FREE AND FREAKY SINCE | DECEMBER THIS WEEK CHICAGO READER | DECEMBER | VOLUME NUMBER
IN THIS ISSUE T R - YEAR IN REVIEW 20 The Internet The year of TikTok the World off ers tidy lessons on “bootgaze” crew the Keener Family @ 04 The Reader The story of 21 Dance In a year of loss we found American power dynamics and return with a second EP as told through some of our favorite that dance is everywhere Wild Mountain Thyme features one P P T B covers 22 Theater Chicago theater artists of the most agonizing courtships in OPINION P E C K H 06 Food Chicago restaurants ate rose to challengesand created movie history 40 National Politics When E C S K C L R H shit this year A lot of shit was still new onesin politicians sell out we all lose G D A H pretty great 24 Movies Relive the year in fi lm MUSIC & NIGHTLIFE 42 Savage Love Dan Savage M E P M 08 Joravsky | Politics I think we with these double features 34 Chicagoans of Note Doug answers questions about monsters TDE K R C E B W can all agree the next year has got 28 Albums The best overlooked Malone owner and lead engineer in bed and mothersinlaw A E J L to be better Chicago records of Jamdek Recording Studio S W M D L G 10 News On the violence sadness 30 Gig Posters The Reader got 35 Records of Note A pandemic D I B J M S CLASSIFIEDS E A S N L and hope of creative to fi nd ways to keep can’t stop the music and this week 43 Jobs P M K W 14 Isaacs | Culture She earned upli ing Chicago artists in the Reader reviews current releases 43 Apartments & Spaces L C S C -J the titlestill he was dissing her! 32 Musicians The music scene by DJ Earl the Miyumi Project 43 Marketplace S J R F A M R Would he do the same to say Dr doubled down on mutual aid and Freddie Old Soul Mark Lanegan C E B N B Kissinger? fundraising for community groups Live Skull and more L C M D L C M 16 Activism These individuals took 39 Early Warnings Rescheduled C N L C J F S O E M L F J H I H B by the horns and made their FILM concerts and other updated listings P J J C M J M mark on Chicagoand the world 26 Movies of note Ma Rainey’s 39 Gossip Wolf Artpop wizard M F M ’ K S K N D LM 18 Lit The ten best Chicago books Black Bottom is just as beautiful Sen Morimoto takes over booking M A M -K J R N J N M O A P- of as it is heartbreaking News of at the Hideout and selfdescribed A K S C S ------D D J D S M C J G EDITORS’ PICKS SS P A T A
S I D M N D D C W M P C Y D E A S L K M P D A A C S EC K K
ADVERTISING - - @ C Essays as group therapy The Gaming Issue ‘No other way forward’ - @ How are Black writers coping? We’re When we keep defi ning the “new Black artistic leaders refl ect on those V P S A M S D A N chanting, fact-checking history, and normal” every day, games will always who shaped them and the future C R M T P envisioning a tiny future. connect us. they envision. S A R L M -H L S C S M W R
N A V M G --- J L S B ------D C [email protected] - - CHICAGOREADERLC BP D R L T E R A- S V The best Chicago albums of That lockout you witnessed? This land is my land C C E B For generations, my family has T C R the 2010s It didn’t happen. owned a piece of untold Black O P-R F C F The Reader polled dozens of critics Ex-cops attempted to throw out a history in Boley, Oklahoma. This year, ------R ISSN - to arrive at an absolutely indisputable Rogers Park tenant at gunpoint. The I fi nally got to see it. R LC S M S C IL ranked list of several hundred police report tells a diff erent story. - - records that will defi nitely not start any arguments. C © C R 2 CHICA O READER - DECEMBER ll A HOME When A Great Deal Matters, Shop Rob Paddor’s... EVANSTON SUBARUsubaru IN of america SKOKIE will donate PLEASE SUPPORT OUR CHARITIES $250 to one of six charities, IN CHICAGO: with any new subaru Purchase. 7 or 8 Passengers ALL WHEEL DRIVE Rent, ownership, and neighborhood Ascent Otbac struggle since the collapse of public housing %
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A year in Reader covers The story of 2020, as told through some of our favorite covers
THE u March 5: “Welcome to Chicago, capital of the midwest” March 19: “Do not touch” March 26: “Stay at home” ILLUSTRATED BY BOBBY SIMS PHOTO BY SAMANTHA BAILEY PHOTO BY SAMANTHA BAILEY
April 9: “Essential workers” April 16: “‘The city is dead, are we next?’” June 4: “Serve and protect?” ILLUSTRATION BY NGUYEN TRAN PHOTO BY LLOYD DEGRANE PHOTO BY SAMANTHA BAILEY
chicagoreader.com/donate June 18: “The last responders” September 3: “The Education Issue” PHOTO BY GONZALO GUZMAN ILLUSTRATION BY JOHN GARRISON November 12: “Bound to the Point” PHOTO BY DAVID TRAVIS
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least the fi rst, Lao Peng You, is still cranking out about how 80 of the city’s best chefs and bar- FOOD FEATURE its magnifi cent dumplings, if only for carryout. tenders contributed recipes to our community Andersonville’s Little Madrid is still serving cookbook, Reader Recipes: Chicago Cooks and tapas, and Lincoln Square’s Serbian O16 is still Drinks at Home, benefi tting the paper and the kicking too, converting to a sandwich shop Comp Tab Relief Fund for out-of-work hospi- The year in pivots ma next week. I’m nearly convinced the white tality workers? I hope we do one of those every Chicago restaurants ate shit this year. A lot of shit was still pretty great. po tofu ramen at Des Plaines’s Chicago Ramen year to come. (You can still buy it.) inoculated me from COVID-19 because shortly But one thing I did not want to do when pa- By M S after I sucked it up, everything fell apart really tios and dining rooms reopened this summer fast. I’m grateful to it, and all the others that was police restaurants and their COVID safety have persevered. protocols. I yelled at enough assless maskholes sually I spend a couple sentences in my But it was much, much worse than that, There were so many closings, permanent and in grocery and liquor stores on my own time. look back at the year in food mourning wasn’t it? You struggle for words to describe hopefully temporary, but there was still just too I didn’t want it to become my job. I ate on one Uthe new places that, despite my earnest it. Catastrophic isn’t overwrought. And it still much good food to write about, from Mickey patio this summer, and it was nerve-wracking. love for them, didn’t make it past that first isn’t over. The bailout the restaurant industry Neely’s pizza at Ludlow Liquors, to the new deli Even if it was safe, it didn’t feel like it. critical year or so. It’s by that standard that I’m so desperately needs is nowhere in sight, and Je and Jude’s, to Milly’s Pizza in the Pan. So I spent my time seeking out hospitality going to declare 2020 one of the greatest years what’s happening now as a result has been In the early days it was heartening to see how workers who were fi guring out how to make a in Chicago restaurant history. loudly predicted since March. Everybody knew restaurant people quickly mobilized to help living making food safely outside the conven- Kidding! We all know how much it sucked. carryout and a summer of patio and limited one another, whether it was the quick thinkers tional brick-and-mortar restaurant paradigm. Even if the Powerhouse, Julia Gham’s Camer- indoor dining would not be enough, and now behind Dining at a Distance, aggregating all the And just as it was in Chicago’s recent golden oonian restaurant, was the only wonderful new we’re watching all the awful predictions unfold carryout intel on one handy site. Or how Erick age of restaurant openings, there were almost restaurant in Chicago to fall victim to the virus, in real time. Williams’s Virtue crew dropped carryout to too many stories to tell. Everywhere you that would be enough to make this an awful If Powerhouse suffered the curse of being make hot meals for nighttime residents at the looked, furloughed chefs and workers were year in eating. the second restaurant I write about in a year, at University of Chicago Medical Center. What popping up, introducing the city to food it 6 CHICA O READER - DECEMBER ll Lucky for you, Lao Peng You’s dumplings are still available for carryout. JEFF MARINI FOR CHICAGO READER Revolution Begins Within never knew outside of a home kitchen, like by Nikki Patin the underrepresented regional treasures of Jasmine Sheth’s Tasting India Series, or Ethan Lim’s full embrace of Khmer food at Hermosa, Revolution begins within How do I fi ght? My ancestors will never get back or Yuta Katsuyama filling the onigiri-shaped Whips, boots, chains, gas ovens Is it even possible to win? Microphone with cord void in Chicago’s Japanese fast food scene. Roiling inside my DNA Labyrinth capped with pen One of the common denominators of these What if I detest throwing hands? scored around arms stories was that each chef was reaching back Trauma generational What if rolling around in gutters dirty Weak with holding Oppression navigational with disinvestment isn’t even possible into their histories and drawing on food tradi- As my path has been shaped by hatred Because I’m too busy grinding myself Myself in peace tions and cultures that might not have a place Into bread To head off a war in the old Chicago restaurant world, from the Starting with my mirror Too busy twerking myself into circus Vietnamese treats of the Snack Collective, Only works if it’s hanging on a wall So I can charge admission to I never started to Eve Studnicka (Dinner at the Grotto) and Built with integrity A show no one’s watching Certainly never ordered Alexis Thomas’s (Black Cat Kitchen) Midwest- But if every time I look myself in the eye Only fans are blades whirling overhead I never learned how to fi ght ern-weird mobile supper club. And then there The mirror crashes into dirt Blue birds laughing at us roaches In a body fat was Furious Spoon’s Shin Thompson fully Rebranded as sky Scattering ourselves dark Layered in harm ignored embracing Japanese curry at Bokuchan, thanks Desperately feasting on scraps from Then shards fl y Tables built by those who will never Laying still to the low overhead of a ghost kitchen; John Vision denied Rest their hands on polished wood Playing dead Avila focusing on the food of Indonesia’s North By all the blood in my eyes never worked Sulawesi with Minahasa; and the regional Ready to set orders on backs Malaysian food of Kedai Tepao—all delivered While I walk Beveled by lack And so revolution Bent, leaning Revolving me to your door by the hustling chefs who made it Desperate to fi nd my upright So what does revolution bring? Resolving me themselves. If whirling circles never move Producers and purveyors had to adjust too, On land crooked Beyond borders built for closing Into blood but wondrous things happened. There was As stars obscured by fi re Dust What does revolution mean? Rust of iron the opening of Gri th, Indiana’s The Wurst, a What revolution can I fi nd? To those othered into only serving Left too long in fi res butcher shop specializing in small-scale, pas- What revolution is mine? ture-raised, GMO- and antibiotic-free meats, How can revolution ring? Set to turn me while farmer Vera Videnovich was saving old If it all begins within my skin If even our simplest melodies are hijacked Mine into ash Balkan crops with a Native American growing If revolution is my only friend Into voices too thin for thundering Sown into futures method, and Rachel Kimura was growing un- But I get dizzy with the spins The revolution begins within We can never reap common Japanese produce according to the Is tattooed on my back principles of an experimental, anything-goes Gotta lay down and squint Tesseract laid across my atlas bone natural farming philosophy. To even believe in a horizon To give me time I was privileged to witness and document the resilience of operators who just kept push- ing through, making great food however they could, like Atichat and Inon Srisawangpan of Featured in The Guardian, Chicago Tribune, HBO’s Def Poetry Jam and on international television and radio, writer, Uptown’s In-On Thai, which came roaring back producer, designer and survivor Nikki Patin has been advocating, performing and educating for 20 years. She has to business only to have to contract and sell its performed at the National Black Theater in Harlem, Brooklyn Museum, the Goodman Theater, EXPO Chicago and many other spaces throughout the US, New Zealand and Australia. Nikki Patin holds an MFA in Creative Non-Fiction great food through a window. Or Dinkey DaD- from the University of Southern Maine. Patin is the Community Engagement Director for the Chicago Alliance Against iva, creator of the jerk chicken egg rolls (and Sexual Exploitation and the founder and Executive Producer of Surviving the Mic, a survivor-led organization that 70-some others), starting her empire in a sub- crafts brave and affi rming space for survivors of sexual trauma. Her work can be found at nikkipatin.com. urban gaming parlor chain. Or Rafael Esparza and Mitchell AbouJamra, who opened a novel A biweekly series curated by the Chicago Reader and sponsored by the Poetry Foundation. “COVID-proof” Lebanese-Mexican mashup Evette’s. Or Passerotto’s Jennifer Kim, who took a deep breath after the restaurant uproar that ignited in tandem with the George Floyd protests to ponder what an entirely reimagined Open call for creators: Submit ideas to VS’ Roll Call! restaurant culture might look like. A podcast mini-series on the Black literary imagination. In the prolonged nightmare of 2020, these were the stories that gave me enough hope to Applications due January 17, 2021 consider that Chicago food might come out Full details at PoetryFoundation.org/RollCall even stronger on the waking side. v
@MikeSula ll DECEMBER - CHICAOREADER 7 Year in Review | News & Politics
So long, 2020—hello, 2021! And sports, family, friends, holidays, music, plane rides, and more . . . SHUTTERSTOCK
Wrigley. Won’t go near the Cubs so long as those MAGA-loving Ricketts own them. And going to Northwestern football games with Mickey D, and talking politics the whole game. And going to the NU homecoming party at Udawok and Tracy’s house, which fi lls up with 60-something-year-old graduates who fly in from all over the country. And going to the movies—every weekend. Man, I miss the movies. And going to the Black Harvest Film Festival at the Gene Siskel Film Center on oldies night, when they bring back a movie I haven’t seen in ages. And just walking along the lakefront and not worrying if the maskless MAGA guy coming my way is bearing a virus. And seeing Joey DeFrancesco at the Jazz Showcase. And Ramsey Lewis at the Jazz Festival. And the Isley Brothers, the O’Jays, and POLITICS What else? George Clinton at Grant Park on Geezer Sunday The Hideout! Can’t wait to get back to First at Taste of Chicago, where they feature groups Tuesdays. Me and Maya up on the stage with a for older people like me. Lookin ahead live audience of fellow political geeks, all of us And taking a cab to the airport to catch a sitting through Tim Tuten’s never-ending in- plane to California to visit my daughter, who I I think we can all agree the next year has got to be better. troduction. He swears he’s gonna be brief—but, haven’t seen in months because of this damn of course, he never is. virus. By B J And dining out with my wife and our friends. And driving to the beach and looking out on At real restaurants. With servers. And other the Pacifi c Ocean and gearing up for whatever diners at other tables. Hey, Loreen and Byron— political struggles await me back in Chicago. don’t forget that remote we’re gonna do in Yeah, I look forward to all of that—and s we all know by now, 2020 was miser- Watching all the big games (Super Bowl, NBA Chinatown! more—once this pandemic passes. able. Worst year ever—at least in my playo s, World Series) on the big TV screen at And sharing Thanksgiving dinner with our I’ll say one good thing about a pandemic. It Alifetime. the house of Cap, my dear friend who I hardly daughters and their friends—not a mask in gave me a ton of downtime to read a bunch of Though, now that I think about it, a strong saw these last few months. But don’t expect the sight. As we go around the table saying all books, including The Cold Millions—Jess Wal- case could be made for 1968 . . . Bears to be in any of those big games, not until the things we’re thankful for. Like just being ter’s latest novel. Which I recommend to one Dr. King killed. Bobby Kennedy killed. West they get management that’s not prejudiced together. and all. side up in fl ames. Cops pound the crap out of against Black quarterbacks . . . And drinking margaritas at our kids’ annual It’s about the western labor battles of the hippie demonstrators outside the Hilton. War And going to Bulls games at the United Cen- Chanukah party, the house fi lled with dozens early 1900s between the Wobblies and the raging in Vietnam. Nixon commits treason and ter with Norm—who I haven’t seen in ages. Hey, and dozens of millennials. Though it’s the old coldhearted millionaires who owned the mines. then gets elected president. all you front-running Chicagoans who claim to guys—Cap and Norm—who are the last to leave Near the end, it has an enduring passage where Yes, upon refl ection, ’68 gives ’20 a run for its be Laker fans—there’s plenty of room on the every year. the book’s heroine, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, money. Bulls bandwagon. I’m telling you—the rookie And having a barbeque on the Fourth of says: I won’t bother with this year’s lowlights. You can play. July in Indiana where the Days, the dearest of “Men sometimes say to me: You might win lived through it—you know the score. Basically, And going to Monday night bowling at Tim- friends, now live. And walking along the beach the battle, Gurley, but you’ll never win the war. it was Trump, death, Trump, death, Trump . . . ber Lanes. In honor of Monday night bowling, just east of Gary, looking at the skyline from the But no one wins the war. Not really. I mean, So, I’ll forgo the usual look-back-at-the-year- I’ll now indulge myself in a chant made famous other side. we’re all going to die, right? that-was column. by the Blasters, another team in the league. And catching up with Gaylon, Pippi, Ron, and “But to win a battle now and then? What Instead, I’ll look forward—to all the things I All together now . . . all their kids, who I don’t see nearly enough as it more can you want?” hope to do (again!) in the future. If this vaccine “I’m a Blaster, you’re a Blaster; we’re a Blast- is. And don’t see at all during the plague. So, let’s take a break for the holidays and really does its job and this fucking virus passes. er, all. And when we get together, we lick each And visiting old friends—like Monroe and then start it again. ’Cause the battle doesn’t end Sorry about that language. other’s balls.” Joyce—in person. As opposed to looking at until the war is over. v Hence, in no particular order, I’m looking Well, I may have improved that last line a them on Google Meet . . . forward to . . . little bit. And going to White Sox games. But not to @bennyjshow 8 CHICA O READER - DECEMBER ll Eviction any given day are Black women. Since March, the federal, state, and local ver- sions of an eviction moratorium have kept thou- Meanwhile, landlords have been lobbying the city and county against taking further sands in their homes. While typically there are steps to protect tenants, such as the “just some 20,000 eviction cases fi led every year, as cause” eviction ordinance or lifting the ban of December 14, only about 6,600 eviction cases on rent control in Springfield. Their argu- have been fi led against Chicago residential and ment throughout the pandemic has been that commercial tenants—and 65 percent of those this is not the time to be introducing drastic cases were initiated before the governor issued changes to the laws governing landlord-tenant his fi rst moratorium. relations. Landlords are still allowed to file cases if there’s an emergency, but they have to prove I’ve been dropping into seminars and discus- sions hosted by local landlord groups. The tone that a tenant is a danger to neighbors or is is always one of resigned frustration about the destroying the property. However, the vast moratorium, but when the conversation turns majority of eviction proceedings here, as ev- to bottom lines, the landlords seem to be doing A erywhere in the country, start because tenants alright. The Neighborhood Building Owner’s are behind on their rent, not because they’re in Alliance recently reported that 92 percent of violation of their lease. landlords collected half or more of all the rent Since the spring, tenants’ rights groups due in September. Forty-six percent of them have been agitating on behalf of the few said they had collected upward of 95 percent defendants that are still being hauled into of rents. At public hearings landlords’ spokes- eviction court, as well as those who’ve faced people certainly conjure an idea of struggling illegal lockouts. But the moratorium seems to “housing providers,” but a shrinking profit be working to keep many people stable in their margin isn’t the same as being in the red. homes through the pandemic as they contend with extreme uncertainty, loss of income, and The current Illinois eviction moratorium is set to expire on January 11. What will hap- remote learning. Just as COVID-19 has had a pen once the court system is open to these disproportionate impact on low-income Afri- cases again? Experts predict an “avalanche” can Americans, so does eviction; most of the of evictions post-COVID and local landlords tenants in Chicago’s eviction courtrooms on worry about the backlog in case processing. Tenants’ groups worry about a mass descent NO into poverty for people who had no evictions in On the violence, sadness, their background, but will now face the rental and hope of 2020 market with a scarlet letter. actual people every day, not just the carica- There are no requirements for landlords tures you follow on Twitter. to report how much they make, but new I didn’t attend a single protest this summer; scholarship indicates the profit margins in the protests came to me. I lived in a high-rise the poorest neighborhoods, where property downtown, and before you make that ownership is increasingly consolidated in en’t you bougie face? fewer and fewer hands, are particularly wide. has made at me, you should know that being If most Chicago landlords make it out of the a Black lady living in the Loop is in the best of pandemic without bankruptcy while the health times complicated, and in that the worsteven my of timesown father crisis delivers a new generation of evictees, a dystopian nightmare. Because I lived down-Well ar- maybe this year will get us closer to under- town, the city and its taxpayer-funded terror standing the mysterious economic forces at squads wanted to protect me at all costs, weap- play in our housing market. onizing infrastructure to keep “outsiders” out. Because I am Black, they wanted to protect my Protest neighbors from me. It was a long summer. People of color—especially Black folks—feel YEAR —M D Nearly 20 years ago during an interview free to sit out this fi rst-paragraph pop quiz and about the AIDS crisis, an LGBTQ+ advocate skip ahead. Everyone else: When was the last told me that the fi ght for our rights was waged time you thought about George Floyd? If the re- on multiple fronts: we needed activists both cently released body cam footage of CPD’s 2019 outside chaining themselves to city hall and atrocity against a Black body wasn’t in the news, inside sitting at the table with the mayor. It’s would you be thinking about police brutality? an idea that’s stayed with me as I’ve learned Would you spend any time sitting with your more about all of the civil rights movements I anxiety about the lack of safety and dignity for carry with me as a Black queer woman, and it’s Black Chicagoans? no less true today. Don’t know? No? The racism and brutality that killed George That’s why people protest. Because when we Floyd didn’t stop when the protests stopped. don’t, the city forgets. OTHER Too many of us live with these traumas every People forget how the inequities everyone day. We can’t forget them, and protests help en- talks about so earnestly these days endanger sure no one else does either.
