ARTS & (HOME) ENTERTAINMENT RECOMMENDATIONS

Since being stuck inside, which shows have you been watching? Which movies? Have you read any good books lately? Any new music releases have you dancing in your living room? StreetWise vendors, readers and staff are sharing what is occupying their attention during this unprecedented time.

To be featured in a future edition, send your recommendations of things you do at home and why you love them to Creative Director / Publisher Dave Hamilton at dhamilton@streetwise.org

Based on a True Story!

'Come From Away'

Experience the Tony-winning musical based on a true story. W.hen the Federal Aviation Administration closed U.S. airspace to inbound traffic immediately after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, the town of Gander, Newfoundland provided hospitality for 7,000 stranded passengers on 38 planes. "Come From Away" runs February 22 through March 6 at the Cadillac Palace Theatre, 151 W. Randolph St. Tickets are $31+. More information, including performance times, can be found at broadwayinchicago.com

Treat Her Like a Lady!

'An Instrument In the Shape of a Woman'

Think you know the shape of a woman? From February 26 to September 4 at the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St., 5th Floor, experience the brilliantly bright and provocative forms and figures of surreal and abstract psychological portraitures that embrace the feminine mystique through new and explorative lenses. “An Instrument in the Shape of a Woman” exhibition is by Leslie Baum, Diana Christiansen and Selina Trepp with Annie Morse. Exhibits will feature three channel video installation. Admission is FREE and open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, visit chicago.gov.

Squash It!

Windy City Open

The 2022 Windy City Open Squash competition will be February 23 through March 2. This Professional Squash Association World Series International Tour will feature the world's top men and women squash professionals as they smash and batter their way to the $500,000 prize. Squash is a racket and ball sport played by two players in a four-walled court with a small, hollow rubber ball. The event will take place within the intimate and historic Cathedral Hall at the University Club of Chicago, 76 E. Monroe St. For game schedule and more, visit windycityopen.ussquash.com. Tickets are $21+.

Can't Take It With You!

'Everybody'

Join this comedic medieval morality play presented by Loyola University of Chicago, 1032 W. Sheridan Road. The groundbreaking adaptation of Branden Jacob Jenkins’s “Everybody” considers the things we carry into death and our lasting impressions on Earth. The play will be just as unpredictable as life as actors are assigned a new role every night. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday through February 27. In-person tickets are $10-25 and livestream tickets are $10. A talkback with medieval scholar Edward Wheatley and dramaturg Minh Hà (Millie) Lê will follow the performance on February 25 and will focus on the themes of “Everyman,” the play on which Jenkins’ “Everybody” is based on. To purchase tickets, visit luc.universitytickets.com.

Theater for All!

Chicago Theatre Week 2022

Experience the gift of theatre for the best price of the year. Chicago’s Theatre Week runs from February 17 through February 27 and encourages people of all ages and backgrounds to sample the extraordinary theatrical talents throughout the Chicago area. Partake in musicals, improv, dramas, and beyond, for this brief, week-long event for just $15 or $30 (or less). Selections include “Hertha Nova,” “Drunk Shakespeare,” “Evita,” “Gem of the Ocean,” and lots more. To see all Theatre Week titles and times, go to choosechicago.com.

Lunch & A Mezzo-Soprano

Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert: Katherine Beck and Chris Reynolds

Enjoy the gorgeous combination of piano and voice in the upcoming Dame Myra Concert, featuring the wonderful performances of mezzo-soprano Katherine Beck and Chris Reynolds on piano. This duet will feature the stunning sounds of Joseph Haydn’s “Arianna a Naxos, Hob.XXVIb:2,” Gioachino Rossini “Una voce poco fa” from “Il barbiere di Siviglia,” H. Leslie Adams’ “For You There is No Song” from “Five Millay Songs,” Florence Price’s “Night,” and Stephen Sondheim’s “No One is Alone” from “Into the Woods.” The performance will be 12:15 - 1 p.m. February 23 at Seventeenth Church of Christ Scientist, Chicago, 55 E. Wacker Drive. The concert is free to the public and is available in-person, online, and through their radio broadcast. To register for the performance, see imfchicago.org.

Becoming Herself!

Ayanah Moor: 'I Wish I Could Be You More Often'

Until April 10, the Cleve Carney Museum of Art, 425 Fawell Blvd., Glen Ellyn, presents the work of Ayanah Moor entitled “I Wish I Could Be You More Often.” The exhibit will showcase how her paintings, prints, drawings, and performances open the conversation on Blackness and gender identity and how both take shape within the visual field. Her work is both subversive and beautiful, reimaginative and healing as it displays the love, fear, myth, and desire that exists within her and her history. A reception and artist discussion of her work will be 3-5 p.m. March 5. The museum is open Wednesday through Sunday from 11-5 p.m. Admission is free to the public. For more information, visit theccma.org

Author, Poet, Lawyer, Activist!

Pauli Murray: Shouting for the Rights of All People

To celebrate the American Writers Museum’s upcoming online exhibit about Pauli Murray—author, poet, lawyer, and activist—a virtual event will tell the untold story of this Episcopal priest who broke records and barriers throughout her life and her legacy on women’s rights. The discussion will be lead by Deborah Nelson Linck, author of upcoming book “Pauli Murray: Shouting for the Rights of All People” to be released in May 2022. Linck is an educator and writer and founder of the Hands on Black History Museum. The free event will be at 6:30 p.m. February 22. Registration is on Eventbrite.com.

Artistic Dualities!

HATCH + BOLT

Celebrate art, culture, and the wonders of the human experience at the Chicago Artists Coalition, 2130 W. Fulton St. Supporting emerging Chicago artists, the Chicago Artists Coalition is hosting two different exhibits. “Timely Sanctification” will feature new works by their HATCH artists-in-residence Jade Williams and Gabriel Chalfin-Piney. Accompanying sound pieces are provided by Devin Shaffer. The exhibit will encompass the artist's journey of self-discovery and spiritual and familial influences. The second solo exhibit will feature the work of their BOLT artist-in-residence Selva Aparicio that explores themes of death, memory, and mourning to revitalize and remember the forgotten. Both exhibits will be open from February 25 through April 7 every Wednesday through Friday from 11-5 p.m. and Saturdays from 12-4 p.m. Opening receptions will take place on February 25 from 5-8 p.m. Admission is free. For more information about the museum or exhibits, visit chicagoartistscoalition.org.

-Compiled by Cora Saddler