Chicago Reader print issue of March 9, 2023 (Vol. 52, No. 11)

Indie musicians are supposed to make their money on the road, but it’s just another source of risk.

By LEOR GALIL P. 30

KIDS & STUDENTS

VISIT FREE!

THROUGH 4/16

THIS WEEK

COMMENTARY

16 Joravsky | On Politics The Tunney-Vallas connection

creative Brittany Devon

28 Movies of Note Sound of Silence is an atmospheric and ambitious haunted-house movie, and Of an Age is a real One Last Night affair.

MUSIC & NIGHTLIFE

Spektral Quartet, and more

43 Early Warnings New concerts and other updated listings

CITY LIFE

04 Street View Alex Scott rolls around town in animal print skates.

FOOD & DRINK

06 Sula | Meat Moot The Istanbulbased barbecue chain opens in suburban Burbank.

17 Isaacs | On Culture The Art Institute mounts its first-ever solo show of Salvador Dalí.

18 Ehlers | On Prisons More police, more problems

ARTS & CULTURE

19 Review Shonna Pryor’s exhibition at Evanston Art Center

20 Poetry Reviewing Jose Olivarez’s new collection

21 Art Aria Dean explores at the Renaissance Society.

THEATER

30 Galil | The great touring gamble Indie musicians are supposed to make their money on the road, but it’s just another source of risk.

43 Gossip Wolf Chicago Psychfest returns with two headlining appearances by guitarist Jeff Parker, irreverent indie rockers the Trenchies celebrate their debut EP at Golden Dagger, and the artists behind two of the Reader’s favorite overlooked records of 2022 share a bill at Cole’s Bar.

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CULTURE EDITOR: FILM, MEDIA, FOOD & DRINK TARYN ALLEN

CULTURE EDITOR: ART, ARCHITECTURE, BOOKS, LITERARY ARTS KERRY CARDOZA ASSOCIATE EDITOR AND BRANDED CONTENT SPECIALIST JAMIE LUDWIG SENIOR WRITERS LEOR GALIL, DEANNA ISAACS, BEN JORAVSKY, MIKE SULA STAFF WRITERS DEBBIE-MARIE BROWN, KATIE PROUT

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OPINION

NEWS & POLITICS

10 Prout | Firearms Musician and gun safety instructor Dina Simone finds freedom in both passions.

15 Brown | News in Gary National Black media organization Capital B creates a local newsroom in NWI.

22 How Blood Go Congo Square brings a new play to Steppenwolf’s 1700 Theater.

24 Preview Layalina at Goodman FILM

26 Profile Actor and multihyphenate

34 Chicagoans of Note Heather Gabel, collage artist and singer of Hide, interviewed by Micco Caporale

36 Secret History Rockin’ bluesman G.L. Crockett died right before he found his audience.

38 Shows and Records of Note Previews of concerts including Lia Kohl, Skech185, and Sona Jobarteh, plus reviews of releases by Kate Fagan, Son Rompe Pera,

46 Savage Love Dan Savage encourages one spouse to do what they want, and another to just hold still and do nothing.

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CITY LIFE

BY ISA GIALLORENZO

“I’m just skating around town, just basically trying to get my miles in. My goal is up to 14 miles. I think I’m at about 8 right now. So I’m going to take another lap around the city,” said Alex Scott, 26, on a Monday in the early afternoon.

“It takes me a couple of hours, depending on how I feel. I like to dance-skate while I’m doing it, so I’m doing twists and turns and dancing in the process,” she said. Though Scott defines herself as “more of a heavy

metal, rock type of girl,” when skating she favors R&B and gets into “some SZA and Rihanna.” She added, “If the day gets really good and I want to do some quick moves, I start playing dubstep.”

Scott, who also goes by Onyx, has been skating since she was around six years old, but really started exploring the whole town on wheels during the pandemic lockdowns.

“I used to skate all around town because the streets were empty, and I’m still doing it today,” she said.

Scott usually takes the 606 and then heads over to DuSable Lake Shore Drive. Once on the lakefront, she skates back and forth from Sheridan all the way to the South Shore. Skating makes her feel “very free, active, and creative.”

Scott prefers roller skating over rollerblading since with roller skates she can “get crazy with it and do every dance move you can think of.” Scott is “into the whole skating

scene.” She told me, “I go up to Garfield Park, to their conservatory. They have their own roller skating event on third Thursdays [at the park’s gold domed fieldhouse from 5:30 to 8 PM, with skate rentals free of charge]. Then they have free roller skating lessons on the west side. And if you go over to the south side, we have two roller skating rinks. They’re the only two [indoor rinks] in Chicago,” she said.

Scott was referring to the only Blackowned roller rink in Illinois, The Rink (on the border of Chatham and Avalon Park) and the Chicago Park District’s MLK Park and Family Entertainment Center in Auburn Gresham. Scott adds that paved sports areas, such as the basketball court in Humboldt Park, and skate parks like the ones in Logan Square and at 31st Street Beach are also good options. She also, of course, appreciates skating on the 606.

When it comes to learning how to skate, Scott recommends lessons from the north-

side organization Inspired by Flavor, or simply going anywhere there are skaters. “[Experienced roller skaters] are usually very open about teaching others. Facebook groups like HP Skate Meetup or Chicago Skate Of Mind are great for getting even more connected with roller skating events,” she suggested.

For buying new skates, Scott recommended online store Dolls Kill, though she got her funky leopard pair with red wheels from Impala Skate. They perfectly matched the groovy vibe of her outfit, which included eyelet bell bottoms and accessories she fashioned herself to honor Black History Month.

“I made the colors black, red, yellow, and green to match with the Afro and gold hoop earrings. I’m a big 70s gal. I love Afros, I love the Afro culture. Basically just anything that has bell bottoms, is tight-fitting, and has goofy colors. I love it all.”

GOLD DOME INDOOR SKATE

Presented by Garfield Park and HP Skate Meetup on third Thursdays; next event Thu 3/ 16, 5: 30 -8 PM, 100 N. Central Park at the gymnasium, free, all-ages, instagram.com/hp_skate_meets

Alex Scott, who also goes by Onyx, wears Impala skates in an animal print.

ISA GIALLORENZO

THE PROBLEM

• Taxes and Interest are the #1 and #2 Eroders of Wealth

• The Real Interest on Mortgage(s) & Student Loan(s) is 60-100%, not the 2-7% We’re Misled to Believe We’re Paying

• Total Household Debt is $15.84 Trillion (newyorkfed.org)

• Stock Market Volatility, Unknown Excessive Fee Structure

• Lost Opportunity Cost and Using Every Dollar One Time

• EARN UNINTERRUPTED COMPOUND INTEREST AND DIVIDENDS

• ACCESS TO CASH VALUE PRIOR TO AGE 59 1/2, W/O PENALTY

• TAX-FAVORED GROWTH AND DISTRIBUTION OF MONEY/ NO 1099

• REPLACING RISK, FEES AND LOSSES IN YOUR RETIREMENT SAVINGS WITH GUARANTEES

• REPOSITION YOUR TAX-DEFERRED AND TAXABLE ASSETS TO TAX-FREE

• EARN INTEREST WHILE ELIMINATING ALL DEBT, INCLUDING MORTGAGE(S) AND STUDENT LOAN(S), IN 9 YEARS OR LESS

• REDUCE THE AMOUNT OF INTEREST YOU PAY

• SELF-FINANCE FUTURE PURCHASES

Meat Moot smokes low and slow, and its cleaverflipping “butchers” steal the show

Burbank is the first U.S. location of a rapidly expanding Middle Eastern zabiha halal smoked meat empire.

By MIKE SULA

Fedora’d men in butchers aprons hoist hunks of wobbling flesh aloft like sacrificial offerings. Stationed before a bank of smokers—meat vaults loaded with parchment-and-tinfoil-swaddled briskets, beef ribs, and lamb shoulders—they slowly tug glistening bones from steaming muscle, smiling as it collapses. The meat smacks against wooden cutting boards, quivering under downpours of salt and spice and ropes of cascading honey.

You approach the counter with your phone held high. A meatman casually flips his gleaming cleaver into the air, snatching it as it tumbles down, and guides the blade toward its first cut. Suddenly a forkful rises over the glass partition toward your gaping gob. If you approve of this smoky lagniappe, you’ll order it by the pound, take a seat, and wait for the feast to arrive.

This is how you dance when you walk through the glass doors of this strip mall

storefront in south suburban Burbank. It’s the first U.S. branch of Meat Moot, an Istanbul-based barbecue chain with 17 locations all over the Middle East.

Even if that sounds unusual, there are a few things about this experience that might seem familiar. By barbecue, I don’t mean Turkish or Arabic-style barbecue, typified by kebabs or thinly sliced shawarma, cooked by direct heat. The meat is zabiha halal, slaughtered in accordance with Islamic dietary law, and no pork is

served. It’s strictly lamb and beef—brisket and ribs in particular—and that’s only one of the ways it resembles Texas-style barbecue.

Meat Moot’s performative carnivorism also might ring a bell if you’re acquainted with the Insta-antics of Salt Bae, and to a lesser extent Cumali Adigüzel, aka “Knife Man,” both erstwhile Turkish butchers turned steakhouse clowns.

But it all probably goes back to chef Eyad Abu Al-Hasan, a Palestinian butcher from the hilltop Arab city of Kafr Qasim about 12 miles east of Tel Aviv. Chef Eyad studied the art of low and slow barbecue in Texas before returning home and opening his first restaurant, applying Middle Eastern marinades and seasonings to meat and cooking it over hardwood lump charcoal for up to 16 hours in his own proprietary smokers.

He also probably pioneered the spectacle. His chefs—the Levantine analogue to Fogo de Chão’s knife-wielding Brazilian gauchos— dance the dabkeh and o er their guests “meat kisses” amid blazing propane pyrotechnics.

“Now everyone’s copying him,” says the amateur meat smoker behind the YouTube channel Halal Digest. “Middle Eastern people love hosting and treating their guests so well and generously, based on our beliefs and duties in Islam—to treat them the best we can. But, yeah, they took it to another level.”

Eyad, known as the “King of Smoked Meat,” has branched out to more than 15 locations around the Middle East and operates a restaurant management and franchise consultancy out of Dubai called Smoked Meat World, helping others do the same.

Meat Moot was launched by a somewhat lesser-known but still significant social media influencer named Seka Abdullah, a suave, smiling Palestinian restaurateur who opened his first location in the summer of 2021 in Istanbul’s Beyoğlu district. He hasn’t stopped since. When he isn’t giving glory to God for his good fortune over the hood of his candy-apple-red Rolls, he’s posing with celebrities at glitzy grand openings, one after another, all over the Levant. Lately he’s been posting more somber reels from earthquake-torn Turkey and Syria, but that didn’t keep him from strolling the red carpet at the grand opening of the Abu Dhabi

Akram Jafar dusts meat with secret Meat Moot seasoning. CLAYTON HAUCK FOR CHICAGO

Find more one-of-a-kind Chicago food and drink content at chicagoreader.com/food.

branch last Saturday—the newest addition to the Meat Moot empire.

So how did Abdullah learn his craft? “That’s the secret to the business, man,” says Hassan Musleh, a car dealer who franchised the Burbank location, his first foray into the restaurant business. “You know, there is always a secret, like the seasoning. Nobody knows how to make the seasoning.”

Musleh says he first met Abdullah “back home” in Jordan, six or seven years ago, but he’s resolutely mum on how the CEO carved out a Middle Eastern barbecue empire in a year and half. (Emails sent to Meat Moot’s Istanbul HQ remain unanswered.)

There’s already a notable American halal

barbecue movement afoot in the U.S., among both amateur smokers and professionals. Many cities have one or more halal barbecue restaurants in operation. Bones N’ Chefs, which opened in Lombard last September, beat Meat Moot by a month and a half. But not many o er the same spectacle—like flair bartending for carnivores. Meat Moot’s Harlem Avenue location is less opulent than the swank digs of its Istanbul or Qatar branches. But, according to Musleh, its chefs—all locals decked out Eyad-butcher-style—went through a 45-day to two-month training period in Istanbul. The marinades and secret seasonings that rain down upon each chunk of meat are consistent from branch to branch, as

is the practice of o ering unlimited amounts of rice, soft drinks (no alcohol), side salads (seven), and sauces—14 of them in all, from chimichurri to honey mustard to tahini.

“Moot” is an Arabic slang term, something along the lines of “to die for.” Yet, all the variety might help to obscure the fact that the flavor profile across the menu’s seven cuts of meat is a bit repetitive, and absent any hint of wood smoke, though Musleh says they smoke with a variety of fruit woods in addition to hardwood lump charcoal.

The meat is masterfully cooked though, particularly the fattier cuts like lamb neck, shoulder, and ribs, which hold up better on the board than the top seller—brisket, which can

dry out.

I didn’t get to try the other most popular cut—beef ribs—because it sold out before I’d arrived. And that’s the gamble one takes on a visit to Meat Moot. They don’t take reservations, and cuts often sell out before closing. I made two long journeys to Burbank before I successfully got dinner and a show.

It might get easier for some folks, though, as Empire Meat Moot continues to spread. Musleh says they’re working on opening a Michigan branch, and though the dashing CEO Abdullah didn’t make it here for the grand opening, “We are bringing him very soon.”

@MikeSula

PLAY WITH PURPOSE®

Sabri Khateb adds a dramatic drizzle of honey. CLAYTON HAUCK FOR CHICAGO READER

A colorful display of Meat Moot offerings CLAYTON HAUCK FOR CHICAGO READER

Help support Multiple

In 2008, the Illinois Lottery launched a specialty ticket benefiting the Illinois Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS). Funds raised from Illinois Lottery specialty tickets are distributed through grants awarded to numerous organizations working in a specific area, such as veterans programs or breast cancer research, but the Illinois Lottery specialty ticket in support of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society is different. Working in collaboration with the Illinois Department of Public Health, 100 percent of profits are allocated to the MS Research Fund, which is devoted to supporting medical research dedicated to finding a cure for multiple sclerosis (MS) and improving the lives of those living with the disease. To date, the specialty ticket has raised over $13 million dollars.

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 “It Takes 2” game, in which players can win up to ten times for prizes up to $20,000, the Illinois Lottery specialty ticket in support of the Illinois Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society makes a great gi for anyone 18 and over. Visit the Illinois Lottery website for more information about this specialty ticket and others, and read on to learn more about the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Multiple sclerosis is a chronic disease of the central nervous system in which the immune system attacks the protective covering of nerve fibers known as myelin, disrupting proper communication between the brain and the rest of the body. The symptoms and severity of MS can vary greatly from person to person. In contrast, some people live mostly symptom-free lives, while others may experience any number of short- or long-term complications, such as vision loss, pain, mobility issues, muscle weakness, vertigo, or changes in mood. There is no known cause of MS, and

while it’s more common among those assigned female at birth, it can affect people of any gender, race, or ethnicity.

“MS doesn’t discriminate,” says Nancy McInroy, President of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Greater Illinois Market. “It affects people all over the place.”

An estimated 1 million people in the United States currently live with multiple sclerosis, including 22,000 people in Illinois. Despite those high numbers, the individualistic way MS presents in patients and a lack of awareness and understanding of the disease in the medical profession and beyond means that some people experience symptoms for years before receiving a proper diagnosis. That makes research surrounding the disease—the vast majority funded by NMSS, o en in partnership with educational institutes, the pharmaceutical industry, and programs like the Illinois Lottery specialty ticket—all the more crucial.

Nicole White, community engagement manager for the NMSS Greater Illinois Chapter, was working as an elementary school principal when she suffered a mild stroke in February 2019 at the age of 42. At the hospital, the neurologist on duty began to connect the dots between her stroke and her medical history of seemingly unrelated ailments.

“[The neurologist] was asking questions that I didn’t realize connected to the reason why I was in the hospital at that particular time,” she says. “Through that long, detailed conversation, we were able to put my medical story together.”

As the reality of her diagnosis set in, she began to experience a sense of grief and depression. “I knew, loosely, one person from

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the Black community that suffered from MS, and she ended up losing her life,” she says. “That was my only reference. . . . I wasn’t in the place to understand how I could still live a productive life. I thought that I would be wheelchair-bound. I thought that I would lose all of the skills that I had worked with for so long and were a part of me, and I thought I was losing my identity.”

About six months a er her diagnosis, White was hospitalized again and temporarily lost her ability to walk. “I had to go to rehab for weeks. I was off of work for about four months. I went to occupational therapy, and speech therapy to help with executive functioning. I went to physical therapy, of course, mental therapy. Through all of that, I was able to understand what MS was going to bring into my life and how I had to just do things a little bit differently in order to navigate the world like abled people are able to do. I’m now in a much better place, but that first year was extremely rough.”

At a friend’s urging, White connected with NMSS through the society’s MS Navigator phone line. “It was just a really refreshing moment for me to get it all out and express my frustrations and just be as authentically as upset as I was when I was pretending not to be, but I definitely was,” she says. Within 48 hours, her email inbox was full of resources, and she began to connect with the MS community.

As a community engagement manager, White works to grow that community across Illinois, from urban centers to rural regions, while raising awareness, educating the public, and breaking stereotypes about the disease. For example, she says the long-standing misconception that MS predominantly impacts white people has led to delayed diagnoses and medical support in communities of color. “When you become aware, then you can educate, then you can empower,” she says. “And that’s what we

Photo courtesy of National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Greater Illinois Chapter

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want to do: We want to make sure people feel their power and their advocacy so that minority communities can start receiving the support that they are due.”

McInroy says that recent years have seen incredible advancements in the treatment and management of MS. “Even 20 years ago, there were very few treatments available for MS. Neurologists really weren’t sure what to do,” she says. “We rely a lot on physical therapy to get people moving and help people with their symptoms, but now there are over 22 disease-modifying therapies (DMTs), which are essentially drugs that can help somebody living with MS to manage their symptoms better to slow down its progression, to perhaps help in a physical capacity, perhaps to help with any cognitive impairments or visual impairments.”

Dr. Laura Rice, an associate professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Community Health at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign is a past recipient of an NMSS grant funded by the Illinois Lottery. Her research focuses on preventing and managing falls among individuals who use wheelchairs and scooters. “Falls are very common among individuals living with multiple sclerosis who use wheelchairs and scooters,” she says. “Our previous research has found that about 75 percent of that population will experience at least one fall in a six-month period of time.”

While Rice’s research shows that circumstances surrounding falls between people who walk and people who use wheelchairs can be very different, she says that the bulk of fall prevention programs center on people who walk. “A lot of falls among [people who use wheelchairs] occur when they are transferring from

their wheelchair to another surface, for example. . . . So it’s really important that we have education for people who use wheelchairs and scooters that are specific to their needs.”

Over the past decade, Rice and her team have made significant headway in understanding the prevalence and frequency of falls among this population. Funding from the Illinois Lottery program has enabled them to develop a six-week intervention program to help people manage and prevent falls. In response to the COVID pandemic, they adapted the program to a hybrid online model that mixes pre-recorded videos and in-person small group discussions with a physical therapist, with an at-home exercise program and journaling assignments. The next step, pending additional funding, Rice says, is to build an app to bring the program to even more people living with MS.

“We know we’ve got a long way to go to find a cure for MS— which is our ultimate goal—so that’s what we’re working on daily,” McInroy says. Until that day comes, she encourages folks to visit NMSS online to learn more about their work and consider buying a specialty lottery ticket. “I really do encourage folks to participate if they’re able to. Maybe you can win some money for yourself, but you can also really change the life of somebody

living with MS. It’s hugely important.”

“Whatever it is that is part of your MS journey, the society has connections and ways to support and help you through that,” White says. “And that’s the beauty around having something like the [Illinois] Lottery offering support for special initiatives—it helps provide a lifeline.”

For more about the Illinois Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, visit https://www.nationalmssociety.org/ Chapters/ILD

This sponsored content is paid for by Illinois Lottery

Photos courtesy of National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Greater Illinois Chapter

NEWS & POLITICS

Queer gun owners are ‘American as fuck’

FEATURE

A sense of freedom connects Dina Simone’s music and their work as a firearms instructor.

By KATIE PROUT

Content warning: This story contains references to hate crimes.

Ifirst met Dina Simone last December, at the west-side house venue VCR, where they were playing bass in Starter Wife, the perfect name for “a band of homosexuals in Chicago” who came of age in the 90s. (When I saw their band name printed in Starter jacket logo font, I had a powerful flashback to 1997, watching someone write “D.A.R.E. is shit” on a dumpster while I shivered and wiped my nose on my own Detroit Lions Starter jacket during recess.) Besides

Dina, the band is composed of Amy Ramelli on vocals and guitar, and Tricia Scully on drums. It was the band’s first show, but you wouldn’t know it: under bisexual mood lighting, the trio played confidently and easily, their breezy rock and good-natured jokes between songs stirring up within me a reckless, midwinter longing for porch beers and sunny windows flung open wide.

Dina is also an independent act: they make “pussy-popping booty music for the soul,” live-looping keyboards and other instruments to create an electronic sound that’s slouchy, sticky, and makes you wanna

bop. Currently, they’re on month three of a half-year artist residency at Montrose Saloon, where they curate shows as well as perform monthly on first Tuesdays. It’s an opportunity for them to return to their solo set—they push themselves to unveil one or two new pieces each time. “It’s also a chance to showcase people who are getting new projects together,” they said, “[I’ve been] kind of pitching them, ‘Are you ready to come play my show? You should come play my show.’”

I can imagine the tone this invitation is offered in—friendly, confident, direct—because it’s how Dina talked to me the second time I

Katie Prout at Eagle Sports Range in Oak Forest TRICIA SCULLY

a poem for america

By Myquale

met them, singing karaoke, when they invited me to join them at a gun range sometime. In between songs, Dina spoke passionately about how trans, queer, and other marginalized people—especially Black and Brown folks—have the right to defend themselves, and of their desire to teach marginalized people in particular gun safety. When I asked if they conceal and carry, Dina took my hand and carefully pressed it against their hoodie, where I could feel their holstered handgun. “Every damn day.”

Igrew up in Michigan around guns. My dad is a hunter, and I remember the musky whi , faintly sweet, of the oil he used to clean his rifle after coming back from the woods. Under the yellow light of our small dining room, the table like a surgeon’s theater, he’d dismantle the gun into discrete pieces, using a wire to shove greased rags ripped from old T-shirts down the empty barrel, naming the parts while I watched.

I don’t know when I became afraid of guns, or when I began to associate their ownership with being a bad person—not bad as in criminal, but bad as in foolish, selfish, disregarding of statistics, and uninterested in the greater good. As a child, I felt cautious around guns—my dad respected them, and I respected my dad—but there wasn’t fear, perhaps because, in childhood, I was only familiar with gun violence from old Westerns and Die Hard . That seemed a far difference from my dad and my grandpa’s hunting rifles. But in college, I was a research assistant for a book on intimate partner violence—a murder-suicide that took place in my dorm. Then there was Sandy Hook, Isla Vista, Charleston, Pulse. Men, almost universally white, murdering women, children, elderly Black churchgoers, and queers. Men, almost universally white, braying on television about their right to defend themselves to the death while open carrying in grocery stores. This wasn’t the kind of gun ownership I’d grown up with, but as I grew into my own political and cultural awareness, it seemed like there was no room for individual gun use in the paradigm of my values.

And yet, if I’m being honest, I’ve grown gun-curious again. In Iowa, I met and briefly dated a queer woman, a high femme who went hunting every deer season and butchered what she shot. Then, beyond using guns as tools when hunting and farming, there’s my own family history, in which a great- or two back was a gunrunner for the early Irish

Republican Army, smuggling arms into the homeland in the fi ght to free ourselves from centuries of cruel British rule.

“You know what I actually do feel like forming a well regulated militia,” tweeted one woman after Roe v. Wade was overturned. I felt that. I’m a queer, borderline-vegetarian woman who is on the abolition train, but I’ve never claimed to be nonviolent, not if I needed to defend myself or the people I love.