—K H 10 CHICA O READER - DECEMBER LIKE ll Violence Few things brought anti-trans rhetoric, legisla- tion, and violence to the fore this year more than the words of a children’s author. J.K. Rowling published numerous writings targeting trans people—trans women and children in partic- ular. The same woman who created a world where wizards and witches can transform into beetles, dogs, and cats, rejects the idea that, for some, gender and sex are not aligned. Her poorly crafted statements, which continue unabated, have been repeatedly criticized by activists as well as doctors, biologists, scientists, and anyone with an ounce of empathy. Long revered as a literary icon, Rowling now places herself with other proud transphobes, including our very own in greater numbers for trans rights, it’s crucial He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. to remember that the fi ght isn’t just about one author’s harmful tweets or retrograde legis- But the trouble is, bigoted and vile words like hers are not always empty. Words like these lation; for many people at the epicenter of the influence politics, policy, and actions, and violence, it’s a matter of living to see another day. have emboldened many to speak out against —A M R transgender-inclusive polices that they say are a threat to women’s rights. Therapy I celebrated my one-year anniversary of thera- The American Civil Liberties Union reported that by March, state legislators across the py three months into the pandemic. The timing country had introduced troves of bills aimed of investing in my mental health was kismet, at rolling back rights for transgender people. just ahead of spending nine months in isolation. Many proposed bills took aim at transgender A study by the CDC done in late June re- rights broadly; in Iowa, for example, legislators ported “considerably elevated adverse mental NO health conditions” due in part to separation introduced a bill that would remove gender On the violence, sadness, identity as a protected class under the state’s from friends and family, fear of catching and/ and hope of 2020 civil rights act. Here in Illinois in February, or spreading COVID, and the looming specter state representative Darren Bailey, a Repub- of death. And that was in the summer, far be- lican from the 109th district, introduced a bill fore some of us started feeling the full weight that would require the state’s Department of pandemic fatigue, when we could still enjoy of Corrections to house incarcerated people the outdoors and the sun didn’t set until 8 PM. based on their biological sex, regardless of It’s overwhelming to think about how our their gender identity. collective mental health has su ered this year, but it’s also forced some meaningful changes. Others even targeted transgender youth. Legislators in a number of states, including More than ever before, I see friends, family, Alabama, Colorado, Georgia, and Missouri, in- and social media acquaintances sharing per- troduced bills aimed at blocking transition-re- sonal experiences with depression and anxi- lated health care for youth and bills aimed at ety and more. Never underestimate the power restricting transgender youth from competing of feeling like you’re not alone and being able on teams that align with their gender identity, to share coping mechanisms. but not their biological sex. Therapists and other wellness professionals adapted to virtual practices, many removing Despite this year’s historic uprisings for social justice and against racism and police the barrier of access by o ering discounted or brutality, and seemingly renewed support for free services when possible. I particularly en- marginalized communities, 2020 has seen joyed a change of scenery for my weekly video staggering violence against the transgender sessions. There’s something cathartic about community, particularly Black and Brown having an emotional breakdown in front of transgender women. At least 40 transgender my therapist in my car and then driving away, or gender-nonconforming people have been leaving some of my demons behind in the murdered, a sobering statistic the Human Dollar Tree parking lot. Even being trapped at Rights Campaign reports is the highest num- home wasn’t so bad. New habits like cooking ber it has tracked since 2013—but still a low for myself and going on walks have become estimate considering the myriad of barriers to just as stabilizing as my therapy sessions, knowing the actual number. practices that I had convinced myself I never OTHERhad time for in the before times. So while activists, social media personali- ties, and everyday people, incredibly, speak out My original impetus for starting therapy
ll DECEMBER - CHICAOREADER 11 continued from 13 tion’s Worf to country songwriting legend Mel talk about when politics weren’t on the table? recounts, and lawsuits; a Biden win should not was an attempt to get my shit together before Tillis to decry the audacious nerve of those Well, the pandemic, which . . . is hardly apolit- erase all of that. I turned 30. This milestone, I learned through who may dare to usurp us. What better way ical. At the close of their discussion, Lightfoot In reality, this election did little but expose therapy, should not be any kind of marker of to describe so many of the events of 2020. The asked Farrell to become a youth ambassador oppressive structures that have existed in this my success or capabilities as a grown-up. The utter and absolute unmitigated gall. —S for the city’s COVID-19 safety initiatives. I’m country since its inception. “Restored faith vaccine won’t put an end to my mental health C-J no teen, but I have a hard time believing any in democracy” feels like an insult to those journey. I am not immune to the anxiety, de- young person would be swayed to change who marched for weeks on end this summer, pression, body image issues, substance use, Status Quo their behaviors because a 61-year-old rocker an insult to those who do the work every day impulsive spending, and more that now feel Lollapalooza organizers historically schedule asked them to at the behest of a mayor who of trying desperately to tell the world that synonymous with 2020. But the past year most of the local performers at the very be- routinely refuses to listen to their demands. democracy isn’t the best way to move forward. taught me the importance of preventative ginning of each day, and those noontime sets Not that Lightfoot’s Lolla Zoom chat was It feels like a lulling return to complacency. care, and I hope at least one silver lining on do few favors for the artists considering even about young people. It was a branding exer- —T A this dark cloud of a year is that others have the early birds are still going through security cise intended to prop up the status quo during realized the same. —B W around that time; compound that with the fact a summer when grassroots organizations Death that Chicagoans already make up such a tiny encouraged Chicagoans to challenge the On a Wednesday night in July, long after our Police fraction of the lineup for a four-day gathering power structure. Lightfoot’s interactions with sense of normalcy had been annihilated, I went Sometime in the early morning hours of June that features nearly 200 acts, and local music music suggest she’s only interested in it as far down the street to witness the last rites of an 1, while protests in reaction to the killing of is minimally represented at best. Concert as it can serve as a vehicle for her message. 84-year-old family member dying of corona- George Floyd and systemic racism had started promoters C3 Presents, which is based out of Something tells me if she actually listened to virus. I stood in the living room of her ranch unraveling into riot status, the south side Austin, Texas—and which multinational en- what the artists on the Lolla lineup and in her house, between a couch and a bay window, with campaign office of Congressman Bobby Rush tertainment company Live Nation purchased backyard express in their work, she wouldn’t 15 others who were masked and a safe distance was transformed into a lounge area of sorts for a controlling stake of in 2014—runs the show. like what she’d hear. —L G away. It was dim, I remember, as if lit by can- some Chicago Police Department personnel. Lolla strikes me as an event that celebrates dles. She sat in a hospital bed in the center of Video footage from security cameras, released capital over culture; its best bookings are a Election the room. by the mayor’s office in the following week, curious side effect, not the product. It’s just “This has truly restored faith in our democra- The youngest watched through a cell phone showed an officer taking a nap on a couch, part of what signals to me that the festival en- cy.” I heard that over and over again, ringing camera. The oldest, her sprightly 88-year-old another gazing at their cell phone, and several gages with local music only enough to reach a out of newscasters’ mouths and plastering brother-in-law, said, “I’m so sorry. I’m so officers resting their heads on desks. In all, bare-minimum obligation for rendering down- social media once the veil started to lift on that sorry.” We all waited for a miracle. For some, fi ve hours of video captured a group of o cers town into a commercialized cesspool. sunny Saturday, days after voting ended, when that meant the arrival of the priest. For oth- doing not a lot, and at one point 13 o cers (in- Lolla went virtual this year, presenting a it fi nally became clear that Joe Biden would be ers, including myself, it was for her immune cluding three supervisors) can be seen inside. mix of rebroadcasted sets and new, prerecord- president. It sounded like sarcasm. How was system to kill what plagued her insides and for It wasn’t lost on anyone who viewed this ed performances on its YouTube channel. It any part of this election—this antiquated, con- her to be better. footage that the optics were poor; a virtual partnered with the Department of Cultural fusing, and racist process for choosing which She had contracted the virus months be- sleepover happened at a congressman’s store- A airs and Special Events, which caught heat elderly white man controls our fate—genuinely fore. We knew so little back then. How do we front while the stores in a strip mall right at the end of July after pulling a “Millennium productive and fair? fl atten the curve? Should we wear masks? It next door at 54th and Wentworth were being Park at Home” concert by Chicago pop wiz- Did people suddenly forget the chaos, the felt like her death happened fast, but looking relieved of their goods. Even Chicago Police ard Sen Morimoto; he refused to remove his insu erable debates? The way one side cheat- back it was slow: a stroke, a positive test, a superintendent David Brown, then new to his introductory speech lightly criticizing mayor ed without retribution, all the while making thrombectomy, a discharge, then a decline in job, expressed vehement disapproval at the Lori Lightfoot for her failure to engage with unsubstantiated claims about the other side? health. subsequent press conference. “If you sleep protesters demanding police accountability. The endless pleas for people to register to vote The priest was young. He stood next to her during a riot what do you do during a regular As Morimoto’s scrapped performance made (because for some reason that’s not a given and spoke just above a whisper and with a shift when there’s no riot?” he said. Later that national news, DCASE and Lightfoot issued right), only to have those votes blatantly de- pleasant accent. Though he had arrived in the month, Fraternal Order of Police president their own statement, claiming the music nied by the sitting president? dark, he had noticed the names of the streets John Catanzara told ABC7’s Chuck Goudie in series intends to lift up local artists, but not I don’t want to diminish the triumphs of Ka- on the corner on which she lived and said that a follow-up story that the o cers might have “provide a platform for public discourse and mala Harris, of Black organizers in the south, in heaven she would enjoy wine in a beautiful been assigned to protect Rush’s office from debate.” It followed their suggestion that both or of anyone else who put their entire weight field. It was thoughtful. She died a few days looters. A spokesperson for Rush told Goudie parties “honor artistic freedom and uphold behind removing Trump from office. But as later. that no one from his sta had contacted the free speech.” so many took to the streets in celebration, I Scenes much worse than this have taken CPD for such protection. Less than a week later, Lolla announced its wasn’t quite at the get-drunk-and-dance-in- place in so many hospitals and homes and For my money, the pièce de résistance of virtual festival. The official poster framed my-Biden-Harris-merch level of excitement. screens. I have nothing profound to say about response to this situation came from Con- the lineup’s encyclopedia of performers with And I’m still not. Like many others, mostly I the virus, but I can tell you what an emergency gressman Rush himself during the press con- a photo collage of the most famous names just feel tired—and I know Black organizers room doctor, who on the day I write this is ference. With clear frustration in his voice, he involved in the festivities and at least one fake who have been doing the work for decades feel being vaccinated, told me. He said that as the said, “They had the unmitigated gall to make progressive. Lori Lightfoot’s face appeared on utterly exhausted. pandemic stretches into another year and the co ee for themselves and go and pop popcorn. the left-hand side of the poster, right beneath The same journalists touting “faith in death toll becomes even more abstract, it’s My popcorn. In my microwave.” Kudos to the an image of Chance the Rapper. The four-day democracy” had to then report on Trump’s re- easy to lose sight of how miraculous it is that congressman for using the ever-evocative digital bonanza began with a Zoom chat fusal to peacefully transition, and the shock- we are here. The odds of designing a vaccine “unmitigated gall,” the ultimate phrase of between Lightfoot and Lollapalooza mascot ing lack of systems in place to oust him. After this effective and this fast, he said, “is like utter disgust at foolishness. While its origins Perry Farrell. years of a Trump administration, and months drunkenly stumbling out of your apartment in are obscure, “unmitigated gall” has been used What could the Jane’s Addiction front man of campaigning, the public had to suffer a snowstorm and fi nding a lottery ticket worth by everyone from Star Trek: The Next Genera- and the embattled mayor of Chicago possibly through weeks of confusion, misinformation, $70 million.” —S K v 12 CHICA O READER - DECEMBER ll Make a gift by 12/31 to double your impact and ensure
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Northwestern had more tolerance for prov- ocation then than it does now. A day after the WSJ essay was published, NU issued an o cial distancing statement, declaring that “Joseph Epstein has not been a lecturer at Northwestern since 2003,” and that the uni- versity “strongly disagrees with Mr. Epstein’s misogynistic views.” The English department, in which he taught for so long, was moved to issue its own statement, rejecting Epstein’s “unmerited aspersion” on Biden’s “rightful claiming of her doctoral credentials,” and describing him as “a former adjunct lecturer who has not taught here in nearly 20 years.” Then they wiped him o their online list of emeritus faculty.
So long, 2020 In the two short months last winter before the virus hit, I saw three operas and wrote about them for the Reader: Madama Butterfl y and The Queen of Spades at Lyric Opera, and Dan Shore’s Freedom Ride, a Chicago Opera Theater presentation at the Studebaker. I’ve always known that it’s a privilege to have a seat at the opera, but now, looking back at those productions through the long tunnel of the virus shutdown, they shimmer—alive with sound and presence. We didn’t pay at- tention then—in the moment, we hardly ever do—but it was a golden time. In the 1990s, Sarah Bryan Miller (or Bryan CULTURE Jill Biden earned a doctorate in education; Miller, as she was known then), often had the Epstein earned no advanced degree, but saw Reader seat at classical concerts. A member fi t, in a December 11 Wall Street Journal opin- of the Lyric Opera Chorus, and an alum of Lyr- The gremlin and the EdD ion piece, to let her know that “A wise man ic’s young-artist training program, she had a once said that no one should call himself ‘Dr.’ professional’s deep knowledge of the music, She earned the title—still he was dissing her! Would he do the same to, say, Dr. unless he has delivered a child [italics mine].” a discerning ear, wide-ranging interests, Kissinger? Sage advice that neatly eliminates anyone and—when she wanted it—a wicked pen. She who has actually delivered a child, by, you went on to become the much-loved classical By D I know, bearing it. Which Biden has also done. music critic for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Epstein, who wrote a whole book on snob- and is among the many people we lost this bery, attempted to demean Biden’s communi- year. On November 28, Miller died of cancer ty college research and career, while noting she’d been fi ghting for a decade. The Reader wo weeks before Christmas Putting her down that he taught at Northwestern University archive is fortunate to have a trove of more In a treacherous year In the WSJ . . . for 30 years without anything more than a than 100 of her memorable pieces on music T With POTUS and virus Forgive me. Too much time in my own University of Chicago B.A. The latter part’s and more. When who should appear company, desperate for amusement. And this true: I remember the consternation among Wishing you a healthy new year; hoping But a tiny old gremlin was defi nitely amusing—Epstein, popping up graduate students there when Northwestern we’ll soon be back at the opera, theater, Named Joseph Epstein out of the slow gray end to this nasty year to hired him, in the 1970s, on the heels of anoth- galleries, museums, shops, restaurants, and Who bullied Jill Biden call out our soon-to-be First Lady. For what? er notorious essay, this one in Harper’s Mag- venues of all kinds that make Chicago so Just to be mean. / Being uncool / Revealing himself / As the azine, in which he opined that homosexuality great. v ‘Don’t call yourself Doc’ much greater fool. is a curse that causes such pain, it would be The gremlin did bray OK, I’m stopping now. better wiped “o the face of the earth.” @DeannaIsaacs 14 CHICA O READER - DECEMBER ll “ You deserve recovery.” KAT C. / RCA ALUMNA
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ACTIVISM Chanemakers of 2020—and beyond Whether through organizing, the arts, or social media, these individuals took the year by the horns and made their mark on Chicago—and the world. By G S
ay what you will about 2020, but it was Reservation native, met rapper Vic Mensa at a year for people in Chicago to make the No DAPA protests, where they discussed Stheir own agendas and to control sustainable change that would be grounded their own destinies. Chicago organizers took in community and safety for Black and Brown action not just for themselves, but for young youth. Two years later, Save Money, Save Life people growing up in the city, especially in was born. SMSL’s mission is to use art, edu- Black and Brown neighborhoods. In the face cation, entertainment, and projects to foster of adversity, these folks who call the Windy and empower BIPOC folks, whether it be City home got to work in times of crisis, and training street medics volunteers to aid gun their work hasn’t gone unnoticed. Here are 11 violence or hold drives for back-to-school people who gave a damn in 2020; and they’re aid initiatives. Over the course of this year, nowhere close to stopping any time soon. the organization pivoted from their regular programming and helped distribute 100,000 Eva Maria Lewis pounds of food across the city, raised funds Executive Director of Free Root Operation/ and awareness for homeless youth during a artist sleepout, and took to the streets to protest for George Floyd and Black lives. Keepseagle For South Shore native Eva Maria Lewis, has, among other youth programs, a Black traveling to and from the north side for a and Indigenous teen exchange program in quality education exposed the disparities be- the works for Summer 2021. “Living on a tween white and Black students in Chicago. reservation, I didn’t really understand the In 2015, she founded Free Root Operation, an rest of the world, which limited possibilities organization fighting gun violence through for myself, and I know a lot of people from compassion and opportunity, and this year the city also experience that. We live within Lewis developed programming for Bouchet these borders and don’t understand the rest Elementary, located in South Shore, to intro- of the world.” duce peace rooms, a place for students to de- compress, stretch, or relax as an alternative Nash Alam to punishment, to foster social-emotional Digital Organizer at Grassroots Collaborative learning. She plans to expand these efforts to more under-resourced schools in 2021. “I Nash Alam used to not believe in “Slack- allow myself to imagine, ‘OK, we’ve never had tivists,” performative activism a la social something like this, [but] it doesn’t mean it media, but as someone who has been both can’t happen.’ What do you need to do to get rooted on the ground and behind the screen, there? There’s so much being accomplished, Alam highlights the need for both roles. “I’m it’s here to stay. It’s just going to get better.” constantly thinking about what it is that young Black and Brown people really care Laundi Keepseagle about.” As the face behind the socials for Executive Director at Save Money, Save Life Grassroots Collaborative, a community-labor coalition, Alam shares content consisting of In 2016, Laundi Keepseagle, a Standing Rock memes, infographics, and illustrations that 16 CHICA O READER - DECEMBER ll Arts & Culture | Year in Review
