Chicago Reader print issue of October 3, 2024 (Vol. 54, No. 1) by Chicago Reader

THIS WEEK

06 Cooper | Feature Wax Vinyl Bar and Ramen Shop puts a spin on Japanese cuisine and listening cafes.

07 Reader Bites Pumpkin bread at the Common Cup

08 Small business Wicker Park vintage stores navigate a changing neighborhood.

10 Prout | Health and politics What are overdose prevention sites?

COMMENTARY

11 Isaacs | On Culture Did Northwestern bow to congressional pressure in suspending Medill professor Steven Thrasher?

ARTS & CULTURE

12 Cra Work The unconventional ﬂoral arrangements of Espinas

13 Preview Palestinian artists document life under occupation.

13 Review Vani Aguilar’s return to Chicago

THEATER

16 Review Harry Potter and the Cursed Child brings magic to the Nederlander.

18 Reid | Review UrbanTheater Company’s Chicago Lore(s) explores the history of the Young Lords.

19 Plays of Note Alabama Story, Blue Eyed Soul Sung by Brown Eyed People, and more

FILM

20 Feature Explore a century of follies and ﬁlm at the Elmhurst History Museum.

22 Moviegoer Women make movies.

22 Movies of Note Daaaaaalí! is a ﬁttingly absurd biopic, and Rez Ball is an honest, heartfelt sports drama.

MUSIC & NIGHTLIFE

24 Galil | Feature Chicago music-zine revolution wants you!

26 Shows of Note Previews of concerts including Cupcakke, Panopticon, Twin Talk, and Už Jsme Doma

29 Gossip Wolf Verböten release their debut album 41 years a er breaking up, Ralph Rivera and Marten Katze collect players for a goth-punk rock lotto, and more.

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SHIRA FRIEDMAN-PARKS

THEATER & DANCE EDITOR KERRY REID

MUSIC EDITOR PHILIP MONTORO

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

CULTURE EDITOR: ART, ARCHITECTURE, BOOKS, LITERARY ARTS KERRY CARDOZA

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SOCIAL MEDIA ENGAGEMENT

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BREAK CYCLES TO BUILD FUTURES

Reader Letters m

Re: “‘No new revenue without reform,’” written by Reema Saleh and published in the September 19 issue (volume 53, number 33)

Nondrivers and low income folks need to watch this! —Joseph T. Miller, via Instagram

Drivers do too! Less service means more congestion and lower air quality. —Kevin O’Connor, via Instagram

Regional coordination (and hopeful future planning for more seamless transfers between various modes of transport) sounds ideal. I’m pessimistic about what this “consolidated” regional board will bring in terms of politicization. [This is] likely precipitating further defunding of transport for the Chicago region (i.e. voices from aﬄuent suburbia gain power over core transport decisions). —Corin Menuge, via Instagram

A full audit of the monies should be reviewed. I bet [the budget] went mostly to oﬃcials’ salaries and pork projects instead of actual infrastructure improvements. Let’s see a er the audit. —David Vega, via Instagram

The one thing this reporter and nobody who wants this merger to happen will tell you is how much it will cost to do. Billions. We can’t even fund transit $1 billion but we’re gonna put up $3 billion up front just to get this oﬀ the ground (not even counting annual operating costs). Plus you’ll have to go and redo all the union contracts. —Cityscoping, via Instagram

Blah, blah, blah. Raise fares, cut services! —Starr Williams, via Facebook

Find us on socials: facebook.com/chicagoreader twitter.com/Chicago_Reader instagram.com/chicago_reader threads.net/@chicago_reader linkedin.com search chicago-reader

The Chicago Reader accepts comments and letters to the editor of less than 400 words for publication consideration. m letters@chicagoreader.com

Perez was gone. In 2018, I stood on Randolph in front of a building, confused, bewildered, and hungry.

No one told me that the West Loop restaurant had closed the year before (but of course, during my absence from Chicago, I had forgotten to ask).

I left Chicago in my late 30s to live in Philadelphia for a bit (in my version of a midlife crisis, you give away the contents of your apartment at a free store and move to Philadelphia, rather than buy an expensive sports car and find a mistress). While I was away, Mayor Emanuel (and, perhaps, just the passage of time, capitalism, and what happens in cities) moved some of my stu around.

Including Perez, which wasn’t the best (in my humble opinion) but not the worst, and a solid option for chilaquiles when stuck in the West Loop. The West Loop (as I stood there in late 2018 ba ed by Perez’s disappearance) looked very different than even ten years before.

Let me bring us out of the time machine I’ve built and back to 2024: it tickles me greatly to take new Chicagoans to this area and point out the buildings and sites along Halsted and Randolph that once held strip clubs, sex clubs, and open-air prostitution walks. And this was just in the 1980s! Every neighborhood changes

The Chicago Theater in 1970

over time. But I digress.

Back in 2018, I called up a friend I hadn’t seen since I ﬁrst moved out of town to let him know I was moving back. “We’ll have to get together for lunch,” I said. “But not at Perez,” he said.

“I was just over there! I noticed that! What happened?” I replied. “Salem,” he said, “our way of life is disappearing.”

My friend is dramatic and was really mourning the dismantling of (yet another) area that once had lower-cost industrial space that one could rent to show art in, but there was some truth there—the more you stick around, the more changes you’ll witness. Which is why our archivists, librarians, community griots, and museums serve such an important purpose. We need to see what was in order to know what will be. We need guidance in preserving only the stu that works for all of us, not the stu that works for some.

With this in mind, please read both Daniella Mazzio's cover story on a museum exhibition in Elmhurst looking at local movie palaces, and also Leor Galil’s feature on new music zines. The keepers of the documentation can help lead us if we listen to them. v

—Salem Collo-Julin, editor in chief m scollojulin@chicagoreader.com

CORRECTIONS

The Reader has updated the online version of the article “Entering the mirrored world,” written by Nicky Ni.

When the story was first printed in our September 19 issue, we incorrectly stated that the art show previewed in the article (“Federico Solmi: The Great Farce” at Block Museum of Art) opens on October 5. The exhibition has been open to the public since September 19.

The Reader has also corrected the online version of “CIRCA Pintig launches inaugural Chicago Filipino American Theatre Festival,” written by Anna Rogelio Joaquin and also published in the September 19 print issue.

The digital article has been updated to reflect that the festival is no longer taking place at Bramble Arts Loft as originally announced. Festival readings are still scheduled from October 11 until October 26 at PrideArts and the Rizal Center.

A full schedule of events is posted at the festival’s ticketing link, accessible through circapintig.org/cfa-theatre-festival. v

JOHN AKOMFRAH

Nocturnes

John Akomfrah: Four Nocturnes is presented at Wrightwood 659 by Alphawood Exhibitions.

Akomfrah; Courtesy of Smoking Dogs Films and Lisson Gallery. John Akomfrah: Four Nocturnes, 2019. Three channel HD colour video installation, 7.1 sound, 50 minutes. (AKOM190001)

FOOD & DRINK

Wax Vinyl Bar and Ramen Shop puts a spin on Japanese cuisine and listening cafes

A husband-and-wife pair opened the West Town restaurant and bar to celebrate local music and DJ culture.

By CHASITY COOPER

Gina Barge-Farmer and Lee Farmer are passionate music lovers. Barge-Farmer grew up with a musician as a parent, and her husband, Lee, has DJed since he was 12 years old. “[Lee’s] always had this dream of opening a bar centered around music and DJ culture,” says Barge-Farmer.

The couple own West Town’s newest hot spot, Wax Vinyl Bar and Ramen Shop. At the restaurant and bar, guests have the opportunity to dine in or grab a seat at the bar by the DJ booth. There’s also an area for folks to dance if they’d like, and as the name says, Wax plays only vinyl records.

“The whole inspiration for Wax came from Japanese [jazz] kissa— vinyl listening rooms that are all about appreciating music in an intimate setting,” says Barge-Farmer. “We visited Tokyo earlier this year to soak up some inspiration, and everything just ﬂowed from there.”

The Farmers opened the place on June 1 after acquiring it from the previous owner. “It was a seafood-boil spot [Spicy Fingers Seafood Kitchen], but he wanted out of the business, and we saw an opportunity,” says Barge-Farmer. A former journalist, she says that working in the restaurant industry has truly been a leap of faith since soft launching Wax in May.

“The restaurant industry is deﬁnitely a challenge—we’re constantly in the process of interviewing, hiring, and getting into the rhythm of what our guests love,” she says. “But the payo is great because people really vibe with the atmosphere and appreciate how much we care about music culture.”

with Chicago artist J. Ivy and DJ Terry Hunter for the Chicago House Music Festival.

“We were still getting our bearings, and there were a lot of hiccups with service and getting orders out,” Barge-Farmer recalls. “Luckily, people were really understanding, and the music saved the day.”

Opening their doors at the beginning of summer in Chicago did have a few drawbacks, but Barge-Farmer says that the experience has served as preparation for what is to come. “Because of the timing of our opening, we weren’t

NASCAR, or the NABJ [National Association of Black Journalists] Convention,” she says. “But we’re deﬁnitely ready and excited for the next big Chicago event.”

The couple are heavily connected to Chicago’s music scene and have built an amazing network of DJs. The bar plays a range of music on any given night, from ’70s soul and funk to 2000s hip-hop and R&B. And when it comes to the food, Barge-Farmer describes their menu as “Japanese adjacent, with our own unique twist.”

The opening vibes were so right that just a day later, on June 2, they hosted an afterparty

able to build up enough momentum or awareness to be considered for o cial parties tied to the DNC [Democratic National Convention],

“Our ramen is definitely untraditional—it starts o vegan and gluten free, since we don’t use meat in the broth and currently use rice

noodles,” she says. “But don’t worry, we don’t sacriﬁce on ﬂavor.”

The menu is split into an A-side (dinner) and B-side (late-night bites). Popular menu items include their Tokyo wings, fried rice, spicy togarashi fries, and their Disco Rolls— egg rolls stu ed with a mix of collard greens and kale that’s been braised in coconut milk.

“We also have a delicious selection of craft cocktails,” says Barge-Farmer, “with our best seller being the Number Eight—a perfect balance of smoky mezcal, floral St-Germain, and fresh lemon juice, served up in a martini glass.”

Wax patron Kristin Harris-Luis, a winemaker from California, was in town for an industry event and remembers how hospitable and kind the Farmers were during her dining experience. “From the moment I walked through the door, I knew it was going to be a good time,” she says. “It deﬁnitely felt like we were invited to their house for a party. The music wasn’t the only thing that made the space—the drinks, the food, and the ambience all come together to create a palpable, fun fusion of various cultures where anyone feels welcome.”

This month, Wax will launch its happy hour, with specials on wine, cocktails, and wings. “We consistently bring in great musical talent, and the vibe here is fantastic,” says Barge-Farmer. “We can’t wait for more people to experience it for themselves.” v

m ccooper@chicagoreader.com

DJ Scratch playing at Wax in September

COURTESY WAX VINYL BAR AND RAMEN SHOP

RWAX VINYL BAR AND RAMEN SHOP

Thu-Sun, 6 PM–2 AM, 1549 W. Chicago, waxvinylbar.com, see instagram.com/waxvinylbar for announcements of upcoming music curators

FOOD & DRINK

Autumn is the pumpkin bread at the Common Cup. Fresh out of the oven in the morning or wrapped in plastic and marked at half price the following afternoon, with chocolate chips or protestant plain, it’s the best pumpkin bread, quietly perfected at the Rogers Park co ee spot. I normally pair a slice with a giant iced mocha (I want to make sure both my doctor and dentist have a good retirement). It can’t be a coincidence that the 49th Ward office is right across the street. Has the Reader stumbled on some grand Rogers Park pumpkin bread conspiracy?

Boxing Amongst Chickens

I took my old car

For a drive down Douglas

Past the old dog track

Avoiding left turns on main roads

In front of old Florida apartments

Painted in shades of mango and apricot

With skinny black metal railings

That run along the balconies

Dad and I went to see a movie

Like we used to every weekend

We once saw one about two brothers

Both are MMA ﬁghters

One is a teacher about to lose his house

Punching and kicking to hang on to it all

The other is an ex-marine

Who doesn’t talk much to strangers

The teacher sobs

While he beats up his brother

They walk out of the Octagon

Embracing each other

Beaten and bruised

Twelve years later

We sit in Dad’s neighborhood theater

Eating cheap hotdogs

As ﬁve brothers

Wrestle for their lives

On the big screen

uncomplicated pastry has the power to get you through the worst of days, it can feel too good to be true. Ever just bite into something that feels right? That’s the best way I can describe the holy loaf: correct, blessed, and pumpkiny.

The Common Cup itself is an almost idyllic co ee joint, with board games, great roasts, a laid-back atmosphere, and walls decorated with rotating local art pieces. Working or unwinding in a coffee shop is good for the soul, I believe, and if the shop has otherworldly good pumpkin bread, all the better.

Probably not. But when a seemingly

Carbs Sugar Gourd Magik—seasonal depression doesn’t stand a chance.

—JONAH NINK THE COMMON CUP 1501 W. Morse, $4.25, 773961-7019, thecommoncupchi.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.

I always liked those movies

About the ﬁghters

Who need to prove something

To all their lousy relatives

They always have a chip on their shoulder

A neighborhood behind them

A pretty girl waiting for them at home

By Casey Cereceda

Who can’t help but be enticed

By a troubled man

And his self-inﬂicted pain

Dad once took me to see a friend of his He had me work on the bag

While chickens ran all over the yard

My parents thought I was being bullied

So Dad took me to Chicken Jamie

So I could learn how to throw a left hook

He laughed at me when I swallowed the water “You’re gonna be a champion!” he told me. He insisted I keep the gloves

I found a good spot on my wall for my cruciﬁx It goes best over the door

So you’re blessed each time

That you leave the house

Start your day early

Fight your way out of bed

As the sun greets your neighborhood

Big strides

Down the street you live on

Heaving in the morning air

I watch those movies for the training montages Grey hoodies

Cold visible breath

Pull-ups and tire ﬂips

An old man punching you in the gut

Halfway through a thousand crunches

I watch those movies

When I haven’t worked out in a while I run hard

But the older I get

The less I’m sure

What I’m training for

Casey Cereceda is an educator and musician living in Chicago, IL. Originally from South Florida, he ﬁnds inspiration from his childhood. A recurring theme in his work is identity, and how his has been shaped by places of origin and formative experiences related to ethnicity, masculinity, and spirituality.

A weekly series curated by the Chicago Reader and sponsored by the Poetry Foundation.

