marroquín was astonished at everything Solís shot during that time, referring to its entirety as a treasure. It became an even bigger treasure when in 2022 it formed part of “Diana Solís: Encuentros, Photographs of Chicago Poetry Communities, 1978–1994” held at the Chicago Poetry Foundation, curated with the help of Oscar Arriola and Marroquín.
The inquisitive, bold, and almost rebellious nature in Solís’s work was present even while she attended UIC, from where she received a BFA in photography in 1997. She remembers her teachers didn’t appreciate that work, and instead, she says, “were more interested in me doing conceptual artwork, so I was getting somewhat berated by them in the critiques. I stuck to my guns. I stuck to what I wanted to do.”
Growing up in Pilsen, Solís saw the rise of the local punk scene, including the creation of the Spanish-language hardcore punk band Los Crudos. She had met Martin Sorrondeguy, the band’s singer (also known as Martin Crudo), through his mom Patty, whom Solís worked with at Mujeres Latinas En Acción, a social services organization for women. Sorrondeguy was 11 when she first met him, before his
music endeavors.
“I used to go to punk events back in the day because my brother was a bouncer at one of the clubs,” she says. “He’s the one who told me about this new punk band Los Crudos, and when we arrived at the show I saw it was Martin. A bunch of us would go to the shows and support the group. We loved it.” They’ve been friends ever since.
In 2016, when Los Crudos’s 25th anniversary came around, Sorrondeguy asked Solís to showcase some of her work at a celebratory exhibition titled “Desafinados.” She was surprised to be included because she wasn’t active in the punk scene, but Sorrondeguy said that didn’t matter.
“He went to my studio, saw some work he liked, and picked out some pieces,” Solís says. “The three pieces are basically about being an outsider, being in a di erent state of mind, and in a di erent world. They’re all characters and creatures, which is usually what I draw and paint. They’re heroes to me. They live in dream worlds, but they’re also worlds not unlike our own where they are cast aside by a society that wants to silence us. All these characters are part of that.”
Solís herself is a hero for many. She embodies perseverance as she confronts and contends with ongoing extreme and life-threatening health issues, including several bouts of cancer. Her positive outlook, however, is unwavering. “I think, you know, in order for me to move forward every day in my life, I have a lot of gratitude—with myself, with my doctors, with my friends, with my community. And that, for me, allows me to do the things that I do, my work, which I love. I am doing the things that I love the most. These are the best times of my life.”
Solís explains the challenges of heading into the next bracket of adulthood, including the realization that not working is not necessarily included when declaring retirement. She’s been an educator for more than 40 years and continues in that profession, teaching courses at Benito Juarez Community Academy and Volta Elementary School and developing curricula related to social consciousness, social justice, critical thinking, and critical race theory.
Solís worked with local artists to complete the project surrounding Luz, fundraising through the 3Arts crowdfunding platform and on her own. The first edition made its debut in Chicago at the National Museum of Mexican Art in November 2022; that
she was, and is, in comparison to other painters of our generation.”
Much of Solís’s work is labor-intensive. “My paintings, drawings, doing it for many hours a day you can develop issues. I have major issues on my hands because of this.” This laborious process includes pieces where she incorporates collage and papel picado techniques, using Exacto blades, knives, and scissors.
“I like the idea of merging craft with fine art. Craft is also art, actually,” she says. “A lot of the work I was doing was mixed-media work, which I’ve always done, and it’s where I’m at even today. As a teaching artist, I teach printmaking, drawing, and figure drawing. But in all of that, I have my specialties. I have specialties for creating certain types of artwork and I have a specialty for doing photography. Those are my strongest points, I believe. Photography is probably stronger than anything.”
continued from p. 27
edition has sold out. Together with her team, they are working on a second edition and are hopeful to have it published in the near future.
Luz captures the community and changes brought about by COVID and gentrification. There is also an intimate quality to the photographs which is communicated by the individual stance and eye contact expressed in every portrait. She has a way of connecting with her subjects through her lens. As Solís explains, the portraits within the book “became moments of emergence for those of us in Pilsen already vulnerable to predatory developers and racist housing policies, during a time when our nation’s inequitable response to COVID, with its variations, further silenced us.” A testament to the resilience of its community, Luz is an important and historical reflection of its people.
“My photography is a mix of environmental portraits and reportage of sorts. The work in the book opened up a huge can of worms for me but in a good way. And it’s opened up a way for people to also look at the past work
I’ve done and why this work is so important because it’s never been seen before. It’s taking parts of the history of Pilsen and other parts, like the 16 years of poetry communities that haven’t been seen before. And that’s not all, there’s more, but we just can’t include everything.” This led to conversations about putting together a catalog, or smaller book, to include the vast amount of photographs she hasn’t yet shared. Solís is excited about the possibilities.
In some of her illustrations and paintings, you’ll find colorful, strange, and mythological figures. Their peculiar composition represents our connection to nature, a prominent idea in some of her works. “These characters and creatures began to develop back in the 90s when I started to do a lot more drawing and before I left photography.” Between visits to Europe and Oaxaca, the idea of converging cave art, textures, and layering began to form. “What I ended up doing was creating what I call a hybrid or anthropomorphic figure, which means a cross between human and animal. Without me realizing it at the time, I was beginning to develop this idea of how we relate
to nature as human beings.
“A lot of my first drawings were of creatures that . . . had human features and the humans had animal features. And I stuck with that. I loved it and when I was in Oaxaca working, doing my printmaking and a residency, I met so many wonderful Oaxacan artists and their work was the same. Their work was based on mythology, coming from their Indigenous backgrounds and their relationship to earth and animals. I was so inspired by this, it kind of sealed a lot of ways I began to paint moving forward.”
Gregorio Gomez was always struck by her painting. “She surpassed herself in regard to her photography,” he says. “I mean, a photograph is a photograph and you can Photoshop and do this and do that, but a painting has a di erent reality and a di erent visual look to it. And then, of course, have you seen some of her paintings? Where the heck did she get the mind to come up with those characters?! I found that to be genius. I found that to be not only artistic and creative but way, way out of left field. It just made me think how di erent
Reading over some of the praise she’s received recently, it seems unusual that this new work is referred to as a rediscovering of her community. Solís agrees. “I don’t feel I rediscovered it. I think a lot of this wording, there’s a spin put on things. I guess you could say, in a way, I rediscovered certain things about myself through the pandemic. But did I rediscover it? I was always aware that Pilsen was in gentrification mode. It wasn’t like I just woke up one morning and I went, ‘Oh my god, I see all this change, I’m going to have to photograph it!’”
The growing attention to her art can be overwhelming, she admits, but she’s thankful her work is being exposed to new people, especially the youth. “It makes me happy that Latinos are really, a lot of them, are really doing things that I would never do in my time because there were so few of us going to university. That they’re challenging the canons and the status quo of what other people have always thought we were about.
“My work actually does the same thing. It challenges that. And I think that’s kind of people’s interest when they discover my work. . . . The other thing [that I’m happy about] is that I’m still alive . . . which is great,” she laughs.
“I can navigate these waters as a living artist, not a dead one. It’s been exciting! It’s been great.”
He Worked Hard Sun 2/19 2 PM, Art Center Highland Park, 1957 Sheridan, Highland Park, 847-432-1888, theartcenterhp.org, free
By IRENE HSIAO
Some 20 years ago, Chicago artist Samuel J. Lewis II discovered a vintage Black Americana marionette named Jambo the Jiver in his father-in-law’s attic. Built in 1948 by a company called TalenToon, along with other characters such as Pim-Bo the Clown, Toonga from the Congo, Kilroy the Cop, and MacAwful the Scot, the marionettes were packaged with music—phonograph records meant to accompany their movements.
“I found him after watching Spike Lee’s Bamboozled,” recalls Lewis. “That movie was why I felt compelled to do something with it. It dealt with Black iconography and negative stereotypes. Jambo the Jiver is negative—he has this big wide smile, a humongous bowtie,
purple jacket, gold pants. I realized I could use him to show people that this kind of thing existed and how people felt about us in this country, but also to tear that down and reclaim it, embrace that stereotype to say, ‘Come on over—come sit with us—let us work together.’”
A cofounder of experimental music and performance venue Elastic Arts, Lewis began to incorporate the puppet into collaborations with other Elastic musicians such as Marvin Tate and his band Kitchen Sink, for which Lewis also sang backup vocals. In the hands of the self-described “accidental puppeteer,” Jambo the Jiver transformed into a new character named Jus Hambone (“One day for
dinna, my ma says, ‘What you want fo’ dinna?’ And I say ‘Jus Hambone,’ and it kinda stuck!”). “In the [puppetry] scene, the puppeteer is usually deemphasized,” notes Lewis. “I wanted people to see that I was the one manipulating Jus Hambone: a Black man is also the puppet master in this scenario. But am I master over him or just facilitating?”
In late 2018, Lewis’s curiosity about his heritage began to deepen. “My mother and father separated when I was three, and we moved from rural Tennessee to Saint Louis. He passed away when I was 16. I would go down there and visit but was mostly with my mom’s side of the family. I didn’t really see him unless we were intentional about it, which we
always were one time during the visit: this is the time you’ll see your dad. So I never knew much about that side of the family,” he says. “I started asking questions and got on Ancestry[. com].” Through relatives who had also moved to Chicago, Lewis began to trace his lineage, starting with information provided by his cousin Stephanie Pegues. “She was reading a book that this man named John Marshall wrote— Mason: A Glimpse into the Past , a self-published book about Mason, Tennessee.”
Lewis contacted Marshall, a white judge in Memphis, Tennessee, and they met in 2019. “The reason he had a lot of information on my family was because my ancestors were the children of his relatives,” says Lewis. “They were the people they were closest to as a family—so much so that they worshipped in the same church, which my ancestors helped build. They worshipped there at different times, but they sat on the same pews! And those pews are still there.” Lewis visited the church, known as Old Trinity or Trinity in the Field, the same year. “I have a baptismal record of my great-grandmother being baptized during the Civil War in that church. That was one of the things that got me asking, because I grew up as an Episcopalian. Whenever I asked my mom about that, she’d say, ‘I got that from your father.’ I was like, ‘How does a Black rural Deep South person become Episcopalian? Most everyone else is Baptist—it’s weird!’ Slavery: that’s why.”
As Lewis continued his research, he realized he was learning not only about his own family history but also about the place, the past, and about the slipperiness of historical narrative itself. In one newspaper, he discovered the story of a great-granduncle who was shot by a coworker while working as a railroad laborer in Fulton, Kentucky (“the banana capital of the world”). In another, he found the story of a great-grandfather who was scalded during a boiler explosion in a gin and grist mill.
“They were like, ‘He went to this doctor, and he’s being taken care of. They’re upstanding gentlemen.’ It was in a Black newspaper—then you start thinking, ‘What kind of image do they want to uphold?’ It was a paper by church folks who have business interests, so they want to portray the ‘New Negro’: successful, hardworking, enterprising. There’s a story
March
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of them buying a new buggy. Such-and-such went to visit her sister in Louisville: Black society, Black business, efforts to change and make our conditions better, because we deserve it. The other story, [which I call], ‘He Took A Knife to a Gunfight,’ was in a white paper. So I’ve learned about America through this whole thing.”
“I love the detective work,” says Lewis, recalling how a simple keyword search in the Library of Congress turned up a story of how the quick actions of his great-great-grandfather had prevented a train accident on the railroad tracks near his home. Lewis presented the story, Praiseworthy: An Intelligent and Prompt Negro—A Disaster Averted, with Nasty, Brutish & Short during the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival this past January.
In addition to family members from the past, Lewis has been collaborating with his teenage sons, Noah and Parker Maxen-Lewis, as well as several musicians and puppet designer Grace Needlman, to develop an evening-length work with the working title Everybody Knew Their Place. “It’s awesome to work on the piece with my sons,” he says. “It’s a different way to give them this story, and hopefully they will remember.”
Lewis first introduced Everybody Knew Their Place with a puppet of his Grandpa James at the Green Line Performing Arts Center at the first Green Line Puppet Slam in 2019. “Sam’s work is rooted in his family history and themes like legacy that Arts + Public Life was thinking about on the south side,” says Brett Swinney, then APL’s community art engage-
ment manager, who programmed the event. “To launch this series of puppet programming and to set the tone as being grounded in cultural legacies, it seemed like the perfect fit for Sam to be one of the inaugural performers. People got a deeper sense of the research he’s putting into it. I look forward to seeing how it evolves. I hope other performers, not just puppeteers, look within for their inspiration for what they’re sharing.”
Last December, Lewis returned to the Green Line with his sons to premiere the excerpt, He Worked Hard, which elaborates upon Grandpa James’s work as a blacksmith, with original music composed by Ahmed Al Abaca, with additional music by Hunter Diamond, performed by Chicago-based Black chamber music ensemble D-Composed at their fifth-anniversary concert. Lewis and his sons will perform He Worked Hard February 19 at the Art Center Highland Park and online at Andrea Clearfield’s Szalon February 26.
“I want to encourage other people to start asking questions. Maybe they won’t get as lucky, but they’ll know more than they knew. Sometimes it’s painful. But all in all I’d rather know these stories,” says Lewis. “I hope it’s going to solve problems, as people realize they come from a lot of cultures and places instead of being hung up on this binary people consider race. It’s a lot more layered and deeper than that. It’s like looking at a map. I see points where these stories took place; as you zoom in and look at stories, you’re learning about the place, the time in that place, like the banana capital, like gin and grist mills.”
Definition’s Alaiyo traces one Black woman’s search for roots and romance.
By SHERI FLANDERS
When The Revival theater opened its doors in 2015 at the corner of 55th Street and University Avenue, its intent was to pay homage to improv’s earliest roots. Paul Sills formed the Compass Players in that exact spot, bringing his knowledge of his mother Viola Spolin’s theater games (outlined in her seminal work Improvisation for the Theater) to the stage for paying audiences. This season, they have traveled far from their roster of improv shows, classes, jazz, and comedy by welcoming two plays from Definition Theatre. The second is the Chicago premiere of Jackie Sibblies Drury’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Fairview (opening April 27), and the first is Alaiyo , which is playing
now through February 26.
The play, written by Micah Ariel Watson in the most literal sense, tells the story of an idealistic African American college student who has a crush on her classmate, who is from Africa. Watson frames the unrequited romance as a metaphor for the loss and longing left within African Americans for Africa after the Middle Passage. African American history in relation to the reclamation of lost African identity is summarized at the opening of the play in a projected slideshow, like a Black Cli sNotes, outlining the continued desire to un-orphan the community from the Motherland, reconstructing memory by donning scraps of kente cloth, shedding slave names in favor of African
Felicia Oduh in Defi nition Theatre’s Alaiyo JOE
names, wearing natural hairstyles, and in this era, exploring our DNA through 23andMe.
A spectacular Felicia Oduh plays Ariel— Young, Gifted, and Black and brimming with book knowledge about her history, yet still remaining unmoored with a gnawing feeling of not being “Black enough.” Enter Kofi (brilliantly played by Patrick Newson Jr.) onto whom she projects the embodiment of “real Blackness” due to his birthright. As Ariel desperately pursues Kofi, her hope is that their love will somehow provide her with spiritual communion, transmuting her perceived faux-Blackness into the “real” thing. One wonders if the character name “Ariel” is not only a nod toward the playwright’s middle name but also to the Disney version of The Little Mermaid, in which the title character gives up her own voice for legs, every step she takes as painful as walking on glass just to be “Part of Your World,” as the Disney song goes.
Ariel’s vision of Blackness is largely fueled by the 1961 film version of A Raisin In The Sun. She identifies with the romance between Beneatha Younger (Diana Sands) and Joseph Asagai (Ivan Dixon) in which Asagai proposes to Beneatha and asks to romantically whisk her away to Africa. As clips from the film play upon the stage, they serve to underscore the limitations of Ariel’s worldview and her naivete of playing out this fantasy on her unwitting classmate. Oduh is delightful as the lovesick Ariel, mooning over her crush, vacillating between plots to catch his eye and half-hearted attempts at finishing her homework.
Unsurprisingly, Kofi promptly friend zones Ariel, which only serves to heighten her obsession. Watson’s dense text is structured in a rapid-fire poetic way that drops references to Black culture or other imagery every few seconds, which serves several purposes. One is to outline how Ariel uses her academic knowledge to construct a facade of “authentic” Blackness as an armor to shield against her own deep insecurity over her identity. The repetitive cadence also serves to heighten our sense of the degradation of Ariel’s obsessive mental state, evoking feelings of stress and being overwhelmed. This method works effectively, and Oduh masterfully navigates the tongue twisters and dense, unwieldy monologues in a way that feels easy and natural.
Unfortunately Watson’s writing relies too heavily on this particular device, creating two drawbacks. One, the audience is set at a remove, attention split between watching the play intellectually, part of the brain working overtime to identify and dissect every reference, every allusion, every bit of symbolism and alliteration, etc., leaving little opportunity for silence, reflection, and full absorption of emotional impact. The other is that profound conclusions and parallels are often spoonfed and repeated ad nauseam, the text desperately overexplaining and pleading, like Ariel, to not be misunderstood. The play is telling a story instead of being a story.
The small black-box theater space has turned its orientation from lengthwise to longways, adding risers for the chairs, which from an audience perspective presents challenges. For the play, a significant part of the action happens on the floor level and was not visible at all from my vantage point. A person in front of me who was considerably taller occasionally stood up to gain a better view. A walkway that runs directly behind the stage, separated only by a transparent pink backdrop, makes you part of the show should you have to make a bathroom run. Other than those quirks, the new look works fairly well.
And despite the problems with the text, Alaiyo works. Director McKenzie Chinn provides some exquisite direction, heightening Ariel’s obsessive cycling with punctuations of humor and embodying the depths of her despair with poignant movement pieces choreographed by Victor Musoni, chilling lighting choices by Eric Watkins, and haunting sound design by Willow James. Oduh and Newson sync perfectly, creating the illusion of the perfect pairing for us that Ariel sees in Kofi, who remains an unwitting participant in her vision regardless of his own intent. Newson masterfully balances the easy, self-assured charm of his college-student persona with the darker, complex manifestation of the shadows of Ariel’s psyche.
Alaiyo is a play that o ers an intimate and unique perspective on Blackness, history, gender, love, and identity that packs a powerful punch. In A Raisin In the Sun , Asagai nicknames Beneatha “Alaiyo” which means “One for Whom Bread—Food—Is Not Enough.” This play is recommended for everyone—but especially for Colored Girls Who Have Sometimes Felt Simultaneously Too Much—and Not Enuf.
@SheriFlandersMarriott’s production of Big Fish flounders.
Big Fish bombed on Broadway. Based on Tim Burton’s 2003 movie version of Daniel Wallace’s 1998 novel Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions, the show, with a score by Andrew Lippa and a book by John August, opened on Broadway on October 6, 2013, and only ran 98 regular performances and earned for its pains zero Tony nominations. Yet, in October 2019, I saw a revival of this show, produced by BoHo Theatre, that was so magical, it made me wonder why the show had bombed. Marriott Theatre’s sluggish and uninspired current revival, directed by Henry Godinez, gave me some insights.
The story, about a father and son’s fraught relationship, is at heart an intimate one. Yes, the central character is larger than life; he loves telling tall tales about his life and exploits. He claims to have met and saved a giant, kissed a real mermaid, had his death foretold by a witch, etc. But the feelings smoldering underneath the tales are the kind more easily communicated in a storefront theater, not in Marriott’s banquet-hall-sized theater-in-the-round. This goes double for Lippa’s sweet and restrained but forgettable tunes.
It doesn’t help that the two most important actors in the show, Alexander Gemignani (Edward Bloom, the father) and Michael Kurowski (Will Bloom, the son)— don’t fully inhabit their parts. Gemignani never for a moment convinces as the fascinating, big-talking, dream chaser at the center of it all. Nor does Kurowski. Playing a son who has spent his life feeling neglected by his dad, Kurowski never seems more than mildly peeved at all of his father’s nonsense (which may even include having a long-term mistress). The lack of chemistry between these two takes all the fire out of the show. Heidi Kettenring, in contrast, turns in a stellar performance as Edward’s long-suffering wife. If only Gemignani and Kurowski had matched her energy and commitment, this show might have been magic.
ensemble finale “One.”
In a cast of standouts, Ivory Leonard IV is incandescent as a comet as high-school standout Ritchie, a fireball of athleticism and rhythm who brings heat, power, and mighty subtext to every move and every line. Sara Andreas makes the Herculean dance/vocal solo “The Music and the Mirror” a blazing testament to artistic passion and a remarkable display of grace and endurance under pressure.
Sawyer Smith delivers comedy and pathos in the revelatory, comedically irresistible Bobby, a self-described “strange” kid who embraces his strangeness early, fiercely, and without reservation.
journey at the show’s opening performance. They cheered him on, felt his pain, and swayed to the show’s bright songs (sung live to recorded music). While there is no question that the show is for younger children, adults can undoubtedly appreciate the pure joy of Pigeon’s world and the central message that there’s plenty of time to find your place and learn to fly.
—KATIE POWERS DON’T LET THE PIGEON DRIVE THE BUS!
Through 3/26: Sat 10 AM, 1 PM, and 3 PM, Sun 1 PM; also Fri 2/20 7 PM; Sat 2/11 10 AM and 1 PM only; Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln, 773404-7336, yptchi.org, $25 ($19 under 12)
unsettled by how songs like “Strange Fruit” are still so topical. —MARISSA OBERLANDER LADY DAY AT EMERSON’S BAR AND GRILL Through 3/12: Fri 8 PM, Sat 3 and 8 PM, Sun 3 PM, Mercury Theater Venus Cabaret, 3745 N. Southport, 773-360-7365, mercurytheaterchicago.com, $60-$70 (premium tables for up to four people $259-$299, including a bottle of sparkling wine)
Curious Theatre Branch’s homage to Caryl Churchill is a mixed bag.
—JACK HELBIG BIG FISHThrough 3/19: Wed 1 and 7:30 PM, Thu 7:30 PM, Fri 8 PM, Sat 4 and 8 PM, Sun 1 and 5 PM; also Thu 3/9 and 3/16 1 PM: Wed 3/8 and 3/15 and Sun 3/19 1 PM only; ASL interpretation Thu 3/16 7:30 PM; Marriott Theatre, 10 Marriott Dr., Lincolnshire, 847-6340200, marriotttheatre.com, $59-$64
Drury Lane’s A Chorus Line is not to be missed.
First, some mathematical context: I’ve seen A Chorus Line at least 18 times since 1976, the year the first national tour rolled into Chicago. Prior to last week, I was certain the brilliant show about aspiring Broadway hoofers held no more surprises. How could it? I’ve known every word, lyric, cadence, and character in this show (conceived by original director/choreographer Michael Bennett, book by James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante, music by Marvin Hamlisch, lyrics by Edward Kleban) since I was 13—i.e., for more than three-quarters of my entire life. And then Drury Lane’s production, directed by Jane Lanier, happened.
