Print Issue of April 27, 2017 (Volume 46, Number 29) by Chicago Reader

C H I C A G O ’ S F R E E W E E K LY | K I C K I N G A S S S I N C E 1 9 7 1 | A P R I L 2 7, 2 0 1 7

Rauner’s reproductive rights reversal 10 Chef Diana Dávila returns with personal and provocative Mexican food. 43

Capturing the joy of black childhood The photo book Too Fly Not to Fly uses levity to explore heavy topics. By BRIANA MCLEAN and DESMOND OWUSU 16

2 CHICAGO READER - APRIL 27, 2017

THIS WEEK

C H I C A G O R E A D E R | A P R I L 2 7, 2 0 1 7 | V O L U M E 4 6 , N U M B E R 2 9

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EDITOR JAKE MALOOLEY CREATIVE DIRECTOR PAUL JOHN HIGGINS DEPUTY EDITOR, NEWS ROBIN AMER CULTURE EDITOR TAL ROSENBERG DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY DANIELLE A. SCRUGGS FILM EDITOR J.R. JONES MUSIC EDITOR PHILIP MONTORO ASSOCIATE EDITORS KATE SCHMIDT, KEVIN WARWICK, BRIANNA WELLEN SENIOR WRITERS MICHAEL MINER, MIKE SULA SENIOR THEATER CRITIC TONY ADLER STAFF WRITERS MAYA DUKMASOVA, LEOR GALIL, DEANNA ISAACS, BEN JORAVSKY, AIMEE LEVITT, PETER MARGASAK, JULIA THIEL SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR RYAN SMITH GRAPHIC DESIGNER SUE KWONG MUSIC LISTINGS COORDINATOR LUCA CIMARUSTI EDITORIAL ASSISTANT CASSIDY RYAN CONTRIBUTING WRITERS NOAH BERLATSKY, MATT DE LA PEÑA, ANNE FORD, ISA GIALLORENZO, JOHN GREENFIELD, JUSTIN HAYFORD, JACK HELBIG, DAN JAKES, BILL MEYER, J.R. NELSON, MARISSA OBERLANDER, LEAH PICKETT, DMITRY SAMAROV, DAVID WHITEIS, ALBERT WILLIAMS INTERNS AUSTIN BROWN, RACHEL HINTON, JIAYUE YU

FEATURES

PHOTO ESSAY

Capturing the joy of black childhood Too Fly Not to Fly uses levity to explore heavy topics. BY BRIANA MCLEAN AND DESMOND OWUSU 16

IN THIS ISSUE

4 Agenda A 48-hour improv marathon, a celebration of independent bookstores, a labyrinth-ﬁlled art exhibit, and more recommendations 8 Street View Harajuku selfexpression in the South Loop 8 Chicagoans The ex-cop birder 10 Joravsky | Politics Bruce Rauner tries to hold his Republican coalition together by throwing women under the bus. 12 Transportation A northwest-side crossing guard confronts dangerous and disrespectful drivers.

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ARTS & CULTURE

43 Restaurant review: Mi Tocaya Chef Diana Dávila returns with her progressive, personal, and provocative Mexican food.

Chicago Humanaties Festival

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46 Jobs 46 Apartments & Spaces 47 Marketplace

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ON THE COVER: PHOTO BY DESMOND OWUSU. FOR MORE OF TK’S WORK, GO TO TOOFLYNOTTOFLY.COM.

36 Shows of note The XX, rapper Cupcakke, multi-instrumentalist Nnamdi Ogbonnaya, and more recommendations

14 Immigration A Syrian asylum seeker remembers revolution and imprisonment in Damascus.

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MUSIC

FOOD & DRINK

VICE PRESIDENT OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT NICKI STANULA VICE PRESIDENT OF NEW MEDIA GUADALUPE CARRANZA SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER EVANGELINE MILLER ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES FABIO CAVALIERI, ARIANA DIAZ, BRIDGET KANE MARKETING AND EVENTS MANAGER BRYAN BURDA DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL JOHN DUNLEVY ADVERTISING COORDINATOR HERMINIA BATTAGLIA CLASSIFIEDS REPRESENTATIVE KRIS DODD

READER (ISSN 1096-6919) IS PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY STM READER, LLC, 350 N. ORLEANS, CHICAGO, IL 60654.

25 Theater 16th Street Theater puts Luis Alberto Urrea’s Into the Beautiful North onstage. 26 Theater Teatro Vista’s La Havana Madrid re-creates a Latino nightclub in its 60s heyday. 27 Small Screen Women of the Now advances Chicago as the center of intersectional media. 29 Movies Joseph Cedar’s Norman has the moral dimensions of a Jewish folktale.

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MUSIC

Trumpeter Jaimie Branch finally spreads her wings

More than 12 years after her blazing debut on the Chicago jazz scene, she releases Fly or Die, her ﬁrst album as a bandleader. BY PETER MARGASAK 30

22 Lit Writer Sarah Smarsh’s insights into the working poor come from her own wealth of experience. 23 Lit Northwestern professor Laura Kipnis calls out the “feminine passivity” of rape culture in Unwanted Advances. 24 Lit Filmmaker John Waters advises young artists to “make trouble.”

48 Straight Dope What does it take to remove a sitting president who’s obviously mentally ill? 49 Savage Love Advice for a sexsomniac (yes, it’s a real thing) 50 Early Warnings Kendrick Lamar, Paul McCartney, Kings of Leon, and other shows in the weeks to come 50 Gossip Wolf Drone artist Nicholas Szczepanik returns with a new surname and a new project.

APRIL 27, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 3

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Sat-Sun, April 29-30 @ 3:30pm

The LEGO Batman Movie Sat-Sun, April 29-30 @ 5:30pm Fri, Mon, Thr, April 28, May 1&4 @ 6:30pm

Trainspotting 2 Sat-Sun, April 29-30 @ 7:45pm Fri, Mon, Thr, April 28, May 1&4 @ 8:45pm

The Belko Experiment

Aladdin Not that it matters, but this live touring version of the Broadway musical based on a 1992 Disney animation is shrill, bombastic, and almost hysterically chipper. Everything the cast and designers bring to the tale of Aladdin—a petty thief who becomes a mensch and then a sultan—is top-notch, from Jonathan Weir and Reggie de Leon’s comic villains to Anthony Murphy’s outsize Genie to the glinting, golden Cave of Wonders created by set designer Bob Crowley. But the tempo is so manic, the tone so ingratiating, the Alan Menken score so antiseptically good-natured that you end up feeling like you’ve been assaulted by the world’s best party clown. Still, as I say, none of that matters: the decision on whether to see the show isn’t yours to make. It’s in the hands of your tenyear-old daughter, because you want her to remember you fondly when you’re dead. —TONY ADLER Through 9/10: Wed 2 and 7:30 PM, Thu-Fri 7:30 PM, Sat 2 and 7:30 PM, Sun 1 and 6:30 PM, Cadillac Palace Theatre, 151 W. Randolph, 312-902-1400, $41-$173. Dundee: A Hip-Hopera From practically the ﬁrst scene, Gabe Caruso’s “hip-hopera” sets up like a Hamilton clone gone berserk. A group of college friends reunites after ten years for what turns out to be an elaborate kidnapping in which the kidnapees ﬁnd themselves at the mercy of a former classmate wielding a samurai sword. Ridiculously, the caper stems from petty jealousies reminiscent of a high school crying game. It’s hard to believe that a group of thirtysomethings can’t come to grips with life at this stage, but there’s a silver lining throughout: Caruso’s rhymes can be surprisingly poetic, even if they’re also a bit tone deaf in cases, and there’s an occasional blip of humor that hints at a deeper understanding of the form. —MATT DE LA PEÑA Through 5/6: ThuSat 7 PM, Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont, 773-327-5252, stage773.com, $30. Force Continuum Kia Corthron’s

4 CHICAGO READER - APRIL 27, 2017

painstakingly unsuccessful 2001 drama focuses on Dece, a third-generation African-American New York City cop caught between supporting the brotherhood and betraying his race. Given the current tattered relations between police and minority communities, it might have ripped-from-the-headline urgency like Ike Holter’s recent marvel The Wolf at the End of the Block. But Corthron rips mostly from sociological treatises and Law and Order, cobbling together faux street-smart disquisitions (“With cops, societal attitudes get codified,” says one officer) and overorchestrated violence. With a broad scope but little attention to narrative cohesion or psychological development, it’s a nearly two-hour pile of important issues that haven’t been sorted into a play. First-time director Michael Aaron Pogue understandably struggles to keep the action moving, and the jumble of questionable New York accents appreciably diminishes intelligibility. —JUSTIN HAYFORD Through 5/21: Thu-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 2 PM, Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 N. Southport, 773-935-6860, eclipsetheatre.com, $35, $25 students, seniors, and children. Hookman In the aftermath of trauma, especially one you might have caused, you’re likely to feel anxious, fearful, vulnerable, and debilitatingly guilty. This isn’t news, and it’s not much to hang a play on. But in the few moments when playwright Lauren Yee lets her protagonist, college freshman Lexi, live through quotidian moments after her childhood friend’s violent death, she at least portrays obvious truths convincingly. Most of the time, however, she feeds Lexi through an elaborate slasher film parody, creating murky allegorical overkill. It’s all quite entertaining, especially in director Vanessa Stalling’s crafty, wellpaced, production. But if Yee had half as much interest in creating meaningful dramatic complications as she does in amusing an audience, she might have written something with real teeth. —JUSTIN HAYFORD Through 5/27: ThuSat 8 PM, Sun 3 PM, Steep Theatre, 1115 W. Berwyn, 312-458-0722, steeptheatre. com, $25-$35. Marry Me a Little Porchlight R Music Theatre’s captivating

two-person concept revue weaves a collection of little-known Stephen Sondheim songs—many of them cut from the musicals they were originally written for—into a poignant vignette about a sweet romance that goes sadly sour. Stellar singer-actors Bethany Thomas and Austin Cook (a superb keyboardist who also serves as the production’s musical director) play high-rise neighbors who meet when she complains about his loud piano playing. Cleverly staged by Jess McLeod, the show features “trunk songs” trimmed from Company, A Little Night Music, and Into the Woods, as well as tunes from early Sondheim eﬀorts including Saturday Night. Thomas, whose extraordinary voice ranges from silvery soprano heights to volcanic contralto depths, never lets her vocal prowess overshadow the all-important text, whether she’s bawdily belting “Can That Boy Foxtrot” (a Follies outtake) or spinning out a delicate, spine-tingling rendition of “I Remember Spring,” from the 1966 TV special Evening Primrose. —ALBERT WILLIAMS Through 5/21: Thu 7:30 PM (except 5/11, 1:30 PM), Fri 8 PM, Sat 4 and 8 PM, Sun 2 PM, Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont, 773-327-5252, porchlightmusictheatre.org, $45-$51, $40-$46 seniors. Never the Milk & Honey Shepsu R Aakhu casts a sympathetic, compassionate gaze on one of society’s

biggest collective punch lines: doomsday preachers. When the sun rises on the day after what was supposed to be the end of the world and the eye-rolling public moves on, it’s easy to forget that fellow human beings, however misguided, have just had their understanding of the universe obliterated. Carla Stillwell’s MPAACT production makes the gravity of that situation feel true. In an isolated, claustrophobic Mississippi home, unable to face his congregation or provide comfort to an ailing parishioner, a deeply shamed pastor (Darren Jones) cedes responsibilities to his wife (Renee Lockett). Lockett’s performance resonates with pain and pity, then explodes with the sort of grief known only to those hurt by the ones they love the most. —DAN JAKES Through 5/28: Thu-Sat 8 PM, Sun 3 PM, Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln, 773-404-7336, mpaact.org, $28-$32.

The Perfect American This Chicago Opera Theater production about Walt Disney’s final days is based not on a biography but on a novel, Der Konig von Amerika, by Peter Stephan Jungk. An attempt to get inside Disney’s head as he’s about to expire, it has a richly expressive score by Philip Glass, pulsing with tension but also often lyrical. Unfortunately, Rudolph Wurlitzer’s superficial libretto—overpopulated and underdeveloped—is mostly dead on arrival, emphasizing Disney’s exploitive capitalism and purported racism (even playing the sick kid card) without ever getting close to the magic. Busily directed by Kevin Newbury, it’s set in the ultimate anti-Disneyland: a menacing hospital room where Disney (baritone Justin Ryan) receives real and imaginary visitors, including Andy Warhol (tenor Kyle Knapp in a welcome comedic turn) and a disgruntled fictional former employee (memorably sung by tenor Scott Ramsay). Departing COT artistic director Andreas Mitisek conducts a 40-piece orchestra and the Apollo Chorus. —DEANNA ISAACS Sun 4/30, 3 PM, Harris Theater, 205 E. Randolph, 312-3347777, chicagooperatheater.org, $39-$125. Prince Max’s Trewly Awful Trip to the Desolat Interior A prince of Prussia paddles the uncharted Missouri River collecting specimens in Ellen Struve’s odd play from Red Theater. The historical Maximilian (1782-1867) was a pioneering naturalist and early visitor to Native American tribes the Mandan and the Hidatsa. His companion, the artist Karl Bodmer, painted some of the most vivid, exacting watercolors of his age. Struve invents a Prince Max (Heather Riordan) who’s a tourist, a dandy, and a true believer in scientific progress—but also a precursor to the bad old days of head-measuring anthropology, and Struve never lets us forget it. Bodmer (Charlee Cotton) mopes around the virgin landscape, wishing he could go home. Taking a principled stance against the racism of 19th-century explorers isn’t a hard or very interesting thing to do, but the play, a revisionist fiasco, barters its whimsy for armchair sociology early on and never recovers. —MAX MALLER Through 5/20: Fri-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PM, Mon 7:30 PM, Den Theatre, 13291333 N. Milwaukee, 773-609-2336, redthe-

Threesome o CARIN SILKAITIS

Best bets, recommendations, and notable arts and culture events for the week of April 27 For more of the best things to do every day of the week, go to chicagoreader. com/agenda. ater.org, free-$20. Queen “Would you choose friendship over truth?” The tagline of Madhuri Shekar’s world premiere may sound like a conundrum to graduates of the Mike Daisey School of Ethics—wherein lies are encouraged so long as they feel true— but for statisticians and ﬁeld researchers the answer is clear: Is that some kind of joke? Nevertheless, here two PhD candidates studying colony collapse disorder (Priya Mohanty and Darci Nalepa) grapple with it in earnest after they discover that serious mathematical discrepancies may compromise their years-in-the-making conclusions set to be published soon in a high-proﬁle journal. Mohanty and Adam Poss enjoy some amusing sitcom relationship antics, and somewhere in Joanie Schultz’s Victory Gardens production are the ingredients for a satire about how wildly intelligent people can make wildly stupid choices, but as presented, it’s a lesson in stating the obvious. —DAN JAKES Through 5/14: Wed-Fri 7:30 PM (except Wed 5/3, 2 PM), Sat 3 and 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PM; also Tue 5/9, 7:30 PM, Victory Gardens Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln, 773-871-3000, victorygardens. org, $20-$60, $15 students.

Scapegoat What if your congressional representative was literally an agent of Satan? Would it surprise anyone at this point? Such is the premise of New Colony’s world-premiere production of Connor McNamara’s political comedy/thriller. The set, split between the devil-worshipping senator’s country home and the Washington oﬃce of his Bible-thumping rival, is presided over by a sinister portrait of Teddy Roosevelt. This parody of our political system sadly doesn’t seem very farfetched, and the dark humor is bolstered by the cast’s not playing it for laughs. One wishes the play would pause once in a while to take a breath, but it’s hard to argue with much of what it’s saying. Kristina Valada-Viers directs. —DMITRY SAMAROV Through 5/7: Thu-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PM, Den Theatre, 1329-1333 N. Milwaukee, 773-609-2336, thenewcolony.org, $20.

Threesome There is one rauR cously funny act and one heartbreaking act in this very good play by

Yussef El Guindi, here given its Chicago premiere by the Other Theatre Company. The title refers to a liaison between Leila (Suzan Faycurry), an Egyptian author only recently arrived in America; her photographer boyfriend, Rashid (Demetrios Troy); and a perky white guy named Doug (Mike Tepeli) whom they met at a party and invited over. Tepeli is an outrageous talent who, it must be said, spends almost the entire ﬁrst act naked. Directed by Jason Gerace, the play shows masterful handling of a slow, unstoppable return of the repressed. —MAX MALLER Through 5/21: Thu-Fri 8 PM, Sat 3 and 8 PM, Sun 3 PM, Green-

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DANCE

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Global Visionaries Joﬀrey Ballet R presents three works, including the world premiere of Episode 47 by

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Alexander Ekman. 4/26-5/7: Wed-Fri 7:30 PM, Sat 2 and 7:30 PM, Sun 2 PM, Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Congress, 800-982-2787, joﬀrey.org, $34-$159.

Of Time and Tide Hedwig DancR es presents three works inspired by the concepts of time and place. 4/214/29: Fri-Sat 7:30 PM, Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn, 312-3376543, hedwigdances.com, $15-$25.

COMEDY

48 Hour Improv Marathon This R nonstop showcase features more than 40 diﬀerent comedy groups raising

money for GirlForward. Fri 4/28 and Sun 4/30, 6 PM, Crowd Theater, 3935 N. Broadway, 48improv.com, $10 per day, $20 weekend pass.

Jermaine Fowler The Superior Donuts star performs stand-up. 5/3-5/6: Wed-Thu 8:30 PM, Fri 8:30 and 10:30 PM, Sat 7 and 9:30 PM, Zanies, 1548 N. Wells, 312-337-4027, zanies.com/ chicago, $25 plus two-drink minimum. This fund-raiser for R Grateful4Her Connections for Abused Women

Jermaine Fowler o RICHARD SHOTWELL

and Children features stand-up from Mona Aburmishan, Marci Deloney, Gwen La Roka, Tamale Sepp, and Adrienne Brandyburg. Sun 4/30, 7 PM, Catalyst Ranch, 656 W. Randolph, 312-207-1710, grateful4her.com, $25.

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Photographic Composition With Mia’s Guitar, 2016 o MARZENA ABRAHAMIK by Scott Becker, Louie Cordon, Casey Hall, Miles Kopcke, Erin Martin, and Tony Orlando. 4/27-5/18: Thu 8:30 PM, Blackout Cabaret, 230 W. North, 312-3373992, secondcity.com/venues/chicago/ the-blackout-cabaret, $13.

VISUAL ARTS Art Institute of Chicago “Fischli/ Weiss: Snowman,” Peter Fischli and David Weiss’s collaborative project, Snowman, features a single snowman trapped in a refrigerated glass box. 4/27-10/15. Sun–Wed and Fri-Sat 10:30 AM–5 PM, Thu 10:30 AM–8 PM. 111 S. Michigan, 312-443-3600, artic.edu, $25, $19 students, seniors ($5 discount for Chicago residents), free kids under 14; free for Illinois residents Thursdays 5-8 PM. Chicago Artists Coalition “Boondoggle,” work by Andrew Barco, Jeﬀ Prokash, and Gülşah Mursaloğlu that attempts to reclaim the word “boondoggle.” Fri 4/28, 6-9:30 PM. 4/28-5/18. Mon-Thu 9 AM-5 PM, Fri 9 AM-noon. “Minor Local Slumpage,” new sculptures by Ginger Krebs. Opening reception Fri 4/28, 6-9:30 PM. 4/28-5/18. Mon-Thu 9 AM-5 PM, Fri 9 AM-noon. 217 N. Carpenter, 312-491-8887, chicagoartistscoalition. org. Johalla Projects “Girl Play,” a collection of Chicago-based artist Marzena Abrahamik’s photographs exploring intimacy and female friendship. Opening reception Fri 4/28, 7-10 PM. 4/28-6/4. Sat 1-5 PM. 1821 W. Hubbard, johallaprojects@ gmail.com, johallaprojects.com.

PM, City Winery, 1200 W. Randolph, 312733-9463, citywinery.com, $35-$48.

Univ. of Chicago Logan Center for the Arts The multiday University of Chicago Artist Summit features presentations from artists including Lola Arias, Jelili Atiku, Tania Bruguera, Sandi Hilal, Carlos Javier Ortiz, and Laurie Jo Reynolds, all attempting to answer the question: “What is an artistic practice of human rights?” Sat 4/29, 9:30 AM-5 PM and Mon 5/1, 6-9 PM, 915 E. 60th, 773-702-2787, graycenter.uchicago.edu/ humanrights.

Satisfy Yourself A new sketch R revue written and performed

Unum “Mistakes Were Made,” this indoor-outdoor exhibit features new

Arsenio Hall The legendary R comic and talk show host performs his stand-up. Sat 4/29, 7 and 10

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work—including interactive labyrinths— by sculptors Nathan Mason and Catherine Schwalbe. Opening reception Fri 4/28, noon-5 PM. 4/28-6/3. By appointment. 3039 W. Carrol, 312-909-5902, barbarakoenen.com/section/444217_UNUM. html.

7:30 PM, Women & Children First, 5233 N. Clark, 773-769-9299, womenandchildrenﬁrst.com.

RELOADED & Reopened !

Golden Jubilee

LIT & LECTURES

Stephanie Danler The author R discusses her book Sweetbitter with Nerdette’s Greta Johnsen. Thu 4/27,

Female Chicago Comics Panel Local female comics artists gather to discuss the industry and celebrate the release of Kristen Radtke’s forthcoming graphic essay collection Imagine Wanting Only This. Mon 5/2, 6:30 PM, Whistler, 2421 N. Milwaukee, 773-2273530, whistlerchicago.com. Field Notes Zine Night Local R vendors present their zines, prints, and art alongside a make-your-

Celebrating our th

ANNIVERSARY just steps from the Dempster “L” stop

own-zine workshop and drinks from Half Acre. Thu 4/27, 6-10 PM, Field Notes HQ, 401 N. Racine, 312-243-1107, ﬁeldnotesbrand.com/fnzn. In the Company of Black book R launch A launch and signing celebrating the release of multidisci-

plinary artist Cecil McDonald Jr.’s book of photographs of “black people who represent everyday folks.” Fri 4/28, 6-9 PM, Filter Space, 1821 W. Hubbard, suite 207, ﬁlterfestival.com. Indie Bookstore Day More than R 20 local bookstores—including the Book Cellar, Open Books, and Women

& Children First—are banding together to host a day ﬁlled with literary events and giveaways. This year includes the My Chicago Bookstore Challenge, which oﬀers discounts for those who visit ten or more local shops. Sat 4/29, various locations, indiebookstoreday.com.

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Tue - Sat 10 - 6 847-475-8665

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12 O’CLOCK TRACK SERIES A SIDE OF JAM WITH YOUR LUNCH EVERY WEEKDAY

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APRIL 27, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 5

Kristen Radtke

AGENDA Damon Krukowski The R author and musician discusses his book The New Analog:

Listening and Reconnecting in a Digital World with Steve Albini and Bob Weston. Tue 5/2, 7 PM, Quimby’s Bookstore, 1854 W. North, 773-342-0910, quimbys.com.

Lit Up! Drinkers With Writing Problems presents a night of live lit featuring Elizabeth Gomez, Britt Julious, Murphy Row, Gabriel Mejia, and more. Fri

o GREG SALVATORI

Kristen Radtke The comics R artist discusses her graphic essay collection Imagine Wanting

4/28, 7:30 PM, Brisku’s Bistro, 4100 N. Kedzie, 773-279-9141, drinkerswithwritingproblems.com.

MOVIES

More at chicagoreader.com/ movies

Only This. Wed 5/3, 7:30 PM, Women & Children First, 5233 N. Clark, 773-769-9299, womenandchildrenﬁrst.com.

Steven Nodine and Eric Beaumont The coauthors of Brick Through the Window: An Oral History of Punk Rock, New Wave & Noise in Milwaukee, 19641984 celebrate its release with a presentation of music discussed in the book. Sat 4/29, 7 PM, Quimby’s Bookstore, 1854 W. North, 773-3420910, quimbys.com.