Fall

Hours

Wednesday, Friday, Saturday: 11:00 AM–5:00 PM Thursday: 11:00 AM–6:00 PM

The Murmuring Grief of the Americas

Daniel Borzutzky, Rae Armantrout, and Forrest Gander read from their latest collections, which grapple with grief. October 5, 2024 at 2 PM

Open Door

A poetry reading featuring Julie Ezelle-Patton, Ed Roberson, Duriel E. Harris, and Dawn Joseph. October 10, 2024 at 6 PM

Pumpkin bread at the Common Cup

NEWS & POLITICS

SMALL BUSINESS

New but old again

In Wicker Park, a small community of legacy vintage shops struggles under the pressure of chain stores and a changing neighborhood.

By MARY RANDOLPH

As the focus on old, reused, and recycled clothes grows in the mainstream, Wicker Park’s longtime vintage and consignment stores are seeing the change happen around them. And for better or worse, these stores still serve the communities they always have.

Carlos Pascoll owns Vintage Underground, a vintage store that has operated on North Milwaukee Avenue for 19 years. He stands behind the counter, greeting tourists and young adults who pass through the shop. Visitors sift through endless trays of costume jewelry that

ﬁll the front of the store, snap photos alongside racks of vintage jeans and jackets—yet often leave without buying anything.

But when a woman who has been shopping at the store for a decade walks in, Pascoll’s face lights up. They discuss their respective broach collections, and Pascoll unlocks a small cabinet with his most prized items. As the two swap stories, the customer asks if Pascoll might take a look at a broken broach in her collection. “I can’t promise anything,” says Pascoll, noting that his job description doesn’t include jewelry repair. “But bring it to me, and I’ll try my best.”

It’s this community connection that longtime Wicker Park residents and business owners are mourning as the neighborhood increasingly becomes a trendy tourist destination.

Pascoll attributes this change to the increase in chain stores in the area over the past several years, including Supreme, Yeti, Carhartt, and Adidas, all located within two blocks of his store. “People used to focus on repurposing and recycling,” he says. “Now, they care about brand names.”

Christen Cook, a longtime employee at Store B Vintage, agrees. She says the rush of new bars into the neighborhood several years ago did not disrupt business, but she’s noticed a change since brand-name stores started populating North Milwaukee.

Cook says most shoppers on the street are tourists or residents of other Chicago neighborhoods, not those who live or work in Wicker Park. But this wasn’t always the case. As an employee of the store for 13 of its 23 years and a customer for several years before that, Cook remembers a time when most patrons were familiar faces.

Despite the loss of those community encounters, vintage store owners have built a

support network among themselves. David Ginople, Cook’s boss and the owner of Store B Vintage, has been curating and reselling in Wicker Park for close to a half-century. Several stores in the neighborhood—including Vintage Underground, Store B Vintage, Una Mae’s, and Richard’s Fabulous Finds—have lived through at least 15 years of changes and “look out for each other.”

“If somebody doesn’t ﬁnd something here, I’m going to send them down to Una Mae’s, and if somebody’s looking for designer [items], they’ll send them to me,” Cook says. “Carlos has a lot of jewelry, and Richard carries only men’s clothing, so I’ll send people over there for that. I think there’s enough business for everybody because everybody does something a little di erent.”

These pockets of community are increasingly few and far between, says Eviliss Rivera, who has lived in Wicker Park for more than 40 years. She says only seven or eight of her original neighbors remain. “Landlords know that people are willing to pay the taxes, so they keep going up, and it’s moving everybody who cares about this neighborhood out of the neighborhood.”

Pascoll’s rent at Vintage Underground

climbed from $1,800 in 2005 to $9,700 today—a number he struggles to reach at his current proﬁt levels, he says.

The vintage and secondhand retail market is growing faster than the overall retail market globally, according to a 2023 report from online secondhand platform ThredUp. Using data from analytics firm GlobalData, they expect the secondhand market to reach $70 billion globally by 2027. Across social media, Gen Z influencers highlight the environmental and budgetary benefits of shopping secondhand. On Wicker Park’s main drag alone, more than ten vintage stores cater to shoppers.

“It’s a trend,” Rivera says. “Before the past few years, you never saw it on TV.”

But even as vintage and consignment stores undergo a renaissance in the media and among Gen Z, Cook and Pascoll both say turning a profit has been di cult over the past five years. The slew of other vintage stores surrounding them are mostly newer resale chains and cater to trendier styles and brands. These include Round Two, a five-year-old branch of a nationwide chain. Round Two features one floor of luxury sneaker resale and another full

of Carhartt jackets and vintage college championship tees.

Aly Trunzo, a Columbia College student who works at the store, says most of its shoppers are Gen Z and very few are Wicker Park residents. As for the sense of community, Trunzo says she and her colleagues don’t know much about the other stores in the neighborhood or communicate with their employees.

But even with the word-of-mouth support between legacy places like Vintage Underground and Store B Vintage, Pascoll says younger shoppers will often come in and only take photos of the store.

Cook has noticed a similar trend. “There might be a group of ﬁve girls who come in, and chances are nobody’s gonna buy anything,” she says. “They’re gonna look around, try a couple of things, take some photos. It’s an activity.”

As I speak with Cook, a group of younger shoppers do just that. With bags from the nearby Free People and Levi’s in hand, they circle the store, try on a pair of sunglasses, and walk out. Cook waves them goodbye.

“I always hope one of those girls is going to come back on her own, and be like, ‘Oh, I really wanted to shop, but I was with these people

and didn’t want to seem weird,’” Cook tells me. Those outliers, less interested in chains and brand names, are the store’s hope for a younger generation of customers, she says.

Facing the pandemic and the inﬂux of chain stores, business has been tough, even with the industry’s growth. As Store B Vintage looks toward its future, the shop—and the small pillar of community around it—may ﬁnd itself

another victim of Wicker Park’s yearslong gentriﬁcation process.

“The chains are gonna end up killing us, but that’s the evolution of a neighborhood,” Cook says. “We’ve loved our time in Wicker Park and are looking forward to the 25-year mark.” v

m letters@chicagoreader.com

Items at Vintage Underground SHIRA FRIEDMAN-PARKS

& POLITICS

HEALTH AND POLITICS

THE KIND OF PREVENTION WE NEED

Illinois remains without an overdose prevention site. Advocates have fought for years. What’s the holdup?

BY KATIE PROUT

An overdose prevention center (OPC), also referred to as an overdose prevention site, safe injection site, or supervised consumption site, is a legally sanctioned space where people can use drugs without fear of harassment, arrest, or overdose death.

At an OPC, participants are provided with the tools they need to use drugs more safely—like sterile syringes, glass pipes, and drug testing kits. Workers who provide these tools are trained in overdose response, and medical sta are available to care for wounds and offer other services like testing for HIV and hepatitis C.

OPCs also provide access to other life-changing and lifesaving resources. For example, OnPoint NYC, the ﬁrst legally sanctioned OPC in the U.S., offers free laundry machines, meals, individual and group counseling, computer classes, and acupuncture at their East Harlem and Washington Heights

ceive harm reduction supplies, where they can get help with homelessness, they can get help with behavioral health they own. That’s what this is about.”

But recently, a source close to the process said that city departments, especially Public Health and the mayor’s office, are showing signs of support for an OPC, even as the state bill still treads water. “It’s gonna get to the point where we have to decide as a community: Are we going to do an overdose prevention site anyway, and risk the fallout?”

OnPoint NYC, for example, functions without state approval: instead, the New York Health Department has created their own guidelines and protocols. While the overdose death rate decreased across the country in 2023, Black and Indigenous Americans continue to have the highest death rates, with Native communities actually experiencing a 2 percent increase. This disparity, especially in a state as diverse

“As with all aspects of the war on drugs, stigma, fear, and misinformation continue to feed a robust set of myths around the safety, effectiveness, and impact of OPCs.”

spots. Many OPCs also provide medically assisted treatment like methadone or Suboxone, drug counseling, and information on rehab centers, but these services are noncoercive, meaning people aren’t forced into them by law or court order—or shamed into them by center sta .

For years, state representative La Shawn Ford has sponsored a bill to open a pilot OPC on Chicago’s west side, where residents regularly su er from the highest overdose death rates in the city. During a phone call in January 2024, Ford said law enforcement distaste and caution from the City of Chicago were holding the bill back. “This is a spot where people could come get help, where people could re-

the person using it deserves to stay alive. “If we try to deter use in that moment, then we haven’t fulfilled our long-term objective of keeping people safe,” said Kailin See, then OnPoint NYC’s senior director of programs, at an August 2022 panel hosted in Lawndale by the West Side Heroin/Opioid Task Force.

as Illinois, makes OPCs “really crucial,” the source said.

OPCs are an example of harm reduction, a philosophy the National Harm Reduction Coalition explains as “a spectrum of strategies that includes safer use, managed use, abstinence, [and] meeting people who use drugs ‘where they’re at.’” Harm reduction acknowledges that people use drugs for all kinds of reasons—to deal with the trauma of poverty or incarceration, treat mental illness, relax with friends or lovers, or enjoy a night to oneself. It also recognizes that some drug use is chaotic or harmful and, for many people, abstinence from drugs or alcohol is neither possible nor desirable. Regardless of the drug,

As with all aspects of the war on drugs, stigma, fear, and misinformation continue to feed a robust set of myths around the safety, e ectiveness, and impact of OPCs. The truth, backed up by decades of global data, is that these sites are part of an evidence-based harm reduction strategy that reduces deaths and other dangers associated with drug use. In the 38 years since the world’s ﬁrst legally sanctioned site opened in Switzerland, there hasn’t been a single recorded overdose death on OPC grounds across more than 100 sites in 60-plus cities worldwide. OPCs are effective at lowering nonfatal overdose rates, reducing infectious diseases (and thus lowering public health costs associated with treating them), and even reducing the number of used needles and pipes found in public parks.

The evidence is abundant, but in the U.S., only two OPCs exist, both in NYC, and both operating in legal precarity. That’s thanks in part to current president Joe Biden who, as a

senator in 1986, was the “chief architect” of the so-called federal “crack house statute,” which made it illegal to own or run a place where people make or, crucially, snort, ingest, or inject drugs. The results of this law were as terrible as they were predictable. More people of color and poor people had their lives and the lives of their families wrecked by incarceration while overdose rates only continued to climb. Opponents of OPCs often point to the law when arguing against them. “As long as the statute remains in effect,” wrote Jeneen Interlandi for the New York Times in December 2023, “anyone who operates a safe consumption facility, or funds one, or leases a building where one is situated, risks federal prosecution and more.”

Nevertheless, state by state, people who use drugs and their allies, harm reductionists, established medical experts, and policymakers are fighting for change. Besides OnPoint NYC, Rhode Island is set to open an OPC at the end of 2024. The majority of the funds for the center are coming from opioid settlement dollars, something Illinois could also tap into—if we have the political will. v

m kprout@chicagoreader.com

An OPC provides tools to use drugs more safely. RAWPIXEL

ON CULTURE

Thrashing around

Did Northwestern bow to congressional pressure in canceling a Medill professor’s classes?

By DEANNA ISAACS

Northwestern University president Michael Schill fared better than some of his predecessors when he went into the lion’s den of a hearing on anti-Semitism on college campuses by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce last May.

Two of three university presidents who’d testiﬁed before the committee at a previous hearing—Harvard president Claudine Gay and University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill—were out of their jobs within weeks of the ordeal.

Still, Schill didn’t escape unscathed.

The committee was not pleased with his answers. On June 7, committee chair Virginia Foxx sent a letter to Schill and NU board chair Peter Barris complaining that the president had “pointedly refused to answer questions” and “demonstrated an overall attitude of contempt for the committee.”

“Unfortunately, rather than being cooperative and transparent, Northwestern has obstructed the Committee’s investigation of this matter,” Foxx wrote, also making it clear that the investigation is continuing.

The committee requested that a list of all student, faculty, and sta “disciplinary/ conduct cases relating to alleged antisemitic incidents at Northwestern since October 7, 2023” should be turned over pronto, and added that the committee “will not tolerate Northwestern’s obstruction of its oversight.”

and that he had touted that resistance on social media.

On July 8, NU sent a letter of its own to Thrasher. Medill dean Charles Whitaker informed the professor that the university had “received multiple complaints from many sources” about his conduct and “per the terms of the Northwestern University Handbook” was initiating disciplinary proceedings. While “these proceedings are pending,” Whitaker wrote, Thrasher would not be permitted to teach at Medill.

His fall term classes were canceled.

Prominent among the complaints the dean cited was a charge that Thrasher “made statements about the standards of journalism that are antithetical to our profession and values as a University, including but not limited to your declaration [at the encampment] that you do not teach your students to be ‘objective.’”

In July, misdemeanor charges for obstructing a police officer at the encampment in April were ﬁled against Thrasher, NU librarian Josh Honn, another faculty member, and a graduate student—only to be quickly dropped by the Cook County state’s attorney.

“Our concern is that Northwestern is giving in to pressure from the committee on education and the workforce.”

A previous letter from the committee to NU had noted that Professor Steven Thrasher, Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism chair of social justice in reporting, “was a leader and participant in physically resisting police” when they tried to clear a pro-Palestinian encampment on campus,

Attorney Rima Kapitan, who is representing Thrasher, doesn’t think it’s a coincidence that criminal charges were filed and Thrasher’s classes were canceled shortly after Northwestern received the June 7 letter from the congressional committee. The allegations against Thrasher are “red herrings,” she says.

According to Kapitan, Northwestern’s main allegations are that Thrasher took issue with the concept of journalistic objectivity (a well-known subject of debate by many scholars and journalists, she says); that

he refocused a course to talk about Israel/ Palestine (on the syllabus for fi ve years and relevant, she says); that he exhibited behavior “that has been reported as threatening, demeaning, and harassing,” (which Thrasher denies); and that Thrasher engaged in some “intemperate and inflammatory dustups” on social media last spring (Thrasher says this was discussed with the dean and resolved five months ago).

“Our concern is that Northwestern is giving in to pressure from the committee on education and the workforce,” Kapitan says. “The allegations against him are from April of this year, but no investigation was opened in April or May. Then, June 7, they got a letter from the [committee] on education and the workforce, and less than three weeks later Northwestern ﬁled criminal charges against Dr. Thrasher and Northwestern librarian Josh Honn and others, and on July 8, Dr. Thrasher received that letter saying he was suspended and an investigation was being opened.”

“Northwestern is just yielding to pressure from Congress” to take some kind of punitive action, Kapitan maintains. She suggests that “If they really believed that Dr. Thrasher had committed misconduct, they would have started an investigation back in early May, at the latest.”

Banning Thrasher from teaching “violates Northwestern’s Temporary Suspension policy,” which requires consultation and a ﬁnding that the faculty member “poses an immediate threat of harm to his or her own safety, to the safety of others, and/or to Northwestern,” none of which happened, Kapitan says.

Northwestern spokesman Jon Yates says the university does not comment on personnel matters.