I’ve been shoved on the street by a man who got angry when he catcalled me and I told him to fuck o , and I shoved him back. Leaving a sexual health clinic, I was followed a block by antiabortion freaks, men whose keen interest in telling me I was going to hell as they looked me up and down felt sexual and violent. If needed, I know I’ll throw a rock. I’d swing a fist. I also know that having a gun in your home statistically increases your chances of accidental injury, homicide, and suicide. I understand this intellectually, but if the police have guns, if 75 percent of murders by farright or anti-Semitic extremists are shootings, what about the rest of us? In a country where there are more guns than people, why shouldn’t I at least know how to use one?

“My name is Dina Simone. I’m a gaythey. I was born in Oak Park, spent some time in Bartlett, and now reside in Chicago.” A month after the show, we met for our first interview. It was snowing heavily, and we both wore as many layers as possible. They carried a small piece, comfortable to wear under all the bulk: a Sig Sauer P365X pistol, which, a few weeks later, I would hold in my hands and shoot.

What is the connection between pussypopping booty music and the Second Amendment? I asked Dina in the co ee shop, halfway through our fi rst interview. I was worried the question would come o as fl ippant or jokey, but Dina nodded their head. Their stage persona gives them a way to “juggle vulnerability, empowerment, truth, and play.” The connection between that persona and their work as a fi rearms instructor is freedom, they told me, “the freedom to embody both personas.”

“The more I think about that question—I’m American as fuck,” they continued. “Like, there’s so many di erent iterations of what it means to be American, and I’m an out, fucking queer, trans person who wears a gun on my waist. I’m American as fuck. I have the freedom to marry who the fuck I want. I am fucking here. I didn’t choose to be here, but I am fucking here.”

july 4th, 2007 i watched my father empty the clip of a handgun aimed towards the heavens a common celebration.

in the midst of the fireworks, it’s become increasingly di cult to see light inside the darkness the irony.

i was told the oceans mirror the sky. and by that logic, america mirrors it’s crimes, a reflection of the times.

this afternoon another mass shooting was carried out by robert e. lee edit: robert e. crimo*** (freudian slip) shots were camouflaged by the sound of cherry bombs, sky rockets and roman candles. american independence.

july 4th sounds like civil war, the country smells of gun powder, the chemical used in fireworks, 365 days.

today i prayed for the world. i prayed for the victims & families of this tragedy empathy.

Milwaukee-raised, Chicago-based artist, Myquale (pronounced my-kwell) is on his way to becoming a standout beyond Midwestern borders. With a background rooted in ingenuity and creativity, the rapper and producer takes inspiration from jazz, combining it with sly lyricism and raw musicality to produce a sound of his own. He’s done shows with notable artists such as Omar Apollo, Mavi and Kenny Hooplah. In 2020, he featured on Hush Forte’s “DOMINICANA” which amassed 4M streams and ushered in new digital fans. Myquale has since released “Gangsta Party” (ft. Trapo) and “Never or Now,” which he calls the nucleus of his debut album Above All, set to release later this year.

Poem curated by Chima “Naira” Ikoro. Naira is an interdisciplinary writer from the South Side of Chicago. She is a Columbia College Chicago alum, a teaching artist at Young Chicago Authors, and South Side Weekly’s Community Builder. Alongside her friends, Naira co-founded Blck Rising, a mutual aid abolitionist collective created in direct response to the ongoing pandemic and 2020 uprisings. 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–7:00 PM

Celebrating the Poets of Forms & Features (Online)

Poets working in the online poetry workshop and discussion, Forms & Features, will share work created in this online creative community.

Thursday, March 16, 2023, 7:00 PM

Learn more at PoetryFoundation.org

continued from p. 11

Dina’s own perception of guns has changed over time. Growing up, it was a “no guns in the house, not even a paintball gun” situation. But there was music. “I was legitimately in the womb while my mom was performing regularly onstage,” they told me, “so I feel like there was some epigenetic imprinting that happened . . . [Music fuels] my soul in a di erent way than anything else.”

In the early 2000s, when Dina was taking criminal justice classes in college and playing bass for someone who was a contender on American Idol (“We booked a lot of gigs because of that time in the spotlight”), they became friends with a classmate who used to teach fi rearm safety in the military. Dina was curious about fi rearms, and told him so. In their late teens, Dina worked in electrical discharge machining, a metal fabrication process. “You make a lot of small components,” they explained, “that would end up completing, making something bigger.” That’s not a far cry from gunsmithing, Dina realized: “I’m very, very interested in how all these tiny parts work together to make something happen.”

Soon, the friend invited Dina over to his house, where they went over his PowerPoint safety slides. “Come to think of it, that’s the exact same way I introduce new shooters!” they said during our fi rst interview. “It was very sweet; his wife cooked us lunch.”

After the safety lessons, it was time for

the real thing. Their friend took them to a gun range. The fi rst gun Dina shot was a .22 pistol, at a range and under their friend’s supervision. Pleased and invigorated, they moved onto the .357 Magnum. (The decimal numbers refer to bullet diameter: the first gun Dina shot used bullets .22 inches in diameter; the second, .357 inches.)

“First time shooting, and I got some pretty good groupings,” referring to clusters of bullets in one small area of a target—which means their aim really wasn’t bad. How do you feel? their friend asked. “Great,” Dina remembered saying. “Empowered. I wish I could do it more often.”

Dina fascinated me. So much of the national conversation around gun use and control depicts gun owners as white, conservative, heterosexual men, but here in Chicago was a trans, nonbinary musician and performer who makes songs about pussy, money, weed, and pizza, and who also conceals and carries. They believe so deeply that fi rearm training should be accessible and inclusive to other marginalized people that in 2020 they became a certified NRA Pistol Instructor and a certified Concealed Carry Firearms Instructor through the Illinois State Police.

Since then, Dina has carried a gun every day. “I think it’s important to practice what I preach as an instructor,” they said, to have real-life knowledge of how to safely carry a fi rearm while navigating aspects of everyday, ordinary life. Walking the dog, using a public

restroom. “But more importantly—and I wish I remembered more hate crime victims’ names—Matthew Shepard comes to mind,” they continued. “And there’s no fucking way I’m gonna become Matthew Shepard.”

In 1998, around the time when Dina and a crew of other high school metalheads in the Chicago suburbs were making some hardcore noise, feeling themselves and finding community via their band Self Inflicted Nightmare (SIN), a 21-year-old gay college student named Matthew Shepard was beaten, tortured, tied to a barbed wire fence, and left to die under the open skies of Laramie, Wyoming. During trial, a lawyer for one of the men who murdered Matthew argued that his client was driven to “temporary insanity” by his victim’s alleged “sexual advances.” Basically, if a gay man hit on you, the argument went, and your homophobia and internalized fear of being seen as effeminate or queer made you panic, you were justified in blotting out his life.

In 2020, when Dina noticed “a shift in people’s mental energy” at the start of the pandemic that “made me want to protect my family and my home,” at least 44 trans and gender nonconforming people were murdered by guns or other violent means in the U.S. Seventy-nine percent of those who died were people of color, with Black trans women facing particularly high rates of violence. In 2021, that number jumped to at least 57 fatalities; in 2022, it fell to at least

38. “We say ‘at least’ because too often these stories go unreported—or misreported,” said the Human Rights Campaign, who has been tracking violent deaths of trans and gender nonconforming people in the U.S. since 2015.

“Since 2020, more trans people have been killed in Chicago than any other U.S. city,” reported ABC7 Chicago in November 2022. The judge presiding over the murder trial of the men who killed Matthew rejected this “gay panic” defense (and e ective in 2018, Illinois became the second state in the country to ban its use in court), but the ethos behind the reasoning of defense has splintered and metastasized into a full moral panic about the very existence of queer, trans, and gender nonconforming people in American life. That panic presents in di erent ways across di erent states—on March 2, Tennessee governor Bill Lee banned public drag shows and gender-a rming health care for youth on the same day. Here in Illinois, Chicago mayoral candidate Paul Vallas spoke at a fundraiser for Awake Illinois, a group opposed to LGBTQ+-inclusive education in public schools and who has used transphobic and homophobic rhetoric in the past.

And yet, queers are here, and some of them own guns. As years passed and Dina continued going to Chicago area ranges, they noticed there were no other visibly queer people. “I think I’d only seen one at the range.” And even beyond that, there were very few women there alone—the majority of women

Dina Simone (le ) playing bass with Starter Wife at Montrose Saloon ELENA ROBIDOUX Dina performs a solo set in February 2023. ELENA ROBIDOUX

seemed to be with husbands or boyfriends, many reluctant to be there at all. “That’s the reason why I started the business,” they said, “to create a safe space where people would be honored for their background, and feel comfortable to learn about something that might be uncomfortable.”

In 2020, Dina founded Intuitive Tactical Solutions, with the mission to serve anyone interested in firearms safety, regardless of their experience or demographic. “We understand the nuances and assumptions involved [in gun use], as well as the fluid nature of inclusivity, and we adapt by continually updating our courses in response to world events, state and federal regulations, student feedback, and instructor introspection,” reads their website. Courses o ered include Introduction to Firearms and Firearms Safety (two hours), Illinois Concealed Carry Course (16 hours) and Renewal (three hours), and Private Instruction at a range (time varies). Safety courses take place in the privacy of clients’ homes, where students practice handling and “fi ring” a Shot Indicating Resetting Trigger (SIRT), a laser-simulated fi rearm that allows students to practice shooting fundamentals without using a potentially deadly weapon fi rst.

It’d been a long time since I’d held a gun, and I’d never been to the range. I wanted to learn more. And with Dina, I wanted to shoot.

Afew weeks later, when I arrived early in the morning to Dina’s apartment, drenched by the kind of bleak February

NEWS & POLITICS

rain that makes you want to kill God, Dina had already made green smoothies for myself and Tricia, their friend and Starter Wife drummer, and o ered us both hot tea. Later, they made us cheesy grits and eggs before we packed up for the range.

After two hours of Intuitive Tactical Solutions safety training in Dina’s apartment, Tricia and I knew the four fundamentals of gun safety—treat all guns as though they are fully loaded, keep your fi nger o the trigger until you’ve decided to shoot, be sure of what your target is as well as what’s behind it, and never, ever point your gun at something you are not willing to destroy. We practiced how to safely pick up a gun, never touching the trigger, never pointing the muzzle at anything unsafe. We practiced aiming the SIRT at a grocery bag hung up in Dina’s kitchen, fi nding our posture, conscious of our breaths. There was more—so much more— and throughout it all, Dina was attentive and alert to our bodies, our questions, our apprehension and excitement. Like me, Tricia—a thoughtful white woman in her 30s with glasses and a good, thick braid—came from a family of gun owners, at least on her dad’s side, but that gene seemed to have skipped her. This trip to the gun range would also be her fi rst.

Ladies get in half-o on Women Wednesday at Eagle Sports Range in Oak Forest. We arrived midmorning, when the range would have less people (the emptier a range, the fewer opportunities for accidents). Inside, Destiny’s Child sang “Say My Name” via

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speakers overhead while a young woman wearing a cream-colored hijab polished a case of ammunition. Dina and a middle-aged white man using a cane greeted each other enthusiastically, then briefly mourned together the loss of another range friend, a Black woman who’d recently passed from cancer. Then, while Tricia and I perused safety goggles, Dina caught up with a tall Black man in his 60s they called Mr. P.

This was James Perkins, I’d later learn, a Navy veteran, fi rearms instructor, and professional jazz saxophonist and woodwind player who’d just finished closing as one of the orchestra musicians for The Factotum , the groundbreaking world premiere opera set in a present-day Black barber shop on Chicago’s south side and produced by Lyric Opera. This month, Mr. P. will be the principal saxophone soloist in Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, playing at the James M. Nederlander Theatre from March 14-April 2.

“I carry wherever and whenever I’m legally allowed,” Mr. P. told me in an interview after my trip to the range. “Most people will see

me in the middle of some of the largest stages in the country with a fi rearm on my hip.” As a musician, he views owning a gun as part of protecting tens of thousands of dollars of instruments and other musical equipment; as the grandson of farmers, he views fi rearms as sometimes necessary for obtaining food; and as a Black man born in Chicago, “I understand the usage of them in defending my personal freedom, because I have not as of yet seen a law written that will put my life back into my body if I am aggressed upon. For me, it is a necessary staple and part of everyday living.”

Mr. P. believes that “900 percent of the [gun control] laws that exist now only came into being when people such as myself gained access to those fi rearms.” Over the phone, he reminded me that when the Constitution was written, Black Americans were not considered citizens but rather property, and were only considered to be three-fi fths human to a white person. Later, in the post-Civil War south, the so-called Black Codes intended to terrorize and control newly-freed Black people by prohibiting them from owning fi rearms. And in 1967, Republicans in Califor-

nia embraced gun control when it was Black Panthers who were open carrying.

As the gun control debate continues today, many people advocate for mandatory prison sentences as a way of regulating fi rearms and thereby improving public safety, but in 2021, a decade after such a sentencing law was enacted in Illinois, Loyola University evaluated its e ects and reported out. Convicting more people for fi rearm possession leads to a substantial and disproportionate increase of incarceration of young Black men, and the report found no evidence that it reduces gun violence or improves safety overall.

Like Dina, Mr. P. also sees a relationship between his work as a musician and his work as a firearms instructor. “It doesn’t matter whether it’s playing a horn and being able to deliver the correct emotional or intellectual intent to our audience,” he told me. “It’s the same thing when I put a fi rearm in my hands: it’s to deliver precision—the effective and safe delivery of what it is I’m trying to do. I wouldn’t expect a poor musician to be a great shot, because the elements of discipline are not there.”

I am not a musician. I am a writer, given to winding sentences and multiple hyphens. Discipline I know, but precision and I are frenemies at best. And yet, at the range, Dina’s .22 in my hand, I found myself badly wanting the prodigal daughter homecoming, to discover, latent in my blood, that I am a crack shot. Adrenaline lit me up like a match. I breathed and felt Dina at my side, watching my form, the position of my hands. I aimed, and fi red.

My shots were fi ne. Not great, but not bad either. My groupings were mostly around the rubber duckie printed on the target paper, nothing human to aim at on it, nothing that, in real life, could really bleed. Tricia, however, was a star.

“Oh no,” she repeated to herself. “Oh no.” (When I later asked Tricia about her response, she said she was having di culty separating good marksmanship from the lethality of fi rearms, regardless of how safely they’re handled or stored. “It’s terrifying to realize you’re naturally good at something

you’ve spent years trying to separate yourself from, physically and ideologically.”) Despite Tricia’s involuntary protestations, Dina’s eyes gleamed. They hit the button that brought the target back in. There was proof: Tricia’s grouping was far tighter, a fi st to my melon, and targets had one entry hole for multiple bullets, meaning her aim was very sharp indeed. Perhaps Mr. P’s theory on musicians was right.

The range began to fi ll up, and for a while, we were the only white people there. Black women, in pairs and alone, ages early 20s to 70s, aimed and fi red. Latina women with long black ponytails yelled as they chatted above the sound of gunfi re. Latino men took turns on targets that seemed impossibly far away, and geeked out with Dina over the fi rearms they’d brought to the range today. In the corner, an elderly Latina in a black bejewled hat and a faux-fur infinity scarf held the paper target her husband had just shot, studying the holes in it like a map.

Every time I held one at the range, I never forgot there was a gun in my hand. Sometimes, the enormity of the responsibility in my hands made me shake, so I’d set it down for a bit until my body was calmer. “It’s a huge responsibility,” Dina told me during our fi rst interview, on the subject of owning a fi rearm. “If you’re a responsible gun owner, you never stop training: situationally, socially, in a multitude of ways.” I didn’t leave the range ready to purchase my own gun. Still, the day after my trip to the range, I went running. This is not unusual: I run every other day. It’s when I feel most myself, my strongest physically and mentally, even as some men who see me do it—men in cars, on the sidewalks, alone and together—like to catcall and stare and remind me I’m vulnerable. What was new was how I found my hands curling around an imaginary gun, practicing their muscle memory without me: left thumb under right, fi nger defi nitely not on the trigger, left hand pushing forward while the right hand pulled back. Ready, steady, aim.

@katie_prout

“It’d been a long time since I’d held a gun, and I’d never been to the range. I wanted to learn more. And with Dina, I wanted to shoot.”

The news in Gary

Capital B, a Black news organization, establishes a local newsroom.

By DEBBIE-MARIE BROWN

Capital B is a fresh Black local-national nonprofit news organization on the scene. It turned one year old this year, and it recently brought its mission of partnering with communities to create a high-quality news and information experience for Black folks to Gary, Indiana. Gary is a rust-belt news desert that notoriously has lost 61 percent of its population since 1960 due to the decline of the steel industry. Business Insider infamously ranked Gary as the most miserable city in which to reside in the U.S. in 2019. A 2013 article by the same news organization details that 6,500 of the 7,000 buildings owned by the city were at one point abandoned. City officials considered auctioning off buildings for one dollar each, as they were without the funds to demolish them.

This city, which is famous for its stories of urban decay, is the second location where a Capital B local newsroom will be established, following the first in Atlanta, Georgia. There’s currently an initiative in Indiana to make local news better across the state, and

one of Capital B’s funders originated from that pool of conspirators.

But Capital B cofounder Akoto Ofori-Atta says that rural towns like Gary and Buffalo, New York, not just bustling Black metros like Atlanta, have been on their list as places to enter since the nonprofit’s inception.

“One of the things that we identified pretty early on was that if we only went to the Atlantas and Chicagos of the world, it would mean that there will be large swaths of Black people who don’t live in a big city but whose information needs have been largely ignored,” Ofori-Atta tells the Reader. “This is true for Black people living in rust-belt cities. It’s true for Black people living in rural areas. And it’s true for Black people living in majority Black but small and midsized cities with really, really bad access to local news.”

Since Capital B is organized as both a national and local entity, the organization has reporters covering big issues that Black people across the country deem most important, such as climate, health, criminal justice, and

education, as well as local reporters giving people “the information they need to navigate life in a particular city,” according to the organization. They intend to build out their local newsrooms over time.

Ofori-Atta says that when choosing new cities, the organization is focusing on places where demographics are changing politically, meaning Black people living in those areas could be victims of misinformation around elections and other political events.

Although the Gary newsroom has not hired editors or other staff yet, the Atlanta newsroom can give one a clue about Capital B’s intention regarding local reporting.

Capital B Atlanta covers state and local politics, criminal justice, and health, and it does a fair amount of service journalism. There is an editorial director, a community engagement editor—tasked primarily with talking to residents across neighborhoods—a criminal justice reporter, a health reporter, a state and local politics reporter, and a general assignment/community reporter.

“What you’ll see when you go to Capital B Atlanta is a mix of stories that are looking at what’s happening at the State Capitol, pieces that are intended to keep a watchful eye on what people in power at the Capitol are doing,” Ofori-Atta says. “But also you’ll find pieces like how to get something expunged from your record, how to get access to recent tax benefits signed into law by the governor. Locally, we’re really focused on helping people get the information that they need that could help them just, you know, be equipped to live life in their city.”

This relatively new Black news organization was brainstormed in 2020 by cofounders Ofori-Atta and Lauren Williams, a former editor in chief and senior vice president at Vox. The pair were spurred to action by “everything going wrong” that year.

“We really thought about how we could leverage our skills, our talents, our experiences, our networks to do something, to make journalism better for Black people. And Capital B is what we came up with,” Ofori-Atta says.

So they considered Black people’s most im-

portant needs related to news and high-quality information and identified two problems. The first was that mainstream news organizations were getting stories about race, racism, and Black life wrong, and this has made Black news consumers crave perspectives and insights to help them make sense of living in this country. Second, local news is in decline. The group needed a solution to address both of those problems to bolster the Black news space.

Williams and Ofori-Atta met working at the Root, a Black digital publication, in 2010 during Barack Obama’s presidency. Ofori-Atta says the challenge Black news spaces face is that they lack the capital and resources of their peers in the mainstream news space— but even so, they’re doing good work, punching above their weight. The founders knew that in structuring Capital B, they would need to create an organizational model and revenue streams that can allow them to sustain this important—and expensive—work.

Capital B pays its editors and reporters generously, relying on institutional grants from foundations, major individual donors, a membership program with a thousand “small-dollar” donors, and advertising and corporate event sponsorship.

“And so that mix of revenue streams we feel puts us in a good position to make sure that we can sustain this newsroom over time,” Ofori-Atta says.

So what will the new newsroom in Gary look like? How many reporters will it hire and what will they cover? That’s all to be determined, but it won’t be decided by the two founders and chief o cers, who are based in D.C. and NYC, because they are not the ones who establish the needs and outlook of the local newsrooms. Those are determined by the initial months of community engagement and partnership.

“I really envision a future that includes us working in partnership and alongside community members to make sure that people just have the information they need to live their lives,” Ofori-Atta says. v

@debbiemarieb_

Capital B cofounders Akoto Ofori-Atta and Lauren Williams with senior vice president Gillian White COURTESY CAPITAL B

COMMENTARY

himself to utter the A word even as he tries to convince you he, like Vallas, believes in your right to get one.

C’mon, Alderperson Tunney—you won’t melt like the Wicked Witch of the West if you say the word abortion.

So, no, neither Vallas nor Tunney were on the front lines—unless it’s a line to kiss Daley’s ring, as they’re both Mayor Daley appointees.

In 2002, Daley appointed Tunney to fill the vacancy created when Bernie Hansen retired as alderman of the 44th ward, conveniently just a few months before the 2003 election.

As such, Tunney was the first openly gay man to serve in the City Council. With that appointment, Daley and Tunney acted as though they’d participated in the Stonewall Uprising themselves.

In reality, Daley picked Tunney to guarantee that a more progressive or independent-minded gay person did not win the seat.

English class at Julian High School.

That novel, by April Sinclair, told the story of a Black teenage girl who was starting to realize she was a lesbian. There was one explicit sex scene that instigated an uproar among clergymen, including Father Pfleger.

Vallas called Julian’s principal and instructed him to order the teacher to take the book o the required reading list. Problem solved. Ron DeSantis would be proud.

Flash forward to June of last year. Vallas showed up at a fundraiser organized by Awake Illinois, a transphobic group that shields its hate as a plea for parents’ rights.

He sat on a panel with Shannon Adcock, the leader of Awake Illinois, and various anti-maskers and critical race theory haters. Adcock called them “the Continental Congress of school choice”, according to Kelly Garcia’s story for the Reader.

ON POLITICS

The Tunney-Vallas Alliance

Alderperson Tunney and Paul Vallas have a curious take on civil rights.

By BEN JORAVSKY

Irealize we’re in the silly season of the mayoral race, as candidates bombard us with propaganda we know we shouldn’t believe. But the recent commercial in which Alderperson Tom Tunney praises mayoral candidate Paul Vallas for being on the front lines in the fights for LGBTQ+ and abortion rights is particularly misleading even by the stretchthe-truth standards of a mayoral race.

Look, I understand: Vallas voters, you have your reasons for loving that man.

It may be 90s nostalgia—a desire to return to the autocratic “good old days” of Mayor Daley, for whom Vallas loyally served.

Or, some of you may still be upset that Mayor Lightfoot defeated all the white guys, Vallas included, in 2019. And Vallas is your chance to, as Vallas puts it, “take back City Hall” and “make Chicago safe.”

Even though Chicago really wasn’t all that safe when the last white guys—Mayors Daley

and Emanuel—were in charge.

You might be MAGA and realize Vallas is as close as you’ll get to having Donald Trump as mayor.

After all, Vallas cozied up to Jeanne Ives and John Catanazara in the months leading up to this campaign. Even as he scrambled to distance himself from that ilk as we headed toward the February 28 election.

If so, vote for your guy.

But, please don’t fool yourself into believing that Vallas is, or has ever been, “a passionate ally of our community with a track record of significant contributions to the LGBTQ+ civil rights movement” and “a lifelong, pro-choice Democrat running to make sure Chicago will always be a safe haven for someone seeking reproductive care,” as Tunney contends in that commercial.

Tunney’s cautious choice of words—“reproductive care”—says it all. He can’t even bring

In return, Tunney was a reliable rubber stamper for any dumb idea that popped out of Daley’s brain, including the parking meter sale.