Bellware, labor organizer Kenzo Shibata, comedian Elizabeth Gomez, and Reader transportation columnist John Greenﬁeld. Sat 4/29, 7 PM, Schubas, 3159 N. Southport, 773-525-2508, 20x2.org/ chicago, $10.

20x2 Andrew Huﬀ hosts R this Chicago iteration of the event wherein 20 people each try

to answer one question—“What the fuck?”—in two minutes. Speakers include journalist Kim

NEW REVIEWS The Illinois Parables DeboR rah Stratman tours the Land of Lincoln, collecting dark stories from its past and contrasting them with the now-peaceful locales where they unfolded. This accom-

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plished essay film (2016) may focus on our state, but Stratman’s real concern is state power in the larger sense: many of her 11 stories—constructed from off-screen interviews and from archival photos, footage, and documents—involve the persecution of racial and religious minorities by the white Christian establishment. Downstaters have to answer for Golconda, a crossing point for Native Americans driven westward on the Trail of Tears, and Nauvoo, where a mob killed the Mormon leader Joseph Smith; but we Chicagoans are still on the hook for Hyde Park, which gave humanity the atomic bomb, and the Near West Side, where police murdered black activist Fred Hampton in his bed. Connecting all this are sweeping aerial shots that capture the beauty of the plains without obscuring the blood spilled to claim them. —J.R. JONES Stratman attends the screening. Fri 4/28, 7 PM. Univ. of Chicago Logan Center for the Arts Max & Leon The title characters—a pair of foundlings, now grown men and fast friends in Mâcon, France— are drafted into the army to fight Hitler and, following a series of battlefield misadventures, impersonate Gestapo agents as they help out the resistance. Jonathan Barré, who wrote and directed this 2016 farce, was born a generation after La Grande Vadrouille (1966), the French service comedy that inspired him, and two generations after the war itself, so one shouldn’t be surprised that he treats the period setting as if it were a stage flat, injecting the story with a satirical hipness alien to its time and place. Eventually this tonal anachronism creeps into the story details: bar patrons watch a TV sitcom years before the French had broadcast television, and a Nazi propaganda film concocted by Max and Leon is shot and cut like a modern-day pharmaceutical commercial. Possibly these are gags, but that uncertainty is the inevitable outcome of having no fixed perspective on your material. In French with subtitles. —J.R. JONES 98 min. Fri 4/28, 6:30 PM; Sat 4/29 and Sun 4/30, 4:30 and 6:30 PM; and Mon 5/1–Thu 5/4, 6:30 PM. Facets Cinematheque Nise: The Heart of Madness Psychotherapist Nise da Silveiro, the subject of this Brazilian biopic (2015), swam against the tide of professional opinion in her native land, denouncing electroshock and lobotomy in favor of occupational therapy and Jungian analysis. “Listen, observe—shut up,” she tells a male nurse soon after joining the staff of a mental hospital where the other doctors are all men, and seriously disinclined to do anything a woman tells them. No less then seven screenwriters contributed to

The Illinois Parables

the script, which has its powerful moments but so deiﬁes Silveira that the movie turns into a blackand-white struggle between a caring, enlightened woman and a cadre of hard-hearted, benighted men. Roberto Berliner directed; with Glória Pires in the title role. In Portuguese with subtitles. —J.R. JONES 106 min. Fri 4/28, 2 and 8 PM; Sat 4/29, 5 PM; Sun 4/30, 5:30 PM; Mon 5/1, 8 PM; Tue 5/2, 6 PM; Wed 5/3, 8 PM; and Thu 5/4, 6 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center The Student In this Russian drama, a suburban teenager converts to Orthodox Christianity. Determined to eradicate the godless ways he sees around him, he takes aim at his divorced mother, his gym coach (who allows girls to wear bikinis to swim class), and his liberal biology teacher (who informs her students about safe sex and the theory of evolution). The tone oscillates between hard-hitting drama and

broad comedy, creating a nervous energy that conveys the adults’ anxiety about how far the boy will go in his proselytizing. Director Kirill Serebrennikov, adapting The Martyr by German playwright Marius von Mayenburg, has said he intended to critique the growing inﬂuence of Orthodox Christianity and hard-right politics in Russian society. His social criticism can be heavy-handed, but his direction of actors (many of whom had never appeared in a movie before this one) is remarkable; Pyotr Skvortsov is terrifying in the lead. In Russian with subtitles. —BEN SACHS 118 min. Fri 4/28, 7 and 9:15 PM; Sat 4/29, 2:30, 4:45, 7, and 9:15 PM; Sun 4/30, 1, 3:15, and 5:30 PM; and Tue 5/2–Thu 5/4, 7 and 9:15 PM. Facets Cinematheque Unforgettable Katherine Heigl’s reputation as a Hollywood terror leads, inevitably, to her debut as a screen villain, aptly described by

one character in this dull thriller as a “psycho Barbie” (carving knife not included). Heigl plays a divorced mother sharing custody of her school-age daughter with her ex-husband, a bland hunk who quit Merrill Lynch to pursue the new American dream of opening a microbrewery; the custody arrangement turns sour, however, once she meets his new girlfriend, a beautiful and accomplished professional woman played by Rosario Dawson. Heigl works overtime to humanize the resentful mom—her face is like an old-fashioned cash register with the prices popping up—but she’s more fun to watch as the story grows ugly and violent, and she unleashes the demon within. Veteran producer Denise Di Novi directed; with Geoﬀ Stults and a faintly recognizable Cheryl Ladd. —J.R. JONES R, 100 min. Arclight, Century 12 and CineArts 6, Chatham 14, Lake What’s Worth While? An eastern debutante falls in love with her father’s business partner, a rugged young oil prospector out west, but his crude ways will never do, and they part sadly; hoping to bridge the social gulf, he spends two years educating himself in Europe, but

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AGENDA she decides she liked him better as a Marlboro man. Pioneering ﬁlmmaker Lois Weber earned a reputation in Hollywood as a groomer of screen stars, and this sly romantic comedy (1921) pairs two of her more talented discoveries: Louis Calhern and Claire Windsor (whose name was Ola Cronk when Weber spotted her in the cafeteria at Paramount Pictures). The two went on to star in Weber’s masterpiece The Blot (1921), and Calhern enjoyed a long career as a character actor in the talking era (he played Ambassador Trentino in the Marx Brothers’ Duck Soup and the title character in Joseph Mankiewicz’s Julius Caesar). —J.R. JONES 75 min. Sat 4/29, 3 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center

SPECIAL EVENTS Ben-Hur Ramon Novarro drives the chariot in Fred Niblo’s 1926 production of the Roman epic, based on Lew Wallace’s best-selling schlock novel. With a supposed $4 million budget (stupefying for the times), it was one of the ﬁrst international successes, but still never turned a proﬁt. (The producers’ contract with Wallace’s estate called for a 50 percent split.) —DAVE KEHR 145 min. Presented by the Silent Film

Society of Chicago; Jay Warren provides live organ accompaniment. Sun 4/30, 3 PM. Saint John Cantius Church CineYouth Festival This three-day festival features short films, features, and documentaries made by filmmakers under 22. Thu 5/4, 7 PM; Fri 5/5, 5 PM; and Sat 5/6, 9:30 AM. Music Box David Lynch: A Complete Retrospective Anticipating the May 21 return of David Lynch’s landmark TV series Twin Peaks and the first Chicago run (beginning May 5) of the documentary David Lynch: The Art Life, Music Box presents a week-long retrospective of Lynch’s big-screen work, from Eraserhead (1977) to Inland Empire (2006). Also included are Peter Braatz’s documentary Blue Velvet Revisited (Wed 5/3, 7:30 PM); a shorts program featuring The Grandmother (1970) and Lynch’s 2002 animation series Dumbland (Fri 4/28, 2:30 PM; Tue 5/2, 9:50 PM); and Lynch’s rarely screened Industrial Symphony No. 1 (1990), adapted from a recording by Julee Cruise and starring her, Laura Dern, and Nicolas Cage (Fri 4/28, 9:30 PM). Singer-songwriter Daniel Knox, who

curated the retrospective, presents a 20-minute video introduction to most shows; for more information and a complete schedule visit musicboxtheatre.com. Fri 4/28-Thu 5/4. Music Box Midwest Independent Film Festival Animation Showcase The festival presents its ﬁrst-ever animation program, including the Chicago premiere of the Student Academy Award winner Die Flucht, by Champaign animator Carter Boyce, and the world premiere of Where It Floods, by Chicago animator Joel Benjamin. A 6 PM reception and 6:30 PM panel discussion precede the screening. Tue 5/2, 7:30 PM. Landmark’s Century Centre Sci-Fi Spectacular Terror in the Aisles presents its annual marathon of sci-ﬁ and fantasy features and shorts. This year’s lineup includes George Roy Hills’s Slaughterhouse Five (Sat 4/29, noon); George Miller’s The Road Warrior, with cast member Vernon Wells in person (6:20 PM); Alex Cox’s Repo Man (8:30 PM); Paul Verhoeven’s Total Recall (10:15 PM); and David Cronenberg’s Videodrome (Sun 4/30, 12:15 AM). Sat 4/29, noon. Patio Theater v

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APRIL 27, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 7

CITY LIFE Chicagoans

The ex-cop birder Luis Muñoz, 56

“When I was working murders, birding really calmed me down,” says retired police detective Luis Muñoz. o JIAYUE YU

Street View

o ISA GIALLORENZO

Harajuku selfexpression in the South Loop

MODEL JUNI PARK was spotted hanging out at a Harajuku party at Studio 415 cohosted by Akira cofounder Jon Cotay. No longer working for the local boutique, the globe-trotting businessman now runs an event company that organizes such parties. “I decided to do the Harajuku-themed party based on my travels to Tokyo,” he says. To Cotay, the Japanese teen street style popularized by the fashion magazine Fruits gave his partygoers an occasion to experiment with hair and makeup, layer patterns and colors, and engage in playing roles such as punk, goth, kawaii, and sweet Lolita. —ISA GIALLORENZO See more Chicago street style on Giallorenzo’s blog chicagolooks.blogspot.com.

I WAS ON THE FORCE for 27 years. The last 22 of them, I was a detective who worked homicides. A lot of times you know who did the murder; it’s just proving it. Your mind is always going, “How am I gonna catch this guy?” It’s nonstop. Informants were calling me all day, all night. Sometimes I’d wake up and I’d be punching my bedpost. It’s constant, constant, constant. The one I consider my ﬁrst murder isn’t technically considered a murder, because the medical examiner couldn’t rule on how the victim died. But my partner and I were convinced that her boyfriend killed her. He completely disappeared. One of the last things I did before I retired, I ran the ﬁngerprints, hoping he had been arrested in some other state, but no such luck. When I was working murders,

birding really calmed me down. That turned out to be my therapy. Whenever I felt stressed out, I would try to get out to [Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary]. In the beginning all the coppers at work were making fun of me, but after a while, it was, “Hey, I saw this bird, what can I do to attract ’em to my yard?” I remember one time we were leaving the Cook County Jail, and my partner is driving. I see a family of Canada geese—which was unusual, because it was January— and I told my partner, “Stop the car!” So he slams the brakes, and he’s thinking I’m seeing something criminal. I said to him, “There’s three goslings!” Montrose is the number one birding location in all of Illinois. It sticks out into Lake Michigan, so when the birds are migrating at night and the

sun rises, ﬁrst thing they see is Montrose Point, and they make a beeline to it. I’m a hard-core birder, so a lot of birds get me excited. Kirtland’s warbler, that’s a really exciting bird. Piping plover, that’s an endangered species. The Magic Hedge is part of the Point. Unfortunately, whatever wants to nest at Montrose can’t, because cruisers are there all day long. There’s a bunch of sex stuff, there’s dope, there’s drinking. These guys just take over. You’ll be out there as a birder, making sounds to attract warblers, and these guys think I’m trying to attract them, trying to engage in whatever they’re doing. It really pisses me off. When you’re birdwatching and you bump into the middle of a circle jerk, that’s not one of the nicest things you want to see. —AS TOLD TO ANNE FORD

¥ Keep up to date on the go at chicagoreader.com/agenda.

SURE THINGS THURSDAY

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

¸ Ch icago Cockt a il Soci al Guests can enjoy signature cocktails by mixologists from 20 local bars— including Best Intentions, Heavy Feather, and Scoﬄaw— plus appetizers and live music by Cage + Aquarium. 6:30-10 PM, Galleria Marchetti, 825 W. Erie, greencurtainevents. com/chicago-cocktail-social, $55-$65.

p Garden of Eve: Fo r ward The Howard Brown Health Center hosts this fund-raiser speciﬁcally to support services available for LGBTQ women. The night includes food, drink, an Early to Bed pop-up shop, music from Slo’Mo DJs, performances, and more. 6-10 PM, Venue Six10, 610 S. Michigan, howardbrown.org, $100.

Chicago Zombie Pub Craw l A horde of zombies will take over Andersonville today. But fear not—they’re after booze, not brains. Stops along the bar crawl include Simon’s Tavern, Farraguts, and Replay Andersonville. 6-10 PM, pH Comedy Theater, 1515 W. Berwyn, chicagozombiepubcrawl.com, $30, $20 in advance.

Ô CA KE Drink and Draw Br unch The Chicago Alternative Comics Expo (CAKE) hosts this boozy gathering featuring performances by local cartoonists, a raﬄe, and art supplies for guests to ﬂex their creative muscles. 1-4 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, cakechicago. com, $5.

Ú Bo dy Horror: Capit a lism, Fear, Misogyny, Jo kes A celebration of the release of the latest collection of essays by Anne Elizabeth Moore. 7 PM, Whistler, 2421 N. Milwaukee, 773-2273530, whistlerchicago.com.

& Cr yst al Lake Brewi ng dinner Chef Cardel Reid presents an hors d’oeuvres reception and a fourcourse meal that includes foie gras mousse and seared buffalo tenderloin, paired with five different beers from Crystal Lake Brewing. 6 PM, Signature Room, 875 N. Michigan, signatureroom.com, $85.

½ One -Minute Play Festival The festival returns with dozens of one-minute plays written by female-identiﬁed artists inspired by the theme “Nevertheless, We Persisted.” Tue 5/2-Wed 5/3: 8 PM, Den Theatre, 1333 N. Milwaukee, thedentheatre.com/events, $20, $18 in advance.

8 CHICAGO READER - APRIL 27, 2017

APRIL 27, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 9

BEDBUGS CAN HAPPEN

CITY LIFE Demonstrators at the Women’s March on Chicago in January o SUE KWONG

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POLITICS

Reproductive rights reversal

Rauner, formerly a pro-choice governor, threatens to veto a pro-choice bill. By BEN JORAVSKY

10 CHICAGO READER - APRIL 27, 2017

n order to keep his coalition of Republican legislators together, Governor Bruce Rauner’s apparently decided to betray his lifelong commitment to reproductive rights and throw the women of Illinois under a bus. Thanks to his vow to veto a reproductive rights bill known as HB40, abortion—and even some forms of birth control—could one day be illegal in Illinois. I’d say shame on Rauner, except a governor who could cut, among other things, assistance for autism patients obviously lost his capacity for remorse many years ago. OK, I’ll calm down long enough to take things point by point, starting with the Illinois Abortion Law of 1975. Passed two years after Roe v. Wade—the Supreme Court decision

that granted women a constitutional right to abortion—the Illinois law makes it clear that abortion’s legal in Illinois only because the Supreme Court ruled that the state has no choice. The 1975 bill starts by stating its “intention” to “reasonably regulate abortion . . . without in any way restricting . . . the right of a woman to an abortion.” But then it goes on to “solemnly declare” that “the unborn child is a human being from the time of conception and is, therefore, a legal person . . . entitled to the right to life . . . under the laws and Constitution of this State.” Furthermore, it declares that the “ longstanding policy of ” Illinois to “protect the right to life of the unborn child” by “prohibiting abortion . . . is impermissible only because of the decisions

Read Ben Joravsky’s columns throughout the week at chicagoreader.com.

of the United States Supreme Court.” And, finally, this whopper: “If those decisions of the United States Supreme Court are ever reversed or modiﬁed . . . to allow protection of the unborn then the former policy of this State to prohibit abortions unless necessary for the preservation of the mother’s life shall be reinstated.” In other words, as I explained a few months back, if Roe v. Wade gets reversed, there’s trigger language in the state law that automatically makes most abortions illegal here. The law could even result in doctors who perform abortions getting prosecuted for murder. Why? Well, let’s go back to the law’s declaration that “the unborn child is a human being from the time of conception”—or from the moment the sperm fertilizes the egg. There’s a long-standing debate among ethicists and doctors as to when life begins. Some say it’s from the instant the sperm fertilizes the egg. Others say it’s when the fertilized egg implants in the uterus. And there are those who say it’s when the child ﬁnally gets a job and leaves the house. Sorry, couldn’t resist. The point is that the state law establishes human life at fertilization, which means all abortions, even those in the earliest stages of pregnancy, amount to murder. Moreover, you could take it to extreme—as many antiabortion zealots do—and call certain methods of birth control murder if they prevent a fertilized egg from implantation. OK, Cook County prosecutors aren’t likely to charge a doctor with murder for performing an abortion or prescribing birth control. But I’m sure there are prosecutors in other, more conservative downstate counties who would relish a chance to play to the antichoice crowd by throwing a doctor or two in jail. In October, I’d have told you this is all highly unlikely because there was no way that Roe v. Wade would be reversed—not with Hillary Clinton ahead in the polls. But of course, we all know what happened in that election. President Donald Trump’s already named one Supreme Court justice— Neil Gorsuch. Given the advanced age of some of other justices, I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump gets to name another one. Now, Roe seems a little more precarious. In January, with an eye to the possibility that Roe might be reversed, Illinois state rep Sara Feigenholtz introduced House Bill 40, which would strike the so-called trigger language, including the line about when life begins, from the 1975 law. It would also give the

state the right to use Medicaid funds to pay for abortions for low-income women. When she filed the bill, Feigenholtz didn’t suspect Rauner would be an opponent. He’d run as a pro-choice Republican. In fact, on the eve of the 2014 gubernatorial election, Diana Rauner, the governor’s wife, helped pay for an ad in the Tribune that declared that “we celebrate the fact that in this election both candidates for Illinois Governor are pro-choice.” Needing only a simple majority to pass both Democratic-controlled bodies, Feigenholtz was quietly confident her bill would pass. But in early April, key Republican legislators met with Rauner. According to news accounts, they told him that if he didn’t veto HB40, they might not support him in next year’s election. On April 14, Governor Rauner announced he planned to veto HB40 if it were to pass the house and senate, on the grounds that it was too controversial. Think about this, everybody. Going two years without a budget or suggesting that he could save public education by bankrupting it aren’t too controversial for Rauner. But keeping his commitment to reproductive rights is? Man, this dude will do anything to bust the unions. In any event, I think all of us—from the left or the right—can agree that Rauner’s threatened veto is a sop he’s throwing to his fellow Republicans in the legislature. Rauner’s reversal has enraged pro-choice activists. Last week, Terry Cosgrove and Marcie Love—the leaders of Personal PAC, the pro-choice lobbying group—released Rauner’s candidate’s questionnaire from 2014 in which he wrote, “I dislike the Illinois law that restricts abortion coverage under the state Medicaid plan . . . I would support a legislative effort to reverse that law.” Rauner’s walking a tightrope on this one. He wants to convince suburban swing voters that he’s pro-choice while assuring conservative Republicans he’ll veto pro-choice legislation. As befits a billionaire, it looks as though he’ll try to buy his way out of this predicament. He and his wife recently contributed $50,000 to Planned Parenthood, and they’re sponsors of an April 26 fund-raiser for the group. I realize it’s a contradiction for Rauner to give money to Planned Parenthood while vowing to veto a reproductive rights bill the group supports. Obviously, the governor’s banking on pro-choice voters being dumb enough to let him get away with it. v

SLEEP RESEARCH STUDY FOR PEOPLE WITH LUNG DISEASE: Volunteers are invited to join this study: you must be over age 45 years, have either emphysema or chronic bronchitis and difﬁculty falling asleep or staying asleep to qualify. We are testing a program to improve sleep in people with lung disease. Volunteers eligible for the study will participate in 6 weekly sessions in one of four behavioral or educational programs. The programs are offered by the University of Illinois at Chicago and the Hines VA. Health evaluations include an overnight sleep study, lung function tests, two blood draws, activity monitoring and questionnaires. Compensation is provided to enrolled participants, all program activities and testing are free and free parking is provided.

12/09/2016

08/04/2017

For more information go to cbti-copd.uic.edu or call Mary Kapella PhD, RN or Franco Laghi MD at (312) 996-1575, 9:30AM to 4:00PM, Monday thru Friday at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Center for Narcolepsy, Sleep & Health Research. This study is funded by the National Institutes of Health.

ß @joravben APRIL 27, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 11

CITY LIFE

Ana the crossing guard helps Murphy Elementary students safely cross the street. o JOHN GREENFIELD

TRANSPORTATION

Intersectionality

A northwest-side crossing guard confronts dangerous and disrespectful drivers. By JOHN GREENFIELD

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he six-way intersection of Grace, Bernard, and Elston in the Irving Park community is a tricky junction. Located just west of the Abbey Pub, it’s a relatively wide roadway where the two residential streets meet up with a busy northwest-southeast thoroughfare. Since there’s no stoplight, crossing Elston can be challenging for anybody on foot. But it’s especially hazardous for students from John B. Murphy Elementary School, a block west, and Chicago International Charter School, about two blocks east. The city has taken some steps, however, to address this. A few years ago the Department of Transportation installed buffered bike lanes on Elston, which shortened pedestrian crossing distances, and a few months ago workers put a refuge island in the northwest leg of the intersection, where the kids traverse the street. But the most important safety feature of this intersection is Ana the crossing guard (she asked that we use her ﬁrst name only)—a petite ﬁrebrand of a woman who’s been protecting youngsters here for more than eight years. Observing her afternoon shift last week, I was impressed by Ana’s grit as she marched

into the street with her handheld stop sign, taking no guff from drivers who failed to halt. But I saw several motorists ignore her orders and even shout at her as they sped by, which shows that, despite infrastructure improvements and the best efforts of city workers like Ana, we need to do more to ensure that the rights and safety of pedestrians are respected, especially at tricky junctures like this one. Ana, who marked her 14th anniversary as a crossing guard this month, spoke glowingly about the job, which pays Chicagoans between $17,000 and $22,600 a year for morning and afternoon shifts. “I love it,” she said. “The same people pass by you every day, and you become acquaintances. The biggest kick is watching the kids grow up. I see them when they’re little, and before I know it they’re graduating. It’s like, where has the time gone?” Ana was just a kid herself in 1965 when at age seven she immigrated to Chicago with her family from Porto Alegre, a city of 1.5 million in southern Brazil. Her father, a machinist and upholsterer, brought his wife and seven children to the north side in hopes of ﬁnding a better life. “That was a great thing he did for us,” Ana said.

CITY LIFE “Drivers get angry that I keep them from moving. They hit the horn and tell me to get out of the way, but I say, ‘Sorry, if you’re running late, I guess you should have left a little earlier.’ ” —Ana the crossing guard

After working as a file clerk as a young woman, Ana got married and became a stayat-home mom. When her son went to high school she started the crossing guard position, and she currently splits her time between protecting students and planting annuals and pulling weeds at her home garden, around the corner from the intersection. While she says her job is rewarding, it has its share of challenges. “There’s no respect for us out here from drivers,” she said. “They don’t understand that we are sacriﬁcing ourselves to go into the middle of the street and stop a moving car. People think I’m doing a lot of yelling, but I’m trying to get their attention, like, ‘Hey, please wake up.’ So many people are on their phone nowadays.” Fortunately, neither Ana nor any of her charges has been struck while she’s been stationed at Grace, Bernard, and Elston, but the intersection has seen its share of crashes. A few months ago, she says, a northbound motorist coming from Bernard struck another vehicle and wound up crashing into a pole on the west side of the junction. “Both of the cars were totaled, and one of them lost a couple of wheels that bounced and rolled up Grace,” she said. Luckily this happened around 11 AM on a weekday, when no children were present. As I talked with Ana, there was a slow trickle of pedestrians she helped across the street. A little before three, parents began crossing west to pick up their kids from Murphy Elementary. Anabel Quito, pushing a tiny BMX bike for her son, who attends pre-K there, walked with her young daughter, who was also on two wheels. Quito’s husband and other parents, along with the school’s principal, successfully lobbied 35th Ward alderman Carlos Ramirez-Rosa to use ward money for the pedestrian island. “It was much harder to cross before they put it in,” she said.