The production is an adrenaline rush from start to finish. We’re still set firmly in the 1970s, but the stories of the “kids” on the line resonate with a power that’s only intensified over the years. The production is an emotional roller coaster you won’t want to exit. Every number is a showstopper, from Mike’s (Sam Linda) taptastic solo “I Can Do That” to the glittering, all-hands-on-deck
And when Yesy Garcia sends “What I Did for Love” soaring toward the gods, it’s a benediction for the brutal, beautiful business of show. —CATEY SULLIVAN A CHORUS LINE Through 3/19: Wed 1:30 PM, Thu 1:30 and 8 PM, Fri 8 PM, Sat 3 and 8 PM, Sun 2 and 6 PM, Drury Lane Theatre, 100 Drury Lane, Oakbrook Terrace, 630-530-0111, drurylanetheatre.com, $85-$95
Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! offers pure joy.
In the musical stage adaptation of Mo Willems’s Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! (book by Willems and Mr. Warburton, music by Deborah Wicks La Puma, and lyrics by Willems), a down-on-his-luck pigeon (Brade Bradshaw) is fed up with never getting to do anything fun. He’s an underdog who wants nothing more than to feel heard. When he meets the passionate local Bus Driver (Karla Serrato), he decides that his purpose is to drive the bus.
From there, Pigeon’s neighbors try to convince him, primarily through song and dance, that there’s no way he can drive the bus. It’s a fun, simple story with a lot of heart and plenty of pertinent life lessons for young people.
Among the standout features in this Young People’s Theater of Chicago production (directed by Randy White) is Jackie Penrod’s set design, which depicts a colorful abstraction of Chicago, allowing the audience to imagine Pigeon and his friends in their backyard.
The young audience was enthralled with Pigeon’s
Alexis J. Roston’s take on Billie Holiday combines sparkle and vulnerability.
Alexis J. Roston’s sixth go-round playing jazz legend Billie Holiday in the last year of her life is beautifully layered, heartbreaking, and still affirming of the great vocalist’s accomplishments, against a multitude of odds.
A er a decade on and off in the role, Roston is now a codirector in Mercury Theater’s production of the Lanie Robertson one-act Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill; she’s said her lived experience (having now lived longer than Holiday) informs her matured approach to the role.
Set in the Mercury’s intimate Venus Cabaret Theater, the venue replicates a small club in Philadelphia, one of the only places le for Holiday to perform a er her New York City cabaret card was revoked. A er some waiting around, we’re told “Ms. Day is on her way, they wouldn’t let her through the front door,” and she eventually barges backstage, big coat and dog in tow.
What follows is a magnetic greatest hits concert, where gorgeous vocal performances of songs like “When a Woman Loves a Man” and “God Bless the Child” are interspersed with the sad and rueful storytelling of a woman who faced unimaginable racism, sexism, and trauma throughout her short life. While an intentionally “off the rails” performance due to the performer’s addiction and mental health could lead to voyeuristic pity, Roston’s sparkle and vulnerability create room for empathy and admiration for Holiday, who is still standing and singing despite it all. You leave wishing Holiday knew her legacy and feeling deeply
Appropriation, wordplay, riffs on news headlines, improv skits, and a grab bag of absurdist tropes get thrown in a hat to very uneven ends in Curious Theatre Branch’s set of four half-hour plays responding to Caryl Churchill’s This Is a Chair
In Beau O’Reilly’s The Umbrella Disguise, several odd characters emerge from behind the titular object and recite inchoate monologues and dialogues. If there’s a larger point, it was lost on this viewer other than to note the gratitude as each exited the stage. In Jayita Bhattacharya and Ira S. Murfin’s (Not) What We Talk About When We Talk about Love, a different set of characters sketch out scenes riffing on titles of noted short stories by Raymond Carver, Flannery O’Connor, and others. It’s compelling and o en reminded me of those writers, though not of Churchill in particular. Chris Bower’s How to Fix Your Fatigue (Do This Every Day) employs a more complex overlapping structure, with recurring characters returning to the stage multiple times. The most memorable are two androids who repeatedly quiz one another about what they see when they look up at the moon. Chris Zdenek’s This Is Not a Play by Caryl Churchill Titled, “This Is a Chair” is a succession of desperately unfunny improv-style skits that each fall well short of the laughs and/or resonance they’re reaching for.
Can’t say what any of these have to do with Churchill aside from using the title of her play as a springboard for whatever the writers would’ve written anyway. —DMITRY SAMAROV THIS IS NOT A CHURCHILL Through 2/25: Fri-Sat 8 PM, Facility Theatre, 1138 N. California, facilitytheatre.org, $15 or pay what you can v
ANNUAL FESTIVAL OF FILMS FROM IRAN Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State, 2/ 10 -2/ 19 General admission $13 per film, with discounts for Film Center members, students, youth, and SAIC students, staff, and faculty siskelfilmcenter.org/annual-festival-films-iran
By KAT SACHS
In Amir Naderi’s The Runner , there’s a recurring motif where the young protagonist sprints toward the cargo ships he sees in the water and the planes that fly overhead the Iranian port city of Abadan, where he lives. The 11-year-old Amiro, who’s made a home of an abandoned tanker, is enthralled by the roving leviathans, yelling hey, hey, hey relentlessly at them. His gleeful entreaty is open for interpretation: is he merely seeking attention from the enviable explorers within, or do they represent a yearning for a sort of liberation?
Despite suggestions that he might wish to leave his impoverished life, Amiro—played to innocent, joyful perfection by Madjid Niroumand, whose performance is reminiscent of Jean-Pierre Léaud’s revelatory turn in François Truffaut’s The 400 Blows (1959)— doesn’t seem to lament his circumstances. He makes his way in the world doing odd jobs, such as collecting glass bottles, selling ice water, and shining shoes. His lack of parental oversight isn’t acknowledged; rather, he lives alone in his makeshift dwelling, enjoying the
company of his friends and the competitive games they play, which Amiro excels at owing to his quick pace.
The 1984 film, screening as part of the Annual Festival of Films from Iran at the Gene Siskel Film Center, is based on Naderi’s formative years; a new restoration with updated subtitles makes this postrevolutionary masterpiece ripe for rediscovery. The Iranian New Wave luminary, along with such other filmmakers as Abbas Kiarostami and Bahram Beyzai (who edited The Runner ), turned to making films about children after the 1979 revolution, when the government instituted censorious laws that, among other restrictions, prohibited artists from expressing themselves freely.
Stories about children served as an entryway into exploring larger societal issues in Iran in the midst of the new regime’s conservative ideology, a subject ever so timely of late. Frustrated masses have taken to the streets—exposing themselves to injury, arrest, and worse—to protest the Islamic Republic following the death of a young Kurdish
woman for not properly wearing her hijab. In recognition of recent events, the Film Center will host a free virtual conversation about art and activism in Iran in association with the festival, with details to be announced soon.
Abed Abest’s Killing the Eunuch Khan (2021) abstractly explores the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s through a modern Iranian lens. Set along the border between the two countries, the film opens on a house where two young girls live with their father; a bomb falls in their yard, killing one of the girls and leaving a seemingly bottomless pit in its wake. What occurs thereafter is sometimes frustratingly oblique, buoyed to an almost gimmicky extent by admittedly stunning visuals, courtesy of cinematographer Hamid Khozouie Abyane. “The serial killer intends to slaughter so many that the blood of the victims spills over the ditches of the city,” reads a commonly propagated summary of the film. “To reach his target, he designs a plan in which victims kill more victims.” This is one of those self-consciously artsy films that mistakes silence—
long, dialogue-less sequences that serve only to introduce other long, dialogue-less sequences—for substance.
The film has garnered comparisons to those of Stanley Kubrick and Alejandro Jodorowsky. Similarly, both Mani Haghighi’s Subtraction (2022) and Arian Vazirdaftari’s debut feature Without Her (2022) may be termed Hitchcockian; the latter specifically recalls Hitchcock by way of Brian De Palma. Another degree of separation from the masters of cinema is that Haghighi (2006’s Men at Work, 2018’s Pig) is the grandson of Ebrahim Golestan, the revered Iranian auteur also featured prominently in the festival.
Subtraction centers on two couples (both played by Navid Mohammadzadeh and Taraneh Alidoosti, the latter being the star of Asghar Farhadi’s Fireworks Wednesday (2006), About Elly (2009), and The Salesman (2016), who was recently arrested at protest and let out on bail) who are each others’ doppelgängers. One of the couples is working class, the other a uent. The husband from the former and the wife from the latter conspire, with growing intimacy, to help the other man escape the consequences of a violent outburst at his white-collar job.
Actor-writer-director Haghighi (who’s collaborated with Kiarostami and Farhadi) interprets concerns respective to Iranian cinema somewhat differently than his compatriots, often working in genre to do so. He was inspired to make Subtraction after he saw
a picture of a man who looked just like him in a photography exhibition about the IranIraq war. Less specifically, the film speaks to an almost otherworldly sensation of having to accept and live with something out of the ordinary—something that Iranians are more familiar with than most.
Mohammadzadeh and Alidoosti also star together in Leila’s Brothers (2022), which was banned in Iran after it screened at the Cannes Film Festival without government permission. Alidoosti plays the titular Leila, who’s determined to see her four brothers (one of them played by Mohammadzadeh) lifted out of poverty. A small fortune squirreled away by their status-obsessed father becomes the center of their problems; Leila and her brothers aspire to open a shop with the money, while their father wants to give it to a wealthy family member in exchange for becoming patriarch of their clan.
Without Her , like Subtraction , is another genre parable: Roya (Tannaz Tabatabaei), a well-to-do woman who’s soon to emigrate to Denmark with her husband, takes in the younger Ziba, who has no one or nowhere to turn to. Ziba soon begins assuming aspects of Roya’s life, with others appearing to believe that she’s actually the person Roya really is. Out of all of the films in the festival, this one possesses the near-maddening ambiguity that suffuses much Iranian cinema, as one feels Roya’s frustration when others in her life stop believing who she is.
Perhaps second in that regard would be Houman Seyyedi’s World War III (2022), Iran’s submission to this year’s Academy Awards in the Best International Feature category. Shakib (Mohsen Tanabandeh) is an aimless day laborer whose wife and child died in an earthquake years prior. He takes a job on a nearby shoot for a film set during the Holocaust and featuring Hitler as a main character. Against all odds, Shakib lands a role in the film—the starring role as the dictator, in fact. He boasts about his newfound success to a young, deaf-mute sex worker with whom he’s been in a long-standing (albeit transactional) relationship. Tensions escalate when she comes to stay with him on set, her vengeful pimp having followed her. I won’t disclose what happens next, but the questions it raises—as to what’s going on, who’s telling the truth, and the degree to which parallels between the movie in the film and Shakib’s dilemma are intentional—certainly account for a heightened level of ambiguity.
Ebrahim Golestan was a leading figure in the
initial, prerevolutionary Iranian New Wave, as well as a respected literary figure. His debut feature Brick and Mirror (1965) will screen at the festival, along with a program of his short films. Merging neorealist qualities with a visual sensibility that evokes German expressionism, the film follows a young taxi driver after a female passenger abandons her baby in his cab. What to do with the child becomes a source of concern and contention among his social circle, his girlfriend in particular aspiring to marry and keep the child as their own.
Brick and Mirror o ers a prescient glimpse of prerevolutionary Iran with all its seemingly modern zeal, beneath which festers troubles portending future conflict. It was the first Iranian film to use direct sound and is the first and only feature made under the auspices of the Golestan Film Workshop, which Golestan founded to produce his own films as well as Iranian poet Forugh Farrokhzad’s landmark documentary short, The House Is Black (1963), about a leper colony. Golestan’s short films Courtship (1961), A Fire (1961), The Hills of Marlik (1963), and The Crown Jewels of Iran (1965) compose the short films program, aptly titled “Radical Artistry.”
Mitra Farahani’s See You Friday, Robinson (2022) documents the unlikely correspondence between Golestan and Jean-Luc Godard, who died in September. (Meanwhile, Golestan turned 100 last year.) Though the two never met in person, they exchanged communications every Friday for several months in 2014. It was Farahani who brought the two filmmakers together, at least in an epistolary sense, and it’s the creation and detangling of their emails and letters that make up much of the film.
Anyone familiar with Godard will recognize—and, like me, will be frustrated by—the obscure content of his messages. Golestan himself comments on it, though he persists in their exchange. The documentary footage of the filmmakers is both edifying and endearing; apparently Godard putters around his Swiss cottage wearing T-shirts and cargo shorts like any other homebody. It feels less like a film about two major figureheads of world cinema and more like a vade mecum for getting on in years and attempting finally to answer life’s lingering questions—or at least becoming content with realizing that might not happen. Even later in life these elder sages are much like young Amiro, eager to learn about what’s o in the distance. v
SERIES PREVIEW
SCIENCE ON SCREEN: INNER AND OUTER SPACE
Through 6/30, Block Cinema; X: The Man With the X-Ray Eyes (1963) 2/10 7 PM, First Man (2018) 2/18 1 PM, spring screenings TBD; presented in conjunction with “The Heart’s Knowledge: Science and Empathy in the Art of Dario Robleto,” through 7/9, The Block Museum of Art, free
X: The Man With the X-Ray Eyes (1963)
Dario Robleto’s exhibit at the Block Museum and the associated film series explore the beauty and the price of humanity’s quest for knowledge.
By NOAH BERLATSKYRoger Corman’s X: The Man With the X-Ray Eyes (1963) opens on a giant eyeball, bloody, veined, enormous. You stare at it for what seems like forever, looking at it as it looks at you while Les Baxter’s eerie, dissonant score quivers and scrapes. Finally, the camera pulls back, and you can see that the eyeball is a specimen, floating in a jar, trailing viscera. It is an organ of observation reduced to an observed thing—and it’s di cult to see it without thinking about how you’re seeing it, with organs that will one day cease to see and only have the capacity to be seen. The thing sight reveals is the end of sight. The vision— of science, of the screen—opens on its own blindness.
The limitations of human perception and human existence, and the longing to extend both, are at the center of the Block Museum’s latest exhibit, “The Heart’s Knowledge: Science and Empathy in the Art of Dario Robleto.” Corman’s X is part of a related film series, Science on Screen: Inner and Outer Space, to be screened with a talk by Catherine Belling, a professor of medical education at Northwestern.
Robleto has been working with Northwestern for the last five years or so as the first art-
ist-at-large of the school of engineering. His work presents a “melancholy view of science,” according to Michael Metzger, curator of the Robleto exhibit and of the associated film series. Robleto, Metzger told me, is fascinated by how science allows us “to record traces of people and communities before death and the erasure of time and history.”
The exhibit includes a series of lacquered brass-plated reconstructions of waveforms that show blood flow from the heart during various auditory experiences—listening to a tuning fork, for example, or to a melancholic melody. A triptych of images called Survival Does Not Lie in the Heavens shows what appear to be stars against a black background. In fact, they’re images of stage lights taken from the album covers of live performances by jazz, blues, and gospel musicians who are now deceased.
In two almost hour-length films, The Aorta of an Archivist and The Boundary of Life is Quietly Crossed , Robleto covers a range of topics focused on science, humanity, and loss. He talks about stars that, in an expanding universe, emit light that can no longer reach us, about the oldest human voices ever recorded, and about other doomed but valiant scientific
efforts to preserve the unpreservable. The work is immersed in a kind of anti-Buddhism, clinging determinedly to life’s vanishing traces.
Metzger hasn’t yet chosen the films in the series for spring, though he hopes to include a magic lantern performance and a collection of early medical silent films curated by scholar Patrick Friel. In addition to X , the other film showing in winter is First Man, the 2018 drama based on the Apollo program and Neil Armstrong’s landing on the moon. University of Chicago historian of science Jordan Bimm will lecture at the screening.
First Man seemed like an appropriate choice, Metzger says, because it resonates with Robleto’s fascination with space exploration—Carl Sagan is mentioned several times in the exhibit. The movie is also about Armstrong’s grief at the loss of his daughter, which in part inspires his ambition and exploration. “It really speaks to the question of how we understand the lives of the people around us,” Metzger told me—a theme that is central to Robleto’s work.
To some extent, though, First Man can be seen as resisting or critiquing Robleto’s fascination with science as a universal human
quest for persistence. The Apollo space mission was not a universal quest, but a nationalist endeavor, inseparable from the Cold War rivalry with the Soviet Union. In the movie, Leon Bridges reprises Gil Scott-Heron’s “Whitey on the Moon”—a song that indicts the U.S. for using space exploration as a distraction from inequities on Earth.
Robleto muses on the miraculous preservation of human song as a triumph of art and scientific advances. But First Man reminds us that some song, at least, is skeptical of scientific advances, and of a vision of progress that gestures toward universal humanity while leaving some humans behind.
X: The Man With the X-Ray Eyes also speaks both to and against Robleto. The film is about Dr. James Xavier (Ray Milland), a doctor who discovers a formula to allow him to see beyond the human visual spectrum. Metzger said he chose the movie because it “reflects not only our desire to see underneath the skin, or underneath the clothes of the people around us, but also to have our vision penetrate the farthest reaches of the universe.” Or as Xavier says early on in the film, “What could we really see if we had access to the other 90 percent [of the visual spectrum]? Sam, we are virtually blind, all of us.”
Robleto presents the desire to see further, to know more, to extend human perception, as a noble if doomed goal; he celebrates the science that tries to let us hold onto sight and sound just a little bit longer. X: The Man With the X-Ray Eyes is (much) less starry-eyed. Xavier’s increasing powers of sight don’t give him greater insight into the human condition. Instead, his vaulting ambition turns him into an outcast, a murderer, a carnival attraction, and a card cheat. He’s so set on seeing the face of God he ceases to be able to recognize the face of the woman he loves.
Science is a human thing, and so it reflects human dreams, human fears, and human hopes. Robleto’s art captures that. The films in the Science on Screen series, though, add that science reflects human prejudice and human egotism as well. To want to see more of the universe is natural and even beautiful. But it’s also a dream of power, which can leave you looking only at the dead, gaping eyeball of your own desire. v
FEBRUARY 14- MARCH 11
Based on Her Book
Directed by ERICKA RATCLIFF
AN ORIGINAL PLAY BY LYDIA R. DIAMOND
DIRECTED BY RON OJ PARSON
A world premiere adaptation of Mahogany L. Browne’s popular young adult novel, Chlorine Sky is an intimate coming-of-age story told in verse about two girls who are best friends—until they aren’t. Sometimes, growing up means growing apart.
PRODUCTION SPONSORS Tickets start at $20 with $5 student tickets steppenwolf.org | 312-335-1650
The sensational true story of the first woman to play professional baseball knocks it out of the park. Toni Stone is an encyclopedia of baseball stats. She’s got a great arm. And she doesn’t understand why she can’t play with the boys. Rejected by the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League because of her race, Toni sets out to become the first woman to play in baseball’s Negro Leagues—and shatter racist and sexist barriers in the sport she’s loved since childhood.
NOW THROUGH FEBRUARY 26
SPECIAL OFFER: Get $30 main floor seats for select dates* with code READER30
*Not valid on premium seating or previously purchased tickets.
312.443.3800 | GoodmanTheatre.org
Groups of 10+: Groups@GoodmanTheatre.org
“Ok, so boom. / We ain’t friends anymore.”
A mainstream Hollywood movie with four female leads all nearly 80 and up? That’s some of the most radical casting in commercial moviemaking. And it should be something to celebrate, especially when those leads are trailblazers Rita Moreno, Sally Field, Lily Tomlin, and Jane Fonda, inarguably brilliant women who have devoted their lives to militantly upending the status quo and breaking boundaries. So it’s infuriating to see them in the service of the abysmal 80 for Brady
The Paramount feature directed by Kyle Marvin markets itself as a paean to female friendship, with a side of sassy senior attitude: four longtime gal pals fulfill a lifelong dream and take a shenanigans-filled trip to the 2017 Super Bowl. What it really is, however, is a 90-ish-minute ad for the NFL. Only in this NFL, there’s no racism, cheating, steroids, homophobia, or sexism—nothing but clean-cut boys who behave like Boy Scouts and look like Atlas, all packaged in a miasma of red, white, and blue (confetti, balloons, flags, costuming, lighting) that implicitly calls into question the patriotism of anyone who declines to cheer along. Brady gleams like a golden god throughout, coaching the women through crises of the body, mind, and spirit until they are called on in the final downs to return the favor. The writing is lazy as the plot spins through a laundry list of issues: cancer scare, infantile spouse, bad love affair, grief—all are resolved, all thanks to football metaphor. The focus is so so the women’s faces look like masks. Not even a (criminally underproduced) Billy Porter musical number can fix this nonsense. —CATEY SULLIVAN PG-13, 98 min. Wide release in theaters
Inspired by Niobe Way’s nonfiction book Deep Secrets: Boys’ Friendships and the Crisis of Connection, this moving 2022 French drama from Lukas Dhont unfolds as a familiar tale of tragedy, guilt, and forgiveness, but coiling around it are acrid observations of the
schoolyard and its role in sexual socialization. Lifelong pals Léo and Rémi are inseparable over the summer, cycling together and sharing laughs, but once they begin high school together, their hands-on friendship is interpreted by their classmates as romantic. The girls tease, the boys bully, and Léo begins to pull away from his bosom friend, who is stung by the betrayal.
The early scenes are fascinating for their insight into the teenage shark tank, particularly how the genders work in concert to identify, target, and punish people who are different. Léo and Rémi are first interrogated about their relationship at a lunch table by three girls sitting across from them whose ill-concealed smiles and knowing glances at one another signal a past conversation of spiteful hilarity. They all pretend they’re cool with the idea of Léo and Rémi being gay, but really they’re just doing reconnaissance for the guys in school, who next move in with slurs and punches.
In his screen debut, Eden Dambrine captures both Léo’s brotherly love for Rémi, played by Gustav De Waele, and his dismay that the other kids may be right about Rémi and their physical intimacy. When Rémi dies, Léo is le to pick up the pieces with Rémi’s shattered mother, played with warmth and grace by Émilie Duquenne, and in the film’s last hour, Dhont largely narrows his focus to them. But there’s a piercing scene of a school grieving session where Léo refuses to participate, and one of the girls who taunted them now sits mute and tearful with remorse. —J.R. JONES PG-13, 105 min. Music Box Theatre
Alright, let’s talk about the evolution of the Magic Mike franchise. The original film, directed by Steven Soderbergh, was a deceptively dark, even tragic look at the lives of a group of male strippers who party hard and get hit by the Great Recession even harder. It’s about the American Dream, it’s about addiction, it’s about finding out Channing Tatum is freakishly athletic. Three years later, Soderbergh handed off the directorial reins to Magic Mike’s assistant director Gregory Jacobs
for Magic Mike XXL a feature-length chill session with the bros that ditches any semblance of conflict to deliver a liberating, radically joyful vision of masculinity.
