3 minute read
THIS WEEK
the neighborhood, the fight for inclusion in Northalsted is not over.
telling stories of the entire alphabet rainbow is unmistakable.
FOOD & DRINK
04 Sula | Feature Gemma Foods is Chicago’s next pasta juggernaut.
16 History Queer to the Le rejected the mainstream gay rights movement and kept alive the spirit of radical LGBTQ+ activism.
20 Rhodes | Bondage Leather Archives & Museum’s dirty 30
NEWS & POLITICS
06 Joravsky | Politics Republicans sob with self-pity as Pritzker hoists them with their own petard.
08 Isaacs | Culture Amid other changes, Chicago Philharmonic adds a new executive director.
10 Essay On suicide, grief, and the Thompson Center
Pride
12 Healing At Casa Al-Fatiha, two local musicians built a sanctuary for LGBTQ+ asylum seekers.
14 Rhodes | Boystown A er a much-delayed name change of
22 Collo-Julin | Edibles Drag superstar Bambi Banks-Couleé is decolonizing weed “from the kitchen to the couch” with her new webseries.
23 Guide Pride returns with celebrations outside and online.
24 Dance Dee Alaba talks about being transfemme in dance.
25 Next Generation As About Face turns 25, its evolution toward
28 Galil | Feature Thirty years ago, Black queer zine Thing captured the scene that birthed house.
Film
26 Review The vibrant film adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical In the Heights couldn’t be more welcome.
27 Movies of Note Changing the Game lets trans athletes speak for themselves, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It is a love story, and Two Gods is a singular document of three ordinary lives.
MUSIC & NIGHTLIFE
34 Records of Note This week the Reader reviews current releases by Thomas Comerford, Japanese Breakfast, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Colleen, the Lincoln Trio, and more.
37 Early Warnings Rescheduled concerts and other updated listings
37 Gossip Wolf Cosmic Country star Andrew Sa drops a high lonesome covers collection, Dave Rempis releases a double album
CHICAGO READER | JUNE 10, 2021 | VOLUME 50, NUMBER 19 of live performances that COVID couldn’t stop, and pop-up shop Miyagi throws a Record Store Day party at the Silver Room.
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38 Chicagoans of Note Alison Chesley, cellist and composer, aka Helen Money
Opinion
40 National Politics The Squad’s collapse shows change won’t come from within the Democratic Party.
44 Savage Love Dan Savage offers some simple advice: Dump him. Run. Never look back.
Classifieds
45 Jobs
46 Apartments & Spaces
46 Marketplace
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THIS WEEK’S COLLAGE portrays the spectrum of our Pride coverage this year. Featured in this illustrious rainbow are local performer Bambi Banks-Couleé and her cooking webseries, Bambi Bakes ; the history of the Queer to the Left movement of the late 90s/early 00s; transfemme dancer Dee Alaba; Chicago’s own Leather Museum & Archives, boasting the iconic art of Etienne and more; and a feature on the groundbreaking Black queer zine, Thing. As a designer, this is my first Pride issue with the Reader , following 20 consecutive years of Pride issues with Windy City Times (which is inserted into this issue, and which I also designed). Pride doesn’t even begin to describe my feelings on being lucky enough to have been (and to still be) shining a spotlight on this vibrant community.
—KIRK WILLIAMSON
Photo credits
Bambi photo: Freddie Collier; Q2L photo: courtesy Therese Quinn; Alaba photo: Benjamin Wardell and Topher Alexander; LA&M image: courtesy Leather Archives & Museum; Thing cover: courtesy Tracy Baim
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