After 3 PM, students began filtering out from Murphy, ranging from toddlers in brightly colored outﬁts to middle-schoolers wearing a uniform of tan pants and maroon tops. Many of them greeted Ana by name, and she reciprocated. “Murphy’s a great school, and I really like the kids,” Ana told me. “They are very respectful, which is important. They know that if they get out of line and cross when they’re not supposed to, I’m going to confront them—and I may tell the principal.” Unfortunately, not all of the drivers passing by on Elston were so cooperative. As Ana strode across the ﬁrst half of the avenue holding up her sign, motorists in the opposite lane would often fail to hit the brakes. “Can you stop?” she yelled at one motorist. “Guys, you gotta stop,” she hollered at a couple others. On more than one occasion drivers yelled back at her, claiming that they were in a hurry. “Drivers get angry that I keep them from moving,” she told me. “They hit the horn and tell me to get out of the way but I say, ‘Sorry, if you’re running late, I guess you should have left a little earlier.’” The CPD occasionally conducts crosswalk stings, ticketing drivers who fail to yield. Perhaps stationing an officer at tough intersections like Ana’s to issue citations on a weekly basis would be good way to educate drivers that they have to stop and not risk running over kids and other commuters. Tom Canty, walking his daughter home as she ate an ice cream and pushed a scooter, praised Ana as a black belt in traffic safety. “She’s great,” he said. “My son is 13, so we’ve been crossing here for ten years. I know someone would be dead if Ana was not here helping people cross the street, because people have no respect for pedestrians, even with kids.” Soon thereafter, a family approached Ana. The kids offered her a bunch of dandelions they’d picked, which resulted in a group hug. “Now I gotta go put these in my scrapbook,” she said. “Kids give me little gifts, valentines and things. It makes me feel good that people appreciate me.” Ana and other hardworking crossing guards certainly deserve our gratitude for putting themselves in harm’s way to keep children and other pedestrians safe. It would be great if all Chicagoans, including people speeding by in cars, gave them the respect they merit. v

John Greenfield edits the transportation news website Streetsblog Chicago. ß @greenfieldjohn

In Acts April 7 – June 10, 2017 Summit: What is an Artistic Practice of Human Rights?* Saturday, April 29, 9:30 AM – 5 PM Monday, May 1, 6 – 9 PM * This event will take place at: Logan Center for the Arts 915 E 60th Street Chicago, IL 60637 Weinberg/Newton Gallery 300 W Superior Street, Suite 203 Chicago, IL 60654 312 529 5090 weinbergnewtongallery.com

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APRIL 27, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 13

CITY LIFE

POLITICS

Bearing witness

A Syrian asylum seeker remembers revolution and imprisonment in Damascus.

As TOLD TO SARAH CONWAY Abu Shadi Ô DANIEL ROWELL

More than 17,000 Syrians have been killed in government custody since March 2011, and an estimated 100,000 people are still missing and presumed detained or killed, according to Syrian human rights groups. Abu Shadi, 27, was born in Damascus and sought asylum in Chicago in 2013 after he was arrested and tortured for more than a month by the Assad regime for filming peaceful protests. (We’re referring to him by his nickname to protect his identity during the asylum process.) Today he continues his work as a filmmaker while studying computer science and waiting for word on his asylum application. Here Abu Shadi reflects on the Trump administration’s April 7 missile strikes on a Syrian government airfield, and the painful memories the strike conjured. [Editor’s note: This story contains descriptions of violence that readers may find disturbing.]

ust after Trump’s missile strike, I shared a meme on Facebook. It was of Trump wearing a tarboosh [the traditional Syrian red tasseled cap], with “We love you!” written below—a slogan that any Syrian knows from photos of Assad inscribed with the same message. Propaganda slogans were forced down our throats in posters, books, and photos. “We love you” is a phrase that you couldn’t escape in Syria. It’s about the cult of dictatorship. People who aren’t Syrians might assume we now love Trump, and I can’t deny I’m happy about his missile strike on the Syrian government. But the irony is that he is someone who made us the enemy just a few months ago. [On this image] I commented, “I believe in you,” in a reference to a Fairuz song because I love her music, as all Syrians do. It’s a dark

14 CHICAGO READER - APRIL 27, 2017

joke, I guess, because Syrians have very little to believe in these days. On one hand, I’m happy that, ﬁnally, a world power acted in Syria to stop the use of chemical weapon attacks against our people. On the other, we all know that Trump warned Putin—our new Syrian president—before the strike. Somehow, even if the strike is just a political game, it still it gave me a sense of hope that I haven’t felt in a long time. Usually the world only presses “like” or “dislike” for Syria, but this time it felt different. I’ve developed a complicated relationship with social media because, honestly, I can’t see dead Syrian civilians anymore. For us, the images of dead bodies are not just news; they are our family members, friends, and people. I see my family in the photos of the dead, but most of all, it’s a reminder that the world watches us and does nothing.

It’s hard to believe that it has been six years since the revolution. I was just a 20-year-old computer engineering student in the beginning. I remember sitting with friends in 2011, and one asked me, “Do you think what happened in Libya or Tunisia will happen here?” We all agreed that the Arab Spring would never spread to Syria. The regime was too strong and the people were too afraid to stand up for themselves. But it did, and everything changed. When I went to my first protest, I was so afraid. Just after Friday prayer, everyone poured out into the streets from the mosque. Even at that time, protests could mean death. We had all heard about protesters getting shot by the Mukhabarat [the Syrian military intelligence]. At first I felt fear, but then in the streets this fear disappeared, and I just felt free among thousands chanting, singing, wanting to be heard. After a few months my friends and I were protesting every day, sometimes even twice a day. I chose to document this revolution, and I felt it was my duty to share it with the world as a photographer and videographer. I couldn’t use a real camera because it would make me a visible target, so I learned to shoot good video on a Samsung Galaxy S1, then upload the footage to YouTube for the world to see. I

would find an elevated area slightly above the protesters and shoot the scene from behind so as not to identify anyone’s face, as I knew the government would watch these videos on YouTube. I filmed around 400 protests before I was caught. My friends and I heard that the government knew my group of friends had been attending and filming protests. To be safe, we hid out in a friend’s apartment who was out of the country, but they found us. It was like any other night: I fell asleep, while one of my friends talked to his girlfriend on the phone; another was up studying for his classes. Around 2 AM I woke up to the cock of a gun over my head. Four officers were standing above me while I lay on my back looking up. “Don’t move,” they said, while pointing their guns at me. They searched the home for weapons, guns—anything to prove that we were terrorists—but they found only books. Unfortunately, they found our laptops and discovered footage of protests as well as photos and songs about the revolution, sealing our fate. My friends and I were then blindfolded with our own shirts pulled over our heads. My last memory before detention was being led by soldiers down the stairs of the building and glimpsing through the stretched brown fabric

This interview was conducted as part of the storytelling project 90 Days, 90 Voices.

of my T-shirt to see a soldier stationed every second step. Why were they so afraid of us? We were just students. Someone called the police on us and turned us in, but I will never know who made us disappear. At first I was taken to a station in Mezze, and for six hours we were beaten with hands, feet, guns—any object they could ﬁnd. I had never been beaten before. A lot of people die during this ﬁrst interview. While you are being beaten you wonder, will I live? Afterwards, I was taken to a basement where I was tortured by four men. Two held me down while the others twisted my foot, grabbing it with a tool. As they pressed my foot, they demanded to know what I had done. “Why did you bomb Mezze neighborhood yesterday? Where are your guns?” they screamed. After 30 minutes of torture, you get smart and you will confess yes to everything. You just want to make the torture stop. With everything he asked, I said “yes.” Anything he demanded to know, “yes.” It was just one day of my life, but it felt like two. There were no lights, no clocks. After that

CITY LIFE

“I still go to protests here because I want Americans to know what is happening. I want them to see a face representing those who have disappeared.” —Abu Shadi, Syrian asylum seeker

I was taken to a Mukhabarat jail where I was held for one and a half months. Just know that you go to these types of places in Syria to die. I remember for over two weeks, every day I thought, “Is today the day I will die?” Sometimes during torture I left covered in blood; sometimes I left with marks returning to the small room with around 100 men. There was [usually] no space to sit down on the ﬂoor, so we could only stand together, and if I could sit on the ﬂoor it was for just for a couple of hours. There were no windows, no air. It was a room so small that I could feel the moisture of our sweat on my skin and in my breath. There was a constant liquid on the ground that made us feel so warm that none of us wore clothes, just our underwear. I remember there were people of all ages in that room. Some talked. Some prayed. Some were silent. My friends and I thought that once we made it to court that this would all be over. I remember on the day of our trial, we lifted our shirts to show what the soldiers and Mukhabarat had done to our bodies, and we explained how during torture we said yes only to make it stop.

Somehow we believed that the truth would set us free, but instead we were sent to prison for crimes we never committed. This time, it was better than before, with edible food and a chance to talk to your families. I was there for just 24 hours before my family bribed the government for my release. I was told to leave Syria or face rearrest. So I left to Egypt, then eventually I acquired a student visa to come to America. After ﬁve months, I claimed asylum in Chicago. My case has been pending for four years now, but in the beginning, I would check the mailbox every day for updates on my asylum case. After a few months, it was every week. Now, I don’t check the mailbox. It’s not that I don’t care. I care a lot, actually, but what can I do? Despite everything, within my ﬁrst week in Chicago, I went to a protest held downtown for Syria. I wasn’t nervous about going back to protest because I love this freedom, but most of all, I still go to protests here because I want Americans to know what is happening. I want them to see a face representing those who have disappeared. v

FINISH STRONG

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APRIL 27, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 15

Capturing the joy of black childhood The photo book Too Fly Not to Fly uses levity to explore heavy topics. By BRIANA MCLEAN and DESMOND OWUSU BOUNDLESS ENTHUSIASM. This is what comes across most clearly in the photos that make up Too Fly Not to Fly, a book published last year that invites children ages three to seven to think critically about issues such as health and colorism, using words connected to letters of the alphabet—D is for dream, H is for history, Y is for youth. The book also contains a collection of bright, playful, and ultimate-

16 CHICAGO READER - APRIL 27, 2017

ly thoughtful photos—some staged, some spontaneous—that celebrate Chicago and its youngest occupants. Writer Briana McLean, coauthor of Too Fly Not to Fly, says she and photographer and fellow author Desmond Owusu used this approach because children spend a large portion of their early years learning the alphabet. “In addition to having meaningful and cultur-

ally relevant discussions with students, we also wanted to introduce new vocabulary to them,” McLean says, citing the inﬂuential 1972 linguistics book Black English as one of the inspirations for Too Fly. McLean, who’s from Denver, and Owusu, who’s from Chicago’s Burnside neighborhood, met in 2011 when they taught at Trinity United Child Care in Beverly and Betty Shabazz J

Opposite page: A’Kasha Hodges, seven, in Marquette Park McLean: “I taught A’Kasha in kindergarten. She was one of the most bright and inquisitive students. Over time, though, I saw that she was treated diﬀerently because she was darker skinned. I wanted to make space for darker-skinned kids to see themselves as nuanced . . . to show joy but also that struggle in creating relationships, friendships, and loving yourself.” Top: Alexis Hunt and Cedrick DeBerry, both seven, in Bronzeville McLean: “Food deserts is something we wanted to tackle with students. We wanted to capture the resiliency of black children against the backdrop of systemic oppression, in the form of a Food & Liquor. We chose this image for O is for obstacle, to allow students a space to unpack what elements of their world create obstacles for them but may not exist for children who live 12 miles north of them in the same city.” Left: Eight-year-olds Kentrell McNeal, Kaylen Woodard, Miracle Powell, and Leilani Nichols in Bridgeport Owusu: “It was apparent to me that Kentrell and Kaylen were really good buddies. When good buddies link up, they have a great time. Good buddies also tend to compete with each other. Once I told Kentrell and Kaylen that I needed both of them to soar high in the sky, they looked at each other and said, ‘Oh, I’m gonna jump higher than you, watch!’ And there you have it, two black boys ﬂying high in the sky.” o DESMOND OWUSU

APRIL 27, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 17

Owusu places a hand on the head of eight-year-old Ellis Humphries.

McLean: “Ellis has been charismatic since he was three years old in my pre-K classroom, so I knew he was going to be able to show that admiration of a younger brother, nephew, or son inspired by an older family member.” o BRIANA MCLEAN

18 CHICAGO READER - APRIL 27, 2017

Too Fly Not to Fly continued from 16 Academy in Chatham, respectively. She calls working with Owusu “a dream.” “He really dedicates himself to creating positive energy in Chicago,” she says, “and everything he does is a reﬂection of that.” By July 2015 the pair had begun taking groups of their students on day trips throughout the city. While many of the photos were shot in the students’ surrounding neighborhoods—Bronzeville, the South Loop, and Marquette Park—McLean and Owusu also made a point of giving them experiences they weren’t as familiar with, like taking the Chicago Water Taxi from Chinatown to the LaSalle stop in River North. “It’s really special to have developed such a

strong bond with students that their families trust you enough to let their children be a part of a project that you and your friend have always wanted to create,” McLean says of the trips. McLean and Owusu’s ultimate goal is to build black children’s self-esteem by creating materials where the kids can really see themselves and their peers. McLean says this became especially important when she began to see students doubt their self-worth as “a result of the negative depictions of blackness that the world was continually showing them.” This self-doubt manifested itself as inattentiveness and even bullying. She cites James Baldwin as another guiding force for the book, paraphrasing him at length: “‘In order to survive you have to re-

ally dig down deep into yourself and recreate yourself according to no image that yet exists in America. You have to decide who you are and force the world to deal with you and not this idea of you.’ It was watching four-, five-, and six-year-old children grapple with the fact that the world still has yet to know and accurately represent who they are,” she says. The pair have ambitious plans for their project. In May they’ll participate in the fifth annual African American Children’s Book Fair in Baltimore. They also developed a partnership with the African American Male Achievement Program in Oakland, California, to create a book specific to children in that community. And they’ve collaborated with Chicago-based musician Teddy Jackson, who wrote the J

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APRIL 27, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 19

Above: Humphries with Christopher Hibbitt III, eight, Jaylah Brewton, eight, and Jalen Brown, nine, in Bronzeville McLean: “Before this picture we had a discussion around representation in their favorite cartoons and TV shows. I asked one student how it felt when he didn’t see people that looked like him on his favorite programs, to which he responded, ‘It feels like I don’t belong.’” Right: Jakyra Rodgers, seven, on the Chicago Water Taxi Owusu: “I’ve lived in Chicago all of my life. It wasn’t until my first year of grad school that I discovered that Chicago had a water taxi! I never want any child in Chicago to not be able to experience the beauty of the city. My hope is that she looked in amazement but also with an assurance that the world is bigger than what she thought and if she wants, she can shake up this world and make it a better place.” o DESMOND OWUSU

20 CHICAGO READER - APRIL 27, 2017

Above: Seven-year-olds Anarria Powell, Giselle Stevenson, and Alexis Hunt sit at the edge of Lake Michigan in Bronzeville.

Too Fly Not to Fly continued from 18 song “The Flyest Singalong” after reading Too Fly, producing a soon-to-be-released music video to accompany it. McLean emphasized that proceeds from sales of the book will go toward promoting it to schools and publishing more copies. “We’re not living off the book by any means,” she says. There’s even talk of taking part in one of the biggest and oldest traditions in Chicago: “We’re also hoping to get our own Too Fly Not to Fly ﬂoat in this year’s Bud Billiken parade,” says McLean. Owusu, meanwhile, hopes the book will be a call to action for each child who picks it up. “This started out as an idea. I want children to know ideas and words can really change the world.” —DANIELLE A. SCRUGGS

Owusu: “Some people in the city may not look at Lake Michigan and call it a wonder of the world, but I like to think it’s a wonder in our city. When we came up with this scene, our goal was for the girls to, one, realize the beauty within our city and, two, realize the beauty and magic in friendship and sisterhood. I was really impressed by how fearless each of the girls were to go by the water.” Left: Desmond’s niece Zaria Owusu-Young, ten, holds a copy of Too Fly Not to Fly in Jackson Park. o DESMOND OWUSU

APRIL 27, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 21

ARTS & CULTURE

READER RECOMMENDED

b ALL AGES

“RICH MAN, POOR MAN: TALES OF R TWO AMERICAS” Sat 4/29, noon-1 PM, First United Methodist

Church at the Chicago Temple, 77 W. Washington, chicagohumanities.org, $15, $12 for members, $10 for students and teachers.

CHICAGO HUMANITIES FESTIVAL / LIT

Class, dismissed By RYAN SMITH

Sarah Smarsh o AARON LINDBERG

or her 2001 book Nickel and Dimed, author and social critic Barbara Ehrenreich worked several minimum-wage jobs. In the process she documented the precarious lives of the millions of Americans who are mired in poverty—particularly in a time when “the poor have disappeared from the culture at large, from its political rhetoric and intellectual endeavors.” More than a decade later, freelance journalist Sarah Smarsh arrived at a sadly similar conclusion in “Poor Teeth,” her incisive 2013 essay about the ever-growing class divide in America as seen through the lens of dental care (or lack thereof) and the “psychological hell” many people experience for “having poor teeth in a rich, capitalist country.” Smarsh was flooded with hundreds of messages from readers who reached out to thank her for writing about an issue that’s rarely covered by the mainstream media. “It was a realization like, oh shit, I need to keep writing about these kind of things for these people because there’s so few of these narratives out there,” Smarsh says. “For me, writing about poverty and class is a choice, but it also feels like a responsibility.” Unlike Ehrenreich, Smarsh didn’t require an immersive excursion into the world of the working poor—she’s already lived it. Prior to being an Ivy League grad and college professor, the 36-year-old Kansas native was a fifth-generation farm kid whose family eked out a humble existence on subpoverty-level wages. Smarsh draws on her wealth of personal experience in a new anthology, Tales of Two Americas: Stories of Inequality in a Divided State (Penguin), and her first book, In the Red (Scribner), due next year. On Saturday, April 29, Smarsh will appear for a reading and conversation with John Freeman, the editor of Tales of Two Americas, as part of the Chicago Humanities Festival. I spoke with Smarsh over the phone about poverty, social class, and the problems of seeing politics through a red state/blue state lens.

22 CHICAGO READER - APRIL 27, 2017

What prompted you to focus on social class in your writing? I never made a conscious decision to do it, but what I gravitated to as a writer has always had a common thread of somehow intersecting with economics and class and rural/urban issues. When I got the attention for “Bad Teeth” and heard so many people say “Oh my god, I see myself in what you wrote and there are so few pieces like that out there,” it made me realize I need to keep doing this for those people and for myself. Growing up, I had a vacuum of those same kinds of narratives. To this day, the only piece of pop culture I felt I connected to and represented my people was Roseanne. She’s a genius, and I’m so grateful as a ten-year-old that I had that show. I think I can speak to social class experientially in a way that not many people who end up with a platform like I have can. It’s an honor. I know bits and pieces of your biography from essays you’ve written. Can you give me an overview of your background and how it’s shaped your work?

As a toddler, I lived in a trailer on a patch of dirt next to a windswept lake and a wheat field near Wichita. My dad is a construction worker and was a farmer and my mom lived a transient midwest life. My mom got pregnant with me when she was 17, and so they moved into what felt then like a nice little 700-square-foot tiny wooden structure out in the country. After my parents got a divorce, I moved permanently into my grandparents’ farm when I was 11 and spent my adolescence and high school there. We never had cable TV or air-conditioning or computers, but we always had food and shelter and clothes, and I loved living on a farm. So I didn’t think of us as poor, even though we were living under the poverty line. It was a time when class wasn’t really part of the American consciousness. I think it’s finally beginning to rightly be acknowledged now. I didn’t conceive of ourselves on a place on a class ladder. If I’d had that language as a teenager, I’d have considered myself middle-class. Looking back it now seems triumphant and also a little sad that there’s there’s such a disconnect between the language of where we thought we were on the ladder and where we actually were. I remember later going to grad school at Columbia and realizing that the annual tuition was higher than the income of anyone in my family—by a lot. Besides bad teeth, what are some of the effects of the kinds of poverty you and your family and community have experienced? There’s so many ways in which poverty is a violence on the body and mind. I think we often jump to the health-care discussion, but that’s a very reactive after-the-fact kind of thing. Consider that the bodies of my family actually look different than the cosmopolitan class I’m now a part of. My dad has been a construction worker for almost 50 years, and his fingers are swollen to the size of hot dogs—his hands calloused and his knuckles busted. I think his fingernails have been bruised every day of my life. Life when you’re engaged in physical labor— as so many poor people are—comes with more inherent dangers. Skin cancer is very common in the rural communities like the one I grew up in. It was like a rite of passage to get a hunk of skin cut out of your face because you work

Read ad mor more Chicago icag ic ag Humanities Festival coverage on chicagoreader.com.

in a field every day for decades. A lot of working-class jobs these days are much less about farming and factories and more healthcare and service-industry work, and a lot of people I know have backaches and weight problems because the kind of food they can afford begets obesity, compounded by the fact that they can’t aﬀord health care. When you grow up poor, there’s also this psychological notion—there’s isn’t room or space for long-term planning. Your focus is on immediate survival. I used to take buckets of feed out to pasture to feed the cattle on a three-wheeler [tractor]—those aren’t even legal anymore because they’re so dangerous, and I didn’t even have a helmet. It doesn’t appear that the poverty problem is going to get any better under Trump. Yes, Trump is a disaster, but neoliberalism under both parties has also been a disaster in so many ways. It was under Bill Clinton’s watch that welfare was dismantled and poverty criminalized. The big questions for progressives like myself [are]: Can the Democratic Party be salvaged? Do late capitalism and the American machine have to fall apart and be rebuilt, or will it look like a moderate shift in the right direction? That’s not going to happen under Trump, and I’m not convinced it would have unless under a very progressive candidate like Bernie Sanders. Last fall, you wrote a piece for the Guardian about how the media wrongly turned the white working class into a scapegoat for Trump’s win. “Poor whites are bad” is a narrative that won’t go away. It’s convenient for the middle- and upperclass pundits and politicians who set the conversation in this country to stick up for most of the whites in this country and create a stereotype of a rural white bigot. Trump was a white phenomenon—regardless of class. My grandma is a working-class white Kansas woman who caucused for Bernie Sanders—it was the ﬁrst time she ever voted in the primary. She voted for Clinton in the general and loathed Donald Trump. Here’s the thing, in my red state of Kansas, 60 percent voted Republican and 40 percent Democrat. But let’s say less than half of the population voted—at least one-third of the population is erased by this red-blue map. There’s so many decent working people that come in all colors and backgrounds. v

ß @RyanSmithWriter

ARTS & CULTURE Laura Kipnis o PIETER M. VAN

CHICAGO HUMANITIES FESTIVAL / LIT

HATTEM

Laura Kipnis takes on Unwanted Advances By DEANNA ISAACS

ultural critic and serial provocateur Laura Kipnis wrote an essay in 2015 for The Chronicle of Higher Education about a new policy forbidding dating between professors and undergraduates at Northwestern University, where she’s a tenured professor of ﬁlm. The new restriction had apparently been prompted by a Title IX investigation and lawsuits over a single evening shared by then 55-year-old NU professor Peter Ludlow (at the time the occupant of an endowed chair, the John Evans Professor of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy), and a 19-year-old freshman. The student claimed that Ludlow forced her to get drunk and then groped her. He denied that, but agreed they had spent the night in his bed. Kipnis, whose essays are grounded in her own, often wry, experience, noted that when she was a college student—in that brief, deliriously liberated period “after the sexual revolution and before AIDS turned sex into a crime scene”—“hooking up with professors was more or less part of the curriculum.” She voiced the opinion that the new code of behavior on her campus “infantilized” students, turning them into “trauma cases waiting to happen” and denying them an education that would prepare them to deal with the “messy gray areas of life.” The article ignited a furor that included shocked Northwestern undergrads marching to the president’s office with mattresses on their backs in protest. Two students ﬁled Title IX complaints against Kipnis, claiming her words had created “a hostile environment.” A 72-day investigation followed, and the two cases—Ludlow’s and her own—became

the core of Kipnis’s very smart and engaging new book, Unwelcome Advances. In it, she argues that the expansion of Title IX from its original focus on unequal opportunity in college sports to the ever more loosely deﬁned territory of sexual harassment has resulted in an overreaching bureaucracy and violations of constitutional rights. Foremost among her complaints: the low standard for proof in Title IX investigations, which requires only a “preponderance of evidence”—anything over 50 percent—for an accused person to be judged guilty. In other words, the offense only has to be more likely than not to have happened.