Free Root Operation founder Eva Maria Lewis a Chicago-based Black, trans-led LGBTQ+ media content to combat misinformation on e orts to end intersex surgeries. “A lot of us JEFF MARINI FOR CHICAGO READER center providing affirming services on the social media, but further continued this with who are in a social movement come from a west and south sides. Wilson’s funk-infused their strategic communications-based com- place of oppression or trauma,” Pagonis says. provides information and resources relating rap resonating with so many fans over the pany TM Productions to make legal and polit- “When you grow up di erent [in a way] that’s to racial justice and economic equity. During summer suggests there could be more of a ical information more accessible to Black and so foundational to society [like] the [gender] the summer, Alam trained the Brighton Park balance in the world of activism, centering Brown people. In addition, this year, the duo binary, you feel like you’ll never be loved as Neighborhood Council’s youth group, and the love of people over money. “People say decided to run for local school council—and you are.” Now at 34, Pagonis is focusing on with the police brutality uprising, “absorbed artists should be a refl ection of the times.” won (Khwaja in Hyde Park, Reynolds-Tyler writing their memoir coming out in fall 2021 the momentum” and wrote scripted e-mails in South Shore). Khwaja and Reynolds-Tyler and plans on taking steps toward restorative, for citizens to send out to the city council Rivka Yeker & Morgan Martinez also built up “an ecosystem of mutual aid,” healing practices, citing, “Activism can be an and other representatives. Going forward, Founders of Hooligan Magazine which Khwaja says is “a form of direct ac- addiction.” Alam’s work will continue the fi ght to push tion,” with Reynolds-Tyler distributing food city council to enact progressive revenue For more than six years, independent publi- for south siders with The People’s Grab ‘N Damon Williams and Jennifer Pagán options. “Je Bezos made billions in the fi rst cation Hooligan Magazine, founded by best Go and Khwaja with Market Box, a collabo- Cofounders of the Let Us Breathe Collective three months of the pandemic and the media friends Rivka Yeker and Morgan Martinez, ration with Star Farm Chicago to ensure food was talking about looting. It’s about fi ghting has always centered BIPOC voices, but this security for the west and south sides. “We If there was a power couple of the Black Lib- that narrative consistently to really uplift the year, Martinez says, “forced us to experi- fit so well together,” Reynolds-Tyler says. eration Movement in Chicago, it would be co- struggles that the working people of Chicago ment with the way we approach interacting “The work that we do creates an impact on founders Damon Williams and Jennifer Pagán are facing, and policing as a root cause of with our readership and community.” For people’s lives: people who are not on the In- of the Black-led healing through arts and violence.” instance, she and Yeker crafted Hooligan ternet, people who don’t have access to fresh organizing #LetUsBreathe Collective. During Hangouts, an Instagram Live show where produce, people who are, in many ways, the the uprising protests this summer, Williams, Ric Wilson folks could virtually enjoy live performers or forgotten people.” As for the new year ahead, also the cohost of Chicago favorite AirGo Musician/activist be led through a healing session with artistic Khwaja is hopeful. “2021 will be about lever- Radio, and Pagán, a cultural worker and edu- cooperatives like the Black, trans-led organi- aging and strengthening so we can continue cator, were attacked and arrested by the Chi- Sitting comfortably at more than 800,000 zation Activation Residency. “We have this to generate that power.” cago Police Department during a Black Lives Spotify streams, Ric Wilson’s uprising-an- future that we’re committed to make sure Matter protest. Refl ecting on the incident six them of the summer, “Fight like Ida B. and we can still produce content that’s valuable Pidgeon Pagonis months later, Pagán says the events over the Marsha P.,” combines a disco tempo accom- because I really do believe popular media is Intersex activist/writer summer have been a “transformative expe- panied by odes to Black freedom fi ghters with never going to give information you actually rience.” “I feel more grounded in what has solidarity with marginalized communities. “I need,” Yeker says. Pidgeon Pagonis found out they were intersex come of it,” she says. And what has come of it wanted to make a song about folks who I felt after retrieving their medical records at 18 was building the Black Abolitionist Network, like really had super duper huge courage to Maira Khwaja & Trina Reynolds-Tyler during their freshman year at DePaul Univer- which ran the campaign for #DefundCPD. do the things they were doing at the time they Founders of TM Productions sity, and thus the journey toward ending the “What’s really frustrating is that we’re not were doing it.” The same week the song was unnecessary medical procedures began. At saying anything new,” Williams says. “We’ve released, Wilson doubled down on his lyrics, Work partners Maira Khwaja and Trina Reyn- the time, Lurie’s Children’s Hospital, where been saying it for fi ve years [but] we just now “The liberation of black trans women leads to olds-Tyler met while working at south side- Pagonis was harmed at birth in the late 80s, had the momentum. It pushed us to be what the liberation of all black people / this isn’t based journalism company the Invisible In- was across the street. This past July, with we’ve been naming, to go back to this point of an option,” which Twitter itself turned into stitute, where the two continue to work, but the unstoppable work by the Intersex Justice radical imagination. We’ve been summoning a billboard, placed on 15th and Ashland, and wanted to produce content surrounding the Project, cofounded by Pagonis, Lurie’s re- thousands of people demanding this, and we per Wilson’s request, had the company send importance of elections designed for young leased a statement acknowledging the harm didn’t even have to talk to them directly for the $5,000 revenue to Brave Space Alliance, people. They started o with original multi- done to patients and is making conscious its manifest.” v
ll DECEMBER - CHICAOREADER 17 Year in Review | Arts & Culture
LIT
kid who struggles to fi t in. When social unrest Finna by Nate Marshall (One World) The ten best Chicao erupts after police kill one of his neighbors, Claude takes the Megabus to the University Marshall moved to Colorado last year, but his of Missouri, where white students ask if he latest poetry collection is still grounded in books of 2020 knows Chief Keef. The winner of this year’s Chicago, “a town in love with its own blood, / Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, a blood browned on its own history & funk.” Add these stories rooted in the city to your reading list. it’s a spectacular coming-of-age story with the Finna opens with a stunning series of poems rare ability to make you smile and rip out your about Marshall’s online interactions with a By A M heart on the same page. white supremacist who shares his name, but my personal favorite, “when i say Chicago,” is The Beauty of Your Face by Sahar Mustafah a soaring ode to the city that’s worth framing anceled events, publishing delays, Kendall’s Hood Feminism. Nonetheless, here (W. W. Norton) on your wall. shuttered bookstores—in many ways, are my favorite Chicago-focused books of C2020 was an awful year for Chicago 2020, available at an independent bookstore Mustafah’s debut novel opens with a school Too Much Midnight by Krista Franklin (Hay- writers. But it was a fantastic year for Chicago near you. shooting at a Muslim school for girls just south market Books) readers, at least when it comes to new fi ction, of Chicago. As gunshots shake the ceiling of her nonfi ction, and poetry. To keep this list man- Everywhere You Don’t Belong by Gabriel o ce, the Palestinian-American school princi- Too Much Midnight is a miracle of a book that ageable, I’ve limited it to books with a strong Bump (Algonquin Books) pal, Afaf Rahman, remembers her life growing spans centuries and continents and worlds. emphasis on the city itself. That means you up in the city, including the disappearance of The accompanying essays about Franklin’s won’t see books set elsewhere, like Natasha “I remember Euclid Avenue,” begins Gabriel her sister and the unraveling of her family. A work—from Jamila Woods, Cauleen Smith, Trethewey’s Memorial Drive and Kathleen Bump’s debut novel, set in the South Shore harrowing work of insightful fi ction, it abso- Greg Tate, and Maria Hamilton Abegunde— Rooney’s Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey, nor neighborhood where he grew up. Bump’s lutely earned its spot in this year’s New York make this a Chicago book, since she’s one of books with broader subject matter, like Mikki narrator, Claude McKay Love, is an anxious Times’s 100 Notable Books. our most remarkable living artists. A brilliant 18 CHICA O READER - DECEMBER ll Year in Review BULL HO N
synthesis of poetry and art, Afrofuturism and Chicago, will make you mourn all the past ver- Afrosurrealism, pop culture and actual history, sions of the city we’ve lost. Too Much Midnight won the 2020 Chicago The Lost Book of Adana Moreau by Michael Review of Books award for poetry. (Disclosure: Zapata (Hanover Square Press) I founded the Chicago Review of Books five years ago and still serve as one of the awards In 1929, a Dominican immigrant in New Orle- judges.) ans publishes a science fi ction novel that be- comes a classic. But on her deathbed, she asks A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of her son to destroy the manuscript for her sec- America’s First All-Black High School Row- ond novel. Nearly 100 years later in Chicago, PHOTO COURTESY Shabazz Palaces, still from “Are You... Can You... Were You? (Felt).” 2012. HD video. 5 min 54 sec. ing Team by Arshay Cooper (Flatiron Books) a man named Saul Drower receives a package containing that very manuscript, and sets out Cooper’s 2015 memoir was republished this to solve a century-old mystery. Zapata’s debut Can we just feel for a while? year to coincide with the release of a documen- is an utterly fascinating literary adventure for zakkiyyah najeebah dumas-o’neal tary fi lm based on his story. Back in 1997 in East fans of 2666 and Lovecraft Country that won Garfield Park, Cooper and his Manley Career this year’s Chicago Review of Books award for It’s a feeling. on “Blackness,” as a means of “show- Academy classmates overcame rival gang af- fi ction. I woke up to it, heavy, ing solidarity” and flaunting how “in- fi liations to form the fi rst all-Black high school alight with trueness clusive” they’re becoming. Outside of rowing team. This isn’t your average sports Campus Counterspaces: Black and Latinx Always a way of losin’, the vortex of Black political grievanc- memoir about hard-fought championships; Students’ Search for Community at Histor- compelled to knew it es, this past summer’s uprisings, and My body traveled, COVID-19—What does it mean for the it’s an intimate and inspiring look at race, ically White Universities by Micere Keels my mind waits behind the music Black artist to be encouraged to pull privilege, and the bonds formed by shared (Cornell University Press) My crime bemuses, inward, process, and just—feel? Black traumas—and shared boats. “relax inside my shiny blueness.” artists have always been encouraged A professor of comparative human develop- Time: I understand it, and pressured to politicize their cre- The Heart of a Woman: The Life and Music of ment at the University of Chicago, Dr. Keels but I never choose it ative outputs, and to respond to the Florence B. Price by Rae Linda Brown (Uni- interviewed more than 500 Black and Latinx I can’t explain it with verbs, various forms of societal and racial versity of Illinois Press) students who enrolled at fi ve predominantly I have to do it. trauma we’re often subjected to. Can white colleges in and around Chicago. What we imagine a time, space, and place for In 1933, when the Chicago Symphony Orches- she found was that “these students were ask- supporting Black artists and Black cre- y year, live from this pandem- ativity right now through what we’re tra played Florence Price’s Symphony in E ing for access to counterspaces—safe spaces ic, in words, would have to be feeling, and not what it is we’re mak- minor, she became the fi rst African American that simultaneously validate and critique these lyrics from Shabazz Pal- ing/producing? Or how it contributes woman in history to compose music for a one’s interconnected self and group identi- M ace’s 2011 song (which sounds more to conversations on race? Even in a major orchestra. Despite her infl uential career, ty—that would enable radical growth.” It’s a timely and pertinent than ever) “Are pandemic, and amongst the anti-Black most of Price’s work was lost until 2009, when fascinating look at why most university diver- You...Can You...Were You? (Felt)” from political tensions—Black artists are her scores were discovered in an abandoned sity policies still fall far short of meaningful, their futuristic and speculative but deserving of care, relief, dreaming, house in Kankakee County. Brown’s book is the institutional change. deeply introspective album Black Up. timelessness, absurdity, and pure first-ever biography of Price, who spent the It’s the “relax inside my blueness” forms of being not always encapsulat- second half of her life in Chicago after her fami- Sun Ra’s Chicago: Afrofuturism and the for me. ed by trauma and those who can bene- It’s also the “I can’t explain it with fit from it. ly left Arkansas during the Great Migration. City by William Sites (University of Chicago verbs, I have to do it” for me, too. What does it mean to nurture the Press) I’ve been looking towards surre- Black artist from this space? To sup- Stateway’s Garden by Jasmon Drain (Ran- alism, speculative ways of thinking, port us in the doing and the process, dom House) Plenty of books have been written about Afro- and jazz to feel less anxious, to feel and not the results of our making? To futurist pioneer Sun Ra and his Arkestra, but more human. We’re living in a moment be supported in our thinking—to be “We lived in the biggest concrete building Sites is the fi rst to make Chicago his co-pro- where corporations, institutions, supported simply in how we’re feel- on Chicago’s South Side,” says a character in tagonist. “How did Sun Ra’s own music and brands, and other entities all want in ing—and dreaming. Drain’s piercing collection of linked stories set cosmology emerge? And why did they fl ourish zakkiyyah is a multidisciplinary artist, arts educator, and independent curator working in Chicago. in and around Stateway Gardens in Bronzeville, in Chicago?” Sites asks. Beginning in 1946 She can be found here: zakkiyyahnajeebah.com and @zakkiyyah.najeebah on Instagram. a massive public housing development (where when Herman Poole Blount arrived on the Drain lived himself) that was demolished in south side until he left for New York in 1961, Bull Horn is an avenue to give wings to the stories that 2009. “We’d move before they tore down our Sites provides crucial context on how Chica- matter most. This series, from Red Bull in partnership buildings and took my views of Chinatown go’s Afrocentrist philosophy, religion, and jazz with the Chicago Reader, will invite guest writers, artists, and Comiskey . . . to make new condos,” the scenes helped turn Blount into Sun Ra. v activists, and community members to share their ideas and same character remembers. This is an achingly amplify timely, crucial topics they feel are important now. beautiful book that, like Dybek’s The Coast of @adamm0rgan ll DECEMBER - CHICAOREADER 19 Year in Review | Arts & Culture
Comedian Alex Collyard (le ) and burlesque There’s no magic formula to follow—in fact, performer Iridessence went viral in 2020. TIKTOK most folks I spoke with say that when they were creating just to try something new and beth Gomez (@juannarumbel), a comedian entertain themselves, that’s when things re- and storyteller who initially discovered ally took o . Drag queen and comedian Derry TikTok through her cosplaying teen. “What Queen (@derryqueenhaha) discovered that really kept me going was the diversity; there with a video called “Questions At The Gates were people from all sorts of ages, people Of Hell,” which she has since turned into a from all sorts of backgrounds, religious, eth- popular series. nic, and I don’t have that kind of access with “I think it was my third or fourth video that Instagram or Facebook.” went viral—it’s at 3.1 million views, which Gomez, also one of the founding members is just the stupidest thing that’s ever hap- of the Windy City Rollers, put on her skates pened,” Derry Queen says. “It’s been a good for the first time in years, and combined outlet to challenge myself into not only com- roller skating (an activity that was trending ing up with drag looks and things like that, on TikTok early in the pandemic), comedy, but to bring my comedy into this one-minute and her extensive wig collection to bring joy avenue.” to herself and her friends. Something struck Once you’ve gone viral, though, it becomes a chord beyond that, and soon her videos impossible to not want to chase that high, were hitting thousands of views, her most- something that TikTok hasn’t always made watched clip with more than 500,000. And easy. For one, the trends and sounds used in along the way she’s discovered a new way to videos are rapidly changing, burying older hone and present her craft. videos that don’t use the right hashtag or “At this point, I feel like this is my perfor- popular song of the moment. In December mance,” Gomez says. “I have a lot of fun doing of last year, TikTok admitted that it was sup- it, I can do it on my own time, I’m not at a bar pressing the outreach of queer, fat, and dis- getting drunk till two o’clock in the morning abled creators because they were “vulnerable and eating way too many chicken wings. I’m to cyberbullying.” And censorship is alive and 46 at this point so it fi ts my lifestyle, it fi ts my well. abilities.” “I’ve only posted like 25 TikToks and like THE INTERNET And it’s not just the flexibility to create out of the 25 I probably had like eight of them where and when you want, something that taken down,” Derry Queen says. “One time I The year of TikTok was not always possible in the pro-hustling had a TikTok taken down for saying I had 17 How local creatives made the most of the social media platform culture of in-person performances that per- butt cheeks, which makes no sense. They said meated the before times. TikTok, it seems, it was a medical lie or something like that. By B W has an audience for everyone. Instead of I’ve had a lot of censorship, but there is safe- hoping someone in a small Chicago venue ty for that reason where it’s like there are a appreciates a performance, artists are able bunch of tiny kids on the other side.” to reach people from anywhere who are often Even with all TikTok’s problems, these art- searching for a specifi c theme, ideal, or type ists aren’t planning on leaving the platform uring a year when screen time has felt to 100 followers. He won “handily,” he says, of creator. any time soon. Even as performance venues more like a punishment than a reward and has since become something of a TikTok “I think TikTok and Instagram fi ll the void begin to open up, it remains as a place for Dand the word “viral” has taken on a star, especially in recent months when his of just needing to be seen, seen on my own experimenting and building an even larger completely different meaning, one social videos started focusing on the laugh-worthy terms, and [I’m] able to curate that,” says audience. And not just an audience, but a media platform has stood out from the rest nuances of the election and U.S. politics in burlesque performer Iridessence (@irides- community of fans who are more often than and in many ways defi ned 2020: TikTok. Its general. sence_) who has grown an audience with her not supportive and refreshingly wholesome. continuing popularity is likely due in part to “I would say my most successful videos cottage core posts and glamorous, some- “It’s ultimately the Internet, so there are the creatives who flocked to the app when were just me using that ability to just kind of times very elaborate looks—in one video she trolls,” Iridessence says. “But for the most traditional venues were shuttered in the improvise with myself,” Collyard says. “Not dresses in full Marie Antoinette garb to take part, like romantic compliments are still very midst of the pandemic. that they’re like, you know, super like im- out the trash. “Unfortunately due to being a tasteful, you know, like I get a lot of com- “Ultimately being able to create something prov-y, but like, they have like a natural con- person of color and size, in person I can be ments from people like, ‘Can we like, move good out there and have people respond to versational feel. I’m literally like recording very invisible unless I go out of my way to be into a cottage together, I want to walk with it, big or small, has been really important to and then, you know, a second later recording over the top. The Internet can connect you to you and hold your hand,’ so precious. I’ve kind of replace live performance for me,” says my response to what I just said. And in a way, strangers across the world who understand been lucky enough to be able to mostly carve comedian Alex Collyard (@alexcollyard). He I kind of actually like to emotionally respond what it means to be invisible even if you’re out my own positive audience of people who fi rst started experimenting with TikTok in the to myself.” not fancy.” really appreciate what I do.” v summer of 2019 as part of a challenge with “It’s basically an app for theater kids, Because TikTok has such a diverse audi- some fellow comedians to see who could get where theater kids want to be,” says Eliza- ence, there’s no telling what will hit when. @BriannaWellen 20 CHICA O READER - DECEMBER ll Theater | Year in Review