Now Soderbergh returns as director to inject eroticism back into the multiplex with a sort of “Magic Mike’s European Vacation.” Splitting the difference between the tightly structured drama of the original and the looser, feel-good energy of the sequel, Magic Mike’s Last Dance continues to embody the series’ central thesis that a lap dance has the power to change lives.
This time around, Channing Tatum’s Mike Lane is lured out of retirement by wealthy theater owner Max Mendoza (Salma Hayek), who flies him to London to direct a theatrical production of his striptease routine starring an Ocean’s Eleven-style group of the most talented strippers in the western world. If that sounds suspiciously like a 110-minute ad for the real Magic Mike stage show, which itself debuted in London in 2018, that’s because it is. This is pretty openly a fictionalized Magic Mike Live origin story, and because of that most of the dance numbers are performed by Channing’s ragtag squad of strippers rather than by Channing himself, who with two notable exceptions is here as a rom-com lead rather than as a dancer. Disappointing as that may be for the Tatum-heads in the audience, it hardly ends up mattering by the time we reach the main event: a nearly half-hour sequence of showstopper striptease choreo capped off by the titular last dance that successfully bridges the gap between Swan Lake and Hustlers. If it all ends up feeling like a backpedal from the ambition of XXL, it’s only a baby step in the wrong direction: in a decidedly sexless era of American cinema, Steven Soderbergh is still the only man brave enough to deliver proudly horny movies to the public.
with crisp efficiency. Scenes don’t begin and end so much as get brushed aside; Sandra’s life is far too busy to linger. The audience becomes immersed in Sandra’s existence the same way she does: by experiencing similar events over and over until they add up to something bigger.
This movie is about everyday life, and it’s all the more transcendent for it. Even the affair Sandra embarks on with her husband’s old (and married) friend Clément (Melvil Poupaud) is part of the at-times joyous and other-times heartbreaking routine that is sandwiched between everything else. Seydoux is sublime, her natural performance anchoring Sandra’s busy, if routine, life. Don’t miss One Fine Morning —DAVID RIEDEL R, 112 min. Gene Siskel Film Center
Alberto Vázquez’s animated Unicorn Wars has been billing itself as Bambi-meets-Apocalypse Now The film that it most reminded me of, though, initially, is Peter Jackson’s almost unendurably repulsive, anti-classic Meet the Feebles, in which adorable Muppet-like creatures suffer through a series of truly nightmarish horror sequences.
There are no Muppets here. But the adorable, Disney-influenced art substitutes an analogous neotenous squelch. Teddy bear soldiers are at war with the unicorns of the magic forest, and Vázquez delights in drenching his adorable protagonists in blood, urine, pus, and sociopathy.
The willfully mean-spirited desecration feels at points like wallowing in unpleasantness for its own sake. But the film has a larger point than adolescent snickering.
—JOEY
SHAPIROR, 112 min. Wide release in theaters
The demands on Sandra (Léa Seydoux) are extensive. She’s a widow raising a precocious ten-yearold daughter alone; her father, a famous academic, has rapidly advancing dementia and Sandra is in charge of finding him a care facility; and her job as a translator is demanding, particularly when she works live events.
But a er a holiday movie season in which innocence was blown to smithereens in No Man’s Land (All Quiet on the Western Front), Steven Spielberg told you again why he loves to make movies (The Fabelmans), and Brendan Gleeson cut off his fingers for spite (The Banshees of Inisherin), it’s a relief to live through Sandra’s mundane experiences in One Fine Morning. Writer and director Mia Hansen-Løve has cra ed a small miracle: a film filled with quotidian life events that doesn’t make you want to die from boredom or shake the main character onto a higher plane.
Hansen-Løve directs her matter-of-fact screenplay
The two central teddy bear soldiers—resentful, curdled Bluey and his sensitive, kindhearted twin brother Tubby—have diametrically opposed reactions as they discover the ugliness and pointlessness of the war. Tubby wants to put the mission behind him and learn to reconcile with nature and with his enemies. Bluey, though, wants to destroy everything that hurt him and everything that didn’t. The sequences in which his dewy visage is transformed by a toothy snarl into an avatar of cruelty and mindless rage are among the most effective in a very accomplished film.
Vázquez also owes a debt to Tolkien and to Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke. The war on the unicorns is a symbolic destruction of the natural world and of the possibility of freedom and joy. The film’s portrayals of birds, forest animals, and frogs are hyper-detailed and limpid. In contrast, we catch glimpses of a slimy, amorphous monster, which calls out with a mother’s voice to lure smaller, weaker things into its lair. It is a metaphor for greed, hatred, war itself, and also for fascism, which embodies all the others as it consumes our better selves—teddy bears, unicorns, and all.
—NOAH
18+, 80 min. Limited release in theaters and wide release on VOD v
BERLATSKYMake time to learn something new with music and dance classes at Old Town School! We offer flexible schedules for all skill levels both in-person and online. oldtownschool.org Sign up for classes today at
The fest’s 2023 lineup includes the first Chicago appearance of French composer Pascale Criton, the just-intonation guitar experiments of Berlin-based Julia Reidy, and the premiere of Aperiodic’s commission from Swedish composer Magnus Granberg.
By BILL MEYER
Beginning on Tuesday, February 21, the Frequency Festival returns for its seventh iteration in eight years. Its seven concerts consist of a diverse array of performances united by a common thread—the thirst for growth and adventure that drives musicians and composers to transcend the boundaries of any genre. The festival is an outgrowth of the Frequency Series, which organizer Peter Margasak, a former sta music critic with the Reader, launched in 2013 in association with the venue Constellation. They were brought together by a common goal: to draw together the audiences of contemporary classical, experimental, and improvised music. Though Margasak left Chicago for Europe in 2018 and currently lives in Berlin, he continues to program the series remotely.
Over the years Frequency concerts have waxed and waned in number, but the series
has never wavered from its founding mission. This year’s festival includes solo piano recitals, improvisation infused with rock energy, and works for acoustic and electronic instruments that delve into the psychoacoustic e ects of alternate tunings. Some acts are returnees: Ensemble dal Niente and Aperiodic, two groups dedicated to performing new compositions and key works of the 20th-century avant-garde, have been recurring presences since the series’ earliest days, and guitarist Bill Orcutt played the festival in 2017. Four others are appearing in Chicago for the first time: musicians Julia Reidy and Elias Stemeseder and composers Magnus Granberg and Pascale Criton. All but two of the festival’s concerts, one at the Corbett vs. Dempsey gallery and another at Bond Chapel on the University of Chicago campus (both of them free), will take place at Constellation.
Tue 2/21, 8:30 PM, Constellation, 3111 N. Western, $20, 18+
Bill Orcutt first gained notice in the 1990s as guitarist for Harry Pussy, a noise-punk band whose brief, ferociously mangled songs tricked people into thinking they were seeing spontaneous freak-outs. But both then and now, Orcutt’s musical choices have proceeded from rigorous logic. The San Francisco-based artist’s most recent album, last year’s instrumental Music for Four Guitars (Palilalia), cycles through interlocking quartets that apply the systematic repetition of minimalists such as Philip Glass and Steve Reich to a vocabulary steeped in the jagged blues deconstructions of Captain Beefheart. His long-running duo with drummer Chris Corsano (who lives in upstate New York) is a purely improvisational endeavor, but the two of them share a creative agenda—each is curious about what the other will elicit from his subconscious and reflexes. Their improvisations include compact, convoluted slugfests and raggedly lyrical peregrinations, but the duo’s latest release, the 2021 full-length Made Out of Sound (Palilalia), favors the latter.
Chicago-based fingerstyle guitarist Eli Winter released a self-titled record last year that employs the distinct and varied styles of several mostly local musicians, including drummer Tyler Damon and late trumpeter Jaimie Branch, to give his rustic travelogues a complex emotional undertow. For this concert, which falls shortly after the initial recording sessions for his next album, he’ll perform solo and stick to electric guitar.
JENNIFER TORRENCE & BETHANY YOUNGE / ELIAS STEMESEDER
Wed 2/22, 8:30 PM, Constellation, 3111 N. Western, $15, 18+
Percussionist Jennifer Torrence, an American living in Norway, and composer, percussionist, and singer Bethany Younge, a former Chicagoan who currently teaches at Dartmouth, share a concern with pushing past the perfectionism of classical music. Each courts the precarious and seeks the singular, which means that it’s hard to say exactly how their set will sound—it’s sure to be unique to the moment and space in which it happens. They’ll perform four compositions, including one by Younge, playing together (on a new piece by New Yorkbased drummer and composer Jessie Cox) and separately.
Elias Stemeseder is an Austrian keyboardist based in New York City who’s been recording and performing as a sideman for more than a dozen years—he’s played synthesizer and piano with the likes of Anna Webber, Jim Black, Christian Lillinger, and John Zorn. Piano Solo (Intakt), his debut CD, a rms his mastery of the titular instrument, and that’s what he’ll play at his first Chicago appearance. Stemeseder has a quick, precise touch, but he doesn’t design his compositions to showcase virtuosity—instead he creates frameworks for focused improvisations that investigate the sounds and moods obtained by each piece’s defined parameters.
Thu 2/23, 8 PM, Bond Chapel, University of Chicago, 1025 E. 58th St., free, all ages
Upon moving to Berlin from Sydney, Australia, in the mid-2010s, Julia Reidy played mostly in improvisational settings. But since then, on a series of solo LPs, Reidy has used the song format as a platform for increasingly lush sound worlds constructed from swarming guitars, glistening synthesizers, stark beats, and Auto-Tuned vocals. On their latest, World in World (Black Tru e), Reidy strips the arrangements back to expose the unstable core that gives this music its energy—a clash between competing tuning systems. Their voice sticks to the familiar tuning of equal temperament, imposed by the digital straitjacket of Auto-Tune, while their 12-string guitar is customized to play in just intonation. The instrument’s frets aren’t continuous across the neck but instead can be moved in pieces, such that
their arrangement can look almost like the holes in a punch card. These frets enable very precise tuning, which can transform the way simultaneous notes influence each other—and the intervals in just intonation are audibly different from those in equal temperament. The haze of overtones generated by the disruptive proximity of two not-quite-equivalent scales gives the listener plenty to savor all by itself, but the album’s austerity also draws out Reidy’s beguiling melodies.
Fri 2/24, 8:30 PM, Constellation, 3111 N. Western, $15, 18+
Founded in 2010, local ensemble Aperiodic is a tireless advocate for underrecognized contemporary compositions. It favors not just new sounds but also new ways of making and experiencing them—at one memorable performance on the University of Chicago
campus in early 2020, musicians and audience walked together from performance hall to loading dock in order to jointly tune into the tones that composer Peter Ablinger sought to tease out of the building. Last year, Aperiodic commissioned a concert-length work from Stockholm- based composer Magnus Granberg. Granberg’s music routinely reconciles the tools and forms of past and present without making their coexistence the point: on How Deep Is the Ocean, How High Is the Sky? (Another Timbre), for example, the warm rasp of a Baroque violin wraps around the tinny ring of a prepared piano as they patiently unspool contrapuntal figures through a sparsely furnished soundscape. At this concert, an eight-piece Aperiodic lineup will present the world premiere of their commission, Aus der Nacht, von den Wehen , which they’re also recording just before the festival. This will be the first time Granberg’s music is played in Chicago, and he’ll be present at Constellation.
Greg Davis is a former Chicagoan, though he hasn’t performed here in more than a decade. He’s settled in Burlington, Vermont, where he runs a record store and continues his investigations into the potentialities of sound. Twenty years ago he made a splash in the so-called folktronica scene, but last year’s True Primes (Greyfade) is a purely electronic record that leaves conventional song structure behind completely. It begins with a fairly academic premise: write a program that turns prime numbers into sine waves, then combine the resulting sounds. Davis’s real-time mixes are anything but academic, though. As pure tones converge, the interference of their waveforms generates pulses and beats (also called “beating tones”), which seem to proliferate and transform the closer you listen to them. Even through a home stereo, these compositions are enveloping, but if Davis gets full access to Constellation’s multichannel speaker rig, this concert could be out of this world.
continued from p. 41
NING YU
Sat 2/25, 8:30 PM, Constellation, 3111 N. Western, $15, 18+
Criton will deliver a lecture on her music , with accompaniment by Silvia Tarozzi and Judith Hamann. Mon 2/27, 6 PM, Gray Center Lab, Midway Studios, 929 E. 60th St., free, all ages
The recorded oeuvre of French composer Pascale Criton consists of just two albums and a couple compositions on other releases, but this slender discography belies the breadth and depth of her engagement with sound. Since the late 1970s, she’s pursued ethnomusicological and acoustic research, directed creative workshops and musical-theater productions, advised philosopher Gilles Deleuze on musical matters, and composed microtonal music. Criton’s pieces for stringed instruments use alternate tunings and techniques to elicit ghostly high pitches and coarse textures, and like fellow Frenchwoman Éliane Radigue, she sometimes develops works in collaboration with the musicians who will play them. Violinist Silvia Tarozzi and cellist Deborah Walker, members of the Toulouse-based Ensemble Dedalus, each collaborated with Criton to create the music recorded for the 2017 album Infra (Potlatch) and became part of Sounding Limits, a program of Criton’s work that’s now receiving its first performance in the midwest. The violin on “Circle Process” (2010) has been tuned in increments of sixteenths of a tone (conventional equal temperament divides an octave into 12 semitones), and the score invites the performer to explore in minute detail a series of phenomena, including rustling sounds obtained by drawing the bow across the instrument’s body and harmonic clashes that generate beating tones. The cello is similarly tuned on “Chaoscaccia” (2014), permitting Walker to shape alien sonorities that seem to leave tracers in their arcing wake. “Bothsways” (2014), a duo for violin and cello, juxtaposes whistling tones whose vibrations exert destabilizing effects upon each other. For this American tour of Sounding Limits, Walker was unable to travel overseas, so Austrian cellist Judith Hamann (who’s worked with the likes of Charles Curtis and Tashi Wada) has taken over.
Ning Yu, a Chinese American pianist and former member of new-music quartet Yarn/ Wire, will open this concert with a solo set. It will include the quietly rapturous first movement of Klaus Lang’s Sieben Sonnengesichter and the Chicago debut of Prisma Interius II , one of a series of compositions by Catherine Lamb that uses live microphones and filtering software to feed environmental sounds back into the music as it is performed.
On Monday evening, Criton will deliver a lecture on her music at the Gray Center Lab on the University of Chicago campus, with accompaniment by Tarozzi and Hamann.
JUDITH HAMANN / SILVIA TAROZZI
Sun 2/26, 2 PM, Corbett vs. Dempsey, 2156 W. Fulton, free, all ages
Silvia Tarozzi and Judith Hamann are not just interpreters of others’ concepts. In December, Tarozzi came to Chicago with cellist Deborah Walker to present a cycle of traditional songs sung in rural Italy during rice harvests (considered women’s work) that explores their subtexts of injustice, resistance, and liberation. And in a previous Frequency Series concert in 2018, Hamann played music that reveled in the “wolf tones” that most cellists try to suppress. They’ll present a pair of solo sets at the gallery Corbett vs. Dempsey, which is currently showing a splendid exhibit of paintings by AACM cofounder Roscoe Mitchell. Tarozzi will improvise to a graphic score of her own making, inspired by Mitchell; Hamann will draw on their recent work for cello and humming.
ENSEMBLE DAL NIENTE
Sun 2/26, 8:30 PM, Constellation, 3111 N. Western, $15, 18+
Ensemble dal Niente was on the bill of the first Frequency Series concert in April 2013, and it’s been coming back ever since; this set will also be the group’s fifth Frequency Festival appearance. The program features five pieces, two by composers associated with Chicago, all of them loosely connected by their use of whistle tones and timbral effects: George Lewis’s A Whispered Nine, Rebecca Saunders’s Shades of Crimson: Molly’s Song , Raven Chacon’s Atsiniltlish’ iye , Nicole Mitchell’s Cave of Self-Induction, and Suzanne Farrin’s Prisoner Poems v
“Young people are in a process of figuring themselves out and figuring out who they are. And ultimately, what our camp strives to be is a safe place to do that.”
As told to PHILIP MONTORO
Chicago native Mare Ralph has been a board member at Girls Rock! Chicago since 2021 and a camp organizer since 2019. From 2014 till 2018 they lived in Louisville, where in 2015 they began working with Rockshops, a weekendlong music camp that had launched the year before as part of the festival Louisville Outskirts. In 2016 the camp expanded to a week and became Girls Rock Louisville, which last year changed its name to Out Loud Louisville to better welcome trans and gender-expansive youth.
Ralph is also a guitarist, and they’ve played in several Chicago bands—most famously Scotland Yard Gospel Choir, which they joined in 2006. A tour-van accident in 2009 (which Ralph describes as “life-changing”) stole the
group’s momentum and led it to dissolve in 2012, but it also spurred Ralph to return to school. They’ve since finished a bachelor’s in education and a master’s in urban planning and policy, and today they work as a housing policy organizer for Chicago-based nonprofit Housing Action Illinois.
Girls Rock! Chicago runs a weekend-long adult camp called Let’s Rock! (formerly Ladies Rock!), and this month it returns in person for the first time since the start of the pandemic.
(The kids’ summer camp came back in person in 2022.) It runs Friday, February 17, through Sunday, February 20, at First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, 6400 S. Kimbark. Applications for Let’s Rock! will be accepted until Sunday, February 12.
Iwas aware of Girls Rock! Chicago existing when I was playing in bands—I think one of my bands played an afternoon concert for the campers the first year of camp [in 2006].
But I’m a self-taught guitarist. Imposter syndrome made me believe that I didn’t have anything of value to share. Because I’m not a technical guitarist and have what I consider to be a host of bad habits related to playing, I was hesitant to volunteer.
What really got me involved when I was in Louisville was coming to understand the radical politics that are also a major part of Girls Rock Camps and Queer Rock Camps. And part of that is an idea of taking up space and recognizing that the music that you create has value—even when and sometimes because
it does not conform to the highest technical standards.
I recognized that not only could I be a part of this camp, but that many of my experiences allowed me to be uniquely helpful—growing up as a queer person in a small town and being able to reflect on my own ability to use music to help me through tough times.
Camp also provided a space for me where I began to recognize that I identify as nonbinary. Often it was campers that I saw being out and being themselves and openly talking about their identities and who they are—that experience was really inspiring and helped me to recognize that about myself.
My feeling is that young people are in a process of figuring themselves out and figuring out who they are. And ultimately, what our camp strives to be is a safe place to do that.
Sometimes we’ll see a returning camper from the previous year, and they’re coming in with di erent pronouns, a di erent name, and di erent ideas about who they are. That’s really rewarding, that young people feel like this is still a place for them.
And that’s also true on the side of organizers and volunteers. To put it frankly, going from being someone who identified as a woman while playing in bands, to then being someone who identifies as transmasculine or nonbinary, it’s not as if the patriarchy opens its doors. I’ve been really grateful for trans boys who come to camp and still feel like it’s a place where they belong.
A couple years ago, I remember a friend asking, “This is something you’re super involved in, and I know that in your personal life you’re striving to be seen and have your identity affirmed by the outside world. Is it annoying to be wearing a Girls Rock! Chicago shirt?”
And at the time, I was like, “You know what, I think the ‘rock’ is almost as ill-fitting as ‘girls.’” Because we welcome and encourage any form of music that our campers want to play. Girls Rock! Chicago has a DJ track.
I’ve been an instrument instructor, a guitar instructor, a band coach. I usually end up being around for showcase and for the recording. I was laughing this summer that our operations manager, Madeline [Leahy], is always like, “Mare, you’re going to be at the
studio, can you be in the live room with the bands?” I’ve explained what scratch vocals are to nine-year-olds dozens of times. “Well, it’s sort of like practice or pretend—it’s really there to help you keep your place on the song. But we’re going to do the vocals separate afterwards.”
That first weekend camp, I remember we were hanging out before the concert, and I was with another volunteer who’s a drum instructor and a band coach. One of the campers—a maybe ten-year-old drummer—turned to her and said, “Are there more boys in bands than there are girls?”
The volunteer and I just looked at each other. The recognition of the years of being asked if you’re the merch girl, or just shitty comments from sound dudes or whatever— that sort of recognition, in the look that we shared. But also, how amazing to be learning an instrument without any knowledge of that sort of added pressure or baggage! To just be choosing an instrument, thinking this is what I want to play, this is what I want to explore. It’s pretty awesome.
Being the person who’s helping everybody get their instruments on before they go onstage is so rewarding. And again, this 13-yearold doesn’t care how many records my band sold 15 years ago. They don’t care who we played with, or who our booking agent was, or all that stu that seems so important and so necessary and infiltrated my mind during so many years of playing in a band.
I’m talking to this kid and saying, “You’re gonna get up there. It’ll probably sound a little different than when we were playing in the classroom,” just reminding a kid of the chord changes in their song. Just saying, like, “You’re gonna be great, and everyone is going to be so excited to see you and celebrate you.”
That’s such an accomplishment, for a kid to be able to get onstage and perform something that they’ve created—a song that they’ve created with other campers that they maybe didn’t even know a week ago. And I’m able to say, like, “I’ve been there. I get nervous too before going onstage. But remember, you can look out into the crowd and see your band coach and your guitar instructor. Everyone’s gonna be cheering for you.”
It’s a great reminder to me as a 41-yearold—yeah, I can make something up, and that can be something that stays in your head and you’re singing to yourself. Maybe the first three years in Louisville, every year, there was at least one cat-themed song. Which were really awesome!
Campers can come into camp without the framework of “I’m going against the grain, and I’m gonna be in a band,” but even if that’s not present, there’s definitely awareness of societal expectations. And so there are these little feminist anthems that always end up coming out at camp.
Like Chicago, Louisville is a very segregated city. The “Ninth Street Divide” is what people call it—the West End of Louisville is historically Black. And we had campers coming from very different socioeconomic backgrounds. Sometimes you’re not sure, musically, what people’s backgrounds are—one camper can be coming to learn their third instrument, while someone else has never held a drumstick.
We began to more directly confront the divide that was being reflected in our camp—of having volunteers that were mostly white and mostly coming from a rock background—and really working to decenter whiteness and build leadership among our volunteers and musicians that were people of color and specifically Black women. Louisville has a badass history of Black feminism, as the world has come to see in the past few years.
One thing we started thinking about is, while it’s awesome that this 12-year-old is really obsessed with Queen and might hear a Queen song at camp, it shouldn’t only be that kid who has that moment of recognition. And so as part of our applications, we started asking all our campers their three favorite songs at the moment, and then we put together a playlist that we would play during lunch. So that every person had that moment of hearing a song. The campers were not aware that was the reason we were asking for these songs, but we just wanted to make it clear that whatever your jam is, it’s welcome.