“LAURA KIPNIS: SEX ON R CAMPUS” Fri 5/24, 6PM, Studebaker Theater,

410 S. Michigan, chicagohumanities. org, $12 for members, $10 for students and teachers.

That low bar is a hot issue. It was the subject of a standing-room-only debate last week at the University of Chicago Law School, by a panel that included Georgetown University professor Nancy Chi Cantalupo, speaking in its favor as “a pillar of the civil rights approach,” and New York University professor (and Hoover Institution fellow) Richard Epstein, arguing against the whole Title IX process as an “overbroad reading of the statute” that he hopes the Trump administration will eradicate. Kipnis, a self-described left-wing feminist, admits to being disconcerted to ﬁnd herself (ahem) in bed with the far right on this, but chalks it up to the generally “incomprehensible” state of current politics. Armed with

Ludlow’s files and her own, as well as the details of cases confided to her by academics effectively gagged, she paints a picture of secretive kangaroo court-like proceedings conducted by universities taking an aggressive Title IX stance because failure to do so can result in the loss of their megabucks federal funding. Among the procedures to which she objects: calling the accused in for interrogation before revealing the specific charges being brought, forbidding the presence of a lawyer, denying the opportunity for cross-examination of the accuser, demanding total confidentiality, and arbitrarily restricting the evidence that can be presented. In Ludlow’s case, Kipnis writes, that meant excluding evidence that might have shed light on his accuser’s credibility, including depositions in a civil suit she filed against him. Ludlow eventually resigned and moved to Mexico, and Kipnis was cleared of the charges against her, but the experience fueled both her indictment of Title IX procedures and her ardent critique of the prevailing campus “rape culture,” which Kipnis defines as “a sexual culture that emphasizes female violation, endangerment, and perpetual vulnerability.” Not only is this culture transforming universities, she argues, it’s undermining the freedoms won by 20th-century feminists. According to Kipnis, the version of feminism promulgated by rape culture is regressive. It turns women into wimps—helpless victims, without agency or desire, unable even to take responsibility for their own sobriety. “There’s a growing tendency, at the moment, to offload the responsibility,” she writes: “Women don’t drink; men get them drunk. Women don’t have sex; sex is done to them. This isn’t feminism, it’s a return to the most traditional conceptions of female sexuality.” “The current approaches to combating sexual aggression end up, perversely, reifying male power,” Kipnis writes. “What would happen if we stopped commiserating with one another about how horrible men are and teach students how to say, “Get your fucking hand off my knee?” “This isn’t victim blaming,” she insists, despite what her critics might say. “It’s grown-up feminism.” Kipnis told me last week she’s pleased that Unwanted Advances is “opening discussion on issues that need more transparency.” v

ß @DeannaIsaacs APRIL 27, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 23

ARTS & CULTURE o JASON KEMPIN

CHICAGO HUMANITIES FESTIVAL / LIT

JOHN WATERS IN CONVERSATION R WITH CHRIS JONES Sun 4/30, 4 PM, Fine Arts Building, 410 S.

John Waters wants you to Make Trouble

Michigan, chicagohumanities.org, sold out, call 312-494-9509 to be added to the wait list.

By BRIANNA WELLEN

ake Trouble is like John Waters’s version of Dr. Seuss’s Oh, the Places You’ll Go! The latest published work by the ﬁlmmaker, aka the “people’s pervert” (a title given by Guernica magazine that Waters has lovingly embraced), is an illustrated version of the commencement speech he gave to the Rhode Island School of Design’s graduating class of 2015. Eric Hanson’s crude line drawings, paired with Waters’s unconventional advice—“design clothes so hideous they can’t be worn ironically”—provide a brief but insightful glimpse into Waters’s mind in an easily digestible package. Unexpectedly, Waters emphasizes the idea of being an insider. On the surface, his ﬁlms seem to praise outsiders: the heroes in

24 CHICAGO READER - APRIL 27, 2017

Cry-Baby are juvenile delinquents, Multiple Maniacs is a violent and sacrilegious descent into madness, and Pink Flamingos is all about pushing the boundaries of taboo behavior. But Make Trouble is also about the ways in which people on the fringe can infiltrate society. Despite his cult status, Waters discovered means of slipping his eccentric ideas into mainstream pop culture. He refers to the 2002 Broadway musical version of Hairspray, his subversive 1988 ﬁlm about race and sexuality, as his Trojan horse. Today it’s accepted as appropriate high school theater in the depths of middle America—that’s about as inside as you can get. Through that single commercial success, unlikely audiences discovered his most obscure work. Waters went

on to create ﬁne art, write books, and, most recently, appear in the television show Feud: Bette and Joan. Hanson’s black-and-white illustrations look like they could’ve been scrawled by Waters himself in the margins of his speech. Some are simple, like a ball of tangled lines interrupting the phrase “Contemporary art’s job is to wreck what came before.” The most Seuss-like image depicts two people climbing a wobbly ladder leading to the top of the world.

In all cases, there’s a sense of manic creation, and an unfinished quality to each drawing that underscores the conceit of the book—the artistic guidelines are in place, and it’s time for the reader to take it from there. In the end, Make Trouble is less “places you’ll go” and more “things you’ll do,” a lesson in accepting and even seeking failure instead of remaining comfortable, and a plea to appeal to the similarities between enemies instead of fighting over the differences. In sharing his philosophy, Waters seems to be passing the torch to the next generation of creative people: “Go out in the world,” he writes, “and fuck it up beautifully.” v

ß @BriannaWellen

READER RECOMMENDED

b ALL AGES

F Esteban Andres Cruz, Ilse Zacharias, Miguel Nuñez, and Laura Crotte o ANTHONY AICARDI

THEATER

A beloved book, brought to life By TONY ADLER

t makes no sense to adapt a beloved novel for the theater. In fact, it’s absurd—basically the same as saying, “I’m going to take this thing you enjoyed, throw out the parts I can’t use, rearrange the rest, maybe add a bunch of other stuff I made up myself, pour it all into a completely different format, and invite you to go see the results out of respect for what it was before I started slapping it around.” And here’s what makes even less sense: We do go see it. And more often than not, we have a ﬁne time. Latest case in point: Karen Zacarías’s stage version of Into the Beautiful North, a novel by Chicago writer Luis Alberto Urrea, getting its world premiere now at 16th Street Theater in Berwyn. My wife and I both read the book when it came out in 2009 and agreed it was sly,

sharp, and pleasing. Like fools, we got excited when we heard about the 16th Street production, and, perhaps just as foolishly, we weren’t disappointed. As codirected by Ann Filmer and Miguel Nuñez, Zacarías’s script isn’t as sly or sharp as the original, but it’s deﬁnitely pleasing. And it’s faithful in its fashion. Both the book and the play center on Nayeli, a precocious Mexican teenager who lives in a tiny Paciﬁc coast village called Tres Camarones, where, as Urrea notes, the people are so traditional they voted to disconnect their electricity. The tactic failed decisively, however, when Tres Camarones got caught up in Mexico’s economic crisis. With no work at home, the men went looking for it in el norte, the United States. The vacuum they’ve left provides an opening for two dirty cops with lucrative

sidelines doing “advisory” work for a drug cartel. Inspired by a local showing of The Magnificent Seven, Nayeli decides to take her own trek north, where she hopes to find seven heroes who will help her kick cartel butt. Not incidentally, she also hopes to find her father, who left long ago for Kankakee, Illinois. The rest is a black-comic picaresque, as Nayeli and friends (Tres Camarones’s lone gay man, Tacho, and goth girl “Vampi) lead us through the pleasures and horrors of Tijuana, the stalemated war between border cops and border jumpers, the epic garbage dump where they meet their first hero, a would-be ninja named Atomiko, and parts of a North America that feels now like The Grapes of Wrath, now like A River Runs Through It, and often like the commercial breaks during an NFL game.

The genius of Urrea’s narrative lies in its embrace of the whole. For all its seductions, the United States is neither Satan’s pit nor the promised land. The people who make for it may be deluded or desperate. They may want to disappear or they may simply get lost. They may even wish they could head home. Filmer, Nuñez, and Zacarías seem to understand this. The River Runs Through It moment, when Nayeli encounters a fisherman in the Colorado mountains, is as quietly tender as the Grapes of Wrath moments—including an attack on migrant workers—are ugly. The codirectors nevertheless push too hard for an ingratiating cartoonishness at times, leaning more than necessary on the notion of Nayeli and company as ragtag Mexican Power Rangers. They also allow too much of the ragtag to leech into their production values: dropped lines and botched moves are endearing only up to a point. Still, things work out pretty well overall. Slips notwithstanding, the cast accomplish the essential business of bringing Into the Beautiful North beautifully into the room. Esteban Andres Cruz’s Tacho, Brandon Rivera’s Atomiko, and Laura Crotte’s Irma, Nayeli’s force-of-nature aunt, are particularly engaging, but everybody on Joanna Iwanicka’s clever set contributes energetically to a solid sense of ensemble. v R INTO THE BEAUTIFUL NORTH Through 6/17: Thu-Fri 7:30 PM, Sat 4 and 8 PM, 16th Street Theater, 6420 16th St., Berwyn, 708-795-6704, 16thstreettheater.org, $18-$22.

ß @taadler

JOSH JOHNSON began his comedy career in Chicago with Under the Gun Theater and won the standup category of SNUBFEST. “ In Chicago, you get to grind in a way that is livable. You get to do real time at mics. And, you get to make friends here.”

His stand-up has been featured on The Late Show with David Letterman, Late Night

with Cona Conan an O’Brien, O’Briien, Jim Jimmy Kimmel Live, Premium Blend, Comedy Central Presents, PRESENTS Since moving to New York, Josh has and . Dark appeared on The Tonight Show with JOSH

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Buy Tickets @ ZANIES.com APRIL 27, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 25

Sandra Delgado and Carpacho y Su Súper Combo o JOEL MAISONET

ARTS & CULTURE

THEATER

Live from La Havana Madrid

By MATT DE LA PEÑA

ne notable factoid about La Havana Madrid, the subject of an affecting new play by Teatro Vista’s Sandra Delgado, is its former location: a prominent hot spot for Chicago’s Latino community in the 1960s, the nightclub once resided on the corner of Belmont and Sheffield in Lakeview. Delgado grew up near the club, as she notes in the program, but by the late 70s La Havana was nothing more than a faint memory. The big-band sounds of the mambo and the salsa— once ﬁxtures of the scene—had disappeared, as had the neighborhood’s Latino residents, many of whom were displaced, relocating to places like Humboldt Park and Pilsen.

26 CHICAGO READER - APRIL 27, 2017

A sense of loss—of community and institutions overtaken by gentrification—pervades La Havana Madrid, directed by Cheryl Lynn Bruce. An exceedingly memorable production, it combines fact and ﬁction to create a touching portrait of the diversity that once characterized the city’s north side. And for Delgado’s purposes, the erstwhile La Havana ﬁgures as an apt device for pointing to some of Chicago’s less well-known neighborhood history. But La Havana Madrid is also about renewal and hope, and Delgado’s poignant script is never self-righteous or judgmental. Instead, the show’s an immersive and wholly enjoyable experience. The set at Steppenwolf ’s 1700

Theatre re-creates the nightclub, complete with a live band, Carpacho y Su Súper Combo, situated prominently on top of a raised stage; audience members are turned into clubgoers seated at small cocktail tables. At the center of the bandstand, Delgado, dressed in an elegant gown, serves as emcee, welcoming us and prompting the action that follows. From there, we’re introduced to severalcharacters of Latino and Caribbean descent, each with vivid tales of persecution, adversity, and, at some stage, redemption. There’s a Cuban teen, for example, separated from her parents and sent to Chicago at the height of the Cuban Revolution. Another thread fol-

lows a Colombian couple whose relationship is tested when one of them is forced to move overseas for work. Most memorably, there’s Carlos (inspired by Latino photographer Carlos Flores), the troubled son of Puerto Rican parents who grows up to ﬁnd his calling as a visual artist. All these stories, in one way or another, wind their way back to La Havana Madrid, a refuge where music is plentiful and even magical. That feeling carries over—by the end of the night, everyone, cast and audience alike, is dancing. v R LA HAVANA MADRID Through 5/28: Wed-Sat 8 PM, Sun 4 PM, Steppenwolf 1700 Theatre, 1700 N. Halsted, 312-335-1650, teatrovista.org, $50.

ß @mattydelapena

ARTS & CULTURE The Women of the Now crew interviewing Stage 18’s Kaleigh Herter during their Femme Pyre event in March o MANTAS IVANAUSKAS

SMALL SCREEN

Women of the Now is for the future

By ASHLEY RAY-HARRIS

here’s a visual-media sea change happening in Chicago right now. A growing crop of local production companies—focused on creating webseries, short films, and even commercials—is providing new opportunities for people of diverse races, sexualities, and genders. Open TV, launched in December 2014, has excelled with its latest slate of programming. Brown Girls, the subject of a recent Reader feature story, is a series featuring a cast that consists entirely of minorities and has been called “revolutionary” by Elle magazine and the “next binge-worthy web series” by BET. Brujos, a show focused on four gay, Latino doctoral candidates—who are also witches—was recently applauded by Vice for its ability to combine politics and horror. And Open TV has demonstrated that it’s possible to promote intersectional voices without lots of money. It provides some funding for a limited amount of projects through its partner production company, Under the Spell Productions, a 501(c)(3) nonproﬁt organization tasked with advancing diver-

sity in the arts. However, none of Open TV’s in-house production budgets have exceeded $5,000, and most are less than $3,000. The projects it chooses are scaled for a low budget: small crews, minimal locations, and few special effects. It relies on collaborators for music, art direction, sets, and costume design to keep costs down. And its crews tend to be made up of people who are more focused on telling diverse stories than on proﬁting from them. The success of Open TV has cleared a path for Women of the Now, a new production and event company that according to its Facebook page is “committed to creating content with female driven narratives and strong, complex female characters.” It’s committed to change behind the camera as well: the Center for the Study of Women in Television & Film reports that women made up only 17 percent of all directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors, and cinematographers who worked on the 250 top-grossing domestic ﬁlms of 2016. WOTN is hosting a series of workshops and initiatives this spring intended to help women

develop their production skills and strengthen their voices in a male-dominated industry. “There’s a camera workshop where we’re going to encourage a bunch of femmes to sit down and learn more of the technical end of the camera,” says Laura Day, WOTN’s creative producer. “The industry can be intimidating to, kind of, talk shop with boys. There’s a lot of patronizing, and I don’t even think people realize it.” To encourage women to take on production roles, WOTN conducts social outreach and creates safe spaces for women to learn more about the film industry’s typically male-filled tech positions. WOTN is focused on intersectional feminism and is open to all femme-identified nonbinary, cis, and trans people. The group’s founder and creative director, Layne Marie Williams, moved to Chicago almost two years ago and brought WOTN with her. Prior to that she lived in Philadelphia, where she founded the Women’s Film Festival. “I’m originally from Alabama, and then I moved to Philly and studied acting,” Williams says. “I really fell into the film world entirely by accident. I made movies when I was 15, but,

you know, I was like hiding in a closet with my best friend making movies with Barbie dolls. Nobody ever told me, ‘Hey, you could be a filmmaker someday, or you could be a director, or you could create platforms for people like you someday.’ That was never presented to me as an option.” The lack of encouragement for women interested in the technical aspects of film production is what motivated Williams to create WOTN. When she made the move to Chicago is was with the intention of doing something more with it. “Chicago is such a great place to manifest this renaissance of intersectional platforms and media work for me,” she says. “I had heard that there were solid opportunities for filmmakers here. Moving to Chicago was a spontaneous and organic decision.” So what is it about Chicago that engenders such distinct storytelling and production methods? “I think every city has people who want intersectional programming, it’s just that Chicago has some institutions that will actually support it and make space for it as well,” says Aymar Jean Christian, founder of Open TV. Unlike the large and competitive atmospheres of New York and LA, there’s a communal sense of support across Chicago. “Open TV’s done probably 30 events in the city, and we’ve never really had a difficult time getting organizations to give us that space so we can program,” Christian says. Open TV recently started its first writers’ workshop to help incubate scripts created by queer people of color. Its members meet biweekly at the Chicago Cultural Center, where artist Aram Han Sifuentes agreed to share her space with the group. “If we were in New York or LA or a space that was more competitive, another artist wouldn’t have let us use their studio for a writers’ workshop,” Christian says. “We would’ve had to find our own space. The Cultural Center was pretty cool about that, and it’s a pretty laid-back space. . . . The more space you have the more programming you can do, and the more ways you can try and combat other difficulties like segregation.” Chicago is criticized, fairly, for its segregation; Open TV and WOTN hope to act as bridges between neighborhoods in the city. Day says she hopes WOTN tears down Chicago’s north side-south side division. “I come from this really conservative advertising background of being like, ‘No, we’re stronger if we pull these people in,’” she says. “There are a bunch of people who would never J

APRIL 27, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 27

ARTS & CULTURE Women of the Now continued from 27

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know what’s going on at this random artist loft on a Thursday, but they’re missing some really good shit. Let’s give them the avenues they need to support us. We want to encourage people to get in touch with us.” Williams agrees. “There’s a lot of beauty and range in what’s happening all around the city,” she says. “I’ve certainly been very impressed with the authenticity and wide range of possibilities for the community to get involved.” Reaching across neighborhoods still presents challenges. Even though Chicago has communities that have helped Open TV and WOTN thrive, both production companies have still run into their fair share of issues. “The magical thing about the Women’s Film Festival in Philadelphia that I think is kind of different from Chicago is that it just inherently was intersectional,” Williams says. “We didn’t have to go searching for [diversity], it just was within our network. With [WOTN], we’ve had to make sure in our mission statement that it is inclusive, it is intersectional, it is all-encompassing. It’s bigger than just a video and event production company, it’s a movement that femmes can identify with.” Of course, funding and space are constant issues. Intersectional communities are often faced with difficult socioeconomic circumstances and are inordinately affected by gentrification. Yet according to a 2015 report on gentrification in America by the magazine Governing Data, cities like New York, LA, and Philadelphia are gentrifying at nearly twice the rate Chicago is. Christian credits the slow pace of gentrification in Chicago with incubating long-term artistic communities, but he points out that artists often leave for the coasts once they hit a creative ceiling in the city. In the end, Chicago simply doesn’t have the same creative professional or financial opportunities that other locales can offer. How does Christian hope to address this? “I want to see folks who have left for the coasts coming back, and funders to realize that the coasts are saturated and very difficult for artists to live in and for intersectional communities to live in,” he says. “So they need to start looking outside of those cities to support innovative and community-minded work. And I think Chicago is really the perfect place to start that. I think if you’re interested in doing community-based work, come to Chicago. Fund Chicago.” v

ß @arayay 28 CHICAGO READER - APRIL 27, 2017

Get showtimes at chicagoreader.com/movies.

ARTS & CULTURE Richard Gere and Lior Ashkenazi

MOVIES

The Norman conquest

By J.R. JONES

oseph Cedar may be one of Israel’s most respected dramatic filmmakers, but he was born in New York City, lived there until he was six, and returned as a young man to earn a graduate degree in ﬁlm at New York University. Raised in Jerusalem and now based in Tel Aviv, Cedar has won growing acclaim for a series of dramas steeped in the culture and politics of his adopted home—most notably Beaufort (2007), which drew on his experiences as a teenage soldier in the Israeli Defense Forces, and Footnote (2011), about the professional rivalry between a disgraced Talmudic scholar and his up-and-coming son. Both earned Oscar nominations for best foreign-language film, and Footnote grossed a respectable $2 million on the U.S. art-house circuit. Now Cedar makes his English-language debut with the excellent Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer, a U.S.-Israeli coproduction set in Manhattan and featuring such familiar faces as Michael Sheen, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Steve Buscemi, and Richard Gere in the title role. ssss EXCELLENT

sss GOOD

Given the writer-director’s background, you might wonder if Norman—the story of a small-time influence peddler who forges an unlikely friendship with the prime minister of Israel—passes muster as a vision of New York, a portrait of its Jewish community, or a commentary on U.S.-Israeli relations. It’s a little too fuzzy to be effective in any of these respects, but that hardly matters, because for all the shining steel and glass, the movie has the old-world feel of a Jewish folktale, rooted not in a particular time or place but in the moral universe. Norman Oppenheimer, a graying “consultant” whose only real talent is making connections between other people, comes off at ﬁrst as an overbearing idiot, but he’s also warm and loyal, and Cedar ﬁnds a thick streak of altruism in his wheeling and dealing. His affection for the prime minister is real, and the politician returns it in equal measure, but they live in a world where friendship is a coin, to be saved or spent as the situation demands. Norman is one of those people who can seem oblivious to social boundaries. In the opening sequence he presses his wary neph-

ss AVERAGE

s POOR

•

ew, Philip (Sheen), for an entree to one Bill Kavish, executive assistant to a high-rolling ﬁnancier named Arthur Taub. “Can I tell him we’re related?” Norman asks Philip. “Can I tell him I’m your uncle?” Philip tries to discourage Norman from pursuing Taub: “You’re like a drowning man trying to wave to an ocean liner.” Undeterred, Norman ambushes Kavish (Dan Stevens) on his morning jog through Central Park, proffering his card to the stunned man as if they were at a cocktail party. Kavish hotly refuses to arrange a meeting with Taub, and fortunately for him, he can move faster than Norman. “So I’ll tell my partners we had a good conversation,” Norman calls after him as he runs away. Not only does Norman blur social lines, he’s a little fuzzy around the edges himself. He appears to wear the same clothes all the time—coat and tie, overcoat and scarf, cloth cap—and Cedar never shows him at home, only at his synagogue, where he schmoozes with the rabbi (Buscemi), takes solace in the evening choir rehearsals, and pokes around in the kitchen for a snack of crackers and pickled herring. Despite his remark to Kavish, he has no partners and, as far as one can tell, no real business; his ambiguous card reads “Oppenheimer Strategies.” He mentions his late wife and grown daughter, but the details of their lives shift with every telling. As the story progresses, the possibility that Norman might be destitute and completely alone lends an unexpected poignance to his obsessive glad-handing; beyond status and inﬂuence, he may crave nothing more than human contact. Gere is well attuned to this vulnerability, and he gives a lovely performance, gentle and ingratiating in the scenes where Norman befriends the handsome Israeli politician Micha Eshel (Lior Ashkenazi, the son in Footnote). After listening to Eshel speak at a conference, Norman trails him as he window-shops, stopping to admire an expensive pair of Italian shoes. Cedar, stressing the transactional nature of the friendship, shoots from inside a swanky shoe store, through a display window that frames their silent encounter, as Norman walks past Eshel, pulls up short, introduces himself, and strikes up a conversation about the shoes; within a minute the men are laughing, Norman has a hand on Eshel’s shoulder, and they’re venturing inside for Eshel to try on the shoes. Hoping to arrange a meeting

between Eshel and Arthur Taub, Norman makes the fateful decision to buy the shoes for Eshel, though he gulps when the bill arrives at a whopping $1,197. Composer Jun Miyake draws on the folk melodies of eastern Europe in all their drollery and melancholy, but Norman seems like a folktale primarily because the story turns on giant strokes of luck, both good and bad. Three years after Norman and Eshel part, the politician is elected prime minister, and the people who were running away from Norman begin running toward him. Cedar stages a beautifully comic sequence in which Norman, arriving with Philip at a New York meet and greet for the newly elected PM, waits in line for a handshake, wondering if the encounter will bring yet another humiliating brush-off. When they ﬁnally meet, all doubt is erased as Eshel embraces Norman, reveals that he’s been trying to contact him, proclaims his friendship, and announces that he’s going to make Norman his unofficial “ambassador to New York Jewry.” This Cinderella moment, with Eshel introducing Norman to various bigwigs as an intimate friend, gives way to a montage of glittering lights and of faces zooming toward the camera to request favors of Norman. Those $1,197 shoes, he later declares, were “the best investment I ever made in my life.” Once Norman has been empowered, you can see how much good he has in him. He takes a matchmaker’s pleasure in grooming people to introduce to each other, and he seems unconcerned with enriching himself. Gere has referred to the character as a “holy idiot,” though only his idiocy is evident to the other people in the story. Norman drives Eshel’s staff batty with his incessant phone calls, and as the prime minister attempts to push a Middle East peace plan through the Knesset, Norman threatens to become a political liability, arranging a complicated deal that will pay off the synagogue’s mortgage, enrich Arthur Taub’s ﬁrm, and win Eshel’s son admission to Harvard University. Through it all the friendship between Norman and Eshel endures, though when Norman’s luck sours, his loyalty to the other man will be measured in distance rather than proximity. v NORMAN: THE MODERATE RISE AND TRAGIC FALL OF A NEW YORK FIXER ssss Directed by Joseph Cedar. R, 117 min. Century 12 and CineArts 6, Landmark’s Century Centre