Similarly, Vallas was Daley’s budget director in the early 90s. He was there when Daley invented Chicago’s version of the Tax Increment Financing program. That is, they took a program designed to subsidize development in low-income neighborhoods and turned it into a gargantuan slush fund, fortified by an abundant flow of your property tax dollars that Daley was free to spend as he wanted— even if he wasted it on his cronies.

In 1995, Daley made Vallas CEO of Chicago Public Schools. It was presumably understood that Vallas made sure Daley got all the credit for anything they could possibly spin as good news.

The mayor eventually pushed out Vallas as CEO when it became obvious that Vallas was starting to believe he should get the credit—a mistake Tunney was too shrewd to make, so long as Daley was mayor.

Bottom line is I can’t recall either man sticking his neck out to take a controversial stance on abortion or LGBTQ+ rights. Especially not Vallas.

Actually, he went in the opposite direction back in 1996 in the matter of Coffee Will Make You Black—a coming-of-age novel that a substitute teacher had assigned to a freshman

When his turn came to speak, Vallas praised “school choice” as “the civil rights issue for this generation.”

Then he gave the group a few tips. “You have to define it as that because, I’ll tell you, the unions are relentless.”

You’ve “got to find natural allies,” such as police unions and conservatives, and build coalitions with them to “advance a pure schoolchoice agenda”, he said, according to Garcia.

In short, teacher unions are your enemies and police unions are your friends in the fight against critical race theory and transgender kids.

Eventually, Vallas retreated and claimed he didn’t realize Awake Illinois was transphobic when he agreed to appear at their fundraiser. Though any cursory Google check would have told him everything he needed to know about Awake Illinois.

Classic Vallas. Tell one group one thing and tell another group something else. And hope one doesn’t hear what he’s saying to the other.

Who knows, if Vallas prevails in taking back City Hall, he might put Shannon Adcock in charge of curriculum at CPS. Just a little gallows humor, my friends.

On the bright side, the next few weeks may bring us more Vallas-Tunney commercials, which are entertaining in their own George Santos sort of way. v @bennyjshow

Alderperson Tunney at the 2013 Pride Parade NATHANMAC87/FLICKR, LICENSED UNDER CC BY 2.0

ON CULTURE

Hello, Dalí

The Art Institute mounts its firstever solo show of the surrealist icon.

By DEANNA ISAACS

Iwas a reporter at the St. Petersburg Times in 1980, when St. Pete got the idea of turning itself into Salvador Dalíwood. Not everyone was on board: on the one hand, there were grumbles about Dalí’s apparent tolerance for fascism (including a cozy long-term relationship with Franco), and on the other, sneering art-world objections to his carnival persona and his staunchly figurative work as blatantly commercial, too crass and populist for serious consideration.

But St. Pete, lagging twin city Tampa in development and desperate for something to add to the country’s best beaches as a tourist lure, took up the o er of industrialist

A. Reynolds Morse and his wife, Eleanor Reese Morse, to donate their extensive collection of Dalí works to an institution that would keep it together and show it. In 1982, the Dalí Museum opened there, in a modest, one-story former warehouse, perched precariously close to the water that’s the city’s defining characteristic.

Like most newspapers, the once-mighty St. Petersburg Times has fallen on hard times—it now publishes as the Tampa Bay Times, putting out a slimmed-down shadow of its former print self only twice a week. But Dalí—except, as he might say, for that little incident of his death in 1989, at the age of 84 (and ignoring the fact that he was exhumed in 2017, when his mustache was found to be intact)—is doing pretty well. In 2011, his portrait of surrealist poet and friend Paul Éluard (whose wife, ubermuse and sexual libertine Gala, soon became Mrs. Dalí, the painter’s professed impotence notwithstanding) sold at Sotheby’s for $21.5 million.

That year, a bigger Dalí museum opened in St. Petersburg. Designed by Yann Weymouth, it’s a perfectly ordinary square, white, three-story building that seems to have been taken over by a giant snail, the bulging glass shell erupting through hurricane-proof concrete walls. Now a major expansion of that

museum is underway. And here in Chicago, the Art Institute (which may have been looking down its nose in 1980) has mounted its first-ever Dalí solo show, “Salvador Dalí: The Image Disappears.”

It’s a comfortably digestible show—50 pieces, including publications and photos, almost all from the 1930s (the decade in which Dalí shot to international prominence, landing on the cover of Time in 1936), housed in three galleries on the second floor of the modern wing.

The influence of Sigmund Freud, especially The Interpretation of Dreams and the concept of the unconscious, is a through line, replete with castrating knives and images of people who’ve sprouted cabinet doors and drawers that could be opening on their interior lives.

Loosely chronological, the show moves from the earliest work from this period, when Dalí was part of the Paris surrealist group headed by André Breton (they expelled him for being soft on Franco and Hitler), to the exhibit’s main focus, which Dalí called his paranoiac-critical method—basically, trick art that calls the validity of one’s own vision into question. St. Petersburg has some impressive-

ly sized examples of this, including a standing nude seen from the rear as she looks through a window to the sea (Gala Contemplating the Mediterranean Sea . . . ); back up, and it turns into a portrait of Abraham Lincoln. The scale of works in the Art Institute show is smaller, but there’s an excellent double-image example in a series of two preparatory drawings and a painting, The Image Disappears. Rorschachlike, it can be either the standing figure of a woman bowing her head to read or the face of a man, probably Spanish painter Diego Velázquez.

The final gallery is devoted to a pavilion Dalí created for the New York World’s Fair of 1939, Dream of Venus, which included an “underwater burlesque funhouse” with bare-breasted “living liquid ladies.” Melting clocks and drooping fried eggs? Sure, but Dalí was conventional in this way: like so many venerated artists before him, he was a boob man.

And he’s not the artist who came to mind after I left the show. In this postpandemic environment, COVID’s economic ravages hang on. The Art Institute is now closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. No food is available

there, not even a cup of co ee. The formerly lively Michigan Avenue lobby has been emptied of both furniture and most staff—when I was there last week, the vast Kenneth and Anne Griffin Court was as abandoned as the marriage it’s named for. Although the Dalí show, with a virtual queue, was well attended, there didn’t seem to be a lot of other visitors. (According to an Art Institute spokesperson, 2022 attendance was just over 1 million—that would be down from about 1.6 million in 2019—and two cafes are set to reopen in the museum March 23.)

As I exited via the grand steps on Michigan Avenue, walking Adams to State and then north, what met the eye was a depressing cavalcade of empty storefronts. There might be another way of seeing this, but they looked to me like harbingers of the commercial real estate bust ticking down in our probable near future. What that brought to mind wasn’t Dalí, with all his Freudian exuberance, but the urban images of Edward Hopper, the master of glaring, soul-killing, vacant space.

@DeannaIsaacs

Apparition of Face and Fruit Dish on a Beach , Salvador Dalí (1938) © SALVADOR DALÍ, FUNDACIÓ GALA-SALVADOR DALÍ / ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NEW YORK, 2022.

PHOTO BY ALLEN PHILLIPS/WADSWORTH ATHENEUM

COMMENTARY

enough to call them.

Politicians are lying when they say that the police prevent crime. They do not. Police are a response to crime. They maintain a crime scene and pick up evidence. They are not a preventative measure.

Chicago police also rarely solve the crimes they are called to. Per a 2019 report, the solve rate for white victims of homicide in Chicago is 47 percent. For Black victims, it’s just 22 percent. That’s unacceptable.

violence, according to Mapping Police Violence. Of those, 132 people killed were cases in which no o enses were alleged. Of those cases, 104 were mental health or welfare checks, 98 cases involved tra c violations, and 207 involved allegations of nonviolent o enses. That means that 46 percent of the cases in which police killed people were originally nonviolent incidents.

ON PRISONS

Promising more police

By ANTHONY EHLERS

Listening to one of the candidates for mayor in Chicago’s upcoming runoff, you’d think that more police is the answer to everything that ails the city.

But how we police Chicago is more important than how many police Chicago has.

Paul Vallas wants to make a dramatic increase in the number of cops employed by the Chicago Police Department. This is clearly not the solution to the city’s problems! Vallas is a longtime politician and talks frequently about his experience in government. He does indeed have experience, but it’s of the wrong kind. It is in failed plans and outdated policies—approaches that abandon and ignore communities of color. These are policies that want the easy way out by simply throwing more police at problems.

We need to decide as a society how we’re going to view crime. Our policies are a reflection of our larger social and political values, and they need to change. Failed policies see crime primarily as a problem to be deterred through fear and punishment. We need to

realize that crime is a socioeconomic problem that needs to be managed. There is empirical evidence that this approach is more e ective at keeping crime rates low and reducing recidivism.

Police brutality and corruption costs Chicago taxpayers millions of dollars. By 2017, Chicago issued more than $700 million in police brutality bonds—debt taken on to cover the cost of police-brutality payouts. On top of that are the tens of millions more in legal fees from brutality cases. Joshua Tepfer, a partner at Loevy and Loevy who won exonerations for defendants whose convictions stemmed from arrests by corrupt CPD Sgt. Ronald Watts, told Rolling Stone in 2020, “By the time the city’s done paying out Watts’ victims, the amount could be astronomical.”

The call to add more police to communities of color is a clarion call for the total occupation of poor neighborhoods. What some politicians and others don’t seem to understand is that many Chicagoans, especially in Black and Brown communities, do not trust the police

In a 2021 law review, University of Pennsylvania researchers William Laufer and Robert Hughes found that nationwide, less than half of violent crimes and less than a quarter of property crimes had been solved in the previous decade. Police “have never successfully solved crimes with any regularity,” they wrote, “as arrest and clearance rates are consistently low throughout history.”

The Sun-Times quoted Vallas as saying he would hire 700 more police o cers with the $100 million that Mayor Lightfoot is spending on private security. That money should be spent on violence prevention programs and community investment. Communities like Englewood and Auburn Gresham should not have to fight to keep a grocery store! These areas need investment. Instead, city policy seems to be one of neglect and abandonment.

Solving the socioeconomic problem of crime is difficult. But politicians need more creative, sustainable approaches. We have seen decades of this “tough-on-crime” policy, and it’s usually aimed at poor Black and Brown communities, whose residents are disproportionately stopped and harassed by Chicago police. A report issued by interim Inspector General William Marbeck in 2022 concluded that Chicago policing shows that when a police stop results in an officer using force against a Chicagoan, 83.4 percent of these incidents involve a Black person.

Black Chicagoans are 1.5 times more likely to be searched or patted down than people of another race. Cars belonging to Black people are 3.3 times more likely to be searched than cars belonging to white people. Officers are more likely to use force against Black people.

O cers used lethal force in 60 incidents analyzed by the Inspector General’s audit, and NONE of those incidents target white people.

In 2022 law enforcement killed 1,176 people. It was the deadliest year on record for police

How is it that routine police encounters escalate to killings? Police killings are not only continuing, they are getting worse. In 32 percent of the cases in 2021, the person was fleeing when they were killed. This should not be happening.

What we see in the report from Mapping Police Violence is that the racial disparities are systemic. Black people were 24 percent of those killed last year, while making up only 13 percent of the population. Black people are three times more likely to be killed by U.S. police than white people—and in Illinois, the ratio is higher.

In 2017, the Department of Justice concluded a yearlong investigation into civil rights violations by the CPD that resulted in a federal consent decree. Since then, the CPD has consistently lagged in its compliance with the decree. A 2020 report found the department missed 70 percent of the deadlines for reforms. It seems they aren’t even trying to change, and accountability is next to nonexistent.

If we want less crime, better policing, and better relationships between communities and o cers, then we need to understand that you cannot deter crime through fear and punishment. It does not work. We can clearly see that this policy has failed. We have to do the hard work of addressing the social and economic problems that are at the root of crime and unrest: things like inequality, exclusion, abandonment, racism, and a lack of political voice.

These reforms need to be aggressive, far-reaching, and systemic. Justice is more than the absence of oppression. Many of the problems we see in poor communities are by design, and so it’s by design that we must fix these problems. How we police is more important than how many police we have. v

We need to decide as a society which policies are sustainable and work.

Anthony Ehlers is a writer incarcerated at Stateville Correctional Center. @prisonjourn

Would hiring more police offi cers solve any problems? MAX BENDER/UNSPLASH

VISUAL ART ‘Don’t Act Like You Forgot:’

Shonna Pryor’s ‘Fiscal Frontiers’

The Chicago artist casts reclaimed objects as pathways to a more just future.

BY ANNETTE LEPIQUE

Aportal can be a gate, a door, a website. A pathway is what exists beyond the gate, the door, the webpage. Portals are changed by the people who once occupied their ether, just as pathways are shaped by all those who’ve traveled their twists and turns. This is good, this is how futures begin.

In Shonna Pryor’s “Of Portals and Pathways II: Fiscal Frontiers,” at the Evanston Art Center, the dinner table functions as art object, portal, and path. Reclaimed dining table legs form the base of each piece in the artist’s Tribe of Mansa Musa series. Named after the 14th-century emperor of the Mali Empire, each of the seven works in the series is suspended from the ceiling and gently sways as visitors walk through their field of installation. Salvaged tablecloths, brightly colored and delicately embroidered, sit atop the table legs and intertwine with laser-printed canvas featuring 1872 ledger records from the Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company. Colloquially known as the Freedman’s Bank, the company was chartered through federal legislation signed by Abraham Lincoln in 1865. Freedman’s Bank catered to America’s newly freed population of Black Americans, helping

to provide a fiscal infrastructure to communities previously unrecognized by the country’s banking institutions. Though the bank eventually fell victim to Congress’s lack of oversight, the volatility of the country’s post-Civil War economy, and the rising tide of white supremacist terror that accompanied the civil and political gains of Black Americans during the Reconstruction Era, the total amount invested in all branches would, in today’s numbers, range in the billions.

The Freedman ledgers appear throughout “Fiscal Frontiers.” Viewers encounter the names of account holders at the bank upon entering the exhibition in the immersive WallPAPER of Respect. In WallPAPER, images of names and family details extend from the gallery’s floor to its ceiling. Upon these facsimiles of the ledgers, Pryor has sketched vibrant flowers in varying shapes and sizes as a way to honor the folx who invested in generations yet to come. The motif of the financial document—the evidence of numbers, the undeniable weight of one’s funds—is no coincidence. Pryor is an artist who is acutely aware of how money inscribes and legitimizes one’s citizenship, one’s very personhood, under racial capitalism. The lost Black wealth

of the Freedman’s Bank functions, then, as Pryor’s raw material, the launch pad by which “Fiscal Frontiers” honors untold histories and imagines unknown futures.

During Pryor’s artist talk, which accompanied the exhibition’s opening, she mentioned the “ports” fashioned onto each of the tablecloths in the Mansa Musa series. Pryor explained that the ports serve to center the alterity of each object and its hidden histories and lives. Her use of Afrofuturist iconography further challenges the viewer’s relationship to each piece. For Pryor, a tablecloth is never simply fabric. When you sit at a table (or have a seat at the table), you enter another world. You join a family, you make a memory, you start the day. The table and the tablecloth are sites of stories, secrets, and love. These are objects that do not just contain history but also possess the potential for a future. What will happen next?

History is palpable throughout “Fiscal Frontiers.” It can be felt within the plush tactility of each tablecloth’s well-worn embroidery and in the creamy reams of blank paper spilling out from an adding machine. Unlike Pryor’s frames, tablecloths, and tables—objects that digress, ramble, and explore with idiosyn-

cratic style—the adding machine forces a return from the realm of a ect. Numbers have weight, they make history concrete. From the money in your wallet to the food on your table, numbers make the material of everyday life manifest. Such, then, is the poignancy of the blank paper. As Pryor explained, the white skein signifies the debt of reparations. This is a debt not easily paid, for how can the immaterial and spiritual tolls of atrocities be tallied? How can a world shaped through violence be changed? Pryor would assert that we look first to the material of the everyday, the stuff of the mundane, the weight of the dollars in our pockets.

While the first installment of Pryor’s “Portals and Pathways” also premiered during Black History Month last year (a conscious choice of Pryor’s for both exhibitions) at Material Exhibitions on West Belmont, Evanston proves a meaningful site from which to stage the series’s second installment. In November 2019, Evanston became the only city in America to legislate reparations for the descendants of enslaved Black Americans, through Resolution 126-R-19. According to the city’s website, the resolution committed the first $10 million the city made through the Municipal Cannabis Retailers’ Occupation Tax to fund housing and economic development programs for Black Evanston residents.

In “Fiscal Frontiers” Pryor is both a cartographer and storyteller of the object, of the things touched and that touch you in return. Speaking from her experience as a Black woman, Pryor uses money, food, and things as the mile markers of life under capitalism to map what it means to be read as “other” by society. Yet she also gives each object, each artifact, agency. There’s power in telling your story, power in the things you collect and give to those yet to come. There is power in community, power in subaltern spaces, power in frames and around tables reclaimed. Cycles, cyclical returns, and departures have ways of appearing throughout Pryor’s corpus. It seems almost fated that the artist shares her surname with one of the Freedman’s Bank account holders featured in the show. There’s a certain inevitability to Pryor’s work, for a philosopher of the everyday knows how to make art that touches you. “Fiscal Frontiers” is an exhilarating reminder of art’s power to speak in the realm of the tangible, the material, the stu that touches back. v @Chicago_Reader

Installation view, “Of Portals and Pathways II: Fiscal Frontiers” at Evanston Art Center COURTESY THE ARTIST

R“OF PORTALS AND PATHWAYS II: FISCAL FRONTIERS”

Through 3/26 : Mon-Thu 9 AM- 6 PM, Fri 9 AM- 5 PM, Sat-Sun 9 AM- 4 PM, Evanston Art Center, 1717 Central, Evanston, evanstonartcenter.org/exhibitions

BOOKS

White people have Emily Dickinson, Mexicans have José Olivarez

In his second poetry collection, Olivarez gi s readers a promise of hope.

By LUZ MAGDALENO FLORES

The first time I met José Olivarez was in 2018, while organizing with Brown and Proud Press. BPP hosted a series of events we called “Cumbia & Stanzas” where poets shared the stage with DJs. We were so excited to welcome Olivarez, who graciously agreed to be a part of our Pilsen DIY event; this was right before the release of his Citizen Illegal book. I remember Olivarez reading “Mexican Heaven”:

there are white people in heaven, too. they build condos across the street & ask the Mexicans to speak English. i’m just kidding.

there are no white people in heaven.

The crowd, made up of mostly Black and Brown people, laughed so loud! Fast-forward

five years: it is 2023, and I am on a flight back to my homeland of southern California to visit my family and homies. I am reading Olivarez’s new book, Promises of Gold, and I am CRYING. Don’t get me wrong, Olivarez also made me laugh again, but Promises of Gold is a collection of poetry that came out of the pandemic, which may have a ected us all, but hit people of color across barrios the hardest.

Olivarez writes in the author’s note, “I wish I could have written you a straightforward book of love poems. I wish healing was as easy as putting a Band-Aid over a wound & watching it close. If I wrote that book, I’d be ignoring all the contradictions & messiness of the world we live in, all the ways in which love is complicated by forces larger than our hearts. I choose to bring the world & its chaos into these poems.” And to say he brought it is

AUTHOR PHOTO BY MERCEDES ZAPATA

an understatement. His Spanglish poetry is reminiscent of Gary Soto, Julia Alvarez, and Sandra Cisneros but what makes it stand apart is its Brown boy magic, hip-hop influence, and south-side Chicago energy—Olivarez’s words hit di erent.

Promises of Gold is written in 11 sections: Folk Tales, Ojalá Ojalá Ojalá, Gold, Untranslatable, Receding, Ojalá Ojalá Ojalá, God, Before Monday Arrives Like A Fist, Glory, Glory, Glory—all of which take the reader through a journey of love, loss, pain, pandemic, memories, Mexicanidad, machismo, cariño, Calumet City, Harlem, and into our hearts made of gold. I cried because Olivarez created a space I have never experienced before while reading poetry. With his poetic verses, Olivarez instigates Mexicano men to cry, no drink or boleros needed (OK, they might pair perfectly while reading). The poems take me, a first-generation Chicana, into a memory that I’ve lived but never dared to write before.

“Fathers”

it has to hurt— those basement parties where even the worm at the bottom of the bottle was singing full hearted about some love they fucked up.

i should apologize— it’s true my dad stopped hugging me, but I never say the other part: i stopped loving him too.

those basement parties where the men would drink & then drink some more— they only sang when they were drunk— they only hugged when they sang— they only cried when they hugged—

The reader is transported into a nostalgic place that smells of tortillas made by a woman who is tired from working at the warehouse but still comes home to cook, where one hears the Bulls game with a grito of disapproval from the man in the house who is also so tired, where a brother or primo is making a bad joke outside while smoking a J and wearing them too: a Mexican household in Chicago.

I am also crying because I, like so many transplants, have migrated far far away from my fam. Choosing to leave them behind for the

OF GOLD BY J OSÉ OLIVAREZ Henry Holt and Co., hardcover, 320 pp., $24 99, us.macmillan.com/books

sake of my art and to find trabajo, just like they did when they left Mexico for Estados Unidos. Latinx migrants cultivate a new belonging in cities like Los Angeles, Houston, New York City, and Chicago. There is something so special about finding your people in lands far away from them. It is why I live in Pilsen and why the poems of Promises of Gold are important. They force us to be seen amidst and beyond the struggle.

Olivarez, who grew up in the south suburb of Calumet City, wrote this book while living in Harlem. He experienced the heartache of being 800 miles away from what home used to be and from the people who raised you, in a time when being close was prohibited. It is a love letter to our folks, our homies, the nice shoes we keep clean because the streets are dirty, to madres with dreams unspoken, to the lovers who get to experience our familias and their bad jokes, to the ongoing search for hope in a country that upholds a system uglier than our ugly brother, Mexican Heavens, and yes, tortillas too.

Citizen Illegal started with a quote by JayZ, “Not bad, huh, for some immigrants.” In Promises of Gold Olivarez includes two, one of which is a well-known quote from a Vicente Fernández song, “Yo sé perder/Yo sé perder,” a great epigraph that sets the mood for his second collection of poetry.

“Ojalá”

oldies on the speaker & my love asleep on the couch. all my uncles rise from their graves or from basement bars— all those years they used to sing the saddest songs: it wasn’t a mourning. it was a cleansing

Despite the pain we encounter in loving and losing, Olivarez gifts us with a promise of hope disguised in gold. He is handing us a mirror and inviting us to remember who we are, who is holding it down for us, and where we come from, no matter where we choose to be. This book reads like an ode to people of color who are handed a broom, assumed to be the help, when in reality we are equal. He’s rewriting the history of colonization and challenging us to unlearn its impacts one poem at a time. v

@lightofyourvida

R “ABBATOIR, U.S.A.!”

Through 4/ 16 : Wed-Thu & Sat-Sun noon- 6 PM, Fri 1-7 PM, Renaissance Society, 5811 S. Ellis, Cobb Hall, 4th floor, renaissancesociety.org/ exhibitions, 773 -702- 8670

ARTS & CULTURE

Aria Dean, “Abattoir, U.S.A.!,” installation view, 2023, the Renaissance Society.

ROBERT CHASE HEISHMAN

VISUAL ART

These nothings

By EMELINE BOEHRINGER

Aria Dean wants you in the hot seat—or cold storage. Her intentions aren’t subtle: you enter her exhibition at the Renaissance Society through aluminum double doors with rubber-trimmed circular windows and step onto a field of black industrial rubber flooring blanketed in nonslip nubbins. Natural light is restricted by a low, hulking perimeter wall, and artificial light ebbs and flows from a giant screen looping the New York-based artist’s ten-minute animated journey through an empty slaughterhouse. Welcome to “Abattoir, U.S.A.!”

From the Latin battare meaning “to beat up” or “to bang,” the French word “abattoir” was coined in the early 19th century to name the final destination of animals bound for slaughter. Abattoir, U.S.A.! (the name of both the exhibition and the film) sees double. The vertiginous sense of watching one abattoir inside another creates a fluidity between the virtual and physical developed by the artist in other recent installations including Suite! (the wry exclamation is a signature, too) at REDCAT and King of the Loop at the Hammer Museum, both in Los Angeles.

