THIS WEEK
04 Readers Respond
CITY LIFE
05 Neighborhoods A west-side tour of cultural sites
NEWS & POLITICS
07 Prout | 2024 DNC A look under the big top at the DNC
14 Mulcahy | 2024 DNC Photos from actions during the convention taken by Oriana Koren and Josh Druding for the Chicago Reader
FOOD & DRINK
18 Sula | Feature Migos Fine Foods serves halal showstoppers and a neighborhood-mindful menu.
19 Reader Bites Sweet Turkish kunefe at Antepli Mediterranean Grill
ARTS & CULTURE
20 Cra Work Katie Chung on her public and personal art practices
21 Review Arthur Jafa showcases the complexity of Blackness at the MCA.
THEATER
22 Caporale | Preview Alex Grelle celebrates the late princess (and his mom) in Lady Di 24 Stand-up Glitterus flips the script on sexism in comedy.
25 Plays of Note The Normal Heart feels freshly relevant at Redtwist; PrideArts’s [title of show] is a goofy, meta homage to creating a musical comedy.
FILM
26 Preview A trove of silent films opens a communal conversation about history and preservation.
27 Moviegoer Literal and metaphorical wars
28 Movies of Note Bad Press is an unflinching look at the state of the free press and Blink Twice is an overworked yet valiant endeavor.
MUSIC & NIGHTLIFE
30 Jazz Fest The Kenwood Academy band keeps jazz young.
32 Jazz Fest Billy Harper prays and preaches through his saxophone.
33 Jazz Fest Amina Claudine Myers bridges Black gospel and the avant-garde.
34 Shows of Note Previews of concerts including Pravdafest, Rixe, Daundry, and Loren Connors & Michael Vallera
38 Gossip Wolf Sima Cunningham drops a solo album more than a decade in the making, Roy Kinsey throws a launch party for his Rapbrary nonprofit, and more
CLASSIFIEDS
37 Jobs
38 Professionals & Services
38 Housing 38 Auditions
BACK
39 Savage Love Bringing someone on to get it on
ON THE COVER
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE CHICAGO READER BY DONALD COLLEY (LEFT HALF) AND ANNA WAGNER (RIGHT HALF).
MORE FROM COLLEY CAN BE FOUND AT BUTTNEKKIDDOODLES.COM OR ON INSTAGRAM @DONALD. COLLEY54. MORE FROM WAGNER CAN BE FOUND AT ANNAWAGNER.COM/ OR ON INSTAGRAM @ANNAWAGNERART.
COVER PULL QUOTE SAID BY LAYLA ELABED IN “THE GREATEST PARTY ON EARTH?” BY KATIE PROUT, P. 7.
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Reader Letters m
Re: “DNC faces uncommitted delegates; organizer arrested,” written by Shawn Mulcahy and illustrated by Don Colley, published at chicagoreader.com on August 21
Sketching versus photographing is a unique take. Cool but kinda chilling. —McKenna, via Instagram
Re: “Fred Holstein is the forgotten anchor of Chicago’s folk scene,” written and illustrated by Steve Krakow and published in the August 15 issue (volume 53, number 28)
We used to go to Holsteins all the time when we lived in Old Town. He o en got his audiences to sing “Roll On Columbia” with him.
—Susan Curry, via Facebook
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CITY TOURS
Creative placemaking in community
A tour of the west side shows history and transformation.
By ANDREW DAVIS
Atour of the city’s west side highlighted just how much of a historical and artistic gem it actually is, and that parts of it are flourishing. On July 3, the city agency–led tour highlighted a few of 47 community-driven creative placemaking grant projects aimed at promoting racial healing and neighborhood revitalization.
It was part of a series initiated by the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) under its Together We Heal Creative Place (TWHCP) cultural grant program. Launched in 2022, TWHCP is a response from DCASE and the city’s O ce of Equity and Racial Justice (OERJ) to the need for racial equity and community healing in neighborhoods historically a ected by everything from discrimination to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The tours aim to bring people together to experience these projects as well as the beauty of the neighborhoods that they represent. Historian Shermann “Dilla” Thomas was invited to participate as he runs his own tour series, Chicago Mahogany Tours, that specializes in unraveling the hidden history of Chicago neighborhoods.
July’s tour was mostly on an air-conditioned bus, with stops where attendees received greetings, information, and, sometimes, food. The tour group comprised a mixture of westside community members, DCASE and OERJ
staff members, and TWHCP program consultants and grantees. Representatives from the mayor’s o ce, Dr. Meida McNeal (DCASE deputy commissioner of cultural grants and resources) and OERJ chief equity o cer Carla Kupe, were also present.
These are people who aim to show that the west side is a hub of creativity, knowledge, and history—just as much as Chicago’s other areas.
A historian like none other
Within a few moments of meeting Thomas, one discovers that he’s not your usual tour guide or historian.
One minute, he will talk about his five children (including which one is his favorite), and in the next, he will impart knowledge about large boulevards in Chicago (such as Garfield). They were created to direct people to parks, which usually have corresponding names to the boulevards.
Throughout the day, Thomas dropped some historical nuggets about Chicago . . .
• Thomas mentioned that Douglass Park had the easiest renaming in Chicago’s history: the park name was changed in September 2020 to honor Black abolitionist Frederick Douglass and wife Anna Murray Douglass. This was a shift from “Douglas Park,” named for 19th-century Illinois senator Stephen A. Douglas, who profited from the labor of people enslaved on a plantation inherited by his wife. A grassroots campaign led by
students at Village Leadership Academy preceded the name change, which Thomas called “an amazing example of community activation.”
• From the 1920s until the 1950s, the west side, especially North Lawndale, was sometimes referred to as “the Jerusalem of Chicago.” Eastern European immigrants who had settled in the Maxwell Street area starting in the late 1870s gradually moved west, and by the 1930s, North Lawndale became a community hub, hosting 60 synagogues, the Jewish People’s Institute, and other organizations and community institutions.
• Many people know about the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, but relatively few are aware of the Chicago Fire of 1874. “We always talk about the 1871 fire, and that’s because most of downtown burned down and all those big businesses—Montgomery Ward and Marshall Field’s—were affected,” Thomas said. “In 1874, what we now call Printer’s Row burned down. The poor [Black people] and poor Jews lived in that area at the time,” and ended up being displaced to the south and west sides, with Black residents building what’s now known as Bronzeville. “They had a fund [to rebuild], but if you were Black or Jewish, you had to get a white dude to vouch for you to say you were in good standing to rebuild—and then he’d want 20 percent for vouching for you.”
Le : Carla Kupe; right: Spankey Davis ANDREW DAVIS
For their logo, MAAFA Redemption Project uses an image of Christ combined with the Brooks broadside to illustrate breaking the chains of the transatlantic slave trade. The image is also on display in stained glass at New Mount Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church. ANDREW DAVIS
CITY LIFE
continued from p. 5
• Sears, Roebuck and Company was the Google of its day, as it had a world headquarters complex in North Lawndale (confirmed as a landmark district in 2015). “They had a gym, a pool—everything,” Thomas said of the buildings that were constructed between 1905 and 1907. “They were the best-built buildings in Chicago,” he added, as he pointed to the only spot in the city where people can simultaneously view the complex with Sears (now Willis) Tower in the background.
• Allstate Insurance was part of Sears, Roebuck and Company before becoming its own entity in 1995.
• Current Librarian of Congress, Dr. Carla Hayden— the first woman and Black individual to lead the national institution—was trained on Chicago’s west side. President Barack Obama appointed her, a fact that Thomas delivered to the group along with a quip: “You know, you’ve got to be good as hell at your job if [Donald] Trump didn’t get rid of you and you were with the Obama administration.”
“Our children need something to do”
Part of the tour involved visiting three of the 47 artists and community-based organizations for medium- and large-scale creative placemaking projects in low- and moderate-income city neighborhoods that TWHCP funds.
TWHCP’s projects—funded by the American Rescue Plan Act, a part of the mayor’s Road to Recovery plan—create public spaces for dialogue, understanding, and reconciliation to build a better future. From fall 2022 to the end
• In 1966, civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. played in a west-side pool hall owned by the Vice Lords gang—and suckered one of the members into a double-or-nothing matchup that Fred Hampton witnessed. He and his wife, Coretta Scott King, moved into a nearby apartment building earlier that winter, and initially were not well-liked. “When Dr. King came here, none [of the ministers] liked him,” Thomas said. “The only south-side preacher who showed him any love was Clay Evans, and he paid dearly for it. Even though [the elder] Mayor Richard Daley [who also didn’t like King] didn’t die until ’74, [Evans] still didn’t get a building permit [for his church] until ’86.”
ConTextos community advocate Spankey Davis explained that the organization initially provided “literary services for young people who are affected by the civil war that was going on in El Salvador,” adding that the founder decided to expand the organization to Chicago. The organization—which the Library of Congress awarded the International Literacy Award in 2019—helps those directly and indirectly traumatized by violence as well as those who have been incarcerated and arrested. Their primary program is Au-
a result of programs by the Prison + Neighborhood Arts/Education Project, which connects teaching artists and scholars with incarcerated students at Stateville Correctional Center. The space opened in January, and has so far hosted events such as art shows, lectures, and book release parties. Pablo Mendoza, codirector of Walls Turned Sideways, told the tour, “Being at the top is not the dream of this space. The dream of this space is a community—side by side, shoulder to shoulder.”
of this year, artists and community organizations working in partnerships with DCASE and OERJ will identify priorities that strengthen the economic, physical, and social needs and visions of neighborhood or place.
“Projects such as UnBlocked Englewood, Sankofa Story Garden, and South Shore Remembers enable communities to reclaim control over their resources and transform their surroundings to enhance quality of life,” McNeal said in a written statement. “Creative placemaking helps foster connection, comprehension and healing, steering Chicago closer to our shared vision of a fairer and more cohesive city.”
One of the projects the group visited was ConTextos/Sankofa Story Garden: Reflecting, Visioning, Co-Creating, 4301 W. Washington Blvd. The garden—which is unfinished but will be done by its mid-August grand opening—is a collaboration between ConTextos and New Mount Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church’s MAAFA Redemption Project to provide a green space in the West Garfield community.
thors Circle, a writing and learning program that aims to help traumatized people heal. “We engage in topical discussions” that “result in memoirs that we then publish,” said Davis. “As a [result] of being published authors, we maintain working relationships with them.”
Davis added that leaders were selected from the Authors Circle program and tapped to further interact with the community and tell them about the garden. “Sankofa Story Garden is meant to be a space where West Garfield Park can come and tell their stories—to come and have a place of their own and that they helped to create,” he said, adding that the space will hopefully be filled with plants that can survive the city’s harsh winters as well as produce that will be given to area residents. The garden celebrated its grand opening in August.
Walls Turned Sideways, an art and community space at 2717 W. Madison, was another site the group visited. The space came along as
And last, but certainly not least, was the Front Porch Arts Center, a community-focused organization providing arts programming at a variety of locations on the west side since 2019.
In June, Front Porch celebrated the opening of a new physical space dedicated to the arts at 5851 W. Madison in Austin. Founder and artistic director Keli Stewart said that the organization works in tandem with the community, converting spaces for everything from concerts to community gardens. The Madison Street location has already hosted music performances, workshops for children, storytelling hours, and a Juneteenth art show that featured work from eight artists, including 29th ward alderperson Christopher Taliaferro.
“We are so excited to create a spot for local artists to show their talent in their neighborhood,” said Stewart, who grew up a block away from the space. Stewart provided gourmet popcorn to tour participants made by the Black-owned Chicago company Joibilee Popping Company, which sells at the Austin Town Hall Farmers Market. Stewart stressed that “our children need something to do. We need to have outlets and provide opportunities, and art is the main tool for that.”
The organizations stress that everyone has worth, no matter the circumstance. Regarding Chicago’s west side, that goal has resulted in collaborations that focus on the positive aspects of investing in its greatest resource: the people. v
Art on display at Walls Turned Sideways includes an image of Breonna Taylor. ANDREW DAVIS
THE GREATEST PARTY ON EARTH?
In a neighborhood where more than a quarter of the residents live in poverty, the DNC throws a multimillion-dollar party.
By KATIE PROUT
ART BY ANNA WAGNER
I’m a block or two north of Damen and Lake when I start to hear the helicopters. It’s a Monday afternoon in mid-August—the first day of the 2024 Democratic National Convention (DNC). Biking by an endless line of cop cars and police in tan tactical camo vests, I cut through a park and pass four older Black men playing chess. At the entrance to the United Center, a graveyard of abandoned water bottles rests on the ground outside the security checkpoint.
Inside, people in green and navy and gray suits wait in line for burgers while a loud but mu ed instrumental-only version of “Espresso” pumps through the speakers above our heads. I type at a standing table while Reader illustrator Don Cooley waits in line. A tanned white woman in a polka-dot blouse asks if she can join me with her lunch. “This is thirty dollars,” she says to another woman, waving her hand over her burger and fries. “And look at the calories!” They discuss their TV reporting jobs.
On a screen, a banner scrolls announcing,
“The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers powers the DNC.” (Trump is coming to my hometown tomorrow; I wonder if some of my IBEW family members who voted for him in 2020 will be there.)
The women leave, and I feel underdressed. “Excuse me,” I hear behind me. A Black woman with braids, red glasses, and a “volunteer” T-shirt is looking at me with a friendly expression. “Your top came unbuttoned in the back,” she explains. “Do you mind if I fix it? Is it OK for me to touch you?” Gratefully, I surrender to her hands.
To my right, a woman with light brown skin and winged eyeliner walks by pushing a mop.
blocks from the convention center, our driver is stopped by the Secret Service and ordered to pop his hood and trunk. A German shepherd sni s. Don sketches.
Inside McCormick, we walk approximately 4,000 miles and pass through three security checkpoints. Six people give us conflicting directions until we see two people with “Ceasefire Delegate” pins and ask them if they know the way to the panel on Palestinian human rights, the first of its kind at any DNC. We walk together.
“I’m here to represent my community and bring youth issues to the DNC,” says Arshia Papari, a Texas delegate, college sophomore, and ceasefire advocate. Papari sports a baby blue suit and a mustache, his long black hair gathered into a bun beneath a gray cowboy hat. “My primary desire is to move the party towards a ceasefire resolution,” he explains, “and make sure that the current Democratic administration sees that a large majority of their electorate wants a ceasefire and for the U.S. to condemn human rights abuses.” We walk through a door and into a packed, warm room, where we are immediately and understandably hushed: the panel has already begun.
cluding a member of his own family.
Pediatric docs are special people. One of my brothers is disabled; during his last surgery, one of his most frightening, a doctor who has been part of his team since birth made a point to visit him and take a role in his recovery, even though this doctor has terminal cancer. Throughout her testimony, Haj-Hassan, who traveled for 24 hours to be here, speaks from memory, yet her words are clear, measured, and precise. It’s as though she’s reading from a page. Her tone is heavy but neutral. Later, after the crowd dissipates, I will wonder what that recitation cost her.
For the next hour, hundreds of people weep, listen, and ask questions of the panelists. Tanya Haj-Hassan, a pediatric doctor who has treated children in Gaza, tells two stories to the crowd. In the first, a child she treated had part of his face and neck blown o but was able to survive because of the e orts of one of the very few remaining plastic surgeons in Gaza. When he regained consciousness, the child learned that the rest of his family—his parents and all his siblings—had been killed. “Everybody I love is now in heaven,” Haj-Hassan recalls him mumbling. “I don’t want to be here anymore.”
At the end of the panel, Layla Elabed, a national organizer of the Uncommitted movement who at one point during Haj-Hassan’s recollections had to leave the room, says, “If we remain silent, we become complicit. But if we stand up and demand action—an arms embargo, a ceasefire, an end to war—we may have an opportunity to restore the soul of the Democratic Party and unite us under a big tent.” The emotional crowd nods and claps: a few let out shouts. Around me, dozens of delegates—young and old, Arab and Jewish and Black and white, from all over the country—are rustling in their seats. I’m pretty sure I hear an “amen.”
The black-haired young woman who follows her looks barely 18. The workers behind the food counter are all Black women. A bald white cop in all black—Secret Service—orders his lunch. To my eyes, the media, delegates, and volunteers who are bumping around the United Center’s halls like patriotic pinballs are moderately racially diverse, but the convention workers feeding them, greeting them, and answering their questions are nearly universally Brown and Black. I reunite with Don. “How many people are employed as security for the DNC this week?” I wonder aloud.
rity for the DNC this week?” I wonder aloud.
“Well, how many people in this country work in security these days in general?” he asks in response.
Outside, hustlers sling bootleg DNC T-shirts in the parking lot of a Church’s Texas Chicken, where the shuttle for McCormick Place never comes. Instead, we grab a Lyft. A few
In the second story, she describes one of her colleagues, a young nurse who, when trying to evacuate a patient from the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza under Israeli bombardment, was singled out, “not by name, but by uniform: ‘You, the person in scrubs, come here.’” According to Haj-Hassan, the nurse was detained by Israeli forces for 53 days, during which he experienced physical, sexual, and psychological torture. After he was released without any charges, the nurse returned to the hospital where he and Haj-Hassan worked. Unable to sleep because of PTSD-induced insomnia, he continues to care for the dead and dying, in-
I find Papari afterward; his eyes are bright. “That was a very powerful session,” he says. When I ask him what the media gets wrong when interviewing ceasefire supporters, he speaks very carefully. “Everyone here is very passionate about making their communities better and making America better. When, sometimes, media spins it to be an idea which they don’t represent, it’s hurtful to our greater American community.” Like the panelists, Papari emphasizes that it is democratic—in both capital and small d sense of the word—to oppose U.S.-funded genocide.