ß @JR_Jones

WORTHLESS

APRIL 27, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 29

Trumpeter Jaimie Branch ﬁnally spreads her wings More than 12 years after her blazing debut on the Chicago jazz scene, she releases Fly or Die, her ﬁrst album as a bandleader.

o NAIMA GREEN

By PETER MARGASAK

30 CHICAGO READER - APRIL 27, 2017

rumpeter Jaimie Branch was raised in Wilmette and moved to Chicago in summer 2001, just before moving to Boston to attend the New England Conservatory of Music— but she didn’t make her debut on the jazz scene here till she took a semester off after her third year to recover from a gallbladder issue. The 21-year-old spent the last half of 2004 in Chicago, and in short order she established herself as a force to be reckoned with, her knowledge and chops impressing musicians many years her senior. “She struck me as very energetic and interested in all of the right music,” says reedist Keefe Jackson. “She always had a quick opinion on the free jazz and improvised music we were all checking out, and many earlier styles as swell. She was listening like crazy, it seemed, and she was a real sponge.” While at NEC, Branch had discovered recordings by German trumpeter Axel Dörner, who transforms his instrument into an abstract sound generator using a variety of extended techniques. In September 2004 she leaped at a chance to see him at the Empty Bottle, and after the show she convinced him to give her a private lesson before he left town. Dörner was staying with cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm, and the lesson was in his basement. “I went to my room, I heard a trumpet, but it wasn’t Axel,” Lonberg-Holm recalls. “But it sounded really good. As the son of a trumpet player and a bad trumpet player myself, I know how hard it is, and I am pretty picky anyway. So I asked her to play the next opportunity I had.” He invited Branch to join his Lightbox Orchestra a few weeks later at the Phrenology Festival, an improvised-music gathering at the Hungry Brain. At that gig many of the rising stars of the Chicago scene—including Jackson, cornetist Josh Berman, drummer Frank Rosaly, and vibraphone player Jason Adasiewicz—heard Branch play. They all worked day jobs at Jazz Record Mart, where she’d applied to work, and they made sure she got hired before she returned to Boston in January 2005. Suddenly she was a part of a vigorous musical community—though it’d be nearly a year before she finished her studies and moved back to Chicago. After Branch settled here, her prospects seemed bright. In fall 2007 trumpeter Dave Douglas, who’s practically an institution in his own right, invited her to perform at his prestigious Festival of New Trumpet Music in New York. At just 24, she was sharing a bill with stars and veterans such as Butch Morris, J

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Jaimie Branch continued from 30 Jeremy Pelt, and Wadada Leo Smith. Back home Branch played frequently in other people’s ensembles, among them Keefe Jackson’s Project Project and Tim Daisy’s New Fracture Quartet, as well as a slew of ad hoc configurations. Her own working bands included free-improvising collective Princess, Princess (with Rosaly and bassist Toby Summerﬁeld) and noisy rock group Musket. Branch’s promise has taken a long time to manifest itself in an album, though—in the intervening years, she’s relocated a couple more times, and since 2015 she’s lived in New York. But the wait was worth it, not least because she couldn’t have made her debut under her own name, Fly or Die, ten years ago—though she had the talent back then, it takes more than talent to see such a project through. Released next Friday, May 5, by Chicago label International Anthem, Fly or Die is a stunning quartet recording that knits together several threads in Branch’s music—laser-sharp improvisatory exploration, ebullient melodies, and a deep feeling for groove. She made it with a band of high-level players, all of them current or former Chicagoans: bassist Jason Ajemian, cellist Tomeka Reid, and drummer Chad Taylor. They conclude their ﬁrst U.S. tour at the Hideout on Wednesday, May 10.

ranch, now 33, spent her early childhood in Long Island, New York, and her family moved to Wilmette when she was nine. She’d been studying piano for years, and when elementary school gave her a chance to play a band instrument, she almost accidentally followed in the footsteps of two older brothers who’d played trumpet. “I was deciding between saxophone and trumpet, and I had these signup sheets from school for both,” says Branch. “My family went out to Dave’s Italian Kitchen that night, and I spilled my dad’s red wine all over the saxophone sheet and all over his white shirt. And so I played the trumpet.” Within a couple years, Branch got into jazz, in part because she enjoyed showing off. “I really liked playing solos in front of the band,” she says. “I liked the adrenaline rush.” She picked up the Miles Davis album ’58 Sessions Featuring Stella by Starlight and transcribed his solo on “Green Dolphin Street.” As a sophomore at New Trier, she began private lessons with Matthew Lee, a classical trumpeter who now teaches at DePaul. Music became an obsession for Branch—not just jazz but also punk and ska. She eventually joined Chicago punk-ska band Tusker,

JAIMIE BRANCH’S FLY OR DIE, WEI ZHONGLE, BEN LAMAR GAY

Wed 5/10, 9 PM, the Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia, 773-227-4433, $10, 21+

where she’d play trumpet and keyboards and “scream” (her word). In high school she failed several times to talk her way into Lounge Ax to see that kind of show. At the Velvet Lounge, a jazz bar run by brilliant tenor saxophonist Fred Anderson, she encountered a different attitude toward underage fans. “He would let me in and say, ‘Just don’t drink,’” she says. Shortly before leaving for college in Boston, Branch worked up the nerve to participate in the Velvet’s famous Sunday jam sessions. She credits a younger classmate at New Trier, Jacob Wick, with introducing her to free jazz (specifically the music of Ornette Coleman), which would soon become her focus. She and Wick would improvise freely before and after music classes, though neither of them knew back then that free improvisation was a practice in and of itself. “We would call it ‘making modern music,’” Branch says with a laugh. At the New England Conservatory, Branch studied with classical trumpeter Charles Schlueter, idiosyncratic postbop trumpeter John McNeil, singular guitarist Joe Morris, and even legendary soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy. But as much as she learned at NEC, she says her semester off in Chicago in changed her life in a way that formal schooling couldn’t. “A lot the dudes in Chicago were older than me, but they were really open and really nice,” Branch says. “I felt like it was an older-brother situation with a lot of those guys—Frankie, Toby, [Jason] Stein, [Jason] Roebke, Fred. There’s nothing like the free-jazz community in Chicago anywhere else. Boston has a lot of good players, but everyone is trying to measure up to a certain scale. People in Chicago are different. It was the first time I was playing this stuff with musicians on such a high level who then could kick back and just drink.” Branch was torn about returning to Boston to finish her degree. “Right before I went back, I saw that Malachi Favors was playing every Thursday at the Velvet,” she says, and she went to a couple of those concerts before she had to leave. “I thought, ‘This is the real education.’” But she’s glad she returned. One requirement for graduation was to lead two bands for a recital. “One of the things I learned was to have an air of confidence,” she says. “When shit wasn’t working out at first, I would almost apologize. It helps if you at least appear that you believe in yourself and can lay out some clear ideas.” Branch finished at NEC in December 2005 and came straight to Chicago. Things went well at first. She soon moved out of a cold-water flat in Pilsen (the pipes had frozen and burst) to room with bassist Anton Hatwich, who’d

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been living in a converted church with Ajemian. They were roommates for a couple years, and Hatwich remembers her manic energy. “Jaimie was pretty wild and going in a million directions at once,” he says. “She had a bunch of great bands playing around town that were stylistically all over the map.” In addition to playing her own gigs, Branch curated shows at Heaven Gallery and the Skylark and worked with her friend Joe Jeffers to found artists’ residency Harold Arts in the tiny village of Chesterhill, Ohio. “She was a young woman with many pots on many ﬂames, and she was going for it in a way that only people in their 20s can,” Hatwich says. “She was also, at her core, an extremely troubled soul who had demons that she was choosing to run from rather than confront. Those demons eventually caught up with her, and that really slowed her down as an artist.” “I started using heroin in January of 2008, and nobody knew for almost a year,” says Branch. “I got totally called out amongst my friends, and then news travels fast.” To pay for her habit, she played less and worked more. She left town several times, including a couple stretches with friends in Colorado, to try to kick. Though she’s generally reluctant to discuss her history with addiction, she stresses that none

of her Chicago colleagues blacklisted her. She singles out Ajemian—who booked the Protest Heaven series with her and worked with her at Harold Arts—for being willing to take her on tour with his bands while she was using. After she began methadone treatments, he made time to ﬁnd clinics for her along the route. It was on a tour with Ajemian’s group the High Life in January 2012 that she met superb trumpeter Dave Ballou, who taught at Towson University in Baltimore. He encouraged her to apply for the school’s graduate program. She was accepted and landed an assistantship in Towson’s recording studio, and she left Chicago in August 2012. But as she wryly notes, “Baltimore is a hard town to live in if you want to quit doing heroin.” Branch dropped out of Towson after two years, still struggling with her addiction, and six months later she reached a breaking point. With guidance from Chicago saxophonist Mars Williams and funding from MusiCares, she enrolled in a treatment program in Hampton Bays, Long Island, in March 2015. Upon completing the 28-day program, Branch moved to the Red Hook neighborhood in Brooklyn, and she says she’s been off the drug ever since. She quickly immersed herself in the New York scene, building on contacts J

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APRIL 27, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 33

MUSIC Jaimie Branch continued from 33 she’d made on earlier tours. One such contact was drummer Mike Pride, and she continues to play with him in a regular trio that also includes bassist Brandon Lopez, a younger player she bonded with after arriving. She also returned to curating music series, programming a weekly event at the now defunct Manhattan Inn in Brooklyn for most of 2016. The ﬁrst concert she booked for that series turned out to be a fortuitous one. Chicago saxophonist Nick Mazzarella was touring with his trio (which included her old friends Hatwich and Rosaly) in support of a new album on International Anthem. She decided to share the bill with him, putting together a quartet with Taylor and Ajemian, who both lived in New York at the time, as well as Reid, who was passing through. (Taylor is now in Philadelphia and Ajemian in Alaska.) They played an improvised set on that night in January 2016. Scott McNiece and David Allen, who run International Anthem, had traveled to catch the show. McNiece had seen Branch play during her Chicago years. “We both damn near

jumped out of our seats,” he says. “It was kind of a no-brainer for us, and from that moment we knew we wanted to do a record with her.” A few months later the label reached out to Branch. “Our initial idea was that we’d return to New York to record a few free-improvising sessions with Jaimie’s quartet—we were also excited about the entire group, since everyone involved has deep ties to Chicago and our existing label family, which is important to us—to be postcomposed into more structured music, similar conceptually to Makaya McCraven’s In the Moment,” says McNiece. Chicago drummer McCraven had created In the Moment for the label by editing free improvisations recorded in early 2013 during four months of a weekly residency at the Bedford in Wicker Park. “But we wanted to take the production of this one farther out, in the direction of Teo Macero’s work on [the Miles Davis album] Bitches Brew. We were particularly excited about this concept, because I’d had a conversation about it with Jeff Parker, and he said he was a fan of Jaimie’s music, and he would love to do the Teo Macero postproduction/postcomposition portion of

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34 CHICAGO READER - APRIL 27, 2017

MUSIC into a wonderfully loose, irresistible groove from Taylor, longtime partner of cornetist Rob Mazurek in the Chicago Underground Duo. Reid shadows Ajemian’s sturdy bass lines with piquant accents and driving arco patterns that recall the simpatico accompaniment fellow cellist Abdul Wadud provided alto saxophonist Julius Hemphill. But the album is all about Branch, who leaps back and forth between pithy composed melodies and improvisations distinguished by tonal richness, rhythmic agility, lyrical imagination, and timbral variety. She’s had those Branch shows oﬀ the “pigeon shit” vinyl of her new LP, Fly or Die. o NAIMA GREEN gifts for a long time, but they’ve never been put her record, if we were to go that route.” together so convincingly. Branch was intrigued by the proposal, but “Her playing has always been a force of she had her own plan for her long-overdue nature, and I think she’s been settling into her debut as a bandleader. “It’s not that I was super voice in a way that feels like there’s a new level against that idea, but there’s a certain amount of focus,” says Hatwich. “She seems to be reof gravity when you wait this long,” she says. laxing into it and putting herself into the work “So I thought, ‘If I’m going to make a record, I’m in a really good way. I think her new record going to write some music.’” is so purely Jaimie—from the sounds on the Branch composed ﬁve groove-driven themes record to the album artwork that she helped for the same quartet McNiece and Allen had create with Johnny [Herndon] and Damon seen five months before, and the album in- [Locks] to the special-edition splattered ‘picludes a mix of studio takes and live material. geon shit’ vinyl. It’s just an amazing record, She organized two gigs in June 2016 at Le and I’m really happy for her.” Poisson Rouge and Bar Below Rye, followed Lonberg-Holm is also happy to see the by a recording session at a loft apartment her results of Branch’s growth. “Chops and sense sister Kate had in Red Hook. In the following as a musician were already there a long time weeks she also enlisted extra players whose ago, but getting good with herself, that was contributions were edited or overdubbed onto another challenge,” he says. “All I can say is the record: cornetists Berman and Ben Lamar that I think she’s grown up a lot since those Gay, who helped her add a lovely brass-trio pas- days, and I’m glad she survived. Now—it’s an sage, and Chicago guitarist Matthew Schneider unwritten book.” (of Moon Bros. fame). A melody Branch improBranch’s quartet will return to Chicago for vised at the end of “Theme 002” (taken from a a concert in September, and later in the fall show at LPR) becomes the kernel for the next she’ll tour Europe on her own, hoping to lay the piece, a composed tune called “Leaves of Glass” groundwork for 2018 festival appearances by that she opens with multitracked layers of her the group. Branch is thinking about the future horn. On “The Storm,” where Gay takes a solo, in a way she hasn’t before. “I’ve played a lot and you can hear the two cornets pitched down an some people know who I am, but this record is octave, sounding almost like trombones. going to reach more people,” she says. “If I play Fly or Die is a beautifully recorded knockout. my cards right, it will facilitate more of a career, It opens with a brief abstract flourish that for lack of a better term—I don’t like using ‘free demonstrates Branch’s mastery of extended jazz’ and ‘career’ in the same sentence.” v technique—an unpitched column of abraded wind titled “Jump Off”—and quickly opens up ß @pmarg

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MUSIC

Recommended and notable shows and critics’ insights for the week of April 27 b

Django Festival Allstars Billy Bragg - Book Reading

PICK OF THE WEEK

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THURSDAY, APRIL 27 8PM

George Winston

Solo Piano

FRIDAY, APRIL 28 8PM

Peter Mulvey

In Szold Hall

Mike Reed’s Flesh & Bone See also Friday. 8:30 PM, Constellation, 3111 N. Western, $10.

Chicago rapper Cupcakke doubles down on her freaky pop persona

From its inception, drummer-composer Mike Reed’s quartet People, Places & Things has served as both a vehicle for exploring memories and a platform for collaborations. He continues on both fronts with Flesh & Bone, a new record based on a program Reed presented as part of the Art Institute of Chicago’s “Extensions Out” series in 2015. On Flesh & Bone, the core PPT quartet of Reed, bassist Jason Roebke, and saxophonists Tim Haldeman and Greg Ward is joined by bass clarinetist Jason Stein, cornetist Ben LaMar Gay, and vocalist Marvin Tate for a sequence of tunes and texts inspired by the day in 2009 when the racially integrated combo wound up in the midst of a neo-Nazi rally while waiting for a train in the small town of Přerov, Czech Republic. Though local cops extricated them from the area being teargassed, their face-to-face encounter with violent racism abroad has gained more resonance in light of the rise of racial intolerance and bullyboy populism at home. But if the circumstances that Tate considers in his dismayed readings are dire, the music is not: it fuses Roscoe Mitchell’s pungent angularity, Sun Ra’s space blues, and Duke Ellington’s swooning romance into expressions of hope and resilience. —BILL MEYER

SATURDAY, APRIL 29 8PM

Angaleena Presley

(of Pistol Annies) In Szold Hall

THURSDAY, MAY 11 8PM

The Steel Wheels FRIDAY, MAY 12 8PM

Ali Farka Touré Band / Terakaft Festival Au Desert Caravan 2017

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FRIDAY28

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Lucy Kaplansky

Juliet Fraser 8 PM, Experimental Sound Studio, 5925 N. Ravenswood, $10, $8 for students and members. b

In Szold Hall

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CUPCAKKE, K.I.D

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On a dazzling new recording for Hat Art, British soprano Juliet Fraser brings haunting beauty and weightless precision to Morton Feldman’s Three Voices (1982), an epic work simpatico with her skill for navigating pieces of exquisite delicateness. Originally composed for experimental singer Joan La Barbara, it asks the performer to sing with two

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36 CHICAGO READER - APRIL 27, 2017

THANK GOODNESS FOR Elizabeth Harris, who under the name Cupcakke gleefully throws a wrench in the gears of hip-hop. For a couple years now the Greater Grand Crossing MC has challenged what we’ve come to accept as the norm for female rappers, Chicago rappers, and female Chicago rappers, with raunchy songs and wry rhymes that hit hard. Cupcakke has become a sharper writer since dropping her breakout viral hit, “Vagina,” in October 2015, and in the process she’s accumulated a sizable fan base while doubling down on her freaky pop persona. Anyone confused at what that might be just needs to check out her all-caps Twitter bio: “GOING TO SUCK 2017 DICKS IN 2017.” Cupcakke also has no problem pushing back against whatever expectations people have based on her sexually explicit material. On “Reality, Pt. 4,” from March’s self-released Queen Elizabitch, she applies the same kind of insightful, nuanced wordplay found in her raunchiest raps to her harsh childhood struggles with poverty, neglect, and malnourishment, and her a cappella performance only serves to magnify the intensity: “I kept chewing on Doublemint bubble gum / Leftovers in my stomach, more like pieces of crumbs.” —LEOR GALIL

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prerecorded parts as a tribute to Feldman’s fellow New York School artists, poet Frank O’Hara, who died in 1966, and painter Philip Guston, who passed in 1980. For Feldman the combination represented the dead mixing with the living, and Three Voices’ mostly wordless melodic shapes demand great harmonic and rhythmic accuracy as they develop at a sensual crawl, casting a mesmerizing spell. Performing Frank Denyer’s skeletal “A Woman Singing” (2009), which is featured on his portrait CD Whispers (Another Timbre), Fraser gently pours her inner thoughts directly into the ears of the listener. I haven’t heard most of this weekend’s program, but based on the works I do know, it promises more of that fragility and sympathetic intimacy. Lawrence Dunn’s “While We Are Both” calls for a serene reading of poetic text, while in Eleanor Cully’s “I, as Mouth” barely audible vocals are fed into transducers, triggering the surfaces of various

resonant objects; the program also includes work by Cassandra Miller and Christopher Butterfield, two stunning Canadian composers. Fraser will also conduct an informal workshop on composing music for the voice on Saturday at 1 PM at the same venue. —PETER MARGASAK

Mike Reed’s Flesh & Bone See Thursday. 8:30 PM, Constellation, 3111 N. Western, $10. Tobin Sprout Busman’s Holiday open. 8:30 PM, Beat Kitchen, 2100 W. Belmont, $15. What defined the classic era of Guided by Voices—the stretch from 1990 to ’96 when the lo-ﬁ indie rock kings produced their undisputed best work— was the push and pull between the band’s J

APRIL 27, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 37

Tobin Sprout

MUSIC

o BROOK OLESNAVAGE

continued from 37

figurehead, Robert Pollard, and its guitarist and co-front man, Tobin Sprout. The notoriously prolific and scatterbrained Pollard brought countless fractured, loose-limbered ideas to the table, and Sprout injected them with a melodic sense and whimsy inspired by the British Invasion, eventually transforming damaged bedroom recordings into pop majesty. The divide between their musical approaches was particularly apparent when following Sprout’s 1996 departure from GBV, the two released their first solo records on the same day: Pollard’s Not in My Airforce was his most noisy, spotty patchwork effort to date, while Sprout’s Carnival Boy was made up of mellow, sentimental pop. Since then Sprout has released a handful of beautiful solo records, briefly fronted a punky project called Eyesinweasel, and forged a career as a illustrator. He rejoined GBV in 2010, kicking off a four-year reunion run in which he revisited his untouchable dynamic with Pollard over a ridiculous six full-lengths. Sprout was putting together music for a seventh, but when the band suddenly imploded (again), much of it wound up on his first solo album since 2010, the brand-new The Universe & Me (Burger Records). A bit more rough around the edges than usual, the record still shows off Sprout’s knack for lush and heartfelt hooks, plus there’s more genuine GBV DNA here than in the current version of the band Pollard’s carting around on tour. —LUCA CIMARUSTI

38 CHICAGO READER - APRIL 27, 2017

Timber Timbre Wooden Sky open. 9 PM, Lincoln Hall, 2424 N. Lincoln, $20. For their queasy new album Sincerely, Future Pollution (City Slang), Montreal trio Timber Timbre traveled to France, setting up in a small studio outside of Paris equipped with a wide array of vintage synthesizers. Over the course of their career they’ve embraced an evolving stream of unlikely styles, warping oﬀ-kilter bits of doo-wop, cocktail jazz, and soul complemented by a lounge-lizard croon, all uses of nostalgia to couch the decidedly creepy and

Find more music listings at chicagoreader.com/soundboard.