At press time, a recently posted open letter supporting Thrasher had gathered more than 2,700 signatures, primarily from academics, medical professionals, and journalists. v m disaacs@chicagoreader.com

Steven Thrasher C.S. MUNCY

ARTS & CULTURE

Unlike other floral artists, Serena Madrigal likes to leave the thorns on her roses; she finds the duality in the flower’s softness and sharp edges meaningful.

“Roses are beautiful, but the thorns are what make the rose beautiful. That’s what protects the rose,” she said.

At 30, Madrigal is a multidisciplinary artist splitting her time between Chicago and Sacramento, California. Beyond her ﬂoral creations, her art spans painting, hand-poke tattoos, event planning, and creative direction. She considers her work with her hands a legacy passed down from her father, a Chicano street artist. But to understand the intention and meaning behind Madrigal’s work, you have to know her roots.

“We grew up pretty poor, and I was actually in foster care for 12 years,” Madrigal said. “[My siblings and I] became a product of the system.”

Madrigal entered the foster care system in Sacramento when she was less than a year old. It would take her mother, Debbie, 12 long years to ﬁnally adopt Madrigal, along with her three siblings, all of whom had also been placed in the system.

“I’m still healing from it, but I feel [that] had we not gotten taken away, I don’t think she would have changed her life, and been able to get us back, or been able to be in our life,” she said.

For 12 years, Madrigal believed no one was searching for her or ﬁghting to bring her home. Reuniting with her mother came as a shock, but the two quickly bonded over their shared love for plants and ﬂowers. After foster care, money troubles persisted, forcing her family to relocate constantly, but one thing remained consistent.

“By the time we were leaving and having to move again, the yard would be green and thriving, and [my mom] would just bring so much life,” Madrigal recalled.

When Madrigal moved to Chicago in 2017 to pursue a degree in social work, flowers unexpectedly found their way back into her life. Her first job, at a farmers’ market flower stand, led to a position as the floral department lead at a grocery store in Wicker Park, where she began making flower arrangements for special occasions.

CRAFT

WORK

Every rose has its thorn

Serena Madrigal’s ﬂoral arrangements embody her personal survival and growth.

By JOCELYN MARTINEZ-ROSALES

things kind of just came to me, and ﬂowed to me. And so I don’t know, I guess some would call that passion.”

Madrigal’s work effortlessly intertwines nostalgia, romance, culture, and modernity. Drawing on the resourcefulness of her up-

crates or become street art by being placed on fire hydrants and metal fences—redefining the boundaries of floral artistry.

In between giggles and a warning of it being a little cliche, she says, “Like the rose, I grew from concrete.”

“I would just let it pour out of me,” she said. “It was so easy to tap into it, and the more and more I accepted that, the more and more

bringing, she transforms humble materials into captivating floral designs, each one a tribute to nature’s elegance and an invitation to escape into the splendor of timeless beauty. Her floral installations often feature unconventional materials like cinder blocks and milk

Her deep connection to ﬂowers eventually ﬂourished into an independent practice under the name Espinas, meaning “thorns.” As a full-time artist, she has done weddings and other special occasions, created made-to-order arrangements, and worked with brands like Aesop, Herradura Tequila, In Good Spirits, and national cannabis brands like Miss Grass.

In her collaboration with Miss Grass, she took viewers on a “Hazy Date” to an orchid nursery, where—mounted on three cinder

RSERENA MADRIGAL instagram.com/__espinas blocks—Madrigal combined orchids, dahlias, and cannabis flowers to make an elaborate arrangement.

“I knew a lot of people that were getting incarcerated for [cannabis], and I saw the destruction that it did,” Madrigal said.

The war on drugs and mass incarceration have disproportionately impacted people of color. Many behind bars are still facing lengthy sentences for marijuana charges while the cannabis industry has expanded across the country, making it a billion-dollar market dominated by white men. Despite this, BIPOC individuals are reclaiming the plant; for Madrigal, this means not only using the ﬂower in ﬂoral designs but actively educating others on the health and wellness it can bring.

“I want the ability to be able to expose people to the beneﬁts of cannabis,” she said.

Madrigal is a regular cannabis user and says the plant has helped her mental health journey. One of the projects she’s putting together for the near future is a ﬂower arrangement workshop tour that will center cannabis. “Right now I’m in my collaboration era, where I’m collaborating with artists and building myself.”

One consistent collaborator is her best friend, Chicago photographer and artist Ambercita. Together they have worked on numerous projects, including a recent gallery exhibition in Sacramento, “Personal Associations; Shared Moments.” The exhibition was an ode to Chicano culture that celebrated the community and experiences that thread Latinos together.

“I feel like we just play. We get to enjoy what we’re doing. And sometimes I pinch myself,” Madrigal said. “These are my coworkers, technically, you know what I mean? These are people that I get to work with and collaborate with. And I think there’s something so beautiful about community.”

While collaborating and networking has been one of her main focuses recently, Madrigal is planting the seeds for a solo show. “I want it to be super intentional. I think I’m waiting for the moment to come to me to be like, ‘OK, it’s time,’” she said. “I definitely dream about it.”

Madrigal’s story is one of resilience, artistry, and passion enveloped into a craft. In between giggles and a warning of it being a little cliche, she says, “Like the rose, I grew from concrete.” v

m letters@chicagoreader.com

Serena Madrigal in her studio

AMBERCITA

Vani Aguilar and Chuquimarca oﬀer a place of contemplation at Tala.

By CRISTOBAL ALDAY

It’s a hot summer Chicago afternoon when I stop outside of Tala gallery. There are white plastic chairs situated in front of the building. Growing up, my family and I had a similar setup in our front yard as a place of relaxation. Instead of buying actual patio furniture, we would have an assortment of chairs, mainly plastic and handmade wooden benches, to be able to sit down and loosen up after a long day of work. We made due with what we had to find moments to unwind. Throughout Vani Aguilar’s exhibition at Tala, I find similar moments where I can take in something at my pace—and these chairs only amplify these sentiments.

“Blinked Twice” is Aguilar’s first solo exhibition; it was curated by John H. Guevara, founder of Chuquimarca, an arts library participating in the making and exchange of art knowledge and programming. The show comes after Aguilar’s graduation from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and subsequent return to their southern California homeland. Here, viewers get to see the growth of Aguilar’s practice and what it means to go from living in Chicago to living in California and returning to Chicago to showcase new pieces alongside older work.

Creating spaces for people to meet and relax goes hand in hand with the fences on display throughout the exhibition. At Aguilar’s duo exhibition with Juan Arango Palacios, “El Brillo en Sus Ojos” at Roots & Culture back in 2023, we talked about fences in their work. Que Calor, on view in that show and also at Tala, details two people hanging in a lush green yard by a chain-link fence, their faces out of frame. There’s often a violence around these fences, as they’re used as tools of separation; in this work, Aguilar is not erasing the violence but mitigating di erent meanings. Fences in working-class

communities can be used as a place of personal and artistic expression. They represent home. The iron ones in the Latinx community are often very decorated, beautified with little hearts and bright colors. Another painting that focuses on decorative fencing is Love Don’t Live There. This new work shows an orange fence and homes as well as a Care Bear and various statues in the background. Here, the aesthetics push yards to be as homey and welcoming as possible, making them inviting when neighbors or friends stroll around to hang out. In the middle of the exhibition space, more white plastic chairs are set up. They act as installation pieces and as a place for moments of pause and contemplation for visitors. There is a nostalgia to both the chairs and pieces that really made me want to stay awhile. Aguilar, in a way, is connecting Los Angeles and Chicago through these motifs in order to elaborate on the beauty within working-class Latinx neighborhoods. Despite the cities’ geographic distances, Aguilar found these connections. No matter where Aguilar ends up, when they encounter decorative fencing, they know they are home. v

m letters@chicagoreader.com

ARTS & CULTURE

‘America needs to hear more Palestinian voices’

“Landscapes From Under the Rubble” documents what artists endure under Israeli occupying forces.

By COCO PICARD

“Life for artists in Gaza has never been easy,” says Chicago-based Palestinian designer and visual artist Linda Abdullah. Illustrating this point is Abdullah’s latest curatorial endeavor, “Landscapes From Under the Rubble,” which opens Friday, October 4, at Co-Prosperity.

Presenting work in three parts, the exhibition includes work produced in Gaza prior to October 2023—much of which has since been destroyed by the occupation; work created by artists after leaving Gaza; and work produced by artists who remain in Gaza, waiting for a ceasefire, and “using,” Abdullah told the Reader in an email interview, “whatever materials they can ﬁnd like hibiscus, tea, or charcoal, to make marks on ruled notebook papers.” The show features the work of eight Palestinian artists (Basel Elmaqosui, Dena Mattar, Majed Shala, Mohamed Abusal, Raed Issa, Rana Batrawi, Shareef Sarhan, and Sohail Salem).

R”LANDSCAPES FROM UNDER THE RUBBLE”

Through 10/ 13 : Sat noon- 5 PM or by appointment, Co-Prosperity, 3219 S. Morgan, coprosperity.org

documenting “what artists endured as Israeli occupying forces targeted all institutions of knowledge, culture, and education like Al-Aqsa University, Shababeek [for Contemporary Art], and Eltiqa art [gallery].” Artistic gestures become deﬁantly positive in the face of supreme violence—as when artist Salem documents living in a war zone through daily drawings he posts on Facebook that say: “I’m still alive,” or when Elmaqosui converted his tent into a makeshift studio to host art workshops for children and mothers to offer “respite in the face of daily trauma,” or in the colorful paintings by Mattar who “ﬁnds hope expressing her grief and fears in color.”

“America needs to hear more Palestinian voices,” Abdullah says. “By showing the artists, their works (or what’s left of their works), and their stories, I hope for this exhibition to be the artists’ protest and a cry out loud for justice and for ending the annihilation of the Palestinians.” v

For Abdullah, “Landscapes From Under the Rubble” represents a form of protest

m letters@chicagoreader.com

Vani Aguilar, Love Don't Live There STEVEN PIPER

Sohail Salem illustrates living in a war zone through daily drawings. COURTESY LINDA ABDULLAH

THEATER

RHARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD

Through 2/1/25 : Tue 7 PM, Wed 1 PM and 7 PM, Thu–Fri 7 PM, Sat 1 and 7 PM, Sun 1 PM; also 1 PM Fri 11/29 and Thu 12/26 and 1/2/25, 7 PM Sun 11/ 10, 12/29, and 1/5/25 ; no shows Thu 11/28 or Wed 12/25 and 1/1/25 ; James M. Nederlander Theatre, 24 W. Randolph, broadwayinchicago.com, $ 49–$193 (limited number of $ 40 lottery seats available each performance)

From personal experience, I promise that your nearby audience members would rather not hear you explaining every detail throughout the show and will wish they had some silencio spells on hand if you do.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child overﬂows with stage magic

The touring production turns the Nederlander into Hogwarts.

By AMANDA FINN

The James M. Nederlander Theatre was aglow on opening night. A first performance for the ﬁrst national tour of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child brought together Potterheads, casual fans, and theatergoers to jump forward in time after J.K. Rowling’s famed fantasy novels ended. It is a time when the teenage children of Harry, Ron, Hermione, and their pals from the earlier stories are ﬂitting about Hogwarts on their own grandiose adventures.

This play by Jack Thorne, based on a new story by Rowling, Thorne, and John Tiffany (the latter also directs), has had quite a journey of its own. It opened on the West End in 2016, transitioned to Broadway in 2018, and has played various theaters around the world since then. It used to be a two-night a air to make the original ﬁve-hour-plus runtime more palatable. Now it’s just shy of three hours with intermission. Although that may sound intimidating to some, it may perhaps be the most invigorating playgoing of your life.

Cursed Child reminds us just how magical theater can be.

We observe Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley’s son Albus (a plucky Emmet Smith)

and Draco Malfoy’s son Scorpius (an oh-socharming Aidan Close) become the very best of friends. They want to make names for themselves at Hogwarts and ﬁnally break free of the legacy of their parents. Albus and Scorpius end up on a pretty standard Harry Potter–style romp, utilizing magical abilities they haven’t quite mastered and making a muck of things. Luckily they’ve got pals like Delphi Diggory (a manic pixie dream girl–esque Julia Nightingale) to lend a hand.

A word to the wise—don’t read the cast list before the show. Unless you want to ruin some pretty terriﬁc moments, avoid the list of characters at all costs. Be prepared for several familiar faces/voices. I’ll ruin one surprise: it’s especially a joy to see longtime local favorite Larry Yando.

The story itself isn’t much to write home about. It’s fairly standard for this enchanting world. Instead, what makes this play so enthralling are the e ects, mesmerizing choreography, and Hollywood blockbuster-caliber score. There is not a moment when the stage isn’t alive with the ﬂurry of capes or a whizz of pyrotechnics. I have never seen a show run so smoothly, brushing over scene changes

with a ﬂourish—Cursed Child makes even the mundane otherworldly.

Jamie Harrison’s illusions and magic designs are unlike anything I have ever seen on the stage. Metaphorical magic be damned: this is the real deal. Scene after scene you will be racking your brain, trying to figure out how they did it. I have no idea how these actors can casually ﬂip furniture through faux telekinesis before going about their day as if nothing happened. It’s one thing to see this kind of magic onscreen. It’s a whole other thing to see it right before your eyes.

While the sets, costumes, and score (Christine Jones, Katrina Lindsay, and Imogen Heap, respectively) aren’t labeled as “magic,” they certainly feel it. From the ghoulish draperies of the Death Eaters to the spellbinding swells of composition, every artistic element expertly showcased here is like sorcery in its own right.

Although Harry Potter has been around for decades, knowledge of it isn’t ubiquitous. If you aren’t familiar with the story, I beg you to read up on it. You’ll be able to follow along without knowing the background, but many touches throughout the show will lose you.

References don’t necessarily make the show better for non-Harry Potter fans, though knowing them will make it a more enjoyable experience. For your reference, here are some speciﬁcs to Google ahead of time: Death Eaters, Marauder’s Map, Triwizard Tournament, Polyjuice Potion, Time-Turners, Expelliarmus, Hogwarts, Floo powder, Sorting Hat, and Quidditch.

Before I go any further, I should be clear that, despite being a millennial, I’m far from a Potterhead. I didn’t like the books as a kid, I kinda like the movies (mostly for Alan Rickman), and I only logged onto Pottermore to get sorted into a house. (To the surprise of no one, I’m a Ravenclaw.)

Still, seeing this show filled me with joy. That joy, however, comes at a price. To quote the wise Albus Dumbledore: “It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” Rowling’s fantastical world enraptured many, particularly fellow millennials who grew up with the books and movies, in an almost unparalleled way. Yet her abilities for composition are not outweighed by her hateful reputation. Rowling is known to be a TERF (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist) who has done irreparable harm to my LGBTQ+ community. I would be remiss not to mention that here. Her work is forever tainted by her reprehensible rhetoric.