Back at the United Center, it’s ten to six o’clock. The delegate roll call happened half an hour ago, but hundreds (along with journalists
NEWS & POLITICS
continued from p. 7
and staffers) are still stuck in security. Rose Penelope Yee and Mary Alice Palacios are two of them. The women, decked out in fake lashes, red lips, beads, and rhinestones, have the giddy, conspiratorial energy of best friends, but confess they only just met in line.
Yee is a first-time delegate from California who is running for Congress, and Mary Alice Palacios (“from the great state of Texas”) is attending as a delegate for the fourth time, “because of my kids and my grandkids,” she explains, blinking away tears. “I have granddaughters, and I want them to have their rights. And I want my grandsons to understand we’re not second-rate citizens. If I didn’t do anything, who would I be?”
Yee wears a bracelet that spells “Kamala.” She got it from a Swiftian (as in Taylor) who was passing them out in the line, decked head to toe in blue. A member of the progressive caucus, Yee hopes that Harris will commit to a permanent ceasefire this week. (During her speech Thursday night, Harris will call for a hostage deal and a ceasefire but will not commit to an arms embargo or acknowledge the role the Biden administration’s ongoing support of Israel has played in more than 40,000 Palestinian deaths.) “I hope that she will echo the sentiments of what I’m hearing from other delegates, to stop funding arms. A lot of Americans are feeling that we are complicit in the genocide.” Palacios nods. “I agree with that,
but I also want for our trans kids and LGBTQ citizens that they get protected, and also women’s rights. That’s my number one.”
Later that night, Don and I are sitting in a section, I’m told, full of state and congressional sta ers and Democratic donors. Everyone around us is eating burgers. To my left, a steel-haired white man wears a bejeweled blue kippah that winks “Harris 2024” each time it catches the stadium lights. “We’re gonna build a younger, darker, hipper, fresher, sneaker-wearing labor movement!” shouts Service Employees International Union president April Verrett fiercely from the stage. To my right, a Black man in a blue suit sits at the edge of his seat, cheering on her every word. A masked volunteer, one of the very few people I saw taking visible COVID precautions, hands Don and me blue signs that read “USA” in red letters; when I ask her if I can interview her about her experience as a volunteer, she apologetically says she can’t because she signed an NDA.
The curved bowl of the stadium below us is a froth of bodies, bustle, and lights. Delegates continue to pour in from the swollen security line, finding their seat within sections delineated by tall, narrow signs: Washington’s delegation appears, inexplicably, to be full of people in lightup cowboy hats, but then I notice the sign for Alabama right next to it and am no longer sure I know who’s who. There’s a spot for the U.S. Virgin Islands. Someone unfurls the Colorado state flag. Everyone is roaring. For a moment, looking down at the melee and dazed by the permeable boundaries of each state, I freak myself out by imagining I’m watching a technicolor battle of the Civil War. On stage, country singer Mickey Guyton comes out in a white dress and begins to let her beautiful voice soar. Behind her floats massive screen saver propaganda: pictures of a high school football team, church pews, a small-town main street, and then, at the song’s crescendo, a frighteningly happy white woman frozen mid-stride, running across a field in shorts and cowboy boots, waving an American flag.
When Hillary Clinton starts to speak, I’m huddled by a trash can because, after I left to try and interview volunteers (nearly all
T“When Obama won as president, I was in the penitentiary in Louisiana. Today? For Kamala? I’m in the building.”
of whom say they were made to sign an NDA during their volunteer training and instructed not to talk to the press), our seats are taken. A Black man walks by in a “DNC Convention 2024” shirt rattling a cup. A white woman in a pink blazer balances a glass of pale wine on her phone. When I leave, the sun is gone, but the helicopters are still up in the sky.
uesday morning at DemPalooza, one of the free and public events run by the DNC this week, feels a little bit like being inside a Home Depot and a little bit like a school summer fair. I meet up with Reader illustrator Anna Wagner outside of McCormick Place. We give our backpacks to TSA agents for screening and enter. On the second floor, dozens of vendors are set up in one of McCormick’s gigantic, high-ceilinged ballrooms. On one stage, a mariachi band expertly performs to a mostly empty set of chairs: o to the side, a brown-skinned man with dark eyes leans his mop against a rolling bucket to film them, smiling a little as he does so. Across the room on another stage, a drag queen works to draw a crowd. In the room’s center are more than a hundred booths. There are dozens of local vendors selling candles, dolls, skincare products, and scarves. There are booths for Democratic Catholics, Jews, and evangelicals, and for learning how to podcast, run for office, and “tell your digital story.” There’s even a booth about the history of presidential footwear. The Human Rights Campaign is selling some truly ugly canvas bags that read, “Totes Bi,” or “Totes Lez.” You can buy a children’s book series called Adventures with Abuela, set in Chicago. Over at Act Blue, I get a free ice cream sandwich. Coconut tree decor abounds.
At a booth towards the back, I meet Dolfinette Martin, a Black woman with glasses and closely cropped hair who travels the country advocating for criminal justice reform on behalf of Operation Restoration (OR). OR is a New Orleans nonprofit that o ers support services for girls and women impacted by incar-
ceration. “Any woman or girl that touches a prison, detention center, anything that keeps us in cages, is directly rooted in trauma” she explains. Martin has been reckoning with Vice President Kamala Harris’s past as a prosecutor with her own past experience with the carceral system. “When I see Kamala, her path could have been mine and my path could have been hers.” The difference in their fates, Martin says, involves experiences with trauma and access to resources. But as two Black women, they both were subjected to the same systems of racism and sexism that gird the U.S.
In a way, as Harris’s star has risen, so has Martin’s. “When Obama won as president, I was in the penitentiary in Louisiana,” Martin says. She smiles broadly. “Today? For Kamala? I’m in the building.”
At one table towards the center of the room, state senator Celina Villanueva and state representative Barbara Hernandez carefully sort through colorful beads. “Yesterday was a long day, so we needed a little bit of a break,” Villanueva explains. “We’re here making friendship bracelets.” Her beads are gold and spell out “Dem love”; Hernandez originally tried to spell “Madame President,” but was concerned about running out of letters.
Both o cials are eager to see their constit-
uents out and about—one of Villanueva’s is a DemPalooza vendor—but they’re also pushing the Democratic party to listen to people, not polling numbers. Democratic politicians “can’t be so far removed from the reality of life,” says Hernandez. She knows there are protests for Gaza planned every day this week. “It’s all part of the democratic process,” she says. Protests and dissent are “what helps to make us a better country, but also to build a better party, by actually listening to what’s happening in the world and what’s happening to people.” As Hernandez sees it, there’s a reason people are protesting the DNC—and not the RNC—to embrace a ceasefire and stop funding Israel’s war in Palestine: “We know this group is more willing to listen to the concerns that people have.”
“I come from an immigrant [background] and I represent a heavily immigrant community. Is the administration where I think it needs to be at, in terms of immigrant rights? No. But that’s part of the job: to push [the] administration, to push the campaign more on doing more work on immigrant rights. Moving beyond just DACA. Like, we need more action. We need viable pathways to citizenship for people! That’s part of the democratic process, you know? It is about speaking up and speaking out. It is about protecting rights, but it’s also about engaging in conversations, even if they make us very uncomfortable.”
protest for Palestine, where I speak
my bike, I pass by the Israeli consulate where the protest began. Rabbi Weiss and the rest of the group are still there, holding their signs.
Emy bike, I pass by the Israeli consulate where
rerouted a lot of tra c,” JR tells me. “I’m disabled. So is my friend and his wife. It rerouted buses where people need them and is blocking all tra c where we can’t walk.”
arly Wednesday afternoon, a thin Black man in a Sox cap and a T-shirt that reads “South Carolina” in curly script stands in the doorway of the Royalton Hotel, squinting at the cracked screen of his phone. The Royalton is a cream-bricked, century-old, four-story single-room occupancy hotel a hundred yards east of the DNC’s Jackson Street entrance. As I step into the doorway to introduce myself, Jarrell, 56, shows me what he’s been gazing at. It’s a picture of a large dead rat on a bed, one of the many pictures he’s taken during the four years he’s lived at the Royalton, where, he says, rats outnumber residents.
genocide funded, in part, by the political party now throwing themselves a multimillion-dollar celebration in a zip code where more than a quarter of the residents live in poverty. Last month, Jarrell used Narcan to revive a man he found overdosing where we now stand. “I had a brother pass away,” he tells me. “I wish I could’ve been there to save my brother.”
genocide funded, in part, by
He has a deep, rich voice. When he says something he really wants me to understand, he holds my gaze until I look away. He’s lived in the park for about two weeks. At night, he sleeps between two pieces of plywood perpendicular to the chain fence that surrounds the school, where kind employees let him charge his phone. The plywood blocks the wind, but it’s open to the sky: his bed is some leaves and a rug one-third the size of his body. “I have a blanket, but it’s not big enough. I have a nice little space, but I don’t have a tarp,” he says. “With God’s grace and mercy, I got a stable mind.” Other people in his situation, he says
Once, I met a man in a tent on Lower Wacker who told me that, after Mayor Richard J. Daley ordered cops to “shoot to kill” Chicagoans when the west side rose up in response to the 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., his mother lost all faith in democracy and never voted again. I ask Jarrell now what he thinks about the DNC and the upcoming election. “I want a president that’s going to be right and fight for the people and help people, because you got a whole lot of people out here that’s homeless.” Jarrell doesn’t see that from Harris or from Trump. “I’m gonna keep it real: I’m not voting for neither one of them.”
That night, I head downtown for a protest for Palestine, where I speak at length with Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss, a gray-haired, crinkle-eyed man wearing a dark-brimmed hat, blue tallit, and a sticker that reads, “A Jew not a Zionist.” Rabbi Weiss is part of an ultra-Orthodox group called Jews United Against Zionism. He and several others traveled from New York to protest the DNC. “This is not a religious conflict,” he tells me. “The ones who oppose what is happening in Gaza are not anti-Semitic. It’s simply an excuse, a tool to continue an ungodly crime that we’re witnessing daily for, well, the last ten months, but really for 76 years of oppression of Palestinian people, of an innocent people.” Being here in person, Weiss says, is an expression of his deep and abiding Jewish faith.
wearing a dark-brimmed hat, blue tallit,
“I’ve been trying so hard to get somebody to listen,” Jarrell says. “People can’t really sleep because the walls smell o and got dead rats in them. The landlord, she don’t want to do nothing for none of that. We’ve been calling the inspector. And somehow, some way, this lady passes.” (After interviewing Jarrell, I tried to contact Royalton managers for comment, but both the publicly listed numbers I found were disconnected.) Before the Royalton, Jarrell was homeless. “That ain’t no fun,” he says dryly, “but this is like a bando [an abandoned building]. It’s a whole lot of people scared that they gonna be homeless. They don’t want to talk against the landlord, but I don’t care.”
A year and a half ago, Jarrell says a resident died of a heart attack, but by the time his body was removed, rats were “eating in his head, literally eating in his head.” His face is strained as he speaks. “If you go upstairs at nighttime, when the lights go o , you hear them. They running through the hallway. They rumbling in the wall. And then you smell them.”
Around 10 PM, most of the crowd has dispersed or been arrested. On my walk back to
The Royalton is on the same street and side of the block as the United Center. As political sta ers in suits and delegates in sparkling hats eye us on their way to the United Center, an ever-swelling flow of cops heads east to Union Park, where people are protesting against a
Tired of pants suits and a bit depressed, I leave Jarrell and the stadium, the food trucks and face paint and secret agents, and bike north on Hoyne, passing a cluster of people waving Israeli flags. (In a few hours, Uncommitted delegates will begin a 24-hour protest outside the stadium, pushing for a Palestinian American to be permitted to speak on stage, a request that’s been made for months. The Democratic party will refuse to budge.) I cut through a park, where I meet JR, a 58-yearold Black man sitting at a table with his cane against his leg, reading out a city homeless services number so a friend can type it into their phone. We wish each other a good afternoon. JR, who was born and raised on Chicago’s south side, tells me he’s been homeless since January. He wears a do-rag and a T-shirt that reads, “Mindset: Protect the Vibes.”
Above us, helicopters roar. North of us, an exasperated TV reporter stands in front of a camera, waiting for a car alarm to stop before she continues her segment.
“This Democratic National Convention, it
frankly, might hurt themselves. Every day this week, thanks to the security perimeter, DNC attendees have cut through this park. Every day, when people see JR and his friends, they leave the sidewalk that winds near their tents, cut through the grass, and walk to the other side of the street—“like we contagious,” JR says.
“That’s why I’m thinking not to vote,” JR says now, looking levelly into my eyes. “All this money, people. All this money! You say you ‘deficit this, deficit that.’ But you got the nerve to be building stu over here for a convention?” He shakes his head slowly in disbelief—or disgust. Above us, helicopters drone. I wonder who they’re watching now. I wonder how much it costs. “Millions of dollars,” he repeats to himself. “Millions of dollars. Millions, millions, millions, millions of dollars. Millions of dollars that you are giving these people to build stuff for a convention for four days to just speak out lies to people! Come on. Come on.” v
m kprout@chicagoreader.com
ART FROM THE DNC
Two illustrators spend five days at the convention sketching from life.
Art BY DON COLLEY AND ANNA WAGNER
ANNA WAGNER FOR CHICAGO READER
ANNA WAGNER FOR CHICAGO READER
ANNA WAGNER FOR CHICAGO READER
Kamala Harris (top) and Michelle Obama (bottom) speak ANNA WAGNER FOR CHICAGO READER
From top: A TV crew at work; people take their seats DON COLLEY FOR CHICAGO READER
From le : A drag queen at McCormick Place; the Central Park Five speak during the DNC. ANNA WAGNER FOR CHICAGO READER
By J. Evelyn
It makes a bit more sense here
The world is still a bewildering forest
Unresting in its pursuit to pursue
but I found where I fit in the race still and ready and even unprepared
That is peace too, right?
When all the ways in which things could play out don’t
When knowing that control is construct
When you (I) have a choice in the matter
I can release
Surrender
Allow time to tell me
This one time on a camping trip
I cried in the middle of a torrential rain
Big feelings
An ached adult baby i wept
A mending heart
The rain guided me through this part
She orchestrated the Sopranic cicadas
Reached into my throat and said “Here.
Crack open your tear-flooded ribs and sing with me.
I’ll teach you the notes
You know the lyrics”
That is the peace here, 37 Radical acceptance
You know some things
But nature taught you everything
When you (I) find the tightrope
Between faith and fear and dive heart first with both feelings
Strapped to you like a sturdy parachute
Free fall cuz what’s the alternative?
oh yeah that part
This is 37
Embracing all that can or none that won’t
Accepting that you (and I)
Participate
With deeper intention
This is the “know betta” part
That peace
Got it Good talk.
J.Evelyn is a multi-disciplinary artist in Chicago. A plant whisperer, a dog lover, and a native of Louisville, KY.
Poem curated by Kiayla. Kiayla, a womanist poet, somatic yoga instructor, and performance artist from Chicago’s south suburbs is conducting “liberation experiments”. She explores how embracing one’s authentic self propels collective freedom. Currently finalizing her first poetry collection, Kiayla is also the co-curator of Poet’s Tea and Pleasure, a popup evening of poetry celebrating the liberating power of pleasure. kiaylaryann.com
A weekly series curated by the Chicago Reader and sponsored by the Poetry Foundation.
Summer Hours
Wednesday–Saturday: 11:00 AM–5:00 PM
A Bigger Table: 50 Years of the Chicago Poetry Center
Celebrating CPC’s five historic decades, this exhibition will feature 50 broadsides, 50 iconic vintage poetry event posters, archival materials and ephemera, and the premiere of a documentary film.
Open through September 14, 2024
NEWS & POLITICS
2024 DNC Protesters turn out for Palestine
Photos
from actions during the DNC
ESSAY
BY
PHOTOS
SHAWN MULCAHY
BY
JOSH DRUDING AND ORIANA KOREN
“Free, free Palestine!” “DNC, you can’t hide. You’re supporting genocide!”
“Ceasefire now!” The chants pingpong around my head in an endless loop, a subconscious radio I can’t turn o , long after the protests end.
For five days, beginning on August 19, the eve of the 2024 Democratic National Convention (DNC), these chants echoed throughout the Near West Side, bellowed by thousands who occupied Chicago’s streets. Their demands were clear: an arms embargo with Israel and a ceasefire ending its genocide in Gaza.
Protesters disrupted the convention in ways large and small. Monday’s march from Union Park drew an estimated 10,000 people, the more militant among them successfully transgressing the DNC’s security perimeter. A midnight noise demonstration outside delegates’ swanky Magnificent Mile hotels on Wednesday drew barely 100, but the cacophony of air horns and clanging pots provoked a police response two times as large.
All week, the Chicago Police Department (CPD) responded in force, arriving by the busload, clad with wooden batons and riot helmets. Police sometimes outnumbered protesters by four or five to one. They su ocated marches, constricting demonstrators to tightly controlled, preapproved routes. Their instructions were at times confusing or contradictory.
Mayor Brandon Johnson, speaking after the convention wrapped, praised the DNC—and the CPD’s response to it—as a resounding success. The morning after police violently massarrested 59 people, Superintendent Larry Snelling suggested cops could’ve used more force.
Top: Protesters with the March on the DNC on Monday, August 19. Bottom: Terry Smith leads chants during the march. ORIANA KOREN
The National Lawyers Guild Chicago paints a di erent picture. They say multiple people required medical care after being taken into custody by the CPD. At least four of my colleagues in the media were among 76 arrested that week. Police reportedly denied protesters timely access to lawyers or private attorney–client phone calls. I’ll concede to Johnson at least one resounding success: the ability of the state to stifle political dissent. v
m smulcahy@chicagoreader.com
Billy K. (top) from Chicago and fi lmmaker Ava DuVernay (bottom) during the March on the DNC on August 19
Protesters in Union Park during the second March on DNC on Thursday, August 22
FOOD & DRINK
MIGOS FINE FOODS
Tue-Sun noon-9 PM, closed Mon 5044 W. Montrose, 872-946 -7015, migoschicago.com.