Angaleena Presley o BECKY FLUKE

unsettling narratives of singer Taylor Kirk. The new album pushes into the 80s, melding unctuous synthpop with the singular art-pop David Bowie created during the tail end of his Berlin days. Whether it’s the love song “Velvet Gloves & Spit” or the breakup ballad “Moment” (which contains some wonderfully incongruous electric guitar atmospherics a la Remain in Light-era Talking Heads), nothing is ever on the level—there’s always a dark underbelly to the spoken sentiment. Timber Timbre sound stronger than ever on the sleek funk grooves of “Grifting,” their most obvious Bowie cop. Kirk uses terse wordplay to get at the wholesale deceit practiced by Donald Trump and his administration, calling it out as a “house of gilded swindlers.” His indictment of contemporary politics reaches its apotheosis on the moody, downright dystopian “Western Questions” (“Hollywood halo, the UFO lights / Oozing from every screen / Western questions, desperate elections / The campaign Halloween”). —PETER MARGASAK

Gregory Uhlmann Brokeback and V.V. Lightbody open. 9 PM, Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia, $10. Back in January I previewed a performance by jazz trio Typical Sisters, a group that includes the Chicago-bred, LA-based guitarist Gregory Uhlmann.

He returns to his hometown this week to show off a much different side of his musical personality, found on the lovely, tender singer-songwriter album, Odd Job (Dog Legs Music), he released in February. Uhlmann plays just about everything on the recording, but the delicate vocal harmonies of Cari Stevens and Alina Roitstein and the weightless strings of Lauren Baba and winds player Andrew Conrad add a gorgeous, spectral depth to the performances, accenting Uhlmann’s beautiful melodies with somber, baroque arrangements. The introspective folk of Nick Drake is a clear reference point, and while I can also hear a little of both Radiohead and Andrew Bird, Uhlmann veers toward a more lush brand of chamber pop, eschewing excess and eccentricity in favor of a quest for pure beauty. —PETER MARGASAK

SATURDAY29 Cupcakke See Pick of the Week (page 36). K.I.D opens. 10 PM, Subterranean, 2011 W. North, sold out. 17+ Angaleena Presley 8 PM, Szold Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music, 4545 N. Lincoln, $22, $20 members. b

Angaleena Presley is probably the least-known member of brash all-star country trio the Pistol Annies, where she’s flanked by Miranda Lambert and Ashley Monroe, but judging from the release of her second solo album, Wrangled (Mining Light Music/Thirty Tigers), she might ultimately emerge

MUSIC as the most talented. She wrote or cowrote every tune, and follows the same no-bullshit template as her more famous cohorts. On “Groundswell” Presley rejects the suffocating rules of Nashville and laments the sheer grind (“It’s a rainy night in Georgia / And I’m praying that the T-shirts and records will sell”), while on the title track she refuses patriarchal prescriptions over an irresistible country-soul melody (“The girls down at church can go to hell / Ironing shirts and keeping babies quiet / Ain’t no life, it’s a live-in jail”). Though the dopey redneck rap from Yelawolf on the southern-fried mess “Country” isn’t a very interesting tweak, Presley’s nervy indictments of organized religion are stunning: “Only Blood” excoriates the hypocrisy and abuse of a preacher husband before turning his own words against him at the end, sweetly singing, “He was greeted with a pistol and a ﬁre in her black eye / She said I’ve talked to Jesus / And he’s been telling me only blood can set me free.” Likewise, album closer “Motel Bible” converts blasphemy into a virtue: “I can talk to Jesus any time I please / One more shot of bourbon, he’ll be talking back to me.” Altogether, the record represents one of the most appealing subversions of country conventions I’ve heard in years. Presley’s superb studio band toggles between honky-tonk and country rock with a touch of pop gloss, masterfully supporting her soulful voice and sharpening the hooks embedded in her melodies. —PETER MARGASAK J

APRIL 27, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 39

Chicago forever.

MUSIC

Find more music listings at chicagoreader.com/soundboard.

Nnamdi Ogbonnaya o RYAN LOWRY

continued from 39

Celebrating 60 Years of Making Music! We’ve been singing and strumming with Chicago since 1957! Join the party with a class this year in guitar, banjo, dance, ukulele, and so much more!

New adult group classes start next week!

Celebrate with us and learn more at

oldtownschool.org 40 CHICAGO READER - APRIL 27, 2017

Augusta Read Thomas 7:30 PM, Rockefeller Chapel, University of Chicago, 5850 S. Woodlawn, $20-$35, free for students. b The Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s prestigious Mead Composer-in-Residence for the longest term so far (from 1997 to 2006, under both Daniel Barenboim and Pierre Boulez), Augusta Read Thomas has been an indefatigable force in new music in Chicago as a composer, educator, and curator. Since 2010 she’s been a professor of music composition at the University of Chicago, and few living composers have had their work performed as often. Her role behind the scenes was amplified last year when she spearheaded and cocurated the massive Ear Taxi Festival, an unprecedented multiday event that enlisted the participation of just about every extant new-music ensemble and composer that’s ever lived here. And she’s made a habit of collaborating with some of Chicago’s finest groups—this weekend Spektral Quartet and Third Coast Percussion will perform three works she wrote speciﬁcally for them. Chi for String Quartet is a brand-new piece commissioned by Spektral and getting its world premiere tonight; nearly as exciting will be a reprise performance bringing together both ensembles: Selene, Moon Chariot Rituals premiered at Ear Taxi, and later turned up on Thomas’s 2016 portrait album Of Being Is a Bird (Nimbus). It’s a gem of jaunty rhythms and terse phrases that rise and fall betweens dark meditation and ambiguous tension. Lush string cadences alternate with spry pizzicato, and cool tuned percussion overlaps with explosive drum patterns. TCP will also

perform Resounding Earth, a four-movement work built around the ringing, tinkling, and clanging of bells, with tones both brief and sustained. —PETER MARGASAK

SUNDAY30 Nnamdi Ogbonnaya MFn Melo, Grill Billyenz, Thrashkitten, Mother Nature, and Morimoto open. 8 PM, Lincoln Hall, 2424 N. Lincoln, $12, $10 in advance. 18+ Earlier this month prolific multi-instrumentalist Nnamdi Ogbonnaya told MTV News that his new album, Drool (Sooper/Father Daughter), is his first indebted to his experience in Chicago, the city that’s come to represent home despite his lack of a deep emotional attachment to it. “I don’t think I feel that way about any place particularly,” Ogbonnaya said. “It’s just the people I’ve met make it worth staying here.” His music reflects his relationships to his physical surroundings and creative community; he collaborates with circles of musicians in punk, postrock, hardcore, and hip-hop groups, but it’s in his solo work that he’s most free-floating and unmoored as an artist. On the succinct, clear-headed Drool, Ogbonnaya corrals his musical foibles and vocal gestures while managing to retain exciting pop excesses in the process, piling on sounds that herk and jerk and directing every bleep, blop, and bloop toward moments of unexpected euphoria. He packs melodic loops into every nook of the carnival kawaii-funk single “Let Go of My Ego,” his vacillating vocals lighting off bottle rockets till the track’s dwindling moments. —LEOR GALIL J

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open now CAN YOU SING??? Recording choir needs volunteer singers for debut CD and YouTube video projects. ALL VOICES (especially Tenor, Baritone & Bass) for multi-cultural, non-denominational, adult community choir.Widely varied repertoire includes traditional and contemporary gospel, anthems, spirituals, hymns, international, and acappella. Saturday rehearsals, 9:30 am to 11:30 am, Chicago (SE Side) – close to the University of Chicago. Text/Call NOW – slots are ﬁlling quickly. ClaimYour Star Power!

(312) 883-0716

Find more music listings at chicagoreader.com/soundboard.

king crab house

Open for Lunch 11 am Friday Through Sunday

Mother’s Day specials: Crab & Slab $29.95, 1/2 Lb. King Crab & Filet $38.95, Lobster Tail & Filet $ 45.95 includes soup or salad & a glass of champagne or house wine.

continued from 40

Not valid with any other specials, discount or promotions

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Hexxus Livid, Faces of the Bog, and Chainsmoker open. 7 PM, Reggie’s Music Joint, 2105 S. State, $10.

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42 CHICAGO READER - APRIL 27, 2017

MUSIC

Slowdive o INGRID POP

Two-thirds of this young Alabama trio is made up of veterans of Hog Mountin, an underrated southern-fried swamp-metal outfit that was once a jewel of the Birmingham scene. But on their debut self-released full-length, last year’s Tunguska, Hexxus seem to be on a different trajectory entirely. Still backbreakingly heavy, they prove themselves capable of employing a lighter touch from time to time, with sweet and slightly proggy interludes offering moments in which to take a deep breath before being slammed back down into the extragravity grind. Inspired by a catastrophic and still somewhat surreal event in Siberia involving a meteor that wiped out a forest without leaving an easily identifiable impact crater—while also carrying a subtext of grief and loss—Tunguska has a beguiling thread of mystery and complexity running throughout its slagboiled riffing, and I look forward to seeing where Hexxus will lumber to next. —MONICA KENDRICK

The XX Sampha opens. 6:30 PM, Aragon Ballroom, 1106 W. Lawrence, $59. b UK alt-pop group the XX have built an empire out of monochromatic, minimalist movements. Their first two albums, 2009’s XX and 2012’s Coexist, both were seemingly capable of moving a mountain with the slightest of nudges, and they so successfully project a sense of intimacy that they’ve almost antithetically become a phenomenon that packs thousands into theaters. On January’s I See You (Young Turks) the XX augment their sound to ﬁt bigger stages in the same way they’ve done everything else—subtly and skillfully. I See You

notably bears the influence of In Color, the 2015 pop album by the group’s producer and DJ, Jamie XX. The choppy vocal sample on “On Hold” as well as the skipping percussion on “Dangerous”— reminiscent of the early-aughts underground dubstep scene—add Technicolor splash without threatening the band’s ever-tasteful sparseness. —LEOR GALIL

WEDNESDAY3 Slowdive Japanese Breakfast open. 8 PM, the Vic, 3145 N. Sheffield, sold out. 18+ So what came first for the 90s-era shoegaze band: the reunion tour or the new album? So easy . . . it’s the reunion tour. Because as My Bloody Valentine, Ride, and, yes, Slowdive began working the festival circuit years back—closely followed by soldout theater tours—they all became inclined to pile on the hype of the shoegaze rediscovery by kicking off even more dust and even more threadbare gloom from those effect-pedal boards. The utility of it all seems debatable, but while Ride’s upcoming Weather Diaries is unlikely to be another Nowhere, and Slowdive’s brand-new self-titled record on Dead Oceans is not 1993’s Souvlaki, both will become rightful entries into a canon that has been unearthed anew. Realistic expectations, I guess. The latter of the two new ventures is undoubtedly loyal to shoegaze’s requisite tower of swirling, almost symphonic noise—though definitely less monolithic in construction—but Neil Halstead’s vocals in particular have lost some of their detachment in favor of presence (it’s possible!). Augmented by Rachel Goswell’s dry and airy vocals—beautifully so on its best track, “Star Roving”—the record skews toward a dreaminess that’s more indie rock than shoegaze, if you’re into splitting hairs. It’s still a Slowdive record, make no bones, but one that sounds nearly 25 years older than the band’s masterpiece, which it is. —KEVIN WARWICK v

FOOD & DRINK Tacos at Mi Tocaya (clockwise from left): the campechano, beer-can chicken, butternut squash, and al pastor o NICK MURWAY

MI TOCAYA | $$ R 2800 W. Logan 872-315-3947 mitocaya.com

NEW REVIEW

Mi Tocaya is all Diana Dávila’s own

The former Cantina 1910 chef returns with her progressive, personal, and provocative Mexican food. By MIKE SULA

ow many Mexican moms go to the trouble of making smoked chicken stock for fideos secos? Toasted pasta simmered in chile-spiked tomato sauce, the dish is the SpaghettiOs of Latin America, a beloved childhood favorite that’s rarely more complicated than that. But Diana Dávila smokes her stock. She also sweats pasilla chiles, peppercorns, cumin, chicken livers and gizzards, oregano, and bay leaves before adding some burnt tortilla for good measure. When it’s strained and added to the noodles you can barely see the bottom of the bowl, and then it’s garnished with epazote, scallions, and chintextle, a Oaxacan salsa composed of wild greens, dried corn silk, cricket powder, pasilla and mulatto chiles, sesame seeds, bay and avocado leaves, roasted garlic oil, and more epazote. “I almost feel like a witch when I make this,” she says. Her kids love it, and this was easily the favorite dish at my table on visits to Dávila’s new restaurant, Mi Tocaya, in Logan Square, a neighborhood that with the earlier openings of Dos Urban Cantina and Quiote has become a hotbed for progressive Mexican food. The fideos didn’t speak to us because we had mothers that made it when we were children, or even because we had pre-Hispanic roots that it was nourishing. We all liked it because for some reason, it reminded us of Cincinnati chili (which is even stranger because the dish contains no cinnamon, the defining spice of CC). Dávila remarks that instead her fideos eat more like ramen. And that’s true too—though not an austere, traditional bowl but one of the big, bold, palate-flooding, cheffy soups we’ve seen in the last few years of the ramen wars. Dávila’s food is big and bold, and there’s always a lot going on in it—it’s always in your face. And you’ll want to put it in your face. The question is: Are you strong enough to stand up to it? An unfortunately vocal minority who visited Dávila’s last posting—Andersonville’s ill-fated Cantina 1910—wasn’t prepared for her particular vision of Mexican food. But here in this snug corner spot on Logan Boulevard she’s in a better place, and guests are piling their tables with a quartet of tacos: sweet butternut squash with cooling corn crema, smoked and shredded beer-can chicken with a tequila-simmered prickly pear salsa borracha, gnarly nibs of al pastor, and the triple-threat campechano—al pastor, chorizo, and carne asada. These are among Dávila’s most conventional dishes at Mi Tocaya. And because she’s a chef who never wants to ape another, much less repeat herself, even her most classically familiar plates are complicated. J

APRIL 27, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 43

Thursday, May 18 • 7-10pm

JOIN US FOR OUR MARQUEE EVENT

Ivy Room • 12 E Ohio • Chicago

THIS YEAR’S THEME IS MENTORS participating chefs pay homage to someone who influenced their own brand of cooking.

Inspired by our JAMES BEARD AWARD-WINNING SERIES, Key Ingredient Cook-off (#KICO) invites you to SAVOR dishes created by some of Chicago's most outstanding chefs, then VOTE for your favorite.

Tickets are on sale now at chicagoreader.com/kico   21+   

44 CHICAGO READER - APRIL 27, 2017

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continued from 43 The guacamole, smashed with raw garlic, salt, lime, and garlic oil, is sprinkled with a nutty-tasting black ash culled from the incinerated remains of the kitchen’s chile seedings. A ceviche is made from ﬁnely diced Sonoran shrimp brined in their own shell stock, then soaked in lime juice. It’s dressed to order with a vinaigrette of herb oil, juiced serrano and lime, leche de tigre, radishes, and scallions. A dish servers are pitching as “Mexican tartare” is tenderized and minced raw outer skirt steak seasoned with coriander, cumin, black peppercorn, chile, lime juice, and Maggi seasoning (the ace in the hole for a michelada). Fish such as (so far) tuna, bass, and fluke aren’t commonly served with mole, but here their delicate ﬂesh comes draped with a springlike mole verde incorporating a riot of greens, seeds, spices, fruits, and vegetables: blistered romaine, spinach, watercress, mint, fennel, cilantro, epazote, parsley, hoja santa, sesame seeds, pepitas, cinnamon, allspice, tomatillos, and poblanos. Sweetbreads, sliced cutlet style, are fried and served with a salsa Veracruzana just as a whole red snapper would be, the crispy batter melding with olives, orange, and tomato. But Dávila isn’t overreaching for originality. Many of her dishes are born out of personal memory and family history. Her uncle’s lengua con salsa de cacahuate is rendered as chunks of pillow-soft tongue (minus the papillae) and seared half radishes drizzled with thick ropes of smooth, creamy arbol-spiked peanut salsa. The restaurant’s logo is the cactus, chosen in part for the ubiquity of nopales in the Mexican diet, and here Dávila presents them in a thick, chunky guisado with the surprising addition of

some lightly fried cheese curds and a garnish of the most potently herbal papalo I’ve ever whiffed. The best part of the queso fundido is a thin, isolated layer of melted, charred chihuahua and butterkase cheeses topped by roasted poblanos and crisped longaniza sausage. Dávila couldn’t abide the subpar commercial domestic cheeses available for the signature dish of San Luis Potosí, her family’s hometown, so she concocted a blend of queso cincho and soured queso fresco to give her tiny, ravioli-like enchiladas potosinas the proper tang. The only real concern I have about Dávila’s return to the scene is that if you order as broadly as I do, the intense and complex seasonings, particularly with regard to salt, can exhaust the palate. That’s something a handful of draft cocktails—say, the hibiscus-infused mezcal, gin, and Chartreuse Chicana, or the elderﬂower margarita, or even a foamy housemade nitro horchata—can help address. And as complicated as the front of the meal can be, at dessert it’s fairly simple, the offerings limited to an outsourced tres leches cake and a cool, creamy ﬂan de queso drizzled with sorghum and sprinkled with cheese. Diana Dávila is one of the most confident chefs I’ve ever met. If there’s anything she’s ever wanted, it’s to be her own chef and to speak originally—about herself and her experience—through food. At Mi Tocaya, more than ever, she’s absorbed her own culinary history and identity. She cooks from memory, channeling the food of uncles, aunts, childhood snacks, and iconic dishes that speak to the soul of cities, states, and Mexico itself. v

ß @Mike Sula

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APRIL 27, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 45

G.H. FINANCIALS, LLC (“GHF”) in Chicago, IL seeks a MANAGING DIRECTOR GLOBAL SALES AND MARKETING who will direct

JOBS

SALES & MARKETING

Telephone Sales Experienced/aggressive telephone closers needed now to sell ad space for Chicago’s oldest and largest newspaper rep firm. Immediate openings in Loop office. Salary + commission. 312-368-4884.

OFFICE SCHEDULING MARKETING PERSON WANTED. Part-time flexible hours. Pleasant, cheerful phone manner, Some computer skills a plus. Evanston office next to Purple Line. nikitsitsis@yahoo.com, 847875-6463.

TELE-FUNDRAISING MEMORIAL DAY CAMPAIGN

American Veterans helping Veterans. Felons need not apply per Illinois Attorney General regulations. Start ASAP, Call 312-256-5035

food & drink BARTENDER

AND

and control the Marketing and Sales efforts in accordance with the objectives set by the Board and Management Committee; ensure adequate resources are available to meet agreed objectives and budgets; and establish appropriate policies and procedures within the Department that are in accordance with agreed plans and budgets, amongst other duties. Position requires a Bachelor’s degree (any field) and 10 years’ experience in the position offered; 5 years detailed knowledge and experience of all major products traded and cleared on CME Group, ICE and Eurex, included but not limited to Eurodollar, fixed income and interest rate derivatives; 10 years’ experience with sales negotiation and generating pipelines of clients globally, specifically focusing on Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific; 10 years’ experience and detailed knowledge of working with trading platforms and technology including but not limited to Stellar, TT, CQG, Ffastfill, ORC, clearing

systems and procedures; 25%-30% of Travel to Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific to perform duties; Experience can be concurrent. Send resumes to Sheena Griffiths, Head of Human Resources, G.H. Financials, LLC 311 S. Wacker Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60606.

Manufacturing Engineer PeelMaster Packaging Corporation d/b/a PeelMaster Medical Packaging is seeking a Manufacturing Engineer in Niles, IL w/ the following reqs: Master’s deg in Engg or rel field + 4 yrs rel exp. Alternative Reqs: Bachelor’s deg in Engg or rel field + 6 yrs rel exp. Reqd skills: design, develop & qualify new processes to support flexible medical packaging product changes & enhancements; perform statistical analysis, incl Minitab 6-pack, Cpk/Ppk, Design of Experiments (DoE), Gauge Reliability & Repeatability Studies; investigate & resolve product complaints, determine root causes & implement corrective action plans using DMAIC & PDCA approaches; & perform sealing process validation, test protocols for IQ, OQ and PQ, executing

CAMPAIGN JOBS

SERVER

needed at Cy’s King Crab Oyster Bar & Grill, 1816 N Halsted, Chicago IL 60614. 312-280-8990. Please apply in person after 4pm any day.

General The Department of Physiology and

Biophysics at the University of Illinois at Chicago, located in a large metropolitan area, is seeking a full-time Assistant Professor to teach graduate courses in physiology and biophysics, mentor and advise students, and assist with curriculum development. Additional duties include conducting research to understand evolving vascular development, vascular diseases, tumor microenvironments and therapies that target vascular and immune cells within tumors to address problems related to vascular pathologies such as stroke, eye disease, cancer biology, and therapeutic approaches to treat these disorders. Publish and present research findings and perform University service as assigned. Requirements are a doctoral degree (PhD or MD) or its foreign equivalent in Molecular Biology, Physiology, Biophysics, or related field of study, plus two years of postdoctoral scientific research training. Some travel is required. For fullest consideration, please submit a CV, cover letter, and 3 references to the attention of the Search Coordinator via email at chusse2@uic.edu, or via mail at University of Illinois at Chicago, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, 835 S Wolcott Avenue, Chicago, IL 60612. The University of Illinois is an Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action employer. Minorities, women, veterans and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply. The University of Illinois may conduct background checks on all job candidates upon acceptance of a contingent offer. Background checks will be performed in compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

protocols & writing reports. Plse submit resume to: accounting@ peelmaster.com. Subject line must ref S42682. THE NORTHERN TRUST COMPANY is seeking a Sr. Consultant,

Applications in Chicago, IL w/ the following reqts: BS degree in Electronics Engineering or related field or foreign academic equivalent. 5 yrs of related experience. Design Solutions working with Cognos application development team to transform requirements into BI Solutions (5 years); Improve Process workflow leveraging Cognos built-in capabilities, windows and VB scripting in order to increase productivity and reduce Operational Cost (5 years); Use Cognos system Administration to work with Cognos vendor on enhancements, patches, upgrade including defects management (5 years); Execute Change controls and Incident management methodology using ITSM standards and tools like Service now (4 years). Please apply on-line at www. northerntrustcareers.com and search for Req. #17038

SEVENTHWAVE SEEKS PROJECT Manager, Sustainable Design in Chicago, IL: Manage research, consulting & outreach projects rltd to building performance; investigate sustainable design & construction of building systems & components. Use eQuest to develop computer models of building energy consumption, cost estimates & production of on-site energy from renewable sources; provide technical advice to personnel; prepare project reports, RFPs & contracts. Reqs. Master’s degree in Sustainable Design or rltd field. Must have LEED AP certification & proficient in eQuest. Send resume to F.Greb, 749 University Row, Suite 320, Madison, WI 53705 MARKETING Help build the next generation of

systems behind Facebook’s products. Facebook, Inc. currently has the following openings in Chicago, IL (multiple openings/various levels):

VISUALIZATION MANAGER, SPO MARKETING INTELLIGENCE (8465N)

Perform business intelligence, quantitative analysis, data visualization, and data-mining to derive actionable insights for Facebook advertisers. Mail resume to: Facebook, Inc. Attn: SB-GIM, 1 Hacker Way, Menlo Park, CA 94025. Must reference job title & job# shown above, when applying.

$12.50/HR FOR 90 DAYS THEN

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CAPITAL ONE SEEKS a Senior Software Engineer in Chicago Metro Area, IL (multiple positions available) to be responsible for the overall technical design, development, modification, and implementation of computer applications using existing and emerging technology platforms. Requires a master’s + 2 yrs. or bach. + 5 yrs. of exp. Must pass company’s assessment. See full req’s & apply online: https: //www.capitalonecareers.com/ Req # R23490. COMMUNITY SOCIAL WORKER HANA Center in Chicago,IL; Social Worker w/MA proficient in Korean; Coordinate volunteer programs, promote agency services, maintain client files; Send resumes @Inhe Choi-4300 N. California Ave. Chicago,IL

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ZURICH AMERICAN INSURANCE Co., (Chicago, IL) seeks

Property Underwriter to analyze/ underwrite new/renewal business utilizing The Zurich Way of Underwriting Framework w/in delegated authority levels on assignments of high tech complexity/coordination to ensure high level service to customers. Occasional travel (10-25%) w/in the U.S. & working extended hours during Peak Periods. Apply at: www. zurichna.com/en/careers Job ID: 170002E3.