Keisha Janae in delicate hold COURTESY JANE JERARDI preparing for the post-pandemic possibility of hybrid audiences, part on-site, part on stream. The Dance Center at Columbia College thought on the fi ckle whims of WiFi. holistically, presenting performances along- This is a year of the home: refuge, workplace, side discussions and workshops. prison. More passes with the vacuum than you This is a year of reconceiving the di erence thought possible. Those same drapes again. between near and far, then and now, self The subtle variations to the view suddenly and other, ritual, repetition, improvisation, altered by the unsubtle interjections of Chica- invention. go’s infi nite seasons. The awareness that walls are only an illusion against an unprecedented Words and Shout-outs from Others: onslaught of fireworks in the alien quiet of “I was grateful to slow down. To be with my quarantine. (Dude shouting “Claudia!” in the anxiety. To fi nd pleasure in timeless being-on- street at night: Claudia does not want to speak the-fl oor explorations. To be humble in my priv- to you.) Neighbors putting paper dolls and ilege and commit to taking action where needed stu ed animals and handprints and rainbows in against racism and oppression in the many con- the windows. Neighbors’ kids doing backyard centric circles of my community. I hope these boogies in the year of the infl atable kiddie pool. changes will sustain and grow in 2021. I will con- This is a year of loss. tinue to ask how can I serve.”—Kristina Fluty This is a year of movement, the momentum of which stems from points tipped years or de- “[Technicians] Giau Minh Truong and MOVEMENT AND MUTUAL AID cades before, a long arc we hope bends towards Jacob Snodgrass for getting artists online justice, the curve of which we all ride, and . . . Experimental Sound Studio for launch- which one might microinfinitesimally weigh ing Quarantine Concerts”—Jane Jerardi down with the force of a foot at a time stepping ‘Let us continue’ down to march. Bodies and voices in the streets. “Anyone who made a dance or a dance In a year of loss, we found that dance is everywhere. Together. Apart. Are you here to protest and/or film or developed special dance events demonstrate and/or dance? online or released an older work re- By I H This is a year of mutual aid, of community made for the pandemic”—Winifred Haun gardens and food pantries and checking in and taking care. “World Refugee Day Chicago 2020 . . . was he view is divided by screens and mirrors bridging Brooklyn and Chicago at Links Hall’s This is a year of essential workers, who carry a pretty epic citywide and international in Jane Jerardi’s delicate hold. Fragmen- 96 Hours Festival. our bodies on their backs. collaboration this year.”—Shawn Lent Ttation by the frame creates incomplete Instagram Live and Zoom classes (many free, This is a year of postponement, deferral, views of arms and torsos, close and deliberate. low cost, or by donation) by Lucky Plush’s Vir- delay, and cancellation, of force majeure, of “Anyone who kept people dancing all You hear the squeak of the pencil, the rustle of tual Dance Lab, Common Conservatory, Aerial “acts of God,” which is what we say when we year at home, in parks, in class, in virtu- paper—a voiceover, separated from the person Dance Chicago, Chicago Movement Collective, really mean the negligence of mankind, bad al workshops!—kept spirits up, offered a dancing in the grass, says, “How can I expand Hubbard Street, Visceral, Deeply Rooted, Co- government, capitalism, and misunderstood movement practice, a processing, a reg- my box?” lumbia College’s Dance Bu et, Ishti, individu- Darwinism. ular place and ‘space’ to be with, without A circle of wooden flats on the northwest als, everyone. This is a year of small comforts: warm tea, any product or goals.”—Erin Kilmurray side of the parking lot behind the Harold Wash- This is a year of the body, the breadth and hot baths, houseplants, sunlight. ington Cultural Center in Bronzeville, where confines of which have been defined in ways This is a year of the technician, the magician “All the teachers who taught class remotely a flurry of flying feet makes intricate music that contract beneath and expand beyond the who mediates the hand of the choreographer or in person with masks or both at the same in coordinated turns. After the tap jam, Bril skin. Breath is a boundary we cannot see, a risk and the eye and ear of the viewer. This is the time. All the students who kept going. Anyone Barrett takes you upstairs where even the walls we can’t forego, a danger and a comfort and a year where media stood in for matter, molded who tried something new.”—Ellen Chenoweth of M.A.D.D. Rhythms’ home speak of resistance need. Our faces and hands are costumed in matter into new forms, made things matter, or and joy in a visual history of tap dance. armor that limits the expression of our mouths at least marked time. Some Observations: A splash of water hits the window in The Sky and opposable thumbs, perhaps, but at least we This is a year of reimagining gathering: face Knitting is dance. Was Different, blurring the world outside, but have our brows and eyelashes, our spines and in one place, feet in another. The kitchen as Kneading is dance. the man inside does not fl inch or get wet. toes, our shadows and silhouettes. studio. The living room as studio. The park as Baking is dance. The nearness, the pulse, the sense of living This is a year of the screen, the pixel, the studio. You can study anywhere! And yet many Breathing is dance. breath in a magnified perspective on Ayako handheld, the hybrid dimensional, the techno- still sought the company of dancing together— Growing a garden is dance. Kato’s articulate feet at Links Hall, the gaze logical, the small, the fl at, the gargantuan, the in shared time if not shared space. Building a union is dance. fl oor-level, the view infi nite. Just Being. optionally scaled, the incomplete, the modifi ed, This is a year of rethinking production, Feeding the hungry is dance. Kato again, teaching a Muppet-esque the optimized, the superimposed, the com- with presenters becoming video producers Action is dance. So is stillness. So is rest. puppet how to say “excuse me” in Japanese, puter-generated, that reveal and conceal and and livestream experts. Links Hall beefed up Let us continue. v Spence Warren speaking poetry on the street, control and invent an unexperienced present their equipment, partnered performers with a remarkably present duet with Nora Sharp shared in an asynchronous future, dependent technicians to develop new works, and began @IreneCHsiao ll DECEMBER - CHICAOREADER 21 Year in Review | Theater
A ghost light onstage at the Auditorium Theatre famous alums galore) are facing tough times. MATTHEW GILSON FOR CHICAGO READER Some wounds are self-infl icted. (I’ve been trying to catch up with the fuckery going on at New York’s Flea Theater and . . . whew. How detail what needs to happen for American do you spend $25 million on a new building theaters to actually embody the pious mes- and expect artists to work for free? AMER- sages of diversity and community pu ng up ICA!) In other cases, theaters are taking their mission statements. It’s both a blue- advantage of the downtime to rethink their print and a battle cry, and one that should need for having a permanent space, as with reshape the way a lot of institutions think Prop Thtr’s decision to give up their Avondale about “business as usual” going forward. venue. If it’s a choice between investing in Locally and nationally, many theaters buildings or investing in the work, then put- changed the names at the top of the orga- ting the work (more accurately, the people nizational chart. Throughout the summer, who create the work) first makes the most Chicago theaters rolled out press releases sense. announcing new Black leadership. But Don- I can’t pretend to know what kind of shows terrio Johnson, named as artistic director at we’ll see onstage in the year ahead. It seems PrideArts (formerly Pride Films and Plays) unlikely that theaters will give up their dig- in the aftermath of social media allegations ital components—and as Balcom’s comment against founder David Zak, left after only a reminds us, there are good reasons to further few months, asserting that Zak was still very develop those programming elements in involved behind the scenes. We still don’t order to expand accessibility. know who will end up in charge at Victory Theaters can’t ignore budget restrictions. Gardens, which faced backlash from theater Yet if they think too small and safe, they won’t NOTHING NEXT TO NORMAL artists over the selection of Erica Daniels to necessarily win back the live audiences they replace Chay Yew. need who have become more comfortable And while several of the artists named to seeing shows online. There is a difference Staes of a pandemic leadership roles have long roots with the between screen and stage, and leaning into companies they’re now running, Johnson’s what makes theater thrilling and immediate Chicago theater artists rose to challenges—and created new ones—in 2020. experience suggests that it’s not enough to and intimate is the best argument theaters change the names. Boards have to make the can o§ er for supporting live performance. By K R commitment to supporting new leaders as The most stirring and haunting show I saw they reimagine the mission and the work this past year before COVID killed in-person from the ground up. And as UrbanTheater’s theater was TimeLine’s Kill Move Paradise Miranda Gonzalez reminded us, it’s also by James Ijames, directed by Wardell Julius important to support the theaters that have Clark, which set victims of police killings in been making work by and for marginalized a kind of limbo where they confronted each n Monday, March 16, I walked into a That silver-lining message was one communities for years. other and the audience. One of the characters theater for the last time in 2020. It that I’ve carried in the back of my mind It’s not lost on me that these changes at the asks his comrade what these people who “like Owas at Theater Wit for their produc- throughout this godawful year, even as the top around the country are happening just as to watch” are called. “America,” comes the tion of Mike Lew’s Teenage Dick, a Richard new vaccines make it more likely that some the theatrical environment is entering the response. III-meets-high-school-angst dark come- semblance of live performance will return in choppiest waters it’s faced in decades. (I’m We need to stop being passive observers dy-drama. The show was supposed to have a 2021. It’s not enough to get back to “normal” reminded of the Onion headline right after when it comes to politics and art. Whether regular run but then . . . well, you know. (whatever that means). Because for too many the election of Barack Obama in 2008: “Black we’re able to go to physical venues or are Theater Wit taped that one live per- theatermakers, “normal” was never good Man Given Nation’s Worst Job.”) Second watching new plays online, we need to stop formance and then made it available for enough. In fact, “normal” just plain sucked. City’s longtime owner, CEO, and executive thinking of artists as plucky little hobbyists purchase as a streaming show—the first of “Normal” refl ected too many of the worst as- producer Andrew Alexander stepped down doing what they love for our enjoyment and many that rolled out in the aftermath of the pects of the American narrative, onstage and as long-repeated stories about institutional distraction. They are central to the economic COVID-19 shutdown. I saw the streaming pre- off: greed, racism, classism, and ineffective racism at the comedy factory gained fresh fabric of our communities. There will be a lot miere a few days after the live performance, and/or hostile reactions to complaints about attention during the protests over police kill- of demands on the new Congress and admin- and at the Zoom talkback (there’s a phrase I working conditions. Just for starters. ings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and too istration to provide relief for a lot of indus- wouldn’t have known a year ago!), director The biggest reminder of that came with many others. Anthony LeBlanc stepped in as tries battered by the COVID shutdowns. We Brian Balcom pointed out that making a show the release of the BIPOC Demands for White interim executive producer, and this month should all be pushing to make sure that art- about a teen with a disability (Richard was American Theatre from We See You W.A.T. Jon Carr, a veteran of Atlanta’s improv scene, ists, who have given us succor in this Worst of played by MacGregor Arney, who has cerebral Page after page of this document, developed takes over permanently. But the company All Possible Years, are treated with respect, palsy) available online meant that people collaboratively by artists across the country is also on the market, and as the permanent dignity, and economic justice. v with disabilities who can’t always easily at- and throughout every discipline in the indus- closing of iO illustrates, commercial theatri- tend theater could actually see it. try, laid out in both large scope and granular cal enterprises (even those with wealthy and @kerryreid 22 CHICA O READER - DECEMBER ll Full of hope and optimism, Howard Brown Health is proud to continue providing healthcare for communities across Chicago, through this crisis and after.
howardbrown.org . . NOMINATE NOW! BONUS ROUND OF NOMINATIONS! NOON, TUE. 12/22/20 THRU NOON, TUE. 1/5/21
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ll DECEMBER - CHICAOREADER 23 Year in Review | Film Film |Year in Review
TOP 20 time, the many faces of staying in place, and The Lodge (Dir. Veronika Franz and the pursuit of happier and healthier endeavors Severin Fiala) + in the new year. Vivarium (Dir. Lorcan Finnegan) In The Lodge and Vivarium, there’s no escape. Relive the year in fi lm (Dir. Oz Perkins) + Gretel & Hansel Perfectly paced, each film places viewers in Shirley (Dir. Josephine Decker) purgatory along with the protagonists. As This is a fever-dream double feature, as both time stretches into a never-ending and eerily with these double The Lodge films freshly stylize familiar tales of terror. repetitive pattern in , prospective Gretel & Hansel is a female-fi rst title because stepmother Grace’s (Riley Keough) limits are features it fl eshes out Gretel’s (Sophia Lillis) character tested during a solo retreat with her boy- by making her a natural witch. She has to rec- friend’s children. Little does she know things Some of the best fi lms of the year meet their matches. oncile this innate gift in this visually gruesome are not what they seem. Vivarium’s purgatory and beautiful bildungsroman that gives the is more clear-cut, though that somehow By B J classic story new life. Meanwhile, Shirley is a doesn’t make it any less mysterious as couple look at the very morose Shirley Jackson (Elisa- Gemma (Imogen Poots) and Tom (Jesse Eisen- beth Moss), presented in a way that mimics the berg) are tasked with raising a random child. famed fi ction author’s horror writing. Covered While these surrogate parents struggle, their s 2020 comes to a close, it brings with esting bookends to a year that began like any in the same heady haze, watch these when you respective wards strive or su er based on the it the gift of hindsight, which I have de- other before quickly resembling none other. want to take a trip without leaving your couch. distinct dystopia they inhabit. Watch these Acided to use to play cinematic match- Pushed inside because of the pandemic, life when things seem stale and you feel stuck, to maker—instead of recommending merely ten became more insular. Or did it? Take The As- Come to Daddy (Dir. Ant Timpson) + remind you it could be much, much worse. movies, here are 20. Pairing some of the best sistant, which sees Jane (Julia Garner), who, Blow the Man Down (Dir. Bridget Savage releases of the year together via a list of dou- while not confi ned to her home, spends nearly Cole and Danielle Krudy) Straight Up (Dir. James Sweeney) + ble-features allows us to refl ect on how 2020 all her time in one place: the o ce. Sound fa- Brutal violence abounds in these coastal mys- Bu aloed (Dir. Tanya Wexler) left its mark on the medium. It’s admittedly miliar? Her job is her entire world save a single teries, but they’re not all show. While Come Looking for fantastical yet authentic char- heavy on the horror—that’s fi tting, though, in phone call to her family. Quiet anger hums to Daddy leans more toward horror and Blow acters? These films have them. Straight Up a year that saw its own share of scares, but also through the sonically subdued film as Jane the Man Down toward drama, both have a is admittedly a more substantial movie than saw the genre strive as streaming replaced a struggles in a toxic work environment. Simi- dark comedic undertow that pulls viewers into Buffaloed, but they work wonders as compan- trip to the theaters. And while we would have larly, Sound of Metal, another purposely quiet their provocative talking points. In the former, ion pieces. A dialogue-driven fi lm that invites loved to see these on the big screen, as movies fi lm, follows Ruben’s (Riz Ahmed) initially iso- Norval Greenwood (Elijah Wood) travels to a viewers to question the elastic defi nitions of found their way into our homes it’s nice to lating journey from a tight-knit metal scene to remote cabin to reconnect with his estranged love and sexuality as Rory (Katie Findlay) and think it made for not an isolating experience, a rural community for recovering addicts who father before an abrupt mid-plot twist. In the Todd (James Sweeney) navigate “a love story but an intimate one. are deaf, after he loses his hearing. What he latter, the Connolly sisters, Mary Beth (Morgan without the thrill of copulation,” Straight Up longs for most is for things to return to normal Saylor) and Priscilla (Sophie Lowe), uncover is a relevant and resonant rom-com. This is The Assistant (Dir. Kitty Green) + (again, sound familiar?), but in the fi lm, as in their small town’s darkest secrets after their the impressive result of writer-director Swee- Sound of Metal (Dir. Darius Marder) life, that’s not possible. Fittingly, both charac- mother dies. Watch these when you’re in the ney’s clear vision as carried out by competent The Assistant, released in January, and Sound ters are left in a state of authentic ambiguity. mood for a couple of murder movies with actors. But Buffaloed isn’t far behind. More of Metal, released in December, act as inter- Watch these as a meditation on the passing of momentum. silly than soul-searching, it retains the same 24 CHICA O READER - DECEMBER ll Film |Year in Review
The Assistant (le ) and Sound of Metal after the misdeeds of men have fucked up their lives. A Good Woman Is Hard To Find follows the murder of Sarah’s (Sarah Bolger) husband in front of their son, pushing her high energy as Straight Up. Together, they into the role of the protagonist and protec- provide the sort of boost usually reserved for tor, where she absolutely shines. That this in-real-life experiences (remember those?). multi-dimensional performance exists in a Buffaloed is also proof that Zoey Deutch can genre where the lead roles are usually re- carry a film, especially when the lead role served for men is a victory for the viewers as calls for a smartass slacker turned schemer much as it is for the creators. And as if to say (see also 2017’s Flower). Following Peg Dahl it’s getting easier to find a good woman (or (Deutch) as she hatches a plan to escape her more like good roles for women), in comes an- hometown of Bu alo, New York, by becoming other slow burn with an ending that’s worth a debt collector and waging war on the city’s the wait. Set in the 1970s, I’m Your Woman debt-collecting kingpin, the movie is a fun sees Jean (Rachel Brosnahan) forced to go on “fuck you” to capitalism to boot. Watch these the run with her infant son after her husband when you need a pick-me-up courtesy of chal- betrays his partners. Revitalizing the genre lenging society’s most su ocating structures. by expanding on a recognizable format to in- clude a new perspective, these female-driven Spree (Dir. Eugene Kotlyarenko) + films have made a smart choice placing the Freaky (Dir. Christopher Landon) women behind the wheel. Watch these when In a year that saw numerous vacation horror you’re up for a wild ride. movies (The Lodge, The Rental, The Beach House, and so on), Spree and Freaky, two teen Becky (Dir. Jonathan Milott and Cary Mur- horror-comedies of the slasher variety, stuck nion) + to the inescapable horrors of high school. Alone (Dir. John Hyams) Spree is a joyride through the sinister side It’s exciting to see the titular Becky (Lulu effects of social media as Kurt (Joe Keery), Wilson) channel teen angst into exceedingly an amateur streamer looking to go viral, creative and increasingly cruel ways to fi ght becomes a rideshare driver for the content. back against a group of home invaders intent Freaky is The Hot Chick as horror and sees on fucking up her family vacation. Watching Millie (Kathryn Newton) and The Butcher Wilson, a force to be reckoned with, play her (Vince Vaughn) swap bodies. Watch these character strong from the start and with a bit when you want to relive your glory days with of a smirk is wholly compelling. Alone is like much more gore. if Becky grew up to be Jessica (Jules Willcox), who has the same will to survive and ability The Half of It (Dir. Alice Wu) + to outsmart and outrun her tormentor in this Castle In The Ground (Dir. Joey Klein) fast-paced survival thriller. Watch these when This next double-feature delves even further you want to feel like a badass. into the teenage experience. Castle in the Ground is a somber, if not sober, look at the Possessor (Dir. Brandon Cronenberg) + bleak reality of the opioid epidemic that sees Black Bear (Dir. Lawrence Michael Levine) Henry’s (Alex Wol ) drug-fueled demise after Both Possessor and Black Bear want to know his mother’s untimely death. While The Half what people are willing to sacrifice for the of It might feel tame in comparison, it is just perfect performance. The first film follows as genuine. It follows Ellie Chu (Leah Lewis), elite agent Tasya Vos (Andrea Riseborough), a smart but cash-strapped teen who agrees to who works for a secretive organization that write a love letter for a jock, only to end up be- uses brain-implant technology to inhabit coming his friend and falling for his crush in other people’s consciousnesses. The second the process. Watch these fi lms when you need film follows Allison (Aubrey Plaza), a film- to feel something. maker and actor seeking solace from her tumultuous past at a cabin in the woods. Both A Good Woman Is Hard to Find (Dir. Abner are smart and ambitious cultural commentar- Pastoll) + ies that run on a relentless tension as these I’m Your Woman (Dir. Julia Hart) women struggle to decide how far they’ll go The titles alone point to the sort of call and for their jobs. Watch these when you want to response structure of this double feature. In grapple with your existence. v each, the titular women snap out of submis- sion, undergoing a powerful transformation @WreckaFlames ll DECEMBER - CHICAOREADER 25 R READER RECOMMENDED b ALL AGES N NEW F Get showtimes and see reviews of everything playing FILM this week at chicagoreader.com/movies.