The gallery-as-abattoir metaphor is borrowed from 20th-century philosopher Georges Bataille, heavily cited in Dean’s artwork and writing. Bataille proposed that the museum and slaughterhouse were not so different, both relying on the illusion of objectivity to produce violence, one typically ideological, the other literal. These violences are distinct. As Bataille wrote in 1929, the modern slaughterhouse in particular is “cursed and quarantined like a plague-ridden ship.”

In early 19th-century Paris, however, slaughter was still being performed in backyards and butcher shops. The spiriting away of the city’s abattoir was still in its early stages when urban improvements fell to Parisian bureaucrat-turned-urban-planner Georges-Eugéne Hausmann. Hausmann infamously razed the city’s medieval structure and erected La Villette, an iron-and-glass mega-slaughterhouse unveiled at the 1867 World’s Fair.

La Villette could be the initial setting of Dean’s animation, which opens with a camera panning through her digital environment, passing from a blue sky framed by gray beams to brick and scrolled metal trim. Created using the 3D animation graphics software Unreal Engine with animator Filip Kostic and modeler Maya Lila, the interior has a smooth, video game appearance that melts through 19th-, 20th-, and 21st-century abattoir. On its initial sweep, the camera skirts an architectural bull’s head ornament, familiar to Chicagoans as the icon crowning the Union Stock Yards.

Historical easter eggs are not marginal to Dean’s project. Abattoir, U.S.A.! is part of her larger mission to track the slaughterhouse’s influence on modern architecture and design. The fact that industry inspired architects is well known: American grain elevators informed the development of the modern “international style” via Bauhaus giant Walter Gropius and father-of-modernism Le Corbusier. Less known are Corbusier’s unrealized abattoir designs, and the rumor that they might have provided the template for his famous social housing experiment Unité d’habitacion. Dean, however, is not an architectural

historian. Her writing has focused on art and politics, especially the relationship between Blackness and representation, minimalism, and poststructuralism. In two essays, “Notes on Blacceleration” and “Black Bataille,” she positions Afropessimism, through the writing of scholar Frank B. Wilderson III, at the heart of debates around aesthetics, capitalism, and the human. Wilderson’s work focuses on racial capitalism and the ramifications of the Atlantic slave trade, arguing that American society fundamentally depends on Black death, and, moreover, that Blackness is necessarily excluded from liberal ideas of the “human” subject. Dean is interested in how modern architecture encodes and maintains the contours of this subject, constituted in the negative by its exclusion—those left outside. For Wilderson, the outside is the unthinkable position of Blackness. Bataille, too, wrote about the outside, the l’informe or “the formless.” The abattoir concretizes these ideas in a physical place where architecture and technology delimit human, animal, and machine. The animal ultimately faces the absolute violence at the heart of the modern: some beings have the right to live, others do not.

That’s a lot to fit into ten minutes. The elegance of Abattoir, U.S.A.! lies in its simplicity—not much is needed to show that something is deeply wrong here. In the first act, Dean’s camera adopts a first-person pointof-view, swiveling toward an infinite row of holding pens and turning a sickening backflip scored to a swell in the electronic soundtrack by Evan Zierk. The camera enters a slow trod along a curving metal pathway braced with rust-red beams, occasionally pausing to glance around, oblivious to its final destination. Dean alludes to death here through dark art-world jokes. The scale and geometry of the pathway echoes the monumental coiled steel sculptures of minimalist Richard Serra and the steel beams bracing the corridor resemble those used by land artist Michael Heizer for his construction-material sculptures, especially Collapse , a menacing 40-foot-deep pit filled with massive girders. Heizer’s work only seems deadly, Serra’s has been—the collapse of Sculpture No. 3 in 1971 resulted in the death of art installer Raymond Johnson. Death haunts the art world in the other direction, too. La Villette is now a fashionable cultural space housing exhibitions and film screenings. The curved route to slaughter is, in real life, the design of animal scientist Temple Grandin, whose Big Meat-sponsored slaughterhouse video tours (an influence and inside joke, Dean

confided at her opening) extoll the calming quality of a gentle path obscuring the macabre activity beyond. Dean’s thick references validate the sheer dread that slowly builds to terminal claustrophobia at the site of the guillotine-ish “stun box,” where animals are anesthetized with a bolt gun shot to the head before exsanguination. Compared to the abattoir film genre, from the recent EO and Cow to the PETA slaughterhouse exposé, the empty landscape of Abattoir, U.S.A.! creates an especially strong emotional response—less empathy than immediate and jarring atmospheric awareness. Were the film to end at the stun box, it might land on an empty note, like the trailer for a scared-straight Abattoir Simulator. Instead, the deluge. The stun box ushers in a hellish second act of strobing yellow and black blots that throws the gallery into visual chaos. (The gallery advises that individuals with photosensitive epilepsy or fragrance sensitivity practice discretion.) It’s an obliterating death. The end of life, the end of vision, and the end of the sensible culminate in structuralist purgatory, mimicking improperly developed film or the eye left sightless at the receiving end of a sucker punch.

The death of the subject resurrects the third-person view. In Dean’s final act, the camera swings over a blood-drenched kill floor, flying through the same aluminum doors installed at the gallery’s entrance toward a row of swaying meat hooks keeping time with a wordless electronic pop melody. The hooks rock happily of their own accord, ending the film on an artificially sentimental note suitable for Okja or Homeward Bound. The upswing is ironic, and the long line of ready and willing hooks are a reminder that we’ve just witnessed a process through its absence, the millions of animals executed at a breakneck speed missing.

A big, complicated nothingness writhes at the heart of Dean’s entire project, a nothingness where the subject should be. In the real world, the state of nothingness works in favor of the abattoir, which thrives on a reality so central yet so unbearable that it must be banished to a massive cultural, social, and emotional blindspot. There is also the bleak, instrumental state of nonbeing that defines Wilderson’s Afropessimism and Bataille’s “formlessness.” These nothings have di erent properties but no shape, no texture, no color, no form, but it is these nothings that will follow you, far beyond the abattoir doors. v @ Chicago_Reader

“Abattoir, U.S.A.!” tracks the slaughterhouse’s influence on modern architecture.

THEATER

tell her she is fine, despite feeling terribly sick.

“You do have doctors who think Black people feel pain differently, who assume when a Black person says, ‘I have pain,’ and asks for pain medicine, they’re trying to get drugs,” Langford says. “Because this country has never reconciled with the way it formed and the way it prospered in its early eras on the backs of enslaved people, we never had a chance to challenge those wrong thoughts.”

PREVIEW Medical racism

How Blood Go shines a dramatic light on the Tuskegee syphilis study.

By DILPREET RAJU

In 1932, Green Adair was one of 399 Black men in Tuskegee, Alabama, just east of Montgomery, who tested positive for “bad blood.” He and over 600 other Black men were deceived by the U.S. Public Health Service and enlisted to participate in a study originally called the “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male.”

Those men were told they were being treated for their “bad blood” when, in reality, known treatments were withheld in an e ort to observe how syphilis a ected Black people over time. Late-stage syphilis decimated the participants who survived early-stage symptoms. As the infection grew worse, so did its e ects, resulting in debilitating neurological symptoms and sometimes even blindness.

Over 90 years after the Tuskegee study started, Lisa Langford, a descendant of patient number 001—Green Adair—is preparing for the world premiere of How Blood Go , set to debut at Steppenwolf’s 1700 Theater as part of the LookOut series this March.

Langford first learned of her ancestor as a child in 1980s Bu alo, New York, when her family received some money from a class action lawsuit settlement the government agreed to pay out in 1974. The payout was quite low; $9 million total, which came to about $37,500 apiece for the then-living survivors who had syphilis, or $15,000 for their

estates if deceased.

Presented by Congo Square Theatre Company, which has been staging works by and about those within the African diaspora for over 20 years, the new play spans characters and time to exhibit the struggle Black Americans face with health care. “Who was the first person to die in the Revolutionary War?” Langford asks rhetorically. “Crispus Attucks, a Black man.”

“It’s baked into the country, and we show that period after period of the medical establishment mishandling Black health,” she says, referring to the continuous loss of Black life for the advancement of American progress.

The play’s story follows multiple storylines: in the past, brothers Ace (Ronald L. Conner) and Bean (David Dowd) navigate mistreatment after Bean is recruited into the Tuskegee syphilis experiment. Years after their plight, Quinntasia (Jyreika Guest) is ready to get her small business launched, a wellness program called Quinntessentials. But she learns that her healthy body is not a result of her regimen but rather a futuristic, experimental device— activated without her knowledge or consent— that makes her appear white to medical sta .

Quinntasia must reconcile how it was not her own e orts that led her to success but a matter of racial and social dynamics beyond her control. Didi (Yolonda Ross), a close friend, relies on Quinntasia as health-care workers

Langford, director Ti any Fulson, and Ross (known for her role as Jada in Showtime’s The Chi ) have all experienced medical mismanagement. “You Black girls wear your hair too tight,” a dermatologist told Langford as she experienced her hair falling out. She sought another doctor’s opinion and discovered it was actually the onset of a thyroidal autoimmune disease. Fulson was told she had a lazy eye by an optometrist when fluid was actually filling behind her eyeball, which could have led to permanent blindness. “We’re lied to all the time,” Ross emphasizes. “People don’t even care if they’re lying.”

U.S. Public Health Service researchers thought to study syphilis infections by race as it was believed that Black bodies fight the infection di erently from white bodies. In the summer of 1972, Public Health Service social worker Peter Buxtun leaked the Tuskegee study malfeasance to the Associated Press, and on November 16, 1972, the study was terminated after more than 40 years of opera-

HOW BLOOD GO

3/ 11-4/23 : Thu-Fri 8 PM, Sat 3 and 8 PM, Sun 3 PM; also Tue-Wed 3/ 14 -3/ 15 8 PM; mask-required performance Sat 4/13 PM; 1700 Theater, 1700 N. Halsted, 312-335 -1650, steppenwolf.org or congosquaretheatre.org

tion. (As a result of this study and the leak, the U.S. passed the National Research Act of 1974, which outlined general research ethics.)

Psychoanalyst and Yale Law School professor Jay Katz, writing for the panel commissioned to investigate the study, declared that its scientific basis was unethical and that subjects “were exploited, manipulated, and deceived. They were treated not as human subjects but as objects of research.”

If it were not for Buxtun’s whistleblowing after years of his failed internal attempts to

close the program, it’s unclear when—or if— the government would have halted the study. By the time the program was shut down, 128 men in the program had died due to syphilis-related complications. By the early 40s, penicillin was found to be an e ective, reliable treatment of syphilis, even curing syphilis if caught early enough. Yet study participants were not provided any treatments. They were withheld to observe the e ects of syphilis— which spread the sickness to partners and sometimes passed it down to children through birth.

Langford brings up the “father of modern gynecology” J. Marion Sims, who—despite discovering valuable treatments still utilized today—experimented on enslaved women without anesthesia. “I and your mom and whoever, we all benefit from what he did, but it was horrible!” A statue of Sims stood in New York’s Central Park for the better part of a century before being taken down in April 2018. “The problem is really rooted in this belief that Black people aren’t fully human,” Langford says. “It’s woven into the DNA of this country that Black bodies do not deserve the same treatment as white bodies.”

Resulting e ects of the way the U.S. healthcare system cares for Black folks are more permanent than just doctor–patient interactions. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the life expectancy of Black Americans in 2021 was nearly six years shorter than that of white Americans.

Though the play grapples with heavy ideas and stomach-turning history, there is still emotional ground to explore beyond the hurt.

“What does it take for you to treat another human being as though they are not worthy?” Fulson asks. “This larger, systemic issue bleeds into every area of our lives, so how can we also find duality here? With a play like this, that has such a dynamic script, we can go so wide and so nuanced, it’s important that we don’t miss the opportunity of the heart in it as well.”

She hopes the project pushes audience members who work in health care to look inward toward their own perspectives and past experiences, and she hopes white audiences will see it as truth. “I hope that health-care workers will see this show and it will inform their practices,” Fulson declares. “I believe that Black people and non-Black audience members will be having different experiences.”

The cast of Congo Square’s How Blood Go at the fi rst rehearsal SULYIMAN STOKES

DESCRIBE THE NIGHT

THEATER

SWANA STORIES

Tales of our nights

Layalina shows how families fall apart and find each other again.

By BOUTAYNA CHOKRANE

There’s a tranquil moment of healing in act two, when a teary-eyed Marwa turns to their older brother Yousif and pleads, “I don’t want 17 years to pass.” That instant captures the heartbeat of Layalina (lay-alina), a new play at the Goodman that aims to remind us what family can truly mean at best.

Layalina follows the Ibrahims, a multigenerational Assyrian family, as they strive to find a home in Skokie, Illinois. The first act takes place in Baghdad 2003 during the invasion of Iraq, and newlywed Layal and her family are preparing to immigrate to the U.S. due to the ongoing conflict. In the second act, which is set 17 years later in the suburbs of Chicago, Layal and her siblings, Marwa and Yousif, navigate their journeys of self-discovery, which involve coping with sibling rivalries, exploring queerness, and confronting their grief.

The playwright, Martin Yousif Zebari, is also Iraqi born and Assyrian American, but they say the play is only loosely based on the immigration story of their family, who moved to the U.S. in 2002. “As someone who grew up in a country that had wars every couple of years, we didn’t spend our time talking about the war or politics,” Zebari says. “It was like,

‘How do we survive? What are we doing for dinner tonight? When are you getting married? Who’s coming to the wedding?’”

Zebari wrote the first draft of this two-act play in November 2020—in the span of two months during peak lockdown—because they wanted to shatter the stereotypes that people often have about southwest Asian families.

“It’s no longer about that because now it’s a story about a family,” Zebari says. “It’s about them being torn apart and finding each other.” Thanks to a sequence of collaborative workshops and readings, Goodman Theatre’s world premiere of Layalina may tell the tale of one particular family, but it speaks to familial truths that resonate with all of us, despite our varying circumstances. “There’s di erent people around the table, and I refuse not to take that into consideration,” says Zebari, who has prioritized supporting the SWANA [Southwest Asian and North African] actors in the room. “It’s a collection of di erent stories and di erent people’s realities.”

Layalina made its virtual debut in January 2021 at Goodman’s inaugural Future Labs, a workshop program for plays written by artists of color, where Zebari solely focused on

Layalina at Goodman Theatre LIZ LAUREN

script development. In December 2021, during Goodman’s 17th annual New Stages Festival, the play was staged as a developmental production, which provided an opportunity to visualize the story in a physical space and led to the reorganization of scenes and redesign of act two.

“That was the first time the play existed in three dimensions,” says Goodman’s director of new works, Jonathan L. Green, who’s also the line producer and one of the dramaturgs of Layalina . “[Martin] said, ‘I didn’t realize how much rewriting I would want to do once people were in proximity to each other.’

“Having a couple of years of hindsight has been really helpful because [Martin was] able to write the first act with some understanding of history and context,” Green says. “But because act two was happening as they were writing it, since that first reading in January of 2021 to now, they’ve been able to get a little more distant and understand how the two acts work together, and what character arcs began in act one and don’t actually finish until the very end of the play.”

“I have drawn inspiration from family stories that are rooted in people who stay busy with their hands,” says Zebari, who feels they’ve subconsciously been influenced by the works of Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. (Coincidentally, the Goodman opens Robert Falls’s staging of Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard right after Layalina .) “Most Chekhov plays are just families talking about their current circumstances while trying to stay busy with something else, so they don’t have to look the person they’re talking to in the eyes while they say this devastating thing.”

In Layalina, this manifests itself in the way Karima rolls dolmas (stuffed grape leaves) while she tells her daughter about their visa troubles, or in the way Marwa rolls a joint as they vent their frustrations with Layal’s girly dresses to their brother.

It’s obvious that Zebari is first and foremost an actor, as they’ve crafted a character-driven story infused with punchy dialogue that gently unveils the characters. “I just found it incredibly moving, and even though the characters are—in many ways—very di erent from me, I responded to it on an emotional and personal level,” Green says. Director Sivan Battat expressed similar sentiments, which was partly why they took on this project. “I fell deeply in love with the characters and with the way this

play invites you to imagine your ancestors in moments of transformation and turmoil,” Battat says.

And in spite of Layalina’s geopolitical backdrop, Battat insists that it’s a joyous play. “My vision is to tell a story of a family across generations, with trust and with heart, and with love and with humor,” Battat says. “And to, at all times, remember that we are not a tragedy in ourselves. We do not live our stories as if they’re tragedies. We live our stories as our truth.”

Battat views their directorial role as more of a facilitator, encouraging actors to be as imaginative and vulnerable as possible within this shared vision. For example, when staging a scene, Battat will prepare the set with all the props they believe the scene will need and then allow the actors to liberally move within the world they’ve created to discover what blocking feels natural and right. “I’m creating a container for the experimentation to feel free,” Battat says. “Because limitation breeds creativity.”

Layalina means “our nights” in Arabic, a tribute to cherished evenings in SWANA households, when families unwind, dine, and chat about their days and futures. Nighttime is also the setting for all the scenes. This is just one example of the several subtleties that make this production—the first world premiere at the Goodman by a SWANA playwright—so introspective. “Fabric and textiles are [also] important visual elements of this play,” Battat says. “And how it travels through the generations of these families.” As the play unfolds, we see the Ibrahims’ love of sewing passed down through their lineage, as well as their home’s fusion of southwest Asian decor and American furnishings to reflect both their displacement and assimilation. Even the characters’ clothes evolve as they grow and discover themselves.

Layalina ends on a simple yet sweet note, with two characters excited to explore their crushes on each other further. “This story of the Ibrahim family doesn’t end when the lights go down at the end of the show,” Battat says. “Life hurtles forward, and yet this moment that we end on, we get to turn towards hope and love.

“The biggest gift would be if someone walked away and said, ‘You know, there’s a family member or friend or a loved one who I really miss, and I haven’t spoken to in a while,’” Battat says. “And they give them a call.”

FILM

fied as queer. Past boyfriends acted like dating her had been a complete waste of time. But some family members later apologized.

Brittany Devon’s ‘quiet subtleness of sureness’

The up-and-coming queer creative discusses their work, identity, and future.

By MOLLY BOOKNER

Divine intention.

To actor and multihyphenate creative Brittany Devon, these words tattooed on the backs of their legs signify “the divinity we all are, mixed with the intention in which we’re here to live.” They quickly add their spiritual “angel number” (four) and enchantment with the hour 11:11. “It feels like a wink from the universe,” she says. Unknowingly, I emailed Devon at 11:11 PM and started our January 11 interview at exactly 11:11 AM.

Devon, 30, runs She | Them Productions, a Chicago-based production company dedicated to telling inclusive and original stories. The webseries Platonic Girlfriend, one of the company’s jewels, amassed more than 180,000 collective YouTube views in its first season and recently began releasing weekly episodes from its second season. (Season three is in the works.) Flipping the script on the gay best friend trope by featuring a queer, nonbinary

lead (played by Devon) with a straight friend, the series acts as a visual love note to relationships and the many, often confusing forms they take.

“Brittany handles complex emotional scenarios with ease in her delivery,” says actor, software engineer, and fan Zach DeNardi in an Instagram message. As a queer and gender-fluid creative and a Second City Conservatory graduate, Devon seeks to elevate the stories of those too often silenced. “I’m really passionate about normalizing who I am onscreen,” Devon says over Zoom. “I think [that kind of representation] can change the world.”

Devon cofounded She | Them Productions with their former partner of a decade, Fiona Campbell, a fellow actor, writer, and producer. While the pair no longer date, they share the same address—and four dogs. “Brittany will always be my family,” says Campbell. “I feel

like the way in which she lives her life is an example for people.” Campbell cites Devon’s openness, honesty, and vulnerability, as well as the way in which she consistently honors her truest self, even if it makes others uncomfortable. To her, Devon is a “living example” of being out and proud.

Connar Brown, an actress, editor, producer, and puppeteer, is the third member of the production company. She met Devon and Campbell nearly four years ago at the You Never Know Show —or the Scam Comedy Show , as the trio refers to it.

According to Devon and Campbell, the director advertised the show as the “ SNL of Chicago,” but it turned out to be nothing more than an elaborate swindle. Despite attending weekly creative meetings, writing sketches, and assisting the director with ad hoc requests for months (like generating social media content and editing videos), neither Devon, Campbell, nor Brown received a cent. But they became friends and renewed their interest in developing original ideas.

Before founding She | Them Productions in 2015 and moving to Chicago five years ago, Devon modeled, wrote plays, and auditioned for substantial projects, including Pretty Little Liars and True Grit (although they were not cast). “What’s been so cool to watch with [Brittany] is you can get an incredible performance delivered and not have to make it look like it was the hardest thing in the world,” says Christian Gill, a friend who worked with Devon on different sets. “There are a precious few who were born to do this, and Brittany was born to do this.”

The Pretty Little Liars audition came when Devon was questioning aspects of their identity. Although they were reading for the role of Hanna, Devon remembers reading the part of Emily “and being like, ‘I kind of want to be Emily; I kind of want to kiss a girl.’” While participating in their school’s production of Copacabana around that time, they also felt “lust” for a fellow high schooler playing the role of Gladys Murphy, a cheeky cigarette girl. “It’s kind of like that thing they say, ‘Do I want to be you or be in you?’” Devon says with a laugh.

When she finally came out a few years later (initially as bisexual; she now identifies as lesbian), Devon says she felt judged by many people. Best friends and extended family members couldn’t understand why she identi-

“I think it’s interesting how when someone’s going through something that’s so their own, people take it so personally,” Devon says. “That’s when I really see there’s this idea of you versus them seeing you for who you are.”

Devon’s gender identity similarly took shape over time. As a teenager, they recall snooping around guy friends’ bathrooms and silently wishing theirs looked the same in terms of products and overall aesthetic. They never felt super comfortable in dresses and wanted to chop their hair at 17, though they waited until age 25.

Today, Devon feels a “quiet subtleness of sureness” about who they are. “I very much honor the body I was given and the experience I was given, and I love loving women—and also I realize my soul and who I am in this world and how I connect, doesn’t have a gender.”

Devon grew up on a 200-acre farm in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and lost both her mother and father by age 27. Despite this trauma, she speaks of them calmly and candidly. She also narrates Adult Orphan, a podcast about managing the world without parents.

Devon’s father, whom they lost to Alzheimer’s across 12 years, was a Serbian immigrant and internationally renowned polo player who once competed against then-Prince Charles. He was also the owner of Cole’s Quality Foods, a neighborhood bakery-turned-manufacturing center, and invented frozen garlic bread in 1973 (the snack became so popular that Cole’s ultimately built a nine-story freezer to meet the growing demand). Like him, Devon finds solace in riding horses. “I rode horses since I came out of the womb,” she says. Devon’s mom, their “best friend,” worked in insurance before pivoting to care for her husband full time. She died from a heart attack about four years ago. “Through that heartbreak, it’s made me stand up for myself and create myself in a way that I never knew was possible,” says Devon.

As part of the healing process, Devon is writing a memoir, Uprooted, which they hope to see on shelves before 2024. Its first-person essays and short stories explore the notion of being rooted, uprooted, and finally, grounded. “I feel like I’ve been sitting back on the throne of my life lately and seeing what comes forth,” Devon says. “I’m on this journey right now of remembering my magic.” v

Multihyphenate creative Brittany Devon DEVON MORGAN

In 1898, Darrow successfully defended Thos. I. Kidd, Geo. Zentner and Michael Troiber in a case brought by the state of Wisconsin for conspiring to injure the business of the Paine Lumber Company by organizing a strike of the woodworkers in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The workers sought a raise, the abolition of women and child labor, recognition of the union, and weekly paychecks.