Stage fright is always something that we’re dealing with. Something that we stumbled upon as a really good, low-key way to introduce performing was karaoke. Thank God for YouTube—you can just look up “Losing My
Religion karaoke,” and there’s a video that has all the lyrics.
We started doing this every day after lunch. So we’re doing karaoke, and one camper chose the Adele song “Rolling in the Deep.” It starts o , she’s singing, and slowly, everybody that’s hanging out in the gym just starts clapping along to the beat. And then the chorus starts up, and it’s a very powerful song—you know, what a crescendo—and every single camper, people who went to school right down the street in the West End and kids who were coming from the suburbs, everyone knew this song and was sharing this and just singing along as loud as they could. Those moments of pure joy and fun, and singing along with your friends to a song that you love—you can’t plan that.
The camp that happened just after the Parkland school shooting, a group of maybe 14- or 15-year-olds ended up writing a song calling for gun control. And you had people who were coming from a perspective of thinking about school shootings and not feeling safe in school, and also people who have gun violence as a part of their daily lived experiences in these historically neglected redlined communities.
This didn’t come from the organizers. It didn’t come from us pushing campers to write about anything. I mentioned those songs about cats—those were really awesome songs! I could sing you bits of them right now. Sometimes it’s with our older campers that you have more social awareness present in the music, but there have definitely been nine- or ten-year-olds who are singing, like, “Don’t tell me what I can do. I can do whatever I want.”
Ireally loved being a band coach for Let’s Rock! in fall 2019. One of the members in the band I coached is now a regular volunteer and organizer with Girls Rock! Chicago. I keep saying I’m going to do Let’s Rock! Camp and learn to play the drums finally. It’s open to women, trans folks of any identity, and gender- expansive, gender-nonconforming people.
[Let’s Rock!] is taking place at First Presbyterian Church of Chicago. That church is really doing a lot of awesome things for the community—it has a great history of organizing. Gwendolyn Brooks taught writing classes
there. In the late 60s, the church organized with the Blackstone Rangers in workforce development programs.
All the restrooms are all-gender restrooms, so it’s a very welcoming space as well. And huge and beautiful—the first time I took a tour of it, we’re on the third floor, and I was like, “Is that a basketball court?” It has a full basketball court on the third floor!
[Let’s Rock!] is a really good way to get to know more people and to make friends. We don’t often have opportunities as adults. Our campers often are, like, this is a stop on their summer of basketball camp or ballet or whatever.
The first year we had an adult camp in Louisville, we were warned by our friends at the Nashville camp that there was a high proportion of divorces coming out of the Ladies Rock Camp—an indication of how empowering the experience was! It resulted in people prioritizing their own well-being and their own mental health and making positive choices in their lives, and in some cases leaving marriages that they weren’t happy in. I can’t guarantee that that will result—I mean, we won’t put it in the marketing materials, maybe just to reassure any spouses or long-term partners. . . .
The other thing that’s really been cool is getting to know people who have bands and play regularly. I hate to say it, but I am not scouring the Reader for Early Warnings every week the way I was 20 years ago. And so it’s been great to learn about cool bands that are women or gender-nonconforming or trans folks. Through the rock-camp ecosystem, people have been able to plan tours and find couches to sleep on. It’s a really special supportive environment of musicians.
[What drew me to Girls Rock] was joining together with women and gender-nonconforming and trans people to recognize each other and just acknowledge—we’ve all had experiences of not feeling like we quite belonged in the music scene. We’re able to come together and share what we know with young people.
That was, for me, the beginning of returning to playing music for the reason I started when I was a sad teenager—trying to express how I felt about the world around me.
Behind a great artist, there’s often a great manager. The average fan likely never thinks about the people who manage their favorite musicians, but they’re the ones typically handling the behind-the-scenes work on the business side of the entertainment industry. Whether they’re booking performances, negotiating contracts, or just acting as voices of reason for the artists they represent, managers are unsung heroes. In Chicago, one of these unsung heroes is Beleshia McCulley, also known as Lyrical, founder of Lyrical Eyes Management and the 323 Music Group label. Lyrical initially stepped into Chicago’s cre-
ative community as a singer, vocal coach, and poet before switching lanes. So while she’s only been taking on clients with Lyrical Eyes since 2012, she’s been deeply rooted in the Chicago music scene for more than 16 years. Among the artists she’s helped bolster—whether by managing them, signing them to 323 Music Group, or simply advocating for them—are Lil Durk, Ravyn Lenae, and Chief Keef.
“I’ve always had a way with words, so that’s how I got into poetry and singing. When my daughter decided she wanted to be a music artist, I felt like I couldn’t allow somebody else to come in and manage her,” Lyrical says.
“Knowing what I was good at, which was words, singing, and having been an artist myself, I wanted to protect her and surround her with the right people. So that’s how managing really started for me.”
Artist management is not a task for the weak. The entertainment industry is notoriously ruthless. Many people in the field will take advantage of colleagues who aren’t sufficiently careful, stealing credit from them or worse—and the situation is even tougher for a woman in a male-dominated industry. Lyrical says lots of people are just overall di cult to work with, and she’s been pushed out of proj-
ects she worked hard at building. It didn’t take her long to realize that the game can be dirty. She tried to make her start in the business while working for others, but the main thing she got out of that experience was a chip on her shoulder. Soon she decided to start her own management company and indie label.
“You have to build your own team. A lot of people come in with the purpose of getting to the bag, but I realized my purpose has nothing to do with getting the bag. My purpose is to help people get closer to their goals,” she says.
“That put me into a different perspective, to understanding that I was the bag, and [I]
+ Sacred Reich + Creeping Death
Celebrating 15 Years of Vocalo
ft. Jesse De La Pena / All The Way Kay Ayana Contreras / Ausar / DJ Charlie Mamii / DJ Intel / Young Chicago Authors
Valentine Dance-Along
Song Party!
Tannahill Weavers
The Cactus Blossoms/ Jon
SUN, FEB 19
“A lot of people come in with the purpose of getting to the bag, but I realized my purpose has nothing to do with getting the bag,” says Lyrical. “My purpose is to help people get closer to their goals.” THOUGHTPOET
CIVL Fest...A Metro/smartbar All-Building Event
PRESIDENTS DAY QUEEN! FEAT.
Residents: Derrick Carter * Michael Serafini * Guests: The Blessed Madonna * Rae Chardonnay *
SUNDAY FEB 19 / 9PM / 21+
CIVL FEST / AN ALL-BUILDING EVENT
Dervish
pushed myself. I feel like Briahna [Gatlin] of Swank Publishing and I are the women that’s really behind Chicago music, and we’ve done a lot of things [where] we still don’t get the recognition that we deserve.”
RESIDENTS: Derrick Carter / Michael Serafini
GUESTS: The Blessed Madonna
Blesstonio * IamBrandon * Hosted by: Lucy Stoole * Jojo Baby * Nico * Guest
Host: Khloe Danielsv
Lyrical has made a name for herself in the industry, but she’s never let her career define her. During our conversation, she emphasizes that she’s first and foremost a woman of God and a mother. She approaches life and relationships with an elegant grace, driven by the dedication to do right by people and help them reach their full potential. Whatever you might’ve been through, she’s probably experienced it herself and can help walk you through it.
“I believe in speaking purpose into people’s life. I believe in introducing them to God, who’s saved my life. I try to stop people from doing shit before they do it, because I know what it looks like,” Lyrical says. “I am just an advocate for preaching to people that what’s for you is for you, and if you choose to give up today, you don’t know what was coming next week. So I think when it comes to my community, I’m keeping myself up by just being able to give other people purpose.”
@DroInTheWind_
Rae Chardonnay / Blesstonio / IamBrandon
HOSTED BY: Lucy Stoole / Jojo Baby / Nico
GUEST HOST: Khloe Daniels
Masters of Hawaiian Music: George Kahumoku Jr., Herb Ohta Jr., and Sonny Lim In Maurer Hall
FRIDAY, MARCH 3 9:30PM ADDED! Choir! Choir! Choir!
SOMETHING: An EPIC George Harrison Sing-Along! In Maurer Hall
SATURDAY,
Lúnasa In Maurer
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8
Margo Cilker / Tobacco City In
Recommended and notable shows and releases with critics’ insights for the week of February 9
Fran See Pick of the Week at le . The Hecks open. 8:30 PM, Constellation, 3111 N. Western, $15. 21+
Anatomy of habit Kill Scenes and Twice Dark open. 7 PM, Cobra Lounge, 235 N. Ashland, $14.84. 17+
Chicago band Anatomy of Habit have been around in various forms since 2008, sporadically releasing music that hammers together metal, industrial, postrock, avant-garde composition, and more. Originally a sort of floating supergroup with no fixed lineup, in the past few years they’ve solidified into a steady quintet around founder and front man Mark Solotroff. The band’s new fourth full-length, Black Openings (due February 24), recorded with Sanford Parker, features the same lineup as its predecessor, 2021’s Even If It Takes a Lifetime : guitarist Alex Latus, drummer Skyler Rowe, percussionist Isidro Reyes, and bassist and lap-steel player Sam Wagster.
The moody 18-minute title track starts the record with a slinky, rolling pulse. Rowe’s drums and Reyes’s percussion drive a buildup that sets the stage for the first appearance of Solotroff’s vocals. From there, it’s a long, lovely journey that you can settle into, trusting that you’ll be alternately unsettled, soothed, creeped out, pummeled, and exalted, but never bored. In its harrowing climax, Solotroff screams, ”Remaining faceless / Slipping into a persona,” against militant percussion that sounds as if it’s beating his voice into a pulp.
FRAN, THE HECKS
Fri 2/10, 8:30 PM, Constellation, 3111 N. Western, $15. 21+
MAYBE THE CHICAGO MAYORAL CAMPAIGN is getting to me, but I’m tired of candidates who think any of the city’s problems can be solved by one person. (It’s even worse when that person wants to increase the police budget again.) On Leaving (Fire Talk), the new second album from Chicago indie-rock outfit Fran, front woman Maria Jacobson confronts some of the world’s potentially terminal problems—but she’s acutely aware of the limitations of the individual. On Leaving single “Palm Trees,” for instance, she evokes the harms of climate change—in one stanza, plants are threatened by a cold front, and in the next they catch fire. She delivers these words at a brisk pace but with a relaxed delivery, her downy voice providing a soft landing for her blunt descriptions. What can anyone do? It’s as though she’s gently asking that question, and gently answering: you may feel powerless to e ect change alone, but we can find faith in one another and in our shared moment. All of Leaving seems to draw its strength from that hope, rooted in the collective will. On the album Jacobson worked with an ensemble of gifted locals—including members of Bret Koontz & Truancy Club, with whom she’s recorded as a flutist and vocalist—and the detailed delicacy of the subtly folky music will nudge you to savor every bit of its ephemeral beauty. —LEOR GALIL
The second and third tracks are both more than nine minutes long, allowing the band space to explore the full potential of each composition. “Formal Consequences” provides a bit of respite with its dreamy, gothic feel and slightly askew atmosphere of ominous melancholy. Sheets of shimmering guitars appear like torrential rains, giving way to a quiet interlude and a sinister sense of ritual catharsis. The bitter, biting “Breathing Through Bones,” the first song released from the album, evokes the loss and grief of a doomed romance, ending with a heavy slam of sound that’s drawn out to a clanging quiet. This show is a release party for Black Openings, and it features opening sets from dreamy local darkwave outfit Kill Scenes and Indiana goth project Twice Dark.
—MONICA KENDRICKGlorilla 7 PM, Patio Theater, 6008 W. Irving Park, sold out. b
Twenty-three-year-old Memphis rapper Gloria “GloRilla” Hallelujah Woods caught lightning in a bottle for her 2022 crossover sensation “F.N.F (Let’s Go),” and she shows every sign of being able to
do it again and again. Memphis producer Hitkidd combines nasty percussion with a simple, stentorian piano loop on “F.N.F,” and GloRilla makes the brooding, menacing instrumental sound like a party—her deep voice, southern swagger, and balled-up-fist verses hit with an energy that feels fun and joyful. “F.N.F” has lit up GloRilla’s path to stardom since it dropped last April, and last fall it earned her a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Performance. In July, she signed to CMG, the label run by Memphis rapper Yo Gotti, which partnered with Interscope to release her EP Anyways, Life’s Great . . . in November. She’s a blunt, forceful rapper who can clearly carry a full-length album, and she shines on the singles from the EP. On “Tomorrow 2,” a collaboration with Cardi B, GloRilla holds her own next to an established star. This is her second time playing Chicago this winter—in December, she performed at the United Center for the WGCI Big Jam, just a couple slots before headliner Moneybagg Yo (who teamed up with her for the meaty January single “On Wat U On”). GloRilla was originally scheduled to play Avondale Music Hall, but her show’s been moved to the the much larger Patio Theater, which holds 1,500 people— and the way she’s blowing up, I wouldn’t expect another chance to see her in a venue that size.
—LEOR GALIL
RXK Nephew Buggin’ and DJ Taye open. 9 PM, Lincoln Hall, 2424 N. Lincoln, $20 in advance. 18+
Rochester rapper RXK Nephew has built a career on songs that ask questions, but I have at least as many questions about his songs. Sometimes he’ll ignore the pulse of an instrumental track, and then the next minute he’ll surprise you by responding to every last one of its details—which has me wondering, “Why does Neph rap like a kid with a crush on his own track?” I’d also like to know where he found the time to record the hundreds of songs he posted to YouTube in a single year. (Pitchfork rap critic Alphonse Pierre noted that Neph dropped more
than 400 tracks in 2021 in a post rounding up his 100 favorites.) A er I spent some time with his song “Blackberry Touchscreen,” where producer Clean Dirt adds a droopy horn sample that bobs underneath the verses, I had to ask, “Could anyone but Neph insult a producer over that producer’s own beat and not only earn praise from seemingly all of rap Twitter but also from that very same producer?”
I’m also impressed and a little baffled at how Neph can flirt with conspiracy theories in his songs and by doing so somehow encourage people to question those deranged and society-corroding beliefs. And of course his January single “Yeezy Boots” brings up a question of its own: “Will anyone make a better Ye diss this year?”
I suspect that if you spend an hour listening through Neph’s YouTube channel, you’ll have plenty of questions too—and you’ll be completely won over by his music. If you only have ten minutes, you can fill it listening to him free-associate atop the dreamy instrumental of “American Tterroristt.” And if you go see him at Lincoln Hall, get there early—the two opening acts are top-shelf locals from radically different but complementary genres. Hardcore unit Buggin’ have squeezed an EP’s worth of aggression into the 51 seconds of the new single “Attitude,” and gi ed footwork producer DJ Taye self-released the album Ghost in September.
—LEOR GALILTank & the BangaS with the Chicago Philharmonic 7:30 PM, Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Congress, $46.75-$106.50. b
It’s no easy feat to capture the energy of Tank & the Bangas’ live shows on vinyl, but the New Orleansbased band’s third studio album, last year’s Red Balloon (Verve), comes close. In contrast to the 2020 EP Friend Goals , where band members wrote the bulk of material separately during pandemic lockdowns, the songs on Red Balloon grew out of jam sessions—and the result feels like a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis. Red Balloon features the group’s core lineup—lead vocalist Tarriona “Tank”
Ball, keyboardist Norman Spence, drummer Joshua Johnson, and alto saxophonist and flute player Albert Allenback—with guest appearances from the likes of New Orleans bounce legend Big Freedia, multi-instrumentalist Trombone Shorty, and singersongwriter Lalah Hathaway.
Red Balloon opens with Let’s Make a Deal TV host Wayne Brady in the role of DJ, introducing the album’s concept: a radio station with the call letters “TATB.” But rather than focusing on one genre, the record seems to skip across the dial, offering a sampling of jazz, R&B, funk, soul, jazz, gospel, rap, and hip-hop—partly because Tank & the Bangas worked with different producers on different songs, capturing what the band created in that particular space at a specific point in time.
Throughout the album’s 16 tracks, Ball moves between spoken word and melodic vocalizations, expressing a range of emotions. She doesn’t shy
away from challenging topics such as anxiety and depression, but there’s joy despite the pain, warmth despite the cold—ultimately, she finds a way to embrace both the highs and lows. On “Stolen Fruit,” Allenback’s flute accompanies Ball’s vocals, which evoke Anita Baker on the verses; during the lush, breathy choruses, she sings, “I just might fly away,” conjuring an image of a butterfly flitting around a garden. On “Black Folk,” which features singerproducer Masego and singer-songwriter Alex Isley (the daughter of the Isley Brothers’ Ernie Isley), Ball uses the intro to deliver a mixed bag of imagery: “I love Black folk / Black look like revolution,” she says. “Black sound like old songs / Smell like good food / And it taste like heart disease / But it feel like Maze at Jazz Fest.”
The bass line and disco sensibility of “No ID” set the beat for Tank’s jaunty, teasing lyrics (“If you want to see inside of me / I’ma need to see your
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ID”), while “Communion in My Cup,” which features North Carolina soul trio the Hamiltones, exults in the capacity to overcome adversity. For this stop on their spring North American tour, Tank & the Bangas will team up with the Chicago Philharmonic and composer Jacomo Bairos, who’s collaborated with the band on arrangements and performances with Nu Deco Ensemble, a Miami-based chamber orchestra he cofounded in 2015. This collaboration will offer an immersive experience sure to brighten even the coldest February night.
—KIRSTEN LAMBERTSZA Omar Apollo opens. 8 PM, United Center, 1901 W. Madison, $190-$736. b
Don’t lie. You’ve sat up like a fool and cried over a love interest before, just like the rest of us. SZA’s ability to tap into that universal experience is what makes her work so good. At times her lyrics sprain the heart. On “Gone Girl,” from her long-awaited second album, SOS, she sings, “I need your touch, not your scrutiny”—which might have you recalling a partner you let toy with your emotions a little too long. But even when her songs sound sad or emo on the surface, you’d be remiss to tag them with such limiting labels. SZA will release you into whatever makes musical sense at the time—you could be crying one minute and p-popping the next.
The Saint Louis native is an anti-star. SZA’s career is peppered with public spats with record-label execs, revelations that she’s been scared of success, and long breaks between releases. None of it matters. She consistently creates music that’s highly relatable, relentlessly quotable, and widely celebrated, and her virality on TikTok and her collaborations with artists such as fellow genre-bending star Doja Cat (they won a Grammy last year for their single “Kiss Me More”) both demonstrate how many souls her work can reach.
SZA’s 2017 full-length debut, Ctrl , was certified triple platinum and largely adored. Since then, her collaborations with a variety of artists, includ-
ing rapper and producer DJ Khaled and R&B singer Summer Walker, have kept her in the public eye, but fans were frothing at the mouth for new solo material. By SZA’s own admission, SOS is “super alternative” (as she put it in a December interview with Hot 97). The evidence is everywhere too: there’s the shout-out from Taylor Swi , the feature from Phoebe Bridgers, and songs such as the spinaround-your-room-singing-at-the-top-of-your-lungs acoustic heartbreaker “Nobody Gets Me.” As SZA leaps from hip-hop to indie rock to achy, syrupy soul, she proves herself an artist you can’t pigeonhole. You just have to let go and dance along.
—CRISTALLE BOWEN
Black Belt Eagle Scout, The Land, the Water, the Sky Saddle Creek blackbelteaglescout.bandcamp.com/album/theland-the-water-the-sky
The early months of the COVID pandemic le many of us settling into wherever we happened to be living, but Katherine Paul, who makes music as Black Belt Eagle Scout, hit the road. Journeying from Portland, Oregon, north to the Swimonish Indian Tribal Community on Washington’s Puget Sound, Paul returned to the home of her youth. Full of cedar trees and ever-present rivulets of fog, Swimonish was a sacred refuge for her, jewel-like and precious. But Paul’s return to her ancestral homeland came with many dualities: joy and grief, gratitude and sorrow, comfort and yearning. Those experiences inform her new third album, The Land, the Water, the Sky . Opening track “My Blood Runs Through This Land” crackles like leaves underfoot with a swampy, reverberating guitar line that pays homage to Paul’s Pacific Northwest heroes Nirvana and Hole. Her layered vocal tracks tangle into a grungefueled morass, culminating in a climax of cinematic proportions. “Sedna” reimagines the origin story of the Inuit sea god of the same name, while “Nobody”—a critique of the lack of Native represen-
tation in pop culture—rings with the sweet refrain, “Nobody sang it for me like I wanna sing it to you.”
Much of The Land is a gracious tribute to Paul’s ancestors, but she also makes room for kinships beyond blood. The lulling “Salmon Stinta” features a vocal cameo from Phil Elverum of Mount Eerie and the Microphones, who was married to Paul’s late mentor, artist and musician Geneviève Castrée. Though The Land offers a glimpse of Paul’s rich inner life, it’s as much a sonic trek through the generations and age-old traditions that reverberate in her bones. Listening to The Land feels like viewing the world through Paul’s eyes—an experience that’s wrenching but nevertheless beautiful.
—SHANNON NICO SHREIBAK
Modern Soul cordelux.bandcamp.com/album/media
Formed in 2018 in Kill Devil Hills, a town in North Carolina’s Outer Banks, Cor de Lux put out their debut album, Dream Life , in September 2020, six months after COVID hit the United States. The band’s four members had become closer during the pandemic, relying on one another for support and finding a much-needed outlet for their frustrations and uncertainties in their mutual work. Their new record, Media, channels those emotions into a mix of postpunk, indie pop, and shoegaze. There are a few dark and gothy slivers: the foreboding moods of ”Whose Side” portend growing divisions between people, while ”Rumors” ruminates on closed-mindedness and a media industry that manipulates rather than informs. But much of Media sounds so pretty on the surface that it’s easy to overlook the anxieties at its core (it also makes me wonder if my anxieties would sound prettier if I lived in a more picturesque corner of the country, like maybe the Outer Banks). Even when you listen deeper, the record contains plenty of hope amid the melancholy. “Futures” sparkles with lush atmospheres, while “Syncopated’ radiates propulsive energy—its guitar hooks could stick in your head for weeks, and they energize its lyrics about personal freedom in a world that expects us to keep our
heads down. Through all the record’s twists and turns, Cor de Lux save the smoothest moment of catharsis for last, closing out Media with the cool, shimmery postpunk gem “Ships.”