Because of that, I boycott anything Harry Potter–related. This show is the single exception since Rowling’s public downfall several years ago. Even so, I also cannot ignore the tremendous artistic talents throughout this production. From the incredible troop of crew members to the electrifying cast, this tour of Cursed Child is magniﬁcent. Should you feel so compelled, this show is far from a lesson in storywriting, but it is a masterclass in storytelling. v

m letters@chicagoreader.com

Aidan Close (L) and Emmet Smith in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child MATTHEW MURPHY/MURPHYMADE

FRAYN

RCHICAGO LORE(S)

Through 10/27: Thu–Sat 7: 30 PM, Sun 2 PM; UrbanTheater Company, 2620 W. Division, urbantheaterchicago.org, $ 40

Chicago Lore(s) delves into the history of the Young Lords

José “Cha Cha” Jiménez’s life inspires this absorbing world premiere at UrbanTheater Company.

By KERRY REID

Sammy A. Publes’s Chicago Lore(s), now in a world premiere at UrbanTheater Company, is a political play in the best sense. This isn’t theater that tendentiously tells us how to think about sociopolitical issues. Rather, it’s an absorbing story that makes you consider what it takes to try to change yourself and your community—one hard-fought and complicated battle after another. Perhaps more importantly, it makes you empathize with those who found the strength and inspiration to keep going. Like Milk or Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart, Publes’s play is less about creating legends or heroes and more about honoring the very human stories behind social movements.

It’s also a show that rightly foregrounds a part of Chicago history that still feels underrepresented in popular culture: the story of the Young Lords and their leader, José “Cha Cha” Jiménez. Featuring a dynamic cast (most playing multiple roles) under the direction of UTC producing artistic director Miranda González, this is a history play that speaks urgently to our own moment. The themes it addresses—housing justice, gentrification, police violence, the hard but necessary task of creating coalitions to resist common oppressors—are arguably even more urgent now than they were more than 50 years ago. (On October 11, WTTW premieres The Young Lords of Lincoln Park as part of their new season of Chicago Stories.)

zation under the leadership of Jiménez and others. As Lincoln Park became increasingly gentrified (in part because of the growth of DePaul University), the Young Lords protested and organized for better living conditions for working-class and poor people in Chicago and

As Cha Cha tells it, he had a “rap sheet longer than a ’74 Fleetwood by 15,” which we get a glimpse of through a fast-moving series of courtroom scenes, punctuated with the sounds of gavels and various mispronunciations of his name by the judges and culminating in his deportation back to Puerto Rico. There he lives with an aunt who provides grounding for him (and also gives him some new dance moves). His time in jail for drug-related o enses puts him in touch with his spiritual side and ignites his desire to help transform the Young Lords into a radical community organization. Publes’s story touches on a lot of aspects of this history, including the role of women in the movement and the original Rainbow Coalition (not to be confused with the one that Jesse Jackson created later), involving the Panthers, the Young Lords, and white working-class Uptown organization the Young Patriots. Along the way,

We also see—thanks to Vega’s multilayered performance—the doubts and despair that bubble up for Jiménez as he witnesses his community splintered by greedy landlords and mendacious politicians and police. The show touches on his personal insecurity with his identity as a lighter-skinned Puerto Rican (his comrades sometimes call him “Casper,” like the cartoon ghost). He tells his aunt, “I’m too blanco for the Puerto Ricans and too Puerto Rican for the blancos.” And always, the temptation of drugs is right around the corner—a weakness easily exploited by those looking to undercut the movement.

Staged on a series of white-painted platforms, with white curtains upon which we see a variety of shimmering projections that include a snippet of West Side Story and archival news clippings (scenic design by Harrison Ornelas), Chicago Lore(s) feels like it exists in a place somewhere between Jiménez’s memories and historical record. We sense that these stories are being rebuilt in the moment in Cha Cha’s mind. That tension between possibly faulty memory and curated history creates an uneasiness that winds throughout Publes’s story and helps build the tension between the people in the movement we meet here.

For example, when the Young Lords take over Reverend Bruce Johnson Jr.’s Armitage Avenue United Methodist Church (which they renamed People’s Church), their use of Che Guevara’s image sets o people in the parish who ﬂed Castro’s Cuba, including the associate pastor, Reverend Sergio Herrera. Revolution has different meanings for different people, depending on their own experiences. (Johnson and his wife, Eugenia, were both found stabbed to death in their home in 1969, and Herrera was murdered not long after moving to Los Angeles, where he continued to work with the Young Lords. Those murders have never been solved.)

The Young Lords started as a Puerto Rican street gang in Lincoln Park around 1960. By 1968, inspired by Fred Hampton and the Black Panthers, they had become a political organi-

for self-determination for Puerto Rico. Publes creates a memory play to trace Jiménez’s life and career. Iván Vega’s Jiménez, oxygen tank in tow, has returned to Chicago from Michigan after the COVID shutdown to talk to his old comrade in resistance, Black Panther Billy “Che” Brooks (Stanley King). An opening scene of Jiménez in bed, haunted by ghosts of his past, gives us a pretty clear idea of why he wants to make sense of his life and work.

we learn about the June 1969 police killing of Young Lord Manuel Ramos during a birthday celebration (six months before the assassination of Hampton, which is also reenacted here in a grueling interlude). We see the Young Lords take over the McCormick Theological Seminary administration building on Fullerton and demand that the Presbyterians put their money where their Christian mouths are by supporting health clinics and legal aid for the poor. (Which happened, at least for a while.)

In a 2018 interview with the Reader ’s Kerry Cardoza on the occasion of a DePaul symposium honoring the 50th anniversary of the Young Lords Organization, Jiménez said, “It’s a protracted struggle. It’s called unite the many to defeat the few—that’s how we’re gonna win.” By giving us glimpses of Jiménez’s internal struggles while honoring the battles the Young Lords fought, Chicago Lore(s) o ers both measured hope for the future and a compelling assessment of the past. v

m kreid@chicagoreader.com

Iván Vega (L) and Stanley King in Chicago Lore(s) at UrbanTheater Company JOEL MAISONET

THEATER

OPENING

ROf bunnies and banned books

Alabama Story examines a real-life tale of censorship and segregation.

Ghostlight Ensemble’s Alabama Story is a timely reflection on censorship and moral awakening. This daring production, directed by Holly Robison, opened at A er-Words Bookstore during Banned Books Week (it continues at A er-Words and Haymarket House through October 20) with a poignant reminder that the fight for social justice continues. Written by Kenneth Jones, Alabama Story is a semi-fictional historical drama set in 1959 in Montgomery, Alabama, drawing upon the true controversy over a children’s book. The Rabbits’ Wedding by illustrator Garth Williams faced backlash from segregationists upset that the book showed the love between two bunnies—one black, one white.

This site-speciﬁc performance in an actual bookstore adds a powerful layer to the story, making the theme of censorship palpable. The setting encourages the audience to think deeply about the connections between books, freedom of expression, and personal growth as the ﬁctional state senator E.W. Higgins (Tom Goodwin) clashes with the very real Emily Wheelock Reed (Maria Burnham), director of the Alabama Public Library Service Division, who resisted calls to remove Williams’s book and other titles from state libraries.

The play prompts audiences to reckon with historical biases and personal reﬂections, particularly for those willing to confront uncomfortable truths. While it centers on a children’s book, its themes of censorship, racial injustice, and moral awakening resonate most with adults. Without harsh language or vulgarity, the play’s message remains impactful and thought-provoking. The production’s commitment to historical storytelling, combined with the bookstore setting, makes Alabama Story a compelling and evocative piece of theater. It challenges us to reﬂect on how past prejudices resonate today and emphasizes the role of literature in inspiring social change.

—KAYLA PULLEY ALABAMA STORY Through 10/20: Fri–Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 2:30 PM; 10/4–10/6 After-Words Bookstore, 23 E. Illinois; 10/11–10/20 Haymarket House, 800 W. Buena, ghostlightensemble.com, pay what you can (suggested donation $25)

RA whiter shade of soul

Blue Eyed Soul Sung by Brown Eyed People delivers as advertised.

Jackie Taylor’s latest for Black Ensemble Theater, Blue Eyed Soul Sung by Brown Eyed People, is pretty much as advertised: a collection of hits from white artists such as the Righteous Brothers (“You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’”), Tommy James and the Shondells (“Crystal Blue Persuasion”), and—in a rousing ﬁrst-act closing medley— Tom Jones. They’re performed by singers representing Intellect, Mind, Passion, Soul, Spirit, and Humanity, with three “historians” giving us background on several of the highlighted musicians and a Voice (BET stalwart Rhonda Preston) keeping them on track in the Oracle, which seems like a celestial nightclub.

The framing device gets a little muddled, if truth be told (the “historians” pretty much dispense with the biographical information in the second act), though the

early debate about whether “blue eyed soul” is “Black music sung by white people” or “white people who sound Black” is fun. But as is usually the case with BET shows, once this cast starts singing, you probably won’t care about the philosophy lesson—which basically boils down to “we are all one.” (Except some of us could never dream of sounding as good as this cast.)

Is Dolly Parton’s music blue-eyed soul? Maybe not, but including her means Taylor gets to pay tribute to the Black roots and legacy of country music, and we get to hear Britt Edwards (who plays Passion, of course) tear the roof off with “I Will Always Love You,” with projections of Dolly and Whitney on either side of the stage looking like beatific godmothers. Similarly, Raeven Carroll’s second-act rendition of Linda Perry’s “Beautiful” (made famous by Christina Aguilera) feels like an exorcism of self-doubt and a defiant celebration of self-acceptance. It’s a good place to start the journey toward finding your own soul and seeing the beauty in others. —KERRY REID BLUE EYED SOUL SUNG BY BROWN EYED PEOPLE Through 11/10: Sat 3 and 8 PM, Sun 3 PM, Black Ensemble Theater Cultural Center, 4450 N. Clark, 773-769-4451, blackensembletheater.org, $56.50–$66.50

Misery just misses

William Goldman’s stage adaptation takes the terror out of Stephen King.

For 12-year-old Amanda, the macabre was tantalizing. I gobbled up horror books like Pennywise devoured kids. One summer I introduced Stephen King to the mix with four books: It, The Shining, Pet Sematary, and Misery King’s gripping Misery enthralled me. A tale of a megafan gone mad who holds her beloved author hostage a er a suspicious car accident? It was like The Shining but with far more incendiary tempers.

However, William Goldman’s stage adaptation lacks the grit that makes Misery compelling.

Goldman, who also wrote the screenplay for the 1990 ﬁlm version, somehow takes the bite out of King’s thriller. The 2015 Broadway production (starring Bruce Willis and Laurie Metcalf) was met with middling reviews. Suddenly this harrowing tale becomes more dark comedy than horror or thriller—which is ﬁne, but it fails to capture the spirit of Misery There are supposed to be bad vibes because Annie Wilkes is a sadistic superfan, not because you can’t take her seriously as a villain. It seems Goldman’s toothless writing takes this stage version out at the knees.

That isn’t to say the actors at American Blues Theater under the direction of Halena Kays don’t make the most of it. Steve Key as famed author Paul Sheldon is a wonderfully deadpan ﬁgure, while Wandachristine as Annie digs deep to channel menace and perfects the mystique of the innocent Good Samaritan.

What really pulls this production through, however, is the seamless lighting and sound designs by Michael Trudeau and Joe Court, respectively. With a more horror-adjacent script, those simultaneous eﬀects alone would be enough to send shivers down your spine.

—AMANDA FINN MISERY Through 10/26: Wed–Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 2:30 PM; Wed 10/2 and 10/9 2 PM (no show 7:30 PM), Sat 10/12 and 10/26 4:30 PM (no show 7:30 PM); American Blues Theater, 5627 N. Lincoln, 773-654-3103, americanbluestheater. com, $45 v

Let’s Play!

FILMFILMFILM

R“CHICAGOLAND MOVIE PALACES: A CENTURY OF FOLLIES AND FILM”

Through 1/5/25 : Sun, Tue–Fri 1–5 PM, Sat 10 AM– 5 PM, closed Mon, free Elmhurst History Museum, 120 E. Park, Elmhurst, 630 - 833 -1457

elmhursthistory.org/exhibits/current-exhibits/chicagoland-movie-palaces

Explore a century of follies and ﬁlm at the Elmhurst History Museum

A new exhibit on movie theater history and local industry runs through January 5.

By DANIELLA MAZZIO

The idyllic Main Street is a classic image of American ephemera. Before expressways and Cybertrucks changed landscapes, these stretches of early suburbanization forged hubs for commerce, character, and community. In Chicagoland, the remains of this Rockwellian Americana can still be found punctuating Metra stops—but of course, the times, they are a-changin’, and the character and history of suburban downtowns has evolved, for better (new crops of high-density housing along commuter lines) or worse (the presence of small businesses increasingly overtaken by Lululemons and Starbucks).

Travel west of Chicago, though, and there are a few places that have withstood time: movie theaters. In fact, Oak Park’s Lake Theatre, Downers Grove’s Tivoli Theatre, and Elmhurst’s York Theatre are three of the oldest operating cinemas in the Chicagoland region, and they have a total of 284 years in operation between them. The York—the oldest of these three—celebrates its 100th anniversary this year.

To commemorate this history, the Elmhurst History Museum presents the exhibition “Chicagoland Movie Palaces: A Century of Follies and Film,” on display now through January 5, 2025. The exhibition is a foundational history of movie theaters, from their origins as vaudeville theaters and playhouses up to the current state of theatrical exhibition, including nods to the success of “Barbenheimer” and the role of streaming. While the advertised focus and timeliness refer to the legacy of suburban movie palaces, the exhibit’s content is broader in scope, particularly as it progresses later into movie theater history. Archival objects on display include ornamental features of historic movie palaces, promotional film materials including lobby cards, and a mix of historical and contemporary photos of regional theaters, including some of Chicago’s most proliﬁc, still-standing palaces (like the Chicago, Avalon Regal, and Music Box theaters) and

some of the lesser-known cinemas that once operated in the region.

Though the central display focuses on the theaters themselves, the exhibit also features information about film production. Tactile learners will particularly enjoy the interactive self-initiated activity in which attendees can learn how foley artists create sound for a ﬁlm using props and household items to reproduce noises like footsteps, closing doors, and the clacking of a trotting horse.

Classic Cinemas is the operator of the Lake, Tivoli, and York theaters and is a sponsor of the exhibit, but—with the exception of a display featuring video interviews with the late Classic Cinemas owners Willis and Shirley Johnson, and their son and current CEO Chris Johnson—attendees shouldn’t expect a deep dive into the history of the York and its sister cinemas. That’s not to say that the exhibit is lacking in its local insights; some of its most fascinating tidbits center on the role the city played as a leader in movie palace architecture and on the Chicago businesses that manufactured and distributed movie theater equipment and decor. Still, despite the museum standing less than half a mile away from the century-old York Theatre, details about the theater’s relationship to Elmhurst are sparse.