Migos Fine Foods is the halal southern-fried taqueria you didn’t know you were hungry for
Frontier chefs Brian Jupiter and Azazi Morsi meet their neighbors’ needs in Portage Park.
By MIKE SULA
Which would win in a fight: a lamb or a pig? It’s obvious to Azazi Morsi.
“If you bring a real lamb, you know, a 150-pounder? You fuck the pig up. Me and Jup would always go back and forth with each other, because he loves to eat pork, and I love to eat lamb.”
That’s the sort of ruminative debate that arises among chefs when they spend more than a decade cooking in the same kitchen together—particularly when it’s the kitchen at Noble Square’s Frontier, where whole smoked
lambs and pigs make regular, dramatic appearances in the dining room, whether presented by executive chef Brian Jupiter (aka Jup)—or chef de cuisine Morsi.
Morsi has no trouble cooking pork, but as a Muslim he doesn’t eat it—and he’d prefer to stay out of the inevitable smartphone photos that document the usual pig parades at Frontier. The argument never arises at Migos Fine Foods, Jupiter and Morsi’s four-month-old, Portage Park counter-service spot, where the focus is on halal fried chicken and tacos, but
the jaw-dropping showstoppers are made from lamb.
Jupiter also helms Wicker Park’s Ina Mae Tavern and his New Orleans roots are well-established by now; Algerian-born Morsi—who started parking cars at Frontier during culinary school and worked his way up—is less recognized. But Migos (kitchen shorthand for “amigos”) is deeply imprinted by the experience of both chefs, as well as the particular needs of its neighborhood.
Jupiter lives in neighboring Albany Park,
while Morsi, who arrived in Chicago at the age of nine, grew up and still lives in Portage Park, among the first wave of Algerians that settled there in the 90s.
Though change is in the air, nobody thinks of the neighborhood as a culinary destination. The menu at Migos addresses that with a something-for-everyone variety that simultaneously beckons guests from the cluster of surrounding mosques and community services, where visitors might need to vanquish their hunger according to Islamic dietary law.
“It’s very hard to find restaurants that are halal, that are just doing a really good combination of food,” says Morsi, who, along with his mother, began preparing North African–inspired Ramadan meal kits for the community during the pandemic.
“There’s not a lot of variety in that sector,” agrees Jupiter.
Addressing that head-on, Migos offers tacos, tortas, empanadas, and elotes, along with chicken and biscuits, beignets, and a handful of other sweets that echo Ina Mae.
Migos Fine Foods SANDY
Find more one-of-a-kind Chicago food and drink content at chicagoreader.com/food.
The fried chicken—tenders and chubby wings only—isn’t exactly what the Ina Mae analogue is; it’s brined with hot sauce rather than buttermilk, but still inspires a sense of powerlessness, served on a bed of crinkle cut fries, a lá Harold’s, with a small tub of charred jalapeño ranch. The accompanying drop biscuit however—with a side of chipotle honey butter—is all Ina Mae: pitch-perfect flu y clouds, drifted up from the deep south.*
There’s also a Nashville hot–style chicken thigh torta, dredged through a sticky maple-ancho-cayenne “sweet heat” sauce that performs cameos across the menu. It’s a monstrous sandwich on a toasted telera roll (from Albany Park’s Markello’s Baking Company), layered with
aioli, chihuahua cheese, avocado, lettuce, tomato, and, not red, but white great northern beans, via the Jupiter way, with the Creole/Cajun trinity.
Tacos are amply swaddled in pairs, the sweet heat sauce dressing chicken thigh al pastor; beef shoulder barbacoa with a thick, smoky salsa roja; a relatively subtle jerk cauliflower; and finally, lamb barbacoa with a thick, creamily emulsified salsa verde.
That isn’t the highest expression of lamb at Migos. Neither is the formidable, lacey-edged lamb smashburger, formed from leg and shoulder meat, and topped with onion jam and harissa-spiked tzatziki—though that one comes close.
While it doesn’t promise the medieval visual impact of a whole-barbecued beast, Migos’s lamb carnitas dinner is a dome-slapping departure from the original; braised shoulder lacquered with the maple glaze again, then fried to a just-crispy exterior that collapses onto an interior as lush and fatty as any Boston butt. It’s a figurative feast served with rice and beans, salsa, and tortillas,
FOOD & DRINK
Migos is deeply imprinted by the experience of both chefs, as well as the particular needs of its neighborhood.
and chopped salad—essential to taming the decadent richness—all paraded out in an unassuming clear plastic clamshell.
Jupiter sneaks disguised beignets onto the menu; “doughnuts,” stretched lengthwise like Chinese youtiao breakfast crullers: glazed, rolled in cinnamon sugar, or drizzled in chocolate. His wife, Renata Jupiter (d/b/a Adry’s Pastries), checks in with an array of sweets that can, and often do, include Chef Jup’s grandma’s 7 flavor pound cake, or the similarly southern banana-pineapple Hummingbird spice cake.
Albany Park has more than its fair share of good Middle Eastern eateries, but Antepli Mediterranean Grill, nestled in a strip mall between a halal market and a cell phone store, is the only one that I go to for a rare, sweet delicacy that I spent months looking for across the city. That delicacy is their kunefe: a gooey, melty cheese dish topped with pastry and soaked in sugar syrup.
Morsi eventually wants to open an Algerian fine dining restaurant, but in the meantime, he and Jupiter are plotting a series of Migos satellites around town—the next coming soon to Bronzeville.
I don’t have a lamb in this fight, but I’m betting this halal-Mexican-southern mashup can work in whatever neighborhood it lands in. v
*You can take home frozen biscuit dough to bake in the comfort of your own home.
mmsula@chicagoreader.com
Like many foods across the Mediterranean and Levant, kunefe is spelled, pronounced, and assembled in different ways. In Lebanon, where my dad is from, “knafeh” is tucked in a sesame-covered bread pocket. At Antepli, their Turkish kunefe is served piping hot on a platter with a crispy, spun pastry topping and the option for a decadent pistachio dusting. The base is always the same, though—a brined,
stretchy cheese served hot under carbs, dripping with light and sweet syrup. Although kunefe is often eaten as dessert, for first-timers I recommend splitting it for a late breakfast (sans pistachio), like I’d do with my pops. The combination of the melted cheese, warm pastry, and saccharine syrup is filling and energizing, but keeping it fresh all day is a tough task— good kunefe is often sold out by a certain time, so the fact that Antepli can whip it out at all hours is impressive. Plan for some time to digest and get the check from the very unhurried waiters.
I’d basically never try to indulge if I had somewhere to be, because kunefe demands that old-world style: to sit, enjoy, maybe order a tea, and never leave in a rush.
—ANDY VASOYAN ANTEPLI MEDITERRANEAN GRILL, 4849 N. KEDZIE, 773-942-6300, ANTEPLICHICAGO.COM v
Reader Bites celebrates dishes, drinks, and atmospheres from the Chicagoland food scene. Have you had a recent food or drink experience that you can’t stop thinking about? Share it with us at fooddrink@ chicagoreader.com.
Turkish Kunefe at Antepli
Chef Brian Jupiter SANDY NOTO FOR CHICAGO READER
Lamb carnitas SANDY NOTO FOR CHICAGO READER
ARTS & CULTURE
A chaekgeori of one’s own
In her work, artist Katie Chung honors the ordinary.
By AMANDA DEE
While Katie Chung draws a clear line between her public and personal art practices, inside her home the boundary between her life and her work is faint, if visible at all. Quilts she’s sewn from laundry tags gathered at her mother’s dry cleaning and alterations shop hang in her dining room. Against a wall rests an industrial desk, also inherited from her mother’s Lakeview shop. We’re seated on vinyl chairs around a retro diner–style table that’s bright yellow—one of the colors in her mural palette, inspired by the traditional Korean color scheme, obangsaek. Opened on the table is a carefully handmade clamshell box, typically used to store archival books and objects, which holds a rusted pair of scissors and a faded photo of her grandparents. They stand next to a monument dedicated to her grandfather, who built schools as “the uno cial mayor” of his village. Mounted at the entryway to the dining room is another photo, this one from the mid-1980s, before her
parents left Korea. In it, two people stare out at the rolling countryside.
“That Korea doesn’t exist anymore,” she says. Chung, like many second-generation Americans, is acutely aware of the gap between her fantasy of her parents’ memory of their homeland and the place it is today.
“I identify as a Korean American artist, and I feel like [my] work explores that split of being Korean and American, so obviously my practice would be two completely different things,” Chung says. “It’s kind of how I’ve existed my entire life.”
A lifelong Chicagoan, Chung studied graphic design and printmaking at the School of the Art Institute, graduating with a BFA in 2014. The rest of her processes were learned outside of art school, through jobs, YouTube, and relationships with other makers. Before art school, she was introduced to bookmaking by Regin Igloria, founder of the book arts organization North Branch Projects, which o ers free community
workshops. She then leveled up her bookbinding skills by working with, in her words, “book wizard” Hannah Batsel during their time together at Candor Arts, the publisher and book bookbindery that ran from 2016-2021. Now she visits her mother at work once a week to learn how to sew and alter clothes.
Chung’s mother learned how to sew by pulling apart clothes and putting them back together; her mother also learned from her sister, Chung’s aunt. This makes me think of another line, the increasingly blurred division between “art” and “craft.” Certain materials and processes are associated with craft, but to me, what appears to be essential to craftwork today is the way it’s learned: through apprenticeship or from a loved one, not only making by hand but being led by hand.
Chung’s mother also instilled in her the value of “doing what you could with what you had.” Her upbringing, along with a teaching residency in Haiti where Chung was exposed to the country’s waste management crisis, both impacted her approach to materials. Leftover book board from another artist’s project or scraps from a warehouse she’s working in all become material for her own work.
“What also inspires me is my art handling experiences and then internships at museum vaults and visiting a conservatory—you know, scientists chipping away the dust on a book from the 17th century. I just realized all these people are studying really ordinary objects,” she says. “Every now and then it’s like, OK, this is a medieval saber, but it’s almost always like, this is a plate that was used every day.”
This fascination with ordinary history attracts Chung to folk art, in particular chaekgeori, a form of still life popular in Korea starting in the 18th century. Nearly to scale, these painted bookshelves documented symbols of a subject’s education, as well as other status symbols. As chaekgeori became more accessible to Koreans in lower classes, these still lifes began to depict what people didn’t have by showing what they longed for.
In her more personal textile and bookmaking practice, Chung seems to make the objects missing from her imagined chaekgeori. “If we had heirlooms in the family and archival objects, what would they look like?” she asks herself. Her Artifact series (2019-2021) begins to fill those shelves.
One such artifact is her Korean name, 정지 은, repeated across a notecard. Like the books in chaekgeori, the card represents the value of learning about her culture; in her case, a repli-
KATIE CHUNG katiechung.com instagram.com/katiechungart
ca of her Korean school notebook on which she practiced the most essential symbols of her Korean identity.
This fall, Chung will pay homage to her heritage by traveling to Korea for the first time, accompanied by a professional maker of pojagi, a traditional Korean style of patchwork used to wrap and hold objects, sometimes gifts. After researching the form on her own, she realized she had grown up with it on some of her blankets. “It’s something my mom was already doing that I can now look back and I can see,” she says.
To build her artifacts, Chung had to build relationships with her family, talking about parts of their lives they had never shared before. For that reason, she’s protective of her new heirlooms. There’s a pressure faced by people from marginalized identities to share their personal stories widely, with anyone who asks, especially when they involve difficult histories or trauma. Chung isn’t interested in sharing or selling her personal history with just anyone. “I want these to be objects of pride,” she says. “I don’t want feedback about [my personal] art unless it comes from a community I decide to be a part of.” It’s a kind of power move in an arts economy that increasingly demands artists market more of themselves to sell their work.
Meanwhile, since 2020, her murals for commercial clients such as Lush, Adobe, and Facebook have provided a source of income that a ords her more control over her audiences. The public audience of her murals challenges her to look outward, as a stranger. “I love looking at my art through that lens of: How is someone that has nothing to do with art going to feel when they see this?”
The murals also bring out Chung’s whimsy. In one, cartoon-style alligators and daisies smile at passersby. In a video on the artist’s Instagram, Chung dances on roller skates across her hand-painted tiles at 360 Chicago, the observation deck at 875 North Michigan Avenue (formerly the John Hancock Center) where her mural Locals Only is installed. (It should also be said that on the shelves of the artist’s chaekgeori would be a pair of skates.)
When asked how the heightened visibility of her murals has a ected both her practices, Chung says it’s changed the question she’s been asking herself through her art. Before the question was: “Who am I?” Now it’s: “How do I relate to the rest of the world?” v m
From Katie Chung’s Dry Cleaning Tag Quilted series COURTESY THE ARTIST
CRAFT WORK
R“ARTHUR JAFA: WORKS FROM THE MCA COLLECTION”
Through 3/2/25 : Tue 10 AM–9 PM, Wed–Sun 10 AM– 5 PM, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, 220 E. Chicago, visit.mcachicago.org/exhibitions/arthur-jafa-mca-collection, suggested admission $19 Chicago residents, $10 Chicago students, teachers, 65 +, $22 non-Chicago residents, $14 non-Chicago students, teachers, 65 +, free on Tuesdays for Illinois residents
REVIEW
The medium is the message, the message is power
This Arthur Jafa survey feels right on time.
By NICKY NI
Arthur Jafa’s overdue solo exhibition comes at the right time, when a good portion of the population seems to need some crash courses on history and media literacy. Jafa is not offering either, but he is presenting a timeless perspective that, if too cruel to take in, is nonetheless intense enough to provoke.
A black-and-white dichotomy dominates the show, aesthetically and metaphorically, and the first gallery, where most wall-based and sculptural works are located, exemplifies this slick polarization. A freestanding cutout image of a black-and-white Incredible Hulk, titled LeRage (2017), welcomes the viewer. Upon closer look, it’s not quite that green alter ego of a white man; described as a provocative self-portrait of the artist, he has been redrawn with a much darker skin tone and has grown a full beard not unlike the artist’s own signature facial hair. The show also ends with a photographic self-portrait that dials the time back almost three decades. Monster (1988), a gelatin silver print “selfie,” crystallizes a solemn, almost deadly stare that gives more rage than LeRage. Humans are not unlike moths in the way that we are attracted to light. The eight-minute video Apex (2013)—the earliest time-based work on view—is shown on a large LED screen that flickers with great luminosity. You see Apex first and you see other static works through and with it. Light floods the reflective surface of Mickey Mouse was a Scorpio (2017), a chromogenic print on aluminum, and accentuates the topography of the hilly surface of ExSlave Gordon (2017), a vacuum-formed plastic sculpture made after an 1863 photograph of a formerly enslaved man that reveals his scarred back—the scars are made sculptural, forming a geography of the history of violence. Apex is a product of Jafa’s collage-making
simply: a depiction of Mickey Mouse is cut to a Black man in “whiteface”, which, helpful as a visual guide to Apex ’s logic, is reproduced as a diptych in Mickey Mouse was a Scorpio , insinuating that Mickey could be perceived as an empowering Black character subverting blackface. Images of Black tragedy, gore, violence, sci-fi , cartoons, musicians, cultural icons, masks, women—across their original media of production and file sizes—are culled with their technological imprints. The quick turnaround of oversaturated visual informa-
through the medium of moving images. From 1990 to 2007, the artist collected images from a wide range of publications and combined them in three-ring binders. This method of collaging later took on a more specific route, a deep plunge into the study of Black culture, leading to the production of hundreds of notebooks that discursively encapsulate Black aesthetics and memories and serve as a reference for his moving-image works (some of the notebook spreads can be seen in the catalogs and monographs on display by the exit). But instead of simultaneous juxtapositions, like what a collaged image can o er, Apex is strictly sequential. Images flash from one to another over the charging beats and suspending beeps of Robert Hood’s seminal minimal techno track “Minus.” At approximately 100 images per minute (841 images over roughly eight minutes), iconography is a funny game. Each image is displayed for long enough to be recognized but briefl y enough to evade full cognitive comprehension. Very
tion capitalizes on shocking first impressions and curious (or to use the artist’s own words, “spooky”) aesthetic associations that cannot be fully grasped at the moment. Adrenaline spikes before patterns emerge; fractured meanings undulate in latency.
If Apex is too fast to follow, akingdoncomethas (2018), a video compilation of sermons, gospel performances, and documentation of Black church services and congregations sourced from the Internet, scales up and slows down. Taking up a wall over 30 feet wide, the projection further blows up the already pixelated images of the feature-length video. Ecstatic faces melt into one brushstroke, entranced bodies swirl in a faded color palette. This is not a glossy 8K spectacle; it’s a more self-aware kind of spectacular presence. Varying resolutions are impossible to ignore, announcing themselves as a defining quality in this work and other videos. In an interview, assistant curator Jack Schneider explains that Jafa’s team specified that this work should be accom-
ARTS & CULTURE
panied by cheap black metal folding chairs that one would find in a church basement. The low image resolution, coupled with the museum’s sterile setup, hints at a church environment without entirely committing to it (perhaps like Jafa himself, who has admitted that he’s no longer religious but that he “[believes] in Black people believing”). Its monumentality reconstructs belief itself—and radical imagination—as a Black religion, a cultural, racial, and aesthetic phenomenon generating uncontrollable power and possibilities. By shifting trust from what the images represent to what they as an integral and functional part of an audiovisual package can a ord experientially, Jafa frames the media representation of Blackness as his subject without falling into the trap of representation. His magic lies in the work’s ability to juxtapose contradictions without reconciling them: euphoria and pain, truth and lies, love and death, closeness and alienation, violence and silence.