Clarence

The invites you to participate in its annual symposium commemorating Darrow

The 125th Anniversary of the Woodworkers’ Strike and the Labor Movement Today

Free Event: Monday, March 13, 2023 6 – 7 p.m. (doors open 5:30 p.m.) Loyola University Chicago Quinlan School of Business

16 E. Pearson, Room 1001 RSVP at https://bit.ly/Darrow2023

Speakers:

Robert

For more on the program, see www.darrowbridge.org

Darrow Commemorative Committee

Co-sponsored with the Civitas ChildLaw Center and Curt and Linda Rodin Center for Social Justice at Loyola University Chicago School of Law

G. Reiter, Jr. President of the Chicago Federation of Labor

Juan Perea Curt and Linda Rodin Professor of Law and Social Justice, Loyola University Chicago School of Law

Actor Sheri Flanders Reading excerpts from the Darrow argument in the Woodworkers case

NOW PLAYING R Art Talent Show

This funny, thoughtful, verité look at the yearly selection process in Prague’s Academy of Fine Arts manages to pack insights about education, societal shi s, and intellectual differences without getting bogged down in culture war cliches. The filmmakers don’t shy away from showing the very real and vast chasms between prospective students, professors, and school staff, but they do so through deadpan humor and with an even hand—whoever’s in front of their camera is allowed to voice their own point of view.

The venerable building that houses the academy is as much a character as its human inhabitants; an oversized gothic-style wooden crucifixion shares hallway space with crude, tacked-up sketches, and plaster casts share studio real estate with multimedia installations. By refraining from talking-head interviews or intertitles, the film allows the viewer to feel like another teacher or student trying to get through a grueling process the best they can. There are debates about gender, style, capitalism, morality, and every other topic that naturally comes up in art school but with blessedly little of the ax-grinding or solipsism that so o en replaces good-faith debate these days. It’s clear that this faculty truly has these young people’s best interests at heart, even when they laugh out loud in closed-door meetings while reviewing the kids’ half-formed exam answers. If you squint at these esteemed professionals, you can see their younger selves in the pompous but completely uncertain applicants. This is as close to the messy Platonic ideal of what an art school should be as I’ve ever seen onscreen.

—DMITRY SAMAROV 102 min. Gene Siskel Film Center

Children of the Corn

The 1984 film Children of the Corn, based on a Stephen King short story, was a fever dream of generational panic, in which the rebellious youth turn away from God and reverence and overthrow the proper patriarchal order by the simple expedient of murdering all their parents.

In Kurt Wimmer’s new reboot, a demon in the corn once again possesses the children of a rural town. But Wimmer makes the political context even more explicit and, thereby, more fertilely ambiguous. In the original, the older generation are good, bland, kind, churchgoing folks; their only sin is trusting their kids too much. In the reboot, in contrast, the parents are a dysfunctional barnful of disappointments and fuck-ups, mired in drink, adultery, and cruelty. They neglect the children, abuse them, and trap them in an economic and environmental cul-de-sac when they destroy the corn crop with pesticides and shortsightedness. As Eden (Kate Moyer), the leader of the feral children, says with disgust, “[Adults] kill everything they touch.”

The acknowledgment that adults are, in fact, o en horrible to children makes a simultaneously more balanced and hyperbolic film. You can understand the children’s motivations, which means the movie has to have the kids do exceedingly horrible things (eye gouging, for example) if you’re going to root for teen protagonist Bo (Elena Kampouris) to stop them.

Unfortunately, the meandering script gets lost in the additional nuance rather than bringing it down like a cleaver. The CGI corn demon, once revealed, is underwhelming, and while Eden is a solid villain, she doesn’t have the indelible menace of the original’s Isaac and Malachai. This Children of the Corn has its appeal, but even if you’re wielding a scythe, replacing your

predecessors is no easy task. —NOAH BERLATSKY R, 93 min. Wide release in theaters

Cocaine Bear

A smuggler dumps duffle bags full of cocaine into a forest before plunging to his death, and a 150-pound bear gets into the drug packets and dies. Great plot for a comedy, right? What if you make the bear 500 pounds, and she doesn’t die but goes on a killing spree, and a bunch of well-known actors are cast as drug dealers, cops, delinquents, and civilians who cross the addicted beast’s path? Laughing yet? Director Elizabeth Banks is shooting for an irreverent 80s-style gross-out but winds up with a bunch of barely connected gags that wear awfully thin past the half-hour mark. I spent most of the remaining run time thinking of the much better movies and shows that Keri Russell, Margo Martindale, Isiah Whitlock Jr., and especially the late Ray Liotta starred in beforehand. He deserved much better than this for his swan song. Whatever slight charm or momentum the film has is due to their presence and the associations we have with them from elsewhere.

But I can’t think of a thing Banks could have done to live up to her movie’s title or down to the sad true story that inspired it. The real Cocaine Bear was stuffed and became a roadside attraction. The movie was a meme and launched a million jokes before anyone saw a frame. Save yourself the price of admission and just watch the trailer if you haven’t already, or—better yet—make your own TikTok version. It’ll be funnier and will cost viewers a lot less time. —DMITRY SAMAROV R, 95 min. Wide release in theaters

R Of an Age

Of an Age opens with a sequence worthy of entry into The Cinema of Stress library (think Uncut Gems or Dog Day A ernoon), but in 1999 and with a gay bildungsroman. Our protagonist Kol (Elias Anton) is sprinting between landlines and thumbing frantically through phone books, shooing his little brother away as he tells Kol to finish his call so he can log onto the net. His best friend Ebony (Hattie Hook), a vain mess who abuses his goodwill for emotional support, has woken up confused on the Australian shore, and he’s the first person she calls wailing from a pay phone. Her chaos costs them a chance to perform in a dance competition that, we know from Kol grief-puking, is an outsized part of his identity as he finishes high school.

The knotty episode gradually loosens as Kol and Ebony’s older brother, Adam (Thom Green), drive to find her. Adam, unlike Kol, is out and open with his sexuality. He’s also of the worldly variety in a provincial land. Kol, an immigrant from war-torn Serbia, is this way too, but not confidently. Adam is perfect-looking and hyperintelligent, but he has the air of someone who finds more alienation than comfort in being fully formed.

Kol is hangdog and madcap, sloppy in his fruitless search for sel ood but sweetly goofy at all times. The camera cuts back and forth between shaky close-ups of both as their dialogue takes us further into them than expected. Adam knows who Kol is more than Kol does, but he finds wonder and tenderness, not tedium, in the younger man’s much-needed unraveling.

The dilemma of Goran Stolevski’s movie is classic, badly timed romance stuff, a real One Last Night affair: Adam is off to Buenos Aires, to pursue a PhD in linguistics. It’s as good as those things get—a memorable blast of humanity and nostalgia. —JOHN WILMES R, 100 min. Limited release in theaters

R Return to Seoul

Heady, searing, strident, and poignant, this film follows Freddie (Park Ji-min), a French Korean adoptee who finds herself unexpectedly in Seoul. Is she there to find her adoptive family? Does Freddie want a reunion, confrontational, saccharine, or otherwise? Director Davy Chou invites us to watch and see, beckoning the audience into his dusty, psychedelic, lavender-blue world where impeccable music choices alternate with yawning maws of uncomfortable, pensive silence. This is a story that is less interested in plot and more in the emotional texture of growing up: confronting hard truths, indulging in delicious silliness, feeling the cold slap of disillusionment again and again. We watch Freddie and are invited to consider what we think is more important—coming home or coming into ourselves? In French, Korean, and English with subtitles. —NINA LI COOMES R, 115 min. Music Box Theatre

R Sound of Silence

Sound of Silence works quickly. Within the film’s first few minutes, an eerie but charming setup turns alarming when an angry apparition appears, gravely injuring an older man who was tinkering with an antique radio in his attic. The strong start slows a bit during the opening credits, which hint that this radio has a history, allowing viewers to catch their breath. Enter Emma (Penelope Sangiorgi), the man’s daughter, who flies from New York to her hometown in Italy to help her family navigate their increasingly bizarre circumstances. With both parents staying at the hospital, Emma is le alone in her audio-equipment-filled childhood home. It’s an obvious sign of supportive parents who wanted to foster her singing, a career she is still chasing. Her ambitions, however, only invite the apparition to reappear, as it becomes clear that staying silent means staying safe. That’s no way to live, though, and it leaves Emma desperate to reveal the dark secret haunting her home and release her family from its evil. An atmospheric and ambitious haunted-house movie that will call to mind Oculus (2013), Sound of Silence plays like a radio. Sometimes it’s smooth, and sometimes there’s static; regardless, you’ll want to tune in. —BECCA JAMES 93 min. Wide release on VOD v

MUSIC

TOURING The great

GAMBLE

By LEOR GALIL

Elijah Montez launched his psychpop project, Daydream Review, after moving to Chicago from Austin in 2018. He put together a band to play his material live, and they planned their first tour for March 2020. We all know what happened next. “It kind of derailed where we were at,” Montez says. “We were playing a lot of shows in 2019, leading right up to the pandemic.”

After U.S. clubs reopened in 2021, Montez plotted the tours that would actually be Daydream Review’s first: a week in the south in May 2022, then nine dates in August to the east coast and back. “It’s really financially taxing,” Montez says. “Probably the most fi-

nancially taxing thing I’ve ever done.”

Daydream Review didn’t have a booking agent, so Montez did the work himself. His live band has six members, including himself, which meant he had to rent a van, which set him back a couple thousand dollars. The cost of gas also took a financial toll—the group’s first road show was May 15, a month before the national average gas price hit its record high of $5.02 per gallon. The band also had to pay for cheap hotels on four nights, since Montez had only been able to line up a few houses where the band could crash for free. That added $100 to $130 per night.

Montez had heard horror stories of bands

getting robbed of their gear on the road, so Daydream Review moved all their stuff into those hotel rooms overnight. “We would literally unpack everything from the car, take it up to the room, and immediately go to sleep,” he says. “It’s exhausting taking that much gear in and out of a hotel.”

Even before the pandemic, it was hard for upstart bands to draw crowds in cities they’d never played—and Daydream Review faced their share of empty rooms on the road. Montez loved making new fans in unfamiliar places, but poor turnout hurt the band’s already ailing bottom line. It didn’t help when the promoter at Small’s Bar in Detroit canceled their show due to an emergency.

These variables make touring feel like a gamble to Montez. “It’s this touch-and-go kind of thing right now that’s really di cult to navigate,” he says. “Unless you have some sort of mysterious benefactor, I can’t really see someone doing it a lot. Unless they’re happy to not have a ton of money when they get back home.”

The current conventional wisdom about the music economy is that touring is where the money is. Now that streaming has destroyed most artists’ ability to earn meaningful income from recordings, they’re supposed to hit the road and hope they can get close to a living wage that way. Never mind that some musicians simply don’t have a live show or

Hitting the road is supposed to be how indie musicians survive the privations of the streaming economy. But it’s fast becoming another source of financial risk.

MUSIC

can’t tour due to family obligations, disability, or a hundred other factors.

During the pandemic, plenty of stories have surfaced that expose additional cracks in that conventional wisdom. If even a single member of a touring band tests positive for COVID19, it can result in a string of canceled shows and the loss of hundreds if not thousands of dollars—even without factoring in the cost of housing, feeding, and transporting the band while they can’t perform.

When Animal Collective canceled a European tour in fall 2022, they cited COVID-19 and the economy. In a public statement, the group wrote, “From inflation, to currency devaluation, to bloated shipping and transportation costs, and much much more, we simply could not make a budget for this tour that did not lose money even if everything went as well as it could.” If that’s the position of one of the most successful indie acts of the past 20 years, what chance do smaller bands have?

I called up more than a dozen Chicago indie musicians to talk about touring since the arrival of the pandemic. Some, such as Montez, had little to no experience on the road before 2020; others, including Facs front man Brian Case, started touring more than a generation ago. Everyone I contacted had encountered challenges on the road, whether caused directly by the pandemic or aggravated by pandemic-related economic conditions. No two people had the same experience, with the arguable exception of Bridget Stiebris and Haley Blomquist—and they play together in the band OK Cool. A few artists I interviewed aspire to make music a full-time job, but only a fraction of them can pay for even basic needs with music- related income. Everyone makes money some other way.

Most of the subjects of this story still value touring and the opportunities it a ords them. Even before the pandemic, several had recalibrated their expectations for their music careers to bring them in line with the financial constraints of the post-streaming industry. One key element of productive touring is learning to depend on it only for what it can give, and that’s constantly changing—usually for the worse.

I couldn’t answer some of my larger questions, such as the e ect of deteriorating tour conditions on regional music communities— that’s an entirely different story. But I did come away from these conversations with a newfound appreciation for the lengths to which indie artists will go to hit the road.

Montez works full-time as an architect. “I needed a job that could provide health insurance, ’cause I’m diabetic,” he says. “That’s a whole other can of worms on the road.” His day job also allows paid time o , so he can keep drawing his salary even when a tour isn’t breaking even. Not every musician has that luxury.

“None of us really have vacation pay with what we’re doing—we’re all freelancing or working in the service industry,” says Ganser drummer Brian Cundi . That makes it much harder for Ganser to treat tours as loss leaders as they build an out-of-town audience. “We have to make it worth our while now,” Cundi says. “Sometimes that means exceeding just covering the cost of the tour. We need to have money to eat. We’d like to have money to pay our bills when we get back.”

“It seems like the independent venues are kind of helping bands out.”

Relatively traditional nine-to-five jobs have disadvantages too, including less flexibility with time o . “We only have so much time o , in general, from work,” says OK Cool guitaristvocalist Bridget Stiebris. “Me and Haley have never done a tour longer than a week, because

never done a tour longer than a week, because

When Bret Koontz booked a seven-date November 2022 tour with his backing band, Truancy Club, he relied on the DIY network he’d built in the late 2000s as front man of Cool Memories. His Rolodex has shrunk since then, because turnover is high in the DIY scene—it’s volunteer run, and even when people don’t age out of the community, its venues are vulnerable to shutdown because organizers often live in them.

Reynolds (aka Rose Hotel) in September 2022. They played in each other’s groups and brought along a bassist and a drummer who could perform both sets—thus presenting two full lineups each night while paying just four people.

“We didn’t pay each other, and it really worked out,” McConnell says. “Because we were essentially splitting the cost, we were able to pay our other musicians a rate that felt really fair.”

that’s usually all that we can get off.” Since March 2020, OK Cool have gone on just one tour, playing a date in Wisconsin and another in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Stiebris and Blomquist also toured for a week or so in October 2021 as members of five-piece band the Weekend Run Club.

Artists without booking agents often discover that the labor of scheduling their own tours can be time-consuming. But as Meat Wave front man Chris Sutter learned as he booked 13 road dates for his band in fall 2022, it has benefits too. “A lot of these small, unaffiliated venues are more generous, I suppose, with a band of our ilk, rather than [venues] owned by Live Nation or a broader company. We used to play those [corporate] kinds of venues all the time through an agent,” he says.

“A lot of the smaller cities that we’d normally go to, like Louisville, the people that I spoke to and that I normally work with told me that that town is basically still recovering,” Koontz says. “They’re still trying to get their DIY music scene up and running again, and they didn’t really have the resources. I got that sense from some other places too. So we decided to do major cities and do longer drives and consolidate it more.” Koontz brought all four members of Truancy Club along, which shortened the tour because not everyone could stay out for the two and a half weeks he would’ve preferred.

Izzy Olive records as Half Gringa, and when she goes on the road, she usually brings four support musicians. Since the start of the pandemic, she’s organized three full-band tours. “It’s my rodeo, so I pay my band and I pay for all the expenses on tour,” she says. “I know costs are going up, and I want to pay people in my band more, because they’re worth it.” Olive’s desire to do right by her band a ects her cost-benefit analysis. “I have to make sure that I’m able to pay people and pay for all the things I need without completely being broke,” she says. “Or being able to just pay it o in a reasonable amount of time.”

Vivian McConnell, aka V.V. Lightbody, cut down on the expense of a backing band by partnering with Atlanta songwriter Jordan

Even before the pandemic, Seth Engel had decided he couldn’t tour with his main project, Options. The cost of hiring musicians exceeds what he’s been able to make on the road solo. “The reality is, [touring] without being able to pay people what I would ask for would just feel gross and bad and icky,” he says. “I’m perfectly content to just hang out at home, play shows locally, and make bangers in my room.”

That said, Engel toured more last year than any of my subjects—he just did it as a sideman. He played with Nnamdï, Water From Your Eyes, Mister Goblin, and Dust Star, which by his own reckoning kept him on the road for almost four months of 2022. “There are two lines I draw,” Engel says. “One is, I have to come back and not su er financially—otherwise it’s like, why did I even do it? The other one, of course, is: doesn’t matter how much I’m getting paid if I don’t love playing the music.”

Of everyone in this story, McConnell has landed the biggest support gig: in May she performed at BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend with Harry Styles, singing backup and playing in his band. “It definitely gave me a boost of confidence,” she says. “I was feeling pretty down at the beginning of last year. I was not ready to do the hustle again, just because I’ve been doing it for so long. And it can be really discouraging with touring.”

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continued from p. 31

Most working musicians won’t get to back an international pop star. But smaller artists routinely boost their touring prospects by traveling as an opener for a better-known act. Singer-songwriter (and Reader contributor) Tasha Viets-VanLear spent almost a month of spring 2022 supporting Nilüfer Yanya on the road. Ganser opened for Bartees Strange for a week of dates in September 2021, then scheduled a few shows with Algiers the following month. Indie rocker Mia Joy toured with Sharon Van Etten in spring 2022.

This sort of arrangement exposes emerging musicians to larger audiences. “I was playing such big rooms on that Nilüfer tour that I sold a shit ton of merch,” Viets-VanLear says. “I ended up making a lot of money, which I wasn’t expecting—I could pay rent for maybe the next two months and not have to worry about my income.”

Merchandise sales—T-shirts, vinyl, cassettes, CDs, tote bags, buttons, patches, et cetera—can make the difference between a failed tour and a profitable one. “It changes peoples’ lives to sell ten records in a night,” Engel says. Predictably, though, venues and festivals have been unable to resist muscling in on that money—they have a history of taking a cut, usually ranging from 15 to 35 percent, according to the Union of Musicians and Allied Workers. In November, the UMAW, the Featured Artists Coalition, and rapper Cadence Weapon launched the #MyMerch campaign to convince North American venues to stop skimming from artists, many of whom are already struggling.

Vinyl records have outsize influence over tour scheduling. According to Billboard, vinyl album sales reached a post-CD-era high of 43.46 million in 2022, totaling 54.4 percent of all physical album sales. Vinyl’s resurgent popularity has made it more valuable to bands

but has simultaneously worsened pressing delays—an October 2021 New York Times feature claims that pressing a record now routinely takes up to a year. Indie acts often plot tours to promote a new record, so delayed vinyl can put plans on hold.

According to Facs front man Brian Case, the band’s April release Still Life in Decay will arrive a year to the day after they finished it. That long road added a layer of difficulty to their promotional planning. “It’s just more complicated,” Case says. “It takes more scenarios: ‘Let’s target this, and if this works, we’re good, and if that doesn’t, we can try this and this.’ It makes submitting for tours harder, because those things happen even further out. So you’re like, ‘Well, we’re record out,’ which makes you more attractive to support some larger bands, because you’ve got press coming in as well.”

Facs are already working on another record too. “That kind of puts your head in a di erent place,” Case says. “And it makes revisiting the [album] that’s about to come out a little di erent.”

Merchandise sales are also vulnerable to the same variables that make touring risky—low turnout and canceled shows obviously mean fewer sales. Several artists I interviewed said they’d love to find gigs with guarantees big enough to float a tour on their own, merch or no merch. Cundi says Ganser has been eyeing shows at colleges, since they tend to pay more than clubs.

Indie-soul combo Hollyy stayed in the black on a tour of around two weeks in fall 2022 because they got hired to play a destination wedding in Asheville, North Carolina, that served as an anchor gig. “Starting out with a guaranteed amount of money was such a cushion for us,” says front man Tanner Bednar. “We only had a couple cities where we had guaranteed built-in numbers at the venues, and then everything else was dependent on draw.”

Hollyy have seven members, but nobody in the band owns a vehicle that can hold more than six. They have to rent a van to tour, and that routine expense (like so many others) has increased during the pandemic. According to Wired, Avis-Budget’s revenue dropped 41 percent year-on-year in 2020 as car rental companies took a major hit; Hertz even declared bankruptcy. Most operations sold o idle vehicles to o set losses, and their inventories remain thin—which has driven up the cost of rentals.

This cost forced Izzy Olive to get creative. Half Gringa guitarist Sam Cantor (aka Minor Moon) owns a minivan, and though the band initially assumed it wouldn’t be big enough for a touring vehicle, they practiced packing it with their gear. “‘Can we fit five people and drums and all our stu in here?’ The answer is yes, technically, we can,” Olive says. “We did it. But the thing with that—it was a tight fit. We managed to make it work.”

Lining up a vehicle is only the first hurdle, of course. Meat Wave learned that the hard

fruitful, we would splurge on a nice hotel, and everyone got a bed,” she says.

Indie bands have traditionally saved money on the road by sleeping on the couches or floors of friends or other sympathetic people, but COVID-19 has complicated that. In the middle of a 13-date headlining tour in late 2021, Tasha Viets-VanLear and her band found

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reg Obis’s band Stuck plotted a fourdate east-coast run in December 2021.

Omicron was fast becoming the dominant U.S. COVID variant when Stuck arrived in Cleveland to play Now That’s Class on December 16. The other two bands on the bill canceled—they shared a member who’d tested positive. “So we played an hour set,” Obis says. “I don’t think anyone wants to hear an hour of

Obis spent that night doomscrolling and struggling to decide what to do about the rest of their tour. “We drove from Cleveland to Pittsburgh,” he says, “and then had a ‘come to Jesus’ moment and turned the car

The threat of COVID is all but impossible for touring musicians to guard against—by its nature, the virus requires wide cooperation to bring it under control, and in the States most people have abandoned mitigation e orts entirely. When artists travel for weeks at a time,

play lots of indoor venues where few if any fans wear masks, and bunk at strangers’ houses on short notice, the risk factors are almost too numerous to count.

Touring artists can’t do much to plan for the possibility of getting sick either. If you test positive on the road, the best option is to cut your losses and return home—especially if your tour isn’t long enough for the disease to run its course before your last date. That’s what Ganser did when Cundiff and guitarist Charlie Landsman tested positive on a threeshow run with Algiers.

“We had to drive all the way back, straight from New Orleans,” Cundiff says. “Basically, we had the van’s windows down so Nadia [Garofalo] and Alicia [Gaines] wouldn’t get what we had. Luckily they didn’t—but that was pretty rough. That was an extra expense.”

COVID also struck Viets-VanLear’s fourplus-week tour with Nilüfer Yanya. They postponed two Canadian shows after a

Half Gringa scheduled a ten-date fullband run in October 2022, but doubt set in partway through the tour. “After about seven shows, turnout was not so great,” Olive says. “I started to think—I’m self-managed—from a manager’s perspective, ‘Does it make sense to do the last four dates of this tour?’” She’d played in some of the same cities in fall 2021, and ticket sales were lagging behind those shows.

Ordinary tour costs (gas, food) had increased as well. In October 2022, the Wall Street Journal reported that consumer prices had risen almost 8 percent from the year before. “I thought, ‘Maybe it doesn’t make sense to come up here,’” Olive says. “Even some of the talent buyers who booked those shows were saying the same thing. They were not mean about it. They were like, ‘Hey, it’s a really tough time, these kinds of shows aren’t doing super well. Maybe you should save the gas money and come back another time.’” She canceled the remaining gigs, and the band returned to Chicago.

“It was a bummer,” Olive says. “Luckily, everybody that I had in the full band was really understanding and kind about it and very empathetic. We all have other jobs outside of this, and it didn’t put anybody out severely. But it was like, ‘I can’t lose more money. I won’t be able to make another record in the manner that I want to, or in the time frame that I want to, if I lose all this

member of Yanya’s crew tested positive in New York. Viets-VanLear and her band drove back to Chicago, planning to rendezvous with Yanya when the tour resumed. But then one of Viets-VanLear’s bandmates was exposed to COVID, eventually testing positive. Her group played the last seven dates with Yanya (and two headlining shows) as a trio.

“We changed the set list and played arrangements that would work for three people,” she says. “It was fine, but it also wasn’t what I practiced. It wasn’t what I wanted to do with these shows, which were in bigger rooms than I’d ever played before.”