LUDWIGJoanna Mattrey & Steven Long, Strider
Dear Life
joannamattrey.bandcamp.com/album/strider
Brian Eno developed his concept of ambient music a er an episode of convalescence led him to contemplate the ways that nearly subliminal sounds can influence one’s experience of a space in ways analogous to the presence of smells and lights. Building upon the foundational influence of enforced bed rest, most of his ambient pieces are quite long, sometimes testing the limits of the media that deliver the recordings to listeners. On Strider, the New York-based duo of Joanna Mattrey and Steven Long intentionally turn that durational parameter on its head in their determination to devise a set of ambient songs. Its eight pieces are brief, and the whole album lasts just 32 minutes. While neither musician sings, their intent to compose songs leads them to devise lyrical melodies, typically delivered either by Mattrey’s Stroh violin (a fiddle equipped with a metal resonating horn, once popular in pit orchestras and the earliest recording studios) or by Long’s organ and synthesizer. (The player not developing the melody tends to sustain sounds that change much more gradually.) Despite the brevity of the pieces, each one imports a sense of space that could easily transform a listener’s experience of their own environment. This effect is o en enhanced by auxiliary sound sources: Long’s crackling shortwave-radio static and Mattrey’s string tone on “Host” might make your room feel more dusty and dim, while field recordings of the slosh and crunch of ice floes on the Hudson River are likely to set you looking for your extra pair of woolly socks. This project falls short of one measure of ambient music, but that’s not necessarily a problem; Long and Mattrey’s evocative miniatures are simply too vivid to relegate to background listening.
—BILL MEYER v
DURING THE POLITICAL tumult and COVID-19 spikes of autumn and winter 2020, when the world felt overwhelming, Gossip Wolf o en found brief respite via the self-titled debut album by Chicago duo Midnight Minds, which came out on cassette that September. Allison Trumbo (director of outreach education for Music House) plays violin, guitar, and flute, while Rob Logan (drummer for Desert Liminal) adds drum machine, percussion, and synthesizer; together they improvise gently throbbing psychedelia and blissful ambience. Last week, Midnight Minds dropped a brand-new tape, Angsty Bodies (via Tone Deaf Tapes , the in-house cassette label at the record store of the same name), and it further refines the duo’s peaceful jams. Through headphones, the album recalls the infinitely pleasing moments between hitting the hay and dri ing into dreamland—sort of like an acid-rock automatic ASMR trigger. Who couldn’t use something like that?
If you’ve got an itch for hardcore and metal this weekend, Chicago four-piece Bovice can help. On Thursday, February 9, metal-focused Avondale record shop Meteor Gem hosts a free listening party for their gnarly album Dreaming of Paradise, released last fall by Albany label Upstate . The listening party runs from 6 to 8 PM; the band will sell merch, and Meteor Gem’s stock will be discounted 15 percent for the duration. The next night, Bovice kick off a tour by headlining a jam-packed bill at Cobra Lounge
Chisel ’s February 16 reunion show at the Empty Bottle is extremely sold out, but on Friday, February 10, Big Star hosts a release party for the Numero Group’s double-LP reissue of the band’s final album, 1997’s Set You Free. (Full disclosure: Leor does occasional contract work on Numero reissues, but he wasn’t involved with this one.) The band will DJ at the party, which runs from 6 to 10 PM.
—J.R. NELSON AND LEOR GALILGot a tip? Tweet @Gossip_Wolf or email gossipwolf@chicagoreader.com.
Moontype, Quinn Tsan 2/24, 9 PM, Hungry Brain
Meg Myers, Weathers 4/26, 7 PM, Park West b
New Nostalgia 4/14-4/15, 6 and 8:15 PM, Andy’s Jazz Club b
Night Club, Bellhead 5/26, 8 PM, Reggies Rock Club, 17+
Obituary, Immolation, Blood Incantation, Ingrown 5/9, 7 PM, Metro b
Nora O’Connor 3/10, 8 PM, Hideout
Johnny O’Neal Trio 3/11, 7:30 and 9:30 PM, Winter’s Jazz Club
Orindal Records Showcase featuring Dan Wriggins, Claire Cronin, Advance Base 4/1, 9 PM, Hungry Brain
Osees 9/15-9/16, 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+
Marianne Parker & Gregory Oakes 2/26, 2 PM, Epiphany Center for the Arts
Peter Cat Recording Co. 5/6, 7:30 PM, Bottom Lounge b
Acid Mothers Temple, My Education 5/7, 9 PM, Empty Bottle
Akosuen, Raquel Gonzalez, Natural Satellite 3/11, 9 PM, Hungry Brain
Alestorm, Gloryhammer, Lutharo 5/24, 7 PM, the Vic, 18+
Amtrac 5/6, 9:30 PM, Chop Shop, 18+
Astrobrite, Bleary Eyed, Gentle Heat 3/5, 8 PM, Sleeping Village
Badflower, Des Rocs, Blood Red Shoes 3/5, 7:30 PM, House of Blues, 17+
Beyoncé 7/22-7/23, 7 PM, Soldier Field b
Big Time Rush 7/16, 7 PM, Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, Tinley Park b
Bilmuri 3/18, 7:30 PM, Park West b
Rebecca Black 5/12, 7 PM, Bottom Lounge b
Bodysnatcher, Angelmaker, Paleface, Distant 3/22, 6:30 PM, Subterranean, 17+
BTS Express with Shirley Johnson 2/23, 9 PM, Blue Chicago
Carcass, Municipal Waste, Sacred Reich, Creeping Death 4/18, 7 PM, Metro, 18+
Daniel Champagne 8/30, 7:30 PM, SPACE, Evanston b City and Colour, 5/9, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, 18+
Cix 3/16, 7:30 PM, Radius Chicago b
Clannad 9/30, 8 PM, Maurer Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music b
Club Initiative featuring Upsammy, Delilac, SirDH, the GTW 2/24, 8 PM, Hideout
Coheed & Cambria, Deafheaven 9/19, 7:30 PM, Riviera Theatre, 18+
Isaiah Collier & the Chosen Few 3/30-4/1, 8 and 10 PM; 4/2, 4 and 8 PM, Jazz Showcase b
Conan, Thra, Urine Hell 5/5, 8:30 PM, Reggies Rock Club, 17+
Braxton Cook 6/22, 8 PM, Schubas, 18+ Covet, Scarypoolparty, Alto Palo 4/20, 7 PM, Bottom Lounge b
Daily Bread, Duffrey 4/15, 10 PM, Chop Shop, 18+ Dead South, Corb Lund 7/9, 7:30 PM, the Vic, 18+ Deathpact, Jon Casey 4/14, 10 PM, Concord Music Hall, 18+
Dinner Time, Future Crib 4/9, 7:30 PM, Schubas, 18+ Disturbed, Breaking Benjamin, Jinjer 8/30, 6:30 PM, Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, Tinley Park b
Dreamcatcher 3/10, 7:30 PM, Radius Chicago b
Eleventh Dream Day, Lifeguard 4/29, 8 PM, Metro, 18+ Emotional Oranges 3/17, 9 PM, House of Blues, 17+ Eyelids, Air Blue Gowns 6/9, 9:30 PM, Hideout G Perico 4/27, 7 PM, Avondale Music Hall b
Ghana Independence Celebration featuring Kidi 3/4, 10 PM, the Promontory Grossman Ensemble 3/3, 7:30 PM, Logan Center for the Arts, conducted by David Fulmer b
Ha*Ash 4/15, 8 PM, Rosemont Theatre, Rosemont b
Harvey Waters, Laveda, Rat Tally 3/29, 9 PM, Sleeping Village
Hiatus Kaiyote 4/27, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, 18+
Iya Terra, Artikal Sound System, Sundub 3/1, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall, 18+
Shayfer James, Sarah & the Safe Word 4/6, 7 PM, Martyrs’ b
Jay Wheeler 3/25, 7 PM, Aragon Ballroom b
Damien Jurado, Chris Pureka
6/18, 7:30 PM, SPACE, Evanston b
Ruston Kelly, Briscoe 4/29, 8 PM, House of Blues b
Vance Kelly & the Backstreet Blues Band, Omar Coleman
2/25, 7:30 PM, Kingston Mines b
Khary 5/3, 8 PM, Schubas, 18+
Katinka Kleijn & Reflex, Joshua Rubin & Katinka Kleijn, Lia Kohl & Katinka Kleijn 3/7, 8 PM, Elastic b
Lia Kohl 3/10, 7:30 PM, International Museum of Surgical Science b
Matt Kotinek Band 2/24, 9 PM, Phyllis’ Musical Inn
La Caccina 5/19, 7:30 PM, Uncommon Ground Lakeview b
Lady A, Dave Barnes 4/20, 7:30 PM, Chicago Theatre b
Lemon Twigs 5/6, 9 PM, Sleeping Village
Lil Wayne 4/9, 8 PM, Radius Chicago b
Liturgy, Big|Brave 6/16, 10 PM, Empty Bottle
Local H, Shiner, Heet Deth 2/24, 8 PM, Metro, 18+
DJ Logic & friends 4/14-4/15, 11:55 PM, Bourbon on Division Mall Grab, Mesmé, Flower Food 3/25, 10 PM, Metro, 18+
Maná 4/28, 8:30 PM; 4/29, 8 PM, United Center b
Dave Matthews Band 7/7-7/8, 7:30 PM, Huntington Bank Pavilion b
Meg Memes x Malcolm Fest featuring Sports Boyfriend, Daarling, Joyfriend, Orisun 2/25, 9 PM, Sleeping Village
Meklit 3/8, 6 PM, Harris Theater b
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Surl 4/19, 8 PM, Chop Shop, 18+ Synthsation (Katinka Kleijn & Rin Peisert) 3/14, 8 PM, Elastic b
Tedeschi Trucks Band 3/17-3/18, 8 PM; 3/31-4/1, 8 PM, Chicago Theatre b
Thomas Rhett, Cole Swindell, Nate Smith 7/28, 7:30 PM, United Center b
Thouxanbanfauni 3/12, 7 PM, Avondale Music Hall b
Universal Xpression, DJ G Sharp 3/18, 8 PM, Wild Hare
Steve Poltz 4/21, 8 PM, Szold Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music b
Pop Evil, Word Alive, Avoid 4/22, 6:30 PM, Concord Music Hall, 17+
Possessed by Paul James 6/1, 8 PM, Beat Kitchen, 17+
Quinn XCII, Arizona, Julia Wolf 7/16, 7:30 PM, Huntington Bank Pavilion b
Rachael Sage, Trina Hamlin
3/24, 8 PM, Uncommon Ground Lakeview b
Riki Rachtman [spoken word]
5/12, 8 PM, BanAnna’s Comedy Shack at Reggies
Radwimps 4/24, 7:30 PM, the Vic b
RBD 9/8, 7:30 PM, Guaranteed Rate Field b
Ripe 4/21, 8 PM, House of Blues b
Emma Ruth Rundle, Patrick Shiroishi 4/4, 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+
Stephen Sanchez 10/20, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre b
Schaffer the Darklord 4/22, 6:30 PM, Subterranean, 17+
She Past Away 10/18, 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+
Ivan Singh 3/17, 8 PM, Buddy Guy’s Legends
Sleazyworld Go 3/1, 8 PM, the Promontory b
Smash Into Pieces, Citizen Soldier 4/18, 8 PM, Subterranean, 17+
Smidley, Dominic Angelella
3/17, 8 PM, Beat Kitchen, 17+
Snakehips 5/26, 10 PM, SoundBar
Snow tha Product 4/20, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, 18+
So & Dumb, Caution, Discus, Fauxdeep 3/6, 8 PM, Sleeping Village
Sparks 7/5, 7:30 PM, Copernicus Center b
Stars 4/13, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall
String Cheese Incident 4/284/29, 7 PM, Riviera Theatre, 18+
Vision Video, Then Comes Silence, Urban Heat 3/26, 8 PM, Beat Kitchen, 17+
VV 4/9-4/10, 7 PM, House of Blues b
Wage War; Nothing, Nowhere; Spite 5/5, 7 PM, Concord Music Hall, 17+
Joshua Ray Walker, Vandoliers
3/12, 8 PM, Schubas, 18+
Cameron Webb 3/31, 9 and 11 PM, Rosa’s Lounge
Anna Webber’s Shimmer
Wince, Nick Mazzarella Trio 4/9, 9 PM, Hungry Brain
Whitehorse 6/8, 7:30 PM, SPACE, Evanston b
D.S. Wilson 3/3, 7 PM, the Promontory b
Donovan Woods, Henry Jamison, Isabel Pless 4/7, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall, 18+
Stephane Wrembel Quartet 3/31-4/1, 8 PM, Green Mill
Y la Bamba 5/20, 9 PM, Empty Bottle
Yeat 3/2, 7 PM, Aragon Ballroom b
Yheti, Ternion Sound 3/25, 9 PM, Patio Theater, 18+
Brett Young, Morgan Evans 4/7, 7:30 PM, Rosemont Theatre, Rosemont b
Young Gun Silver Fox 3/14, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall, 18+
Jayhawks 3/11, 4:30 and 8 PM; 3/12, 3:30 and 7 PM, Maurer Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music, show added b
The National, Soccer Mommy 5/18-5/21, 7:30 PM, Auditorium Theatre, shows added b Yulia Niko 4/22, 10 PM, Spybar, rescheduled
Riders in the Sky 5/7, 7 PM, Maurer Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music, canceled
We Are the Union, Catbite, Kill Lincoln, J. Navarro & the Traitors 7/7, 7 PM, Bottom Lounge, venue changed b v
JOBS
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JOBS
XIT Solutions, Inc. seeks Sr. Software Developer w/ Bach or for deg equiv in CS, CIS, IT or Eng & 4 yrs exp in job offer or fld. ust have exp w racle , erv, Data odel, Data rhse Data art, Access xcel. rvl to var unantic clnt sites reqd. ay reside anywhre in . elecom perm. Apply to https www.xitsolutionsinc.com or utter ield d, te , a broo errace,
GRL Engineers, Inc. has an opening for a Civil Engineer in incolnwood, . er orm geotechnical and structural engineering and geotechnical inspections. ust have achelor s degree in ivil ngineering and years o experience with geotechnical or structural engineering assuring construction compliance with contract documents and geotechnical inspection. ust be willing to travelo the time to client job sites. ualified applicants principals only should contact grl-careers engineers.com. o calls . qual pportunity mployer.
Mars, Incorporated: Security & Access Controls
Lead – Chicago, IL . stablish internal controls or finance processes according to industry leading practices or entral inance program development o global policy or access to inancial data in ecosystem. ob req s ach s degree in ech, n o ys, or rel fld yrs o exp in audit or ris control position in a company. p to domestic int l travel req. elewor benefit permitted up to days w . o apply, send resume identi ying ob ode to ars A- e em. com. o calls.
Software Developer
Development onsultant. ust have two years o experience with nsurance ow, aa roduction nvironment, A and coding. uali ied candidates show email their resumes to mith . net and re erence code D .
Network Engineer. Design, implement and enhance a secure and reliable networ structure or sel -ordering ios . eq. achelor s degree in computer engineering or related ields. ro icient in Android, i , ava and H . or site hicago, llinois. end resume A nc., angamon t. uite o ice , .
Northwestern Memorial HealthCare seeks Medical Laboratory Scientists or hicago, location to per orm test procedures in a clinical lab convey results to physician or designee in an accurate timely manner or patient diagnosis treatment. achelor s in ed ech ab ci linical ab ci hem io or in Allied Health ield quali ying applicant or A certification exam req d. Drug test bac ground chec req d. Apply online http jobsee er.nm.org eq D
Research Engineer
Aquatic roup is see ing a esearch ngineer in hicago, . artner with uantitative esearch team to deliver custom so tware solutions investigate research ideas and evaluate with large-scale experiments. ay wor rom home - days per wee . ust live within commuting distance o o ice. mail resume to H Aquatic.com and re erence code in subject line.
Software Developer
royalcyber.com
Peak6 Group LLC see s xecution is Analyst in hicago, to monitor maintain the firm s order low to the mar etplace dvlp tooling to assist w mar et ris . eqs. aster s degree or oreign equiv in inancial conomics, omputational inance or rel. field yr post-baccalaureate exp. as redit is Analyst or rel. role. xp. must incl. machine learning model oost creation implementation, designing loan port olio developing credit strategies using . ail resume ea roup c o . Anderson . ac son lvd., te. , hicago, .
PERSONALS
PUBLIC NOTICE
Preferred Risk Insurance Services Inc. Bedford Park, IL er orming product scoping and discovery, delivering hands-on technical input, and helping translate user eatures into system design or ing with so tware development team to pair programming and support deliverables in production Developing the required unctions eatures on the nsurance ow plat orm
Dice echnologies, nc. in chaumburg, is see g o tware Developers to provide e ective innovative solt ns or client s bus needs. o trvl, no telecomm. ob duties proj-based unanticipated sites w in . . elo may be req d proj end. end resumes to Dice echnologies, nc., A H , lum rove d., te -H, chaumburg, .
project site visits lasting - hrs per visit within the hicago metro statistical area x per month. in eqs aster s in ivil ngineering, onstruction ngineering gmt, or closely rltd ield yrs exp in any occupational title involving the analysis o construction blueprints, shop drawings, specs. ust possess yrs exp in the ollowing analy ing construction blueprints, shop drawings, specs preparing bids cost estimations or construction projects conducting construction site visits to ensure con ormance with construction drawings, blueprints, specs wor ing with roject anagement so tware, such as rocore or Autodes uild id anagement so tware such as uilding onnected or onstruction onnect onstruction stimating o tware such as luebeam, Autodes a eo , or eans AD so tware such as Auto AD or etchup cheduling so tware including rimavera or icroso t roject. lease send resume to urling uilders, nc. at careers burlingbuilders.com.
data requirements and ensuring that the data hub is ollowing the best practices in every aspect. equirements achelor s degree in omputer cience, n ormation echnology, or a related field, and years o progressively responsible experience in Database anagement Data odeling, Development, including erver and isual tudio, and in designing and coding pac ages. years o experience in erver er ormance uning and uery ptimi ation and experience writing complex tored rocedures, unctions, and views using . end resumes to Antares apital H debbie.maggio antares. com.
unanticipated wor sites throughout req. elecommuting allowed. end resumes hr npvsta ng. com
Software Development
Team ead otor ehicle o tware orporation dba itu in hicago, llinois see s a qualified o tware Development eam ead to deliver . -based so tware services. eqs yrs or yrs. alary range , to , per yr. or ull job reqs how to apply, see www.vitu.com company careers.html
World Food Enterprises, LLC . d b a Deli ou see s an Advertising ales anager ail resume to amp cDonald oad, rospect Heights, .
TranSmart, LLC see s ivil ra ic ngineer in hicago, to design tra ic signals, tra ic control plans, collect raw tra ic data, run tra ic simulations create reports graphs. equires bachelor s degree in civil engineering with emphasis in transportation nowledge o tra ic operations analysis, signal timing Auto- AD or similar. ravel throughout hicagoland area, as needed. end to cheine e transmartinc.com. se job code A .
Product Manager etal ne America, nc. see s roduct anager, . . lat olled teel Division w ach or or deg equiv in us, con, tg or rltd fld yrs exp in pos offered or sale o steel prod incl exp in trade negot or steel sell purch commod in intl mr ts coord commod mater flows rom intl suppliers commod mr t stat analy commod mr t res. Apply to . ilson, . iver d, te , osemont, .
Software Developer is needed to develop and maintain Android apps. eq. achelor s degree in omputer cience, o tware ngineering, or related fields. -year wor experience in developing Android apps. or site hicago, llinois. end resume A , angamon t. uite , hicago .
Driving the data migration rom legacy systems to the new plat orm through data cleansing, data preparation and test bed creation. ust have a aster s degree in omputer cience or a related field. ust have uidewire Developer erti ication. ust have two years o experience as a o tware Developer, o tware ngineer or Application
IT Project Manager anage project execution to ensure adherence to budget, schedule, and scope, con er with project personnel to identi y and resolve problems, monitor or trac project milestones and deliverables, submit project deliverables, ensuring adherence to quality standards, assess current or uture customer needs and priorities by communicating directly with customers, conducting surveys, or other methods, initiate, review, or approve modi ications to project plans, schedule and acilitate meetings related to in ormation technology projects, develop and manage annual budgets or in ormation technology projects, establish and execute a project communication plan, develop and manage wor brea down structure o in ormation technology projects, monitor the per ormance o project team members, coordinate recruitment or selection o project personnel, assign duties, responsibilities, and spans o authority to project personnel, negotiate with project sta eholders or suppliers to obtain resources or materials. ail r sum to ruce o ol, lear orp, ewport Dr, uite , olling eadows, Project Engineer valuate construction scope, reqs conditions. repare budget bidding discuss construction methods. repare construction submittals to architect or approval. Analy e construction blueprints, shop drawings, survey reports, geo data, confirm outcome. repare construction schedule o values. nspect on-site progress. repare project-speci ic proposals. reate s, submittals, potential change orders contract mods. repare project closeout p g. or is at mployer s ice est th t, hicago, with travel to
ADULT SERVICES WANT
Senior Developer oyal yber nc. in aperville, . has openings or enior Developer Design, Develop olutions alary range , . ear to , . ear. eq. achelor s or aster s or oreign equiv. prior exp. in job offered or rel. field. du exp requirement vary based on position level type. ravel and relocation reqd. ail resume H anager, oyal yber, nc., human lvd, uite , aperville, or mail hr.us
Antares Capital LP see s a ead echnologist, Developer in hicago, to develop queries, pac ages, stored procedures, enhance and maintain data warehouse load process, and manage the gathering o requirements rom a bac end perspective and implement the necessary and required business logic to trans orm the business requirements in to provide the desired outcome. ill underta e any duties involved with query optimiations and per ormance tuning o various objects, collaborating with business analysts and business sta eholders to ensure a thorough understanding o strategic
Sr. Analyst, Supply Chain Technology chaumburg, versee orecast to stoc , procure to pay, inbound outbound logistics inventory warehouse management areas which are primarily supported by A . eqs. yrs. exp. ption or remote wor available. ased on business needs, up to travel required. ail resume w cover letter to entral arden et, reat lvd, te , alnut ree A , Attn H .
Big Data Developer
ta ing, hicago, see s ig Data Developer. Develop, create, modi y general computer applications so tware or speciali ed utility programs. eq in omp ci or rel. yr exp as Developer or rel. mths exp w ython, y , inux, ava, D , H , , ava cript, racle Developer, unit, ap educe, ava A , HD req. ravel or relocation to various
Multiple Openings edline ndustries, in undelein, is see ing multiple positions A etwor ecurity Analyst s to er orm continuous monitoring o multiple networ security technologies such as xtraHop, Dar race, solutions, and hec oint irewalls. o travel required or rom home bene it available. apply at https medline.taleo.net careersection md con idential jobapply. tl lang enjob r. usiness Analyst A to wor with the business, unctional, and technical teams to define, document, design, implement and support A and allied so tware solutions to meet business objectives. o travel required wor rom home bene it available. Apply at https medline. taleo.net careersection md confidential jobapply. tl lang en jobH r. usiness ystems Analyst A istex to wor with the business, unctional, and technical teams to de ine, document, design, implement and support A based solutions that meet business objectives. o travel required wor rom home bene it available. Apply at https medline. taleo.net careersection md confidential jobapply. tl lang en jobD r. A usiness Analyst to design solutions to business challenges in their product and unctional area. o travel required wor rom home bene it available. Apply at https medline. taleo.net careersection md confidential jobapply. tl lang enjob
Workday Consulting Director or day onsulting Director, Huron onsulting ervices , hicago, . Assist clients w planning implementing or day olutions across the inancials, H ayroll, udgeting apps. erve as expert in business process trans ormation design project mngmnt, in the Higher d ot or rofit industries. or in conj. w other Huron client team members through various implementation li ecycle
phases incl. assessing, planning, architecting, prototyping, conversion, training, testing, deployment, post-production support. rovide expert or day solution architecting across multiple engagements or the Higher d industry. ust have ach s in ngmnt n o. ystems, n o. ystems, omp. c., or rel. yrs o exp w i stimating, implementation planning, unctional application expertise, project mngmnt ii anaging multiple projects o differing scale duration iii ranslating in ormation rom meetings into documentation that can be shared w meeting participants project teams iv onsulting exp v Higher ducation on rofit client wor exp vi ntegration people mngmnt roles w in the technical wor streams o or more H or inancials implementations or at least phases vii o tware tools incl. otepad , ltra dit, xygen , A A tilities, or day, ales orce.com etc. xp may be gained concurrently. travel to unanticipated wor sites throughout A. elecommuting allowed when not traveling. ndividuals may reside anywhere in the . o apply, send resume to apply hcg.com.