Nearly every town on the Union Pacific West Metra line that takes you right to the heart of Elmhurst (within walking distance of both the museum and the York) was once home to at least one movie theater. Though the marquees no longer shine through these various downtowns, many of their facades still stand, and longtime residents may still have memories of weekends watching movies at the Geneva Theatre, the Wheaton Grand Theatre (which is still in restoration limbo), or the DuPage Theatre (the source of a contentious lost battle for preservation). Such memories drove the Johnsons to expand their theater operations business after restoring the Tivoli in 1978. Shirley, who passed earlier this year, EXHIBITION REVIEW

just months after her husband, recalls in one of the video interviews her memories of taking the bus to go see movies at the York. For her, the movies were a special way “to escape from our everyday life.”

If you visit the York, it is evident that the

historic palace prefers to look toward the future. The cinema was built as a single-screen theater with a capacity of 1,100, but today the York boasts ten screens outﬁtted with luxury heated seating, 4K projection, and surround sound, sharing the same slate of first-run

The Tivoli Theatre in Downers Grove, 1925 THEATRE HISTORICAL

FILM

movies as Classic Cinemas’ 15 other locations in Illinois and Wisconsin. For those interested in learning more about local movie theater history, the Elmhurst History Museum will offer a Classic Cinemas Bus Tour that will visit the Lake, Tivoli, and York theaters on October 21. (Registration is full, but a wait list is available.) Other events supplementing the exhibition include a gallery talk; lectures on Chicago’s role in ﬁlm production, the holidays on ﬁlm, and the depiction of Native people in

you’re encouraged to add a sticky note with the title of your favorite movie. Answers range from classics like The Godfather (1972) and Casablanca (1942) to more obscure titles like Elephant Walk (1954) and Butterﬂies Are Free (1972). One note named Children of Men (2006), accompanied by a hauntingly out-ofplace smiley face. Of course, Chicago’s classics are represented too. One person made sure to write out that their favorite ﬁlm is “Blues Brothers 1980 @ York Theatre.”

The streets of Elmhurst may have changed, but the movies are still there.

media; and trivia and screenings at the York Theatre and other local businesses. Willis and Shirley’s son, Chris, may now have taken the reins of Classic Cinemas, but he speaks in his interview about his own fond memories of the movies and how ﬁlm bridges entertainment and emotion. While the exhibit may not provide many fresh insights for diehard movie lovers, it embraces local history and reminds attendees of the universality of watching movies. As you exit the gallery,

That sticky note is a reminder of a town’s persisting memories.

“Chicagoland Movie

Palaces” recognizes cinema’s role in suspending memory between light and celluloid, from the everyday arrival of a train to one’s current favorite ﬁlm. Whether you spend an hour or so at the exhibit or take the Metra for a self-guided tour of these historic cinemas and the towns that surround them, there’s plenty out in the west suburbs to appreciate for anyone with a memory of their favorite movie at their favorite theater. The streets of Elmhurst may have changed, but the movies are still there. v

m letters@chicagoreader.com

The York Theatre in Elmhurst, 1997 ELMHURST HISTORY MUSEUM STAFF

Some of the most exciting programming happening now is taking place as part of Films by Women/ Chicago ’74, an abbreviated and more loosely organized remounting of a festival that took place 50 years ago at the Film Center of the School of the Art Institute (the “Gene Siskel” part hadn’t yet been added). Now it’s taking place at the Film Center, Block Cinema at Northwestern, and Doc Films at the University of Chicago.

It’s an extraordinary series of programming that continues through mid-November. This past week, I attended three of the screenings: Michelle Citron’s 1978 film Daughter Rite at the Film Center (with Citron and critic, scholar, and original festival co-organizer B. Ruby Rich in person) and a double feature of Dorothy Arzner films at Block Cinema, Craig’s Wife (1936) and Dance, Girl, Dance (1940). The Arzner films were preceded by a few shorts, two of which are especially noteworthy: Sharon Hennessey’s What I Want (1971) before Craig’s Wife and Siew-Hwa Beh’s The Stripper (1971) before Dance, Girl, Dance. Hennessey’s film screened as part of the original festival, while Beh’s is a welcome addition, an example of the addendums being added by Block and Doc Films to screenings of the original programming. Both paired perfectly with their features. Craig’s Wife centers on a woman who’s pragmatic to a fault and who wants only her house more than she does her husband, family, or friends. What I Want features Hennessey reading from a long scroll of paper a list of things that she wants (e.g. “I want cocaine,” “I want more lady truck drivers”). Block curator Mike Metzger noted that the list was compiled from various women— hence some of the randomness—though many of the items are centered on women’s rights. Metzger also connected it to Daughter Rite in that that film, too, was formed from the input of many women about their experience of being

A still from Dance, Girl, Dance (1940)

daughters. The personal is certainly political, and collaboration is key.

Stripper is only one minute long. Showing only the lower half of the titular performer, we see clothing and accessories fall to the stage, presumably as she undresses. It takes a turn to the absurd as what appear to be sections of the woman’s body begin falling to the ground. It’s surrealistic and irreverent, a minute of veiled confrontation.

Also screening before Dance, Girl, Dance which, as one can probably glean, connects to the shorts before it in that all involve dance— was Gunvor Nelson’s Take Off (1972), her most well-known work, which, like Stripper , confronts the male gaze in appropriately impudent ways. Nelson’s ﬁlm screened with Dance, Girl, Dance during the original festival; it’s interesting to see such a combination from that landmark occasion and wonder what viewers thought of it then.

Moving on unceremoniously . . . I love Francis Ford Coppola, but I acknowledge there’s a certain irony in following this with an appreciation for his latest ﬁlm, Megalopolis (2024), a behemoth of male hubris. I liked it—it has what’s missing from contemporary multiplex fare: originality, ambition, mettle. And that’s what I turn to Coppola for. His dedication to the craft is unwavering, and that man truly does not care what anyone else thinks. There are similarities to King Vidor’s The Fountainhead (1949), which I love. Both are about the potentiality and sometimes zealotry of creation—it’s easier to destroy than to build, as our modern-day world shows to us every day via depictions of violence and warfare, and Coppola understands that better than anyone. 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.

NOW PLAYING

RDaaaaaalí!

O en the most successful biopics are those with a spirit that feels indebted to the person they’re chronicling. Think I’m Not There (2007), with its chameleonic take on Bob Dylan, or The Color of Pomegranates (1969), where Sayat-Nova’s poetry is transliterated into visual splendor. Similarly, Quentin Dupieux’s take on 20th-century surrealist Salvador Dalí is less interested in the what of Dalí’s life, and more in the how Daaaaaalí! aims to exist as something plucked from Dalí’s brain, built upon absurd imagery, buried in nonsensical narrative structure, and seeking to please the eye and tickle the mind. To that end, Dupieux builds a movie that throws logic and stability out the window, its style hugely indebted to the work of fellow Spanish surrealist (and frequent Dalí collaborator) Luis Buñuel, with dreams and reality ultimately becoming interchangeable by the ﬁlm’s end.

No fewer than five actors are called upon to portray the prolific painter, his overblown persona too unwieldy for just one performer, with each of the primary Dalís (Gilles Lellouche, Édouard Baer, Jonathan Cohen, Pio Marmaï, and Didier Flamand) effortlessly working together to give him life. If there is a primary narrative thread to follow, it’s in Dalí’s fascination with Judith (Anaïs Demoustier), a self-described “boring” journalist tasked with interviewing the painter, her distinct ordinary nature becoming a magnet for Dalí’s artistic impulses to instill inspiration into someone with untapped potential.

But these moments of introspective emotionality are few and far between amidst a ﬁlm full of raining dogs, cowboys shooting priests, and circuitous storytelling devices that dare to bring an audience to the brink of mania. If Daaaaaalí! reads more as an artistic

experiment than a fully realized feature, perhaps Dupieux was aiming for that all along, a daring work that upends expectations at every turn. One hopes it’s what Dalí would’ve wanted too. —BEN KAYE 77 min. Music Box Theatre

R Rez Ball

I’m not much of a sports person, honestly. But despite my lack of interest in competitive athletics, Netﬂix’s Rez Ball managed to make a basketball fan out of me.

Cowritten by director Sydney Freeland (Marvel’s Echo 2014’s Drunktown’s Finest) and Sterlin Harjo (Reservation Dogs), Rez Ball revitalizes the inspirational sports drama with an honest, heartfelt story grounded by its spirited portrayals of Navajo youth. It’s based on the 2019 novel Canyon Dreams: A Basketball Season on the Navajo Nation by Michael Powell—who’s also credited as a cowriter of the ﬁlm. Rez Ball follows an ensemble of Navajo high schoolers, their community, and their basketball team, the Chuska Warriors, as they navigate the grief of losing their star player and teammate. Jimmy (Kauchani Bratt) and Coach Jessica (Heather Hobbs) struggle to keep the team inspired amidst the waves of mourning, anger, and fear that impact their community, all while ﬁnding ways to move each other toward their dreams of winning the state championship.

Despite the film falling into a straightforward—albeit easy to predict—story structure, its emotional beats carry a human resonance that keeps audiences grounded in its stakes. As Freeland finds thoughtful ways to weave queer stories into the film, Rez Ball remains focused on the heart of its story: chasing your dreams is a difficult journey when you’re constantly othered in the world, and it remains crucial to not let narratives of scarcity, shame, or self-hatred sabotage your destiny.

—LAYA LEE PG-13, 111 min. Netflix v

BLOCK CINEMA

EMPRESS OF + DUENDITA

DUSTER

+ DIRTY ART CLUB

NADA SURF

MOON MIRROR TOUR

+ OFFICE DOG

SODOM / DISMEMBER

+ NUNSLAUGHTER

× MARYLAND DEATHFEST

MICHIGANDER

+ CECE COAKLEY

BENJAMIN TOD & LOST DOG STREET BAND

+ NOLAN TAYLOR

AN EVENING WITH HANIA RANI

JULIE

+ THEY ARE GUTTING A BODY OF WATER

+ HER NEW KNIFE

MJ LENDERMAN & THE WIND

MANNING FIREWORKS TOUR

+ THE ROADHOUSE BAND

OSEES

+ IQUANA DEATH CULT

RICHY MITCH & THE COAL MINERS

+ GIGI PEREZ

HINDS

+ THE HAPPY RETURN

KATE NASH + REVENGE WIFE

THE HEAVY HEAVY

+ DYLAN LEBLANC × 93XRT

MISTERWIVES

JUST FOR ONE NIGHT!

+ JOAN

+ MOODY JOODY

ORION SUN + CRUZA

SANCTUM DARK MUSIC FESTIVAL QUAL, RENDEZ-VOUS, AURAT & MORE!

SANCTUM DARK MUSIC FESTIVAL

LEBANON HANOVER, LIGHT ASYLUM, TRAITRS, & MORE!

FRENCH POLICE + WISTERIA

CHAT PILE

COOL WORLD TOUR

+ AGRICULTURE

+ PORCELAIN

VUNDABAR + COURTING

THE DIP + JORDAN MACKAMPA

HAYLEY HEYNDERICKX + LILY BRESHEARS

DEHD

+ GUSTAF

+ SPUN OUT + DIVINO NIÑO HOSTED BY GRELLY DUVALL LA FEMME

CHICAGO ZINE FEST 2024

Programming schedule and list of exhibitors available at chicagozinefest.org. Sat 10/5, 11 AM–6 PM, Columbia College Chicago Student Center, 754 S. Wabash, free, all ages

On Sunday, September 8, I went to the ninth annual ZineMercado. Dozens of zinesters sold their wares from tables spread out around the green space next to Comfort Station in Logan Square. I’ve gone to ZineMercado often enough to know I’ll see familiar faces at those tables. I can reliably pick up a copy of any recent Public Collectors publication directly from founder Marc Fischer, and this time I bought Jacqui Shine’s half-size booklet on the history of Jail on Wheels. Flatlands Press founder Eric Von Haynes usually has a whole mess of interesting new material.

Only a small fraction of ZineMercado’s offerings are about music, and I have plenty of other places to ﬁnd publications on that topic. So I was pleasantly surprised this time when I walked away with a stack of them. It’s more evidence that we’re entering a new era of Chicago-made music zines.

Most of my ZineMercado stack consisted of the entire six-issue run of Around Town With the 1086. This ongoing local zine covers Chicago’s heavy-music communities and has included interviews with metal misfits Urine Hell, noise-rock duo Mr. Phylzzz, and Wax Trax! owners Julia Nash and Mark Skillicorn. Most issues of Around Town are charmingly crude, text-heavy halfsize booklets. Much of the writing has been physically cut-and-pasted into the layout, and the rest is handwritten; interviewees provide paragraph-long answers in their own scrawl. I love the handmade look, even when it comes at the expense of legibility. The issues I bought say they’re free right on the cover—I’ve found copies in the Signal Records free pile—but Around Town maker Je had told me he was scraping together money to buy a printer for future issues. Under the circumstances, I was happy to pay $15 for the existing run.

The Chicago music-zine revolution wants you!

Thanks to the likes of Hallogallo, Portable Model, and Ignorant People, its numbers are swelling—but there’s always room for more.

By LEOR GALIL

Among the other publishers tabling at ZineMercado was Elgin-based Pink Slip Press. In August, Pink Slip published the second issue of Post-Script, a glossy half-size zine with a more professionallooking layout than Around Town and a

generous use of color. I’d wanted to read PostScript No. 2 for its interview with Chicago singer-songwriter Chaepter, but I came away most impressed by the zine’s ambitious critical survey of safety in Elgin’s indie scene. I learned about Post-Script on Instagram, and discovering zines from around the country—including weighty New Jersey hip-hop title Caltrops and Philadelphia-based experimental music bimonthly Rocker—is one of the main reasons I still use the app. I’ve found lots of hardcore punk zines on Instagram too.

In March, the Instagram account for Evanston-based Blast of Power posted a map of 13 such publishers, including Cleveland’s Core of Reality, Indiana’s Mundane Moshers, and Chicago’s Ignorant People. “There’s a zine revival right now,” says Val, creator of Ignorant People. (She prefers to use only her ﬁrst name.) “I was like, ‘I have a lot of stupid stuff to say, so why don’t I add to that?’”

For a few years now, I’ve been pretty sure we’re seeing an uptick in new music zines. Where zines are concerned, it’s impossible to be 100 percent confident about much—because anybody can make a zine, no survey of the “zine scene” can hope to be exhaustive. The Internet doesn’t necessarily provide a clearer picture, because there’s no one marketplace that even comes close to selling everything: I’ve bought music zines on Bandcamp, Big Cartel, and Etsy as well as through Instagram DMs.