The rest of the tour took them west, which meant much longer drives with only three people to share the wheel instead of four. “It was a constant reckoning,” says Viets-VanLear. “Like, ‘This is a beautiful opportunity. I love music, I love my job, I love getting to do this.’ And also, ‘This is so hard.’ Like really, honestly, waiting for it to be over.”

money on tour.’”

Touring today inarguably involves financial and health risks that it didn’t just a few years ago. These new realities, and the compromises necessary to accommodate them, can test any musician’s resolve. Viets-VanLear’s tour last year made her question what she wants out of the industry, and it’s been a balm to her to spend time at home, writing and reminding herself what she loves about music.

Withdrawing from touring and recentering herself, says Viets-VanLear, helps her maintain her conviction that the music business is where she belongs. “I am able to believe that and buy into it a little more,” she says. “Which I think is necessary if I want to keep doing this silly little job.”

Heather Gabel, collage artist and singer of Hide

Heather Gabel is an icon of the midwestern industrial scene. As singer for Hide, their electronic duo with Seth Sher, they control the stage like a bionic witch who’s just emerged from a scrap heap to reveal truths both prophetic and profane. Offstage they’ve been a support professional in varied musical communities, working as a tour manager and selling or designing merch; they’re also a celebrated collage artist. For a little more than a year, they’ve been operating an underground gallery out of their West Loop studio space, which has shown a variety of punk visionaries (such as locals Chloe Perkis and Mony Kaos) who use populist mediums and imagery to describe the agonies and ecstasies of trying to realize a life doing anything but servicing capitalism, heterosexuality, and white supremacy. No gods, no masters, no W-2s! While the aesthetics of the artists exhibited in the gallery vary, all share a vibe with Gabel. Gabel embodies the working creative who’s made something livable despite capitalistic structures of social control.

When I was seven, my family moved to a suburb of Detroit, and I kind of lived there indefinitely until college. Honestly, I only went to school because I got a scholarship, and that made it easy to move out of my mom’s house. I moved out the day after high school, you know? But the scholarship really limited the classes I was able to take, and I wanted to get even further from home. I knew a few people in Chicago, and Columbia [College] was cheap, so I was like, “Let’s go there!”

I started making flyers and stuff in high school. That was collage, which is mostly what I do now. I’ve always been really into punk and punk shows. I love punk’s DIY thing. It’s like, “OK, you don’t have to be an expert or perfect or well-known to do the thing. You can just do the thing.” Your music or art or whatever doesn’t have to be like other people’s or easy to consume.

I love the collage format too. I enjoy repurposing things. You can take absolute garbage and give it a second or third life. It’s like sampling, right? Or making a field recording and turning it into something completely di erent.

I moved to Chicago for the first time when I was about 20. It was 1997, I think. I switched from photography to an interdisciplinary major so I could basically do whatever I wanted. I took classes on, like, installation art, ceramics, painting. . . . I don’t feel like school really did anything for me as far as what I do now, though. But who knows?

I moved to Oakland around 2001, and I was there for six years. Lots of bands I liked at the time were from there, like Econochrist, and I really liked that movie Harold and Maude , which is set in the Bay. I did art for a lot of bands, and when I wasn’t touring, I worked at a video store for a bit. I loved it. I love Oakland.

At the time, I never wanted to be in a band. It just didn’t compel me. I just wanted to go to new places as much as possible, and I had other things I enjoyed doing related to music. Then I met somebody and moved to Florida for a bit, where I had my kid. In 2014, I came back to Chicago. I really wanted to be in a big city again. I had a couple of really good friends here, and Chicago’s not that expensive com-

Photographic collage of Heather Gabel SVEN HARAMBASIC

“I think part of why I make art is not having the words. I need other ways to communicate how I’m experiencing and processing things.”

As told to MICCO CAPORALE

pared to other cities.

I had been doing collages for years and years already, and I had a lot of connections to bands that brought me work. But while I was getting settled, I had to hustle constantly. I’d take any paying gig that was art or art adjacent, but eventually I got burnt out. That’s part of why I have this gallery space now. The typical fineart gallery world . . . just not my scene, you know? A lot of rich people and cool guys. It can be pretty gross. Some of the people are so vile, and I felt so commodified.

I met Seth because he was playing drums in this metal band, Zath. I was so excited to be somewhere with DIY shows again, so I was going to tons of shows—especially noise shows and stu —and we became friends. And then one day I was like, “Oh . . . I want to sing!”

I’d never done it before, so it was kind of scary. But I was in a new place physically and emotionally, and I’m into trying new things. I’m like, “I just want to do it. Let’s see if I can do it.”

I think part of why I make art is not having the words. I need other ways to communicate how I’m experiencing and processing things. I really can’t tell you why I suddenly wanted to be in a band. Maybe because I was hustling so hard and had gone through some abrupt life changes. Singing and performing just felt really good to me at that moment! Like, in my body, almost like a corporeal exploration. When I tried it, it felt good to do, so I kept doing it.

I feel like this is my third life. My first life was all the time I had up until I had my kid, and then total mother mode in Florida—that was my second life. When I moved here and started Hide . . . third life.

It’s bananas that Hide has been going for almost ten years. I feel like we’re only getting rawer and moving further away from making, like, “songs” and more toward sound collages. We’re working more on impulse now. It’s a different medium, but it’s a lot of the same ideas from my visual art, plus moving my body.

Seth and I are more in tune with the sounds and aesthetics we like and how to identify and combine them, so our process has gotten very organic. But we also work within limita-

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tions. I personally like working with extreme limitations, and I love trash. We intentionally keep it all pretty lo-fi, and we know what we like. We’ll just walk by something and be like, “We should sample that!” And Seth crouches down in some hole recording something on his phone. It’s an Android. [Laughs.] So, shitty. Extra shitty!

There have been times in my life where I was touring and working so much that I didn’t have to worry about money, but that was just a few years. It’s always been this trade-o of, “How do I get to travel and do what I want and still pay my rent?” I’m still asking that daily. But the older I get, the more I realize, like, if you’re willing to have a di erent mindset about . . . not even success, but pushing yourself for creative answers to, “How can I function in this realm in a way that doesn’t make me feel like shit?” There’s a lot of freedom in that.

Having a kid has definitely changed my relationship to money. It’s a di erent financial pressure. I have to live in nicer places than I would if it was just me. And if I’m super stressed about money, I have to just keep that to myself, you know? Like, I wouldn’t want to talk to my kid about it, but it’s a weird pressure. I feel an extra level of judgment too, because, like, my kid wears ripped-up clothes all the time and stu . Being a parent puts so much more social pressure on you to seem like a “normal” person. But I really don’t care what most other people think. I’m proud of us.

At the end of the day, I’m always making things. I have my band and my visual art, and I trade o every other month with my kid’s dad. So when not touring, I’m spending time with my kid and at my studio almost every day. I run a DIY gallery space out of it. I try to always have an art show when I’m home, and I don’t take a cut—I just provide the space.

It seems like a dream that I get to live like this. The trade-o is financial insecurity, but I’m really happy. Being with my kid and knowing that they’re happy and that I’m living a life I feel happy about and modeling that for them—I feel really good about that. v @JuggaloReporter

: DANCE SHOWCASE

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THE SECRET HISTORY OF CHICAGO MUSIC Rockin’ bluesman G.L.

Crockett died right before he found his audience

He released just four singles in his lifetime, but one of them has since been hailed as a classic overseas—it was even in John Peel’s famous “record box.”

By STEVE KRAKOW

Since 2004 Plastic Crimewave (aka Steve Krakow) has used the Secret History of Chicago Music to shine a light on worthy artists with Chicago ties who’ve been forgotten, underrated, or never noticed in the first place.

In the world of visual art, it’s not too unusual for, say, a painting by a French artist who died a pauper to sell through a New York auction house for millions of dollars. Blues and soul artists from the States sometimes encounter a similar fate. After decades spent underpaid and underappreciated on their home turf, they might belatedly find a following in Europe or even further abroad—and for those who live to see it, this “rediscovery” can support a whole second career. Blues and R&B vocalist G.L. Crockett wasn’t one of the lucky ones, though. He died just a few years before an overseas audience recognized his enormous talent.

George L. Crockett was born on September 18, 1928, but little is known about his early years in Carrollton, Mississippi. (Many accounts have claimed he was born in 1929, and such uncertainty is common in the life stories

of bluesmen from that era. Social Security records cleared that up.) We can be relatively sure that Crockett had moved to Chicago by the mid-50s, and he soon established a presence on the south- and west-side blues scenes, which were really happening at the time. During those years Crockett sang for the likes of Freddie King and Magic Sam, guitarists who helped define Chicago’s west-side electric blues sound.

Crockett’s discography consists of just four singles and an alternate take, all released in the 1950s and ’60s. He recorded for the first time in 1957, when he tracked some of his own tunes for Mel London’s brand-new Chief label. London was a Chicago-based songwriter and producer who’d already worked with blues luminaries such as Elmore James, Junior Wells, and Otis Rush. He released Crockett’s “Look Out Mabel” b/w “Did You Ever Love Somebody (That Didn’t Love You)” in early 1958 (with “Mabel” misspelled “Mable” on the center hub).

The single was credited to G. “Davy” Crockett, to capitalize on the Davy Crockett craze of the day—Disney had produced a Davy Crock-

ett TV miniseries in 1954 and ’55, edited into two feature-length films released in ’55 and ’56. High-voltage guitarist Louis Myers and rollicking pianist Henry Gray also appeared on the single, and Billboard gave “Look Out Mabel” a thumbs-up: “Crockett packs a rocking wallop on this driving blues side,” reads the anonymous review. “Bright sound and good reading by the cat gives this a chance.”

Crockett’s hot-but-classy slice of electric R&B has an early rock ’n’ roll vibe (think Chuck Berry meets Fats Domino), but it didn’t climb the charts the way he’d hoped. He wouldn’t release another record until seven years later, when he signed with the Four Brothers label, also based in Chicago.

Four Brothers was run by Willie Barney, Granville White, and soul producer and songwriter Jack Daniels (who’d later launch the Jadan label). Other artists on its roster in the 1960s included Ricky Allen, Edith Brown, and a young Tyrone Davis, then billed as “Tyrone (the Wonder Boy).” Crockett released three 45s with Four Brothers, beginning with 1965’s “It’s a Man Down There.” The tune was almost certainly modeled on the Jimmy Reed hit “Big

Boss Man,” and with its catchy B side, “Every Hour, Every Day,” it reached number ten on the R&B charts and number 67 on the Billboard pop charts.

“It’s a Man Down There” also spawned two “answer songs” in the form of Reed’s “I’m the Man Down There” on Vee-Jay and Prez Kenneth’s “I Am the Man Downstairs” on Biscayne Records. Its success convinced Mel London to license “Look Out Mabel” to garage-rock and soul label USA in 1965. He also licensed an alternate take to Chess Records imprint Checker.

Seven years after its initial release, the reissued “Look Out Mabel” arrived like a time-traveling Black rockabilly number, out of step with what was popular on the radio at the time. It didn’t become the smash it should have on its second release either, but it did prompt another answer song from Kenneth, “Messin’ With Mabel.”

Crockett’s final two singles were both for Four Brothers too. Later in 1965, he released the jazzy shu e “Every Good-Bye Ain’t Gone,” whose B side, the “Watch My 32,” combines a reference to Junior Walker’s classic “Shotgun”

STEVE KRAKOW

with Crockett’s distinctively smoky vocals. He followed it in ’66 with the swinging and soulful “Gonna Make You Mine,” with the grinding B side “Think Twice Before You Go.”

Crockett su ered from alcoholism, though, which could make him di cult to work with. When Daniels ran out of patience, that e ectively ended Crockett’s recording career. The singer died in Chicago on February 15, 1967, from a cerebral hemorrhage brought on by hypertension. He was just 38.

European record collectors discovered “Look Out Mabel” in the 1970s. The Checker take of the song was included on compilations in Holland, the UK, and Germany and reissued as a single in 1978 by UK label RM (Record Mart). The song continues to make compilation appearances, and the original Chief version showed up in 2010 on the two-CD set Great Rock ’n’ Roll—Red Hot! Just About as Good as It Gets!

Famous UK DJ John Peel became a Crockett fan, which surely helped drive his overseas popularity—Peel would often spin Crockett tunes on his eclectic radio shows. Peel kept a

“record box” at home, where he stored whatever vinyl he most wanted to save in the event of a house fire or other disaster—he could grab it quickly and run. Upon his death in 2004, its constantly shifting contents included 142 singles, including two by Crockett: “It’s a Man Down There” and the Checker version of “Look Out Mabel.”

“Look Out Mabel” remains beloved internationally, and though Crockett considered himself a bluesman, his most famous song has been posthumously included in a category that also includes early rock and rockabilly classics by the likes of Gene Vincent. I’d like to believe that his family or heirs are making some money off this, but everything I know about the music industry points in the other direction. The Secret History of Chicago Music can’t fix that problem, but at least it can help keep the flame burning. v

The radio version of the Secret History of Chicago Music airs on Outside the Loop on WGN Radio 720 AM, Saturdays at 5 AM with host Mike Stephen.

Recommended and notable shows and releases with critics’ insights for the week of March 9

Avant-garde cellist Lia Kohl builds resplendence with radio static on The Ceiling Reposes

CONCERT PREVIEWS THURSDAY9

Skech185, Rich Jones Skech185 headlines; Jyroscope, Defcee, Rich Jones, and Fess Grandiose open. 9 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, $12. 21+

Chicago native Willie Lee McIntyre Jr., who raps as Skech185 , relies on vivid, thoughtful bars, not on big, repetitive hooks. Skech can plant a flag in your memory the same way a hook would just by thickening his verses with detail. On “Nights and Weekends” he applies his rich, husky voice to a seesawing monologue that catalogs the thoughts of a bartender worn down by the routines of the job; I keep returning to his novelistic descriptions to marinate in them. (“A thousand hangovers disguised as a doorframe” is one of the many great lines that dot the song as densely as poppy seeds on a hot dog bun.) “Nights and Weekends” appears on the January release He Left Nothing for the Swim Back (Backwoodz Studioz), Skech’s first full-length collaboration with Brooklyn-based producer Jeff Markey. Markey likes smooth, voluptuous samples, but the beats he builds with them feel lived-in and rickety in a way that complements Skech’s raw-knuckled sensibilities. Skech emphasizes nearly every line like he’s trying to convert wallflowers into fans, even though his distinctive turns of phrase will likely sound like a hard-to-crack code to anyone who’s just dipping their toes into underground hip-hop. These days Skech lives in New York, but Chicago shows up strong on He Left Nothing for the Swim Back , whose guest MCs include three of his former crewmates from local supergroup Tomorrow Kings: I.B. Fokuz, Collasoul Structure, and Lamon Manuel. The year is young, but the steamy soul keys and feet-on-the-ground localism of “East Side Summer”—with its fleeting references to hanging out on Constance Avenue in Pill Hill and getting braids put in on 79th and Escanaba—seem likely to make it one of my favorite Chicago hip-hop songs of 2023.

—LEOR GALIL

Rich Jones is a connoisseur of kicking it. The Chicago hip-hop artist came to local prominence about a decade ago with soulful, traditional rap, often singing his hooks. Over the years since, he’s kept his roots firmly planted in Chicago hip-hop while morphing into a widely loved balladeer. Jones has the air of a motivational speaker in his hazy, welltraveled verses, and he’s an epicurean too—a roving foodie who makes music on his adventures. His projects have a bon vivant quality about them, even when they lean sad and pensive.

WHEN I INTERVIEWED EXPERIMENTAL Chicago cellist, composer, and improviser Lia Kohl last year for the Reader’s People Issue, she talked about using radios in her solo work. “Something I really like about the radio is that I’m responding,” she said. “You turn on the radio, and someone could say pretty much anything—except, like, a select number of swear words.” Kohl has an a nity for collaboration—her regular partners include Macie Stewart, Makaya McCraven, and Katinka Kleijn—and she treats her field recordings like active collaborators too. On her new solo album, The Ceiling Reposes (American Dreams), Kohl builds songlike, borderline ambient instrumental compositions that incorporate radio broadcasts she recorded while staying on Vashon Island, just o the southwest coast of Seattle. She frames each fragmentary sample so that even the static feels like a living part of the lush, tranquil, gradually evolving music, and the radio recordings mesh with the other material so well that you might wonder if they weren’t also somehow responding to her. Kohl fleshed out the album with a small symphony of instruments she played herself—cello, of course, plus synthesizers, kazoo, wind machine, piano, drums, bells, and concertina. When a rococo piano figure needles through the sound of a radio jumping among stations on “Became Daily Today,” it ushers in a brief but flourishing melody that feels as calming as a warm bath.

—LEOR GALIL

In October 2022, Jones was on holiday in the Pacific Northwest when he teamed up with Thaddeus Gincig, aka Goldenbeets, a Portland producer and wine-and-mood enthusiast whose tracks combine pretty samples with drums that honor J Dilla and allow plenty of space for intentional lyrics. (His 2021 album Sommelier is instrumental gold.) The duo’s new collaborative EP, It Is Decidedly So, is the product of what Goldenbeets described on Twitter as “kicking it and having a great time with a friend.” And indeed the record is chill and joyous. “Slurricane” has a staccato snare, twinkling piano, and a sweet sampled vocal melody that together cre-

LIA KOHL

Fri 3/10, 7:30 PM, International Museum of Surgical Science, 1524 N. Lake Shore Drive, $15, $7 with membership. b

ate a fluff y backdrop for Jones’s thoughtful crooning. Chicago treasure GreenSllime upgrades the stony microdosed track “Hasheesh” with a shot of humor and a hilarious hook. “The Sting” closes the EP with maturity and self-love, as Jones declares, “I waited three decades and change to finally be OK with me.” Jones’s gi s are abundant and he knows it. And his music, like any great merlot, gets better with age. —CRISTALLE

BOWEN

FRIDAY10

Lia Kohl See Pick of the Week at le . 7:30 PM, International Museum of Surgical Science, 1524 N. Lake Shore Drive, $15, $7 with membership. b

FRIDAY17

Century Stress Angel, Wraith, and Force open. 8 PM, Reggies Music Joint, 2105 S. State, $15. 21+

have patience for. I’ve revisited that Humming Byrd clip over and over because it conveys the adrenalized joy of a certain kind of concert: a young, casually iconoclastic rock band, standing nose-to-nose with their fans in a small, packed venue, find their way toward the germ of a melody for a minute and a half, then draw up short and suddenly unload a crunchy, distorted blast that feels colossal even through shitty laptop speakers. The pandemic has made me anxious about the thought of being in a crowd like that, but We Weren’t Invited have done a lot to remind me of what I’m missing.

The five-piece formed in 2021, and they’ve released three EPs and a couple singles. We Weren’t Invited debuted with what’s since become their most popular song on Spotify, “Me + U = Heaven,” a melodramatic, rawboned acoustic ballad— hugely different from the material on Flesh Vehicle, Pt. 2 , where the melodrama comes from florid arrangements rather than desperate-sounding lyrics. On “Sorry 2 Piss on Your Pity Party,” for instance, guitarists Isaac Rodriquez and Michael Locascio punch up the loopy, gear- shifting funk metal with wizardly thri -store riffs that recall late-80s Sub Pop seven-inches. The wild-man screams of vocalist Johnny Wynne belong to the world of hardcore, and the group’s intensity would make them a good fit for the gnarliest ChiTown Futbol lineup—but their songwriting takes them somewhere else entirely. I’m not sure where they’re headed, but their creativity will be a boon to whatever scene eventually claims them.

GALIL

SUNDAY19

Ibeyi Annahstasia opens. 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 1807 S. Allport, $30-$40. 17+

Lisa-Kaindé and Naomi Diaz, the French AfroCuban twin sisters in Ibeyi, have spent the past eight years making soulful alternative R&B that honors womanhood, ancestry, and communal spirituality across the Black diaspora. The duo have long been familiar with the painful reality of death; they lost their father, famed Cuban percussionist Miguel “Angá” Díaz, when they were 11, and their sister Yanira passed away a few years later. Rather than face death with fear or uncertainty, the songs on their third and latest album, last year’s Spell 31 (XL), act as a healing channel that connects them to the sisters’ lineage and heritage.

LUDWIG

Deep in the hell of 2020, the duo Century arose from Stockholm’s metal scene with a four-song self-released demo that was so much fun it could actually give you a brief reprieve from the unrelenting awfulness of that year. MMXX channels the outsize triumphant spirit of such 80s giants as Mercyful Fate and Judas Priest as well as the gonzo melodies of contemporaneous Swedish bands like Gotham City and Axe Witch. It overflows with catchy guitar licks and copious hooks, punctuated by the occasional hair-raising falsetto scream. Buzz spread quickly via word of mouth, just as it would have when that vintage heavy metal was new, and the first cassette run of MMXX sold out on day one. Century make their Chicago debut ahead of their full-length debut, The Conquest of Time (due in April on Electric Assault), and the album is every bit as raw and adrenalized as I’d hoped it would be. Unlike so many groups that trade in classic sounds, Century don’t feel pinned to the past—with fastand-dirty musicianship and tight, compact songwriting, they breathe fresh air into their fantastical tales of fighting eagles, dark magic, and epic battles. For their live shows, drummer-bassist Leo Ekström Sollenmo and guitarist, bassist, and vocalist Staffan Tengnér recruit two more players, becoming a four-piece that can deliver their sonic attack at full force. Break out the leather (or the vegan leather) and throw on your battle vest, because by the time Century play here again you could be bragging to friends that you “saw them when.” —JAMIE

We Weren’t Invited Hostages, Sarin, Bound, and Bird Law open. 7 PM, Cobra Lounge, 235 N. Ashland, $14.84. 17+

Earlier this year I found a live YouTube clip of Chicago punk band We Weren’t Invited made last fall by local music site the Humming Byrd. They’re performing “A Fly on the Wall (Nobody Is Home)” from their EP Flesh Vehicle, Pt. 2, self-released in January. We Weren’t Invited play hardcore, more or less, but they channel their aggression in perverse directions—including arty affectations, proggy changes, and long tangents that most of their peers don’t

With each new record Ibeyi have grown as musicians and songwriters, and on Spell 31 they embody an infectious exuberance for love and connection. Album highlight “Sister 2 Sister” is a jovial, anthemic dedication to the sisters’ lifelong bond, celebrating the power they continue to draw from each other through their music. In their June performance of the song on Jools Holland, Lisa-Kaindé and Naomi could barely hold back wide-mouthed grins and bursts of laughter as they sang into each other’s eyes and reached for each other’s hands. Their October single, “Juice of Mandarins,” carries on in that upli ing vein—it’s a tender, sensory ode to a lover’s closeness, dizzying and disruptive in its delight. Ibeyi find euphoria and strength in the physical and nonphysical worlds they inhabit. They can’t help but see magic all around them, and they conjure it in turn through their music. —TASHA

VIETS-VANLEAR

Century CHRIS SHONTING

WEDNESDAY22

Sona Jobarteh 8 PM, Old Town School of Folk Music, Maurer Hall, 4544 N. Lincoln, $35, $33 members. b

Sona Jobarteh was born in London to a family of Gambian griots, musicians and storytellers who maintain the oral tradition that keeps the histories of their people alive. Jobarteh’s family is one of fi ve in West Africa associated with the kora, an instrument that combines features of a harp and a lute, with a large gourd resonator and two ranks of strings. Jobarteh began learning kora as a child and has become the first woman from a griot family to rise to global prominence for her mastery of it. Jobarteh’s music, activism, and scholarship are informed by her commitments to gender equality and to adapting ancient traditions for a modern world. She’s the founding director of the Gambia Academy, which seeks to give African students an empowering, engaging education through an anticolonial lens; the school’s curriculum includes music, dance, capoeira, and agriculture alongside academic pursuits.