In June 2020, one month after the brutal murder of George Floyd, 13 museums and private collections in seven countries joined the sweeping protests and streamed Jafa’s Love is the Message, the Message is Death (2016) online for a full 48 hours (the MCA did not participate but had featured the work the year prior in a group show). It was, according to the organizers, the first time that this work was displayed in such a way: reinstating the images that the artist has amassed from the Internet—YouTube videos, Getty images with watermarks, and clips from social media—back to their “native habitat.” Barely eight minutes long and installed anachronistically after a later but quieter piece, The White Album (2018), Love is the Message is the crescendo of the show, with harrowing clips that you cannot unsee and the sensational melody of Kanye West’s “Ultralight Beam” that will twist in your head long after you leave the museum. “America is a society par excellence of denial,” the artist remarks in the introductory video of the exhibition. “A lot of Black artists do uplift,” he says, “but I don’t really do uplift. I am an undertaker.”
Perhaps it’s his brutal honesty and acceptance of Blackness—the gorgeous and the terrible—that stimulates his audience the most. “Thank you for all of it,” a public school teacher wrote in the show’s reflection booklet, “the rage, the beauty, the cognitive dissonance. . . . I thank you . . . for the perfectly stated paradox and hegemony.” v
m letters@chicagoreader.com
Arthur Jafa, Apex (still), 2013 © ARTHUR JAFA, COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND GLADSTONE GALLERY
THEATER
PREVIEW
Royal resurrection
Alex
Grelle dives into Princess Diana’s mystique in his latest show.
By MICCO CAPORALE
Alex Grelle has become a local icon because of his fascination with icons. Since coming to Chicago in 2009, the multidisciplinary performer has distinguished himself in the local theater scene for elevating the objects of his fascination and nostalgia, whether they’re Lady Gaga, the movie Stepmom, or the show Nashville. In his latest work, he uses a sparse cast and over an hour’s worth of pop music to pay tribute to one of the most enduring icons of the 80s and 90s: Princess Diana.
Timed to coincide with the anniversary of her death on August 31, 1997, this show is a four-day reprisal of a two-day version that was held at the Empty Bottle last summer. It features a fresh band and three new numbers as well as a wealth of Diana’s most defining fashions, rendered with the tenderly comedic camp flair unique to Grelle productions. But this musical is not all giggles. In his way, the artist attempts to grapple with the tragedy of a privileged, generous woman who was emotionally neglected and died under mysterious circumstances. He grew up in Missouri watching his mother—a woman Grelle speaks of with reverence and devotion—idolizing Diana and expressing that through her clothes. Together they feverishly consumed news of the princess, and in that sense, the show is as much a tribute to Grelle’s mother, his first icon, as it is to Diana.
Micco Caporale: What’s your earliest memory of Lady Di?
Alex Grelle: She was in my life on a daily basis. My mother dressed and styled herself like her, and she was just constantly on the television.
What do you think your mom found so compelling about her?
I think a lot of what everyone else did: her fashion, her views, her humanitarianism. For this show, I did a lot of research. Being a gay man and figuring out how huge of an impact it was when Diana touched that man who was
dying of HIV during the AIDS pandemic—I never knew that story. I can’t believe how impactful that was at that time. So the show is sprinkled with stu like that. [In 1987, Diana opened the UK’s first hospital unit to care specifically for patients with HIV/AIDs, and reporters documented her shaking a patient’s hand without a glove at a time when most people still believed the virus could be spread through touch.]
I went home for the Fourth, and we were viewing home videos. And there was one with my mom in her own revenge dress. [On the night Prince Charles confessed his infidelity on national television, Diana was photographed at a gala wearing a formfitting short black dress with drop shoulders, which has become known as “the revenge dress.”]
Wait, your mom had a revenge dress. Was she taking revenge on somebody?
No, my mom just wanted to emulate Diana because she was obsessed like everyone else. She had her hair like hers and everything. She wore the same dress in the Christmas family photo that year.
What was your dad’s reaction to the photo?
He was the one taking it. So it’s me, my sister, and my mom.
Wow, Merry Christmas from the kids and your hot mom.
I was probably 11 or 12, so I didn’t have the dish. But I really don’t think she was taking revenge on anyone. She just loved looking like Diana. My parents are still together in the Ozarks of Missouri.
Why do you think Diana is such an enduring icon to folks like your mom, who are in the midwest and married, and who don’t lead such public lives where they have to speak through pictures?
LADY DI
8/29-9/1: Thu and Sat-Sun 9 PM, Fri 10 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, emptybottle.com, $25 advance, $ 30 door, 21+
I don’t really know how to answer that. I think my mom just lived in the midwest, and Diana was so glamorous to her. I was raised on, like, Entertainment Tonight and fame and celebrity. I love Diana’s dedication to humanitarian causes, and her death is super mysterious. Was it the royal family? How it happened right after the release of her tell-all book—that fascinates me. She wasn’t receiving any compassion from the royal family.
Can you describe some of the looks that inspired the show?
My friends and collaborators, Chris Tuttle and Paul Scudder, built the wedding dress out of paper-mache. That’s like the first look you’ll see—like, that insane 80s wedding gown that’s such a fake fairy tale. And the revenge dress. We also have her doing missionary work. We have her in the mines in this sort of bulletproof vest and a plastic face mask. We have her final look, which is the night that she died in Paris. One of my favorites is when she’s with her children on a toboggan ride. I’m her kids’ age, and I used to love going to amusement parks with my family.
What are your top three favorite Diana resources?
Diana: Her True Story , the tell-all book she
wrote with Andrew Morton. It’s pretty heavy on her childhood, which is really, really sad. Her whole story is really sad. Then there’s a documentary on HBO called The Princess. And the six-part miniseries Diana , “the person behind the princess.” I collect VHS [tapes], so I’ve seen a lot of really bad BBC documentaries about her. I also am obsessed with that 1995 interview by Martin Bashir, which I remember watching growing up. It really impacted me.
Why?
Because even as a kid, I could see how scared she was. That interview really scared me because I grew up watching Lady Di like her life was this fairy tale. But it was a facade, and then she was telling the horror story of being a part of the royal family. And then she was dead.
If Diana hadn’t died, what do you think she’d be doing?
I think she would have continued her humanitarianism and been a big part of her sons’ lives. And her grandchildren’s lives! It’s so sad that she didn’t get to meet them. I forget how tragic it all is. I usually do all these comedy-based shows, but I get so emotional talking about Diana. v
m mcaporale@chicagoreader.com
Lady Di SARAH ELIZABETH LARSON
JEROME
A three-time Tony Award-winning masterwork and “cultural landmark that only seems to grow with relevance” (Los Angeles Times).
Science and religion go head-to-head in this iconic courtroom showdown. A small-town educator’s trial for teaching the theory of evolution becomes a battle royal of wits, wisdom and will for two of the country’s most powerful lawyers. In a bold retelling for today, Goodman Resident Artistic Associate Henry Godinez directs an all-new production of one of the greatest dramas of the 20th century, based on the real-life Scopes “Monkey” Trial of 1925—an “explosive episode in American culture” (The New York Times).
SEPTEMBER 14 – OCTOBER 13
THEATER
AFemmes to the front
Glitterus is flipping the script on a sexist scene.
By LAUREN HILL
ny working stand-up comic will tell you that comedy is a hustler’s game. Like so many forms of art and performance, becoming successful requires endless nights onstage at open mikes to perfect the craft. This standard grind is an entirely different beast for women.
“A lot of these open mikes happen at dingy, scary bars full of men well into their 40s, and I’m a 22-year-old woman, and that’s a scary place for me,” says comedian Georgia Moore. “I can be pinned as not hardworking for not going to those places just to watch men essentially just get drunk and say slurs onstage.”
Whether it’s night after night at dark bars or a scheduled slot on a lineup, a comic’s job is to connect with the audience. Again, this process is far more di cult for the (usually very few) women on the stage, says fellow comedian Grace Kilpatrick.
“Women have to earn the respect of the audience in the first five seconds, and if you don’t get it, you’re gonna have a harder set. You have to somehow seem like you’re chill,” Kilpatrick
says. “Men go up and it’s a psychological thing—they automatically trust this person with a microphone. Why do we trust men with microphones?”
For Gwen Rose, a trans comic who’s been in the Chicago scene for nearly five years, getting onstage involves the added onus of inescapably representing the community she’s a part of—a community that is constantly thrown into the center of culture wars and habitually misrepresented by mainstream media.
“The audiences don’t look like me,” Rose says. “This might be the only time in their entire life where they shut up and listen to a trans person talk for ten minutes.”
A robust comedy scene wherein lineups rarely feature more than one or two women feels like it should be a thing of the past, but in Chicago, the struggle persists, and a perceived scarcity of spots for women can seem unnecessarily competitive.
“There’s this weird scarcity complex, I think, that still exists within the community— there’s only one woman, so everyone feels like
GLITTERUS
Thu 9/57 PM, Dorothy, 2500 W. Chicago, www.eventbrite.com/e/glitteruscomedy-night-at-dorothy-tickets-982795998287, $12 advance, $15 door, 21+
they’re competing for that spot. But no, we’re not. There are plenty of opportunities,” says comedian Sam Selby. “I want that to be a thing of the past.”
This is where Glitterus, the city’s only weekly comedy show focusing entirely on women and queer comics, was born—from antiquated misgivings about existing in the comedy scene as a woman and queer person and a desire for equal opportunity to be funny.
Kilpatrick, Moore, Rose, and Selby have been producing Glitterus at Uptown Taproom for almost a year, and they’ve come to realize that their goal is twofold: to create a space for both comics and audiences to feel represented and to show the rest of the scene that everyone else can be doing that too.
“There have been things said in the past, like, ‘Oh, there’s just not that many funny women,’ and then we come out with a lineup and say, ‘Really? Because there’s five right here, and then we have five more next week, and then five more behind that,’” Selby says. “The scarcity complex doesn’t have to exist. All these women are hilarious.”
The benefits of authentic representation go both ways. The Glitterus producers say the comics they book feel freer to talk about their own experiences onstage because the audiences are so much more ready to embrace them.
“They want to be there and laugh and have a good time, and they know they’re not going to hear some trope or slur or some joke that makes them feel bad about who they are, and so therefore they are looser,” Selby says. “I think that translates to making the comics looser and more comfortable, and their energies feed o each other.”
A trope about our so-called “woke” culture perpetuated by comedians like Jerry Seinfeld and Chris Rock in recent years would have you believing that comedians are somehow not “allowed” to be funny anymore and that comedy has been ruined by a perceived fear of being politically incorrect and subsequently “canceled.”
Presumably, the Glitterus audience falls under this PC umbrella—a demographic of “blue-haired liberals” who, according to Rock and Seinfeld, refuse to take a joke in the name of wokeness. However, according to the Glitterus producers, this couldn’t be further from the truth.
“They’re so ready to laugh,” Moore says. “They’re down for dark stuff. They’re down for dirty stu . It’s OK if you’re blue, if you’re weird—you just have to be funny.”
For comics like Rose who have had to operate in the cis, straight man’s world of stand-up comedy for years, a room like Glitterus feels like a revolutionary breath of fresh air. To her, everyone deserves the right to tell jokes, sometimes even bad ones, without all the obstacles that come with marginalized identity.
“We’re saying what we want to say, in a way that’s very silly and fun and stupid, but we’re also taking a stand on things, and doing it not to claps or snaps, we’re doing it to laughs, which is what’s most important to us,” Rose says.
Glitterus is also reblazing a trail that had dwindled during the pandemic—independent comedy shows operating outside of established comedy clubs like the Lincoln Lodge. Comedians collaborating with restaurant and bar owners to curate a unique setting and audience for a show is something of a lost art post-COVID, and it’s something the Glitterus producers are trying to reinject into the scene.
“Uptown Taproom is such a perfect space for comedy, and we want more independent venues in Chicago to get more recognition for being such cool places,” Moore says. “I hope Glitterus is helping to revive that scene a little bit.”
Despite its continued success at Uptown Taproom, Glitterus’s producers are looking forward to a pop-up date at Dorothy, which is one of 32 lesbian bars left in the United States, according to the Lesbian Bar Project. Dorothy’s space in Ukrainian Village will accommodate over three times as many people as Uptown Taproom’s capacity of about 30. It’s an e ort to include the populations of women and queer people that flourish outside the limits of Uptown.
“It’s such a cool place,” Rose says. “If their normal clientele and our normal audience was a Venn diagram, it would almost be a circle.”
Ultimately, Glitterus isn’t interested in seeming “cool” to the male comics in the scene. They’re not trying to convince anyone who won’t listen that women are, in fact, funny. They’re creating and normalizing space in a hostile scene for comics and audience members like them to laugh, no strings attached, and hoping others follow suit.
“I hope it becomes more normalized,” Rose says. “It doesn’t need to be such a big deal that the vast majority of people on a lineup are women.” v
m letters@chicagoreader.com
L to R: Gwen Rose, Grace Kilpatrick, Sam Selby, and Georgia Moore of Glitterus SARAH ELIZABETH LARSON
OPENING
RRelentlessly relevant
1985’s The Normal Heart feels wholly timely at Redtwist.
Larry Kramer’s searing 1985 play The Normal Heart chronicles the early years of the HIV/ AIDS epidemic (1981-84), dramatizing Kramer’s own experience as the cofounder of a grassroots organization responding to the mysterious, terrifying health crisis. Taking its title from gay poet W.H. Auden’s “September 1, 1939” (“What mad Nijinsky wrote / About Diaghilev / Is true of the normal heart / For the error bred in the bone / Of each woman and each man / Craves what it cannot have / Not universal love / But to be loved alone”), The Normal Heart follows writer-activist Ned Weeks as he fights against the evasive or hostile attitudes of government bureaucrats as well as anxiety and denialism from within his own community. He also confronts his own emotional demons through his charged relationship with handsome Felix Turner, a closeted gay fashion reporter for the New York Times
The relentlessly honest ensemble acting in Redtwist Theatre’s powerful production is intensified by director Ted Hoerl’s austerely intimate alley-style staging, with audience
METRO + SMARTBAR’s
members seated on both sides of the long, narrow playing area, literally within arm’s reach of the cast. Today, our experience with the COVID-19 pandemic—with its polarized, panicky response to vaccinations and masks— gives the play a new timeliness. And in a historic election year, in which the Democratic presidential candidate is a woman who, as California’s attorney general, performed same-sex marriage ceremonies two years before marriage equality became the law of the land, it’s a striking reminder of how far the U.S. has come in its treatment of LGBTQ+ citizens, how fragile equality is, and how hard it needs to be fought for. (See chicagoreader.com for a longer version of this review.) —ALBERT WILLIAMS THE NORMAL HEART Through 9/22: Thu-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 3:30 PM; Redtwist Theatre, 1044 W. Bryn Mawr, 773-728-7529, www.redtwisttheatre.org/the-normalheart, $35 (pay what you can on Friday; discounts for students, seniors, and military available)
RMeta musical
PrideArts’s [title of show] is a goofy homage to creativity and collaboration.
There’s self-aware—and then there’s [title of show]
Billed as being “about two guys writing a musical about two guys writing a musical,” PrideArts launches its 2024-25 season with the Broadway/off-Broadway hit that gleefully takes one of the most cliche of musical-comedy plot lines—creating a musical comedy—and heightens it to the point of reductio ad absurdum.
Writer-composers Jeff (Jonah Cochin) and Hunter
(Casey Coppess) decide to enter a musical comedy writing competition three weeks before the deadline, and out of creative desperation focus their plot on two writer-composers working under a three-week deadline. They’re joined by their friends Heidi (Shannon McEldowney, especially terrific in some of her solos), a struggling actress, and Susan (Lexi Alioto, whose great timing is responsible for a large fraction of the laughs), an actress-turned-wistful-for-showbiz office manager.
The quartet has marvelous energy, flawlessly shiing emotion and affect with the same precision they shi the furniture to indicate the passage of time as their deadline draws nearer. Choreographer Britta Schlicht’s dances are especially compelling throughout, and thanks to Jay Españo’s direction, the confines of Hunter and Jeff ’s apartments seem boundlessly energized by the characters’ imaginations.
Some of the sound was wonky on my side of the audience (near the front door) on opening night. The loud music mix combined with the fans required by the recent heat wave rendered some lines inaudible—a problem compounded by the rapid-fire exchanges throughout Jeff and Hunter’s process. But that’s easily fixed, and this is a great tribute to show business and creativity. Still, unlike these folks in the play, I would love to see Paris Hilton starring in Mame —MATT SIMONETTE [TITLE OF SHOW] Through 9/22: Thu-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PM; also Wed 9/18 7:30 PM (industry performance); Pride Arts Center, 4139 N. Broadway, 773-857-0222, pridearts.org, $35 ($30 seniors and students) v
The Normal Heart TOM MCGRATH/TCMCG PHOTOGRAPHY
Communal viewing
Chicago Filmmakers and the Filipino American Historical Society of Chicago screen sections of six films by Nicholas Viernes, the unofficial cameraman of Chicago’s Filipino American community.
By ZACHARY LEE
This Friday, a collaboration between Chicago Filmmakers and the Filipino American Historical Society of Chicago (FAHSC) will screen sections of six films by Nicholas Viernes, which paint a multifaceted picture of the Filipino American community of greater Chicago in the early to mid-20th century. All six films were shot on 16 mm with five having been selected for preservation by the National Film Preservation Foundation: Little Farmers of Reynoldsburg (1936), Reynoldsburg Pt. 2 (1937), All-Star Meets at Grant Park (1939), Chicago of Today (1936), and Calumet Park (1939). While watching, the audience is encouraged to ask questions, share stories, and discuss what they’re witnessing on screen.