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom News of the World R In News of the World, Captain Jeff erson Kyle Kidd (Tom Hanks), an 1870s equivalent of a travelling Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom newscaster, is tasked with returning Johanna (Helena R The fi lm adaptation of the August Wilson play Zengel), a ten-year-old girl taken in by the Kiowa tribe Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom shows how Black folks navi- six-years prior and raised as one of their own, to her bio- gate the power struggles that white structures create. logical family. In order to bring the girl back to her family It is unsurprisingly a cinematic masterpiece with a homestead, the pair travel across the Texas wilderness, commanding Viola Davis as Ma Rainey, a dancing and encountering a series of trials and tribulations that bring singing Chadwick Boseman (in his fi nal role) as her trum- them closer together as they both attempt to return to pet player Levee, and a stellar cast of other co-stars—all the places of their past, haunted by the painful memo- NOW PLAYING wrapped up in the working city. It is the only play in ries keeping them away. The fi lm, an adaptation of the Wilson’s series known as The American Century Cycle 2016 Paulette Jiles novel, off ers up a series of vignettes Another Round that features a historical fi gure and the only one set in of the tense encounters with the various hardscrabble R Microdosing—otherwise known as taking small ing comet set to destroy 75 percent of life is streaking Chicago. In 1927, Chicago was just eight years removed characters of Reconstruction era Texas. Director Paul doses of your substance of choice for more mild towards the Earth. Greenland follows the same model from the Chicago race riot of 1919, and the Great Greengrass maintains his typical hand-held style as eff ects—has been somewhat in vogue as of late. It cer- seen in other world-ending romps: introduce the threat, Migration of Black people moving to northern cities cinematographer Dariusz Wolski presents a considered tainly has appeal on paper: who wouldn’t want a mellow run, dodge death, survive, only this one is more ground- like Chicago had been happening for about a decade. eye on the sweeping desert landscapes. Meanwhile, mind without the pains of being drunk or high, or to ed. No Bruce Willis to save the day. There is going to be Although the structures of white supremacy in Chicago Hanks and Zengel play off of each other well in the have more focus and ease during the work day? This is a big ice hole. What starts as a potentially interesting looked diff erent from those in the south, they were still charming unlikely friendship that develops. Overall, the the crux of Thomas Vinterberg’s Another Round—Den- class narrative on privilege, where people with import- very much prevalent and that tension is what the fi lm’s narrative is familiar, though entertaining, with some tidy mark’s offi cial Oscar contender—which follows four high ant skills are handpicked to survive the coming apoc- characters walk into when they arrive in the city for a lessons on racial animosity, greed, and perversion of school teachers who attempt to maintain a constant alypse (but not actually save the world), while others recording session. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is pure truth along the way that serve as an obvious parable for level of inebriation to achieve a happier life. Like the are le to die, descends into a tired formulaic plot. The art, just as beautiful as it is heartbreaking. —A the unequal power dynamics at play in contemporary boozy experiment, the fi lm itself can appear to be a inciting ice-ident comes early, then the story devolves N 104 min. Netflix America. —A M-K 118 min. In wide silly premise at times—and there are moments of humor into eye-rollingly boring scenes of trying to get into release on VOD throughout—but Another Round also lays the ground- cars or on planes. A er 2020, everyone will recognize Monster Hunter work for rife emotional vulnerability and exploration the self-seeking chaos, desperate looting, and frequent Monster Hunter is exactly what it sounds like, another Wild Mountain Thyme among its characters. Mads Mikkelsen is always exciting groans when the TV anchors announce increasingly bad vehicle for teenage-boy-trapped-in-a-man-bod Paul W.S. If you are going to make a movie about an elderly Irish to watch, but he is more commanding than ever here news (“planet killer” is constantly repeated, in case you Anderson to cast his wife Milla “Resident Evil” Jovovich farmer who thinks his unmarried son Anthony (Jamie (both in his acting prowess and his brazen, euphoric missed it). Despite the thin plot, and one awful CGI fi re, in a kill-them-all action romp. Meet Lt. Artemis (yes, the Dornan) is too weird to take good care of the land for dancing). —C C 117 min. Gene Siskel Film the special eff ects hit the mark. Butler is a two-dimen- whole fi lm is this on the nose), a badass army ranger him when he dies, that farmer had better be Christopher Center From Your Sofa, Music Box At Home sional everyman with one goal, saving his family. Bac- (who’d barely pass as a disgruntled volleyball player) Walken. Because, why not. It doesn’t even matter about carin is saddled with the sexist role of disempowered, whose unit gets inexplicably teleported to the “new the accent, which he gives the old college try. The Fatale crying mother. The truth that our selfi sh human nature world” inhabited by, you guessed it, monsters. A er scenes between Walken’s character Tony Reilly and Fatale chronicles a one-night stand gone awry, empha- leaves us woefully unprepared to save the majority of giant spiders kill off her crew in a sequence directly Dornan give us some of the sharpest moments in this sizing how far a woman scorned will go to exact revenge. people in the case of impending disaster, despite our ripped off Aliens and Starship Troopers—only without otherwise largely saccharine eff ort from screenwriter Following a passionate and adulterous aff air between resources and intelligence, is a point no one surviving all the suspense and terror—Artemis loses all discipline and director John Patrick Shanley, adapted from his Derrick (Michael Ealy), a successful sports agent, and our current real-life disaster movie needs reminding and any sense of character to team up with the Hunter 2014 play Outside Mullingar. Antony spends the movie Valerie (Hilary Swank), a police detective, Derrick’s life of. —J F 120 min. In wide release on VOD (Tony Jaa), but only a er the obligatory, senseless in one of the most agonizing courtships in movie history begins to unravel. With Valerie becoming increasingly extended fi ght sequence when they realize they need with Rosemary, played by Emily Blunt. Blunt’s sly humor aggressive, the movie calls to mind Fatal Attraction and Let Them All Talk to join forces. Cue the training montage. Based on the redeems a fl imsy role, which in lesser hands might easily is not nearly as unpredictable as it wants to be. Unfor- R At once charismatic and off -kilter, Steven popular narrative-free video game Monster Hunter, have read as a vehicle for being seen a lot on horseback tunately, it has an exceptionally “bitches be crazy” vibe Soderbergh’s latest feature now streaming on HBO Max Anderson decided to make this loosely strung together over the course of a fi lm. The American cousin to whom instead, where the men are married, and the women are stars Meryl Streep as a Pulitzer-prize winning novelist movie the same way. It’s as predictable as the action old man Reilly considers signing over the farm instead manipulative. Fortunately, the titular femme fatale off ers who invites her two oldest friends (Candice Bergen lines it pilfers, like “this is above my paygrade,” “they of Antony is played by Jon Hamm. I would love it if this viewers an engaging performance thanks to Swank’s and Dianne Wiest) and her nephew (Lucas Hedges) on don’t just disappear,” and my favorite, “she’s a woman, were the movie that discovered the gi ed character acting chops and ass-kicking abilities. That’s not enough a luxury ship for a voyage to the UK where she’s slated but…”. #Feminism. While the plot is on the nose, lacking inside Hamm’s body, like Burn A er Reading did for to save an otherwise average take on the classic cat and to receive a prestigious award. Also on board is Gemma all nuance and subtlety, constantly stealing from other Brad Pitt, but this isn’t that movie. There is a wonderful mouse movie. Add that Fatale ultimately fi zzles into a Chan, playing the novelist’s literary agent desperate to fi lms, and dialogue is groan worthy, the glorious CGI scene between Hamm and Blunt, where he condescends morality tale with “don’t cheat’’ tacked on as the fi nal garner information about her client’s progress on a new special eff ects and eardrum-piercing sound are sensory to her for holding on too long to childish romantic line, and it becomes clear this is more of an aff air to for- manuscript. The fi lm’s project is unclear, at times appear- candy for home theaters. The spastic editing is what fantasies. Blunt replies, shrewdly, that he is a New York get. —B J 102 min. In wide release on VOD ing as an awkward comedy of errors, at other times a you’d expect from a guy named Doobie White. Ron Per- City banker who wants to be a farmer in Ireland and half-snarky half-sincere meditation on the process and lman has a phoned-in walk-on as a 1970s surfer-haired shouldn’t talk. But these are glimmers. By the time Ant- Greenland price of creativity. Still, the performances are compel- steampunk sand-pirate and there’s a great pirate cat- ony and Rosemary’s oh-so torrid passions have achieved John Garrity (Gerard Butler) is having a bad day: his ling, the setting gorgeous, the cinematography crisp, chef who teases a better anthropomorphic pirate sequel any specifi city, we are well into the second act and have marriage to Allison (Morena Baccarin) is on the rocks, making up for the story’s overall disorientation. —N we’re bound to suff er. —J F 105 min. In looked at a lot of cows for no reason. —M M his son needs regular insulin injections, and a planet-kill- L C 113 min. HBO Max wide release on VOD 102 min. In wide release on VOD v
26 CHICA O READER - DECEMBER ll Providing arts coverage in Chicago since 1971.
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ll DECEMBER - CHICAOREADER 27 Year in Review | Music
received a mixtape from a new partner, or lost abrupt halt. track of time during a sprawling late-night DJ Thinking about music in 2020 means think- The best overlooked set, you understand how assembling pieces of ing about how the ways I usually experience it music helps them communicate with one an- with other people have almost all been closed other in ways their creators never considered o to me or transformed. I’ve watched the oc- Chicao records of or intended. Lists do something similar, add- casional livestream, but I fi nd that such a pas- ing the extra dimension of calendar time—and sive way to see a show—it just makes me yearn because this year has felt a lifetime long, I’m for the day I’ll be able to return to a venue to 2020 grateful to be reminded about an album that see a band I barely know transform the energy We’ve all had a lot to pay attention to this year, but there’s always room for seems to belong to a di erent era but actually of a jam-packed room. That’s not to say virtual more great music. came out in February. music events don’t have their virtues, but I Jeff Parker’s Suite for Max Brown is just think they work better when they’re not trying By L G such an album. When International Anthem to stand in for real-world shows—I got a real released it in January, it was met with near kick out of a Minecraft festival that couldn’t nd-of-year-list season can feel like a outlets. Chicagoland critic Rob Mitchum is universal acclaim, but of the dozen or so major have been replicated IRL. chore, even if you’re not one of the once again collating all the big album lists into lists I’ve read so far, only a couple have includ- Most record stores have reopened to Epeople whose job requires you to make a single ranking with a Google Sheet, making ed it. I wonder if critics have forgotten about in-person customers to some degree since those lists. Just keeping track of what every- it even easier for me to see 2020’s consensus it because it belongs to the Before Times, even March’s shutdowns, but I haven’t gone back body else thinks are the best albums, movies, picks emerging. though it came out just 11 months ago. Parker to one yet. I don’t own a car or bike, and pan- books, TV shows, and so forth is an exhausting Music criticism can tell us as much about celebrated Suite for Max Brown with four demic anxiety has kept me o public transit undertaking. And every year I get deja vu as I the way we live as the music it covers, and a sold-out sets at Dorian’s the fi rst weekend in and away from taxis and ride-share services see the same albums appear arranged in dif- great list can do this more easily than a single March, a week before COVID-related cancel- (which has also put most protests frustrating- ferent orders by high-profi le critics and major album review. If you’ve ever made a playlist, lations brought live music in the U.S. to an ly out of reach). With few exceptions, my orbit 28 CHICA O READER - DECEMBER ll Music |Year in Review Stay connected...and learn online!
Top row: cover art for Buggin, Casper McFadden, and Harvey Waters. Bottom row: Buggin, Buggin Out cover art for Jusell, Prymek, Sage, Shiroishi; Tree; and Buggin again. Buggin treat beatdown hardcore to a refresh- ing energy-drink bath on this EP. Their husky guitar ri s and athletic rhythms combine an has shrunk to walking distance. O the Inter- aggressive attitude with nonstop hooks; vocal- net, the closest I’ve come to sharing music ist Bryanna Bennett sets o the band’s powder with another human has been at the grocery keg with her hoarse vocals and gnomic lyrics. store—and I think I got more out of sashaying to Natalie Imbruglia’s “Torn” in an empty aisle than the stranger who rounded the corner on Casper McFadden, Audio me and said, “You do you.” I continued to seek out new music, though, Diary out of professional obligation and personal cu- riosity. I trawled Bandcamp tags into the wee Casper McFadden nonchalantly assembles hours, searching for unfamiliar sounds, and collages of palpitating footwork synths, spent entire afternoons with YouTube rips of hyperactive breakbeat loops, and vocal recent punk tapes. This year I started keeping samples pushed into the red, reshaping their a running Google Sheet of every new-to-me EP structures throughout to keep you on the edge or album I’d listened to in its entirety, and it’s of your seat even when he slows the tempo topped 800 entries so far. The majority were down. released in 2020, and more than half of those Our online group classes for all skill levels come from Chicago. Since live music shut down, I’ve zeroed in more than usual on music Harvey Waters, Air Sits Heavy are forming now. Sign up today at made by locals, partly because I’ve lost the out- let of previewing concerts by touring artists. Harvey Waters play rich, wall-of-sound dream But by increasing my focus on material that pop whose melodies sparkle through the oldtownschool.org hasn’t gotten much if any attention outside the haze—its earthy guitars and knot-in-your city (or even within it), I’ve made the process throat vocals defy the conventions of the of combing through “best albums” lists— genre to embrace the listener from the front of which tend to take a much broader view—feel the mix. especially isolating for me. MUSIC AND DANCE I still fi nd value in “best of” lists. To para- CLASSES FOR ALL AGES phrase one of my favorite Substack writers, Jusell, Prymek, Sage, Miranda Reinert of Wendy House Press, there are plenty of people who want to find new Shiroishi, Fuubutsushi music but don’t know where to start. These lists are a good place. Chicago experimental artist Matthew Sage When I make my own lists, though, I prefer didn’t need to worry about social distancing to restrict myself to lesser-known releas- when he created this album with three far- es, not least because my choices don’t put fl ung collaborators—Chris Jusell in Arizona, me in a good position to decide among the Chaz Prymek in Missouri, and Patrick Shiroi- well-established acts that tend to turn up on shi in Los Angeles. We could all aspire to treat broader lists. At the Reader, I’ve made a habit everyone with the tenderness these four show of compiling year-in-review lists dedicated to one another on this frisky, buoyant ambient- overlooked local music, a task complicated by jazz album. a rule I set for myself: I can’t include any of the overlooked local music I’ve already written about that year. Tree, Free Credit For instance, Ozzuario’s fusion of industrial music and black metal on Existence Is Pain, Not to be confused with critically acclaimed which pushes both genres outside their com- Chicago rapper-producer MC Tree G, this local Old Town School gift certificates make perfect fort zones, was in my opinion unjustly ignored, hip-hop producer recruited a terrifi c team of holiday gifts! Learn more and purchase online at but I didn’t include it because the project came MCs (including MFn Melo, Brittney Carter, up in a recent installment of the Gossip Wolf and Solo the Dweeb) to enhance his exquisite, ots.fm/holidays column I share with J.R. Nelson. If I’d had more dreamlike instrumentals. v time and space, I’m sure I would’ve already written about these fi ve releases too. @imLeor ll DECEMBER - CHICAOREADER 29 Year in Review | Music
30 CHICA O READER - DECEMBER ll Music |Year in Review Le : Poster by Steve Walters at Screwball Press
Facing page, clockwise from top le : Posters by Ryan Duggan, Heather Anderson, Tesh Silver, Chema Skandal, Jay Ryan, and Andrea Hill Fitzgerald. Anderson, Silver, and Fitzgerald all made “fantasy” gig posters for show they wish could happen; the others are for actual events.
Schubas, Subterranean, and other venues.” Wesley Willis at Lounge Ax?” Now that social media exists, stapling piec- The Reader was subsequently blessed es of paper to publicly trafficked walls isn’t with some great fantasy posters from y’all. the go-to promotional device that it was in Artist Eric J. Garcia imagined Sor Juana Inés the 70s, 80s, and 90s. That said, gig posters de la Cruz returning from the dead to lead a are still an important part of the concertgoing hardcore band at shuttered Pilsen venue Casa experience—and thus their creators are too. Aztlán. Artist Andrea Hill Fitzgerald drew I like to seek out Chicago cultural histories, Prince riding a bike around the south side be- so my favorite posters tend to be the ones with fore a gig at the Avalon Regal (sadly, neither more details about the show—knowing years actually happened). Artist Heather Anderson and addresses, for instance, is helpful to us made a poster advertising a wished-for Coco- amateur librarians. But I also appreciate the Rosie show at the Empty Bottle. cacophony of city life, which is often refl ected The Gig Poster of the Week also became a in the blissful randomness of gig poster art. way to honor the fallen. In June, when pro- Warwick explained that the Reader began by tests against racist police brutality were all publishing posters for shows its writers were that any of us were thinking about, I asked covering, but at some point the series became artist Tesh Silver to help me design a tribute “an easy opportunity to show o art that no to George Floyd—it took the form of a poster one other than the venues themselves and a for a gig “Big Floyd” might’ve played with his small—and very engaged—gig-poster com- erstwhile collaborator DJ Screw had his life munity was really showing o .” taken a di erent turn. And after Dave “Medu- Of course, 2020 has been a lean year for sa” Shelton died in August, I heard from artist gig posters. Since March, the pandemic has Rob Schwager, who’d made posters in the forced the cancellation of almost all the con- late 80s and early 90s for concerts at Cabaret Showcasin i certs and in-store performances that would Metro and Double Door. He graciously gave have begat posters in the fi rst place. me permission to use one he’d created for a In March, faced with an acute shortage of 1987 Meatmen gig at the original Medusa’s posters in a year current gig posters, I posted the fi rst of what location on She¦ eld. would be several weeks of stand-ins: a 1937 Over the summer, livestreams, drive-in poster for a performance of the Illinois Sym- concerts, and socially distanced outdoor short on is phony Orchestra at the Great Northern The- shows became enough of a thing that I could ater (at Quincy and Dearborn in those days). pretty reliably fi nd an interesting poster for The Reader got creative to fi nd ways to keep upli ing Chicago artists in 2020. It was printed as part of the Works Progress at least one of them every week. I’m still ac- Administration’s e ort to support artists and cepting fantasy posters (because I love them), By S C -J musicians during the Great Depression by but more and more often I have art to choose creating paying jobs in their fi elds. Present- from that’s promoting actual events. day elected officials: Please remember that I doubt I’ll ever get back to seeing posters n early 2011 the Reader launched a re- and showed me some of his favorites among this is an option. Future generations will all over the place outside like I used to in the designed print edition that flipped the the posters he’d published. Soon going on the thank you. 90s, but right now it’s not even the same as it Imusic section upside down—the B Side, hunt for gig posters became one of my favor- This planted a seed for me: Why not ask the was in February 2020. But as long as people as it was called, began with an inverted back ite parts of my job—I even started arriving at people who love this column to help create it? aren’t too stupid about the COVID vaccine cover and even had its own table of contents. concerts earlier to see if I could fi nd anything I was still sorting out how to proceed and we all stick to public-health guidelines Our Gig Poster of the Week feature began on at the venue that might make a future column. when I saw a drawing by Nicole Marroquin in the meantime, there’s a good chance that that table of contents, as a way to showcase a I reached out to past Reader associate ed- about singing DeBarge to your houseplants. in-person shows as we knew them will come di erent segment of the Chicago music com- itor Kevin Warwick, who did part of what’s Obviously it wasn’t a gig poster, but it got back. Let’s hope we still have independent munity. It’s been online only for years, and I now my job when he first started working me thinking, and I decided to invite people music venues by then. In any case, I’m opti- took it over when I started at the Reader in for the paper, to ask him about the rationale to submit not just posters from past Chicago mistic that once we’ve got a healthy number February 2019—though I’m pretty sure that behind publishing gig posters. Warwick ex- concerts but also “fantasy gig posters” for of gigs again, artists will return to making gig all the silliest headlines have been the work of plained that it was intended to give a platform gigs that hadn’t happened but should have. I posters. If they’ve got the energy and we give music editor Philip Montoro. to “artists who may not have necessarily held posted Marroquin’s art when I made my pitch them our support, they’ll continue to bless My predecessor (and fellow music writer) proper gallery shows, but instead had their in early April: “Do you wish the 1972 lineup our city with their creations. v Luca Cimarusti showed me the ropes, gave art taped to the inside of record store win- of the Art Ensemble of Chicago could play at me a short list of some of his favorite artists, dows and stapled all over the Empty Bottle, Constellation? How about Dolly Parton and @hollo ll DECEMBER - CHICAOREADER 31 Year in Review | Music