Last year Jobarteh released Badinyaa Kumoo , her first full-length record since 2011, and it’s well worth the wait. Singing in Mandinka, she presides over an inviting fusion of traditional music, Afrobeat, jazz, and pop with her clear, resonant voice. She also introduces an array of guest stars into her musical world. Senegalese superstar Youssou

N’Dour lends his commanding vocal presence to “Kambengwo,” and Israeli-Yemenite singer Ravid Kahalani of Yemen Blues adds pure, yearning tones to “Kafaroo” that raise goose bumps in the song’s gentle, lullaby-like setting. Malian kora master Ballaké Sissoko joins Jobarteh on a duet named for him, and the two of them explore the full magical potential of the kora: delicate, harplike notes run like a clear stream of water, inviting the listener to carve out space for focused, intentional listening in the chaos of the day. Alabama-born bluesman Jock Webb contributes searing Delta blues harmonica to “Nna Kangwo,” while Memphis saxophonist Kirk Whalum (that’s him on Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You”) evokes ascension with a solo on “Nna Mooya.” Jobarteh doesn’t need this level of international star power to shine, but the mix of musicians adds an intriguing energy to the record. Jobarteh made her local debut at the Chicago Cultural Center on her first North American tour in 2018; this return performance, part of the Old Town School of Folk Music’s World Music Wednesdays series, will feature a full band with electric bass, drums, guitar, and percussion. —MONICA

ALBUM REVIEWS

Before she began fronting trailblazing Chicago ska band Heavy Manners in the early 80s, Kate Fagan was a new-wave powerhouse. Her 1980 single “I Don’t Wanna Be Too Cool” became the best-selling local release at Wax Trax. Since then, unfortunately, physical copies have been all but impossible to come by. A house fi re destroyed its second printing, and a 2016 seven-inch reissue by Manufactured Recordings (which included two previously unreleased bonus tracks) sold out quickly.

a steel drum. Fagan’s sound is rooted in the 80s, but these tracks—which delve into the mysteries and frustrations of love and the falseness of trend chasing—are enduring. This release should fi nally cement Fagan’s rightful place in Chicago punk history.

—KERRY CARDOZA

Rezn, Solace

KENDRICK

Kate Fagan, I Don’t Wanna Be Too Cool Captured Tracks katefagan.bandcamp.com/album/i-dont-wannabe-too-cool-expanded-edition

Early punk connoisseurs will be pleased, then, that the four songs from the 2016 reissue are making their 12-inch debut on an expanded version of the single that features four more previously unreleased tracks. All six additional tunes come from The Kissing Concept, a semi-autobiographical rock opera Fagan wrote in the 80s. “I Don’t Wanna Be Too Cool” is an obvious banger, with a minimal rhythm and a jaunty postpunk riff. Written shortly a er Fagan taught herself bass, the song pokes fun at the hipster poseurs infiltrating the New York punk scene she’d just fl ed. Fagan’s vocals do most of the work, staying at a standard 80s pop level before rising into chirps; with her quavering, high-pitched voice, she o en sounds a bit like Yoko Ono. The single’s original B side, “Waiting for the Crisis,” is a timeless, tongue-in-cheek stab at U.S. arms trading.

The rest of the album recalls Blondie with its tinkling synths and funky dance beats, though you can also hear Fagan’s interest in reggae beginning to assert itself. Closing track “Say It,” produced by Peter Tosh, features offbeat guitar rhythms and a synth line that mimics the tone of

Self-released rezzzn.bandcamp.com/album/solace

Chicago has a tradition of far-reaching heavy bands, and among the current crop, psychedelic metal outfit Rezn (o en styled REZN) have become one to watch. They’ve been pulling away from the usual trappings of stoner metal, and on 2020’s Chaotic Divine they incorporated a mix of influences that don’t o en appear in metal of any kind. In some bands, experiments like those go downhill quickly, but Rezn have proved they can make elements as disparate as doom metal and smooth jazz work together like peanut butter and jelly (or some other flavor combo you find enjoyable).

On the brand-new Solace, the four-piece further refine their craft, expertly shifting among moods and colors. It’s one of my favorite new albums to come out of Chicago so far this year, and Rezn waste no time drawing the listener into their compelling vision. They open with “Allured by Feverish Visions,” a windswept, hallucinogenic instrumental voyage that conjures images of a damned Edgar Allan Poe-like character condemned to comb through sandy beaches for a lost love while slow-

Kate Fagan JOHN VAN DORN

Sona Jobarteh ROB O’CONNOR

ly descending into madness. That oceanic feeling continues through “Possession,” with grooves that create the atmosphere of a gentle low tide—that is, until a dense, surging tidal wave crashes down at the song’s end. The album only gets heavier from there, and when the chunky guitar progressions kick in on “Stasis” it feels genuinely cathartic to get lost in their cosmic abyss. One trademark of the Rezn sound is the soulful saxophone of multiinstrumentalist Spencer Ouelette, and his solo on “Faded and Fleeting” could in another context lure your elderly aunt and uncle out to romance on the dance floor. On Solace, though, it makes for a sweet interlude before album closer “Webbed Roots.” Its ambitious twists and turns (and its elegiac spoken word from French Canadian electronic producer Marie Davidson) help fuel the band’s final li off into outer space

—JAMIE LUDWIG

Sleaford Mods, UK Grim

Rough Trade sleafordmods.bandcamp.com/album/uk-grim

When a band have as limited a format and as minimalist an approach as Sleaford Mods, it’s always great to hear them come out with completely fresh and exciting sounds. The British postpunk duo have done this time and time again for more than 15 years, and every one of their releases is engaging, unnerving, and wildly unique. Their brand-new album, UK Grim, demonstrates their airtight, undeniable formula: producer Andrew Fearn lays out ultra-stark, herky-jerky, electronic postpunk gloom while vocalist Jason Williamson loses his mind, his ranting and raving balanced on the line between aggressive hip-hop and furious anarcho-punk. Over the years, Sleaford Mods have slowly and subtly expanded their palette, sometimes coming surprisingly close to pop music—2021’s smasher of a single, “Nudge It,” features guest vocals from Amy Taylor of Australian punk rockers Amyl & the Sniffers. UK Grim sticks to territory that’s less melodic and catchy than that, though, and by the sound of Williamson’s performances he’s saltier and angrier than ever. What’s he so pissed off about? Judging by his lyrics, everything: the state of the government, DIY posers, lame haircuts . . . no one is safe from his unrelenting, bombastic commentary. UK Grim’s biggest surprise arrives on “So Trendy,” when Perry Farrell (of all people) shows up to add fun hooks while somehow matching Williamson’s percussive vocal attack. Sleaford Mods’ angry worldview and direct, confrontational style results in a wholly satisfying and cathartic release.

—LUCA CIMARUSTI

Son Rompe Pera, Chimborazo Aya ayarecords.bandcamp.com/track/chucha

The marimba-forward folkloric cumbia of Son Rompe Pera’s 2020 debut album, Batuco , didn’t entirely prepare me for the Mexican quintet’s visceral, madcap live shows. The style of cumbia in which they specialize more typically soundtracks intergenerational family celebrations than crowd surfing and mosh pits. But the group’s new second album, Chimborazo, sheds light on how they straddle both those worlds (and then some).

Recorded in the famed Mambo Negro Studios in Bogotá, Colombia, Chimborazo pays homage to cumbia (which was born in Colombia) while pushing it far beyond its usual boundaries. With help from a variety of guests, Son Rompe Pera incorporate additional textures and hues into their raw energy. Colombian cumbia orchestra Frente Cumbiero layer lush horns into the psychedelic swing of “Batuco.” On “Chata,” Chilean superstar and longtime collaborator Macha (Chico Trujillo, El Bloque Depresivo) adds intensity to the over-thetop chanting, while Colombian trio La Perla bring in Andean vibes with flutes called gaita.

Son Rompe Pera also continue to expand the genre elements they fold into their cumbias: Bogotano rapper N. Hardem adds reggae coloring to “Chico Migraña” with his rhymes and phrasing. On “Proteus,” Oaxacan musician Gil Gutierrez bridges the marimba riffs with his precious guitar stylings. And por supuesto, there are shades of punk: “Cumbia Is the New Punk” (which just might be my favorite tune on the record) toggles between Mexico’s languid cumbia rebajada and hyperactive spaghetti-western licks with frantic percussion.

Chimborazo is a fun jam that embodies the spirit of the declaration Son Rompe Pera make in “Cumbia Pa Tu Madre”: “Como los Andes cordillera, la cumbia es la reina sin fronteras.” (“Like the Andes mountain ranges, the cumbia is a queen without borders.”) Cumbia could be considered the lingua franca of dance in the Americas, and Son Rompe Pera are perfectly fluent in all of its irresistible dialects.

—CATALINA MARIA JOHNSON

Spektral Quartet, Behind the Wallpaper

New Amsterdam spektralquartet.com/btw-project

One of my favorite moments in music comes in the fourth movement of Arnold Schoenberg’s String Quartet No. 2. In that piece, the quartet is joined by a soprano, who floats a verse by poet Stefan George over the soft glow of strings: “Ich fühle Lu von anderem Planeten.” (“I feel air from another planet.”) Schoenberg’s quartet was booed and heckled upon its 1908 premiere, but when I first heard that line—as a young person coming to terms with my gender identity, weeks before my 21st birthday and weeks a er Donald Trump had been elected president—George’s words tossed down an escape rope. I still don’t know why they meant so much to me. Maybe it was the promise that someplace existed, somewhere, that could see me for me.

I still haven’t really found that place, as a journalist working in an industry and a world that become more virulently transphobic with each passing day. But if such a place exists, it sounds like Alex Temple’s Behind the Wallpaper , also written for singer and string quartet. Temple lived here from 2009 to 2017 while pursuing a doctorate in composition at Northwestern University, during which time she settled into her own gender identity. Her attendant emotions and experiences—isolation, absurdism, and alienation, followed by the succor of belonging—all made their way into Behind the Wallpaper ’s poignant, surreal libretto and piquant timbral palette.

Son Rompe Pera MARC VAN DER AA

Sleaford Mods EWEN SPENCER

MUSIC

continued from p. 41

Behind the Wallpaper was a staggering achievement in 2015, when Temple wrote it for Los Angeles- based avant-pop vocalist Julia Holter and Chicago’s Spektral Quartet. But on the longawaited studio recording, released this month by New Amsterdam, the piece is transcendent. Thanks in part to the spectacular work of audio engineers William Brittelle (Roomful of Teeth) and Zach Hanson (Bon Iver), Temple’s 11-movement suite takes new life, particularly in the electronic layers unique to this recording. Here, Holter’s voice is expressively distorted and echoed, and the Spektrals’ strings are also occasionally processed. (The decision to render their jaunty waltz theme in “Masquerade” as a crackly phonograph recording was a stroke of genius.) It’s not quite classical, not quite pop, and not quite monodrama—but it’s all scintillating brilliance. Kudos to the production team for managing to bring still more dimension to the imaginative abandon of Temple’s dreamscape. It’s always a hard fall down to earth when Behind the Wallpaper ends, but this recording makes it much harder than previous live iterations did. For one, Spektral Quartet is no more—violinists Theo

Espy and Clara Lyon, violist Doyle Armbrust, and cellist Russell Rolen disbanded the group last year, and Behind the Wallpaper was among their final recording projects. And the country has become more perilous and deadly for trans people than it was in 2015. But while we’re stuck here on this planet, in all its ugliness, what a salve to be swept up in Behind the Wallpaper’s gale. —HANNAH EDGAR

Various Artists, Blacklips Bar: Androgyns and Deviants—Industrial Romance for Bruised and Battered Angels, 1992–1995

Anthology

anthologyrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/ blacklips-bar-androgyns-and-deviantsindustrial-romance-for-bruised-and-batteredangels-1992-1995

You know a compilation is “peak New York club” when it features Joey Arias. On Blacklips Bar: Androgyns and Deviants—Industrial Romance for Bruised and Battered Angels, 1992–1995 , the cabaret star and former Fiorucci store manager (who’s

also executor of Klaus Nomi’s estate) appears right out of the gate with a breathy, aching rendition of “Good Morning Heartache.” The song is track two of the record’s 28, all of which are artifacts of the Blacklips Performance Cult, a ragtag collection of musicians, drag queens, and other artists who performed weekly at legendary East Village venue the Pyramid Club. The group was founded in 1992 by celebrated experimental theater performer and musician Anohni, along with performance artists Johanna Constantine and Psychotic Eve. The album documenting its threeyear lifespan also includes notable contributions by goth rockers Christian Death, croaking queen of darkness Diamanda Galás, queercore pioneers Dean & the Weenies, and John Waters collaborators Edith Massey and Divine (the former performing a bratty punk song and the latter growling through his signature disco track, “You Think You’re a Man”).

Part of what makes retrospective compilations like this so special is the way they situate more widely known artists and their work within larger scenes of people, styles, and ideas. Blacklips Bar underscores queerness not just as gender and sex-

ual expression in opposition to heteronormativity, but also as creative expression that eschews many normative approaches. For example, in their only known recordings, transsexual menaces Meng & Ecker provide two immensely danceable tracks celebrating the joys of ejaculation (“Shoot Yer Load”) and piss play (“Golden Showers”). Celluloid Closet author Vito Russo has a short, impassioned discussion with Gary Reynolds about respectability, homophobia, and the AIDS epidemic (“Disrupt Their Lives”). Undersung gender-bending dance freak Princess Tinymeat describes gender panic (“Angels in Pain”). Blacklips Bar is a sublime document of the diverse artistic tendencies of night creatures inhabiting New York, and shows how queerness and the avant-garde are o en linked. It captures an almost supernaturally creative scene at the height of the AIDS epidemic, which decimated the art world while creating the perfect cultural and political conditions for the Disneyfication of New York. As queerphobic legislation sweeps the nation, Blacklips Bar is a timely reminder of what’s already been lost—and the raucous, weird, wonderful things that continue to be worth fi ghting for. —MICCO

CAPORALE v

Spektral Quartet JOCELYN CHUANG

Pearls (aka Alex Perlof) appears on the compilation Blacklips Bar

MARTI WILKERSON

GOSSIP WOLF

A furry ear to the ground of the local music scene

STEVE KRAKOW ISN’T just the artist, writer, and musician behind long-running fanzine the Galactic Zoo Dossier , regular Reader feature the Secret History of Chicago Music , and an array of farout rock bands—he also books one of the city’s most dependably excellent music festivals, Chicago Psychfest . On Friday and Saturday, March 17 and 18, the fest’s 13th iteration hits the Hideout. Friday night includes a solo headlining set from guitarist Jeff Parker , performances by the Elijah McLaughlin Ensemble and Tim Kinsella & Jenny Pulse, and DJ sets from Psyche Prissy Pie. Parker headlines again on Saturday, this time joined by Joshua Abrams of Natural Information Society; openers include Brain Waiver, DJ Sara Gossett, and Krakow’s band Plastic Crimewave Syndicate augmented by local synth maven Bil Vermette

Last month, emerging Chicago indie band the Trenchies impressed this wolf with the single “Life Preserver,” which combines unraveled postpunk guitar with low-affect vocals and irreverent, reflective lyrics. Luckily, the Trenchies have more new music in the pipeline! On Friday, March 10, they self-release their debut EP, You Are Listening To . Gossip Wolf has heard an early mix and especially digs “Reunion Show,” which imagines a distant future where a Trenchies reunion provokes the same fanfare the Pixies did in 2004; the novelistic lyrics and bittersweet keyboards make it one of the most memorable songs so far this year. Golden Dagger hosts a Trenchies record-release show that Friday, with openers Beauty Saloon and the Present Age.

On Thursday, March 9, the organizers of Music Fest throw a Cole’s Bar showcase featuring two acts from the Reader ’s “best overlooked Chicago records of 2022” list: hip-hop group Mother Fortune and R&B experimentalist Paris•ye . Tickets are $13, and the show starts at 10 PM. —J.R. NELSON AND LEOR GALIL

Got a tip? Tweet @Gossip_Wolf or email gossipwolf@chicagoreader.com.

CHICAGO SHOWS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT IN THE WEEKS TO COME b ALL AGES

EARLY WARNINGS

MaKenzie, Adamness 4/21, 8 PM, the Promontory

M.E.A.T. featuring Anne Louise, Derrick Carter, Alex Acosta, Matt Suave, Blu9 8/11, 10 PM, Radius Chicago

Meat Wave, Melkbelly, Kal Marks 5/5, 9 PM, Sleeping Village

Mersiv, Reaper, Super Future, Nik P 5/6, 10 PM, Concord Music Hall, 18+

Miirrors, Pink Frost 4/8, 8 PM, Hideout

Mudhoney, Hooveriii 10/20, 7 PM, Avondale Music Hall b

My Tyme 3/31, 6 PM, Chant

Fb

Stevie Nicks 6/23, 7 PM, United Center b

North Coast Music Festival featuring Marshmello, Zeds

NEW

Alok 4/1, 10 PM, Prysm Nightclub

Andi, Rachel Grae, Lisa Heller, Carrington Zane Sklar 4/4, 8 PM, Beat Kitchen, 17+

Aynur 4/16, 7 PM, Maurer Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music b

Dierks Bentley, Jordan Davis

7/8, 7 PM, Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, Tinley Park b

Black Tiger Sex Machine 4/22, 9 PM, Riviera Theatre, 18+

Blended Soul 3/24, 6 PM, Chant Fb

Bloodywood, Vended, Wargasm 5/12, 7 PM, Metro b

Ethan Bortnick 4/21, 8 PM, Schubas, 18+

Nathan Bowles Trio, BCMC

3/30, 8:30 PM, Constellation, 18+

The Bridge presents Pang!

(The Bridge #2.5) featuring Sam Pluta, Ben LaMar Gay, Sophie Agnel, and Pascal Niggenkemper 4/20, 7:30 PM, Logan Center for the Arts Fb

The Bridge presents Pang!

(The Bridge #2.5) featuring Sam Pluta, Ben LaMar Gay, Sophie Agnel, and Pascal Niggenkemper; Adam Zanolini with Fred Jackson, Naydja Bruton, and Ben LaMar Gay; Honey Blo 4/25, 7:30 PM, the Promontory b

Brit Floyd 5/5, 8 PM, Chicago Theatre b

Maurice Brown 5/25, 7 and 9:30 PM, SPACE, Evanston b

Chlöe 4/11, 7 PM, Riviera Theatre b

Ciao Amore: A White Lotus Rave featuring Stasney, Virago 3/23, 9 PM, Subterranean, 17+

Closebye 3/26, 9 PM, Empty Bottle

Cosmic Country Showcase featuring Honey Harper, Haley Fohr, Living Thing, Edie McKenna, Mary Williamson, Andrew Sa, and more 4/14, 9 PM, Sleeping Village

Crowded House, Spirit of the Bear 5/15, 7:30 PM, Chicago Theatre b

David Wax Museum 5/17, 8 PM, Golden Dagger Elements of Sound 3/25, 6 PM, Chant Fb

Tommy Emmanuel 10/14, 7:30 PM, Park West b Enslaved, Insomnium, Black Anvil 4/11, 7 PM, House of Blues, 17+

Orrin Evans Trio 3/24-3/25, 8 PM, Green Mill

Fantastic Negrito 4/8, 8 PM, Szold Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music b

Feist 5/5, 7 PM, Radius Chicago b

Fidlar 5/4, 7:30 PM, Metro b Yves François & Rocambu Jazz 3/29, 8 PM, Szold Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music Fb

GBH, MDC, Niis 5/14, 8 PM, Metro, 18+

Gogo Penguin 5/7, 8 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+

Tommy Goodroad & the Highway Birds, Tobacco City, Sparkle Carcass 3/25, 9 PM, Hideout

Haken, Arch Echo 6/3, 7 PM, Concord Music Hall b Hunter Hayes 5/30, 7:30 PM, the Vic b Heart to Gold, Dreamjacket 4/12, 8 PM, Beat Kitchen, 17+ Heatwave Music Festival featuring Griz, Gryffin, Kx5, Slander, Tiësto, Loud Luxury, LSDream, Malaa, A-Trak, Vnssa, Alec Monopoly, Apashe, Automhate, Cheat Codes, Coco & Breezy, Deorro, Droeloe, Eazybaked,

Edx, Elephante, Forester, Kaivon, Kai Wachi, Kream, Luude, Moontricks, Noizu, Nostalgix, NOTD, Sidepiece, Sponges, Twinsick, Whethan, Zingara, and more 6/10-6/11,

2 PM, Huntington Bank Pavilion, 17+

Idol Throne, Knight & Gallow, Fer de Lance, Ryghar 7/1, 9 PM, Reggies Music Joint Illenium 7/22, 6:30 PM, SeatGeek Stadium, Bridgeview b

Indigo Girls 3/23, 7:30 PM, Genesee Theatre, Waukegan b

Ethan Iverson Trio 4/21-4/22, 8 PM, Green Mill

J Boog, Likkle Jordee 5/8, 8 PM, Chop Shop, 18+

Jaripeo sin Fronteras featuring Pepe Aguilar, Angela Aguilar, Leonardo Aguilar 8/18-8/19, 8 PM, Allstate Arena, Rosemont b

Durand Jones 5/9, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall, 18+

Simon Joyner & Andrew Scott Young, Jack Acosta, Skyler Rowe Trio, Jessica Risker 4/6, 9:30 PM, Hideout

Jupiter Ensemble 3/24, 7:30 PM, Logan Center for the Arts b

Kiss 11/27, 7:30 PM, Allstate Arena, Rosemont b Kokoko! 4/27, 9 PM, Empty Bottle

Kula Shaker 9/13, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall

Lies 4/23, 9 PM, Sleeping Village

Lyrics Born, Nasty Snacks 4/20, 8 PM, City Winery b

Madame Reaper & the Gentlemen’s Club, Daylongsigh, Molly Compton 3/25, 7 PM, Subterranean, 17+

Magnolia Park, Arrows in Action, Poptropicaslutz!, First & Forever 3/24, 7 PM, Bottom Lounge b

Dead, Flume, Alesso, Liquid Stranger, DJ Snake, Alison Wonderland, Dabin, MK, Zomboy, Duke Dumont, Lane 8, Chris Lake, Align, Lab Group, Le Youth, Champagne Drip, and more 9/1-9/3, 2 PM, SeatGeek Stadium, Bridgeview, 17+

North Star Boys 4/15, 6:30 PM, Avondale Music Hall b

Jorge Luis Pacheco 3/25, 8:30 PM, Constellation, 18+

Painted Canyon, Dinosaur Galaxy 4/13, 8 PM, Gman Tavern

Pauli the PSM 4/5, 7:30 PM, Schubas b

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, Tomblands 3/28, 9 PM, Sleeping Village

Pinback, Disheveled Cuss 4/23, 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+

Power Chord: A Celebration of Female, FemmePresenting, and Nonbinary Musicians of Chicago featuring Soldial, Olivia Flanigan, Vivian Garcia, Victoria Djembe, Julia Morrison, Radka Kasparkova, Academy of Irish Music, DJ Tacco 3/25, 8 PM, Golden Dagger

Gable Price and friends 4/16, 7:30 PM, Subterranean b

Public Announcement 4/10, 8 PM, City Winery b

Pure Prairie League 3/31, 8 PM, City Winery b

Rat Tally, Burr Oak 4/21, 8:30 PM, Golden Dagger

Repos, Concrete Elite, Fuerza Bruta, War Effort, Spat 4/9, 4 PM, Subterranean b Bebe Rexha 6/13, 7:30 PM, Riviera Theatre b

Thomas Rhett, Cole Swindell, Nate Smith 7/28, 7:30 PM, United Center b

Lionel Richie; Earth, Wind & Fire 8/5, 7:30 PM, United Center b

Rico Nasty 5/24, 7 PM, Patio Theater b

Ringo Deathstarr, Pleasure Venom 5/7, 7:30 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+ Rodrigo y Gabriela, Ondara 6/16, 7:30 PM, Chicago Theatre b

Never miss a show again. Sign up for the newsletter at chicagoreader. com/early

Uli Jon Roth 9/22, 8 PM, Reggies Rock Club, 17+ Saint Levant 4/29, 7 PM, the Promontory b

Scumbag Skippy, Tubgirl, Hanzxgruber, B.R.O.K.E., I Le My Body Behind 3/24, 8 PM, Beat Kitchen, 17+ Seven Lions, Jason Ross, Gem & Tauri, Oblvyn 6/3, 9 PM, Radius Chicago, 18+ Sin, Adorner, Amelia Harlovic 3/27, 9 PM, Sleeping Village Sons of the Silent Age 5/13, 7 PM, Metro b Still House Plants, Dof Gart 3/29, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Struts, Mac Saturn 6/23, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, 18+ Syzygal, Nasty Buoy 4/6, 8 PM, Golden Dagger Teskey Brothers 9/9, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre b Toad the Wet Sprocket, Marcy Playground 6/28, 8 PM, Cahn Auditorium, Evanston b Town Mountain, Cole Chaney 3/25, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston b

Two Friends, Matoma, Laszewo 6/2, 6:30 PM, Huntington Bank Pavilion b

TWRP, Magic Sword 5/1, 7 PM, Metro b Vedo 5/5, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall, 18+

Julieta Venegas 6/2, 7:30 PM, Riviera Theatre b

Waco Brothers 3/30, 11 AM, Gman Tavern F

Morgan Wallen, Hardy, Ernest, Bailey Zimmerman 6/22, 7 PM, Wrigley Field b Wild Child, Próxima Parada 4/22, 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+

Wishbone Ash 6/23, 8:30 PM, BanAnna’s Comedy Shack at Reggies

Woah, Nick Wagen, Yna 3/28, 8 PM, Schubas, 18+ Wu-Tang Clan, Nas 10/8, 8 PM, United Center b

Yeah Yeah Yeahs 6/1, 8 PM, Huntington Bank Pavilion b

UPCOMING

Chasms, Desert Liminal, Purelink 3/23, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Keshi, Deb Never, James Ivy 3/24, 7:30 PM, Aragon Ballroom b

Mall Grab, Mesmé, Flower Food 3/25, 10 PM, Metro, 18+ The Residents 3/24, 8:30 PM, Lincoln Hall

Warmduscher, Space Gators 3/24, 9 PM, Sleeping Village v

Rico Nasty COURTESY ATLANTIC RECORDS

JOBS

Multiple Openings

Tiedot Solutions, LLC in Rolling Meadows, IL, is seek’g A) Software Developers I to assist in dsgn/ dvlp, test, & sup’rt SW apps. B) Software Developers II to dsgn/dvlp, test, & sup’rt SW apps. C) Software Developers III to coordinate the dsgn/dvlp, testing, & sup’rt of SW apps. All postns no trvl or telecomm. Job duties proj-based @ unanticipated sites w/in U.S. Relo may be req’d @ proj end. Mail resumes to: Tiedot Solutions, LLC, Attn HR, 5005 Newport Dr., Ste. 206, Rolling Meadows, IL 60008

Professional Services

Consultant Senior Advisors Professional Services Consultant Senior Advisors, Lincolnshire, IL: Perform retail forecasting & implementing AI/ML based solutions. Provide insights into retail/CPG forecasting best practices, business process & the Zebra solutions for forecasting. Telecommuting 100%. Send res and indicate position 004 to: Zebra Technologies Corporation, at jobs@zebra. com.