All but two of the films are silent, which gives the event more of a watch-party ambience than a traditional film screening.
“Because the films are silent, they lend themselves to more active engagement,” explained Chicago Filmmakers program manager Leila Sherbini. “We’re really hoping that some members of the Filipino American community in Chicago come out and that they’ll be able to relate to what’s happening onscreen at the moment. Hopefully, this becomes a greater community discussion of what it means to preserve home movies and what Viernes’s films in particular show us about Chicago and Filipino Americans from now to then,” she continued. Ashley Dequilla, the de facto collections manager and archivist of FAHSC, will give a short presentation throughout the screenings on each film’s historical context and her journey as an archivist. She expressed similar sentiments, sharing that since so many of Viernes’s movies celebrated his local community, it’s only fitting that the films are viewed in a familial context. “This screening style is meant to generate knowledge and conversation about what the films themselves are doing. I’d love to see community elders in these spaces and hear their perspective,” she shared.
Viernes’s films, which capture the quotidian rhythms and lives of the people around him, are rife with discussion possibilities, specifically around the role community has in preserving memory and the importance of giving communities the chance to depict themselves on their terms.
The sheer breadth and scope of Viernes’s filmography is also of note. Dequilla shared that when FAHSC founder, Estrella Alamar, passed in 2022, she uncovered over 300 films shot by “Uncle Nick.” Viernes migrated by ship from the Nueva Vizcaya of northern Luzon in the Philippines to the Pacific Northwest of the U.S. in 1926. He found his way to Chicago at an unspecified time and documented the Filipino community around him, which led him to be christened the “uno cial cameraman” of the community. “His biography does not mention how he got the camera or who taught him,” Dequilla explained. Many of his fi lms focus on community gatherings and special events such as weddings, graduations, birthdays, and holidays. “He was also an avid sports fan so we have a lot of wrestling films,” Dequilla explained. “There’s a lot of baseball fi lms as well because there were Filipino baseball leagues in Chicago. There are ice skating films and also one of the Chicago Railroad Fair of 1948 and 1949. It’s evident he also loved nature . . . there’s lots of flowers in all of his films.”
While Viernes’s films can be classified as home movies, his style and documentation redefine the idea of that medium being “amateur”; there’s a sense that whether he’s documenting a family gathering, vacation, or birthday party, he views the act of beholding such events with a certain amount of reverence. Daring to put such intimate moments onscreen is a powerful act of reclamation of the lives of Filipino Americans during the early to mid-20th century. “He understood the assignment,” Dequilla quipped.
Dequilla points to one film, Little Farmers of Reynoldsburg , that was particularly subversive for its time. When the film screens at the event, it will feature an original music mix by Les Talusan, a DJ with the Smithsonian, who also provided original music to accompany one other of Viernes’s films. Little Farmers of
After uncovering the over 300 films in Alamar’s basement, the Chicago Film Society was one of the first to help preserve the films by o ering their facilities to screen the reels. “Actually projecting the films was a kind of unique Chicago Film Society touch,” said Rebecca Hall, cofounder and director of operations. “I think that was a huge deal for the collection because, after Alamar’s passing, the FAHSC was on a rescue mission. They had to figure out what they were going to do with all these films because they were losing the storage space of her home. When you see the film canisters on a shelf, you don’t know what they are, and without being able to project them, and without Ashley being able to record them o the screen . . . I think it made it easy to explain to people why this collection of films was important.”
For Sherbini, the breadth of Viernes’s films speaks to his love for the people around him. “The fact that he recorded so much speaks to a passion that not a lot of people have. He did a lot with a little,” she shared.
Reynoldsburg focuses on an interracial couple on a farm in Ohio; Dequilla recounts the history of how Viernes visited his friend, who was Filipino, his friend’s wife, who was white, and their child. “This was during the Great Depression. In the film, you see this mixed-race family thriving. It’s very wholesome. It’s very nostalgic of what America was,” Dequilla analyzed. The mere existence of this film was subversive given that several years prior to this film being made, Filipino farmers were attacked and mobbed by white people who were mad that they were marrying white women in a series of events called the Watsonville riots. “This pushed the state of California to pressure the [state’s] Supreme Court to ban intermarriage between white people and Filipino people. So during the time this film is made, this marriage being put onscreen is actually illegal,” Dequilla shared.
Sherbini hopes that attendees of the event will be inspired by the preservation process and that others will see opportunities ripe for documentation around them. Additionally, she hopes that people walk away with a deeper appreciation for archiving work. “Archivists have the responsibility to be stewards of history. And within that, a topic of conversation is always ‘Whose history is given value? Why are we taking the time to preserve something like this?’ Nicholas Viernes was not a formal archivist, but he saw that it was important to take hold of the autonomy idea and record his life and his family’s life. He found that to be important and just as worthy as anything else that should be saved, celebrated, shared, and discussed in a museum. That’s the power and beauty of community archiving. It’s literally the community saying, ‘This is important to us.’”
For Dequilla, she believes that there’s a catharsis that comes with viewing these films in a communal context. “I hope Filipino people specifically can find memories and resonance. I hope they can find resonance through the memories that have been excavated and that have emerged through the accessibility of these films. I also believe, however, that these films speak beyond the Filipino diasporic experience. This is American history, this is cinema history. . . . This is global history too. So I just hope to collapse limitations, because that’s all we’ve had.” v
m letters@chicagoreader.com
Still from Calumet Park (1939) COURTESY OF THE FILIPINO AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF CHICAGO
One, two, three: one film by Shinji Sōmai, two by Larisa Shepitko, and three by Marleen Gorris. Some others, as well, but these are otherwise the standouts of a rewarding moviegoing (or, as most of these were viewed at home, “moviewatching”) week.
On Tuesday I went to the Gene Siskel Film Center to see a restoration of Japanese filmmaker Sōmai’s 1993 film Moving It’s a gentle film that packs an emotional punch as it centers on a preteen girl, Renko, whose parents are in the process of divorcing. The emotional content of the film is moving, yes, but the title also applies literally to the momentum that propels Renko throughout. She’s constantly moving, running from place to place—but is she running away or toward something (even if unknowingly)?
her principles became more solidified, like water to ice in the deep winter.
“This is a story about Renko’s discovery of herself,” Sōmai said upon the film’s initial release according to the press kit. “She tries to pave her own path into the future. She encounters the unknown and mentally empowers herself to keep facing the unknown.”
Where Renko’s fear of the unknown is endearing, relatable, and ultimately hopeful, Larisa Shepitko’s film The Ascent (1977) shows a very di erent form of fear, one that is raw and galling. The Ukrainian-born Soviet filmmaker made only four films before she died in a car accident two years after The Ascent . This and her first film, Heat (1963), are screening as part of the Entrances & Exits series at the Film Center. I fell completely under the spell of Shepitko’s austere visual style and sharp moral considerations.
The Ascent follows two Soviet partisan soldiers during World War II after they break o from their regime to find food and are captured by Germans in Nazi-occupied Belarus. The film’s most controversial feature was its quasi-religious allegory in how it posits the two men as Jesus and Judas (one is firm in his moral convictions, the other weak against the pressure of death’s unknown), as the Soviet Union made atheism its uno cial policy. The film was shot outside during an appropriately bleak Russian winter. Maybe it means something that Shepitko’s career progressed from the blazing sun in the Kazakh Steppe, in Heat , to the desolate brumal landscape in The Ascent. But rather than surmise she’d gotten colder, perhaps it was that
As of this printing, there will be two more days to watch Dutch writer-filmmaker Marleen Gorris’s de facto “trilogy” on the Criterion Channel before the films expire on August 31, which includes A Question of Silence (1982), Broken Mirrors (1984), and The Last Island (1990). Each is a discrete, high-concept story, the most glaring similarity among the three being the theme of violence perpetrated by and against women. Let’s consider the plot of the first film in the trilogy and Gorris’s first film overall: in A Question of Silence, three women are arrested after killing the male proprietor of a clothing boutique. The connection between the three women? Only that they were in the store at the same time. Their motivation for the murder? Perhaps simply that the owner was a man, overseeing a traditionally female space.
Incidentally, Gorris endeavors on a di erent trajectory than Shepitko, becoming softer across the three films; the final film, The Last Island, finds the two women survivors of a plane crash being the only among the larger group of survivors to reject violence as the foundation of their new civilization. Much like Renko—the stakes, however, being decidedly higher, as it’s also suggested that they may be the only survivors of a humanity-ending catastrophe—they nevertheless look forward to the future with hope. Against wars literal and metaphorical, fought externally and within, these filmmakers show the many perspectives of how they’re wagered. Until next time, moviegoers.
—KAT SACHS v
The Moviegoer is the diary of a local film bu , collecting the best of what Chicago’s independent and underground film scene has to o er.
Still from A Question of Silence (1982) COURTESY OF IFC CENTER
Let’s Play!
NOW PLAYING
RBad Press
The free press, especially at the local level, is under threat in just about every corner of the world. Bad Press, the excellent new documentary from directors Rebecca Landsberry-Baker and Joe Peeler, takes a candid and deeply compelling look at the struggle for unimpeded reporting within the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. This is an easy must-watch for not only journalists but anyone interested in the value of honesty and transparency within their communities.
The film briskly sets up a cast of Muscogee journalists, including tenacious reporter Angel Ellis, who you quickly feel invested in. There’s a gut-wrenching sequence early on where a decades-old Muscogee Nation free-press law is overturned unceremoniously. (So many impactful, wide-reaching decisions like this one are made in aging local government buildings under garish eggshell ceiling lights.) You can’t help but root for Ellis and her colleagues as they’re le scrambling in the a ermath of their government’s decision.
Landsberry-Baker and Peeler should be commended for their people-first approach to representing the Muscogee Nation. These are areas with their own histories, constitutions, governments, and stances on the free press, not just “another part of the United States.” The directors will o en hold on to natural vistas and slice-of-life community moments that are just as weighty as the consequences the journalists face for simply doing their jobs.
Bad Press is a sublime blend of true crime, historical drama, and legal thriller, and an unflinching reminder that long-held press traditions are threatened by the shortsighted. —JONAH NINK 98 min. Criterion Channel
Blink Twice
For her directorial debut, Blink Twice, Zoë Kravitz has teamed up with High Fidelity (2020) writer E.T. Feigenbaum to construct a memory-melting hellscape that
hits on many of our current culture’s obsessions and fears—rape, trauma, human trafficking, the unspeakable things that occur on rich peoples’ islands—without saying much at all. It begins with a vague and largely pointless gesture toward cancel culture, as Frida (Naomi Ackie) comes across a video of billionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum) apologizing for some unknown transgression, only to run into him at a gala she and her friend Jess (Alia Shawkat) are working and be whisked away to his secluded tropical island. Her obsession with King becomes her defining character trait up until the moment she remembers that, well, there are a lot of things she’s forgotten.
The majority of the film is shot and edited in a dizzying, frenzied way that is likely meant to depict how manic and off-kilter our protagonists feel as they’re swept off their feet by this billionaire and plied with his strange alcohol, drugs, and potent perfume. But it all feels too varied, too artless to be intentional; we end up being blasted with images that show very little and are given information that culminates to nothing and must be spoon-fed to us later on.
The decision to only hint at the horrors Slater King’s female victims have experienced, showcasing the gore and violence of these women’s retaliations exclusively, is an intriguing break from tradition. But transformative moments like these come too little, too late in the film to explore with any kind of depth, and don’t last long enough to fully savor. The truncated final act rushes any potential catharsis, and the ending feels less like a twist and more like a narrative misstep.
As an extended metaphor for rape culture, Blink Twice is a clumsy and overworked yet valiant endeavor. As a thriller, it’s a cliched and badly paced mess. As a commentary on how money and power corrupt, or how patriarchy and capitalism promote self-perpetuating cycles of violence, it’s a vague attempt that says little of value. And as a directorial debut? It’s a film this reviewer would rather forget. —BROOKS EISENBISE R, 102 min. Wide release in theaters v
KENWOOD ACADEMY HIGH SCHOOL JAZZ BAND
JAZZ FEST
The Kenwood Academy band keeps jazz young
Part of the Chicago Jazz Festival, which runs Thu 8/29 through Sun 9/1. Sat 8/31, 3:15 PM, Young Lions Jazz, Harris Theater Rooftop, 205 E. Randolph, free, all ages
High schools continue to incubate new jazz musicians, and the Chicago Jazz Festival continues to give them a stage.
By JAKE AUSTEN
Over my too many years of attending the Chicago Jazz Festival, I’ve been most excited by two types of sets. The fest sometimes gives us a rare (hopefully not last) chance to see a legendary elder of America’s greatest art form—Sonny Rollins, Sarah Vaughan, Muhal Richard Abrams—and whenever I’m able to catch one, it makes me feel like a tiny part of jazz history. But the lineup also reliably includes unknown, imperfect teenage musicians, including some from my alma mater, and watching them command a grand festival stage makes me feel like an important part of a special community. Seeing the Kenwood Academy High School Jazz Band makes me feel like I’m home.
When the Kenwood Academy band perform on the Harris Theater Rooftop on Saturday, August 31, they’ll continue a long tradition— they’ve played almost every Chicago Jazz Festival since 2007. They weren’t the first high school band to play the fest, but they’ve appeared more often than any other school ensemble, and Kenwood faculty, students, and alumni have been sharing their sounds with Chicago ears since the inaugural fest in 1979. Though Kenwood has been around for more than 50 years, as far as south-side schools with musical legacies go, it’s a scrappy rookie. Thanks to Chicago’s awful history of segregation and magnificent outpouring of talent, the city’s epicenter of teen jazz development during the genre’s golden age was DuSable High School in Bronzeville. From 1931 through 1966, Captain Walter Dyett ran the music programs at Wendell Phillips Academy High School and DuSable (originally New Wendell Phillips), opened nearby in 1935 to accommodate the former’s overflowing student body. Among the thousands of students shaped by Dyett’s famously exacting tutelage were Gene Ammons, Nat King Cole, Von and George Freeman, Johnny Hartman, Eddie Harris, Joseph Jarman, and Dinah Washington. The school’s revue, Hi-Jinks, was one of the biggest events on the south side.
With this tradition in mind, Kenwood has maintained stellar music programs right from its opening in a temporary facility in 1966. (The building was completed in 1969.) Lena
McLin, niece and accompanist of Thomas Dorsey (“the Father of Gospel Music”), ran a choir that nurtured such diverse talents as Chaka Khan, Mandy Patinkin, and R. Kelly, as well as many professional opera singers. (I sang in her choir in the late 1980s, faking it while powerful vocalists carried the day.)
Jazz piano genius Willie Pickens launched Kenwood’s band program, though initially it didn’t feature jazz. In 1976, music instructor Thomas McKiver started Kenwood’s first jazz band, and Pickens’s daughter Bethany, also a gifted pianist, was one of its earliest members. (Her trio plays Friday afternoon at the Jazz Fest.) They gigged at scholastic competitions and fundraisers, and thanks to the elder Pickens’s connections they opened for the likes of Sonny Stitt and Art Farmer at the Jazz Showcase.
McKiver had a background in classical music, and as Bethany recalls, his jazz curriculum wasn’t challenging. “We were mostly playing the written repertoire, not really delving into the improvisation thing, which is
a main component of what really makes jazz,” she says. “For those who were more serious, there was All-City Jazz Band, which I was also a part of.”
The Chicago Public Schools have had an All-City Performing Arts program since the early 1960s, and Kenwood musicians have
The Kenwood band began a run of successful outings in CPS high school jazz-band competitions, and in 2007 they started appearing at the Chicago Jazz Festival.
been welcomed into the All-City Jazz Band since the school’s inception. Willie Pickens repped Kenwood at the inaugural Chicago Jazz Festival in 1979, but when the fest first welcomed amateur high school musicians in 1988, it was the All-City group that performed.
They returned for the next two festivals, and in 1991 and ’93 the East St. Louis Lincoln High School Jazz Band appeared under the direction of jazz educator Ron Carter (not the Miles Davis sideman). In 2004 the St. Patrick High School Honors Jazz Band performed, and the West Aurora High School Jazz Band played in 2006. By that time, Kenwood Academy’s longtime band director, William McClellan, had moved into administration. The jazz program was in flux, despite the enrollment of one of the best musicians in the school’s history. Trumpeter Marquis Hill, Kenwood’s star student, was getting much of his instruction from the Ravinia Jazz Mentor Program, which Willie Pickens had helped launch with Ramsey Lewis in 1995.
Kenwood’s music faculty got a boost from the arrival of Gerald Powell, at the time the tuba player for Edward Wilkerson’s 8 Bold Souls, a band affiliated with the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. When Powell came aboard in 2005, it was already Hill’s last semester, and Powell wanted to reemphasize the school’s jazz legacy—he implemented a program in 2006 that focused on fundamentals and discipline. The Kenwood band began a run of successful outings in CPS high school jazz-band competitions, and in 2007 they started appearing at the Chicago Jazz Festival. In 2009 the festival launched the Young Jazz Lions Stage (the city is calling it “Young Lions Jazz” this year), featuring a full slate of youth bands from high schools, colleges, and elsewhere, and Kenwood have subsequently shared that stage almost every year. A decade ago, their Jazz Fest experience led to their highest-profile project to date. In 2014, MacArthur-winning composerpianist Jason Moran heard from Willie Pickens (one of his heroes) that the Kenwood jazz band were playing Bethany’s arrangements at the
The Kenwood Academy jazz band at the Midwest Clinic conference in 2018 MICHAEL SAVAGE
Jazz Fest. The younger Pickens was already a working musician of long standing, and in 1989 she had become the first Kenwood alum to perform at the Jazz Fest as a featured artist. (Vocalists Maggie Brown and Tammy McCann followed in 1999 and 2007, respectively, and Hill in 2011.) Bethany had recently joined Kenwood’s music department, where she was working alongside Powell.