Fortunately, I knew where to find an expert to consult: Quimby’s Bookstore, a crucial repository of zines new and old.

“In the past year or two, it does kind of seem like there’s more music zines than what I remember there being in the past decade or so,” says Quimby’s manager Liz Mason, who’s a zine maker herself. “But here’s the other thing: That doesn’t mean that they weren’t there. It just means that they found us to consign them.”

Quimby’s has introduced me to several Chicago-based music zines in the past couple years. Some are one-o s, such as Keidra Chaney’s Fangirl Confessional , a 2024 collection of essays about fandom and her experience as a Black metalhead. Others o er funny personal reﬂections on music from decades past—specifically Chris Auman and Mike Dixon’s Used Records & Tapes, which debuted in 2020. I especially like

Chicagoan and otherwise midwestern music and culture zines: Static! Revival , Around Town With the 1086 , Ignorant People, Gush , Unresolved , A Document of a Chicago Music Community, Fangirl Confessional , Don’t Change That Song! , Hallogallo, Post-Script , and Grachki

zines about contemporary local music scenes: Grachki put out a few half-size monthly issues about midwest punk and emo bands this year, though it hasn’t published in print since April. Hyperlocal arts and culture magazine Gush launched this summer, and in August (on the occasion of its second issue), founder and editor in chief Travis Alex told me that reading their friends’ arts zines had inspired them to make something full-size and in full color, which they hoped would reach more people.

Chicago zinester, writer, and podcaster Miranda Reinert launched a music magazine in June called Portable Model. It’s published via Two Flat Press, which she cofounded with Corrin Bronersky. Named after Joan of Arc’s 1997 debut album, Portable Model is the most professional of all the new Chicago music publications I’ve come across: its ﬁrst and so far only issue is perfect-bound, full-size, and runs 112 pages, with ads sprinkled into Miranda’s smartly designed layouts. Portable Model also includes some big bylines, including Mia Hughes, Eli Enis, and Evan Minsker.

“Portable Model doesn’t feel that di erent from what I do, and what I was doing, with a zine, really,” Miranda says. “It’s obviously more collaborative, it’s more expensive, and it’s bigger. But the way that I approach design . . . so much of the zine thing for me is process, right? ‘Process not product,’ as they say. To me, the process of it is so similar to what I was doing, just with this new layer of commissioning writing—which I don’t think is not a zine thing.”

Miranda held an open call for pitches while assembling the debut of Portable Model , and given the current state of music journalism, I’d be hard-pressed to find a similarly broad range of essays and reported stories in any professional outlet. Sam Goblin (who fronts the band Mister Goblin) writes about songs he’s heard at Skate World in Tallahassee, Florida. Hugo Reyes, who just launched a one-page hardcore zine of his own under the umbrella of his Violent Treatment podcast, reﬂects on buying old Chicago punk zines and other scene ephemera.

ases that impact mainstream arts and culture. “Being here, you’re divorced a little bit from the east coast in a way that I think is good,” she says.

The shop zine at Portage Park’s Tone Deaf Records, on the other hand, has a heavy Chicago focus. Tone Deaf owner Tony Assimos used to make zines in the 90s, when he lived in Cuper tino, California, and he caught the itch to do it again from Tone Deaf employee Bill Roe. Zine making is a family affair for Bill, whose kid Ronnie published a half-size newsprint zine about hair metal called Don’t Change That Song! this spring.

“[Bill and I] both were talkin’ about how we would discover bands and music and see pictures of bands that we had never seen before through zines,” Tony says. “We get bored in the shop, and we decided, ‘Hey, why don’t we do a zine—that’d be super fun, just kind of oldschool.’ We’ve got a shitty copier that’s in the back of the store that we use, and we know a lot of bands between the two of us—and my girlfriend as well. We just started interviewing different bands around Chicago. We try and keep it local.”

that well-worn visual trope on newer releases.

“I’ve actually made a really close-knit group of friends from doing the zine.”

The first issue of Tone Deaf’s zine came out at the end of 2021. This past March it reached issue six, around a year after issue ﬁve. Tony and company have to pick away at it between the tasks that keep Tone Deaf aﬂoat. He says the zine can start conversations with customers, and working on it has gotten him more directly invested in the local punk scene—which has in turn boosted the shop’s punk credibility. “We’ll actually have people come in and [say,] ‘Oh, you have the new zine?’ ‘You really want it?’ ‘Yeah, for sure.’ People are excited about it,” Tony says.

—Mike Brizendine, founder of hardcore zine Blast of Power

Blast of Power creator Mike Brizendine hadn’t made a zine since 2005, but after he moved from Pittsburgh to the Chicago area in 2021, he decided to make a small hardcore zine—just four pages at ﬁrst—to keep in touch with his old friends. “I very much enjoy sending letters to people,” he says, “so this was a way where I could send out something in the mail that was creative.”

Though Mike intended Blast of Power as an informal thing, mostly for friends, the zine has gotten bigger and more involved. Its third and fourth issues are full-size stapled zines; Mike says he’s sold at least 250 copies of each and mailed them to 12 di erent countries. But his motive for making Blast of Power remains social. “I’ve actually made a really close-knit group of friends from doing the zine, so it’s really been nice,” Mike says. “When you move out of state—and multiple states—it’s tough, especially at an older age, to ﬁnd a core group of friends. Thankfully the zine and hardcore have helped me do that in Chicago.”

Among those friends is Val from Ignorant People . She’s been going to hardcore shows for decades, and her interview with Repos guitarist Joe Phillips in the new third issue is a lot of fun because the two of them have so much shared history. Even as a well-connected scene veteran, Val meets new Chicago hardcore fans through Ignorant People . “A lot of people have come up to me at shows and been like, ‘Your zine is so awesome,’” Val says. “I’m very outgoing, but it’s hard to sometimes talk to people—you don’t just go up to a stranger. Now people just come up to me. It’s been really cool to be able to meet people that read it and think I’m funny.”

esting way to connect with people—obviously shows weren’t going on, so it seemed like the natural, physical way we could communicate with other people.”

Bands in Kai’s circle—including Horsegirl, Friko, and Kai’s group Lifeguard—have developed an international reputation since he launched Hallogallo in early 2021. And the zine has inspired at least one other youth collective: Meia/Fé in Lisbon, Portugal. “They reached out to me,” Kai says, “by reading the zine and seeing the email, being like, ‘Just wanted to let you know, we started this huge collective and it’s directly inspired by the Hallogallo stu , the zine, and everything.’ And they sent me a zine.”

Chicago’s youth indie-rock scene has also produced a trove of new music zines. DIY workhorse Eli Schmitt covers new bands and visual art with Unresolved . Photographer Braeden Long has produced two issues of the photo-centric A Document of a Chicago Music Community. Twin Coast’s Reid Isbell launched his Static! Revival zine this summer. Multiinstrumentalist Joe Glass, who plays with Kai in Sharp Pins, has made one issue of a zine that’s named after and loosely about a local DIY space (which he’d prefer I not identify here). I bought a copy from him via Instagram, and it’s one of my favorites of the year.

Portable Model isn’t a Chicago-speciﬁc publication, but Miranda says that being based here gives it the freedom to ignore coastal bi-

Much of the third issue documents various brick-wall backgrounds in hardcore album art, and I’ve found myself looking for examples of

Music zines can help their creators build their social circles, and under the right circumstances they can do something similar for the communities they document. Kai Slater’s Hallogallo is a great example: it didn’t just cover the Chicago youth indie-rock scene but also helped build it. “COVID happened, and there really was a sense of, like, trying to ﬁgure out how we could have a creative way to boost the creative community in Chicago, boost young musicians, [and] give us an image,” Kai says. “I felt like a zine was an inter-

I’m constantly discovering new Chicago zines, though, so I’m sure I’ll have several more favorites before 2024 is out. During our interview, Kai tells me about Tango , a hand-assembled local zine sold through Bandcamp. At the time, the ﬁrst and third issues are sold out, but three copies of the second are still available. “Three people are gonna have their lives changed,” Kai says. I make sure to order a copy. v

m lgalil@chicagoreader.com

Recent issues of Portable Model , Hallogallo, and Blast of Power COLLECTION OF LEOR GALIL

Recommended and notable shows with critics’ insights for the week of October 3

MUSIC

PICK OF THE WEEK

After

a two-year hiatus, Cupcakke tours to support a delectably raunchy new album

CUPCAKKE, ARMANI NO. 1 Fri 10/4, 8:30 PM, the Promontory, 5311 S. Lake Park Ave. West, $37, $72 VIP, $500 couch section (seats six). 18+

PEARL CLUTCHERS BEWARE! Chicago rapper and singer Cupcakke is back with her spicy brand of femme-fatale-forward hip-hop. Born Elizabeth Harris on the city’s south side, Cupcakke had an exceedingly rough childhood, and she doesn’t shy away from talking about her experience of homelessness, predation, and sexual violence. She’s among the upper echelon of local lyricists, and she weaves her verses with hypersexuality, dark humor, women’s empowerment, and cautionary tales. As a result, she has legions of progressive, pro-sex, and queer fans. (Fun fact: She also went to school with Chief Keef.)

Cupcakke has appeared on tracks with stars as big as Charli XCX, taken shots at the likes of Shawn Mendes and Lizzo, and fought a very nasty battle of the bars with sex-worker-turned-rap-antihero Sukihana. She’s also been extremely vocal about hating the music industry,

but fortunately, she’s still carving out time to slather us in hilarious, sex-positive raunch. A line from her recent single “Grilling Niggas II” demonstrates her delectably terrifying sense of humor: “If a nigga claim that he got beef / Bitch, I’m pullin’ up like Keith Lee.” If you know about TikTok food influencer Keith Lee, you also know that this former MMA fighter will revisit a restaurant in a heartbeat to address an issue with an owner who’s had a snafu with him. You may find yourself singing along, engaging in a feverish twerk, and cackling and/or gasping at Cupcakke’s lyrics—all in the span of one short tune. And her live show will surely sweat you out of your perm. Rally your freaky friends and cop tickets to this local stop on her tour supporting her latest album, June’s Dauntless Manifesto . —CRISTALLE BOWEN

THURSDAY3

Panopticon Exulansis, Primeval Well, and Varaha open. 7:30 PM, Reggies Rock Club, 2105 S. State, $25, $20 in advance. 17+

Austin Lunn’s most recent album as Panopticon, 2023’s The Rime of Memory (Bindrune), is in some ways his most traditional black-metal outing. The Louisville musician expanded the possibilities of the genre when he saturated his ﬁ h record, 2012’s Kentucky, with Appalachian folk interpolations and explicit pro-labor ecological politics. While those elements are still present on The Rime of Memory, they’re buried further in the mix—here a barely audible speech, there an accordion breathing out a dissonant minor-key melody that could almost be a dance tune if slowed down or unknotted. But while the album is in some ways more conventional, it’s an amazing example of those conventions. Lunn has an uncanny sense of depth as an arranger, creating compositions so layered and intense they verge on harsh noise. But the murkiness resolves into choruses that soar up to pierce your ears with clean cinematic vocals, blastbeats that thunder in and out of syncopation, unexpected honest-to-god classic- and prog-rock guitar solos, weird sawing strings, and ambient crystalline keyboards that almost shimmer into melody before diving back into the maelstrom. Panopticon draws you in by making the gestures you associate with black metal, then buries you with a bleakly beautiful fecundity of invention. Lunn hasn’t abandoned his dark pastoral vision or his genius; he’s just integrated them into black metal so perfectly that you can’t tell where one forest ends and the other begins.

—NOAH BERLATSKY

J.R.C.G. Marbled Eye and Mass open. 9 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, $16. 21+

J.R.C.G. knows how to bang it out. The band is the solo project of Justin R. Cruz Gallego, a stalwart of the Pacific Northwest indie-rock scene who’s best known for fronting avant-garde psych-rock act Dreamdecay. J.R.C.G. has a similarly drippy, smeary aesthetic, but it’s distinguished by the generous use of percussion. At live shows, several players beat and bounce on various instruments—maracas, tambourines, an auxiliary stand-up drum kit, a sampler pad—to generate rhythms while feeding off one another’s energy. It would be a challenge not to get caught up in the fun.

Gallego demonstrates his musical dexterity from behind a trap set, giving his tunes a backbone and a voice as he drums and sings. The other percussionists often switch instruments during songs or double on bass, guitar, saxophone, or electronics. To my knowledge, there are never fewer than six musicians onstage during a J.R.C.G. show, but there are always more than six instruments going during a song.