IT. Systems Designer 2 (Oracle Developer) orporation is see ing an . ystems Designer racle Developer in hicago, with the ollowing requirements achelor s degree in omputer cience, lectrical ngineering or related field or oreign equivalent degree. years related experience. equired s ills tili e racle , racle orms uilder, racle eports uilder, or flow uilder, A , Discoverer, , AD, Developer, nix, ublisher to customi e or enhance racle ystem to meet end user equirements yrs tili e racle . . . , . . , . . version application in nventory, osting, rder anagement, urchasing, Account ayables, Account eceivables, eneral edger, hannel evenue anagement, roject Accounting, i xpense, ax, ixed Assets loud , ore H , H , ayroll and ompensation or ench odules yrs repare technical, unctional design document per oracle A ethodology using word and visio applications yrs Document test cases using H tool and per orm unit testing or all developed technical objects yrs upport di erent systems li e A loud, ertex, ableau and ronos integrated with racle Applications yrs . lease visit www. usg.com careers to view the entire job description and apply.
(Elgin, IL) DTV Innovations, LLC seeks Electrical Engineer with Mast or for deg equiv in EE, CE or Elec & Comp Eng & 1 yr exp in job offer or resrch or wrk exp in elec or comp eng. Must have 3 mos of crswrk, internshp, resrch or wk exp in FPGA Hdwe dsgn, Linux oper sys, BSP driver, C/C++, JAVA, HTML5 & Vid Stream ovr IP tech & brdcst distrib.
Apply to HR: 2402 Millennium Dr., Elgin, IL 60124.
In-House Counsels RDI
Inc. seeks f/t In-House Counsels. Req. J.D. w/ 24 mos prior work exp as Attorney or InHouse Counsel, plus 24 mos exp w/ MS Office (including Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, SharePoint) and Legal research tools (including Westlaw and Lexus). Illinois Bar req’d. Jobsite: Chicago, IL. Send resume to: hr@rdirecycling.com.
District Sales Leader
Position available in Chicago, IL for a District Sales Leader. Increase business revenue and gross profit by generating new customer buying accounts through managing a sales channel including vendor, distributor, and value-add reseller (VAR).
Drive net-new software and hardware business.
Create and execute a prospecting strategy to acquire new clients and develop new business relationships every quarter within assigned territory. Perform strategic account planning, including industry research, competitive insight and client forecasts. Leverage the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and company sales methodology to effectively manage accounts, opportunities, and pipelines. Leverage industry and company knowledge to identify customer business problems, and address those opportunities through the solution sale of software, hardware, and services.
Engage internal resources to create and implement customized solutions for the client to provide best in class service. Up to 20% domestic travel required. May telecommute.
Apply: Mail resumes to Alisha Panavas at Softchoice Corporation at 680 Engineering Drive, Suite 100 Norcross, GA 30092. Please reference job ID: SC2022CM
Medical Laboratory
Scientists Northwestern Memorial HealthCare seeks Medical Laboratory Scientists for Chicago, IL location to perform test procedures in a clinical lab & convey results to physician or designee in an accurate & timely manner for patient diagnosis & treatment. Bachelor’s in Med Tech/ Lab Sci/Clinical Lab Sci/ Chem/Bio/ or in Allied Health field qualifying applicant for ASCP
certification exam req’d. Drug test & background check req’d. Apply online: http://jobseeker.nm.org/ Req ID: REF46361P
Atoll Pre-Sales Engineer
Atoll Pre-Sales Engineer
MS deg in Electronics Eng, Telecomm\’n Eng, Telecom & Comp Networks, or closely reltd deg & 2 yrs exp as Eng in wireless comm\’n industry.
Direct resumes to: Nicolas Dubois at job_us@forsk. com, Forsk US Inc 200 South Wacker Dr., 31st Flr, Chicago, IL 60606
Multiple Openings Medline Industries, LP has multi open’gs in Northfield, IL for: A)
Manager IS Applications (eCommerce Operations) to lead a team that supports & maintains e-comm systms. No trvl; WFH bnft avail. Apply at: https:// medline.taleo.net/careersection/md_confidential/ jobapply.ftl?lang=en&job=INF0100RK B) Sr. IS Business Systems
Analysts (Managed Care) to translate biz issues into IT reqmnts for solt’n dsgn & test’g. No trvl; WFH bnft avail. Apply at: https:// medline.taleo.net/careersection/md_confidential/ jobapply.ftl?lang=en&job=INF0100RD C) Sr.
Full Stack Developers to dvlp, integrate, & deliver apps using front-end, back-end DB, & host’g tools. No trvl; WFH bnft avail. Apply at: https:// medline.taleo.net/careersection/md_confidential/ jobapply.ftl?lang=en&job=INF0100RJ D)
Project Managers R&D to guide dvlpmnt of med dvcs, dietary supplmnts, cosmetics, &/or OTC/ ANDA/NDA drugs to manage & ovrsee prod dvlpmnt projs. Dom & int\’l trvl req’d up to 10%. WFH bnft. Apply at: https:// medline.taleo.net/careersection/md_confidential/ jobapply.ftl?lang=en&job=QUA0101KZ
Spacious 2 bedroom apartment New hardwood floors. Dining room. Appliances. Laundry in-unit. Heat Included. Electric included. Monthly rent $1,550. 4321 w. Cortez st. Contact Mr. Henry 773 620-1241.
Have you had an unwanted sexual experience since age 18? Did you tell someone in your life about it who is also willing to participate?
Women ages 18+ who have someone else in their life they told about their experience also willing to participate will be paid to complete a confidential online research survey for the Women’s Dyadic Support Study. Contact Dr. Sarah Ullman
of the University of Illinois at Chicago, Criminology, Law, & Justice Department at ForWomen@ uic.edu, 312-996-5508. Protocol #2021-0019.
Dominick Defanso
rocks Dominick Defanso
rocks Guns N Roses, Aerosmith, Black Sabbath, Marilyn Monroe in Icons. Pop star / rock stars fun with Tracy Guns, ACDC, Lady G, T. Swift, Slash, J. Bieber, Gwen S. Watch on the Tube, Downloads, T-shirts, album coves - CDs. My favorite song - BARBIE GIRL. We love youAmerica.Thank you Hollywood RoseGuns N RoseTracy Rock RoseLia Lakely
Have you had an unwanted sexual experience since age 18? Did you tell someone in your life about it who is also willing to participate?
Women ages 18+ who have someone else in their life they told about their experience also willing to participate will be paid to complete a confidential online research survey for the Women’s Dyadic Support Study.
Contact Dr. Sarah Ullman of the University of Illinois at Chicago, Criminology, Law, & Justice Department at ForWomen@ uic.edu, 312-996-5508. Protocol #2021-0019.
CLEANING SERVICES CHESTNUT ORGANIZING AND CLEANING SERVICES: especially for people who need an organizing service because of depression, elderly, physical or mental challenges or other causes for your home’s clutter, disorganization, dysfunction, etc. We can organize for the downsizing of your current possessions to more easily move into a smaller home. With your help, we can help to organize your move. We can organize and clean for the deceased in lieu of having the bereaved needing to do the preparation to sell or rent the deceased’s home. We are absolutely not judgmental; we’ve seen and done “worse” than your job assignment. With your help, can we please help you? Chestnut Cleaning Service: 312-332-5575. www. ChestnutCleaning.com
Outlaw looking for house mouse retired Outlaw biker looking for house mouse to hang with while we wait out another Chicago winter. roacoestates@gmail.com
It’s 2023……time for change and adventure. Intelligence is a turn-on.... that said, I (male) would like to meet a lady (50+) for intelligent conversations, wine dinners and walks along the lake….or a ride on a motorcycle or going to a museum. I am in my early sixties, 6’2’’, educated, fit and presentable. fbirdfan@gmail.com
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Public Notice Of Name Change I file to change my name from John Earl Poole to John Mwalimu Kali Mwindaji with the State Of Illinois Circuit Court in Cook County.
NOTICE OF PUBLIC SALE OF PERSONAL PROPERTY Notice is hereby given that pursuant to Section 4 of the Self-Storage Facility Act, State of Illinois, Chicago Northside StorageLakeview /Western Ave Storage LLC will conduct sale(s) at www.storagetreasures.com by competitive bidding starting on February 8th and ending on February 15th @ 11:00 pm on the premises where the property has been stored, which are located at Chicago Northside Storage 2946 N Western Ave. Chicago, IL 60618. 773-305-4000. In the matter of the personal property of the individual listed below, Chicago Northside Storage - Lakeview. Nicolas K Spagnolo H03, Debra Strazzabosco N06, Perry Marshall N12, Kahlia Williams O14, Adam Legler T147. Purchases must be made with cash only and paid at the time of sale redemption. All goods are sold as is and must be removed at the time of purchase. The sale is subject to adjournment.
Danielle’s Lip Service, Erotic Phone Chat. 24/7. Must be 21+. Credit/ Debit Cards Accepted. All Fetishes and Fantasies Are Welcomed. Personal, Private and Discrete. 773-935-4995
2/10 @ Joe’s on weed st.
bandapalooza 2023 el perro
teenage bottle rocket 334501_4.75_x_4.75.indd 1 1/20/23 10:50 AM
2/13 @ reggie’s
I’m away this week. Please enjoy this column from July 2019
Q : I’m a woman who married young (21) and I’ve been with my husband for seven years. Within the last year, I’ve realized that my falling libido probably comes from the fact that I am not turned on by our boring vanilla sex routine. I get so little fulfillment that I’d rather not even do it. I’ve tried talking to him, but he says he prefers sex without foreplay or a lot
of “complicated stuff.” I had some great casual sex before we met, but it turns out I’m into BDSM, which I found out when I recently had a short affair. I’ve kept the secret and guilt to myself, but I have told my husband I’m into BDSM. He wants to make me happy, but I can tell he isn’t turned on doing these things. He denies it, because he’s just happy to have sex at all, but a butt plug and a slap on the ass does not a dom make. I’ve tried to ask him if we can open up our relationship so
that I can live out my fantasies. I would like to go to a BDSM club and he isn’t interested at all. He was very upset and said he’s afraid of losing me if we go. He also felt like I was giving him an ultimatum. But I told him he was allowed to say no, and that I wouldn’t leave if he did.
When I was younger, I thought there was something wrong with me because everyone else wanted monogamy, but it never seemed important to me. I’m not a jealous person and I wouldn’t mind if he had
sex with other people. In fact, the thought of it turns me on but he says he isn’t interested. I know he loves me, and I love him. At this point my only solution has been to suppress this urge to have BDSM sex, but I don’t know if it is a good longterm solution. What should I do? Keep my fantasies to myself? Have another affair or ask him to have an open relationship again? We have a three-year-old daughter, so I have to make our relationship work.
—WANT THE HARD TRUTH
a: Two quick points before I bring out the big guns: First, marrying young is a bad idea. The younger two people are when they marry, according to a mountain of research, the likelier they are to divorce. It makes intuitive sense: the rational part of the brain—the prefrontal cortex—isn’t fully formed until we’re 25. We shouldn’t be picking out wallpaper in our early 20s, WTHT, much less life partners. And second, basic sexual compatibility (BSC) is crucial to the success of sexually exclusive relationships, and it’s a bad idea to scramble your DNA together with someone else’s before BSC has been established.
And with that out of the way: “WTHT might be surprised to hear she is just a normal woman being a normal woman,” said Wednesday Martin, New York Times best-selling author, cultural critic, and researcher. “Like a normal human woman, she is bored after seven years of monogamous sex that isn’t even her kind of sex.”
You mentioned that you used to feel like there was something wrong with you, WTHT, but just in case you have any lingering “What’s wrong with me?!?” feelings, you’re gonna want to read Untrue: Why Nearly Everything We Believe About Women, Lust, and Infidelity Is Wrong and How the New Science Can Set Us Free, Martin’s most recent book.
“We know from recent longitudinal studies from Germany, Finland, the U.S., the UK, and Canada that among women only, relationship duration and living together predict lower desire/boredom,” said Martin. “In fact, the Finnish study found that even when they had more/ better orgasms, women in monogamous relationships of several years’ duration reported low desire.” A straight man’s desire for his long-term, live-in female partner also decreases over time, but not as dramatically as a woman’s does.
“Contrary to what we’ve been taught, monogamy kills it for women, in the aggregate, more than it does for men,” said Martin.
So, that’s what we know now—that’s what the research shows—but most advice professionals, from the lowliest advice columnist to the most exalted daytime talk show host, have chosen to ignore the research or are unaware of it. They continue to tell unhappily sexless couples that they’re either doing something wrong or that their relationship is broken. If he would just do his fair share of the housework or if
she would just have a glass or two of wine—or pop a “female Viagra,” if big pharma could come up with one that works, which (spoiler alert) they haven’t and most likely never will—they’d be fucking like they did the night they met. This advice not only isn’t helpful, it’s harmful: he does more housework, she drinks more wine, nothing changes, and the couple feel like there’s something wrong with them. In reality, nothing’s wrong. It’s not about a more equitable division of housework (always good!) or drinking more wine (sometimes good but not always), it’s about the desire for novelty, variety, and adventure. Those are things a couple can build into their monogamous relationship, WTHT, but not if they’re only being told that dishes are the problem and/ or wine is the solution.
So, the big issue here is that you’re bored, WTHT. No foreplay? Nothing complicated? Even if you were 100 percent vanilla, that shit would get tedious after a few years. Or minutes. After risking your marriage to treat your boredom (with an affair), you asked your husband to shake things up—to fight sexual boredom with you—by incorporating BDSM into your sex life, by going to BDSM clubs, and by at least considering the possibility of opening up your marriage. (Ethically this time!) And while he’s made a small effort where BDSM is concerned (butt plugs, slapping your ass), your husband ruled out BDSM clubs and openness. But since he’s only going through the BDSM
motions because he’s just “happy to have sex at all,” what he is doing isn’t working for you.
At bottom, WTHT, what you’re saying—to me, not your husband—is that you’re gonna need to do BDSM with other people if your husband doesn’t get better at it, which is something he might learn to do at those BDSM clubs he refuses to go to. Which means he has it backwards: he risks losing you if he doesn’t go.
“She once put her marriage at risk to get BDSM,” said Martin. “WTHT’s husband doesn’t need to know about the affair, in my view, and he doesn’t need to become the world’s best dom. But he owes her acknowledgment that her desires matter. Get to that baseline, and other things tend to fall into place more easily. The discussion about monogamy becomes easier. The discussion about needing to be topped becomes easier. Working out a solution becomes easier.”
I’m not suggesting that an open relationship is the solution for every bored couple, and neither is Martin. There are lots of legitimate reasons why two people might prefer for their relationship to be, remain, or become monogamous. But two people who commit to being sexually exclusive for the rest of their lives and also want maintain a satisfying sex life—and, open or closed, couples with satisfying sex lives are likelier to stay together—need to recognize boredom as their mortal enemy. And while the
decision should be mutual, and while “ultimatum” is a scary word, bringing in reinforcements isn’t just the best way to fight boredom in some instances. There are times when it’s the only way to save a relationship.
That said, a couple of weeks back I told a frustrated husband that his cuckolding kink may have to be put on the back burner while his children are young. The same goes for you, WTHT. But at the very least your husband has to recognize the validity of your desires and could put more effort into pleasing you.
“In straight culture, people tend to define sex as intercourse, because intercourse is what gets men off, and we still privilege male pleasure,” said Martin. “But seen through a lens of parity, what WTHT wants is not ‘foreplay’ or ‘complicated stuff.’ It’s sex, and the sooner her husband lets go of this intercourse = sex fetish of his and acknowledges that her pleasure matters as much as his does, the sooner he’ll be a real partner to his wife.” For the record: a relationship doesn’t have to be open to be exciting, BDSM doesn’t have to be complicated to be satisfying, and date night doesn’t have to mean dinner and a movie. Date night can mean a visit to a BDSM club where your husband can learn, through observation alone (at least for now), how to be a better dom for you. v
Podcasts, columns, and more at savage.love
@fakedansavage
RETURNING TO THE SOURCE: YOU SO COUNTRY!
THU, FEB 23 / 6PM / VIRTUAL EVENT / FREE
This investigation of Blues and Black rural identity, and the rich musical and visual cultures that stem from both, will challenge the invisibility of Black bodies in rural spaces. Our expert panel of scholars and artists curates an evening of Black rural culture through the intersecting lenses of Country Blues, Black Country Music and Visual Arts, and a trip into the heart of Black Appalachia.
BLUES GEOGRAPHIES
SAT, APR 1 / 7:30PM / PERFORMANCE HALL
Blues Geographies with Corey Harris and James Leva, moderated by Matthew Skoller, will be an evening of performance, conversation, and delicious local BBQ. Tickets on sale February 15.
A symposium on Black women’s lmmaking inspired by the 1976 Sojourner Truth Festival of the Arts, featuring roundtable conversations with some of the original festival participants and contemporary lmmakers. This event is free and will also be livestreamed. voices.uchicago.edu/sojourner
By JIM DALEY AND SKY PATTERSON
On February 28, Chicago will make history. After decades of struggle by thousands of people who organized, marched, petitioned, prayed, and collectively clamored for the right to have a say in how their communities are policed, voters will elect 66 people to serve on police district councils across the city.
The battle for community control of the police has been waged for more than a half-century. Deputy chairman Fred Hampton and the Black Panther Party sparked the first push in the late 1960s. In the decades since, organizers have won incremental concessions. The O ce of Professional Standards was created within the police department in 1974. It was replaced by the Independent Police Review Authority in 2007, which was in turn replaced by the Civilian O ce of Police Accountability a decade later. Each agency was created thanks to the tireless e orts of ordinary Chicagoans. None of the people serving on them were democratically elected.
The police district councils will be elected. Three councilors will serve in each of the city’s 22 police districts for four-year terms. They’ll be tasked with building connections between police and communities, developing community policing initiatives, getting community input on CPD policies, and ensuring the citywide Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability (CCPSA) hears the community’s concerns.
The Empowering Communities for Public Safety (ECPS) ordinance that created the councils and the CCPSA is the result of a decade of organizing spurred by the 2012 killing of 22-year-old Rekia Boyd by Dante Servin, an o -duty police detective, in Douglass Park. Servin, found not guilty of involuntary manslaughter because the judge determined he’d shot Boyd intentionally, resigned from the department with a pension. In response to that killing, organizers began the push for community control of police anew.
In the ensuing years, as high-profile killings by police across the country mounted, they catalyzed the Black Lives Matter movement, a nationwide effort to get government officials to do something—anything—to stem the epidemic of violence wrought upon Black and Brown communities by the very o cers tasked with keeping them safe. In Chicago and elsewhere, the
police kept killing people. The victims were often unarmed, and they were almost always Black.
In 2014, then-o cer Jason Van Dyke shot 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times, killing him. When video footage of the shooting was released, thousands of Chicagoans protested downtown, shutting down the Magnificent Mile during Black Friday and staging a sit-in at the o ce of State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez, who activists said had mishandled the prosecutions of both Van Dyke and Servin. In the wake of the protests, Van Dyke was found guilty of second-degree murder, and the U.S. Department of Justice placed the CPD under a federal consent decree.
Everything changed in 2020, as protests of the murder of George Floyd by then-Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin swept the nation. In Chicago and elsewhere, the rebellions (and the police response to them) turned into a long, hot summer. In its midst, the Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability and the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression formed a coalition, Empowering Communities for Public Safety. With thousands of ordinary people at its back and in the streets, the coalition negotiated the language of the ECPS ordinance with the mayor. It passed in 2021.
Chicagoans have been promised police reform before, and the department’s entrenched attitude against change could make some wonder how e ective the district councils will be. One clue to the power they may wield lies in who’s on the ballot. In addition to ordinary residents and dedicated activists, several candidates with ties to the CPD and Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) are running. Perry Abbasi, the FOP’s election attorney, filed challenges to several progressive candidates’ ballot petitions, is listed as the contact person for six more on election filings, and is himself running in the 25th district.
We sent questionnaires to district council candidates, interviewed as many as we could reach, and researched their backgrounds using sources ranging from social media to biographies compiled by the ECPS coalition. Their questionnaire responses and full profiles are at bit.ly/ChiVoterGuide. You can find your police district at The TRiiBE’s election center (bit.ly/TRiiBEMap), and your polling location at bit.ly/ChiPrecincts. —Jim Daley v
1st, 2nd, & 3rd Districts 4
5
6
7
8
4th, 5th, & 6th Districts
7th & 8th Districts
9th & 10th Districts
Survivors of police brutality— and ex-cops accused of misconduct—are running for Police District Councils.
9
What do Police District Councils do?
Police District Councils and the Community Commission on Public Safety and Accountability have broad oversight of the police department.
11th, 12th, & 14th Districts 10
15th & 16th Districts 11
17th & 18th Districts 12
19th & 20th Districts 13
22nd & 24th Districts 14
1st District
The First District encompasses much of the Loop, running north-south from Wacker to 31st; from the lake to Desplaines between Wacker and 16th; and from the lake to Clark between 16th and 31st.
2nd District
The Second District runs north-south from 31st to 61st and east-west from the lake to the Dan Ryan.
3rd District
East to west, the Third District includes much of Grand Crossing and Woodlawn, running east-west from the lake to the Dan Ryan, and north-south from 75th to 61st; it also includes all of Jackson Park and the Museum of Science and Industry campus.
4th District
The Fourth District covers the southeast side, running north-south from 75th to the city limits, and east-west from the state line to the Bishop Ford. North of 95th Street, it runs from the lake to the Metra/South Shore Electric tracks.