Femdot, aka Femi Adigun, coordinates volunteers delivering groceries for his Scholars Slide By program. MATTHEW GILSON FOR CHICAGO READER
communities. Throughout 2020, Chicago musicians started projects to connect their neighbors with the resources they need. Rapper and ed- ucator Matt Muse helped launch Washington Park grocery drive the People’s Grab-N-Go after Chicago Public Schools suspended its meal distribution program on May 31. The Grab-N-Go began as an impromptu Costco trip but soon expanded to involve more than 30 volunteers. By the time the grassroots pro- gram wrapped up at the end of August, it had provided food and supplies to more than 4,000 families. Muse had previously coordinated the Love & Nappyness Hair Care Drive during the 2019 holiday season, an e ort he repeated this fall. But as he told the Reader this summer, working for the Grab-N-Go helped him realize that “Chicago has a huge resource problem.” Rapper Femdot, who’s friends with Muse, was inspired by the Grab-N-Go to launch a grocery delivery program called the Scholars Slide By through his nonprofit, Delacreme Scholars. “After volunteering with the Peo- ple’s Grab-N-Go distribution site, we started thinking about, What about people who can’t get here? How can we make sure that people who couldn’t reach these sites still get food?” Femdot says. “We have a platform—why don’t we use it to help connect some of the dots and work in conjunction with great initiatives al- Chicao’s independent ready going on?” Femdot, born Femi Adigun, and a crew of 25 to 50 volunteers delivered groceries “no ques- musicians stepped up their tions asked” throughout Chicago and nearby suburbs every other weekend from June till September. In total, the Slide By served 457 activism in 2020 families, with an average size of four people, With concerts and tours on hold for most of the year, the city’s music scene doubled down on mutual aid and buying what each one needed by soliciting fundraising for community groups. shopping lists. The two rappers used their social media By J R pages to spread the word among their fans. Their mutual-aid projects sometimes shared leaders and volunteers with each other and he major-label music industry is doing their fans enough to prioritize the common and pathetically inadequate to the scale of with Feed the West Side, launched by John its best to pretend the pandemic is good above the familiar rush of a crowd. In economic hardship caused by the pandemic. Walt Foundation executive director Nachelle Tover. Despite an accelerating death toll, Chicago, as in so many other American cities, Like many other working Chicagoans, these Pugh, Pivot Gang cofounder Frsh Waters, and high-profile artists and organizations have independent artists have watched their neigh- musicians have decided to step in to help photographer Qurissy Lopez. But Muse and spent the last half of this long year bringing bors struggle not only with COVID-19 and all their communities directly. None of them has Femdot both refrained from releasing music audiences into indoor venues for award shows the inequities it exacerbates but also with rac- been able to tour or support themselves with over the summer—not till late September did (the AMAs), album-release parties (T.I.), and ist police violence and a callous or hostile gov- shows, but some have put even writing and re- Muse drop his first song of 2020, a remix of even full concerts (Trey Songz, Chase Rice, ernment response to their su ering. They’ve cording on hold to focus on mutual aid. Others his 2019 track “Shotgun” that added a Femdot Great White). seen a trickle of government aid arrive, often have continued to release music but used their feature. Thankfully most musicians have respected inaccessible to the people who need it most album cycles to raise funds for vulnerable Many other musicians continued to release 32 CHICA O READER - DECEMBER ll Music |Year in Review
Ohmme (le ) and Nnamdï both used their music to fundraise for community groups and mutual- aid projects. ASH DYE LEFT STEPHANIE BROOKS RIGHT
potential donors. “The unfortunate reality is people will always need help with food, at least based on the way the world is currently set up,” Adigun says. “So it would be great to continue the Slide By next summer and every summer, but it depends on funding.” In the meantime, Delacreme Scholars has turned its attention to its annual scholarships and a holiday toy and coat drive, which ended December 15. Ogbonnaya is prioritizing consistent do- nations in the future. “I read a lot of places love consistent monthly donations, even if they are smaller, because it’s something they know they can always rely on,” he says. “Big donations are also good, obviously, but the music but used it to raise money for commu- art-rock duo Ohmme likewise had to cancel between Nnamdï and Post Animal. Two runs consistency really helps organizations budget nity organizations, activist groups, GoFundMe their tours when the pandemic hit the U.S. in of 90-minute cassettes quickly sold out, but better, so I’m fi nding places to donate to every campaigns, and more—especially on the the spring, but they soon began livestreaming digital sales continue; so far the compilation month.” Fridays when digital music retailer Bandcamp performances as fundraisers, starting with has raised more than $8,000. Many other musicians worked for their passed along its share of sales revenue to art- a March 24 performance to benefit the KC Ogbonnaya also appears on Art Is Love communities in 2020, at every level. Sen ists and labels. (Full disclosure: I’ve written Tenants mutual aid fund in Kansas City. The Vol. 1, a similarly scene-spanning comp Morimoto and Tasha played an August 5 live- freelance articles for Bandcamp’s editorial group released their sophomore album, Fan- released in May by indie label and rap crew stream to benefi t the Prison + Neighborhood site.) tasize Your Ghost, on June 5 (the fi rst Band- Why? Records and benefiting the Chicago Arts/Education Project, for instance—and Nnamdï Ogbonnaya, who performs as camp Friday to fall during the current wave Community Bond Fund. “We wanted to do- too many artists to count made unpublicized Nnamdï, released the album Brat in April, but of Black Lives Matter protests) and donated nate locally, because we’re firm believers in donations to individuals and organizations because he couldn’t hit the road to promote all proceeds from the day’s sales to Assata’s starting at a community level,” Why? member in need. Some focused on supporting unem- it, he just kept recording in his home studio. Daughters. Ruby Watson told Chicago magazine. The re- ployed musicians and venue staff, via live- In June, after protests began in Chicago in Ohmme have also used livestreams and lease has raised around $2,000 to date. stream performances such as the CIVLization response to the police killing of George Floyd merch sales to raise funds for Chicago Com- Regardless of their approach, Chicago’s series (which raises money for the CIVL SAVE in Minneapolis, he began releasing the results munity Jail Support, Brave Space Alliance, activist-musicians had to improvise in Emergency Relief Fund) and compilations as Bandcamp exclusives. the Montessori School of Englewood, voting- 2020—even old hands were forced to adapt such as July’s Situationchicago. Ravenswood’s In addition to Brat and July’s instrumental access groups, and Kooyrigs, an organization to the evolving pandemic. The Scholars Slide Experimental Sound Studio hosts the Quaran- album Krazy Karl, Ogbonnaya released three that supports Armenian women and refugees By learned as they did the work, coordinating tine Concerts, an ongoing livestream series singles and an EP that he explicitly used as from the recent armed conflict in Artsakh volunteers for purchases and deliveries while that between March 21 and December 1 pre- fundraisers. “I was following a lot of activists (Cunningham has Armenian heritage). The raising funds for their wholly donation-based sented 182 shows and distributed more than and Black Lives Matter pages for Chicago, they duo estimate they’ve raised between $5,000 program. “It was kind of made on the fl y, so all $87,000 in fan donations to 1,100 or so artists. were always posting resources and ways to and $6,000 in 2020, as individuals and togeth- logistical adjustments had to be made on the Like many other Americans faced with a help people,” he says. er. “It’s been an intense year to say the least,” fl y as well,” Adigun says. Meanwhile, Ohmme uniquely di± cult year, Chicago’s musicians are June’s Black Plight, three hardcore songs they say. “We focused primarily on young faced challenges unique to fundraising live- looking for ways to make a long-lasting posi- about racist police violence, was the top- Chicago-based organizations that are building streams: they had to fi nd work-arounds to link tive impact, to help their neighbors when ex- selling item on Bandcamp for an entire week, up a team to do really impactful work in com- to organizations that aren’t 501(c)(3) certifi ed, isting structures of government and business and Ogbonnaya donated the proceeds to munities we think are important and deserve due to limitations built into Instagram. fail them. “We had been talking about how to Assata’s Daughters and EAT Chicago. Other more resources.” Ogbonnaya notes that donations slowed make fundraising, social justice, and account- beneficiaries of his releases include the Ohmme also contributed a track to this down as the year progressed. “Like most ability sustainable parts of our band before Chicago Community Bond Fund, the Illinois month’s compilation Warm Violet, which ben- announcements, the initial reveal garners the this year, but are certainly taking a deeper Prison Project, Brave Space Alliance, and efi ts Chicago Community Jail Support’s e¡ orts most attention, and then donations dwindled look at it going forward. It’s a balancing act, grassroots food drives run by his friends on to winterize its post outside Cook County Jail. as the days went on,” he says. “But I was lucky but it is well worth the e¡ ort,” say Stewart and the south side. Ogbonnaya estimates that he Stewart, a CCJS volunteer, was also one of enough to have some good donation days right Cunningham of Ohmme. “We know we won’t raised $12,000 “for different organizations several curators for the 46-track compilation at the beginning.” always do it quite right but know that the right that I think are doing amazing work.” Sooper (along with Avery Springer of Retirement All the artists interviewed for this story thing is to continue doing, learning, listening, Records, the indie label he co-owns, also gave Party), and its packed roster of local indie hope to continue their activism next year, but and uplifting our community.” v $1,500 to My Block, My Hood, My City in June. talent includes Fire-Toolz, Ariel Zetina, Bill they’re still fi guring out how to do so sustain- Macie Stewart and Sima Cunningham of MacKay, Angel Bat Dawid, and a collaboration ably, without exhausting themselves or their @jackriedy ll DECEMBER - CHICAOREADER 33 TK caption TK CREDIT MUSIC
Doug Malone in the control room at Jamdek you get these e-mails of people being like, “We DEREK WEBER wanna record!” And I obviously need that in- come—I want to record because it’s what I do. stay open, that conversation with a band was But it’s hard to balance the morality of that. like, “OK, we’re gonna record, but don’t bring What you have to put forth is, “Hey, if anyone in here. Just the band.” The less bod- anyone is just feeling slightly uncomfortable ies, the better. I normally have four interns. or sick, you have to tell me.” If you have four I’ve made them all stay home. other people in the band, there’s that pressure: During the publicly enforced suggested “Ahh, I don’t know if I can say this, because I shut-in, I was mostly mixing by myself—I don’t want to let the other people down.” And didn’t have anyone in there. About mid-March I have to step in and be like, “You’re not letting everything closed and all my sessions can- them down. It’s so important that you voice celed. You don’t necessarily have to have the that.” And then we just rebook it. band in while you’re mixing, so there was a lot Back in May, I did get a Small Business Ad- of phone calls and FaceTiming, Google chats, ministration loan, and that helped a lot. My e-mailing. If they needed to fi nish something income from March to May, I lost easily ten with overdubs, they would actually record grand. It was nosediving—I just had no idea that at home and send it to me. what was going to happen. Yes, I was doing Live tracking started again in May. Two of mixing work, but it was just nowhere near the my very close friends and myself, we all got caliber of what I was usually taking in. tested. So that was a good slow entrance back I was applying constantly for different into it. Not only for my own sanity, to feel how grants. I did receive a grant from the City of it would be having people back in the studio, Chicago—it was through the City of Chicago but to see how I could run it smoothly while artist community grants. Basically, if your CHICAGOANS OF NOTE still being safe. spot that you’re applying from has some sig- The last thing you wanna have happen is for nifi cance in the artist community—which this someone to get infected in there and then it studio does—then they were accepting appli- Doug Malone, owner and lead be traced back. So the main concern was just cations, asking about the business. taking everyone’s temperature, making sure Something about a recording studio, I think everybody’s good. And plus not letting endless it’s always overlooked as a place for commu- engineer, Jamdek Recording anxiety funnel into their performance. You nity. During the pandemic I’ve really felt that. don’t want someone withholding themselves Even though they weren’t recording, bands and freaking out the whole time. were still e-mailing me and checking in and Studio Obviously bands can’t play shows—they saying really great things, like, “Hey, I know can’t do really anything except on social I’m not booking time there, but maybe I could “Something about a recording studio, I think it’s always overlooked as a place media or maybe like a Twitch performance. book something later in the month and pay for community.” So they’re writing songs, and they’re trying you now.” Just to make sure I stayed afl oat. to stay safe and get together with their band, Yes, I had to pay the SBA loan back, but it As told to P M and they’re recording a lot. I get e-mails every was a cushion: “I’ll at least make it for the next day about somebody wanting to book time to three months.” Wintertime, January and Feb- come in and track, and then mix it right away. ruary, is always a slow time for a studio. That’s Doug Malone, 33, has worked as a recording wear a mask, because that sounds different. A lot of bands are coming in and making now the next hurdle. engineer since 2015, when he began interning I do usually put them in a vocal booth, so records because they just want to feel that I had my technician come in a couple weeks at Humboldt Park studio Minbal while study- they’re trapped in there with doors closed and they’re still being productive. But they’re just ago. Because he goes to all these studios to fi x ing music composition at Columbia. In 2017 it’s sealed. holding onto it, like, “Well, when should we do gear for them, he did tell me that my studio Malone bought the business, renamed it Jam- Every morning I go in and I wipe down all this? How should we release this? Should we was one of the only ones that’s very busy. I dek, and took over as lead engineer. (He also the equipment. Every headphone box, every even shop it around? Is anyone even signing talk to a lot of engineers on a weekly basis. plays in local trio Courtesy.) Jamdek suspend- headphone—anything that I assume will be bands right now, or putting out records?” Speaking for a lot of studios, they’re defi nitely ed sessions for live tracking during the March touched by the band and myself. Even the con- They’re really thinking about the existential struggling. Maybe they’re not having clients shutdown, but resumed them in May. sole, if an engineer comes in. situation of being in a band. What does that that are comfortable with doing it. There’s so The bands themselves, I generally feel mean? And how fragile it is at the moment. A many factors. sually taking pandemic precautions they’ve been very good about staying home. majority of the time, I’m engineering but I’m I’ve been very lucky, that I’ve had people just entails a phone call with the band—they But then there’s me—I’m seeing lots of peo- also playing therapist. Making sure everyone’s constantly booking the studio and keeping the Udefinitely have questions. Being in a ple. I try to at least get tested once a week. I calm and having a good time, and cathartically business going. I’m super thankful for that. It’s closed studio, we all wear masks all the time. do what I can to keep that information flow getting that out by recording and making been long hours, but I keep working, expecting I stay in the control room mostly; they’re in going—to let the bands know that I’ve been music. the next month to be a total scary situation. v the live room. When we cut vocals, everyone negative so far. I definitely feel like I’m busier now than a leaves that room and that person does not When essential businesses were allowed to year ago. It’s a really confl icted feeling, because @pmontoro 34 CHICA O READER - DECEMBER ll Recommended and notable releases and critics’ insights for the week of December 24 MUSIC
PICK OF THE WEEK DJ Earl demonstrates footwork’s deep roots on Bass + Funk & Soul
Cam Be MAYA IMAN
Boris with Merzbow, 2R0i2p0 from either Boris or Merzbow, but they’re both so Relapse passionate and creative that anything they touch is borismerzbow.bandcamp.com/album/2r0i2p0 worth at least a few spins. —L C
I tried to tally up the total number of releases COURTESY THE ARTIST by noise wizard Masami Akita, better known as Cam Be, Summer in September Merzbow, and polymorphous metal trio Boris before Camovement I started writing about their new joint album, but it camovement.bandcamp.com/album/summer-in- proved to be a fool’s errand. These Japanese artists september DJ Earl, Bass + Funk & Soul are among the most prolifi c musicians in modern his- Moveltraxx tory, and their combined catalogs include hundreds Chicago composer, arranger, and multi-instrumen- djearlteklife.bandcamp.com/album/mtxlt190-bass-funk-soul of titles. The brand-new 2R0I2P0 (a play on “RIP talist Cam Be draws on his community to invigorate 2020,” a sentiment I think we can all get behind), is his already bold musical ideas. On his new second their eighth collaborative release since 2002. Merz- album, Summer in September (on his own Camove- bow and Boris are natural partners, as they both ment label), Cam and an ensemble of friends create SINCECHICAGOFOOTWORKPRODUCER and Teklife member DJ Earl dropped his break- constantly evolve and push boundaries: Boris have immediately gratifying fusions of soul, funk, hip-hop, through 2016 debut, Open Your Eyes, he’s traveled far outside the city and branched out into seemingly mastered every heavy- music genre under and R&B. Feel-good jam “Fade Away” opens with di erent sounds. In 2017, Earl dropped a genre-splicing dance full-length called 50 Backwoods the sun (most recently on the hardcore-driven No), 16 people clapping on the twos and fours, jump- and Merzbow’s harsh-noise recordings, including starting its relaxed but implacable rhythm and amp- with in-demand Brooklyn producer Nick Hook, and this year his collaborations have included November’s Screaming Dove, have gotten more and ing up its summertime-barbecue vibe—which pro- the hip-hop EPs Paintings on the Porch (with Detroit MC Sheefy McFly) and Black Dobson (with more head-splittingly abrasive since he started in vides a simpatico framework for Joshua Griffin’s Chicago rapper and childhood friend Akem Eshu). Earl found inspiration for his second footwork 1979. Unfortunately, when you’re pumping out that limber bass line, Sam Trump’s smoky trumpet, and much material, odds are it won’t all be top-notch. Chris Paquette’s tender conga playing. These songs’ album, Bass + Funk & Soul (Moveltraxx), in Brazil; as he recently told Resident Advisor podcast For 2R0I2P0 Boris contributed an assortment of beautiful renderings of communal joy can be a balm host Martha Pazienti Caidan, a Brazilian promoter he worked with introduced him to the coun- rerecorded older songs plus two new covers—“To or a painful reminder of what’s still out of reach, try’s funk music and gifted him a trove of digital fi les to sample. To make the new record, Earl the Beach” by Japanese alt-rock trio Coaltar of the given that Summer in September came out while Deepers and the 1991 Melvins track “Boris,” which COVID-19 infections and deaths were trending worked those sound fragments into tapestries informed by his lissome yet brawny style—he inspired the group’s name—and Merzbow added upward in early December. But now that vaccines can spotlight ultra-smooth melodies that add a layer of sophisticated polish while retaining electronics over the top. On the slower, sludgi- are beginning to make their way around the coun- footwork’s complex rhythms and the cast iron toughness of its percussion. The honeyed vocal er tracks (always a Boris strength) the combination try, the album is starting to feel more like a gi —a works perfectly, with heavy waves crashing together reminder of the stubborn hope and perseverance samples that skitter through “Wrk Dat Body” tame the track’s cutting hi-hats and insistent bass in hypnotic drones. But on most of the record, the that’s helped me and so many other Chicagoans line, which evokes the body-massaging throb you get from leaning on a wall of speakers at a loud collaborators feel disconnected from each other; work toward a better future. I’m looking forward to concert. Earl also fi ltered his taste in classic Black pop into Bass + Funk & Soul, so that these at times Merzbow’s glitchy swaths of noise distract the day when I can pop into a club to see Cam bring from the excellent Boris songs rather than com- an entire crowd onstage for the late-night funk jam- tracks demonstrate footwork’s place in the pantheon of American music. —L G plementing them. This may not be the best outing boree “Keep It Moving.” —L G ll DECEMBER - CHICA O READER 35 MUSIC
Mark Lanegan TRISTAN LOPER Josephine Foster MARK BORTHRICK