The result is fuzzy, tripped-out music with funk and jazz beats at its core. J.R.C.G. shares the angular punk quality of Seattle posthardcore legends Blood Brothers, the whimpering danceability of art-punks the Rapture, and the meanderingly playful rhythmic sense of Sun Ra. The band’s songs can be itchy and claustrophobic or loose and free, and listening to them can feel like falling backward into

COURTESY THE ARTIST

MUSIC

a thicket of poison ivy and wildﬂowers. Last spring, J.R.C.G. opened a string of tour dates for master Tuareg shredder Mdou Moctar, and in August, the group made its Sub Pop debut with the release of sophomore album Grim Iconic . . . (Sadistic Mantra) . This month J.R.C.G. is on its own headlining tour, and its exuberant, imaginative musicianship should bring down the house at the Empty Bottle. —MICCO CAPORALE

FRIDAY4

Cupcakke See Pick of the Week on page 26. Armani No. 1 opens. 8:30 PM, the Promontory, 5311 S. Lake Park Ave. West, $37, $72 VIP, $500 couch section (seats six). 18+

Tim Reaper Takuya Nakamura and Toyacoyah open. 10 PM, Smart Bar, 3730 N. Clark, $25 ($20 students before midnight), $20 in advance. 21+

In July 2020, East London dance producer Tim Reaper (born Ed Alloh) released the first EP in his ongoing series Meeting of the Minds: on each track, he collaborated with a different artist. Reaper is a leading figure in the recent wave of new artists making jungle—this dense, percussively busy style, an ancestor of drum ’n’ bass, emerged in the 90s UK rave scene and emphasizes creative editing of sampled drum breaks. Reaper put together Meeting of the Minds not only to collaborate with other innovative jungle artists around the world but also to find an outlet for the excess creative energy he’d bottled up since COVID-19 put nightlife on hold. Vol. 1 opens with the spacey, sensual “Foundation,” which Reaper made with Australian producer Kloke. Reaper released the 11th and 12th volumes of Meeting of the Minds in August, and he’s maintained a working relationship with Kloke. In September, they put out

the collaborative full-length In Full Effect through tastemaking dance label Hyperdub, which describes it as the first jungle album in its catalog. In Full Effect is a great example of the form. “Blood Pressure” thrums with the vitality of a hand-drum sample that’s fast enough to spin up a cyclone, and each subtle change to the arrangement seems to top off the electric charge in every element, so that they can transfer that energy to you. —LEOR GALIL

Twin Talk 8:30 PM, Constellation, 3111 N. Western, $15. 18+

The instrumentation of Twin Talk—tenor sax, double bass, drums, and vocals—suggests a traditional jazz combo, but the long-running Chicago group have carved out a singular niche. The trio’s members are all heavyweights in their own right, with broad creative networks. Saxophonist Dustin Laurenzi has a deep catalog as bandleader; bassist and singer Katie Ernst is half of folk-jazz duo Wayfaring with clarinetist James Falzone and plays with Laurenzi in dream-pop duo Edith Judith; and drummer Andrew Green is an in-demand player (you might’ve seen him in the Fly Honeys live band or backing jazz vocalist Abigail Riccards and soul man PhillipMichael Scales). As Twin Talk, they wed their sundry leanings and inspirations to realize a vision firmly rooted in the jazz idiom but open-ended enough to embrace exploration. Their fourth long player, Twin Talk Live, testiﬁes to their telepathic musical bond and collective eye toward expanding their creative horizons. Twin Talk create jazzy music with a freeimprovisation aesthetic at its core, but the tunes on Twin Talk Live are so dreamily melodic and hummable that they veer into the art-pop realm. You can thank Ernst’s wordless singing for that dynamic: her angelic voice takes a starring role as harmonic counterpoint to Laurenzi’s warm horn lines. Despite its title, Twin Talk Live isn’t actually a concert album; it’s a studio creation born out of

Justin R. Cruz Gallego of J.R.C.G. ANTHONY BEAUCHEMIN

MUSIC

continued from p. 27

five improvised jam sessions. That loose-limbed approach yields glorious collaborative fruit, and each member’s instrumental prowess is on full display: Laurenzi’s shape-shi ing phrases, Green’s hectic yet subtle beats, and Ernst’s rhythmic, he y bass grooves and sweet vocals. Twin Talk’s blend of compositional technique and free improvisation promises to be revelatory at this Constellation recordrelease show. —BRAD

COHAN

SATURDAY5

Už Jsme Doma Lovely Little Girls open. 10 PM, Cole’s Bar, 2338 N. Milwaukee, $23, $20 in advance. 21+

Czech prog-punk band Už Jsme Doma formed in 1985, four years before the country’s Velvet Revolution brought four decades of communist rule to a peaceful end. Before the revolution, the authorities suppressed anything they perceived as Western rock music, and Už Jsme Doma could perform only covertly; what recordings they could make circulated like samizdat. A er dissident poet and playwright Václav Havel led the former Czechoslovakia into its early stages of democracy at the end of 1989, Už Jsme Doma cemented their reputation as part of a lineage of rebellious Czech rock bands that also included Plastic People of the Universe. PPU came together much earlier, in 1968, and combined flamboyant psychedelia with an interest in dissonant prog rock that aligned them with Frank Zappa. Už Jsme Doma were more influenced by avant-garde punk, with a loopy sensibility that draws from the same well as long-running U.S. art-rockers the Residents. In the 1990s, Už Jsme Doma struck up a relationship with that group, which led to a 2010 performance with “the singing Resident,” Randy Rose, released as the 2020 live album Moravian Meeting Už Jsme Doma’s material has grown more complex over the decades, but it retains its stylistic debt to the Rock in Opposition movement that began in the late 70s—and that makes a great fit for

adventurous, eclectic D.C. label Cuneiform, which released the band’s 2010 album Jeskyně (“Caves”).

Už Jsme Doma’s music has a jubilant, locomotive drive, more like a typhoon than a downpour. Its hectic, relentless rhythms, sometimes oﬀ-kilter but always danceable, power a barrage of blaring horns and urgent, dramatic vocals. The dense pummeling of the 1993 album Hollywood put it in a league with the metal-adjacent weirdness of Primus, and it came out when the success of the so-called alternative nation had made U.S. audiences a little less hostile to music reminiscent of Primus. Už Jsme Doma have the musical pedigree and historical stature to be worthy of a large theater, so it’s a treat to be able to see them somewhere as intimate as Cole’s—a space that already welcomes Chicago’s own unconventional musical acts. —LEOR GALIL

MONDAY7

A. Savage See also Tue 10/8. Sarah Weddle opens. 9 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, $20. 21+

Longing is the painful emotion that grows in the fertile expanse between desire and possibility. A. Savage’s solo work thrives in this space. As one of the front men for Brooklyn mainstays Parquet Courts, Savage made a mark on the 2010s indierock scene with his sharply observational songwriting and deadpan vocals. In his solo work, though, he paints emotionally rich frescoes of complex characters caught in transition. His 2017 solo debut, Thawing Dawn , is a welcome if unsurprising extension of Parquet Courts’ lyrically delirious, Krautrockinfused sound. On last year’s Several Songs About Fire , however, Savage liberates himself from the band’s shadow to embrace a new side of his musical identity. He wrote the record before, during, and a er his relocation to Paris a couple years ago, and it sounds as frantic as it is deliberate—a catalog of the things lost when one says goodbye to who they thought they were.

Savage recorded Several Songs About Fire in

Bristol with producer John Parish and studio musicians Cate Le Bon, Dylan Hadley, and Jack Cooper. The album leans into transition with songs whose emotional and physical geographies circle the globe. On “Elvis in the Army,” Savage captures displacement through the lens of a homesick Elvis stationed in postwar Germany, while “My New Green Coat” evokes the ache of connections lost to time and distance. On “Riding Cobbles,” he fantasizes about a minimalist life spent “reading more and speaking less English.” The emotional ﬂux of Savage’s characters is mirrored by the album’s instrumentation, whose foundation of acoustic guitar is adorned with decaying vibraphone and shifty percussion and punctuated by Le Bon’s ethereal

vocals on tunes such as “Mountain Time.” This twonight stand at the Empty Bottle is part of Savage’s sparse U.S. solo tour, and they’re his only scheduled midwest dates this year. But don’t mistake it for a homecoming—he’s merely a visitor, poised to vanish back into the ether until he resurfaces with another batch of missives from the far side of longing. —SHANNON NICO SHREIBAK

TUESDAY8

A. Savage See Mon 10/7. Greg Freeman opens. 9 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, $20. 21+ v

Tim Reaper ASIA ELLA

A. Savage VINCE MCCLELLAND

Už Jsme Doma COURTESY THE ARTIST

EVANSTON MULTI-INSTRUMENTALIST and singer Jason Narducy has had a long career— he landed his first major-label deal in the 1990s with Verbow, joined Bob Mould’s band in 2005, launched his Split Single project in 2011, and started touring as Superchunk ’s bassist in 2013—but before all that, he played in a short-lived punk band called Verböten They broke up in 1983, before Narducy even hit puberty.

“This thing about our childhood has just kind of followed us everywhere,” Narducy says. “In the 90s, when I was signed to Epic, somebody brought up Verböten in an interview. It was, like, ‘How did you find out about that?’” Verböten have also appeared in high-profile music documentaries, including the Foo Fighters’ 2014 series Sonic Highways —front man Dave Grohl credits his 1982 encounter with Verböten with inspiring him to play punk. The series also helped inspire Brett Neveu’s 2020 musical Verböten, which includes new music by Narducy.

“I kind of like that none of this was my idea,” Narducy says. “The musical wasn’t my idea. Reuniting the band wasn’t my idea.” On Friday, October 4, Verböten release their selftitled debut album—and in some ways, that wasn’t his idea either.

the band broke up in 1983. “I’m proud of how hard they worked,” Narducy says. “I mean, imagine not playing music for 40 years, and then the ﬁrst thing you do is step out on the main stage at Riot Fest.”

Verböten celebrate their album at SPACE on Saturday, October 5. Kean wanted to book a young band to open, and teen postpunk trio Uniﬂora came recommended by Facs front man Brian Case. Tickets cost $35; the show is all ages and starts at 8 PM.

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GOSSIP WOLF

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Two other members of Verböten, singer Tracey Bradford and bassist Chris Kean , approached Narducy about reuniting the band at the behest of a California promoter. Original drummer Zack Kantor bowed out but gave the others his blessing to replace him. Narducy sought advice from Electrical Audio engineer and manager Taylor Hales , who plays bass in Paper Mice.

“I was like, ‘Who’s the best punk rock drummer in Chicago?’ And he said what you never want to hear: ‘the guy in my band,’” Narducy says. “I’m like, ‘You got some video?’ He showed me video of John Carroll , and he’s spectacular.” Carroll teaches band at Nichols Middle School in Evanston, so he could easily visit Narducy to jam.

Verböten began with Narducy writing material on his own. “One of the ﬁrst things I did was call Tracey, like, ‘I have no idea what your vocal range is. I want to write so it’s comfortable for you,’” he says. “She was like, ‘Well, my voice is deeper than it was back then.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, mine too—I went through puberty.’ We just tried to use what we have. This is our first swing at it. I’m really happy with it.”

Verböten debuted their new material last month at Riot Fest —the first time Kean and Bradford had performed anywhere since

TWO WEEKS left to enter the rock lotto run by Ralph Rivera (founder of defunct punk label Not Normal Tapes) and Marten Katze (glass artist and costar of trans rom-com Bros Before ). You can sign up as a singer, guitarist, bassist, drummer, synth player (with or without drum machine), or visual artist (for making band logos), either using an online form or a list that Katze and Rivera will tote around to local shows.

Entrants will be grouped into bands and tasked with writing original music for a gig at a DIY space on Saturday, December 21. Tickets will be $5, and funds will beneﬁt a Bridgeportbased mutual-aid kitchen run by Central American migrants to help other migrants.

“Rock lotto is not an original concept,” says Katze, 30. “There used to be one or two yearly in Chicago when I was younger.” He’s already received 80 submissions. The band rosters will be announced at a DIY show on Friday, October 18, and Katze will also text and email everyone about their placements. “O en people look around at their immediate friend group and [think], ‘I’d like to start a band, but I can’t because everybody plays guitar. Everybody does synth and drum machine. Nobody’s a drummer.’ The results of this have shown me that it’s not that nobody plays these instruments—it’s that not everybody can connect easily and ﬁnd each other.”

Katze has been booking DIY concerts in Chicago since the early 2010s, when he started putting together punk-show fundraisers for queer prison-abolitionist nonproﬁt Black and Pink . In 2022, he hosted a queer goth punk night at Berlin called Studs & Spikes A er Berlin closed, he started a series called

the Dracula Show at the Empty Bottle, which he calls a variety show for vampires. The rock lotto is in keeping with Katze’s prowess for community building via punk and goth. “Hopefully some of these bands will want to stay together a er rock lotto,” he says. “Keep playing together and make something unique.”

THE FOURTH ANNUAL Viva Acid brings four nights of panels, workshops, and performances to Podlasie Club beginning Thursday, October 3. Founder Luis Baro dreamed up Viva Acid after Red Bull Music Academy wound down in 2019. “They le a hole in the community,” he says. “I wanted to pick it up again, but I wanted to make it very local—I wanted to make it about acid-house culture. That’s what inspired me, ’cause I wanted to do something diﬀerent than just parties.”

On Thursday at 7:30 PM, Viva Acid premieres Children of Acid, a mini documentary that dives into the history of Chicago’s rave scene. The evening panels, which run Thursday through Saturday, feature the likes of Glenn Underground, Terry Hunter, DJ Slugo, and DJ Hyperactive. Those three a ernoons, Gramaphone Records hosts livestreamed in-store performances. The weekend closes with a 12-hour party at Podlasie on Sunday, October 6. Viva Acid’s website has full details.

—D-M BROWN AND LEOR GALIL

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

The 2024 lineup of Verböten JAYCEE ROCKHOLD

CLASSIFIEDS

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 s d or a re 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].

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 e b t or ert at o in Anatomic & Clinical Pathology. For fullest consideration, please submit CV, cover letter, and 3 professional

references by 10/5/2024 to Ms. Alsera Hayes, 840 S. Wood Street, 130CSN, MC847, Chicago, IL 60612 or via email to Alsera. 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 nondiscrimination 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/requestand-accomodation/

Commercial Technology Architect Enterprise Solutions – SAP Procurement Mars Information Services, Inc.: Commercial Technology Architect Enterprise Solutions – SAP Procurement (Formerly known as: Commercial (Procurement) Technology Solution Architect – Direct Procurement) – Chicago, IL. Partnering w/ key stakeholders across business segments to deliver new commercial technology solutions for Mars Information Services, Inc. Job reqs Bach’s deg in Comp Engg, Mgmt Info Sys, or a r td ﬂd rs a ob title involving exp in Procure to Pay domain w/ responsibilities for solution design, product mgmt & sys implementation for SAP ECC, SAP SRM, & Ariba within the Consumer-Packaged Goods industry. Up to 25% intl & dom travel reqd for biz mtgs. Tlwk permitted up to 2 days per wk. To apply, send resume identifying Job Code 137 to MarsTA-PIC@ effem.com. No calls.

H.W. Lochner Inc. seeks a Bridge Engineer in Chicago, IL to conduct structural analyses, develop calculations, & prepare contract documents in accordance w/ state & local agency requirements. BS in Civil Engg, Structural Engg, or r td e ds, or e rs of relevant exp in Bridge EIT or similar positions. In alternative, MS in Civil Engg, Structural Engg, or r td e ds, or e rs of relevant exp in Bridge EIT or similar positions. Any suitable combination of education, training,

or exp is acceptable. PE license req’d. This position allows hybrid telecommuting. For position details & to apply, visit: https://www. hwlochner.com/careers/ Chief Financial and Construction Operations Officer Ten South Holdings LLC seeks an Chief Financial and Construction Operations Ofer h a d Par , to lead the development and expansion of major affordable housing development projects. Req. BS+ 5 yrs. exp. as a CFO, CEO, or a combo of both. To Apply: Email resume to apply@tensouth.com. Must ref. Job Title: Chief Financial and Construction Operations Officer

Sr Software Engineers, Chicago, IL, for Team TAG Services, LLC (TAG) (2 positions): Develop & troubleshoot highly available, scalable revenue-generating systems. Work with stakeholders from Product Development, Product Management, Infrastructure, Security QA, Compliance & vendor partner teams to support and develop solutions. Req’: Bachelors in Comp Sci, IT, Comp or Software Engg or related and 5 yrs’ exp working in software dev. May work from home up to 2 days per week. Resumes to code SC/MTSSE, Juliana Ximenes, Global Immigration Manager, TAG, 800 W Fulton Market, Chicago, IL 60607 (juliana.ximenes@ aspendental.com).