EC Ortiz & Co seeks Accountants with Bach deg or foreign deg equiv in Accounting or Accountancy & 1 yrs exp in position or in accounting field. Must incl exp in preparing & auditing financial statements & notes in accordance w/GAAP, analyzing accounting records & methods, preparing audit plans & perf of audit procedures in accordance w/ GAAS. Apply to (incl Ref#1051): HR, 333 S Des Plaines St, Ste 2N, Chicago, IL 60661 BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE DEVELOPER SCHOLLE IPN Packaging, Inc. (Northlake, IL) seeks a Business Intelligence Developer to perform related database functions including designing, implementing, and maintaining new databases. Mail your resume with a copy of this ad to: Talent Acquisition, Scholle IPN Packaging, Inc., 200 W. North Avenue, Northlake, IL 60164

Looking for material handler. Person would start on the first shift (6a-2:30p) but quickly move to a swing shift (probably 10/11 am – 6/7pm) In Addison, IL. Needs to lift about 50lbs. wage starting at about $12-15 depends on the person. HOUSE CLEANERS WANTED.

Part-time, day-time hours. Evanston office. Valid driver’s license a plus. Use company cars. Next to Train. Honest, Reliable. nikitsitsis@yahoo. com or Nicole 847-875-6463.

NUTS ON CLARK POPCORN

STORES- Paid training, lots of hours & opportunity available. Apply in person between 9 A.M. & 11 A.M. 3830 N Clark St. Must bring state ID & Social Security Card.

ARCHITECT I - Cordogan Clark &

Associates in Chicago,IL; Architect I w/MA in Architecture; Prepare designs, organize projects, draft reviews; Send resumes @John Clark716 N. Wells St. Chicago,IL

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Trinity Services is seeking Shared Living Contractors who would like to make a difference in the lives of people with developmental disabilities by sharing their homes and lives. Contractors are generously compensated, trained and supported by Trinity Services, and work from home. Responsibilities include daily care, medication administration and transportation. Requirements include a high school diploma or equivalent, home ownership or rental, and car ownership.

Trinity is also seeking Respite Workers for the Shared Living Program. Respite Workers will provide support to Shared Living Contractors on a very flexible basis, staring at 20 hours per month in the contractors’ homes. Responsibilities and requirements for this position are the same as those of a Shared Living Contractor, but Respite Workers are not required to own or rent their own home.

To apply, contact Jill Schneider, Director of Shared Living Services, at (815) 485-6197 or jschneider@trinity-services.org.

46 CHICAGO READER | APRIL 27, 2017

Ashland Hotel nice clean rms. 24 hr desk/maid/TV/laundry/air. Low rates daily/weekly/monthly. South Side. Call 773-376-5200

1 BR UNDER $700 SPRINGTIME SAVINGS! NEWLY Remod. 1 BR Apts $650 w/

gas incl. 2-5BR start at $650 & up. Sec 8 Welc. Rental Assistance Prog. for Qualified Applicants offer up to $ 400/month for 1 yr. (773)412-1153 Wesley Realty

7022 S. SHORE DRIVE Impeccably Clean Highrise STUDIOS, 1 & 2 BEDROOMS Facing Lake & Park. Laundry & Security on Premises. Parking & Apts. Are Subject to Availability. TOWNHOUSE APARTMENTS 773-288-1030 SPRING SPECIAL: STUDIOS starting at $499 incls utilities. 1BR $550, 2BR $599, 3BR $699. With approved credit. No Security Deposit for Sec 8 Tenants. South Shore & Southside. Call 312-446-3333 MIDWAY AREA/63RD KEDZIE Deluxe Studio 1 & 2 BRs. All

modern oak floors, appliances, Security system, on site maint. clean & quiet, Nr. transp. From $445. 773582-1985 (espanol)

CLEAN ROOM W/FRIDGE & micro, Near Oak Park, Food -4Less, Walmart, Walgreens, Buses & Metra, Laundry. $115/wk & up. 773-637-5957 CHICAGO: 67TH & Clyde 2BR apt, sunroom, LR & separate DR, hdwd flrs, lndry facilities, parking space, $950. Sec 8 Welc. (773) 429-0988 VICINITY OF 77TH & large 4BR, 2BA house, rehabbed, exc cond., lrg back yrd, Sec 8 welcome. 773-510-9290

Evans, newly fenced $1400.

74TH/KING DR. 1BR, 73rd/ Indiana, 2BR, 88th/Dauphin 1 & 2BR. Spac good trans, laundry on site, sec camera. 312-341-1950

1 BR $800-$899 MONTROSE/ CLARENDON VINTAGE one bedroom. Sunny/

bright, across from park, heat/ gas included. Miniblinds/ ceiling fans. Free laundry, private porch, block Montrose Harbor. $895. 773-9733463.

1 BR $900-$1099 HEART

BUCKTOWN/

Newly decorated 1BR, heat & appliances included, $695/mo + security. Call 773-415-8597

Newly updated, clean furnished rooms, located near buses & Metra, elevator, utilities included, $91/wk. $ 395/mo. 815-722-1212

û NO SEC DEP û

1431 W. 78th St 1BR. $500/MO HEAT INCL 773-955-5106 NICE ROOM w/stove, fridge & bath Near Aldi, Walgreens, Beach, Red Line & Buses. Elevator & Laundry. $130/wk & up. 773-275-4442 BIG ROOM with stove, fridge, bath & nice wood floors. Near Red Line & Buses. Elevator & Laundry, Shopping. $121/wk + up. 773-561-4970 CHICAGO 70th & King Dr, 1BR, clean, quiet, well maintained bldg, Lndry + Heat. Section 8 ok. $680/ mo. 773-510-9290.

75TH & EBERHART. 1 & 2BR apts ceiling fan, appls, hdwd flrs, HEATED, intercom. $650/mo & up Call 773-881-3573 6930 S. SOUTH SHORE DRIVE Studios & 1BR, INCL. Heat, Elec, Cking gas & PARKING, $585-$925, Country Club Apts 773-752-2200

EXCHANGE EAST APTS 1 Brdm

$575 w/Free Parking,Appl, AC,Free heat. Near trans. laundry rm. Elec.not incl. Kalabich Mgmt (708) 424-4216

1 BR $700-$799 1737 W CHASE. English Tudor

SUBURBS, RENT TO OW N! Buy with No closing costs and get help with your credit. Call 708868-2422 or visit www.nhba.com

ful Studios, 1,2,3 & 4 BR’s, Sec 8 ok. $500 gift certificate for Sec 8 tenants. 773-287-9999/312-446-3333

1 BR $1100 AND OVER

CHICAGO SOUTH SIDE Beauti-

NO SECURITY DEPOSIT NO MOVE IN FEE 1, 2, 3 BEDROOM APTS (773) 874-1122 ACACIA SRO HOTEL Men Preferred! Rooms for Rent. Weekly & Monthly Rates. 312-421-4597

2 BR UNDER $900 SOUTH SIDE 5.5 rms, 2 Bedroom, stove/fridge, hardwood floors. $725/mo. plus sec. dep. no pets, tenant pays utilities. 312-607-1941

NEWLY UPDATED

CHICAGO, 3215 W. Washington,

1BRS, 1ST & 2nd flrs, Newly rehab, hdwd flrs, spac, appls, lndry facility, Quiet bldg. Gated backyard. Sec 8 ok. 773-344-4050

HOMEWOOD- 1 & 2BR new kit, new appls, oak flrs, ac, lndry/stor., $975 -1195/mo incls ht/prkg, near Metra. 773.743.4141 Urban Equities. com

AUGUSTA/ SPRINGFIELD Large 2 Bedroom Apartment. $750/month, tenant pays utilities. Call 312-401-3799

South Shore 7017 S. Clyde. 2BR, Kit/ BA, hdwd flrs, tenant pays heat, nr Metra & shops. $650/mo. No Sec 630.660.5031

rehab, New, clean, quiet. $850 rent. 7001 S Elizabeth. Cadillac deal. 773467-8200, 773-405-9361. Gina,

Remodeled 1, 2 , 3 & 4 BR Apts. Heat & Appls incl. Sec 8 OK. Call 773-593-4357

CHICAGO, RENT TO OWN! Buy with no closing costs and get help with your credit. Call 708868-2422 or visit www.nhba.com

Ave) RENT SPECIAL 1/2 Off 1 month rent + Sec dep. Nice,lrg 1BR $600; 2BR $700 & 1 3BR $850, balcony, Sec 8 Welc. 773-995-6950

SECTION 8, 2BR, 5RMS, All new

LOOKING TO MOVE ASAP?

Wicker Park. Milwaukee/ Ashland/ Division. 4 rooms, 1 bedroom, plus extra room. Hwfl. Overlooks garden. Greenview/ Blackhawk. Blue Line, expressway. $975. 773-710-3634.

WEST PULLMAN (INDIANA

NEWLY REMOD 1BR & Studios starting at $580. No sec dep, move in fee or app fee. Free heat/ hot water. 1155 W. 83rd St., 773619-0204

CHICAGO, 2750 E. 83rd St. 1BR, $525 - $550. Move in Special 1/2 Mo Free Rent 630-835-1365 Discount RE

SPACIOUS 1 BR apartment at

the corner of Balmoral and Clark in Andersonville. Two walk-in closets. Freshly painted. Hardwood floors. Secure building. Brand new refrigerator, dishwasher, and stove. Lease ends 08/31 + option to renew.

1 BR OTHER APTS. FOR RENT PARK MGMT & INV. LTD. IT’S MOVING TIME!!! OUR UNITS INCLUDE HEAT, HW & CG PLENTY OF PARKING 1BDR FROM $750.00 2BDR FROM $895.00 3 BDR/2 FULL BATH FROM $1200 **1-(773)-476-6000*** APTS. FOR RENT PARK MGMT & INV. LTD. SPRING HAS SPRUNG!! MOST UNITS INCLUDE.. HEAT & HOT WTR STUDIOS FROM $475.00 1BDR FROM $550.00 2BDR FROM $745.00 3 BDR/2 FULL BATH FROM $1200 **1-(773)-476-6000** ROUND LAKE BEACH, IL Cedar Villas is accepting applications for subsidized 1BR apts. for seniors 62 years or older and the disabled. Rent is based on 30% of annual income. For details, call us at 847-546-1899 ∫

6214 S. EBERHART, O p e n House Sat 11-3pm. beautifuly rehabbed 2 & 3BR Apts, 2BA, $850 & up. Well secured & maintained. Call 773-947-8572 or 312-613-4424

building on block of single family homes. Second floor unit, North/ South exposures, very sunny, French windows, formal dr, many closets, hardwood floors, fans, blinds. $750 month-to-month includes heat. 312221-6593.

CALUMET CITY 158TH & PAXTON SANDRIDGE APTS 1 & 2 BEDROOM UNITS MODELS OPEN M-F, 9AM-5:30PM *** 708-841-5450 ***

BURNHAM NICE SIZE 1BR, heat & water incl. 1st & 2nd flr apt w/ balcony in very quiet bldg. $755/mo. Credit check req’d. 708-372-4141

ALL BRK 8 unit bldng at 2748 E. 83rd w/grt cash flow. Offered at $224k. Preapproved only. Agent Owned. Discount RE. Call 630835-1365

AUSTIN AREA 1-2 BR apts, $800-$1050, heat & appliances incl. Section 8 OK, close to transportation 708-267-2875

SPACIOUS-SAFE 773-4235727. BRONZEVILLE, 3BR, heat included. Englewood, 1,2 & 3BR, heat incl. Dolton, 2BR, Gated Parking.

CHICAGO, 9121 S. Co t t a g e Grove, 2BR apt. $995/mo Newly

remod, appls, mini blinds, ceiling fans, Sec 8 OK. No Dep. Call 312-9150100

CHICAGO,

134th & Brandon. 2BR. $700/mo, no security dep, incl all utilities & appls. Avail Now! 708-986-8123 7701 S. South Shore Dr. 2 BDs with 1.5 Baths, Large Combo Living-Dining Rm, FREE Heat & cking gas. Prkng extra. $785-$850, Kalabich Mgmt (708)424-4216

DLX,2BDR,LRG LIV&DIN RM.TEN pys own utils.Nr 76th Ashl. Sec8 welcm$800mo.plus1 1/2mo.Sec Dep.But negot.7732032768 2402 E. 77TH St(77th & Yates).

Sunny 2BR, 2nd flr, free heat,appls, glistening hrwd flrs, c-fans, mini blinds, quiet. $795. 312-479-5502

RIVERDALE APT FOR RENT, 2 bedroom, newly decorated heat included $825/mo. plus security. Please call 773-852-9425

CHICAGO

7600 S Essex 2BR $599, 3BR $699, 4BR $799 w/apprvd credit, no sec dep. Sect 8 Ok! 773287-9999 /312-446-3333

CHICAGO 5246 S. Hermitage: 3BR, 2nd fl, $625 & 2BR bsmt $400 3BR 5258 S. Hermitage. $62 5.1.5 mo sec req’d. 708-574-4085

2 BR $900-$1099 HUGE 2 BEDROOM , 2 bathroom, approximately 1500S.F. Must see! Ideal location. Close to all public transportation & expressways. 1.5 blocks to Brown Line. Well maintained 3-unit building, laundry in building, near North Park University. $1075/mo + utilities. Credit check & security deposit required. Available June 1. 773-775-7228 9am-6pm. SECTION 8 OK, 71st /Francisco 2BR, walk-in closet, hdwd flrs, appls incl, 2 unit building. nice neighborhood, $9 00/ mo. 773-259-6687

ROOMY 2BR APT near recrea-

tional area, off street parking, heated encl porch room. $1050/mo + 1 mo sec. Call Elton 312-841-6798

CALUMET CITY 2BR,carpet, appls, window a/c, heat + ckng gas incl, $850/mo + $850 sec. $25 credit check fee. 708-955-2122 2419 W. MARQUETTE 1 & 2BR Apts, appls incl, tenant pays utils, $700-$950/mo. Section 8 Welcome. 773-316-5871

2 BR $1100-$1299

2 BR $1300-$1499

BRONZEVILLE, BEAUTIFUL REMOD 2 & 3BR Apts, hdwd flrs, custom cabinets, avail now. $1100-$1200/mo + sec. 773-9058487. Section 8 Ok

CHATHAM, 720 E. 81st St. Newly remodeled 2BR, 1BA, hardwood floors, appliances & heat included. Call 847-533-5463.

MATTESON 2BR TOWNHOME.

Section 8 OK. $1150/mo + 1 mo sec. Call 708-625-7355 for info.

BRONZEVILLE, 32XX

73RD & DORCHESTER, 2BR, refrig & stove, laundry hookups, off street prkg, $1075/mo. No security dep. Sec 8 ok. 773-684-1166 KENWOOD (4900 S) 2BR, new kitc, new appls, FDR, oak flrs, new windows, $1225/incl heat, 773743-4141 www.urbanequities.com

2 BR $1500 AND OVER

EDGEWATER 2BEDROOM. 1STFLR. 5321 N. Winthrop, in-

cludes: Heat, appliances(microwave), hardwood floors. Great location: near lake, shopping, and transportation -$1450.773/561-4128.

2 BR OTHER NEAR COLES PARK and Dan Ryan, 1BR apt. New appls, new carpet, excellent transportation. Free heat. $850/mo. 773-846-4077

1720 S. MICHIGAN AVE

Condo for rent, 22nd flr, 2BR 2BA, with excellent Southeast balcony view of lake. Upgraded appliances, in unit washer/dryer, granite counter tops, hardwood floors, Centralair, well trained dog welcome. Deeded space in well lighted, heated garage, security walkability, easy public transportation, 1200+ SqFt. $2200/mo. To apply: www. terrafirmainvestments.org click on portal, click on apply now or call 708-334-9955

ADULT SERVICES

Villas is accepting applications for Subsidized 2 and 3 bedroom apt waiting list. Rent is based on 30% of annual income for qualified applicants. Contact us at 847-546-1899 for details

GLENWOOD, Updated lrg 2BR Condo, H/F High School. Balc, C/A, appls, heat /water incl. 2 prkng, lndry. $ 975/mo. 708-268-3762.

ELMHURST: D L X 1BR, n e w appl, new carpet, AC, balc. overlook pool, $925-$975 incl heat, prkg, OS Laundry. 773-743-4141 w ww.urbanequities.com

S Prarie, 2br, no formal dining rm, tenant pays util, $1100 mo plus move in fee, 773-203-6594

ROUND LAKE BEACH, IL Cedar

CHICAGO 2 Bedroom. Section 8 Welcome. Heat included. 7800 Champlain. Call 773-874-1679

RENOfloors, $800/ Appli630-

SECTION 8 WELCOME $200 Cash Move-In Bonus, No Deposit 6227 S. Justine 3BR/1BA & 225 W 108th Pl, 2BR/1BA, $1100; 7134 S Normal, 4BR, 2BA, $1150. Heat & appls incl. 312-683-5174

SECTION 8 WELCOME 2 BEAUTIFUL APTS & 1 House.

Ready Now. Newly remod 2BR/1BA & 3BR/1BA. Also 4BR House. All hdwd flrs, appls, pkng, $1100-$1400. 773-590-0101

CHICAGO, DELUXE, NEWLY DECORATED 2 & 3 BR, BY 71ST & UNION. FREE HEAT. $740-$840/MO. SECTION 8 WELC. MR. WILSON, 773491-6580

ADULT SERVICES

floor apt., secure bldg., washer/dryer in bsmt. $850/mo plus utilities. 773329-3780

APTS: 70TH/ABERDEEN. 2BR, 3rd floor, $695. 3BR garden apt, $725. 1 mo rent + 1 mo sec. Newly renov, heat incl, hdwd flrs. 773-651-8673 SECTION 8 WELCOME. No Security Deposit. 7721 S Peoria, 3BR apt, appls incl. $1050/mo. 708-288-4510 8222 S. MARSHFIELD 3BR,

Showing Sat only 11AM – 2PM $925. + sec, tens. pay utils, Call 773-426-0280

Avail Now! 54th/May. Sec 8 ok, Large 3BR Apt, 1st flr, lndry rm, hwd flrs, A/C, cfans, fncd in bldg, $1100/mo + sec. 773-981-3919 Chicago 1646 W. Garfield. 3 bdrm, 1 bath, newly renovated, hardwood floors, appliances included. $850/mo. 773-285-3206

3 BR OR MORE UNDER $1200 CHICAGO, NEWLY VATED 3BR Apt, hdwd tenant pays utilities, mo + security. CHA cants Welcome. Bill, 854-3723

CHICAGO- 6005 S. ASHLAND . 3BR Ready to move in! 2nd

6933 S. STEWART 3BR Newly decorated, stove & fridge incl. $9 60/mo + $250 Move in Fee. Sect 8 accepted. Mr.Bee, 773-5682384

ADULT SERVICES

3 BR OR MORE $1200-$1499 4BR, 2BA, 62ND & Maplewood,

newly remod. Lrg LR & DR. Utils not incl, No sec dep, $1200/mo., + $850move-in fee 773-406-0604.

TOTAL REHAB, 3 level, 5 lg BR Hse, 2BA, hdwd flrs, full bsmt, lg back yd, beautiful lg kit. 220 W.109 Pl $1475. 773-294-3965 Must See SECT 8 OK, 2 story, 4br/2ba w/ bsmt. New decor, crpt & hdwds, ceiling fans, stove/fridge, $1465. 11243 S. Eggleston, 773-443-5397

3 BR OR MORE $1500-$1799 PARK MANOR: 7825 S Champlain, beaut rehabbed 4BR, 2BA house, granite ctrs, SS appls, fin bsmt, 2-car gar, $1500/mo. 708288-4510

WRIGLEYVILLE 2BR, 1100SQFT, new appls, FDR, oak floors, cac. OS lndry, $1495 + utils. Prkg avail. 773-743-4141 urbanequ ities.com SECTION 8 WELCOME. No Security deposit. 7047 S. Aberdeen, 4BR, 2BA house, appls incl, $1200/ mo. 708-288-4510 EVANSTON: 3BR TOP corner, 1100sft, New eat-in Kit, SS appls, oak flrs, Redline, $1495/incl heat, 773-743-4141 urbanequities.com EVANSTON 2BR, 1100SQFT, New Kit/ oak flrs, new windows, OS Lndry, $1295-$1350/incl heat, 773-743-4141 urbanequities.com

3 BR OR MORE $1800-$2499 LOGAN SQUARE Turn Of The Century 9 room boulevard apartment, 3BRs, hardwood floors, 2fireplaces, modern kitchen & bath, breakfast room. $1800/mo. includes heat. 773-235-1066 ROGERS PK 2000 sft/ 3BR2BA: new kit, SS appl, FDR, oak flrs, new windows, private deck & sunroom, nr lake/Red Line; $1995/ inc ht 773-743-4141 urbanequities .com

3 BR OR MORE OTHER

86TH & JUSTINE, Newly remodeled, 5BR, 2BA, hardwood floors, appliances incl. Near trans. Sec 8 Welcome 773-430-3100 SOUTH SUBURBS, 4BR, modern kitchen & bath, dining room. Sect 8 OK, 2 car garage. $130 0/mo & up + sec. 847-9091538. 95 S. YALE, Loving 4BR. LR, DR, 1BA, stove/fridge, bsmt w/ storage. Lndry rm w/ hkup. C/A, alarm optinl. 2 car gar. $1375/ mo. 847-343-9405

Beautifully renovated 3-5BR Single Family Homes, new kit, fridge & stove incl, hdwd flrs, cash & Sec 8 Wel 708-557-0644

non-residential

7343 S Carpenter , 5BR, 2BA newly updated, quiet block, near school, off street pkg, backyard. $1300/mo. 773-501-0503

units fully heated and humidity controlled with ac available. North: Knox Avenue. 773-685-6868. South: Pershing Avenue. 773-523-6868.

CHICAGO HOUSES FOR rent.

Section 8 Ok, w/app credit $500 gift certificate 3, 4 & 5 BR houses avail. 312-446-3333 or 708-752-3812

GENERAL Waiting List Closed Effective APRIL 24, 2017 Brementowne Manor Apartments has closed its waiting list to any new applicants. This action has been taken because the current waiting list is longer than one year’s probable waiting time.

roommates CHICAGO 67TH AND Emerald furn. rooms, 45 + pref, share kitchen and bath, util. included, cable ready. From $350. 773-358-2570 SOUTHSIDE - 55TH & Ashland, Clean Rooms, use of kitchen and bath. Available Now. Call 773-434-4046

WEST SIDE - 5126 W. Madison,

single rm, utils incl, $400/mo. prk avail, shared BA & Kit stores/shops, sec dep. neg. 773-988-5579

CHICAGO 118TH SANGAMON

($396), 71st Sangamon ($400) Quiet, Furnished Rooms, Share Kit & Bath, Call 773-895-5454

PULLMAN AREA, Newly

remodeled 111th St., East of King Dr. $450-$550. Close to shopping & 1/4 block to metra. 773-468-1432

CHICAGO SOUTH - YOU’VE tried the rest, we are the best. Apartments & Homes for rent, city & suburb. No credit checks. 773-221-7490, 773-221-7493

FOR SALE OPEN HOUSE. 2421 W. Berteau.

Sunday April 30th 1-3pm. Lincoln Sq uare/ North Center. Solid quality, state of art custom home. Spacious rooms, high ceilings, red oak floors K itchen/ Family room combo opening to new deck for entertaining. Lower level family room, with 4th bedroom and full bath. Recirculating air filtration system, central vac, 2 car garage w/ storage. Much more! ?MLS #09360376. Virtual Tour http:// redefinedagent.com/listings/2421-wberteau-avenue-chicago-illinois/ Call Mary, Solid Realty Services 773-5906500.