continued from 35 esque belting. The majority of the album uses Newsom, Scout Niblett), and sublimely earthy fi n- school 12-string guitar adorns the ragtime-fl avored Mark Lanegan, Dark Mark Does sparse instrumentation, but on the songs he wrote, gerpicking guitarists (Jack Rose, James Blackshaw). lead track, “Freemason Drag,” and his serene pedal Christmas 2020 Lanegan indulges in collaboration and experimen- Standing apart from the crowd was Josephine Fos- steel and supple electric bass grace the gorgeous Rough Trade tation: Dulli lays down the acoustic-guitar bedrock ter. With her fondness for opera, her powerful pipes “The Wheel of Fortune,” where Foster sounds every roughtrade.com/us/mark-lanegan/dark-mark- of “A Christmas Song,” and the eerie “Death Drums a la Jeff erson Airplane-era Grace Slick, and her rev- bit the weary and worldly globe-trotting vagabond does-christmas-2020 Along the River” pits sleigh bells against electron- erence for the ancient and old-timey traditions that she is. The hymnlike “Conjugal Bliss” is a song Fos- ic beats. Lanegan closes the album by swapping the likes of Fairport Convention and Shirley Collins ter o en plays at weddings, accompanying herself Mark Lanegan has made an album to satisfy the snowy cliches for sinister balladry on a cover of had recontextualized in the 70s, Foster approached with a chiming autoharp. Her freak-folk past rears yuletide yearnings of those who fi nd holly and hell- “Burn the Flames,” by 13th Floor Elevators founder the music from a decidedly nonrock perspective. its head on the esoteric “Love Letter,” which ambles fire equally enchanting. Even before his old band and psych legend Roky Erickson. Scrubbing away Her lo-fi early recordings, such as the 2001 CD Little along in a nearly indecipherable meter that Foster Screaming Trees hung it up in 2000, the singer- the original’s acid-pocked indulgence, Lanegan Life (reissued as a ten-inch by Fire in 2013), sound has described to me as “completely irrational.” Now songwriter had begun his career as a serial collab- delivers an uncanny message to the scrooges and like wax cylinders from another century. Later in the that’s how the freakiest of folk comes to be, folks! orator—highlights over the past 20 years include scoundrels within all of us. The album stays true to 2000s, the Colorado native played in poppy Chica- Not every song on this album has been kicking his work with Queens of the Stone Age, his three Lanegan’s customary bleakness, which speaks espe- go duo the Children’s Hour (with guitarist Andrew around in Foster’s brain for years the way “Sure Am albums with Belle & Sebastian’s Isobel Campbell, cially well to the somber mood of a holiday season Bar), the rustic Born Heller (with bassist Jason Devilish” has: she and Schneider also collaborated and his Gutter Twins project with Greg Dulli—but spent in pandemic- enforced isolation—maybe 2020 Ajemian), and full-tilt acid-folk rock band Josephine on new tunes, including the sublime, partially impro- in 2012 he added to his equally impressive solo dis- will also be remembered as the year Dark Mark Foster & the Supposed, all while maintaining a solo vised “Old Saw,” which Foster tells me “sort of wash- cography by self-releasing a six-track EP of holiday saved Christmas. —S N S career. By the next decade, she’d moved to Spain, es all my chakras clean.” She says she set out to cre- songs titled Dark Mark Does Christmas 2012. Avail- whose musical traditions further colored her sound. ate “something mellow” on No Harm Done, because able exclusively at his shows, the record has since She’s since returned to Americana strangeness, col- “the times call for gentleness.” I say she and Schnei- become a sought-a er rarity among his fans. This Josephine Foster, No Harm Done laborating with Nashville folk collective the Cherry der have succeeded—with every listen, I dri further fall, Lanegan dusted off his holiday fi nery and res- Fire Blossoms on the 2019 album Mystery Meet. into bliss. —S K urrected the Dark Mark name to release this romp josephinefostermusic.bandcamp.com/album/ Foster’s new album, No Harm Done, reminds me through a mix of Christmas standards, originals, and no-harm-done of some of the best work she’s ever recorded, spe- other fare—it includes all six tracks from the 2012 EP cifi cally 2005’s Hazel Eyes, I Will Lead You (which Electric Hydra, Electric Hydra plus four new cuts. Dark Mark Does Christmas 2020 Back in ye olde early aughts, “freak folk” ruled the Fire reissued last year for Record Store Day). It Majestic Mountain / Tee Pee kicks off with a take on “The Cherry Tree Carol,” a land. Championed and perhaps encouraged by turns out that’s no coincidence: my favorite tune electrichydra.bandcamp.com/album/electric- ballad that dates back at least to the 15th century photo genic weirdo Devendra Banhart, artists infl u- on the album, “Sure Am Devilish,” dates back to hydra and retells a Virgin Mary story borrowed from an enced by elegiac or subliminally psychedelic folk the early 2000s. The song is classic Foster, accom- apocryphal gospel. Lanegan shirks angelic trim- acts from the 60s and 70s—Tyrannosaurus Rex, the panying her distinctive voice—airy and laconic but When it comes to music, Sweden is perhaps most mings, instead opting for a plucky banjo lead and Incredible String Band, Michael Hurley—started piercing and controlled—with wavering guitars and famous for sweetly catchy pop and brutal death a lilting, folksy atmosphere. On a standout version coming out of the woodwork. For a hot strange min- piano. It’s equally soothing, unnerving, heady, and metal. Five-piece Electric Hydra finds the spiritu- of the traditional “O Holy Night,” Lanegan clambers ute, indie record bins were dominated by worship- catchy. Foster’s secret weapon on this album is al midpoint between those genres on its self- titled up the peaks of his vocal range, trading his trade- ers of UK folk (Espers, Nick Castro & the Young Matt Schneider of Moon Bros., with whom she quar- debut album by leaning into another Swedish tra- mark gravelly drawl for high- flying, Jeff Buckley- Elders), delicate and idiosyncratic singers (Joanna antined in Nashville this spring. Schneider’s old- dition—retro hard-rock revivalism. The record’s
36 CHICA O READER - DECEMBER ll Find more music reviews at chicagoreader.com/soundboard. MUSIC
BIT.LY/GOOSEDELIVERS
Electric Hydra COURTESY THE ARTIST
cover art brackets the band’s name with two gap- of death. Her arch delivery bridges her scattered ing snake maws that look like tattoo fl ash, and the ideas, and her incisive wordplay demonstrates that Donate to get Leor Galil's best articles music is very much what you’d expect from that: 34 some of them were interconnected all along. Even minutes of adrenaline-pumping, stadium-size pop- on “Break Bread,” where Harris excoriates power- over the past 10 years of Chicago music! metal goodness. The band isn’t especially interest- ful pop-culture fi gures who give nothing but lip ser- ed in innovation—this is music for true believers, and vice to righteous Black causes, you can still feel how they’ll fi nd ample reason for fervent head-banging much she enjoyed fi nding the best way to make her chicagoreader.com/leorbook in the spirit of hairy heroes of rawk’s past. On “1000 verses swing and blossom within the beat. The First Lies,” guitarist Jonathan Möller and bassist Ellinor People is a brief album, but Harris nonetheless fi nds Andersson lock into a doomy, gonad-rumbling riff enough room to foreground many of the complica- reminiscent of Master of Reality-era Sabbath while tions of pandemic life. —L G lead vocalist Sanne Karlsson does an ear-serrating and very credible Ozzy impression. Möller sings on “Iron Lung,” which embraces grunge with enough Katatonia, Dead Air fuzz to suit Mudhoney or Soundgarden. “It Comes Peaceville Alive” cranks up to Motörhead speeds, with sweetly peaceville.bandcamp.com/album/deadair cheesy hair-metal harmonies buried in the mix and a gratuitous echo eff ect on Karlsson’s voice. Electric Katatonia were fresh off a hiatus when they Hydra never takes its biker boot off the accelerator dropped their 11th studio album, City Burials, in as it blasts out heavy hooks and hooky heaviness April, but the pandemic meant they couldn’t stage that could please fans of Abba and Entombed alike. the triumphant return tour it merited. In May, the —N B nearly 30-year-old Swedish metal outfi t appeased their fans and assuaged their own frustration with a livestreamed concert. More than six months Freddie Old Soul, The First People later—with the live-music circuit in Europe and the Self-released Americas still on hold—they’ve released Dead Air, freddie1.bandcamp.com/album/the-fi rst-people-2 a beautiful, melancholy, tight, and almost seamless document of that online performance. The record- Chicago rapper Fredrianna Harris, aka Freddie ing raises the question of what a “live album” means Old Soul, uses hip-hop to open a vivid window into when there’s no live audience—surely this is some- everyday life. On “Hot Tamale,” one of the best where between a studio eff ort and a traditional live tracks off her new self-released EP, The First People, album. The band had invited their fans to vote for she turns groceries into a narrative device that bun- the songs they’d play, so Dead Air is literally a col- dles up seemingly stray musings about young moth- lection of crowd favorites recast in Katatonia’s cur- erhood, COVID-19, and the unrelenting presence rent intricate, streamlined style. Three tracks from ll DECEMBER - CHICA O READER 37 MUSIC
Freddie Old Soul COURTESY THE ARTIST Tatsu Aoki and Mwata Bowden of the Miyumi Project KEN CARL
continued from 37 1982 by guitarists Tom Paine and Mark C., Live Skull the new tracks and outtakes—for longtime fans like The Miyumi Project, The Best of the City Burials—“The Winter of Our Passing,” “Behind were a buzz saw of guitar-led postpunk that com- me, it feels like an unexpected visit from an old Miyumi Project the Blood,” and “Lacquer”—nestle comfortably bined art-rocker sensibilities with leather-jacket friend. And a new version of the Dusted song “Deb- FPE Records among material that dates back to 2001 (“Tear- sneer, almost perfectly encapsulating the early-80s bie’s Headache” shows a reinvigorated Live Skull, fperecs.bandcamp.com/album/best-of-the- gas”), which makes the album work as a thank-you Lower Manhattan scene that birthed them. Dusted with a mix that highlights Mark C.’s spoken-word- miyumi-project note to longtime devotees and a solid introduc- came fourth among the seven studio releases of the style vocals rather than a haze of guitar feedback. tion for newcomers. There’s no substitute for the band’s initial incarnation, before one too many line- —SC -J Tatsu Aoki left his native Tokyo in 1977 to study energy a live crowd brings to a performance, but up changes and a lack of commercial success led experimental fi lm and settled in Chicago two years Dead Air is a testament to the various ways artists to their breakup in 1990. It’s also the fi rst to include later. In addition to making films, he improvises, can reach their audiences when touring is impossi- lead singer Thalia Zedek, who’d go on to form the Local Nobodies, See What Happens composes, and conducts music, playing bass, sham- ble. If you watch the videos from the livestream the band Come with Chris Brokaw of Codeine and Self-released isen, and taiko drums, and by the early 1990s he’d band has made available before you listen to the maintain a long, productive solo career. localnobodies.bandcamp.com/album/see-what- connected with the local jazz scene, developing a album versions on Dead Air, you’ll get more of the Live Skull don’t get the recognition of their 80s happens particular affinity with past and present members emotional context: front man Jonas Renkse sounds NYC scene peers (say, Swans or Sonic Youth), but of the Association for the Advancement of Creative great but looks sad (arguably with more reason their music continues to resonate with fans of post- In their hip-hop duo Local Nobodies, Chicago rap- Musicians. In 2000 the tireless polymath found- than usual) in his neon-lined sound booth. Katato- punk and avant-rock. Last year, Mark C. and Live per Sulaiman and funk multi-instrumentalist Chris ed the Miyumi Project, named a er his third child, nia’s elegiac style of melodic gothic metal rises to Skull drummer Richard Hutchins (he’d joined in Mathien (who also leads the band Mathien) unlock to express his sense of himself as an Asian Ameri- the moment beautifully; “Ghost of the Sun” sounds 1987) led a resurrected version of the band on the each other’s debonair charms in song. On their can artist. Like the AACM’s fl agship band, the Art like a cathartic cry, and “Forsaker” swings from rage album Saturday Night Massacre (Bronson), which self-released second album, the new See What Ensemble of Chicago, the Miyumi Project invests to mourning in a heartbeat. Katatonia have optimis- also includes appearances from Zedek and orig- Happens, they embellish their grooves with sophis- combinations of musical styles with a ceremonial tically booked a full schedule of in-person Europe- inal bassist Marnie Jaffe; it combines the band’s ticated fl air, and Mathien’s smooth, subtle produc- vibe. The ensemble’s size and instrumentation have an festival dates starting in March 2021; wheth- classic vigor with lyrics decrying police brutality tion leaves Sulaiman plenty of room to show off the changed over the past two decades, but certain er those shows go as planned remains to be seen, and misguided men in power. And on this month’s musicality of his voice. On tracks such as “Levels” elements persist. The soulful, woolly horns, usually but with COVID-19 vaccines on the way, maybe the Dangerous Visions, Live Skull mix a few new songs and “Marmont,” he stretches his words casually and played by Mwata Bowden and/or Edward Wilkerson band will be able to make up for lost time by next (recorded by Mark C., Hutchins, and two new mem- luxuriously, like he’s relishing the sensation of each Jr., affi rm the band’s connection to jazz. The percus- fall. —M K bers) with previously unreleased music, including vowel on its way out. The pair can summon a mood sion, which o en includes members of Aoki’s fami- a set cut in 1989 for John Peel’s BBC radio series. with the barest of elements—all they need is a laid- ly on taiko drums, is steeped in Japanese folkloric Zedek had come aboard in 1987, infusing the band back, loungy guitar riff , an occasional dubby blast of styles. And Aoki’s bass playing, which encompass- Live Skull, Dangerous Visions with new energy and allowing Paine and Mark C. to percussion atop the mellow drum track, and Sulaim- es raw drones and bold rhythms, connects the two Bronson concentrate on their guitar wizardry, and the sec- an’s echoing vocals to give “Old Souls” a magnetism like a sturdy wooden bridge. The Best of the Miyu- liveskull.bandcamp.com/album/dangerous- ond half of this record, including the Peel tracks, that outlasts its 59-second run time. See What Hap- mi Project lives up to its name by selecting stand- visions features her lead vocals. The pulse of “Adema” pens is confi dent and fun, but many of its songs are out tracks that showcase the contributions of some is so fast that it sounds like Zedek’s lyrics are in a so short that the album feels like an aperitif—when of the great musicians who’ve passed through the Few recordings transport me directly to a time and footrace with Hutchins’s drumming, and it must’ve Local Nobodies get down to the meal, I have a group over the years, including cellist Jamie Kemp- place like Dusted, the 1987 album by foundational blown the roof off the place when they played it hunch that their name will start to feel like misno- kers, electric guitarist Rami Atassi, and the late New York noise-rock band Live Skull. Founded in back in the day. The live material works well among mer in no time fl at. —L G trumpeter Ameen Muhammad. —B Mv
38 CHICA O READER - DECEMBER ll CHICAGO SHOWS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT IN THE WEEKS TO COME
b ALL AGES F EARLY WARNINGS
WOLF BY KEITH HERZIK Smooth, David Torres, Lidell UPDATED Townsell, White Knight, To Never miss Kool Chris, Julian “Jumpin” a show again. Airborne Toxic Event Perez, Tim “Spinnin” Schom- 4/14/2022, 7:30 PM, the Vic, mer, and more 12/31, 8 PM, Sign up for the rescheduled b Chicago Drive-In Bridgeview, newsletter at AJJ, Xiu Xiu, Emperor X Bridgeview b chicagoreader. GOSSIP 3/12/2021, 7 PM, Metro, Kiss 2020 Goodbye Live Tour canceled from the Atlantis Dubai 12/31, com/early Apocalyptica, Lacuna Coil 11 AM, livestream at tixr.com/ WOLF 9/5/2021, 8 PM, House of groups/landmarkslive b Blues, rescheduled, 17+ Little River Band 1/28/2021, Park b A furry ear to the ground of Shawn Colvin, Daphne Willis 7:30 PM, Genesee Theatre, Satsang 5/14/2021, 8 PM, 5/13/2022-5/14/2022, 8 PM, Waukegan b Martyrs’ the local music scene SPACE, Evanston, resched- Lu's Jukebox with Lucinda Wil- Secret Sisters, Logan Ledger uled b liams, episode six 12/31, 5/21/2021, 8 PM, Maurer Hall, Lauren Daigle, Johnnyswim 7 PM, livestream at mandolin. Old Town School of Folk 3/12/2021, 7:30 PM, Allstate com b Music b THE HIDEOUT has hired art-pop mas- Arena, Rosemont, canceled Nombe 3/27/2021, 8 PM, Lin- Sepultura, Sacred Reich, termind and Sooper Records co-owner Four C Notes 12/31, 6 and coln Hall b Crowbar, Art of Shock Sen Morimoto as its new talent buyer. 8:30 PM, Marriott Theatre One Night of Queen featuring 3/14/2021, 7 PM, House of He replaces Sullivan Davis , who began in Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire, Gary Mullen & the Works Blues, 17+ canceled 3/27/2021, 8 PM, Rosemont Shallou 6/17/2021, 8 PM, House training him last week. “The Hideout’s Monophonics 11/27/2021, 8 PM, Theatre, Rosemont b of Blues got such a great legacy, and people real- Chop Shop, rescheduled, 18+ Parks N Rec featuring DJ Sheila E. & the E-Train ly love what it’s about and stands for, Murder by Death, Amigo the Quiana Parks and guests 7/13/2021-7/14/2021, 7 PM, City and I hope I can maintain that reputa- Devil 3/13/2021, 8 PM, Thalia 1/3/2021, noon, livestream at Winery b Hall, back on sale, 17+ twitch.tv/moveforwardmusic Amanda Shires, Jade Jackson tion,” Morimoto says. He appeared on Gregory Porter, Ledisi F b 4/21/2021, 8 PM, SPACE, the radar of Hideout co-owners Tim and 2/17/2021, 7 PM, Chicago Parsonsfi eld, Oshima Brothers Evanston b Katie Tuten early this month, and they Theatre, canceled 3/30/2021, 7 PM, SPACE, Ricky Skaggs 4/11/2021, quickly hired him. Morimoto wants to Ben Watt 2/18/2021, 8 PM, Evanston b 5 PM, Arcada Theatre, Saint SPACE, Evanston, canceled Jeremy Pinnell 3/5/2021, Charles b book more artists of color at the club, as 8:30 PM, Carol's Pub, Bria Skonberg 3/14/2021, 7 PM, well as more younger musicians—and the Chuck Prophet & the Mission SPACE, Evanston b gradual rollout of COVID-19 vaccines has UPCOMING Express 3/18/2021, 8 PM, Chris Smither 4/1/2021, 8 PM, boosted the odds that the Hideout will SPACE, Evanston b SPACE, Evanston b Acid Mothers Temple & the Purity Ring 5/3/2021, 7:30 PM, Sole e Amore (“Sun and host in-person concerts in 2021. Morimo- Melting Paraiso U.F.O. Riviera Theatre b Love”) featuring Enrique to may even hit the road himself, despite 2/26/2021, 8 PM, Sub- Pvris, Royal & the Serpent Mazzola with members of the terranean 4/7/2021, 8 PM, House of Lyric Opera's Ryan Opera his new job, though he says that’s like- Patti Smith STEVEN SEBRING ly at least a year away: “Once touring AJR 12/26, 7 PM, livestream at Blues b Center 2020/21 Ensemble universe.com b R&B Spring Fest featuring 2/21/2021, 6 PM, livestream at happens, we’ll have to see what comes 12/31, 8 PM, livestream at BoDeans 2/13/2021, 8 PM, Brian McKnight, Tevin lyricopera.org b about.” The Tutens, Morimoto says, “have NEW fans.live b North Shore Center for the Campbell, El DeBarge, Res Southern Hospitality featuring been super supportive in the process of Tommy James & the Shondells Performing Arts, Skokie b 4/24/2021, 8 PM, Wintrust Damon Fowler, J.P. Soars, sorting that out. They told me from the Avett Brothers 12/31, 7 PM, 4/3/2021, 7:30 PM, Genesee Bush Tetras 1/23/2021, 8 PM, Arena b Victor Wainwright 6/18/2021, livestream at nugs.tv b Theatre, Waukegan b livestream at lpr.tv b Rage Against the Machine, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston jump that they understand I’m an artist Bad Religion 12/26 and 1/2/2021, Apollo Mighty 1/11/2021, 1 PM, Circa Survive 1/16/2021, Run the Jewels 7/12/2021- Steely Dan, Steve Winwood and that comes fi rst.” 4 PM, livestream at livestream at audiotree.tv b 6:30 PM, Concord Music 7/13/2021, 8 PM, United 6/25/2021, 7:30 PM, Holly- Ever since local psychedelic country nocapshows.com b Mobley 2/27/2021, 8 PM, live- Hall, 17+ Center b wood Casino Amphitheatre, collective the Keener Family released Joan Baez 1/9/2021, 7:30 PM, stream at mobleywho.com b CSO Sessions episode eight RBD 12/26, 10 AM, livestream at Tinley Park b livestream at seated.com b Now, Now 1/8/2021, 8 PM, live- Available through 1/1/2021, seroparecer.world b Str r, Undercover Dream their debut EP, Tender Beast , last Decem- Blackpink 12/26, 11 PM, live- stream at audiotree.tv b livestream at cso.org b LeAnn Rimes 2/5/2021, 7 PM, Lovers 2/9/2021, 7:30 PM, ber, Gossip Wolf has been eager to hear stream at youtube.com b Powerglove 3/16/2021, 7:30 PM, Anthony David 12/26, 6 PM, Genesee Theatre, Waukegan Thalia Hall b more from this self-described “boot- Peabo Bryson, Will Downing the Forge, Joliet b livestream at citywinery. b Marty Stuart & His Fabulous gaze” crew. In May, the group—basical- 3/13/2021, 8 PM, the Venue at Johnny Rivers 2/28/2021, com b Eric Roberson 4/1/2021- Superlatives 4/18/2021, 3 and Horseshoe Casino, Hammond 5 PM, Arcada Theatre, Saint John Doe (solo) 1/20/2021, 4/3/2021, 8 PM, City Winery 7 PM, Maurer Hall, Old Town ly front man and multi-instrumentalist Dark Tranquillity, Obscura, Charles b 8 PM, livestream at b School of Folk Music b Christopher Keener and a pool of col- Nailed to Obscurity Frankie Rose 1/14/2021, 8 PM, mandolin.com b Dan Rodriguez 5/22/2021, Sunfl ower Bean 1/7/2021, 8 PM, laborators—dropped a lovingly despon- 9/15/2021, 7:30 PM, the Forge, livestream at lpr.tv b The Dreamscape featuring 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston b livestream at lpr.tv b dent cover of “Down the Drain” (original- Joliet b Sevendust 1/8/2021, 8 PM, Selina Trepp with Ben LaMar Rookie 4/16/2021, 10 PM; Tokimonsta 2/13/2021, 7 PM, Grabbitz 1/9/2021, 8 PM, live- livestream at Gay, Lia Kohl, and Macie 4/17/2021, 9:15 PM, Empty Metro, 18+ ly by Ben Clarke of Quarter Mile Thun- stream at lpr.tv b nocapshows.com b Stewart, Santiago X, Rhonda Bottle, 4/16 sold out Louis Tomlinson 4/15/2021, der ), and a three-song EP of new tracks, Hives 1/21/2021, 1 PM; 1/22/2021, Patti Smith and her band Wheatley, Lise Haller Bag- Maggie Rose, Them Vibes 8 PM, Chicago Theatre b Hold Me Close, fi nally arrives on Friday, 2 PM; 1/23/2021, 6 PM; present a live birthday geson with the Funs, and 2/13/2021, 8 PM, SPACE, Happy Traum 4/17/2021, 2 PM, December 18, via nonprofi t Chicago label 1/28/2021, 4 AM; 1/29/2021, performance 12/30, 8 PM, more 1/16/2021, 2 PM, live- Evanston b Szold Hall, Old Town School 5 PM; 1/30/2021, 1 PM, live- livestream at stream at mcachicago.org Peter Rowan’s Free Mexican of Folk Music b Park Service. The Keener Family’s rich stream at thehives.com b pattismith.veeps.com b Driver Era, Wrecks 2/19/2021, Airforce, Los Texmaniacs Vanishing Twin 1/20/2021, melodies float languorously atop warm Home Free 3/18/2021, 7 PM, Sweet Honey in the Rock 7:30 PM, the Vic b 5/20/2021, 7 PM, SPACE, 2 PM, livestream at guitars and strings heavy with reverb— Genesee Theatre, Waukegan 1/17/2021, 2 and 7 PM, live- Fuzz 2/4/2021, 8:30 PM, Thalia Evanston b noonchorus.com b guest players include Mute Duo steel gui- b stream at thirdrow.live b Hall, 17+ Russ 5/22/2021, 7:30 PM, Phil Vassar, Lexie Hayden Miki Howard 1/2/2021, 7 PM, Tribute to Ozzfest featuring Sarah Harmer 2/12/2021, 8 PM, Aragon Ballroom b 7/16/2021, 8 PM, Joe’s Live, tar wizard Sam Wagster and keyboardist livestream at citywinery. Killer of Giants, Sandblasted Szold Hall, Old Town School San Fermin 6/4/2021, 8 PM, Rosemont Alex DeGroot, who’s appeared on sever- com b Skin, Zero Signal, and more of Folk Music b Maurer Hall, Old Town School Video Age 2/25/2021, 9:15 PM, al albums with Zola Jesus. —JRN New Year’s Eve virtual celebra- 1/15/2021, 7:30 PM, the Forge, Jayhawks 1/10/2021, 3 PM, live- of Folk Music b Empty Bottle LG tion featuring George Howe Joliet, 18+ stream at mandolin.com b Lauren Sanderson 4/13/2021, Weathers, Moby Rich, Kenzo and friends 12/31, 9:30 PM, Umphrey's McGee 1/1/2021, Julian’s 2020 New Year’s Eve 7:30 PM, Subterranean b Cregan 2/28/2021, 7 PM, livestream at 7 PM, livestream at fans.live b House Party at the Drive-In Santana; Earth, Wind & Fire Schubas b Got a tip? Tweet @Gossip_Wolf or davenportspianobar.com b Bob Weir & Wolf Bros 12/31, featuring Stevie B, Angel, 7/3/2021, 7 PM, Hollywood Jontavious Willis 1/28/2021, e-mail [email protected]. Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit 9 PM, livestream at fans.live b Bad Boy Bill, Hula, Joe Casino Amphitheatre, Tinley 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston b v ll DECEMBER - CHICAOREADER 39 Have a strong opinion or perspective you’d like to share? We invite you to send ideas to OPINION [email protected].