5th District
The Fifth District runs from 95th to 138th Street. From 95th to 115th, it runs between Stewart Ave and Stony Island; from 115th to 123rd, between Ashland and Bishop Ford Expressway; from 123rd to 127th between Halsted and Bishop Ford; from 127th to 130th between Morgan and Bishop; from 130th to 138th between Indiana and Doty.
6th District
The Sixth District runs north-south from 75th to 95th, and from the Metra/South Shore Electric tracks on the east side to the Rock Island Metra tracks on the west side.
7th District
The Seventh District encompasses much of Englewood, stretching north-south from Garfield to 75th and east-west from the Dan Ryan to the CSX railbed (half a block east of Bell).
8th District
The Eighth District runs north-south from the Stevenson to 87th; from 35th to 51st between Laramie and Kedzie; from 51st to 65th between Cicero and Harlem Ave; and from 65th to 87th between Cicero and Oakley.
9th District
The Ninth District runs north-south from the south branch of the Chicago River to Garfield Boulevard; east-west, from the Dan Ryan to Kedzie; between Pershing and the river, it juts out west from to the BNSF railbed, west of Kedzie.
10th District
The Tenth District encompasses Lilttle Village and Lawndale, running north-south from Roosevelt to the south branch of the Chicago River between Western and the BNSF railbed (about a block east of Cicero). It also includes Heart of Chicago between Cermak, the river, Ashland, and Western.
The Eleventh District runs north-south from Division to Roosevelt. From Division to Madison, its east-west boundaries Kedzie and Cicero. Between Madison to Roosevelt juts out east to Western. Between Clinton and Cernak it runs from 90-94 to Western; south of Cermak, its eastern boundary is Ashland.
12th District
The Twelfth District includes the West Loop and Lower West Side. North-south it runs from Division to the south branch of the Chicago River. From Division to Madison it runs east-west from the river to Kedzie
14th
The Fourteenth District stretches northsouth from Belmont to Division and east-west from the Chicago River to Central Park Ave.
15th
The Fifteenth District runs north-south from Division and Roosevelt and east-west from Cicero to Austin Ave.
16th
The Sixteenth District includes O’Hare Airport, Je erson Park, Portage Park, and Dunning. In the city, it runs from Belmont to the city’s northern border, and from the Edens to the city’s western border along the Des Plaines River.
17th District
The Seventeenth District runs north-south from Devon to Belmont; east-west, it runs from the north branch of the Chicago River to Cicero Ave.
18th District
The Eighteenth District includes the Near North Side. North-south, the it runs from Fullerton to the main branch of the Chicago River; east-west, it runs from the lake to the north branch of the river.
19th District
The Nineteenth District runs north-south from Lawrence to Fullerton, and east west from the lake to the north branch of the Chicago River.
20th District
The Twentieth District runs north-south from Peterson to Lawrence. East-west, it runs from the lake to the north branch of the Chicago River.
22nd District
The Twenty-Second District includes Beverly, Mount Greenwood, and Morgan Park. It runs north-south from 87th to 119th. East-west, it runs from Stewart Ave. to the city’s southwest borders.
24th District
The Twenty-Fourth District encompasses much of Rogers Park. It runs from the city’s northern border, to Peterson, and east-west from the lake to Kedzie.
25th District
The Twenty-Fifth District runs north-south from Belmont to Division. Its eastern boundary is Central Park Ave., and its western boundaries are Austin between Division and North, Harlem between North and Wellington, and Oriole between Wellington and Belmont.
District
An attorney, Brown was a volunteer advisor for Daniel Biss’s 2018 bid for governor. Brown served on Chicago Votes’ board of directors for three years, served as its president, and is a precinct captain and zoning board community representative in the 25th Ward.
Jones is facilitator for CPD beat 334. She says “No single approach is right for every community.”
Alderperson Gregory Mitchell (Seventh Ward) has endorsed.
Kammerer worked in Congress and on Mitt Romney’s 2008 presidential campaign. She co-founded ChiWomenVote and IllinoisWomenVote and serves on the advisory council of the nonprofit New Politics and on the leadership council of ProPublica.
2 nd n 2 D District
A Navy reservist for 24 years, Lee is pursuing a master’s degree in social work. He said that the CPD has lacked high standards of professionalism, which has led to increased crime and community distrust. He wants to “bring leadership, fairness, and transparency to a police department that is struggling to live up to its members and the citizens of this city.”
Perez worked for Aurora’s mayoral department of communications for four years and was the director of community engagement for West Aurora School District 129 for over a year. Alderpersons Pat Dowell and Jeanette Taylor have endorsed. He says he’s running “to increase transparency and accountability.”
A former CPS teacher, Kline is a community organizer, sales and marketing consultant, and voting rights activist. She is a cofounder along with Jocelyn McClelland and Morrow Cleveland of Neighbors Who Vote, which works on voter registration and turnout, cross-neighborhood organizing, and amplifying the work of other groups. In 2018 and 2019 Kline was on the marketing and communications team for Indivisible Chicago, helping to organize a number of street protests.
A home care worker and a member of SEIU, United Working Families, and CAARPR, Plummer has done community work in Washington Park since 2016. In 1991, Plummer’s 15-year-old brother, was tortured for 39 hours by Chicago police working for the notorious CPD commander Jon Burge. Johnny Plummer was sentenced to life in prison for murder, and remains incarcerated. Alderperson Jeanette Taylor (20th Ward) and SEIU have endorsed.
A political strategist and mother of three, Franklin wants “to see civilians’ expectation of law enforcement to meet the actual job description.” She supports a twostrike rule for o cers who garner racial and violent complaints and wants to end qualified immunity. Alderperson David Moore (17th Ward) has endorsed.
A computational scientist at UIC, Sokovic is a CAPS facilitator for Beat 215. In the late 1990s, she participated in the nonviolent student movement in Serbia that overthrew Slobodan Miloševic. “I experienced firsthand that the people together, with discipline, humor, and careful planning, can move mountains,” she said. She envisions a public safety approach where “the community is empowered, and healing and reconciliation are prioritized over punishment.” Alderperson Jeanette Taylor (20th Ward) has endorsed.
A member of CAARPR, Blissitt worked with the Woodlawn Children’s Community Promise Freedom School to organize youth demonstrations against gun violence. He also worked with the Urban League to facilitate police board community input forums. Blissitt owns a secured transportation company that serves the cannabis industry. Aldermanic candidates Desmon Yancy (Fifth Ward) and Patrick Brutus (Sixth Ward) have endorsed.
A community court case manager for the Restorative Justice Community Court in Englewood, Carrington has also worked as a court liaison for the Cook County Adult Probation Department, as a community organizer for St. Anthony Hospital, and as a paralegal in the o ce of the Illinois Attorney General. In 2004, CPD brutalized his sister while arresting her kids.
Bryant has worked as a government a airs associate for Metropolitan Family Services, as a legislative administrator for State Representative Lamont J. Robinson, and as a community outreach and engagement associate for The TRiiBE. Alderperson Jeanette Taylor (20th Ward), Desmon Yancy (5th Ward candidate), Jocilyn Floyd (7th Ward candidate), Coalition of African American Leaders (COAL), and Center For Racial & Gender Equity (CRGE) have endorsed.
4 th t 4 h District
An attorney in real estate law, contract law, and trust and estate planning, Hammer served as deputy general counsel to the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County, and ran for Cook County judge in 2022. She wants a part of CPD’s funding to be redirected to that and other wraparound services such as restorative justice programs.
A healthcare worker for almost 50 years, Waters is the president of Friends of Merrill Park and serves on the Merrill Park Advisory Council through the Park District. She told the Reader her sister was shot in the back by CPD in the 1990, but survived. If elected, she says she’ll “insist on building stronger connections between police and the community and getting community input” on policing.
5 th t 5 h District
A retired Chicago police captain, McMahon was a gang homicide detective from 1980 to 1996 and a CPD member until 2010. The Citizens Police Data Project reports he had 21 allegations of misconduct over his career. McMahon hired his own attorney to challenge Robert McKay’s petition signatures to knock McKay o the ballot.
A labor-grievance representative for SEIU Healthcare Illinois, a union of healthcare workers, Moore has attended protests against police brutality. She believes “all Chicago citizens deserve fair policing and community services that are tailored to the challenges and needs of our communities despite our social or economic backgrounds.” Soul Chicago has endorsed.
A write-in candidate, McKay is a retired Chicago Fire Department (CFD) firefighter and investigator at the O ce of Fire Investigation. In 1995, McKay was among a group of firefighters who challenged the CFD’s discriminatory hiring practices that prevented Black applicants from being hired. That e ort resulted in a 2009 Supreme Court decision that ordered relief for a ected applicants. Democracy for America has endorsed.
A community organizer and social infrastructure engineer, Miramontes was formerly Tenth Ward alderperson Susan Sadlowski Garza’s director of community engagement and government a airs. He cofounded the Southeast Side of Chicago Food Pantry and helped establish the United Neighbors of the Tenth Ward Independent Political Organization.
A resident of Calumet Heights, Jenkins did not respond to requests for comment. Alderperson Greg Mitchell (Seventh Ward) has endorsed.
Bernard joined the Black Panther Party as a teenager and was one of the first patients at the Party’s free clinic. She says she remembers viewing the aftermath of the CPD assassination of Fred Hampton and attending his funeral. Since 2021, she has worked as an assistant to Seventh Ward alderperson Greg Mitchell. Mitchell has endorsed.
Russell is the founder and director of Tree of Life Justice League of Illinois, which advocates for police accountability and helps families a ected by police violence. Alderpersons David Moore (17th Ward) and Pat Dowell (Third Ward), State Representatives La Shawn Ford (8th District) and Marcus C. Evans Jr. (33rd District), State Senator Willie Preston (31st District), Congressmen Jonathan Jackson (IL-1) and Danny Davis (IL-7), and St. Sabina parish priest Michael Pfleger have endorsed.
A musician, educator, and high school counselor from the west side, Boykin has lived in the district for over a decade. As a counselor, he works extensively with teenage Black boys, whom he says are “the most at-risk demographic to be subject to interaction with the police and the carceral state” and that his experience has given him “an understanding of the need for alternative policing strategies.”
Humphries, a write-in candidate, serves on the executive board of Chatham United, a coalition of neighbors, block clubs, and organizations. She is also an active member of Reunite Chatham as well as her neighborhood park advisory council and block club. Humphries volunteers a CAPS facilitator in Gresham for Beat 0631 in the Sixth District. She has also participated in or attended CPD and CAPS events such as National Night Out, Conversations with the Commander, and community engagement town halls.
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A community outreach manager at Lurie Children’s Hospital, McGill describes himself as a “public health professional focused on gun violence prevention and public safety for more than seven years.” McGill formerly taught in CPS and was the program manager of the Student Voices Program, a youth gun-violence initiative at the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence.
A member of the Workers Center for Racial Justice, Peters also serves as a district leader for the Center for Racial and Gender Equity (CRGE). She criticized CPD’s proposed gang-database redux at a November meeting of the Interim Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability, and is “committed to advancing community public safety and police accountability practices [and] ensuring Black communities have a voice at decision-making tables.” CRGE has endorsed.
Cherli Montgomery is a member of Teamsters Local Union 727 (IBT) and served on the Local School Council for Charles W. Earle elementary school. Alderperson David Moore (17th Ward), State Representative Sonya Harper (6th District), and Congressman Danny Davis (IL-7) have endorsed.
Williams is the executive director of Mr. Dad’s Father’s Club, which he founded in 2017. The group recruits fathers to read books to schoolkids. Alderpersons Raymond Lopez (15th Ward), Stephanie Coleman (16th Ward), and David Moore (17th Ward), have endorsed.
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A technician at Rentokil Boecke, Hamberlin is a union steward of the Teamsters Local 781. He told the Reader he is supported by the Fraternal Order of Police and that he accepted their endorsement. Alderperson David Moore (17th Ward) recently recognized Hamberlin with a service award. Alderperson Moore, State Senator Willie Preston (16th District), and the FOP have endorsed.
A resident of West Englewood, Swan did not respond to requests for comment.
Linda J. Austin Sr.
A resident of Englewood, Austin did not respond to requests for comment.
A community outreach specialist at the Cook County Assessor’s Office, Chandler volunteers at community nonprofits. Alderperson David Moore (17th Ward) and the IVI-IPO have endorsed.
A car-booting supervisor for the city, Hu runs a neighborhood watch, and his social media pages regularly tout volunteer work with CPD programs such as youth soccer events and catalytic converter anti-theft e orts. Alderpersons Raymond Lopez (15th Ward), Derrick Curtis (18th Ward), and Silvana Tabares (23rd Ward) have endorsed.
A Streets and Sanitation worker, Caccatolio describes himself as an “advocate for police.” Alderpersons Raymond Lopez (15th Ward) and Silvana Tabaras (23rd) have endorsed.
Pettis is active with the League of Women Voters as well as organizations such as the National Association of University Women, the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, and the National Council of Negro Women. Her spouse is a CPD o cer. Alderpersons Stephaine Coleman (16th Ward), David Moore (17th Ward), Derrick Curtis (18th Ward), Silvana Tabares (23rd Ward), and the Chicago Police Sergeant Association have endorsed.
Supports more accountability for police
A Bridgeport injury attorney, Matthew says he’s “a firm believer that transparency and community input into public safety decision-making will improve outcomes and protect both o cers and our neighborhoods.” He ran for Congress in 2020, and recently testified before the Illinois General Assembly’s redistricting committee. He is on a slate with Erin Vogel and Monserrat Ayala.
A resident of Back of the Yards, Razo unsuccessfully challenged the ballot petitions of Vicko Alvarez, a socialist candidate who is running for alderperson of the 15th Ward. Alderperson Raymond Lopez (15th Ward) has endorsed.
A Bridgeport resident, Finucane filed ballot petitions with the assistance of the FOP’s election attorney, Perry Abbasi, who told the Reader the FOP referred her to him. She did not respond to requests for comment.
A former co-executive director of I Grow Chicago (now We Grow Chicago), an Englewood community organization, Vogel has participated in gun-violence prevention and criminal justice reform since 2016. She has completed the CPD’s Citizen Academy and has trained officers in restorative justice practices. Vogel is running on a slate with Abe Matthew and Monserrat Ayala.
Ayala cofounded #IncreaseThePeace, an organization that promotes youth leadership, peace, and community organizing. She has also worked for the SouthWest Organizing Project where she led get-out-the-vote e orts in 2019. She is on a slate with Erin Vogel and Abe Matthew.
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A Chicago Public Schools educator, Henderson was a Chicago police officer from 1998 to 2004, during which time he garnered six complaints. He supports police accountability. He says the CPD budget should be increased and that his experience as an o cer can help “bridge the gap between our neighborhoods and the police o cers . . . it starts block-by-block and district-by-district.”
A Little Village resident and longtime community organizer, Dominguez has a master’s in Latin American and Latino studies from UIC. In her ECPS profile she says, “residents and CAARPR were the ones that prompted me to run, and they are the ones that are going to shape me and my campaign.”
A lifelong west-sider, Lawrence is the senior pastor of Praise Temple of Restoration in Austin. He works with youth at the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center; he’s running “to help [bridge] the divide between our police and the communities in which they serve.” SEIU has endorsed.
A resident of McKinley Park, Sanchez did not respond to requests for comment.
A CPS teacher who was the last chief of staff for former alderperson Patrick Daley Thompson (who was convicted on federal charges related to an alleged bank-loan fraud in 2022), McBroom applied to be appointed to replace him but was not selected by the mayor.
A political liaison at Chicago Gig Alliance, Casas describes himself as a community activist and organizer for environmental justice, living wages for ride-share drivers, and public safety. He attended Brother Rice High School and DePaul University.
A Little Village resident, Bahena is the director of policy and community outreach for the 22nd Ward Public Service O ce and serves on the boards of Mujeres Latinas en Acción, Enlace Chicago, and HACE Chicago. State representative Edgar Gonzalez Jr. (23rd District), Alderperson Michael Rodriguez (22nd Ward), and the 22nd Ward IPO have endorsed.
A Little Village resident, Guzman started the Little Lawndale Neighborhood Studio, a community gathering space that has invited police officers to host and participate in events in order to interact with community members.
A youth and community advocate from Lawndale, Smith says she knows “exactly what it’s like to be harassed by the police as well as to call them and NOT receive the help, assistance, or protection I needed.”
At a forum on Police District Council races hosted on January 22 by the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR) at CTU headquarters, dozens of candidates stood in lines that wrapped around a dais at the front of Jacqueline Vaughn Hall, waiting their turn to explain why they’re running.
Nearly all of them are seeking o ce for the first time in their lives, but they spoke clearly and with conviction about the trauma they’ve experienced at the hands of police.
Many have family members who were brutalized or killed: Cynthia McFadden’s father escaped white supremacist terror in the South by coming to Chicago during the Great Migration, only to be shot and killed by police at 47th and King Drive on the day he arrived.
Coston Plummer’s older brother was tortured for 39 hours and forced to falsely confess to murder by officers under notorious commander Jon Burge when he was just 15 years old, and remains in prison today. When Craig Carrington’s sister was brutalized and arrested for protecting her children from police in 2004, he promised her that if he ever could, he would do something about it.
They talked about running for Police District Council in order to heal—not just themselves and their families, but entire communities whose relationships with public safety have long been fractured.
“The amazing thing about these candidates who are running for district council is that they are overwhelmingly Black and Brown, overwhelmingly working class, and there’s also a lot of poor people in the ranks,” Frank Chapman, a CAARPR field organizer and a leader of the movement that ushered in the Police District Councils, told the crowd. “This is who is running. So just on the basis of that, this election on February 28 will be the most democratic election that this city has ever seen.”
Of the 112 candidates running in the newly-created Police District Council races, 63 used resources provided by CAARPR to file election paperwork. These 63 candidates sup-
port police accountability: overwhelmingly, they want Chicago Police Department funding to be redirected to violence prevention and transformative justice programs, for care workers to accompany police to mental health crises, and for their churches, block clubs, and community organizations to be included in public safety. Despite what they have personally endured at the hands of police, only a few want to totally defund or abolish CPD.
They described knocking on countless doors in Chicago’s coldest months to discuss that opportunity with voters. Meridth Hammer, a candidate in the Fourth District, was hoarse from talking about public safety with voters day in and day out. They are ordinary people whose resilience carries them as they fight for a seat at the table.
Ordinary people have always been at the center of this struggle. The movement for community control of the police, or CCOP, was led by revolutionaries, but it has always been carried onward by neighborhood people.
In Chicago, CCOP was first conceived by the Black Panther Party and Chairman Fred Hampton in the 1960s. A charismatic visionary, Chairman Fred built a Rainbow Coalition of Black, Brown, and working-class white residents who, fed up with police violence, gentrification, and not-so-benign neglect of their communities, became revolutionaries.
Neutralizing revolutionary coalitions was at the top of the FBI’s list of COINTELPRO goals, and the Cook County State’s Attorney Office and Chicago Police Department conspired to assassinate Hampton on December 4, 1969. His murder only spurred the Panthers and Rainbow Coalition to redouble their e orts for control of police. Within four years, they built a citywide campaign for elected civilian police boards in every police district. Ultimately, Mayor Richard J. Daley’s political machine repelled the e ort. The movement regrouped and found other inroads to power as revolutionaries ran for o ce.
Over the ensuing decades, elected o cials made several attempts to establish oversight of the police. Following a series of police
brutality incidents, U.S. representative Ralph Metcalfe (IL-1) convened a Congressional blue-ribbon panel in 1972 that led to the creation of the O ce of Professional Standards (OPS). Comprised of civilian members of CPD, it became notorious for stifling misconduct investigations. After a brutality incident was caught on camera in 2007, the City Council voted (with Mayor Richard M. Daley’s approval) to replace OPS with the Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA). Moving oversight out of the department did little to increase accountability. Following the CPD murder of Laquan McDonald, the City Council (with Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s blessing) replaced IPRA with the Civilian O ce of Police Accountability, which investigates misconduct and makes recommendations to the Police Board, in 2016.
Through it all, Chicago police continued killing and brutalizing people. The victims’ families never stopped fighting for justice. Many have been doing so for decades, often on their own, wandering the wilderness of a city that took police harassment, torture, and murder of its residents for granted. The best most could hope for was a cash settlement. The price of police violence was shunted onto Chicago’s residents as the City’s payouts for police misconduct ballooned to more than $50 million a year.
In 2012, one police killing, of Rekia Boyd by o -duty CPD o cer Dante Servin, became a flashpoint around which the scattered survivors of police violence coalesced. The Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability (GAPA) and the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR) spent a decade painstakingly building a movement rooted in the communities. In 2020, the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police
set off rebellions around the country. Amid the uprisings, GAPA and CAARPR formed a coalition and, with their allies in City Council, passed the Empowering Communities for Public Safety (ECPS) ordinance in 2021 despite Mayor Lightfoot’s objections.
The district councils that the ECPS ordinance created will not have the kind of direct oversight powers the Panthers initially sought for district-level boards in the CCOP movement, like hiring and firing police and setting department policy. However, they will have the right to engage with district commanders and recommend restorative justice and other alternative approaches to safety. Among other duties, they’re also charged with helping community members request investigative information from COPA and CPD. The councils’ e ectiveness at serving and engaging with the community will most likely vary by district.
Each of the 22 three-member councils will send one representative to meetings where they will nominate the citywide Community Commission on Public Safety and Accountability (CCPSA). It is in that commission that ECPS achieves civilian power—in a layered, not direct, manner—over the degree to which police are held accountable. The CCPSA can hire and fire the chief administrator of COPA. It can also hold hearings about the police superintendent and take a vote of no confidence that triggers City Council hearings and a vote to retain or fire the superintendent.
The hope of the ECPS organizers is that the CCPSA will exercise these powers should COPA or the superintendent fail to hold ocers who brutalize or kill accountable.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot and her allies initially resisted the proposals brought forth by organizers, and it took grueling negotiations between organizers and the mayor’s o ce before
the City Council passed the ECPS ordinance. Then, the mayor and her allies slow-walked its implementation. Lightfoot’s floor leader, Alderperson Michelle Harris, delayed the opening of applications for the interim CCPSA for months. And although the ECPS ordinance required the mayor to appoint members to the interim CCPSA by January 2022, she waited until August to do so. At that point, it was too late for the CCPSA to review the mayor’s police department budget and recommend changes to the City Council, one of their key duties mandated by the ordinance.
The police are aware of the ramifications of reform. Just as the machine poured its e orts into thwarting the CCOP ordinance 50 years ago, the Fraternal Order of Police and its allies have organized to undermine ECPS.
The FOP has spent at least $25,000 to get their people on the ballot and try to knock progressive candidates o , and they gave the green light to one of their election attorneys, Perry Abbasi, to run in the 25th District. In northwest side districts like the 16th and southwest-side districts like the 22nd, where neighborhoods like Galewood and Mount Greenwood are home to many police, nearly everyone running has ties to the FOP.