ADULT SERVICES ADULT SERVICES

SELF-STORAGE CENTERS. T W O locations to serve you. All

ADULT SERVICES

COLLEGE GIRL BODY RUBS $40 w/AD 24/7

224-223-7787

Southside, Rooms for rent Newly remodeled, bkyd,appls incl quiet block, $125/ week utilities included 773-407-1736

MARKETPLACE

GOODS

UNITARIAN

CHURCH

MASSAGE TABLES, NEW and

used. Large selection of professional high quality massage equipment at a very low price. Visit us at www. bestmassage.com or call us, 773764-6542.

BUYING OLD WHISKEY/ BOURBON/RYE! Looking for full/

sealed vintage bottles and decanters. PAYING TOP DOLLAR!! 773-263-5320

HEALTH & WELLNESS FULL BODY MASSAGE. hotel, house calls welcome $90

special. Russian, Polish, Ukrainain girls. Northbrook and Schaumburg locations. 10% discount for new customers. Please call 773-407-7025

KNEADING HANDS DAY SPA 3446 N. Pulaski Chicago, IL. 60641 (773) 283-3003

UKRAINIAN MASSAGE. CALLS in/ out. Chicago and sub-

urbs. Hotels. 1250 S Michigan Avenue. Appointments. 773-616-6969.

MESSAGES CLEAN OUT YOUR GARAGE

Family men need bikes, hand tools, sleeping bags, shopping carts on wheels, hiking & construction boots, jean. Deliver Northside Latin Progress Agency Resurrection Church daytime 3043 N Francisco, Chicago. Evenings & Sunday 1917 N Kedzie (Porch). Gretchen 312-343-0804 for pick-up. Tax deductible

Evanston ANNUAL RUMMAGE SALE Friday, May 5, 9 am to 5 pm Saturday, May 6, 9 am to noon clothing/books/childrens’/ furniture/jewelry/treasure room housewares/sporting goods/linens café – raffle 1330 Ridge Ave (1 blk n. of Dempster at Greenwood) Evanston Free parking - Bus No. 201 - 847864-1330

CLASSICS WANTED ANY CLASSIC CARS IN ANY CONDITION. ’20S, ’30S, ’40S, ’50S, ’60S & ’70S. HOTRODS & EXOTICS! TOP DOLLAR PAID! COLLECTOR. CALL JAMES, 630-201-8122

BUSINESS OPS OWNER RETIRING / MAIL

CENTER / MICHIGAN AVE. Mailbox/forwarding service. Profitable for 40 years/800 clients Turnkey operation with plenty of potential. Will train & available for free consulting. Owner retiring after many years. $150,000 / MCOC10@aol.com

legal notices NOTICE IS HEREBY given, pur-

ESTATE SALE - Fighting Cancer Must move Antique furniture, mirrors, art, decorative items, fabrics, kitchenware, rugs. Email: RKL1343 @comcast.net or call 773-3988063. I will send pics or set up viewing.

suant to “An Act in relation to the use of an Assumed Business Name in the conduct or transaction of Business in the State,” as amended, that a certification was registered by the undersigned with the County Clerk of Cook County. Registration Number: D17150452 on April 12, 2017 Under the Assumed Business Name of CALABASH REALTY AND INVESTMENTS with the business located at: 8806 S. MAY ST., CHICAGO, IL 60620. The true and real full name(s) and residence address of the owner(s) /partner(s) is: JENNIFER L JONES 8806 S. MAY ST., CHICAGO, IL 60620, USA

ADULT SERVICES

KILL TERMITES!

Buy Harris Termite Powder. For Infestation & Prevention Also Kills Mold/Fungi that cause Wood Rot. Makes 1 Gallon BUY ONLINE ONLY: homedepot.com

APRIL 27, 2017 | CHICAGO READER 47

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STRAIGHT DOPE By Cecil Adams Q : How crazy must the president of the

United States be before it’s considered cool to refuse an order? If the president orders an all-out nuclear attack on Canada, is the proper response “Yes, Mr. President,” or to throw the lunatic in a cell? —KNUT BORGE, OSLO

Q : What does it take to remove a sitting

president who is obviously mentally ill? I don’t think I need to say any more than that. —GEORGE D.

A : The good news, Knut and George, is that a

WE ARE HERE TO HELP! NOT JUDGE!

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please recycle this paper 48 CHICAGO READER - APRIL 27, 2017

SLUG SIGNORINO

FIND HUNDREDS OF

president’s civilian and military underlings can certainly refuse to carry out illegal orders, and we likely have a constitutional procedure in place for removing a chief executive who’s no longer quite all there. The bad news? None of it’s likely to help much. The question of how the military might respond to an unlawful order from President Trump first arose before candidate Trump had sewn up the nomination. At a February 2016 campaign stop, the commander in chief-tobe promised the crowd that to fight terrorism he’d bring back waterboarding and “much worse.” Former CIA and NSA director Michael Hayden countered that if Trump gave the order for torture “the American armed forces would refuse to act.” Could refuse, sure. Soldiers can reject such a command—and in fact, law and ethics experts say, have a duty to disobey a plainly illegal order. But would refuse? Questionable orders tend to fall in a gray area. Disobeying a duly elected commander might look a bit like a coup, for starters, and any good soldier has to at least consider there may be some legit reason for a decision made above his pay grade. When the Bush White House wanted to get into the torture business—i.e., do stuff that really was plainly illegal—the Justice Department simply reinterpreted the law to provide requisite cover. Civilians might have more room to question their instructions, and more security: under the Whistleblower Protection Act, it’s illegal to fire a civil servant “for refusing to obey an order that would require the individual to violate a law.” That doesn’t mean the Trump administration couldn’t find a subtler way to clean house or reward more loyal staffers. But let’s say the prez becomes really erratic—i.e., in some way distinguishable from his SOP. How do we get him out of the driver’s seat? Impeachment is of course the bestknown method, but its standard of high crimes and misdemeanors doesn’t apply in a case of mental incapacity.

Immediately after the election, though, talk began of somehow invoking the 25th Amendment. The primary function of that amendment, adopted in 1967, is to ensure the presidential succession in case of death, but the fine print gets more interesting. Section four empowers the vice president, with the approval of a majority of the cabinet, to make a written declaration to the Speaker of the House and the president pro tem of the Senate that the president “is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office,” upon which the VP can take over. This provision was written to cover situations, like the one following Woodrow Wilson’s stroke in 1919, where the president is out of commission but not actually dead. Here the language is broad enough to include severe mental illness. If Trump became utterly disconnected from reality, Mike Pence and eight cabinet members could send a note to Paul Ryan and Orrin Hatch, and Pence would become acting president. The amendment’s machinery, however, gives Trump an opportunity to assert in writing that no, he’s fine (presumably a tweet would count), and retake the reins of office. Assuming the VP, et al., persist, Congress has 21 days to vote on the matter; if two-thirds of each house see it the vice president’s way, the acting-president arrangement continues. This procedure was considered at least once, in 1987. White House aide Jim Cannon, shocked at the disarray of the Reagan White House and the president’s listlessness (“All he wanted to do was to watch movies and television,” he later told reporters), prepared a memo for chief of staff Howard Baker suggesting the 25th Amendment should be on the table. Baker didn’t laugh Cannon out of the room, but he didn’t buy the recommendation either. And though we’ll never know for sure, Reagan may well have been suffering from early-stage dementia at the time. So I suspect we’ll be stuck with the current fellow— whose persistently outrageous behavior hasn’t thus far proven disqualifying—for another 44 months minimum. The administration says it’s shooting for eight years. v Send questions to Cecil via straightdope.com or write him c/o Chicago Reader, 350 N. Orleans, Chicago 60654.

SAVAGE LOVE

By Dan Savage

Advice for a sexsomniac

Yes, it’s a real thing. Plus: ISO private European gay-sex dungeons Q : I’m a 31-year-old gay

male. I’ve been with my fiance for three years, and we are getting married in the fall. I’ve got a question about initiating sex in my sleep—I read somewhere that “sexsomnia” is the medical term, but maybe the Internet invented that? According to my fiance, I have initiated or performed some kind of sex act in the middle of the night and then gone right back to sleep. The next day, I don’t remember anything. This freaks me out for a couple of reasons: My body doing things without my mind being in control is concerning enough, but it feels kinda rapey, since I doubt I’m capable of hearing “no” in this state. My fiance doesn’t feel that way; he finds it sexy. The other thing—and maybe I shouldn’t have read so much Freud and Jung in college—is that I’m worried my body is acting out desires that my conscious mind doesn’t want to acknowledge. According to my fiance, the last time I did stuff in my sleep, I rimmed him and told him how much I wanted to fuck him. Rimming isn’t a typical part of our sex life (although I’d like it to be), and my fiance has never bottomed for anyone (I’ve topped guys in prior relationships, but in our relationship I’ve only bottomed). Is my body doing things that my mind won’t admit it wants to do? Is there a way to prevent it from happening? —SEXSOMNIAC HOPING EVENTUALLY EAGER TRYSTS STOP

A : Sexsomnia is a real

and sometimes troubling phenomenon, SHEETS, and not something the Internet made up like Pizzagate or Sean Spicer. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine says sexsomnia is real—a

real clinical condition—but they prefer the fancier, more medical-sounding name: sleep-related abnormal sexual behaviors. Dr. Michel Cramer Bornemann, a lead researcher at Sleep Forensics Associates, describes sexsomnia as “sleepwalkinglike behaviors that have sexualized attributes.” And sleep-rimming your delighted ﬁance deﬁnitely counts. “Sexsomnia may be expressed as loud, obscene vocalizations from sleep (that are typically uncharacteristic of the individual while awake), prolonged or violent masturbation, inappropriate touch upon the genitals, buttocks, and breast of a bed partner, and initiation of sexual intercourse,” said Dr. Bornemann. “The vast majority of sleep disorders are not reflective of a significant underlying psychiatric condition.” So your unconscious, late-night gropings/initiatings/rimmings don’t mean you secretly desire to be an ass-eating top. And there’s no need to drag poor Sigmund or Carl into this, SHEETS, since you’re not doing anything in your sleep that you don’t desire to do wide awake. You wanna rim your fiance, you’ve topped other guys and would probably like to top this one too—so neither of the examples you cite qualifies as a desire your “conscious mind doesn’t want to acknowledge.” Like all sleep disorders, sexsomnia is just something that happens to a very small number of people, SHEETS; there’s no need to endow it with deeper meaning. In most cases, sexsomniacs will hump a pillow or jerk themselves off. The sexsomniacs who tend to make the news—the ones we hear about—are the “unintended criminals” Dr. Bornemann

alluded to, i.e., people who’ve sexually assaulted someone while asleep. Luckily for you, SHEETS, your fiance is OK with your behaviors. But you might wanna watch Sleepwalk With Me, an autobiographical film by Mike Birbiglia, a comedian with a sleep disorder. Birbiglia wasn’t initiating sex in his sleep—he was jumping out of windows. He successfully sought treatment, and I’d suggest that you do so too, chatting with a doctor about drugs and/or other interventions. “My catch-all advice is to read this book called The Promise of Sleep by Dr. William C. Dement,” said Birbiglia after I shared your letter with him. “He talks about sleep hygiene extensively, i.e., how to have the best night’s sleep possible by avoiding TV, eating heavily, drinking, etc, a few hours before bed. I know this isn’t exactly an answer to SHEETS’s specific question, but getting a better night’s sleep could probably help him across the board in ways that he doesn’t even realize.”

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EARLY WARNINGS

chicagoreader.com/early

APRIL 27, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 49

Mark Lanegan o STEVE GULLICK

NEW

Appleseed Cast 6/9, 9 PM, Beat Kitchen, 17+ John Beasley’s Monk’estra, Melissa Aldana 1/26, 8 PM, Symphony Center Bloodshot Bill 6/22, 9 PM, Hideout Body/Head, Diamond Terriﬁer Cipher 6/24, 7 PM, Bohemian National Cemetery, on sale Fri 4/28, 10 AM Brujeria, Voodoo Glow Skulls 10/29, 7 PM, Bottom Lounge, on sale Fri 4/28, 10 AM, 17+ Sabrina Carpenter, Camila Cabello, Jacob Satortius, 8/13, 2:30 PM, Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, Tinley Park, on sale Fri 4/28, noon Tommy Castro & the Painkillers 7/18, 8 PM, City Winery, on sale Thu 4/27, noon b Chon 6/11, 6:15 PM, Cobra Lounge b Church 7/3-4, 8 PM, City Winery, on sale Thu 4/27, noon b Circa Waves 6/4, 7:30 PM, Schubas, on sale Fri 4/28, 10 AM b Cobalt, Aseethe 6/29, 7:30 PM, Subterranean Ravi Coltrane Quartet, Trio Beyond 11/17, 8 PM, Symphony Center Dam-Funk (DJ set) 6/2, 10 PM, Smart Bar Darcys 6/21, 9 PM, Schubas, on sale Fri 4/28, 10 AM, 18+ Delta Saints 6/17, 9 PM, Beat Kitchen DJ Shadow 7/8, 8:30 PM, Park West, on sale Fri 4/28, 10 AM, 18+ Django Festival All Stars 6/25, 8 PM, Maurer Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music, on sale Fri 4/28, 8 AM b

Alejandro Escovedo Band 6/11, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston b Jacob Garchik’s Ye Olde 6/30, 8:30 PM, Constellation, 18+ Gogo Penguin 9/23, 9 PM, Lincoln Hall, on sale Fri 4/28, 10 AM John Gorka 8/27, 7:30 PM, City Winery, on sale Thu 4/27, noon b Horse Lords 6/10, 9 PM, Hideout Griﬃn House 6/25, 8 PM, City Winery, on sale Thu 4/27, noon b Enrique Iglesias, Pitbull 10/7, 7:30 PM, Allstate Arena, Rosemont, on sale Fri 4/28, 10 AM Gregory Alan Isakov, Blind Pilot 8/24, 8 PM, the Vic, on sale Fri 4/28, 10 AM, 18+ Jakubi 6/17, 10 PM, Schubas, on sale Fri 4/28, noon, 18+ Kings of Leon 8/12, 7 PM, Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, Tinley Park, on sale Fri 4/28, 10 AM Corky Laing 7/5, 7 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ Kendrick Lamar, Travis Scott 7/27, 7:30 PM, United Center, on sale Fri 4/28, 10 AM Mark Lanegan Band 8/22, 9 PM, Thalia Hall, on sale Fri 4/28, 10 AM, 18+ Last in Line 7/20, 7 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ Los Texmaniacs 6/9, 9 PM, FitzGerald’s, Berwyn, on sale Fri 4/28, 11 AM Austin Mahone 6/21, 7:30 PM, Park West b Major. 6/1, 8 PM, City Winery, on sale Thu 4/27, noon b Wynton Marsalis 10/13, 8 PM, Symphony Center Paul McCartney 7/25, 7:30 PM, Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, Tinley Park, on sale Sat 4/29, 10 AM

50 CHICAGO READER - APRIL 27, 2017

Pat McGee 7/29, 8 PM, City Winery, on sale Thu 4/27, noon b Needtobreathe 11/9, 7:30 PM, House of Blues, on sale Fri 4/28, 10 AM, 17+ and 12/9, 8 PM, Thalia Hall, on sale Fri 4/28, 10 AM b North Coast Music Festival with Deadmau5 & Eric Prydz, Gucci Mane, Damian Marley, Ween, and more 9/1-3, Union Park b Judith Owen 7/30, 7 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 4/28, 10 AM b Palm 7/6, 9 PM, Beat Kitchen, 17+ Ron Pope 10/21, 7:30 PM, Park West, on sale Fri 4/28, 10 AM b Preservation Hall Jazz Band 7/18, 8 PM, Thalia Hall, on sale Fri 4/28, 10 AM b Louis Prima Jr. & the Witnesses 7/11, 8 PM, City Winery, on sale Thu 4/27, noon b Radio Moscow 7/6, 8 PM, Reggie’s Music Joint Rasputina 8/10, 7 PM, Subterranean, on sale Fri 4/28, 10 AM Jessie Reyez 6/14, 7 PM, Schubas b Riot Fest with Jawbreaker, Nine Inch Nails, Queens of the Stone Age, New Order, Paramore, Prophets of Rage, and more 9/15-17, Douglas Park b Rozwell Kid 7/8, 8 PM, Beat Kitchen, on sale Fri 4/28, noon, 17+ Kermit Ruﬃns & the Barbecue Swingers 7/22, 9 PM, FitzGerald’s, Berwyn, on sale Fri 4/28, 11 AM Savoir Adore 6/1, 9 PM, Schubas Shout Out Louds 11/8, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall, on sale Fri 4/28, 10 AM Sin Bandera 9/2, 8 PM, Rosemont Theater, Rosemont, on sale Thu 4/27, noon Songhoy Blues 10/5, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall Strawberry Girls 6/22, 7 PM, Subterranean, 17+ Strumbellas 10/19-20, 7:30 PM, Thalia Hall b Swear & Shake 6/1, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston b Tengger Cavalry 6/10, 8:30 PM, Beat Kitchen, on sale Fri 4/28, 10 AM Irma Thomas & the Blind Boys of Alabama 10/27, 8 PM, Symphony Center b Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue 10/21, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, on sale Fri 4/28, 10 AM, 18+ WGCI Summer Jam with Lil Wayne, Jeezy, Fat Joe, Remy Ma, Jeremih, and more 7/8, 7:30 PM, United Center, on sale Fri 4/28, 11 AM Webb Wilder & the Beatnecks 6/24, 9 PM, FitzGerald’s, Berwyn, on sale Fri 4/28, 11 AM

b Jaymes Young 7/22, 6:30 PM, Beat Kitchen, on sale Fri 4/28, 10 AM b

UPDATED Graham Nash 7/28-30, 7 PM, Maurer Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music, third show added b

UPCOMING A Giant Dog 7/6, 9 PM, Empty Bottle All Tomorrow’s Impeachments with Shellac, Tar, Dianogah, Lardo, and more 7/21-22, 7:30 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+ At the Drive-In, Le Butcherettes 6/18, 7:30 PM, Aragon Ballroom b Bag Raiders 6/17, 6 PM, Concord Music Hall b Ben UFO 5/13, 10 PM, Smart Bar Birthday Massacre, Army of the Universe 5/20, 8 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+ Black Lips 5/13-14, 9 PM, Empty Bottle ChameleonsVox 9/14, 8:30 PM, 1st Ward, 18+ Coheed & Cambria, Dear Hunter 5/19, 8 PM, Aragon Ballroom b The Cult 5/13, 8 PM, the Venue at Horseshoe Casino, Hammond Evan Dando 6/20, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall Dead & Co. 6/30-7/1, 7 PM, Wrigley Field Descendents 10/7, 7:30 PM, Riviera Theatre b Face to Face 6/10, 9 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ Father John Misty, Weyes Blood 9/20, 8 PM, Auditorium Theatre Fleet Foxes 10/3-4, 7:30 PM, Chicago Theatre Girlpool 6/2, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Giuda, Sueves, Mama 5/31, 9 PM, 1st Ward, 18+ Gorillaz 7/8, 7:30 PM, Huntington Bank Pavilion Har Mar Superstar 7/8, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Don Henley 6/17, 7:30 PM, Huntington Bank Pavilion Hinds 5/25, 8 PM, Empty Bottle Incubus, Jimmy Eat World 7/29, 6:45 PM, Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, Tinley Park Insane Clown Posse 5/5, 7 PM, Portage Theater b Wanda Jackson 5/17, 8 PM, City Winery b Jamestown Revival 6/15, 8 PM, Park West, 18+ Jeﬀ the Brotherhood 7/29, 10 PM, Beat Kitchen, 17+ The Jesus and Mary Chain 5/10, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, 18+

ALL AGES

WOLF BY KEITH HERZIK

EARLY WARNINGS

CHICAGO SHOWS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT IN THE WEEKS TO COME

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Kem 5/26, 8 PM, the Venue at Horseshoe Casino, Hammond King Crimson 6/28, 7:30 PM, Chicago Theatre Lake Street Dive 7/20-22, 8 PM, Thalia Hall Laser Background 5/7, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Barry Manilow 5/17, 7:30 PM, Allstate Arena, Rosemont Mastodon, Eagles of Death Metal, Russian Circles 5/13, 7:30 PM, Aragon Ballroom b Metallica, Avenged Sevenfold 6/18, 6 PM, Soldier Field Negative Approach, Bloodclot 7/29, 7 PM, Cobra Lounge, 17+ Neurosis, Converge, Amenra 7/28, 8 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Nite Jewel 7/19, 7 PM, 1st Ward, 18+ Conor Oberst 9/9, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, 18+ Okkervil River 7/21, 7 and 10 PM, Maurer Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music b Piebald 7/29, 9 PM, Subterranean, 17+ Pixies, Mitski 10/8, 7:30 PM, Chicago Theatre Pwr Bttm 5/30-31, 7 PM, Subterranean, 5/30 sold out b Queen & Adam Lambert 7/13, 8 PM, United Center Real Friends, Tiny Moving Parts 6/9, 4:30 PM, Concord Music Hall b Record Company 5/24, 8 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Juelz Santana 5/13, 8 PM, Portage Theater, 17+ Steep Canyon Rangers 5/13, 8 PM, Maurer Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music b Thou 7/3, 5 PM, Subterranean b T.I. 5/20, 8 PM, Portage Theater, 17+ Tool 6/8, 8 PM, Allstate Arena, Rosemont Ugly God 5/20, 8 PM, Concord Music Hall b Leif Vollebekk 5/12, 9 PM, Schubas Wavves 5/23, 7 PM, Bottom Lounge b Ann Wilson 6/16, 8 PM, House of Blues, 17+ Woods, John Andrews & the Yawns 7/10, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Young the Giant, Cold War Kids 9/9, 7 PM, Huntington Bank Pavilion Dweezil Zappa 7/7, 8 PM, City Winery b Zeal & Ardor 8/22, 9 PM, Beat Kitchen, 17+ Hans Zimmer 8/4, 8 PM, Allstate Arena, Rosemont v

GOSSIP WOLF A furry ear to the ground of the local music scene IT FEELS LIKE AGES since Gossip Wolf has heard from drone-tastic Chicago sound artist Nicholas Burrage (formerly Nicholas Szczepanik), whose longform pieces are perfect zone-out material—Reader critic Peter Margasak has described them as “ethereal drift,” and this wolf is inclined to agree! Last year dude got married and took his wife’s name (maybe he got tired of spelling the old one for people), and he’s also launched what he calls an “appropriation project” whose ﬁrst series interprets Mariah Carey’s hits. (He’s named the project marbles., uncapitalized and with a period, presumably to bother editors.) Last week marbles. posted the 43-minute “Visions of Love. wav” on Bandcamp as a free download, and it makes zero overt references to the diva’s multi-octave singing or breathtaking melisma—it’s a lot like the delicate, moody drones Burrage’s fans expect. Ever since past and present members of Dowsing, Annabel, and Pet Symmetry formed What Gives in 2014, this wolf has been ready for the band to release something—by now you know how your favorite furry columnist feels about underground emo. Last week the five-piece finally released their debut full-length, Feels Good, via Champaign label Skeletal Lightning. Gossip Wolf recommends the video for “Slime Time Live,” in which What Gives satirize the late-90s run of the MTV popularity contest TRL, dressing up as parodies of Britney Spears, Limp Bizkit, Eminem, and others. On Saturday, April 29, they play a release party for Feels Good downstairs at Subterranean. Nobody, the artist formerly known as Willis Earl Beal, returned to Chicago in February to headline the Empty Bottle. Now he’s back—on tape. Last week local music site and radio show the Minimal Beat released a cassette of Nobody’s wondrous new lo-ﬁ soul album, Turn, through its boutique label, TMB Limited. Tapes ship May 1, and the 100-copy edition will go fast. —J.R. NELSON AND LEOR GALIL Got a tip? Tweet @Gossip_Wolf or e-mail gossipwolf@chicagoreader.com.

APRIL 27, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 51