Don’t expect President Biden to change the ing South Carolina representative James corporate-driven status quo. GAGE SKIDMORE Clyburn, who cautioned that if Democrats pursued policies like Medicare for All, “we’re together, at Obama’s urging, to support Joe not going to win.” What the article didn’t Biden before Super Tuesday. mention was that Clyburn has taken more Moreover, candidates who take policy money from the pharmaceutical industry in positions favoring the 95 percent rather the past decade than any other member of than the five percent are much cheaper to the House or Senate. sell and thus don’t need to raise huge sums Some readers accuse me of unfairly of money. For one thing, they can call out painting all corporate leaders as evil. This their opponents for being tools of corporate is untrue. I come from a family of corporate interests, a devastatingly powerful argu- leaders who have high integrity. The reality ment that is unavailable to most Democrats is that publicly traded companies have no and Republicans. Yes, it’s true, voters prefer morality. They are profit-seeking engines. representatives who are not in the pocket of The personal views or morality of corporate big business. directors is immaterial. They are under fi- To illustrate this point, in the elections duciary obligation to seek maximum profi ts last month, voters approved dozens of ballot for the shareholders. Thus, if greater profi ts initiatives brought by public interest groups can be made by offshoring production to a that relied on grassroots organizing rather country with lower wages and less environ- than expensive media campaigns. Arizona mental restrictions, this will be done even voters said yes to a tax surcharge on incomes if it means screwing American workers and above $250,000 a year specifically to raise destroying the environment. NATIONAL POLITICS teacher pay and recruit more teachers. Ore- Allowing these profit-seeking engines to gon voters approved a populist proposition direct public policy—the current practice of to put strict controls on the corrupting D.C. Democrats and Republicans—will bring Democrats and ruling by fear power of big-money corporate donations destruction to our country and planet. This in elections. Floridians voted to raise the is not hyperbole. When politicians sell out to win, we all lose. state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour, a Consider the example of foreign policy. working-class advancement vehemently The American people don’t want forever By L CG opposed by corporate giants. Colorado voted wars or the bloated Pentagon budget that yes to require corporations to let employees currently consumes well over half of our earn paid time off for medical and family discretionary funds, and is greater than the needs. Voters in six states— including in military spending of the next nine countries such supposedly conservative bastions as combined. Meanwhile, one in eight Amer- Leonard C. Goodman is a Chicago criminal Later, Barack Obama took in record Arizona, Montana, Mississippi, and South icans don’t have enough food to eat and 30 defense attorney and co-owner of the newly amounts of Wall Street cash for his 2008 Dakota—approved initiatives legalizing million Americans will soon be at risk of independent Reader. presidential campaign. Then, as e-mails marijuana and other drug use. losing their homes. obtained by WikiLeaks later revealed, he The groups sponsoring these voter initia- But the American people have no say in the have written many columns at the Reader allowed Citigroup to select nearly his entire tives did not have corporate backing. They matter. Tragically, America’s foreign policy and other alternative publications warn- cabinet, which helped funnel trillions of won because ordinary people liked what they is controlled by the military-industrial com- I ing that corporate control of the federal bailout dollars to the banks, declined to were o¥ ering. plex and by the resource extraction indus- government will bring catastrophe for our prosecute a single Wall Street executive for Contrary to what you hear in corporate tries. Bomb makers like Raytheon demand children and for the planet. I receive a lot of mortgage fraud, and blocked legislation cap- media, the policies pushed by progressives zones of active confl ict to keep its assembly pushback, especially from liberals who argue ping executive pay at bailed-out fi rms. are not radical or scary to ordinary people. lines moving. Under Trump, our bombs fell that Trump is/was such a unique menace that The Democratic Party now uses this same Recent polls show that three in fi ve Ameri- at the rate of one every 12 minutes, killing the Democrats had no choice but to join with fear-based argument every four years: sup- cans favor Medicare for All, two in three sup- thousands of defenseless Black and Brown corporate America to assure victory. port our corporate-backed candidates or port a wealth tax, and even higher numbers people in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and The Democratic Party sold out working else you will get someone more horrible. By support free college tuition. The Green New Yemen; surpassing Obama’s record of one people long before Donald Trump. It was allowing the party to control us by fear, we Deal is likewise broadly popular, even when bomb every half hour. Many of the people we President Bill Clinton who pivoted to Wall invite further betrayals. respondents are informed that it will cost slaughter are civilians; none were threaten- Street. Clinton then ended the main federal Nor should we accept the premise that trillions of dollars. ing to invade the United States. antipoverty program (Aid to Families with Democrats have to sell out to win. Bernie In other words, the story propagated by Manufacturers of big-ticket items demand Dependent Children), passed NAFTA, esca- Sanders relied on small donors rather than corporate media that Americans are afraid hostile relations with larger nations like Rus- lated the drug war, and ended the New Deal corporate bundlers and PACs, and he raised of change is a lie. A recent New York Times sia and China to justify new sales of aircraft restraints on big banks, leading directly to plenty of money to compete. Indeed, Sanders article illustrates how the deceptive game is carriers, nuclear submarines, F-35 fighter the housing meltdown and the Great Reces- likely would have won the nomination had played. The piece tries to make the point that jets, and new generations of nuclear bombs. sion of 2008. not the corporate-backed candidates joined Americans don’t want real change by quot- The mineral extracting industries demand 40 CHICA O READER - DECEMBER ll OPINION the cannabis platform a Reader resource for the canna curious
that we maintain our empire of nearly 800 chance to demand a debate and floor vote foreign military bases to crush the will of on Medicare for All (MFA), a bill introduced local people who oppose foreign exploitation in February 2019 by Representative Pramila of their lands. Jayapal with dozens of cosponsors, but never GREEN MIND None of this will significantly change brought to the fl oor despite its overwhelming PHYSICIANS under President Biden. Just this month, popularity with Democratic voters. Because MEDICAL CANNABIS CARD while Congress bickered over whether to the Democrats now have such a slim majority CERTIFICATION BY PHONE QUICK & CONVENIENT TELEMEDICINE provide relief to desperate Americans, both in the House, a handful of progressives in
parties joined together to approve $741 bil- Congress could force a vote on Medicare for LIFETIME EXPERIENCED lion for the Pentagon, assuring that the war All in exchange for their support for Nancy SUPPORT PHYSICIANS machine will be well funded for another year. Pelosi’s reelection as speaker. The status quo also ensures the continued This idea that progressives might use their deterioration of the planet. The U.S. war ma- leverage to force a vote on Medicare for All RESOURCES FOR CHICAGO PATIENTS chine is one of the largest polluters in histo- was not proposed by any member of Con- greenmindphysicians.com/thereader ry, consuming more liquid fuels and emitting gress but by Jimmy Dore, a comedian and ac- more climate-changing gases than most tivist, on his YouTube show. Yet his plan has medium-sized countries. In 2017, the U.S. gained wide support on social media. Dore
military bought about 269,230 barrels of oil has called out Representative Alexandria Your partners in health and wellness. Find out today if medical a day and emitted more than 25,000 kilotons Ocasio-Cortez and other progressives for cannabis or infusion therapy is of carbon dioxide by burning those fuels. shrinking away from the fi ght over MFA after right for you. Telemed available! Serving medical cannabis patients since 2015. If the American people could choose running on the issue and promising to stand www.neuromedici.com 312-772-2313 our next secretary of state—the nation’s up to Pelosi and the corporate Democrats. chief diplomat—they would select someone Forced to respond, AOC called Dore’s strate- skilled at negotiating with our adversaries gy too risky because the Dems might lose the and easing tensions around the world. But speakership. But Speaker Pelosi can guar- the war industry demands a toady with antee her reelection simply by scheduling the opposite skill set. So Biden has selected a fl oor vote on a bill introduced almost two Antony Blinken, a man whose career has years ago with dozens of cosponsors, sup- been a pendulum between government and ported by 85 percent of Democratic voters, the defense industry, where he made him- and about half of Republican voters. That is self rich by writing memos advocating for not an unreasonable demand of the speaker. new smarter more sustainable wars, and by AOC also says we might lose the vote on selling his Rolodex of government contacts MFA. But if not now, when? We are in the to help clients obtain defense contracts. middle of a deadly pandemic, and we all need Within the Obama administration, Blinken our neighbors to be able to go see a doctor backed the interventions in Libya and Syria if they feel sick without fear of bankrupting as well as the 2014 Ukraine coup, and he was their families. Fifteen million Americans a major proponent of backing the Saudi-led have already lost their health insurance and Reader 420 mass atrocities in Yemen. The fact that all their jobs. Dore asks—are the House progres- Companion Book these policies were disastrous for the people sives fi ghters or are they posers? A cannacopia of fun! on the ground is not a negative for Blinken, The progressives had similar leverage back because they were also highly profi table for in the spring when the big donors demanded CBD / cannabis recipes, psychedelic d awings to color, word puzzles to stimulate the war industry. Blinken’s greatest career that Congress pass the CARES Act, giving your b ain, growing tips, and more! achievement appears to be his ability to keep Wall Street $5 trillion and an assurance that Pentagon budgets rising while transitioning it would face no hardship from the shutdown. Print and digital versions available. from Bush-era ground wars to smaller scale But progressives let that leverage slip away “sustainable operations.” and then accepted only scraps for working chicagoreader.com/420book Thus, under Biden, we must expect more people, many of whom have been forced to dead children, more destabilization and suf- stay home for months with no income. Now is fering, and more global warming. the time to demand that the richest country Some believe that the Democratic Party on Earth provide health care to its people. can still be rescued from the clutches of its Of course, a government-run health care corporate masters by electing progressives. system will hurt the profi ts for big pharma, This strategy is currently being tested. Pro- big insurance, and big hospital groups. To advertise, email [email protected] gressives get themselves elected to Congress But we all must sacrifice in times of great promising to stand up to the establishment struggle. v Democrats and to fight for things like uni- versal health care. Right now, they have a @GoodmanLen ll DECEMBER - CHICAOREADER 41 OPINION
SAVAGE LOVE desperately that I couldn’t risk losing it, I would : I just wanted to say thank you. I called in to tell my mother-in-law to STFU or GTFO—and if your podcast a couple years ago because I’m a ’Tis always the season for tongues, toys, and lots of lube my MIL complained or tried to play the victim spanking fetishist and a married pastor found Livestream questions about monsters in bed and mothers-in-law a er I told her off , I would print every photo I me on FetLife and lied to me and manipulated could find online of a Trump supporter in a me! I did what you said and reported him and By D S “FUCK YOUR FEELINGS” T-shirt a er the 2016 he doesn’t work at that church anymore. I election and wallpaper the guest bedroom with wanted to let you know that I’m living my them. But if I desperately needed the childcare dream life in LA with a spanko guy I met at and couldn’t risk losing it, I would smile and nod a fetish gathering. He has been the best and fully stock my supply of edibles. quarantine buddy a person could ask for!
: I need someone to tell me that it isn’t a sign A: Thanks for the update and congrats! : I remember the day I was able to come to I’ve found, and your question prompted me to that I see my ex’s name at least four times a your show in person. What a joy! It seems like make another donation to Northwest Harvest, a day, every day. He dumped me almost three : My husband has a big dick and wants to try years ago now. How do you maintain your wonderful organization that supports hundreds years ago and it’s ridiculous. Can you do that butt stuff . I have had anal in the past with other sanity until we are able to go to concerts, of food banks in my corner of the country, so for me? partners with smaller penises. Honestly, I’m a theater, museums, and dinner with friends thank you for that. little scared so I’m not in a rush here but want again? I strive to be a good human but A: If you see his name multiple times a day, well, to please my man eventually. How do we go struggle to stay my upbeat self. : How would you deal with Trumpist (still!) that’s most likely a sign your ex has an extremely about priming my hole? Thanks! relatives living with you during the pandemic? common fi rst name. And if you attach meaning A: I find it helps to remember that concerts, My mother-in-law is here helping with newborn to those sightings, that’s a sign you’re human. A: Tongues, toys, lots of lube, and the fi rst time theater, museums, dinners with friends, holidays baby care and she brings up Trumpist talking We have a tendency to see patterns where you get that monster in you, that’s all you’re with family, club nights, fetish parties, etc., are points constantly and Trump permeates most none exist and read meaning into random going to do—get it in. He gets hard and lays coming back—sadly, the same can’t be said other topics, like the pandemic. events. If your ex has a really uncommon name back and you take charge of the pace and for the people, jobs, and homes so many have and you see it everywhere, well, that is most depth of penetration. And then it’s not about lost. Helping others when and where you can A: If I didn’t need the childcare, I would toss likely a sign that your ex is fucking with you. him fucking you, it’s about him staying still and is an excellent way to maintain your sanity, her ass out. If I needed the childcare but not so you relaxing and breathing until that thing : My partner is a loving sweet human but he feels good in there. Even then he doesn’t get has a serious preference for women in rather to fuck you. Instead, you masturbate the first small bodies and I am . . . well, I am not small. few times his dick is in there—you get to come, I want him to have what he wants and we are not him. Having a few orgasms with his cock in nonmonogamous, but it’s hard to shake the you—or having a dozen—will create the kind of feeling that I am not—and can never be— pleasurable association that leaves your hole enough for him. He is unable to say that he’ll craving his cock. Then you fuck. desire me no matter my size. This is painful. I know he’ll love me no matter what but I also : My older brother is a 38-year-old straight want to feel desired. I’m fi nding it hard to fi nd male in New York. When COVID hit, his a middle ground where we both get what we fiancée’s tendency to believe in conspiracy need. Any advice to bridge the gap? theories became more apparent and their relationship quickly declined. He’s a A: That your boyfriend couldn’t bring himself progressive, liberal-minded, deeply moral to tell you what you wanted to hear . . . that he person and she’s from a family of right-wing couldn’t tell you what he hoped would be true gun collecting Scientologists. Recently they (that he would always desire you) even if he separated to collect their thoughts. Ultimately suspected it might not always be true (a day they agreed to separate. It’s now been might come when he no longer desires you) two weeks. They still live together and are . . . that all makes me wonder whether your confused about what to do next. My question boyfriend has the emotional intelligence that is, what advice do you give to someone you—that anyone—would want in a partner. who knows what they need to do but is too And while it’s no consolation, I realize, many paralyzed to do it? couples struggle to sustain desire over time, as any regular reader of an advice column knows. A: Don’t give your brother advice, give him Boredom is more o en to blame than aging or time. It’s only been two weeks! And you don’t changing bodies, I believe, but there’s no way to need to give him advice if he starts to waver— guarantee that the person we’re with now will you don’t need to tell him what to do—you just always desire you the same way they do now— need to give him a pep talk. He knows what or that you will always desire them the same he has to do. Give him support, moral and way. That said, the single best way to get over practical, not advice. v feeling like you’re not enough for someone is to accept that you aren’t. Trying to be everything Send letters to mail@savagelove. to someone is not only exhausting, it’s always net. Download the Savage Lovecast at futile. savagelovecast.com. @fakedansavage 42 CHICA O READER - DECEMBER ll Tr a n s U n i o n , L L C The Department of (NumPy, Pandas, Scipy, Ravenswood Manor C O U N S E L I N G & SWM Seeking SWF JOBS seeks Sr Managers for Pharmacology, at the Scikit-learn); MATLAB/R; l a rg e 2 B e d ro o m . 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Emil Ferris is a graphic novelist whose fi rst book, My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, has BOOK CLUB been praised by critics since its publication in 2017. Her book—which presents itself as the lined notebook diary of a preteen self-avowed Mikki Kendall Natalie Moore werewolf who questions her sexual identity— is set in Chicago in the 1960s. Hood Feminism: The South Side Book Club Notes From the April 21 membership The book is autobiographically infused, as Ferris—like her protagonist Karen Reyes—was Women That a 4/22/2021 includes: witness to the highly-charged political and Movement Forgot social climate of that time. Rebecca Makkai The main character’s obsession with B-movies Book Club Month: Exclusive The Great of the Hammer and Universal varieties and October 20 access to EC horror magazines is evident. Journalists Believers have noted how the book parallels themes of Author Talk: conversations monstrosity and “otherness.” 10/22/2020 May 21 between Not only are EC-inspired horror comic 5/27/2021 Authors and Emil Ferris covers recreated in ballpoint pen by Ferris’s protagonist, but so are many signifi cant Sonali Dev the Reader paintings that hang in the Art Institute of Recipe for Fatimah Asghar Author Chicago. Persuasion If They Come for Discounts to Ferris was profoundly shaped by the world-renowned collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. November 20 Us She sites art-making as being critically important to her survival of childhood disability as well your favorite as subsequent physical challenges. 11/19/2020 June 21 independent 6/24/2021 bookstores Hence, the story of the graphic novel’s production is nearly as interesting as the book itself. Riva Lehrer In 2002, at 40 years of age, Ferris was bitten by a mosquito and infected with West Nile virus. She suff ered lower body paralysis as well as the substantially diminished use of her dominant Golem Girl Kayla Ancrum A curated drawing hand. December 20 Darling monthly Consequently Ferris enrolled at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) and during 12/17/2020 July 21 newsletter her student years was introduced to such graphic novels as Maus, Jimmy Corrigan, Persepolis, 7/22/2021 and Fun Home. Emil Ferris A members- While studying, Ferris recovered enough of her drawing ability to create her graphic novel. She le SAIC with a bachelors in art, a graduate degree from the writing program, as well as My Favorite Jessica Hopper only the fi rst 24 pages of what would later become My Favorite Thing Is Monsters. (TBD) discussion Thing Is Monsters My Favorite Thing is Monsters has now been published in nine languages and has been January 21 August 21 forum honored with numerous awards, among them the Lambda Literary Award, multiple Eisners, the Ignatz, and the Fauve d’Or at the Angoulême Festival in France. 1/28/2021 8/26/2021 Special off ers Ferris has exhibited her art extensively in the U.S. and Europe and was most recently honored to teach classes at the Louvre. Eve Ewing Precious Brady- from Reader 1919 Davis partners I Have Always Coya Paz is a writer, director, and lip gloss connoisseur February 21 who was raised in Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil, 2/25/2021 Been Me: A and the United States. She is the Artistic Director of Free Street Theater, a cofounder of the Proyecto Latina Memoir collective, and served as the founding co-Artistic Director Nnedi Okorafor September 21 of Teatro Luna for nine years. Coya is an Associate Professor in The Theatre School at DePaul University and Remote Control 9/23/2021 holds a PhD in Performance Studies from Northwestern March 21 University. She is a regular commentator on race, politics, and pop culture for Vocalo.org, and the co-author (with 3/25/2021 Chloe Johnston) of Ensemble-Made Chicago: A Guide to Devised Theater. Above all, she believes in the power of poetry and performance to build community towards Coya Paz Presented by: social change. Visit her on the web at coyapaz.com Moderator
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THANK YOU TO THE CHAMPIONS OF SAVE OUR STAGES ACT S.4258/HR 7806 SEN. CORNYN • SEN. KLOBUCHAR • REP. WELCH • REP. WILLIAMS • LEADER SCHUMER AND THE INCREDIBLE SHOW OF BIPARTISAN SUPPORT IN CONGRESS INCLUDING THESE COSPONSORS OF THE SOS ACT:
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