After Moran heard the Kenwood jazz ensemble, he was inspired to incorporate them into a major multimedia work in collaboration with artist Theaster Gates, Looks of a Lot , commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Center. Premiered at Orchestra Hall in May 2014, the piece paired the Kenwood group with Moran’s trio the Bandwagon, and other featured artists included Gates, reedist Ken Vandermark, and bassist and singer Katie Ernst.
The experience challenged the students, some of whom were as young as 12, but they rose to the occasion—they performed Looks of a Lot again at the Kennedy Center, and their efforts have been captured in an hour-long documentary as well as on a 2018 album released by Moran’s Yes Records.
The Jazz Fest stage has provided Kenwood other opportunities to collaborate with greats over the years, including Mwata Bowden and Ed Wilkerson. In 2015 they joined Tomeka Reid as part of the festival’s celebration of the AACM’s 50th anniversary.
My son was in several of Powell’s bands (though not the jazz group), and based in my experience at Kenwood band parent meetings, the ensemble’s impressive CV is most import-
JAZZ FEST
ant as a lure for college scholarship dollars. Powell pursues band placements and music scholarships for his students with the tenacity of a football booster. A number of Powell’s students have become working musicians, though none is yet as famous as Hill, and hundreds have played in college bands. Bassist Khamari Hall, who graduated with my son (they’re in their yearbook’s “senior notables” as best musician and runner-up), is touring Europe this summer and will return to attend DePauw University in the fall.
And this weekend, the Kenwood jazz band return to the festival. “It’s an honor and a privilege, and it’s nerve-racking as well,” Powell says. “Usually this is the time in which you’re rebuilding—you lose a lot of kids.”
School arts budgets are still being slashed all over the country, and awareness of jazz has been waning among youth for decades. But Chicago remains rich with outstanding high school programs, and dozens of ensembles from those schools have appeared at the Jazz Fest. Whitney Young, ChiArts, Jones, Lincoln Park, and Curie are among the schools that have played multiple times, but Kenwood student groups have been booked more than any others. This year they’ll again be the final band on their stage. I ask Powell if this is considered “headlining.”
“Well,” he says, weighing his words, “it was mentioned to me that, you know, ‘We got to have you guys closing it down every year.’ So I’ll leave it at that.” v
m letters@chicagoreader.com
The Kenwood Academy jazz band with director Gerald Powell at the DuSable Black History Museum in March 2023 SHAWN MASON OF EVAN MARCUS IMAGERY
JAZZ FEST
Billy Harper prays and preaches through his saxophone
The underappreciated giant of spiritual jazz makes a rare midwestern appearance at the Chicago Jazz Festival.
By STEVE KRAKOW
Saxophonist Billy Harper has a quote from jazz radio broadcaster Miles Willis emblazoned across the top of his website.
“There are two kinds of people,” says Willis, who DJs for community station WPFW in Washington, D.C. “Those who love Billy Harper, and those who haven’t heard him yet.”
I’d add that you can do better than hear Harper and love him: you can take the trouble to learn about his historical significance. He was a key player in the 1960s flowering of postbop, and he’s worked with heavies such as Art Blakey, Lee Morgan, Max Roach, Randy Weston, and Gil Evans. His soaring, cascading tenor sound rivals Coltrane’s in its beauty and power.
Born in Houston, Texas, in 1943, Harper moved to New York City in 1966, and at 81 years young he’s still very active on the east coast. But I’m not sure I even remember the last time this luminary played in Chicago—I think it might’ve been 2007—and I’ve been dying to see a return gig. So I was delighted to learn that the Billy Harper Quintet, an institution of nearly 50 years, will appear at the Chicago Jazz Festival this weekend.
The quintet has had many lineups over the decades, of course, so I asked Harper who to expect for this set. “I am very proud to have
the great pianist Francesca Tanksley, who has been in the group for over 40 years now,” he told me. “Chicago native Aaron Scott will be on drums, and he has been in the group over 20 years, as well as the ‘Jersey Cat’ Freddie Hendrix on trumpet. Dezron Douglas is going to be on bass, and even though he is a newer member, he plays like he’s been with us for decades.”
Earlier this month, the Jazz Institute of Chicago published a story on Harper by Corey Hall, who asked the saxophonist what tunes he might play at the festival. “I’d like for it to be a surprise for everybody,” he replied, “so I don’t want to give away too much.”
I haven’t seen the Jazz Fest version of the Billy Harper Quintet, but YouTube can get me within shouting distance. In May 2023 in Tarrytown, New York, the quintet played a gig with four of its five current members (and Ben Young on bass), and someone has uploaded their reading of “Trying to Get Ready,” a Harper original from the 1978 LP Soran-Bushi, B.H. Hendrix stands out with ecstatic trumpet lines reminiscent of Freddie Hubbard.
In April 2024, the full current lineup of the quintet played at Smalls Jazz Club in New York, and I found an upload of their version of Harper’s tune “Priestess.” This devotional jazz classic (Harper recorded it for the 1977 LP Love on the Sudan, and in 1983 it became the title track of a Gil Evans album) contracts and releases as though it’s taking deep, measured breaths. Harper’s soulful sax weaves in and out of Scott’s laid-back but authoritative drumming, which buzzes with snare rolls and snaps with rat-a-tat backbeats. Tanksley’s textural piano echoes the transcendent playing of McCoy Tyner, and Douglas’s bass throb grounds the performance as the horns twine and climb in search of higher consciousness.
I’m hoping Harper will delve deep into his long catalog at this show, and he’s got a great band to help him do it. He’s the senior member of the quintet by a significant margin, but the others are hardly green: Hendrix and Douglas
Part of the Chicago Jazz Festival, which runs Thu 8/29 through Sun 9/1. Fri 8/30, 5:25–6:10 PM, Jay Pritzker Pavilion, Millennium Park, 201 E. Randolph, free, all ages
are in their 40s, and Tanksley and Scott are both in their late 60s. Hendrix has supported stars such as Alicia Keys, Stevie Wonder, and Aretha Franklin; Scott has played with Bobby Hutcherson, George Benson, and Freddie Hubbard, and he served in McCoy Tyner’s trio for 14 years; Tanksley has worked with the likes of David Newman, Reggie Workman, and Cli ord Jordan; and Douglas has played with Ravi Coltrane and Louis Hayes, among others.
Harper earned a music degree from the University of North Texas in 1965, and his playing has the broad, bluesy tones and Black gospel inflections associated with the Texas tenor tradition. One of his first important gigs was with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in the late 60s. “The way that Art played always made it a lesson that you learned,” Harper told Hall. “He would play and play [behind you], and you would think that you were finished, but then he would go to another level that made you bring out more.”
By the time Harper began his solo career in the early 70s, he’d also played briefly with drummer Elvin Jones, appeared on albums by
Louis Armstong and Gil Evans, and served in the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra and Max Roach’s quartet. His first LP as a bandleader was 1973’s immortal Capra Black , released by Strata-East Records, a New York–based label revered for its contributions to the Afrocentric jazz canon. This is where Harper’s biting, transfixing wail came into its own.
“Capra Black remains one of the seminal recordings of jazz’s black consciousness movement,” wrote AllMusic critic Jason Ankeny in his review. “A profoundly spiritual e ort that channels both the intellectual complexity of the avant-garde as well as the emotional potency of gospel, its focus and assurance belie Billy Harper’s inexperience as a leader.” The album is one of my all-time faves, on the same exalted cosmic plane as Alice Coltrane’s Journey in Satchidananda and Pharoah Sanders’s Tauhid
By the mid-70s, Harper was touring and recording with his quintet. In France in 1975, the group recorded the LP Black Saint, which would become the first release on the Italian label of the same name. (Black Saint would
Billy Harper as he appears on the cover of the 1990 album Destiny Is Yours STEVE KRAKOW FOR
BILLY HARPER QUINTET
The current lineup of the Billy Harper Quintet, clockwise from lower le : Francesca Tanksley, Dezron Douglas, Billy Harper, Aaron Scott, and Freddie Hendrix PIN LIM
later work with Chicago avant-garde legends such as Roscoe Mitchell, Muhal Richard Abrams, and George Lewis.) Harper and his quintet released several more exploratory and enlightening studio albums in the 70s, including 1979’s The Awakening. Throughout the 80s and 90s, Harper continued touring the globe—he spent a lot of time in Japan and Europe, where he’d built large, loyal audiences. In the 90s and early 2000s, he also came to Chicago relatively often, playing in bands led by pianist Marshall Vente and trumpeter Malachi Thompson, a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. “I used to play in Chicago a lot back in the day, with Malachi Thompson, so it almost feels like coming home in a way,” Harper told me.
Thompson’s big band Africa Brass released three albums between 1993 and 2003, and Harper played with the group from 1998 to ’03. He appears on the 2003 Africa Brass album Blue Jazz, alongside alto sax hero Gary Bartz (who worked with the likes of Miles Davis and Eric Dolphy). During those years, I was lucky enough to catch one of Thompson’s bands with Harper and Bartz at the Green Mill. “We had a lot of good sessions there,” Harper told Hall. “That club is a draw for the real listeners.”
Pianist Randy Weston collaborated steadily with Harper for decades. “When Billy plays the tenor it’s like an orchestra,” Weston told author Willard Jenkins in an interview for the liner notes of The Roots of the Blues , a 2013 duo with Harper. “The call & response is always there; I always hear the black church in his playing; he’s always singing through his horn.” Weston saw his African ancestry as crucial to his music, and he heard something similar in Harper. “Billy’s sound (he has Somali roots) comes straight out of Africa, but it’s a universal sound—that cry, it reaches your soul,” he said. “He plays that modern saxophone but it’s very poetic. You listen to his solos and it’s a full composition, you hear the whole history of the tenor.”
Harper himself describes his approach more simply. “I want people to know me through my music,” he told Hall. “Hopefully, the music describes and defines who I am, how I am, and what I am all about. Hopefully, the truth comes through. I am all about the truth.” If you don’t yet love Harper, hearing the musical truth of his quintet at this rare Chicago appearance is a perfect way to get there. v
m letters@chicagoreader.com
AMINA CLAUDINE MYERS
Part of the Chicago Jazz Festival, which runs Thu 8/29 through Sun 9/1. Thu 8/29, 7–8 PM, Preston Bradley Hall, Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington, free, all ages
Amina Claudine Myers bridges Black gospel and the avant-garde
With her
solo
set at the Chicago Jazz Festival, this overlooked singer and keyboardist recapitulates her journey from her roots to the future.
By JOSHUA MINSOO KIM
While Amina Claudine Myers was visiting Kansas City as a child, two women unexpectedly asked her to sing. “I didn’t feel comfortable doing anything,” she tells me, “but the Creator put me in positions to make music.” Myers, born in 1942 in Blackwell, Arkansas, says she was shy growing up. Still, she studied classical piano, and as a teenager she began singing a cappella. When she got to see the vocal quartets that would tour southern Black churches, she’d be in awe.
Today Myers is best known as an adventurous jazz pianist, organist, and vocalist, but Black gospel remains at the root of her work.
“It’s in my DNA,” she says, “but a lot of times it’s just me improvising.”
You can hear gospel and improvisation throughout “African Blues,” the stunning 15-minute closer on her landmark 1980 album, Salutes Bessie Smith. In a sort of glossolalia, her voice soars above her tender yet triumphant piano, which dances alongside Cecil McBee’s bass and Jimmy Lovelace’s drums. She figured out the melody in rehearsal shortly before the recording. “That could never be repeated,” she says, aware of the singular beauty
of music made in the moment.
Myers’s interest in improvisation is tied to her willingness to seize any opportunity. She came to Chicago in 1963 and found a job as a substitute teacher on the south side. One day, she traveled to the west side with a friend and met a bandleader who hired her to play piano. She doesn’t remember his name anymore, but through that connection she met more musicians, including drummer Alvin Fielder. In 1965, Fielder had been among the founding members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, and Myers would join in ’66. This historic Black arts organization, still active today, encourages jazz musicians to expand on the tradition and create their own performance infrastructure. “Anybody in the AACM, you just asked them to play with you and it was no problem,” Myers says. She reminisces about the AACM artists she played with and learned from. “There was Roscoe Mitchell and Gene Dinwiddie, Kalaparusha [Maurice McIntyre] and Lester Bowie—beautiful musicians. You always felt inspired.” Myers is always eager to talk about people who’ve meant a lot to her, and
in 1980 she released an album dedicated to her mother, Song for Mother E. “My mother lost her own mother when she was about two years old, and then she lost her father when she was about 12,” she says. “She went through so much and never talked negative, so this was in tribute to her.” The title track is a sturdy improvised piece whose piano trills evoke solemnity and gratitude—the spirit of its subject.
Myers’s early records, Song for Mother E and Salutes Bessie Smith , are some of her most popular, but her own favorites are lesser known. She’s particularly fond of a 1993 live album with drummer Reggie Nicholson and bassist Jerome Harris, where she sounds especially loose and charismatic—her tone on the tune “Country Girl” is engagingly conversational. She’s also a big fan of her 2016 solo record Sama Rou: Songs From My Soul. “I wanted to honor my ancestors,” she tells me. “I wanted to bring up these songs that should never be forgotten, to hear the hope of people staying positive about their lives.”
Myers herself is staying optimistic too. Earlier this year she released Central Park’s Mosaics of Reservoir, Lake, Paths and Gardens , an instrumental duo album with trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, and she’s looking forward to her upcoming solo performance at the Chicago Jazz Festival. “I’m combining all the elements of what I grew up with and displaying it in my improvising,” she explains. She eagerly mentions that she’ll play songs by Bessie Smith and gospel singer Andraé Crouch. “This is me letting the people know where I came from.”
This excitement to present herself coincides with Myers’s ongoing path toward self-love. “I used to be self-conscious walking down the street, years and years ago. But when I did music, I was strong.” Her entire life can be summed up this way, with the arts serving as a conduit for community and care. “I am a musician, and I do the best I can and am strong knowing what I’m doing,” she says. “I realize that now. I have something to say.” v
m letters@chicagoreader.com
Amina Claudine Myers CRYSTAL BLAKE
Chicago label Pravda Records celebrates four decades of eclectic music
A CITY CAN HAVE TONS of great musicians, but to develop a healthy scene that can flourish for decades, it also needs a strong support system for them. Chicago’s underrated strength lies in its network of musician-adjacent infrastructure—indie labels, venues, studios, retailers, rehearsal spaces, podcasts, indie press, zines, community and college radio stations—and a local spirit defined by openness to collaboration and willingness to hype up underground favorites without reservation. Consider Pravda Records, which has maintained a diverse stable of local and regional artists for 40 years. The label was founded in 1984 by Kenn Goodman with his roommate at Northern Illinois University, Rick Mosher (a former Reader editorial sta er who’s married to former Reader editor in chief Alison True). Though they initially started Pravda to promote the garage band they were playing in at the time, the Service (they’ve since been bandmates in the New Duncan Imperials and the Imperial Sound), the label quickly grew into a busy endeavor with tentacles reaching into indie rock, soul, pop, and other genres. And if you’ve noticed a certain aesthetic kinship between Prav-
PRAVDAFEST
Featuring music on three stages by Nathan Graham, Steve Dawson, the Diplomats of Solid Sound, the Handcuffs, Ivan Julian with Nicholas Tremulis, the Chris Greene Quartet, Sunshine Boys, the Service, the Slugs, the Chamber Strings, Cheer-Accident, Allen Hill, Susan Voelz, Brian Krumm & His Barfly Friends, Rex Daisy, Thri Store Halo, and the Swampland Jewels. Sat 8/31, 1 PM, FitzGerald’s, 6615 W. Roosevelt, Berwyn, $40, $60 VIP (includes T-shirt and CD). 21+
da and the Reader, that’s probably because from 1985 till 2007, both operations benefited from the talents of art director Sheila Sachs—she was a college pal of Goodman and Mosher, and today she’s the label’s vice president of production.
This one-day festival celebrates Pravda’s 40th anniversary with a lineup that showcases the label’s eclecticism. The bill includes the Americana soul-blues of the Diplomats of Solid Sound, the majestically weird art-rock of Cheer-Accident, the
lush romanticism of singer and violinist Susan Voelz, the passionate blues of Nathan Graham, and the snappy, omnivorous old-school pop of Nicholas Tremulis, a jack-of-all-trades and master of most who will perform with Ivan Julian (best known as a founding member of New York punk luminaries Richard Hell & the Voidoids). The Chamber Strings will also convene their classic lineup (along with original guitarist and vocalist Ellis Clark and singer Chloe F. Orwell) for the first time since founder and front man Kevin Junior passed away in 2016. Pravda has been relentless in keeping Junior’s legacy alive; in 2020, they reissued Chamber Strings’ 1997 masterpiece of moody dream rock, Gospel Morning
Pravdafest is stacked to the gills, with 17 performances on three stages. So come prepared to make some very di cult decisions when their sets overlap—or just wander around and catch the vibe, trusting that Pravda’s impeccable curation means no bad apples in this barrel. This lineup embodies enough local music history to fill a dozen books, and you can enjoy its vibrant, beautiful sounds in the here and now.