Data Engineers Senior Data Engineers Senior, Lincolnshire, IL: Play a critical role in the design & implementation of data platforms for the AI product. Develop productized & parameterized data pipelines that feed AI products leveraging GPUs and CPUs. Telecommuting 100%. Send res and indicate position 005 to: Zebra Technologies Corporation, at jobs@zebra.com

Canon Medical Research USA, Inc. seeks Software Engineers for various & unanticipated worksites throughout the U.S. (HQ: Vernon Hills, IL) to design, dev & productize reconstruction algorithms for new feature releases of sw products. Bachelor’s in Comp Sci/related field + 2yrs exp req’d. Req’d Skills: C++ programming skills in Windows &Linux platforms; CMake; Python; Boost C++; Multithreaded programming; Linux; Jenkins; Django; Bash scripting. 100% telecommuting permitted Apply online: www.research.us. medical.canon/careers, Req. ID: 1176

Senior SQL Business Intelligence Developer

Senior SQL Business Intelligence Developer, Chicago, IL, for Aspen Dental Management, Inc.

(ADMI): Responsible for managing the definition, design, and development of reporting/dashboard for ADMI. Responsible for data integration from internal and external source systems into the

Enterprise Data Warehouse. Req’d: Bach. (or foreign equiv.) in Comp. Sci., IT, or closely related & 5 yrs. of exp. in Business Intelligence OR Master’s (or foreign equiv.) in Comp. Sci., IT, or closely related & 3 yrs. Of exp. In Business Intelligence. May work remotely up to 3 days/ week. Resumes to code SHM-SSBID, J. Ximenes, ADMI, 800 W. Fulton Market, Chicago, IL 60607.

Housing Counseling Specialists

The Hana Center seeks Housing Counseling Specialists to provide housing counseling to low-income renters & homebuyers & conduct reltd community outreach for clients of HANA Center. Bach’s Deg in Social Work, Social Science, Psychology, or reltd is req’d. Send resume to job loc: 4300 N. California Ave., Chicago, IL 60618

Squad Lead Mercer HR Services, LLC (FT; Chicago, IL - Remote work may be permitted w/in commutable dist from worksite) IT proj mgr resp for leading squad in impl of Darwin™ SaaS platform to clients, mnging changes to clients’ rqts, & helping clients realize value from their invest in our tech.

RQTS: Bach deg or forei n e ui in an yrs of progressively resp exp in position offered or rel. Must have 3 yrs of exp w/: Mnging ppl in delivery of Enterprise s/ware prods; Mnging projs & progs by dvlping detailed proj plans, monitoring or tracking proj milestones & deliverables, identifying IT proj resource rqts, participatin in sta n ecisions, assigning duties or work scheds to employees, & monitoring proj team members’ performance, providing & documenting performance feedback; Performing implementation consulting for Enterprise software prod, incl evaluating info to determ compliance w/ standards; Line mgmt of SAAS delivery team, assigning duties, responsibilities, & spans of authority to proj personnel; coord work; helping coach, train, & dvlp others; & dvlping & blding teams; Performing Proj Mgmt & utilizing Office S/ware incl Atlassian tools (JIRA); Utilizing Microsoft Proj to create, mng & maintain cmplx impl projs &/or progs; Utilizing MS Excel to analyze, monitor & eval HRIS & Payroll data, incl pivot tables & charting; & Utilizing MS Word to produce client documentation su oun in enefit, payroll & HRIS rqts & to produce prog delivery principles for delivs to abide by. APPLY: https:// careers.marshmclennan. com using Keyword R_223144. EOE.

Engagement Manager positions avail w/ McKinsey & Co, Inc. US in Chicago, IL. Lead teams of consultants to resolve business probs for variety of clients/ industries.

Req’s Master’s in Bus Admin, Fin, Econ, or non-bus adv degree, & 1 yr exp as Associate-level mgmt consultant w/ a major top-tier int’l mgmt consultin fi o estic & int’l travel typically required. Dest & freq impossible to predict. Email resume to CO@ mckinsey.com and refer to CTR0213. Multiple positions.

Sr Technical Analyst

Northwestern Memorial Healthcare seeks Sr Technical Analyst for Chicago, IL location to provide leadership & support for computing systems & systems integration.

Bachelor in Comp Sci/ elate fiel s uni study in Comp Sci/related +SCCM certification) +7 yrs exp req’d. Req’d skills:7 yrs in SCCM i ple ent confi s exp w/ea: SCCM Automation; admin & support MBAM; manage, admin & support Windows OS, Intune & 365; SSMS; Power BI; Exp must incl: create/ confi clou t ate way w/Azure & SCCM; Visio; ServiceNow. Background check req’d. May telecommute w/in commuting distance to Chicago HQ. Apply online: http://jobseeker.nm.org/ Req ID: REF47520J

Performance Trainers

Northwestern Memorial Healthcare seeks Performance Trainers for Chicago, IL location. Bachelor’s in HR/Social ci elate fiel s e p req’d. Req’d Skills:dev training programs; training delivery & eval; build or manage LMS; online curriculum dev; train the trainer; process improvement. Background check req\’d. May telecommute w/in commuting distance to Chicago HQ. Apply online: http://jobseeker. nm.org/ Req ID: REF47519H

Manager, Commercial Analytics Horizon Medicines LLC seeks a Manager, Commercial nal tics in ee fiel , to develop and deliver business insights for the Inflammation Business Unit, focusing on translating and enhancing the use of data and analytics. Reqs: B.A. degree in Quantitative Finance, Data Sci, or rel quantitative field & 4 yrs rel exp. Alternately, will accept M.A. degree in Quantitative Finance, Data Sci, or related quantitative field & 2 yrs rel exp. To apply, go to: https://horizon.wd1.

myworkdayjobs.com/ en-US/Horizon/details/ Manager--CommercialAnalytics_R0004647

Sr. Analyst, Business Intelligence Horizon Therapeutics USA, Inc. seeks a Sr. Analyst, Business Intelligence in Deerfield, IL to analyze business requirements and implement data mart solutions for data mining and reporting. Reqs: B.A. degree in Biotechnology, Data Science, or a related uantitati e fiel s rel. exp. To apply, go to: https://horizon.wd1. myworkdayjobs.com/ en-US/Horizon/details/ Sr-Analyst--BusinessIntelligence_R0004674

Senior Analyst, Reporting Horizon Therapeutics USA, Inc. seeks a Senior Analyst, Reporting in Deerfield, IL to prepare reports of findings, illustrating data graphically and translating complex findings into written text. Reqs: B.A. in Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Elec. Engineering, Math, or rel fld & 4 yrs rel exp. To apply, go to: https://horizon.wd1. myworkdayjobs.com/ en-US/Horizon/details/ Sr-Analyst--Reporting_ R0004640

Business Intelligence Analyst Business Intelligence Analyst is needed to analyze business operational data and improve business operations. Req. Bachelor’s degree in Business Analytics, Applied Mathematics or related fiel s no le e of p o gramming languages R, Python Java, Matlab and SQL. Worksite: Chicago, Illinois. Send resume: INFI USA INC, 159 N Sangamon St. Suite 200, Chicago IL 60607

Network Engineer Network Engineer. Design, implement and enhance a secure and reliable network structure for self-ordering kiosk. Req. Bachelor’s degree in computer engineering or related fields. Proficient in Android, iOS, Java and HTML. Worksite: Chicago, Illinois. Send resume: INFI USA Inc.,159 N Sangamon St. Suite 200 o ce ,

Software Developer Software Developer. Maintain existing apps & develop modules to increase hardware and software compatibility. Req. Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related fields. Proficient in Android, iOS, Java and HTML. Worksite: Chicago, Illinois. Send resume: INFI USA Inc., 159 N Sangamon St. Suite 200 o ce ,

Research Engineer –Glendale Heights, IL

Spraying Systems Co. is seeking a Research Engineer in Glendale Heights, IL with the following requirements: MS degree in Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering o elate fiel o fo ei n equivalent degree. 1 year of related experience; Required Skills: Apply CFD, Solid Modeling, Inventor, Mathmatica, OriginLab to analyze Fluid Flow behavior, atomization processes, and optimization of said process (1 yr); Utilize ANSYS Fluent and Matlab to perform CFD simulation involving multiphase fluidization and chemical reactions (1 yr); Apply CFD native software platform to compile numerical data received from solvers and processors, and use post processing visualization software platform to convert into visual format for users (1 yr); Develop and present reports depicting CFD simulation goals/ results, gap analysis and solutions to customers and stakeholders (1 yr). Send resume to resume@ spray.com. Subject line must reference K940812.

IT Senior Developer (Allianz Technology of America Inc.; Chicago, IL): Develop and define a wide range of documentation, for example presentations, technical designs, functional specifications, system requirements, etc. as required. $134,118/ year. Please send resumes to: ATA.HR@ na.allianz-technology. com

Senior Market Research Analyst – Analyze companies’ rankings, IP transaction, marketing data globally & marketability of IP transactions. Design marketing IP strategies. Telecommuting permitted 90% of time & work from co pan o ce W Madison St, Chicago IL 10% of time. Must reside within commuting distance from HQ. ** Travel internationally 1-2x/yr for 2-3 wks per trip. Reqs: Masters in Marketing, Business Admin, Mngmt, TV Mngmt, IP Mngmt, or a closel lt fiel plus s exp in occupations rltd Market Research Analyst; & 2 yrs exp in each of the following: Designing methods to collect mktng data; Gathering & organizing mktng data including pricing, sales, & distribution methods through online dbs & surveys; Analyzing industry trends, customer behaviors & competitive intelligence using mktng analytics software such as Innography, PatSnap, Google Analytics, or

Crunchbase; Design mktng strategies to position a product or service; Preparing forecasts for mktng campaigns; Preparing mkt research reports that track the results of mktng campaigns & competitor analysis; Working with followings: digital mkt research dbs such as Bloomberg, Edgar, or Capital IQ; mkt analytics software such as Google Analytics, Innography, or PatSnap; CRM software such as Salesforce, Monday.com, or Pipedrive; Spreadsheet software such as MS Excel or Google Sheets; & Presentation software such as MS PowerPoint or Google Slides. Send resume to J.S. Held LLC at applications@jsheld. com.

Commodities Trader DV Group LLC, Chicago, IL. Developing and creating algorithmic trading strategies including market making, momentum and mean reversion strategies. Conducting quantitative research and statistical anal sis on fi nancial data to implement in trading strategies. Executing energy market, agricultural products and foreign exchange trades using a variety of trading strategies. Must have a Master’s degree in Finance, Financial Mathematics, Financial Engineering, or closely related field. Degree studies must have included coursework in Equity and Equity Derivatives

Trading, Quantitative Investment Strategies, and Database and Mac ine ea nin ualifie applicant should email their resume to humanresources@dvtrading. co and reference code CT0223.

Software Developer Preferred Risk Insurance Services Inc. Bedford Park, IL Performing product scoping and discovery, delivering hands-on technical input, and helping translate user features into system design; Working with software development team to pair programming and support deliverables in production; Developing the required functions/features on the InsuranceNow platform; Driving the data migration from legacy systems to the new platform through data cleansing, data preparation and test bed creation. Must have a Master’s degree in Computer Science or a related field. Must have Guidei e e elope e tifica tion. Must have two (2) years of experience as a Software Developer, Software Engineer or Application Development Consultant. Must have two (2) years of experience with InsuranceNow, SaaS Production Environment, REST API and JS coding.

Qualified candidates show email their resumes to NSmith@PRISCORP. net and reference code SD0123.

Lead Software Engineer

Federal Home Loan Bank

Chicago is seeking a Lead Software Engineer in Chicago, IL. Lead a team that develops, tests, and supports bank online banking portal and credit underwriting system. 60% working from home allowed. Apply online at fhlbc.com/careers.

S-VMX Video Solutions Engineer (Mult pos)

S-VMX Video Solutions Engineer (Chicago, IL) (Mult pos). Coord lrg IP video srvllnc sys dlvry prjcts & prvd tech spprt in sftwr/hrdwr usge. Req. 3 yrs exp in jb offrd or in a postn w/in entrprs video scrty indstry supprt’ng dvlpmnt of lrg-scl IP vid srvllnc sys (>5k cameras). Must’ve relvt work exp. Apply res/cvr let to Teleste LLC., Attn: M. O’Dea, Ref# KP2023, mike.odea@teleste.com. No calls. EOE

GFR, Inc. GFR, Inc. seeks a Financial Analyst. Mail resume to 110 N Wacker Dr, 25th FL, Chicago, IL.

Chicago Oriental Wholesale Market, Inc. Chicago Oriental Wholesale Market, Inc. seeks a Marketing Specialist. Mail resume to 1902 S Lumber St, Chicago, IL.

Abira Security Corporation Abira Security Corporation seeks a Technical Services Manager. Mail resume to 941 Pleasant Ln. Glenview, IL.

Accounting Manager Accounting Manager in Palatine, IL. Req. Bachelor’s in Accounting or Finance or foreign equiv + 12 mos. exp in the job off’d or as Financial Comptroller. MAIL resumes to: VMG Group CPA, LLC, 334 E. Colfax, Unit D, Palatine, IL 60067.

Associate Attorney Crowell & Moring seeks an Associate Attorney ntellectual ope t Practice in its Chicago, IL o ce in e ui e ents JD and license to practice law in Illinois required. Six months of experience as an Extern and/or Summer Associate. Prior experience must include experience reviewing notices of potential trademark infringements for American business clients doing business in China; drafting cease and desist letters in Chinese regarding infringement of intellectual property and communicating with clients in China regarding potential trademark infringements. Please send resumes to lanthony@crowell.com

IT Senior Developer (Allianz Technology of America Inc.; Chicago, IL): Develop and define a wide range of documentation, for example presentations, technical designs, functional specifications, system requirements, etc. as required. $134,118/ year. Please send resumes to: ATA.HR@ na.allianz-technology. com

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SAVAGE LOVE

SEX AND RELATIONS

Charades

Emotional cheating and asexuality pose issues in these marriages

By DAN SAVAGE

Q : I found out by accident that my husband is emotionally cheating on me with his ex. I know you are critical of the concept of emotional cheating, but I’m talking about long love letters explaining that he wishes he would have married her, how she is the best person in the world, how he will always love her, etc. He sends her gi s behind my back and communicates with her frequently and hides it from me. I broke down

when I found out and confronted him, and he was apologetic at first. But he quickly started to accuse me of “just being jealous.” He continues to lie and hide. I can’t bring it up because he just gets angry, and I’ve resigned to participate in the charade that is my marriage. I’ve told him that I don’t have a problem with him being friends with her so long as he treats her like other friends. That would mean, for example, no longer

professing his undying love for her. But he continues to do so, and I’ve come to realize that this will never change. She will always be his romantic fantasy, while I’m the idiot who’s more practical for everyday use. My self-esteem was crap before we met, a er being abused by my kids’ alcoholic father, and I felt rehabilitated when my husband asked me to marry him. I felt chosen. Then I found out that I was being played for a fool. But I stayed

with him, thus proving even more to the world how little I’m worth. Anyway, I don’t think I should leave. I want to preserve what is mostly a functioning family unit and not disrupt my kids’ lives again. But any advice on how I can live with myself for the decades to come before I’m finally allowed to just roll over and die? CAN’T HACK ANOTHER REALLY AGGRAVATING DIVORCE EXPERIENCE

a: I’m not so much critical of the concept of emotional cheating, CHARADE, as I am critical of concept creep where emotional cheating is concerned.

Basically, I think it’s foolish to tell people cheating is absolutely unforgiveable and then turn around and tell people that absolutely fucking everything—from looking at porn to sending an ex a brief “Happy Birthday” message via text—counts as cheating. So, while I don’t think a husband who has a work friend of the opposite sex or sometimes confides in someone about his marriage is guilty of having an emotional affair (all examples drawn from articles about emotional cheating), a husband who sends love letters to an ex . . . and tells that ex she’s the love of his life . . . that asshole is definitely having an emotional affair.

If I were you, CHARADE, I would leave that asshole. Your husband’s behavior exposes a streak of emotional cruelty so devoid of empathy that it’s hard to imagine it not manifesting in other ways, CHARADE, and you may not be able to live with (or want to expose your kids to) his shit over the long-term. But if you do decide to stay for the sake of your kids—which is something people do and something people insist no one should ever do—then you’ll need to radically adjust

your expectations. You’ll have to accept your marriage for what it is now, i.e., a strictly limited partnership about raising kids, and then find a way to be at peace with that . . . which is a much heavier lift.

Passionately felt romantic love is a wonderful and often fleeting thing, CHARADE, and no one wants to discover that the person who said they loved them passionately— and promised to keep loving them passionately—is now (or always was) passionately in love with someone else. But a deep sense of security can grow between two people in a committed, long-term, companionate, low-conflict relationship, and that particular kind of intimacy can be its own consolation. Or its own consolation prize. Now, that kind of intimacy is harder to achieve when one person in a relationship is a selfish and callous asshole . . . like the one you married. But we go to marriage counseling with the husband we’ve got, CHARADE, not the husband we might like or want to have.

If you can get past your hurt and your anger—which, again, is going to be a very, very heavy lift—you aren’t required to participate in a charade. Your marriage is what it is, and you don’t have to pretend it’s something else. But if you can’t get past the hurt and anger, CHARADE, or if your husband finds new ways to make you miserable, don’t stay for your kids. (Have you ever spoken to an adult whose parents stayed in a high-conflict marriage for them? Most wish their parents had gotten a divorce.)

N o more charades. Your goal is mutual respect, shared responsibilities, separate bedrooms, and all the personal happiness you can achieve for yourself in this marriage. The latter— personal happiness—may seem like the heaviest lift of all. To get there, CHARADE, do whatever it takes to

untangle your senses of selfworth and self-esteem from feeling “chosen” by some man. Choose yourself. So, your husband has a pen-pal and he’s keeping her. What do you want? A dick-pal? Get one. Do you wanna go back to school and get a degree or some professional training that would make it easier for you to leave your asshole husband after your kids are grown or sooner if you decide staying was a mistake? Do it

You can choose yourself every single day, CHARADE, without neglecting your kids or being an asshole to your spouse about it. If you do decide to stay, do your kids the favor of letting them see their mother flourish.

Q: I recently came out to my husband as asexual. I’m a 56-year-old female. He is 57. We have been in a monogamous relationship for 35 years. We both come from culturally traditional families. We married young and raised two boys who are now adults. Our oldest son came out to us as bisexual five years ago when he fell in love with a man. This was a catalyst for me to look into the nature of my sexuality. My husband’s response to my asexuality was, “Of course you are—we aren’t having sex anymore.” Before I came out to him, he urged me over and over to look into remedies for my situation so we could have intercourse. Menopause has made intercourse unbearably physically painful for me and he is not open to other forms of sexual intimacy. He doesn’t understand asexuality. After all, for many years we did have sex. I felt that it was part of my duty as a wife. In hindsight, I believe I was more interested in having children than having

sex. I have a lot of guilt that I somehow “duped” him into a relationship. This was not my intention. Asexuality was not part of my vocabulary any more than bisexuality was. I have suffered for years with depression, thinking there was something wrong with me for not being interested in sex.

We love each other and we want to stay together. I know he has sexual needs that need to be satisfied. I have urged him to find other outlets. I’ve told him that I’m open to an open relationship. He said that he is afraid that if he had sex with anyone else that he would fall in love with them. He doesn’t want to do that because he loves only me. He still thinks there is some remedy that I could find that would make it possible for us to still have sex.

What do you advise?

ASEXUAL CHARACTERISTIC EXPLAINS DILEMMA

a: Your letter—your questions, your predicament, your marriage—demonstrates why the awareness-raising conversations we’ve been having about asexuality over the last decade-and-change are so important. If “asexual” had been a part of the conversation 40 years ago, ACED, you wouldn’t have spent 35 years wondering what was wrong with you. With “asexual” part of the conversation now, people who are asexual are likelier

SAVAGE LOVE

to know who they are, know there’s nothing wrong with them, and know they’re free to make different choices— more informed ones. Likewise, allosexuals who date out asexuals are free to make informed choices of their own. (Allosexual is the opposite of asexual . . . and, yes, you could call allosexuals plain ol’ sexuals, but confusing new terms that have to be unpacked in parentheticals is better than simple and clear language that doesn’t have to be unpacked in a parenthetical.)

But what do you do now, ACED? Nothing. You know who you are after all these years, you’ve explained who you are to your husband, and your husband has your permission to seek sex elsewhere, if he so chooses.

If he needs to feel a deep emotional connection in order to experience sexual attraction—if your husband just realized he’s demisexual (sigh)—he can seek out women who are . . . I don’t know . . . unhappily married to emotionally obtuse men they don’t wanna leave for the sake of their kids and might be seeking some dick and affection elsewhere.

Romantic love isn’t a zerosum game—loving someone else doesn’t mean your husband has to love you any less, or any differently, than he does right now. v

Send your burning questions to mailbox@savage.love.

Find full columns, podcasts, merch, and more at savage.love @fakedansavage

Marriage has its privileges and its problems. SANDY MILLAR/UNSPLASH