In the Fifth District, Thomas McMahon, a former police lieutenant who has 21 misconduct allegations, is running. He hired his own attorney to challenge the ballot petitions of Robert McKay, a candidate in the same district who helped usher in reform to the CFD in the 1990s; McKay is now running as a write-in candidate. Lee Bielecki, a retired sergeant who has 26 allegations of misconduct, is running in the 22nd District. In the 12th, Juan Lopez, a former state police trooper who was fired and charged with seven felonies for firing six shots into his ex-girlfriend’s home after seeing her with another man, is running. Lopez was acquitted of the felonies, for which he was facing 26 years in prison, and convicted of a misdemeanor.
But the block club members, teachers, and pastors who stood at the microphones at CTU headquarters know the stakes of this race better than anyone. They want the opportunity to ensure that the radical proposition they fought for and won—a chance for the community to have a say in creating public safety and holding police accountable—is borne out. According to Chapman, that opportunity is revolutionary.
“These people are running out of dedication to a cause,” Chapman said. “And their dedication is that it’s time, in this city, to hold the police accountable for the crimes that they commit against that community.” For these candidates, it is time indeed. v @jimdaleywrites
Police District Councils and the Community Commission on Public Safety and Accountability have broad oversight of the police department.
There are more than 100 candidates vying for seats on Chicago’s police district councils in the February 28 election. These councils, like the citywide Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability (CCPSA), were created by the 2021 Empowering Communities for Public Safety ordinance, which the City Council passed in 2021 after years of community organizing.
There are 66 council seats; three in each of Chicago’s 22 police districts. Each council is made up of a chairperson, a community engagement coordinator, and a member of the citywide committee that nominates CCPSA members. Council members are elected to four-year terms beginning in 2023. They must live in the district and cannot have been a member of the Chicago Police Department, Independent Police Review Authority, Civilian O ce of Police Accountability (COPA), or the Police Board for at least three years before they assume office. If there is a vacancy on one of the councils, its members will submit three names to the CCPSA, which recommends one to the mayor for an appointment.
Community interaction and support
The police district councils are required to hold monthly meetings to discuss policing issues. They inform the community about the work the district councils and the Commission are doing, and gather input from the public about public safety and policing in their communities. They’re required to assist the public with such issues and help community members request information about investigations from the police department and the Civilian O ce of Police Accountability (COPA).
Police district councils work with district commanders and community members
to develop and implement community policing initiatives, and the councils are specifically tasked with developing and expanding restorative justice and similar programs. They’re required to encourage police o cers to help the community access resources, and they provide information to police about their work and the Commission’s work.
Beginning in 2023, district councils will be able to nominate 14 candidates to the CCPSA, and the mayor will be required to select seven from that list. (The City Council nominated 14 candidates to the current interim Commission in 2022.)
The police district councils will send one member to quarterly and annual meetings with delegates from all 66 councils. Councils may report their findings and make policy recommendations to the CCPSA.
Hiring/firing public safety administrators
When there is a vacancy of the police superintendent, Police Board members, or the COPA chief administrator, the CCPSA sends a list of candidates to the mayor, who selects one whom the City Council confirms.
The Commission is responsible for hiring COPA’s chief administrator (whom the City Council confirms) and can fire them for cause.
At the beginning of the year, the Commission sets goals for the police superintendent and the department, COPA’s chief administrator, and the Police Board and its president. At the end of the year, the Commission will evaluate their performance.
The Commission can hold hearings about the police superintendent and members of the Police Board, and take a vote of no confidence in them, which would require the City Council to hold hearings and a vote, as well as a public response from the mayor.
Police department policy oversight General orders for CPD can be drafted by the department or the Commission, but they require a majority vote by the Commission to become policy. The Commission will post draft policies on its website and invite public comment. The police department is still under a federal consent decree, and policies that are covered by it can’t be set by the Commission. The mayor can veto policies enacted by the Commission, and the City Council can override the veto by a two-thirds majority vote.
The Commission works with the police department on community policing programs and recommends solutions to violence that are preventative, community-based, and include non-policing alternatives.
The Commission can make recommendations about what the Public Safety Inspector General should audit. It also reviews the police department budget and can recommend changes to it before the City Council votes on it.
If the police department and Commission disagree on a policy, there is a process to resolve differences and build consensus between them.
The CCPSA must hold monthly meetings. It conducts outreach on relations between community and police; department policies and practices; and the department’s accountability system. The Commission can publish reports on matters of community concern, and it can require the police superintendent to answer questions in public and provide reports to the Commission.
The Commission will appoint an advisory council made up of Chicago residents who do not have citizenship.
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A physicist at Fermilab, Ramson says, “the simultaneous overuse and lack of e ectiveness of the CPD is one of the key factors limiting the rehabilitation of the more troubled areas of the city including much of Chicago’s west side. Solutions to the chronic problems plaguing the operation of this department exist. I intend to find those solutions and assist in implementing them.”
A senior field representative for the AFL-CIO, Woodards has previously worked for Obama For America, the Democratic National Committee, and as an advisor to former U.S. Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr.
A real estate broker who lives in the West Loop, Donatelli says he’s concerned with crime and accountability. He hopes “to further open dialogue between the [police] district and the neighborhood” and says the CPD’s budget should be increased.
Lopez was an Illinois state police trooper from 2009 to 2018. In 2015, he was charged with seven felony counts for firing six shots into his ex-girlfriend’s home after seeing another man’s car in her driveway.
An organizer on youth and family issues, Quintero says, “By prioritizing both police accountability and restorative justice, it is possible to create a more just and equitable criminal justice system.” He is on a slate with Chloe Vitale and Michelle Page. State senators Celina Villanueva (21st District) and Javier Cervantes (1st District), IVI-IPO, and Run for Something have endorsed.
A CPS teacher assistant, Page has worked with the Community Renewal Society, a faith-based organization, and helped work to get the ECPS ordinance passed. “I know all too well how Black and Brown people are treated, or shall I say mistreated,” she says. “This is an opportunity to change some of the wrongs that have been going on for so long.” She is on a slate with Chloe Vitale and Leonardo Quintero.
A 21-year-old artist from Pilsen, Guerrero has organized community events such as open mikes, pop-ups, and peace initiatives. He says he wants to bring a youth’s perspective to the district council. He says he’s running to hold elected o cials and public servants accountable and make sure there is accountability and transparency from them. Alderperson Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th Ward) has endorsed.
A faith-based community organizer, Edwards has been a block club president on the west side for over four years. Edwards currently serves as one of the co-chairs for the mayor’s African American Engagement Council and is the founder and executive director of Drawn Out Ministries, a nonprofit that provides transitional housing to women returning from prison. Alderpersons David Moore (17th Ward), Walter Burnett (27th Ward), and Emma Mitts (37th Ward) have endorsed.
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Orlikoff was the #DefundCPD outreach lead for the 35th Ward and has advocated to reduce CPD’s budget by 75 percent and reinvest in communities. United Neighbors of the 35th Ward and Northside DFA have endorsed.
A legal assistant, Laurent says he “works directly with city officials and their legal counsel.” His goal as a councilor is “to provide the support and accountability to the police force,” and he considers communication with CPD on behalf of the community to be the primary role of a police district councilor. The Libertarian Party of Chicago has endorsed.
A journalist who has worked with City Bureau, Vitale is a member of the Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers Local 21. She is on a slate with Leonardo Quintero and Michelle Page.
A write-in candidate, Vargas has worked for the past year as a field organizer in progressive political campaigns and voter engagement and mobilization, as well as with the Logan Square Neighborhood Association on affordable housing. United Neighbors of the 35th Ward has endorsed.
District
A community organizer and engagement specialist for NYU’s Policing Project, Rutues helped launch its Chicago Neighborhood Policing Initiative and leads its outreach efforts in the 11th, 15th, and 25th Districts. He says his role “is to build and repair the relationship between the Chicago police and the communities they serve” via monthly meetings between CPD and residents and by locating resources to assist public safety e orts.
A retired Chicago Fire Department chief, Earls had a 32-year career and commanded the Fire Academy; in that role she worked with CPD, which she says “enhanced our on-scene rapport.” In 2021, she requested a demotion because she had to place two firefighters on no-pay status for vaccine noncompliance. Earls has been a block club captain, precinct captain, aldermanic candidate, ward committeeperson, and president of the Women’s Council of Community Intercession (WCCI). Chicago Firefighters Local 2 and The WCCI have endorsed.
A resident of Austin, Newsome did not respond to requests for comment.
An administrative coordinator for the United Congress for Community and Religious Organizations, Winters became active in police reform e orts after CPD shot and killed her 16-year-old great-nephew in 2016. She founded the 411 Movement for Pierre Loury and has worked with Justice For Families and the Chicago Justice Torture Center. Winters cochaired Mayor Lightfoot’s Use of Force Working Group, which convinced CPD to begin requiring o cers to use de-escalation techniques before using force.
Formerly a member of the 25th District steering committee, Johnson cofounded the Voters for a Change Coalition of Illinois and United Front Anti-Crime. He’s running “to be a spokesperson and ambassador for the people and bring change to the way that the Chicago police serve and protect our communities.”
An advocate for families impacted by the child welfare system, Thompson helps provide food, shelter, clothing, and other resources to residents in Humboldt Park and Austin. “I currently am assisting two fellow neighbors against police brutality and also working closely to keep our people safe and secure,” she told the Reader
An outreach coordinator, Melton attends faith-based meetings led by 15th district CPD officers. She says, “It’s important to bridge the gap between the community, church, and the police department.”
A senior adviser for legislative a airs at the Cook County Sheri ’s O ce, Feller ran Sheri Tom Dart’s 2022 reelection campaign. He is the the 38th Ward Democratic Organization president and serves on a local school council. Sheri Dart, state senators Omar Aquino (2nd District) and Robert Martwick (10th District), state representative Lindsey LaPointe (19th District), State Treasurer Mike Frerichs, IUOE Local 150 and Mid-America Carpenters Regional Council have endorsed.
A former intern for 41st ward alderperson Anthony Napolitano, Martin has worked for 38th ward alderperson Nicholas Sposato since 2019. He told the Reader he believes police funding should be increased, adding, “we hold an annual ‘support the police’ rally outside the 16th District police station.” Alderpersons Napolitano and Sposato have endorsed.
A realtor who lives in Jefferson Park, Kannon has been endorsed by Local IUOE 399 and Alderperson Anthony Napolitano (41st Ward). She told the Reader, “Through my work as a real estate agent and an active member of our community, I have long understood the concerns for improving policing and public safety in the district.”
A resident of Norwood Park East, Marcatante filed ballot petitions with the assistance of the Fraternal Order of Police’s election attorney, Perry Abbasi, who told the Reader the FOP referred Marcante to him. Marcante did not respond to requests for comment.
An Edison Park resident, Dillon told the Reader, “I know what it’s like to worry about the safety of our children and the future they face.” The Fraternal Order of Police, Chicago Firefighters Local 2, Alderpersons Anthony Napolitano (38th Ward) and Nicholas Sposato (41st Ward) have endorsed.
Murphy has been the president of the Jefferson Park Neighborhood Association for five years and the organization’s zoning chairperson for six. She has been accepted to the CPD’s Civilian Police Academy. Alderpersons Nicholas Sposato (38th Ward) and Jim Gardiner (45th Ward) have endorsed.
A bank vice president, Butterworth enrolled in the Citizen Police Academy in suburban North Chicago. He has expressed support for police o cers—and also for the Innocence Project, a nonprofit organization that seeks to exonerate wrongfully convicted people. He says, “Citizens must keep a watchful eye to ensure the fine line between safety and liberty is walked.”
The chairman of the Center for Native American Youth’s Advisory Board and a member of the Chi Nations Youth Council, Tamez says, “Enforcing the consent decree is critical to our community’s safety,” and believes “police accountability can become a reality through co-governance.” Alderpersons Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th Ward) and Andre Vasquez (40th Ward), United Neighbors of the 35th Ward, 30th Ward United, 50th Ward United Working Families, and 39th Ward Neighbors United have endorsed.
A longtime nurse practitioner, Rochford works with ONE Northside on the organization’s Police Accountability Task Force and helped write the ECPS ordinance. Alderpersons Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th Ward) and Andre Vasquez (40th Ward), the ONE People’s Campaign, 39th Ward Neighbors United, 30th United, United Neighbors of the 35th Ward, and United Working Families of the 50th Ward have endorsed.
A resident of Irving Park, Carusi filed ballot petitions with the assistance of the Fraternal Order of Police’s’s election attorney, Perry Abbasi, who told the Reader the FOP referred Carusi to him.
Steve Spagnolo is the chief of government relations and external a airs at the Lake County State’s Attorney’s O ce. “We need leadership that will hold police accountable, push back against failed ‘tough on crime’ policies, and work to implement impactful crime-reduction strategies,” he says. Alderpersons Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th Ward), Andre Vasquez (40th Ward), United Neighbors of the 35th Ward, 39th Ward Neighbors United, United Working Families – 50th Ward, and MWRD Commissioner Dan Pogorzelski have endorsed.
A CFD firefighter, Sullivan recently tweeted, “As the 16th and 17th districts gang conflicts spiral out of control. Our simple request to increase the sta ng levels of our dangerously understa ed districts have fallen on deaf ears. We need more police In [Districts] 16/17 ASAP.” Chicago Firefighters Union local 2 has endorsed.
A CPA, Kane says crime has increased significantly and CPD sta ng decreased significantly in the 18th District. “The police department should listen to the community and the residents should listen to the police department,” she says. “Working together, our community will become safer.” Alderpersons Brian Hopkins (2nd Ward), Michelle Smith (43rd Ward), Second Ward democratic committeeman Tim Egan, and 43rd Ward democratic committeeman Lucy Moog have endorsed.
An active governing board member of Youth for a Better Future, Seward Park Advisory Council participant, Near North Unity Program participant, and River North Residents Association (RNRA) Safety Committee member, Seigneur graduated from CPD’s Citizen’s Police Academy. She told the Reader, “I am pro-police and pro-community advocacy.” Alderperson Walter Burnett (27th Ward) has endorsed.
An attorney, Cross has consulted with city, county, and state agencies around the country on issues of public policy and justice reform for more than a decade. “I believe that safety and justice are intertwined,” she says, “and my experience and policy expertise has shown me that it is possible to achieve both.” Northside Democracy for America has endorsed.
A former Ohio police o cer, Johnson is the chair of the safety and security task force for the Streeterville Organization of Active Residents. He is the CAPS beat 1833 facilitator. Alderpersons Brian Hopkins (2nd Ward) and Brendan Reilly (42nd Ward) have endorsed.
As her condo association’s president, Bowman developed a safety committee and worked with police and local businesses “to proactively address crime in the area.” Alderperson Brian Hopkins (2nd Ward) has endorsed.
An attorney, Kessler led Chicago Public Schools’s anti-gang task force and helped launch its Safe Passage program. He also serves on Lincoln Park High School’s local school council and on the advisory board for the Chicago Children’s Advocacy Center. State representative Margaret Croke (12th District), Alderpersons Walter Burnett Jr. (27th Ward), Brendan Reilly (42nd Ward), and 43rd Ward committeeman Lucy Moog have endorsed.
An attorney, Schoenburg is involved in social justice efforts with Cabrini Green Legal Aid and the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs. He is running in a slate with Maurilio Garcia and Jennifer Scha er. Alderpersons Andre Vasquez (40th ward) and Matt Martin (47th ward), 43rd ward democratic committeeman Lucy Moog, 46th ward aldermanic candidate Angela Clay, the ONE People’s Campaign, and Indivisible Lincoln Square have endorsed the three-candidate slate.
A market research and brand strategy consultant, Garcia created an initiative through his employer that provides $50,000 grants to local nonprofits. He is running on a slate with Sam Schoenburg and Jennifer Scha er (see Schoenburg’s profile for endorsements). Garcia says the slate will bring the power to the community, ensuring to include and elevate marginalized voices, and use people power to drive our government o cials to make changes in our public safety system.”
A leader of her temple’s social justice team, Schaffer worked with the ECPS Coalition to pass the ECPS ordinance. She is running in a slate with Maurilio Garcia and Sam Schoenburg (see Schoenburg’s profile for endorsements). She says the slate will work to “build strong relationships with all people in the community so we can create a shared vision and e ectively advocate our elected o cials to enact innovative, researched based policies to modernize our public safety system.”
A former member of the USAF Security Forces and Army National Guard, Palecek is president of 46th Ward Democrats, a member of Veterans for Change, and worked on 36th Ward alderperson Gil Villegas’s primary challenge against then-state congresswoman Delia Ramirez. MWRC commissioner Daniel Pogorzelski, 46th Ward committeeman Sean Tenner, IVI-IPO, Northside Democracy for Change, 40th Ward Dems, Veterans for Change, and VoteVets have endorsed.
A member of the Roscoe Village Neighbors’ board of directors, Richman manages the safety and security program and is a liaison with the 19th District CAPS. He holds safety seminars about calling 911, engages in a police appreciation day, and is petitioning to reopen the Belmont and Western police station. Alderpersons James Cappleman (46th Ward) and Scott Waguespack (32nd Ward) have endorsed.
Currently chief of staff to Cook County commissioner Scott Britton, Kaviar was a deputy press secretary for Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s o ce from 2016 to 2018, where she led outreach around the creation of CPD’s Strategic Decision Support Centers and the Community Policing Advisory Panel, and worked with police on community engagement. 40th Ward Democrats and the Northside Democracy for America have endorsed.
The manager for ONE Northside’s Communities Partnering for Peace program, Dacres has worked in violence prevention since 2012, when his friend was killed and he was wounded in a shooting. He is running in a slate with Deirdre O’Connor and Anna Rubin. Alderpersons Andre Vasquez (40th Ward) and Matt Martin (47th Ward), the ONE People’s Campaign, and Indivisible Lincoln Square endorsed the slate.
O’Connor served as a precinct captain for 15 years. She says, “We are in a special position to reimagine the notion of policing by the community, for the community.” O’Connor is running in a slate with Darrell Dacres and Anna Rubin (see Dacres’s profile for endorsements).
An organizer with the Jewish Council on Urban A airs, Rubin says she’s “committed to listening to what our communities need and bringing those ideas forward as concrete policy and funding proposals.” Rubin is running in a slate with Deirdre O’Connor and Darrell Dacres (see Dacres’s profile for endorsements).
A retired foreign service o cer who has worked at seven U.S. embassies and consulates and with the U.S. State Department, McNeil is a regular at 20th District CAPS meetings. His platform includes promoting responsible policing, engaging the community, and advocating for maintaining CPD funding. He did not seek any endorsements. IVI-IPO has endorsed.
A socialist organizer, D’Antonio works with CAARPR and has been involved in the fight for community control of the police for five years. “We need a District Council member who will not back down or be intimidated by the FOP,” he says.
A resident of Mount Greenwood, Bianciotto did not respond to requests for comment.
A healthcare professional, Parker has been chair of Morgan Park High School’s Local School Council for a decade. Her son is a Chicago police o cer, and she co-founded Moms of CPD, a group that aims to create positive interactions between o cers and community members. Alderperson David Moore (17th) has endorsed.
A resident of Mount Greenwood, Kennedy did not respond to requests for comment.
A retired CPD sergeant, Bielecki had 26 complaints on his record. He has said, “the best results are when the community partners with the police,” and that he is running “to listen and help give community members a voice [and] to give the police input as well.”
Pate, who has worked in the Cook County Circuit Court for over 20 years, is an operations manager for the Cook County Clerk’s O ce. He’s running “to create an environment of accountability, trust, and collaboration.”
A US Navy veteran, Williams wrote in his campaign announcement that if elected he’ll “fight to improve public safety (including reasonable fund reallocation to help lessen crime) . . . [and] hold police violence against civilians and cop killers equally accountable, and will work to bridge the divide between the community and the police.” MWRD commissioner Dan Pogorzelski has endorsed.
A trustee of the United Church of Rogers Park, Jones works with the Circles and Ciphers Youth Organization and previously was a youth advocate for Methodist Youth Services. He helped draft the ECPS ordinance and says “public safety is a joint venture.” He is running in a slate with Marilyn Pagán-Banks and Veronica Arreola (see Arreola’s profile for endorsements).
Rose filed ballot petitions with the assistance of the Fraternal Order of Police’s election attorney, Perry Abbasi, who told the Reader the FOP referred Rose to him.
Arreola founded the 50th Ward Action Network and worked with The People’s Lobby during the 2019 municipal elections. She is running in a slate with EdVetté Jones and Marilyn Pagán-Banks; the slate’s campaign website calls district councils “the most progressive community-led police accountability device in the country.” Alderpersons Andre Vasquez (40th Ward) and Maria Hadden (49th Ward), State Representative Kelly Cassidy (14th District), the ONE People’s Campaign, Network 49, and United Working Families 50th Ward have endorsed the three-candidate slate.
The director of the nonprofit A Just Harvest and a founding member of the Coalition to End Money Bond, Pagán-Banks says, “If we want a safe community, then all must have enough to eat, earn a livable wage, access meds if needed, and have a place to truly rest. If we want a beautiful community, then all must know dignity and respect, have a clear sense of belonging and be truly seen.” She is running in a slate with EdVetté Jones and Veronica Arreola (see Arreola’s profile for endorsements).
Wolk taught social sciences at the University of Chicago and has covered meetings of the Police Board, City Council Public Safety Committee, and Community Safety Coordination Center for City Bureau, a civic journalism lab based in Bronzeville. His “deep commitment to democracy and community empowerment” informed his decision to run.
Raised in Rogers Park, McFadden studied political science and sociology at Lincoln University and says she has 30 years of social justice and community activism around issues such as disability, education, and labor issues. She worked with community organizations on the passage of the ECPS ordinance.
A resident of Belmont Gardens, Arena did not respond to requests for comment.
Abbasi was paid $10,000 by the Fraternal Order of Police to assist other pro-FOP candidates in filing election paperwork and challenging the ballot petitions of progressive candidates in the 19th, 20th, and 24th districts. He said the FOP gave him “the green light to run.”
Green is an advocate for adults and children with disabilities. Alderpersons Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th Ward), Emma Mitts (37th Ward) and Congressman Danny Davis (IL-7) have endorsed.
Esparza ran for alderperson in 2019. At the time, he said, “The current plans for reform such as a GAPA and CPAC,” which led to the ECPS ordinance that created the Police District Councils, “garner a lot of vocal support, but they are wrong for the city.”
The son of immigration activist Elvira Arellano, who sought sanctuary from ICE agents in a Humboldt Park church for a year in 2006, Arellano has worked with Centro Sin Fronteras and Healthy Hood Chicago on immigration and mutual-aid fronts. “We must hold the police accountable,” he says. “Our communities deserve better, and must be treated with the utmost respect.” Alderpersons Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th Ward) and Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th Ward), MWRD commissioner Dan Pogorzelski, and State Representative Will Guzzardi (39th District) have endorsed.