—MONICA KENDRICK
Some of the acts at this year’s Pravdafest, clockwise from top left: the vocalists in the Diplomats of Solid Sound, Nathan Graham, the Handcuffs, the Slugs, Ivan Julian, and the Chamber Strings COURTESY OF PRAVDA RECORDS
MUSIC
THURSDAY29
Daundry The Courts; My Sister, the Heron; and Daarling open. 8 PM, Schubas, 3159 N. Southport, $15. 18+
You’ve probably noticed that I’ve written concert previews for shoegaze acts increasingly o en over the past couple years, and there has in fact been a big uptick of bands operating in the style. It’s not that difficult to make hazy, huge-sounding guitar-based music with smudged harmonies and lots of reverb, and for every group doing impressive things on that aesthetic turf, plenty more are just trying to duplicate My Bloody Valentine’s effects-pedal setup and hoping for the best. This young shoegaze wave makes it easier for the genre’s fans to find new bands to love, but lots of emerging bands—even worthy ones—will surely end up lost in the crowd. I’m rooting for Chicago threepiece Daundry, and they’re moving in a direction that gives me hope. When they started out a couple years ago, they played shambolic songs with surf-rock breeziness, but they’ve since developed a bigger, thicker, noisier sound. In March, Daundry dropped their debut album, Pria (Smokey), and its grungy, sharp-elbowed riffing stands out through shoegaze’s cloak of reverb and distortion—no matter how gigantic a song gets, you can always make out its shape. On “Blue Rhino,” guitarist Ian Kloehn sings in distant, disaffected sighs, as if the downcast melody is pulling him into its brooding din— and by its final notes, it may swallow you up too. —LEOR GALIL
Rain Garden Violet Clare headlines; Casper Hill, Alga, and Rain Garden open. 6:30 PM, Fallen Log, 2554-2556 W. Diversey, $10. b
The “alternative” music that took the monoculture by surprise in the early 1990s has become classic rock with the passage of time. Music I considered radical and strange as a child is now so deep-
ly embedded in the DNA of our culture that I can hear it reshaped in the work of new Chicago artists. When I first heard the glassy twang of the trembling guitar lick in Rain Garden’s “Ocean,” it shook loose the memory of John Frusciante’s playing on Red Hot Chili Peppers’ 1992 hit “Under the Bridge”—and making that connection has helped me appreciate what makes both tracks so distinctive. Rain Garden are steeped in the alt-rock milieu; in an interview for a zine promoting May’s DePaul-adjacent Grant Slam Fest, guitarist-vocalist Miranda Dianovsky says the band borrow from dream pop, ambient music, and grunge, but to my ears their music isn’t constrained by those categories. In July, Rain Garden self-released their self-titled debut album, which sets the controls to “soothe.” On “Like a Person,”
Dianovsky’s voice takes center stage as they deliver searching lyrics in an intimate, almost conversational tone—Rain Garden are already great at writing this kind of song, and I look forward to them getting even better at it. —LEOR GALIL
FRIDAY30
Loren Connors & Michael Vallera The duo perform as part of the opening reception for “I Listen to the Worn-out Rain: Paintings by Loren Connors and John Fahey.” Connors opens with a solo set, and a er the duo performance, Vallera plays solo as well. 8 PM (reception begins at 7 PM), Soccer Club Club, 2923 N. Cicero. Fb
Loren Connors’s records don’t all sound alike, but they all sound exactly like him. The Brooklyn-based musician and painter is most commonly identified with the electric guitar, which since the late 70s he’s been applying to sparse, slurred blues, concentrated rock chords, Baroque constructions, and murky ambient jazz extrapolations. His music is united by a melancholy that relates more to blues sentiment than blues form, a sense that’s been heightened in recent years by his increasingly abstract picking and his occasional resort to piano— on which he sounds even more nakedly alone than he does on guitar. Connors most frequently works in solo and duo settings, o en with collaborators from a small circle of like-minded players such as singer Suzanne Langille (who is also his spouse) and guitarists Alan Licht, Jim O’Rourke, and David Grubbs, the latter of whom joins him on his latest recording, Evening Air (Room40).
Health challenges tend to keep Connors close to home, and this is his first Chicago appearance since the 1990s. The occasion is the opening of “I Listen to the Worn-Out Rain,” a joint show of paintings by Connors and fellow guitarist John Fahey that will
FRIDAY, AUGUST
Daundry WALKER NELSON
Rain Garden NATHAN WAGNER
MUSIC
continued from p. 35
stay up until Friday, October 4. Fahey met Connors here in 1996 when they both performed at an Empty Bottle festival organized by the Table of the Ele-
ments label, then based in Atlanta. Joining Connors for this concert is local guitarist and photographer Michael Vallera (Maar, Cleared, Luggage). The two musicians have been playing duets together in New
York for a few years, and a solo track I’ve heard from a record Vallera will put out next year suggests that Connors’s penchant for cloudy atmospherics has rubbed off on him. Connors will play solo first, then share the stage with Vallera, who will close the concert with a solo set of his own. —BILL MEYER
SATURDAY31
Pravdafest See Pick of the Week on page 34. Featuring music on three stages by Nathan Graham, Steve Dawson, the Diplomats of Solid Sound, the Handcuffs, Ivan Julian with Nicholas Tremulis, the Chris Greene Quartet, Sunshine Boys, the Service, the Slugs, the Chamber Strings, Cheer-Accident, Allen Hill, Susan Voelz, Brian Krumm & His Barfly Friends, Rex Daisy, Thri Store Halo, and the Swampland Jewels. 1 PM, FitzGerald’s, 6615 W. Roosevelt, Berwyn, $40, $60 VIP (includes T-shirt and CD). 21+
Zombie Mañana They Need Machines to Fly? and Nohmads open. 10 PM, Cole’s Bar, 2338 N. Milwaukee, $13. 21+
Chicago-based musician Danny Biggins founded art-pop project Zombie Mañana in 2013, blending elements of neo-psych and indie rock with electronic beats and R&B flourishes. The February single “Thousands of Days,” which Biggins describes on Instagram as a love song to Mother Earth, juxtaposes spacey atmospheres with a joyfully beachy rhythm, delves into creamy, psychedelic melodies that recall the heyday of the swinging 60s, and finally li s off into ecstatic guitar bliss. Zombie Mañana’s latest single, July’s “Little Dreamers” (whose B side is a cover of Grizzly Bear’s “Half Gate”), shows off Biggins’s experimental side, alternating between melodic singing over a light, effervescent groove and bursts of cosmic noise-rock exploration layered with falsetto and effects-laden vocals. Biggins’s introspective lyrics about life’s ups and downs aren’t always of the “feel good” variety, but the way he wears his heart on his sleeve takes real guts—and
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his approachable delivery, dreamy instrumentals, and adventurous sonic palette can make anyone feel welcome. This eclectic bill also features proggy Saint Louis postrock outfit They Need Machines to Fly? and local noir-pop trio Nohmads, so come early and lean into all the moods. —JAMIE
LUDWIG
SUNDAY1
Rixe Lost Legion, Chalk, and the Stuff open. 8 PM, Burlington, 3425 W. Fullerton, $15. 21+
The Paris Olympics may have had the pomp and circumstance, but for Chicago punk fans, this show headlined by the mighty Rixe is the most satisfying French cultural exchange of the summer. This trio, whose name translates to “brawl,” includes members of Maraboots and Youth Avoiders, and they emerged out of Paris’s musical underground about a decade ago. They immediately established themselves as one of the most exciting bands in modern oi! with their frenetic 2015 debut EP, Coup et Blessures , and they haven’t let up since. (That debut was on its sixth pressing by the time it was compiled with Rixe’s second and third EPs on the 2017 release Collection .) Though Rixe draw from the sound and rage of French oi! and street-punk bands before them, their raw fury and lean, defiant anthems about power dynamics, disillusionment, and strength in the face of injustice feel made for the here and now. They’re also aware that the general public still can’t tell different kinds of skinheads apart, so that oi! punks get mistaken for fascist sympathizers—and to clear things up, the band explicitly reject right-wing ideologies. As drummer and vocalist Max told Maximum Rocknroll in 2016, “Rixe was born to try to bring back the French Oi! glory years sound, and then talk about things we face everyday without any political ambiguity.” Rixe are currently touring the U.S. in support of their brand-new EP, Tir Groupé (“Group Shot”), whose title track’s icy synths and gritty, cathartic pop sound wouldn’t feel out of place on an early Killing Joke record. So come burn off some energy while Rixe kick your ass in the most fun way possible. —JAMIE LUDWIG v
Danny Biggins of Zombie Mañana NICK LANGLOIS PHOTOGRAPHY
Rixe FRANÇOIS LANGLAIS
JOBS
Health Care Service Corporation seeks Business Analyst (Chicago, IL) to work as a liaison among stakeholders to elicit, analyze, communicate and validate requirements for changes to business processes, policies and information systems. REQS: This position reqs a Bach deg, or forgn equiv, in Tech or Bus Admin or a rel fld + 2 Yrs of exp as a proj mgr, sys analyst, or a rel position. Telecommuting permitted. Applicants who are interested in this position should submit a complete resume in English to hrciapp@bcbsil.com, search [Business Analyst / R0026599. EOE].
Sr. Supervisor, Manufacturing Operations (Chicago, IL): Be responsible for oversight of pharmaceutical manufacturing processes; producing high quality pharmaceutical products in accordance w/regulatory requirements to achieve the operations production plan; as well as oversee daily supervision of personnel on the e cient use of equipment & materials to produce quality products under cGMP in accordance w/the production plan, including scheduling & resource coordination.
Req’s Master’s degree (or foreign equi. degree) in Pharmacy, Pharmaceutics, Pharmaceutical Science or related w/ knowledge of IQ, OQ, PQ, preparing standard protocols & reports for testing & analyzing Injectable products; as well as overseeing & managing regulatory compliance. Apply HR, Kashiv BioSciences LLC, 3440 S. Dearborn St, Ste 300, Chicago, IL-60616.
Lead Actuarial Analyst (Chicago, IL): Lead processes that support core actuarial functions and unit economic modeling and support multi-state expansion including rate development, rate filings, and technology support. Telecommuting allowed.
Salary $140,275 per year. Resumes: HR, Clearcover Inc., hr@clearcover.com.
Childcare Director Wonderland Day Care Services, Inc. Seeks a Childcare Director. Mail resume to 3715 S 58th Ave, Cicero, IL
Logistic Coordinator
Logistic Coordinator: Monitor stocking & distr of goods at transportation comp. Resolves complex situations invol customers, staff, other supply chain personnel. Monitor daily activity.
Compl w/policies. Manage and monitor performance of fleet, routing and scheduling planning. Bachelor’s degree in any field. 2 yrs exp in profession related to logistics. Res: West Wind Express, Inc. 7050 S Archer Rd, Bedford Park IL 60458
TECHNICAL
Cisco Systems, Inc. is accepting resumes for multiple positions in Chicago, IL: Software Engineer (Ref#: CHI103C): Responsible for the definition, design, development, test, debugging, release, enhancement or maintenance of software. Telecommuting permitted. Leader, Technical Support (Ref#: CHI163C): Responsible for leading a team in the delivery of world-class customer support on a line of products or for a targeted group of customers. Telecommuting permitted. Please email resumes including position’s reference number in subject line to Cisco Systems, Inc. at amsjobs@cisco. com. No phone calls please. Must be legally authorized to work in the U.S. without sponsorship. EOE. www.cisco.com
Architectural Designer Hoerr Schaudt Landscape Architects, LLC seeks an Architectural Designer. Mail resume to 1555 W Fulton Street, Chicago, IL
Business Intelligence Analyst National Board of Certification and Recertification for Nurse Anesthetists (NBCRNA) seeks Business Intelligence Analyst in Chicago, IL to assr vrs NBCRNA Dta Systms are in-sync & cnstnt. Reqs BS in Math, Econ or Stat, or a clsly rltd fld + 24 mnths exp in a rltd ocptn. Reqs 24 mnths exp w/ the fllwng: SQL Srvr Rptng Srvcs (SSRS), SQL ldr; Prgrmng lgc; Dta intgrty, dta vldtn, dta cnsldtn, rsrch dta analsys, dta pipln crtn; Dta mngmnt; Cmnctn skls to trnslte dta into dta insgts & clct tchncl req. for rprts; & Mcrsft Office, Tablu, PwrBI. Telecommuting is avlbl. Mail resumes to Leah Cannon at 8725 W Higgins Road, Suite 525, Chicago, IL 60631. (Hoffman Estates, IL) Tate & Lyle Solutions USA LLC seeks Senior Research Scientist–Sensory w/PhD or for deg equiv in Sens, Food Sci or rltd fld (also accepts Mast & 3 yrs exp in job offrd . ust have exp w/snsry analys mthds (desc, discrim, consmr tstg); snsry data collec syst (Compusense); stat analys sftwre (SAS, JMP, XLSTAT or R). Apply online at https://
careers.tateandlyle.com/ global/en or to HR, 5450 Prairie Stone Pkwy, Hoffman Estates, IL 60192
Software Engineer II w/ McKinsey & Co., Inc. US (Chicago, IL). Build industry-specific data models & dashboards that provide insights to make better decisions w/ data. Telecommuting permitted. Req’s Bachelor’s in Comp Sci, S/w Engg, or rel field, or foreign degree equiv + 2yrs of s/w dvlpmnt exp. Domestic travel typically required. Destination & frequency impossible to predict. Email your resume to CO@mckinsey.com and refer to Job # 7803696.
Speech & Language Pathologist Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago d/b/a Shirley Ryan Ability Lab seeks Speech & Lang Pathologists for Homewood, IL location to plan, conduct, & evaluate programs designed to improve patients’ communication skills. Master’s in Speech-Lang Pathology req’d. Req: Speech lang pathology clinical competence cert from American Speech-Lang-Hearing Assoc req’d; Illinois Speech-Lang Pathologist license or temp license req’d; CPR cert req’d. Apply online: https:// www.sralab.org/careers, REQ ID: JR-1061733
Quality Management Consultant Devel and implement Environ, Social, and Governance (ESG) strategy; collab w teams to integrate ESG into biz processes, incl supply chain mgmt, product devel, ops; conduct ESG risk assessments and ID improvement; maintain relations w stakeholders; oversee collection/reporting of ESG data, compliance w Euro and US frameworks; deliver employee training programs re ESG issues; keep abreast of ESG regs and ensure compliance with laws and regs; regular audits to track ESG initiatives, ID improvements, and recommend actions; drive innovation in ESG practices, exploring tech, partnerships, initiatives; manage environmental and sustainability projects. Home worksite avail in domestic U.S. Reqd: BS in Biz Admin, Mgmt, or Sustainability and 2 yrs exp in Environ, Social, Gov programs and managing initiatives for a medium-big corporation. Send cvr ltr and resume to N Bandukwala, HR, Brainlab, Inc., 5 Westbrook Corporate Center, Suite 1000, Westchester, IL 60154.
Logistics Analyst in Chicago IL. Must have BS Degree in Logistics
or supply chain & coursework or equivalent exp. in ERP & Excel add-in Solver. Track inventory, warehouse, and logistics operations. Coordinate with different teams including transportation, sales and project management team to ensure smooth logistics operations. Collect and evaluate data to improve supply chain performance by using ERP system. Discover and update the most cost-effective shipping freight and schedules. Monitor and follow-up shipment (pick up-delivery) with vendor / customer / freight forwarder / broker. Analyze and identify inventory level for future demand. Send resume to: RDI Inc., 4101 42nd Pl, Chicago, IL 60632.
Senior Gymnastics Coaches Lakeshore Academy of Mount Prospect seeks four Senior Gymnastics Coaches in Mount Prospect, IL. Coach male athletes ages 4-18 in levels 3-10 gymnastics for regional, national & international competitions. Bachelor required in Physical Education, related or equivalent. Three years experience required coaching gymnastics to ages 10-17 in levels 7-10 or equivalent levels, including regional & national competitions. Valid USA Gymnastics membership required. Domestic travel required 1-2x/season. Send CV to lakeshoregym20@ gmail.com.
Morningstar Investment Management LLC seeks Senior Software Engineer (multiple positions) in Chicago, IL to build a User Interface Portal using VueJs and Vuex that surface products and tools, also build a restful APIS using ExpressJS for its backend. BS in Computer Eng, Computer Sci, Info Tech or rltd eng field & 5 yrs in relevant programming exp is req’d. In alternative, MS deg. in Comp Eng, Comp Sci, Info Tech, or rltd eng fields and 2 yrs in relevant programming exp. Employer will accept any suitable combination of education, training or experience. Add’l specific skills req’d. For position details & to apply, visit: https://www. morningstar.com/careers; ref. job ID REQ- 045643
Network Objects, Inc has multiple openings for the following position: Master’s+2yrs/ Bachelor’s+5yrs/equiv.: SAP ABAP Developer (NSAD24): Experience must include SAP SD, RICEF, EDI, GTS, ECC. Mail resume with job ID # to HR: 2300 Barrington Rd., Suite 400, Hoffman Estates, IL 60169. Reference job ID # NSAD24.
Unanticipated work site locations throughout U.S. Foreign equiv. accepted.