(Chicago, IL) Maximum Healthcare Solutions, Inc. seeks Director of Operations/Finance Manager w/bach or for deg equiv in bus adm, or re ﬂd 1 r e ob o r or sr drsh ro e inc dev budg & bus plan; nego for int & extnl purp & perf data anayl & perf metr using bus mgmt sftw SAP, ERP or CRM. Apply to HR Amane@ maximumhs.com

Intelsat US LLC is hiring for the following roles in Chicago, IL: Software Engineer to design, develop, test, debug, and document software, by providing high-quality technical solutions and services that deliver business value and drive continuous improvement across the organization. Telecommuting available. Ref. code: JJ0009. Senior Data Engineer to develop and implement rigorous data analysis and design methodology consistently yielding right level of technical design documentation that conform both to consumer requirements and information development standards.

Telecommuting available. Ref. code: JJ0019. Multiple openings. For full information & to apply online, visit https://www.intelsat. com/careers & search by ref. code(s) above; or email resume to: HREmployeeServices@ intelsat.com & include Ref. code.

Embedded Software Engineer Job Fair Embedded Software Engineer Job Fair, Arlington Heights, IL – 60004: Seeking experienced Embedded Software Engineers with state of the art Embedded software skills. Visit us on 10/08/2024 from 9:00 AM to 11:00 Am at HR, Aclat Inc, 5 E College DR, STE 100, Arlington Heights, IL – 60004.

Software Development Lead Engineer in Test sought by Enova Financial Holdings, LLC. in Chicago, IL. Partic in dsgn, cd, and tst case rvws. Remote work prtmd. Apply @ https:// www.jobpostingtoday. com/ Ref # 40701.

Data Analyst Data Analyst, HDI Global Insurance Co., Chicago, IL: Achieve profitability in automating various business tasks using analytical, technical, & project mgmt skills. Analyze data, develop recommendations, & provide business insights. Work both individually & as part of a team to achieve the min. viable product (MVP) of their assigned projects. Exp. working w/ Qlik Sense. Must have Bachelor in IT, Eng’g, Comp Sci., or Stats (or foreign equivalent) & 2 yrs of progressively more responsible IT work exp. involving complex data analysis & synthesis for readable reports w/ visualizations. Of exp. req’d, must have 2 yrs exp. w/ ea. of the following: (i) Using Qlik Sense to build data models using 3 tier architecture; (ii) Building QVDs & QVWs; (iii) Using data mgmt software, incl. SQL; (iv) Designing Star & Snowflake schema data warehouses; & (v) Planning w/ inter-dept. groups assigned to tasks or project work. Exp. may be gained concurrently. Telecommuting permitted from any location in U.S. National & international travel is req’d 5% of the time for mandatory meetings. Apply at: recruiting.paylocity. com/recruiting/jobs/ All/99a7857a-705a-41f0b4ff-2803d238b62b/ HDI-GlobalInsurance-Company.

Atelier Finishes Inc, seeks a Construction Manager to lead and coordinate workload related to the construction

and maintenance of structures, facilities, and systems. Remote work, and 100% local travel to worksites req. Submit cover ltr and resume to 5705 W Newport Ave, Chicago, IL 60634

Medline Industries, LP in Mundelein, IL is seek’g Sr. Business Intelligence Systems Analyst(s) to work w/ the BI team & be resp. for data, reporting, analysis, & data warehousing. No trvl. WFH benefit; st be o e at east 3 days/wk. Apply at: https://medline.wd5. myworkdayjobs.com/ Medline/job/MundeleinIllinois/Sr-BusinessIntelligence-SystemsAnalyst-s-_R2404643

SAP Security and GRC Consultants

SAP Security and GRC Consultants, Oak Brook, IL: Dvlp & maintain the security strategy, policies, & procedures for SAP sys. Work on Green Field SAP S/4 HANA Security implementation, migration, upgrade, roll out & support projects. Configure SAP GRC Access Control modules such as EAM, ARA, ARM & BRM. Travel/reloc to various unanticipated U.S. locations. Send res to: Maxil Technology Solutions, Inc., 2625 tter e d d, 1 , Oak Brook, IL 60523

Business Information Consultant . Carelon Medical Benefits Management, Inc. Chicago, IL. Ingest, query, & model claimsbased medical spending. BS: Analytics, Stats, Math or rel. 5 yrs exp. Alt Reqs: MS & 3 yrs exp. Other exp req. Apply: https:// careers.elevancehealth. com/ Job Ref: JR128311

Data Science Solutions Consultant Sr. Elevance Health, Inc. Chicago, IL. Extract data loads from Teradata into Hadoop environment. BS: CS, MIS, or rel. 3 yrs exp. Other exp reqd. Apply: https://careers. elevancehealth.com/ Job Ref: JR129371

General Manager Flavia Lamberghini PC d/b/a Apple Dental Care. Is seeking a General Manager in Chicago, IL. Requirements: BS in accounting or foreign equivalent, and 2 years of experience as a general manager. Experience in strategic and financial planning, budgeting, financial and risk management, and reat a a re orts and forecasts. As well as experience working with QuickBooks and Microsoft Power BI. Send resumes to: Flavia Lamberghini PC d/b/a Apple Dental Care. Att: Flavia Lamberghini PC, 3012 West Fullerton Avenue Chicago, IL

60647or email: flavia@ appledentalcare.org.

Senior Quality Engineer (Chicago, IL) Dsgn & dvlp testing automation framework/ tools; write & execute automated test scripts & generate reports; implmt automated testing methodologies; work w/ dvlprs to ensure all functionality has been tested. Bachelor’s in Comp Sci, Comp Engg, or r td te h e d. 1 r exp, incl some solid exp in each: guiding teams w/ test planning, strategies, & methodologies; Java or Python; RESTful APIs; JSON data; Git; UI, API, & Mobile test automation tools; Docker containers; Kubernetes; AWS. Telecommuting from any loc in the US is an option for this position. MUST send CV & cvr ltr to: mgrand@ project44 .com or Marco Le Grand, project44, LLC, 222 W Merchandise Mart Plaza, Chicago, IL 60654 w/in 30 days & ref Job #W2022-395.

Sr. Data Scientist (Chicago, IL) Research & evaluate new analytical methodologies; build, test & deploy machine learning models; interpret & communicate analytic results to bus. partners. Master’s in Bus. Analytics, Data Sci or rltd field. 2 yrs’ exp in data science or data analysis, incl some solid exp in each: dsgng & dvlpg DS-maintained applics; regression & classification of ML models; SQL; Python. Telecommuting from any loc. in the US is an option. MUST send CV & cvr ltr to mgrand@ project44 .com or Marco Le Grand, project44, LLC, 222 W Merchandise Mart Plaza, Chicago, IL 60654 w/in 30 days & ref Job #W2022-333.

Senior Software Engineer (Chicago, IL) Build systems in a multicloud envrmt using AWS & GCP; create Pythonbased microservices leveraging modern frameworks (FastAPI, Flask, Django); create API\’s / web svcs such as REST; perform containerorchestration using Docker & Kubernetes; mentor s/ware engineers. Master\’s in Electrical & Comp Engg, Comp Sci, or r td e d. o e e Python; high-availability, high-scale, distributed systems in a production envrmt; dsgng enterpriselevel Cloud solutions; API dsgn; scaled agile dvlpmt methodologies in a distributed work envrmt; container driven dvlpmt w/ Docker. Telecommuting from any loc. in the US is an option for this position. MUST send CV & cvr ltr to mgrand@project44 .com or Marco Le Grand, project44, LLC,

222 W Merchandise Mart Plaza, Chicago, IL 60654 w/in 30 days & ref Job #W2022-017.

Assistant Professor Loyola University Chicago is seeking an Assistant Professor in Chicago, IL to teach assigned courses in Sociology and Women Studies and Gender Studies in accordance with the course syllabi. Please send resume to prosenblatt@luc.edu reference job #060886.

LEAD, GLOBAL TALENT & HR STRATEGY Kraft Heinz Foods Company seeks Lead, Global Talent & HR Strategy in Chicago, IL to create & execute the company’s centralized People & Performance Strategy to improve overall organizational efficiency. Degree & commensurate exp. req\’d. Apply online by searching keyword 86411 at careers.kraftheinz. com/careers/SearchJobs

SR. DATA ENGINEER

Kraft Foods Group Brands LLC seeks Sr. Data Engineer in Chicago, IL to design, develop, optimize, and maintain data architecture and pipelines that adhere to ELT principles and business goals. Degree & commensurate exp. req’d. Apply online by searching keyword 86416 at careers.kraftheinz. com/careers/SearchJobs

Transportation Safety Manager Transportation Safety Manager: Schaumburg IL. Manage admin of transp comp: cargo claims, liaison between transp providers, customers, claim adjusters, legal rep, internal ops, sales teams. Receive, process, manage cargo claims, damage issues. Analyze info. Review police reports, med recs, bills, to determine liability. Investigate, assess damage. Process payments for claims. Responsible for a claimloss prevention. HS. 2 yrs exp in any safety related position. Fax: MEI Freight Inc; 224 241 3399

Second City Nannies is recruiting new Nannies! Second City Nannies is hiring! Do you have: Authorization to work in the U.S. Updated resume outlining childcare experience. Education or equivalent knowledge of ages and stages of child growth and development. Please send updated resume to marybell@ secondcitynannies.com

Yaskawa America, Inc. seeks Software Engineer A w/mast or for deg equiv in EE, CS or rel ﬂd rs e ob o er or in sftwr eng, incl C# prog w/MS VS; MS .NET dev & frmwrk environ; non-web-based dskt app

dev exp for Windows

& UI dev exp w/WPF, XAML, MVVM. 5-10% trvl may be req. Telecom perm. May res anywhr in US. Apply to HR: 2121 Norman Drive South, Waukegan, IL 60085 or https://www.yaskawa. com/about-us/careers.

Community Consolidated School District 54 seeks Dual Language Teachers for various & unanticipated locations throughout the district (HQ: Schaumburg, IL) to provide dual language instruction (Japanese/ English) to junior high school students. Bachelor’s in Edu (will also accept any field in accordance w/IL State Board of Edu req\’s). State of IL licensure as a Professional Educator (PEL) w/Japanese Bilingual Endorsement req’d. Req’d Skills: must speak, read & write Japanese. Apply online: https://sd54. org/careers/ REF: RH

HOUSING

Logan Square 1 bedroom loft apartment for rent 3.5 room Logan Square apartment. 3rd ﬂoor. 1 bed, 1 bath. Pets okay. Near blue line stop. Call 224-488-6164. $900/ month

AUDITIONS

IDM/EDM ARTISTS

WANTED original music only. contact : idm-edm. com

PROFESSIONALS & SERVICES

CLEANING SERVICES

CHESTNUT ORGANIZ-

ING AND CLEANING SERVICES: especially for people who need an organizing service because of depression, elderly, physical or mental chal-

lenges 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

Psychiatric and Mental Health Services At BrainBody, our mission is to establish and maintain a practice that provides medication management, therapeutic interventions focusing on whole health and lifestyle medicine to guide adults on a path to mental and physical health. Accepting new patients, in network with BCBS, Cigna, Optum, and Aetna. Email: support@ brainbody.health

Professional Housesitting and Property Caretaking Do you own a home in the Chicagoland area but at times live elsewhere for part of the year? Perhaps you travel often or live in a second home or vacation home? If only you could find a reliable and professional team to help take care of your house, pets, and house plants here in Illinois. Look no further! We\’ve got you covered - we are Evergreen Local. Check out our website for more info: www. theevergreenlocal.com

SEX AND RELATIONSHIPS

Quickies

By DAN SAVAGE

Q: Quick and dirty question for you about online dating: what’s the best next step a er texting? Audio message? Phone call? Video date? Or a quick and in-person meetup?

a: I recommend a quick video call (perhaps a brief FaceTime chat) before that first quick and in-person meeting in a public place. If someone isn’t willing to jump on something like FaceTime (to confirm their photos are current and they’re not a fake, a flake, or a chatbot), then they don’t deserve the pleasure of your company.

Q: Help! I keep falling in love! With every female friend I have!

a: Maybe! You should stop! Using your dick! As a divining rod! To pick up female friends!

Q: We used to talk, my boyfriend and I. We used to share everything. Now I can barely get him to talk to me, to share things with me, or to spend time with me. The more I ask him to spend time with me, to talk and share, the more withdrawn he becomes. And forget about sex. How can I get our intimacy back?

a: You can only ask— and you have asked repeatedly, and it sounds like the answer to all three asks (talk, share, fuck) is “no.” So, time to go.

Q: Which is better, wrist cuﬀs or handcuﬀs?

a: By “handcuﬀs,” you obviously mean steel law enforcement–style restraints that snap around wrists. By wrist cuﬀs, I’m assuming you mean wide and ideally padded leather restraints that buckle around wrists. Handcuffs are effective, but they’re not

comfortable or safe for play. If they twist, they can do nerve or bone damage. While some kinksters might find the “law enforcement” vibes arousing, others are turned off by them. Leather wrist restraints, on the other hand, are far safer and far more comfortable for play and long-term wear, and they give “depraved pervert” vibes, which many kinksters prefer.

Q: There is this guy. Sometimes, it seems like he’s really into me. Other times, he completely ignores me. Hot and cold. Push and pull. Clings, then ghosts. What should I do?

a: You should do someone else.

Q: I feel creeped out when a man refers to me as his “lover.” It makes me feel like Bill Murray in Ghostbusters (“He slimed me!”). Hearing that word applied to me makes me want to jump in the shower. But I don’t say anything because I know it’s supposed to be a compliment. What’s wrong with me?

a: Nothing.

Lots of people have aversions to certain words—words that trigger feelings of irrational disgust—and “lover” triggers you the way that “moist,” “loins,” “panties,” “phlegm,” and “sputum” trigger others. Personally, I always hated the word “nipple” when applied to me, so I was delighted when gay men started using “tits” a decade or two ago. (They don’t give milk, but they’re still tits—decommissioned tits, tits in dry dock, but tits.) Some possible alternatives for “lover” that your lovers could use when referring to you (offered in ascending order of emotional importance): cumdump, fuck buddy, friend with benefits, significant other, boyfriend/girlfriend/enbyfriend, fiance/fiancee/intended, husband/wife/spouse.

Q: I am going to the Dominican Republic with my boyfriend for our anniversary. He is quite well endowed and he wants to top me. How can I be a good bottom and anally douche in a country where the tap water is not drinkable?

a: They sell bottled water in the Dominican Republic (I checked) and, as anyone who has ever le their douche bulb at home and had to improvise on the road knows, a squeezable plastic water bottle doubles as a douche bulb in a pinch. v

Go to the URL savage.love/askdan to record a question for Dan that might get played on Savage Lovecast . Or email questions for the column to m mailbox@ savage.love

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