Morningstar, Inc. seeks Data Content Designer in Chicago, IL to collaborate closely with the research, global content and operations teams, using your finance and business acumen to ensure the seamless execution of new initiatives (20%). BS in Finance, Econ, or rltd field & 5 yrs of data content exp reg’d. In alternative, MS in Finance, Econ or rltd field & 2 yrs of data content exp reg’d. Add l specific skills req d. For position details & to apply, visit: https://www. morningstar.com/careers; ref. job ID REQ-046002
Clinical Research Associate Northwestern University seeks Clinical Research Associate: conduct intake assessments and provide short-term therapy in individual and group setting with a specific focus on international students; provide psychological assessments, intakes, crisis intervention and management, triage, daytime walk-in emergency service and assume after hours on-call responsibilities for daytime and evening emergency services; consult with parents, physicians, faculty, academic deans, residence life staff, off-campus counseling services; participate in clinical supervision and training experiences for graduate trainees; conduct case management and consultation to trainees; consult with Psychiatrists in conjunction with prescribing and monitoring psychotropic medication for psychotherapy patients; participate in outreach preventative programs and serve as liaison to International Students at the University. Must possess (1) Master’s degree in Psychology, Counseling, or Social Work; (ii) must have two years of experience as a Staff Therapist/Liaison to International Students or two years of experience as a Staff Therapist Psychologist in a university setting; and (iii) prior experience must include experience conducting initial consultation/triage, intakes, and group screens appointments; performing short-term therapy to international students; participating in clinical supervision and training experience for graduate students; consulting with psychiatrists in conjunction with prescribing and monitoring psychotropic medication for psychotherapy patients. Any applicant who is interested in this position may apply to the following individual for consideration: Garrett Gilmer, Executive Director, Counseling and Psychological Services, 633 Emerson Street, Searle 2nd Floor, Evan-
ston, IL 60208, garrett. gilmer@northwestern. edu, 847-491-2151.
Software Developer(s)
Software Developer(s)
RedMane Technology LLC seeks Software Developer(s) in Chicago, IL to develop and implement object oriented n-tier software applications, including web-based applications; create technical design for Curam extensions, configurations, and interfaces. Telecommuting Permitted. Email resume to yourcareer@redmane. com; reference job code D7038-00126. E.O.E.
Lead Software Engineer (two positions), Chicago, IL, for Team TAG Services, LLC.: Lead a team focused on cust. & practice facing websites. Modernize legacy systems by dev. web apps using the latest Angular framework & create new user-facing features. interacting w/ cloud-native (AWS/ GCP) services. Req’d: Bach. (or foreign equiv.) in Comp. Sci., Comp. or Electronics Eng., or rel. & 5 yrs. of exp. in software development using Agile/ Scrum Development methodology & CI/ CD processes. May work remote 2 days per week. Resumes to code BF-LSE, J. Ximenes, TAG, 800 W. Fulton Market, Chicago, IL 60607 (juliana. ximenescoutinhodias@ aspendental.com).
Video Production Director Video Production Director: Deliver religious services of Evangelical Christian Church through on-line streaming, incl greater use of video & multi-media. Prep, execute, supervise video prod & online streaming. Coord topics w/church’s creative team. Sched recs. Set up & tear-down of sets, camera, lighting eqpt, both in field & church settings. Upkeep of camera, audio, lighting eqpt. Editing. Upload final video content to social media platforms. 2 yrs exp. Bachelor’s degree in film directing , or closely related. Res: Maranatha Bible Church 4701 N Canfield Ave, Norridge IL 60706
Construction Project Manager Construction Project Manager: Direct & coord activities of employees to obtain optimum efficiency in sales & ops, max profits in constr entity. Comm w/ clients, employees, subcontractors, real estate agents, attorneys. Prep contracts, proposals, estimates for construction bids. Participate in dvlpt of a constr project, oversee org, sched, budgeting, impl. Bachelor’s in any engineering field. 2 years exp as construction project
engineer or construction project manager. Res: MG Bros Construction, Inc. 1295 Jarvis Ave, Elk Grove Village IL 60007
Assistant Professor of Clinical Pathology/Physician Surgeon The Dept of Pathology, at the Univ of IL Chicago, located in a large metropolitan area, is seeking full-time Assistant Professor of Clinical Pathology/Physician Surgeon to assist the department with the following responsibilities: Under direction and supervision, teach, train, and advise medical students, residents, and fellows in fields of Pathology, and specifically Dermatopathology and Hematopathology. Provide clinical patient care in the specialties of oncologic and non-oncologic Dermatopathology and Hematopathology to a diverse patient population in the hospital. Participate and collaborate on other sub-specialty diagnostic services, such as molecular pathology, digital pathology, HLA, and informatics. Conduct medical science research, publish and present scientific research findings, and perform University service and administrative duties as assigned. Some periodic travel may be required for conferences, professional development, and/or local travel in between worksite locations. This position minimally requires a Medical degree (MD) or its foreign equivalent, one (1) year of Dermatopathology fellowship training and one (1) year of Hematopathology fellowship training, a valid IL med license or eligibility for an Illinois medical license, & board certification or eligibility for certification in Anatomic & Clinical Pathology. For fullest consideration, please submit CV, cover letter, and 3 professional references by 9/25/24 to Ms. Alsera Hayes, 840 S. Wood Street, 130CSN, MC847, Chicago, IL 60612 or via email to alsera@uic. edu. The University of Illinois System is an equal opportunity employer, including but not limited to disability and/or veteran status, and complies with all applicable state and federal employment mandates. Please visit https://www.hr.uillinois. edu/cms/one.aspx?portalId=4292&pageId=5705uic to view our non-discrimination statement and find additional information about required background checks, sexual harassment/misconduct disclosures, and employment eligibility review through E-Verify. The university provides accommodations to applicants and employees https://jobs. uic.edu/request-andaccomodation/
CLASSIFIEDS JOBS
PROFESSIONALS & SERVICES HOUSING AUDITIONS
(Hoffman Estates, IL)
Tate & Lyle Solutions USA LLC seeks Sr. Research Scientist w/Mast or for deg equiv in Biochem, Microbio, Chem or Chem Eng or rltd fld & 3 yrs exp in job offer or in tech dev incl exp in proj mgmt; indst new prod dev from concp to cmrcl prodctn; bus/cmrcl exp to suprt on prod portfl & innov pipeln bld; ingrd dsgn or solutn or creatn of cmplx food ingrd sys. Apply online at: https:// careers.tateandlyle.com/ global/en or to HR, 5450 Prairie Stone Pkwy, Hoffman Estates, IL 60192
Project Manager I – Engineering HNTB Corporation, Chicago, IL. Manage assigned project(s) throughout their full lifecycle including developing the scope and technical sections of proposal and procurement document to participating in contract negotiations and overseeing the delivery of the project plan. Local travel may be required for site inspections up to 5% of the time.
Reference job # 0136 & mail resume to N. Carr, 715 Kirk Drive, Kansas City, MO 64105. EOE including disability and vet.
Clinical Laboratory Scientist in Buffalo Grove IL. Must have Master’s Degree in clinical laboratory science or related field such as biology, pharmaceutical, pharmacy, medicine or biochemistry. Alternative requirements: Bachelor’s Degree in Clinical laboratory science or related field such as biology, pharmaceutical, pharmacy, medicine or biochemistry+2 years of exp.. Perform clinical testing such as genomic testing, quality control, equipment maintenance, & proficiency testing in accordance w/ current laboratory protocols. Apply knowledge & data analytics skills to organize clinical testing data, analyze & interpret genomic testing results based on clinical guidelines, to assist in management of clinical data. Prepare test report as required & take appropriate action before verification & release. Other tasks as assigned.
Multiple openings. Send resume to: GoPath Laboratories, LLC 1000 Corporate Grove Dr. Buffalo Grove, IL 60089.
PROFESSIONALS & SERVICES
CLEANING SERVICES
CHESTNUT ORGANIZING AND CLEANING SERVICES: especially for people who need an organizing service because of depression, elderly, physical or mental challenges or other causes for your home’s clutter, disorganization, dysfunction, etc. We can organize for the downsizing of your current possessions to more easily move into a smaller home. With your help, we can help to organize your move. We can organize and clean for the deceased in lieu of having the bereaved needing to do the preparation to sell or rent the deceased’s home. We are absolutely not judgmental; we’ve seen and done “worse” than your job assignment. With your help, can we please help you? Chestnut Cleaning Service: 312-332-5575. www. ChestnutCleaning.com
HOUSING
House for rent 3323 S Damen Ave $2,000 mo 3323 S Damen Ave
Newly remodeled historic Chicago bungalow. Three bedroom, 2 person whirlpool. All appliances included. Walk to shopping, Orange line, Archer Avenue. Under 10 minutes to Midway Airport, downtown Chicago, Chinatown, Rush hospital. 1 minute to I-55. See pics and apply on Zillow. Com. Call 312 953-4057
AUDITIONS
Flutists Wanted Lakeside Flutes-Chicago’s Premiere Flute Choir seeking new members. All flutists welcome. Rehearsals held Sept.April, every other Sunday, 1:00-3:00 p.m. in Evanston. Visit www. lakesideflutes.org
GOSSIP WOLF
A furry ear to the ground of the local music scene
ON FRIDAY, AUGUST 30 , Chicago singersongwriter Sima Cunningham will release the long-gestating solo album High Roller via New York–based label Ruination Record Company . “I’ve been working on the solo record for the better part of a decade,” Cunningham says. “Some of these songs are tenplus years old, some are five years old. Some are more fresh, from the last couple years.” In 2014, she and Macie Stewart founded Finom (the art-rock duo formerly known as Ohmme), and that’s been taking up most of Cunningham’s musical energy ever since. Finom released their third full-length, Not God , in May, and Cunningham says it felt like time to put out High Roller. “I’ve been so deep inside of Finom,” she says, “and it felt like the right moment in my heart. I was like, ‘I feel really ready for these songs right now. I feel ready to share them.’”
Cunningham wrote the material on High Roller about several kinds of intimate relationships. “I love to write songs about the romanticism of friendship,” she says. “I think that friendships are so rich and important and should be treated with the same reverence and adoration as romantic partnership.”
Cunningham wrote the gently psychedelic “For Liam” about her younger brother, singersongwriter Liam Kazar . “That feeling that I write about in the song, of ‘I would die for you,’ I’ve never felt so protective of anyone else in the world,” she says, “until I had a kid.” High Roller closes with “Adonai,” a tribute to Cunningham’s friend Chris Jackson, a gay
composer who took his life when she was a high school senior. She wrote “Adonai” when she was 19, drawing on Leonard Bernstein’s “Chichester Psalms,” which she liked to sing with Jackson when they were both in the Chicago Children’s Choir. “It was really hard for me to feel like the song lived up to how I wanted it to exist for him,” she says.
Cunningham says she took inspiration from Harry Nilsson’s “anything goes” approach to songwriting for High Roller , and throughout the album she juggles rootsy rockers, flamboyant quasi-symphonic ballads, and tender acoustic tunes. She produced the album with her husband, multi-instrumentalist Dorian Gehring , at Logan Square’s Fox Hall Studio , which they run together. “Dorian is an amazing musician, producer, and recording engineer,” Cunningham says. “We’ve just been trying the songs on every which way—like, we always knew we liked the songs, but it was how to present them.”
“I’ve been playing these songs for a decade, and a lot of people know these songs even though they were not recorded at all,” Cunningham says. “I feel relief that people can take it home with them.”
IN JUNE, CHICAGO RAPPER and librarian Roy Kinsey launched a GoFundMe for Rapbrary , a nonprofit devoted to preserving rap as a literary art form and creating sanctuaries for banned and challenged books. Kinsey began focusing on the Rapbrary concept last year, and it’s taken off quicker than he anticipated; he’s already received book
donations, and he’s found a home for the first Rapbrary location, which will be in Belmont Cragin events space Ironweed (5112 W. Grand).
“I understand that there’s an urgency,” Kinsey says. “Rapbrary absolutely needs to exist now, especially when we think about 46 out of 50 states having banned and challenged books, and how so many books—and authors as well—are being targeted and challenged.” On Sunday, September 1, Thalia Hall hosts an offi cial launch party for Rapbrary.
Rapbrary fits right in with Kinsey’s other work, which he nurtures with a profound love of history and literature. “In the tradition of hip-hop, one of the five elements was spreading knowledge, and it’s not a thing that we talk about often,” he says. “I really want Rapbrary to be preserved, understood, and studied as one of those [examples] of Black intellectual thought.”
At Sunday’s party, Kinsey will perform songs from his next album, A Legacy Project . He’s bringing a few unannounced special guests and a deep team of talented Chicago DJs. “It’s going to be mostly a dance party,” he says, “understanding that literary folks like to shake ass too.” Tickets start at $25; the event begins at 5 PM, and it’s open to ages 17 and up.
ON WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 28 , local composer and producer Cesar Pino , stage name C3zr , releases a remix of his upbeat samba- inflected instrumental “Agua Viva,” just in time for you to add it to your end-ofsummer playlist. Before COVID, Pino was mostly a pianist (he’d gotten a toehold in the jazz scene), but lockdown pushed him toward electronic music, which he could make at home. His debut album as C3zr, Round Voyage , hit streaming services this March, and he’s recently begun dropping bonus tracks from a deluxe vinyl version scheduled for this fall. The new remix is the second so far, following June’s live version of “B.B.B,” a tune cowritten by and featuring Chicago vocalist Ifeanyi Elswith . The “Agua Viva” remix is by rapper and producer Pugs Atomz , one of C3zr’s labelmates on Los Angeles–based 600 Block Records , and his lively lyrics and spirited flow make fitting additions to the song’s feel-good energy.
—TYRA NICOLE TRICHE AND LEOR GALIL
Got a tip? Tweet @Gossip_Wolf or email gossipwolf@chicagoreader.com.
Sima Cunningham at Yoko Ono’s Sky Landing in Jackson Park SHANNON MARKS
SEX AND RELATIONSHIPS
Time to call in the kink cavalry
Introducing BDSM into your marriage; plus, will she ever leave him?
By DAN SAVAGE
Q : My husband and I— straight, cis, and in our 30s— are very happy together, but our sex life has never really “clicked.” In our day-to-day lives we’re best friends and we’re prone to silliness. The sex feels like it should work out: we’re attracted to each other, and we have similar sexual fantasies, mostly related to Dom/sub stuff. We like the same porn, for example.
The sex we have is usually pretty nice, but it’s also very vanilla. I have more experience with kinky sex than he does, but always as a sub with an experienced Dom. We have never really managed to bring our shared interest in D/s into our bedroom. I think part of this is us not knowing where to start. Part of it is also that it’s hard to distance ourselves from our reality.
We played with bondage, for example, but I didn’t find it particularly hot because it’s him tying me up, and, since I know he would never actually hurt me, it all feels like play. Any advice? —BEEN DITHERING SINCE MARRYING
a: Picture this, BDSM: you and your husband are tied up together—maybe you’re strapped to the bed, he’s strapped to a chair—while the pro Dom you hired (or the amateur Dom you met at a munch) playfully (but plausibly) threatens to “hurt” you both.
Finding a very special guest star who not only shares your love of Dom/sub stuff but really enjoys playing with couples will take effort, BDSM, but calling in the kink cavalry—outsourcing the
domination to someone who might (but wouldn’t) actually hurt you—could help you and your husband find a groove that makes kink feel more possible and plausible when it’s just the two of you. Or you might learn that bondage and D/s play doesn’t work for you in the context of a committed relationship, BDSM, and you’ll have to keep bringing in those special guest stars if you wanna keep that Dom/sub stuff coming.
Q : I am an man. I met a beautiful Nepalese woman at work. The coworker who introduced us basically told me this woman was unhappily married. We started spending time together, and we have now been seeing each other for almost three years. Everyone on my end knows about her (and knows she’s unhappily married). The fact that we’re seeing each other is mostly secret on her side, as only a few close friends of hers know. I have to pretend at work that we aren’t as close as we actually are, and it makes me feel like a shadow. She has no kids, and has told her husband she wants a divorce, which he won’t consent to. He doesn’t need to consent. She could divorce him anyway but she’s hesitant to do so without his buy-in. The house is the only thing she owns with him, while everything else is in his name.
Most of her friends, also Nepalese, have told her that white men can’t be trusted (which I can’t really disagree with, given our history as a nation). And they are telling
(mine), you’ve most likely seen questions like yours before, LIMBO. You’re going to get the same answer everyone else gets: If she was going to leave him for you—which she’s not going to do—she would’ve already left.
the word of a cheater isn’t worth much. If she lives in a marital property state, she’s entitled to half of everything, including assets that are in his name, and she doesn’t actually need her husband’s consent to divorce him.
her that having a baby with her husband will improve their relationship. I think that’s the worst possible reason to have a kid, especially when the dude in question is an emotionally abusive POS. I love this woman. She makes my heart flutter every time I see her. She’s kind, compassionate, intelligent, and hot. But after three years she still can’t leave him. I can imagine it’s difficult for her as she has a lot to lose. But I love her and want to be fully with her.
I don’t want to push her to do anything she’s not ready to do, or that she doesn’t want to do. That would make me no better than all the other men she’s had in her life. But I’m starting to feel like this isn’t going to happen. She sleeps in bed with him every night. He tracks everything she does and where she goes. I’m not sure how much longer I can be patient.
I’m sick of being a shadow boyfriend, while she just keeps playing wife and we have to pretend we’re just friends. Should I leave this relationship? Am I an idiot to think she’ll ever leave him? —LEAVING ISN’T MY BEST OPTION
a: I’m not sure what your whiteness or your girlfriend’s Nepalese-ness have to do with your question, LIMBO, which is one I get all the time. The genders are usually reversed in the letters I get (it’s usually a woman who’s getting strung along by a married man) but your predicament is common. And since you’re a reader of at least one advice column
I’m guessing you weren’t able to independently verify that your girlfriend asked her husband for a divorce, which means you only have her word to go on. And as commenters on every advice column are quick to point out,
Now, it’s also possible that she’s afraid to leave him. She may have legitimate worries about violence or social consequences in her community. But even if her reasons for staying with her husband are understandable (if sad),
LIMBO, like all mistresses, whether you’re willing to settle for what she’s able to give you is a decision you get to make. If being her side piece insults your dignity, you need to break up with her. If you love her too much to ever leave her, you’ll have to make peace with being her side piece. v
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